Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The early hours of the morning had set in over the forest. While it was still too early for the sun to rise, one could tell it was morning. The slow rise in temperature, the soft hums of the insects with the forest and the occasional high-pitched cry of the hawk-like bird that circled overhead. The hawk flew around the tree; occasionally landing and then emitting its shrill shriek, it would take off again. It was like it was calling for something or someone, as it soared over the trees.

From inside a cave that was high within the forest, the heat of fire could be felt as well as the light that could be seen from the cave entrance. Inside the cave, a man was sitting against the wall, his toned and athletic upper body covered in healing bruises and shallow cuts from his two weeks of torture. Revan shifted slightly against the wall, his eyes closed as he sat in a light slumber, his body still alert should anything happen. Revan twitched and then his cyan eyes fluttered open.

Revan eyes looked over the cave and a growl caught his attention. He shifted his gaze to his right and saw the animal that emitted it. A wolf, obviously a lone wolf since it was bigger, more muscular than most, and it was more aggressive. It watched Revan with its fierce yellow-golden eyes, and growled again as the Jedi looked at it. He observed the wolf for a second before taking hold of something burning over the fire and throwing over it to the wolf. The meat landed in front of the animal, and was promptly devoured by the canine. The wolf seemed satisfied and limped over to the former Dark Lord and sniffed his hand as he held it out. For a second, Revan allowed it too, noticing the limp and then looked down at its paw. He reached forward and the wolf snarled again.

Revan looked back at it and then again, more slowly this time moved to the paw. This time the wolf allowed him to do so, and Revan gently eased the paw over in his hand. The source of the limp was a large chunk of wood that was embedded in the creatures paw. He quickly made sure the wound was not infected and then carefully took hold of the wood and then yanked it out. The wolf whimpered as it was pulled out and then snarled once more as he released its paw. However soon after the wolf licked his face as a sign of thanks. He chuckled slightly as the wolf licked him and then the animal turned and bounded away out of the cave.

Revan smiled and leaned back against the rock. He hissed and shot back up again. He looked at his shoulder seeing a rather annoying cut in his skin that was impossible to reach and therefore for the time being impossible to heal. While Revan could heal the wound using the dark side, to do so would further his temptation to use it, and that was dangerous for him. Besides he concluded a bit of pain was worth the waiting until he got the inhibitor off, which he needed help to do. The former dark lord grunted in mild annoyance, got to his feet picking up the double-bladed vibroblade as he went and exited the cave, heading down towards a small lake that was being fed by a waterfall.

Reaching the lake, he propped the blade against a tree and washed his hands in the water, getting the dirt and dried blood off his hands and then splashed some water over his face to clean some of the muck off. Moving over to the waterfall, he stood underneath it, allowing the powerful cascades of blue cleansing liquid to hit his body and hair, and to relax his tense muscles. Revan leaned his back slightly allowing more of the water to hit his face before leaving the waterfall. Walking back over to where the blade was, the sound of flapping wings against the air made him look up and he saw a large flock of birds take off. As the birds flew away, the sound of marching began to echo in the dark-morning sky.

Revan frowned and grabbed the weapon, before taking off into the forest. He ran up a steep hill, ducking under branches and hopping over logs to reach the top of the hill. He ran out onto the hilltop and looked over the edge to see something that made his blood run cold.

It was an army, a small one but an army nonetheless. It was comprised entirely of human Sith followers. All of them were dressed in dark bronze battle armour, similar to the Mandalorians armour but without the helmets and they were all carrying blaster rifles, with swords on their waists. They marched without pause heading deep into the forest as Revan watched them. There were no True Sith with them, at least none that he could see and they were heading south. Revan immediately judged their direction and then his eyes widened as he recognised the forest. He had been here before. Revan looked up hearing the hawks call again and held out his arm.

After a few moments wait, the hawk flew over to him and landed on his arm. The bird seemed to chirp slightly as it looked at him and Revan placed the fingers of his left hand over its talons and tapped along his forearm making a message. The hawk watched him do so, memorising the finger patterns. As Revan finished, the bird nipped his finger softly as if saying it understood and then Revan moved his arm forward as the hawk took off flying south towards its destination. He watched for second as the hawk flew into the distance before turning and pelting down the forest heading in the same direction. He had to hurry.

Bastila emerged from her small hut dressed and ready, looking refreshed and alert as she stretched in the morning sunlight. The bed within her hut had been surprisingly comfortable and had soon wooed her into slumber the night before. As she finished her stretch, she noticed Brianna standing outside as well looking over the forest. Brianna's light blue eyes were narrowed and looked alert and cautious as she took in the view of the trees. Bastila frowned and moved towards her.

"Brianna?" the younger woman looked at Bastila and smiled. "Is everything all right?" Brianna's smile vanished and she looked back over the forest. Bastila stood next to her and gazed at her for a second.

"Something is coming…" Brianna breathed. Bastila reached out with her own senses. There was something, something dark and twisted coming towards the village. "It's like a wave of darkness moving across the air. An evil that chokes the light, I can feel it" Brianna looked back at Bastila for a second before descending onto the forest floor to join Kazel, who was meditating. Bastila continued to watch the forest as the feeling Brianna had pointed out began to grow deeper.

Ishale was training on her own, going through the fluid movements of Teräs Käsi, her soft amber eyes focused and her deep black hair tied back. Her body moved gracefully through the air as she changed from hand movements to leg movements like it was a second nature to her. She finished with a spectacular butterfly kick through the air and then stopped. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she straighened up and walked over to one of the ranks and took a sword from the rack. She proceeded to perform a series of skilled moves with the blade, ranging from normal, basic attacks to altering her grip on the hilt to change the angle of the blade. Performing two standard upward blows she turned to bring the blade down behind her.

To her surprise the blade impacted on another metal object. Falcan stood there, his right arm raised with his wrist gauntlet blocking the blade. Ishale felt her breath catch slightly and her stomach fluttered a little as his soft green eyes gazed at her. He smiled and inclined his head towards the sword.

"You have some skill with a blade" he stated calmly. Ishale lowered the sword and looked down sheepishly. Falcan chuckled slightly and held out his hand. "May I?" she nodded and gave him the blade. Falcan looked the blade over for a few seconds before swinging the blade up and then down. He proceeded to spin the blade around his body in a masterful display of skill and then finished with the blade held in a reverse grip behind his back. He turned back to Ishale who was watching with interest. "When you wield the sword, you tend to grip the blade very tightly. This restricts how effective your attacks will be as it tires you very quickly." He said holding the sword to her. She retook the blade and listened to him. "Hold the hilt firmly but not overly so, enough that you keep hold of the blade and manipulate the weapon with your wrists and hand more than your arm. That way you can get quick and damaging strikes in and also defend yourself more effectively." Ishale nodded and tried out his theory, firmly holding the blade, but not as firmly as before and spun the blade around her hand once. To her surprise, she found her attacks were indeed quicker and less taxing than before as she skillfully weaved the blade through the air as Falcan watched her for a second. She stopped once more with a downward blow that caused a small cloud of dust to lift up off the ground.

"Won't this sacrifice some of my reach?" she asked as she straighened up. Falcan nodded and retook the sword from her.

"Yes to an extent. But you gain more power and speed, while retaining stamina. If you can outlast your opponent: you win." He walked over to a training model used for hand to hand combat. "On the other hand if you keep your blade held in such a manner…" Falcan slashed through the wood, spinning round to face her and straightened up. For a moment nothing happened, and then a small slice appeared in the wood and it fell into two pieces onto the floor. "You can perform moves like that…" he walked back over to Ishale and handed her the sword as she looked amazed. "You may sacrifice reach, but in return you can use your speed. That is your key weapon, which I noticed when we sparred" Ishale nodded once more and replaced the blade on the racks.

"Did you train like this when you were with the Sith?" she asked. Falcan smiled and they began to walk back into the village.

"Not exactly, bit more focused on hand-to-hand than it was blade combat. And it was far more intense shall we say" he replied. She frowned as they walked re-entered the village.

"Intense?" He paused and looked at her. His eyes were gleaming slightly and she found herself slightly intimidated by them.

"The training was brutal and rigorous. Every day of training pushed us to our limits. If we weren't sparring, we working on physical conditioning or being trained to resist Jedi mind tricks. The training was designed to hone our bodies and minds for when we fought the Jedi. I mean Sev, who was often considered to be the lowest in terms of skill in the Shadow Walkers, was still able to take on up to twenty men by himself" Falcan's eyes stopped gleaming and they returned to their normal deep shade of green.

"I see…" Ishale stated and she smiled slightly. "Perhaps your time in the Sith was not as bad as it could have been." Falcan raised an eyebrow and then smiled with amusement. "What?" Ishale asked confused.

"It's just…I never thought of it that way" Falcan replied. As they entered the village they saw Berail standing with a group of young men, looking ready to go on a hunt. Berail turned to them and bowed to Falcan.

"Good morning" he greeted. Falcan gave a bow in return. "sleep well?" Falcan nodded.

"Better than most nights" he replied. Berail laughed jovially and smiled.

"Well we were about to go on a hunt for breakfast. We would…" a high-pitched shriek caught his attention and Berail looked up. Soaring towards him was a hawk and it was coming at great speed.

Berail held out his left arm and the hawk landed on his wrist. The hawk seemed to tap its talons along his forearm and Berail's eyes narrowed. As he deciphered the message, the other members of the hunting party gathered around him. Berail nodded and tapped the hawk on the claw and the hawk gave a shrill cry before taking off back into the air. Berail turned to his party.

"Get the women, children and elderly to the tree huts." The party nodded without question and hurried off to carry out their orders. Falcan frowned and looked at Berail.

"What is it?" Berail looked over the forests on the outskirts of the village before looking at the former assassin, his grey eyes narrowed.

"The hawk is used as a means to deliver messages between different villages within the forest. The hawk I just sent away, told me there was an army coming our way, an army of Sith worshippers." Falcan looked over the forest and then back at Berail. "It was only a matter of time until they came again in force, but with you here it seems planned" Falcan looked down and Berail put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry they would have attacked us without you being here, so do not feel it is your fault" Falcan nodded and Berail turned to climb up onto one of the walkways. "You had better get your friends onto the walkways." Falcan nodded and jogged away with Ishale to find Bastila and the others. After a few minutes searching Falcan found them on the forest floor.

"Hey we've got to get on the walkways" Kazel frowned and got to his feet, as did the others.

"What?" Falcan didn't have time to go into full details.

"Sith are coming, we need to get off the forest floor now" They all looked at each and nodded as Falcan contacted Canderous. "Mandalore"

"Yeah?" came the raspy voice of Mandalore.

"We got a problem…"

"I know…I'm heading into the forest now with HK, T3 is still on the ship. We'll be at the village soon. I picked up a huge collection of life forms heading your way" Falcan nodded as he climbed onto the walkway. Typical Canderous, he can never resist a good old-fashioned fight.

"Yeah. The Sith followers have an army and are going to arrive any minute. Once you get here, get onto the walkways in the trees"

"Got it. We'll be there soon" Falcan tapped his communicator and walked along them to find Berail standing with a blaster rifle looking over the forest. "Are they close?" Falcan asked Bastila. Bastila closed her blue-grey eyes for a second and then reopened them and they glowed purple for a split second before returning to their normal colour.

"Yes, the Sith are just to the north of us, Canderous and HK to the east. Canderous will get here just after the Sith." Berail looked back at them, his eyes strong and determined.

"It matters not." Falcan looked at him. "Even if the Sith get onto the walkways, we have the advantage: elevated position, knowledge of terrain and element of surprise." Bastila took her lightsaber from her belt Kazel and Brianna following suit. Falcan kept his eyes trained on the forests around him. Ishale moved to stand next to Berail, a rifle in her hands. For a long stretch of time, nothing moved, not a sound. Not even the forest betrayed any noise. No birds, no animals barking: just silence.

Then from the mist of the forests the sound of cautious footsteps began to echo through the trees. Berail gave a small signal and all the armed warriors of the village levelled their blasters at the approaching squad. Berail gave the sign to fire only on his command and they waited patiently. It was an entire squad of men obviously well trained. They slowly entered the ground village, keeping a wary eye on the surrounding forests. They were talking inaudibly and the watching warriors carefully kept their aim on the soldiers, who spoke beneath. Berail waited patiently his finger quivering on the trigger.

Suddenly a loud blaster shot erupted from a rifle and the first soldier fell the other soldiers stumbling back. Berail's eyes snapped to Zeven, who had fired and he had a malicious grin on his face as he fired on the second taking him down as well. The air was soon ripe with blaster rifle fire, as the Sith followers fell one by one but took no one with them despite firing back. Bastila and the others could only watch as the Sith fell. Berail gave the signal to cease-fire and rounded on Zeven who had a triumphant smirk on his face.

"You were supposed to wait for my order boy!" Berail snarled. Zeven scoffed.

"If you had waited any longer they would have left…" Zeven retorted. "Is it patience or cowardice?" Berail seized Zeven by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him off the ground.

"The reason I was waiting was to judge their strength and how long it would take them to…"

"Berail…" Berail turned to Falcan, dropping Zeven onto his feet. Falcan had his eyes set on the distance and Berail followed his gaze. Berail's eyes widened to see a huge number of Sith followers emerging from the forest and they were charging towards the village. "It seems Zeven's pre-emptive strike allowed them to judge our force strength" Falcan stated. Berail growled and called to his warriors.

"My brothers and sisters! Show these Sith the consequences of trying to take our home!" the warriors around them all roared and began firing in powerful volleys of energy towards the charging Sith army who were returning fire. As the Sith began to pour into the village some were able to reach the ladders but were promptly shot to the ground as they began to climb. The Sith returned fire against their assailants, and some of the warriors fell from the walkways down to the forest floor, either dead or soon to be. As the battle began to intensify, some of the Sith began using the force to leap onto the walkways.

Falcan turned to see one Sith soldier on the walkway next to him. Falcan kicked the rifle from his hand, then spun and kicked back onto the forest floor headfirst. Falcan quickly ducked under a swing at his head from a second soldier and inclined one of his wrists slightly. One of his gauntlet blades shot out of the armour and he caught the man's hands and slashed him through the waist. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Canderous and HK join the battle, quickly climbing onto one of the walkways and they began blasting the surrounding Sith soldiers, HK expressing his enjoyment at having the chance to blast some "meatbags". Letting the body drop, Falcan rolled forward cut a mans' leg out from under him and then laid his chest open with a follow up attack. Falcan turned to see more soldiers joining them on the walkway. Falcan brought out his second gauntlet blade, his green eyes gleaming and he prepared himself as they charged.

The battle was fully joined now; warriors and soldiers were locked in combat, either shootout or in hand-to-hand or melee combat. Bastila, Brianna and Kazel had joined the fray defending key positions of the village and were quickly making dents in the enemy numbers. Warriors began to fall too as the battle raged on for a few hours, but they still held the advantage as Berail said they would do.

Bastila caught one of her opponents' blades with her golden saber. She spun round him and drove her blade through his back. Igniting her second blade, she shocked the soldier behind her and quickly spun, cleaving him in two with her other blade. Whirling her dual-blades in storm of gold, she spun round taking down an extra three Sith in one blow, and then used the force to hurl their bodies into their allies who were approaching her from the bridge. As the men fell, Bastila almost casually waved to her right and all the Sith flew off into a tree before hurtling down to their deaths. She spun her lightsaber in hands, deflecting blaster bolts away from her and her allies, reflecting them towards the people that fired them.

Kazel drove his viridian double-bladed saber through the gut of an attacking Sith. He spun pulling his first blade and drove the second through another Sith. A third in front of him brought their blade down, but Kazel parried the vibro-sword with first blade and quickly brought the second round to slice him through the midsection. Quickly dashing forward, he backhanded the soldier to his right, causing him to topple over the side, and ran a final one through. As he withdrew the blade, a blaster bolt ripped through his shoulder. Kazel roared in pain and looked round at the one who shot. Allowing his anger freedom, Kazel unleashed a barrage of force lightning on the man, sending him sparkling to the ground. Kazel straightened up and kicked the Sith off the ladder beneath him and sent him crashing into his allies, Kazel watching them from above, his saber growling in the air.

Elsewhere Brianna shielded Berail, who hurled his opponent off the walkway, from a blow with one of her shining sliver blades, using the second to catch a blow aimed at her. She spun knocking the attackers off balance, twirling a blade and struck both down with a fierce blow. Using her Echani training she flipped over a third, slicing him down the spine and then spun kicked another into the wall and then he fell over the railing. Next to her Ishale caught a man's arm and drove her elbow into his throat. Taking the sword from the dying man, she stabbed his comrade through the gut and slashed it out of his body to catch a second one beneath the shoulders.

The battle was quickly beginning to favour Berail and his warriors, despite the losses they were taking. However just as the Sith soldiers began to flee a new threat began to advance in the wake of their retreat. Falcan cross-cleaved the final Sith warrior in front of him and turned to look over the field. The ground was littered with the bodies of Sith and warriors but as he looked up he saw something else approaching. Berail too looked and his eyes widened further.

As the Sith followers were fleeing, a collection of menacing looking warriors were approaching. They were dressed from head to foot in golden armour and had what looked like blood red streaks on the shoulders and down the center of their armour. All of them were carrying blade weapons: vibro-swords, daggers, double-blade swords and they marched without fear towards the weary village protectors. Zeven hefted his rifle and fired at the leader. The blaster bolt just seemed to bounce off the armour, which glowed red for a split second and away into the treetops.

"Oh no…" Berail breathed. "The Leviathan troops" Brianna frowned and looked back at the advancing soldiers. "They are the elite units. They are in a completely different league to the other Sith, even Revan had trouble with them when he first fought them." Berail noticed some of his warriors descend the ladders and charge the Leviathan troops. "NO!"

As one of the protectors approached the lead warrior easily parried the first blow, and impaled him on his sword. The man was lifted off of his feet and then kicked off of the blade into a hut. The second protector lost his arm to a first brutal blow and then his head was severed from his body and fell lifeless. The final man was seized round the throat and hoisted into the air before his neck was snapped and his body was dropped.

Falcan growled and vaulted over the railing and landed in front of them, he was quickly joined by Bastila, Brianna and Kazel and the four stood in front of elite Sith. Four members of the elites stepped forward each brandishing a different weapon, one a single blade, another two blades, the third a double blade and the final a lance like weapon. For a second nothing happened and then the new battle was joined, as the elites charged.

Kazel ducked under the first blow and ignited both his blades. He spun to strike at the mans back and then his front only to have both blows blocked, and then angled his blades to try and rip through the mans defence. But the warrior's single blade was there each time to block his blows. Kazel was backhanded across the face and he spun ready to defend himself.

Brianna blocked both swords of her opponent's and quickly back-flipped away. The troop was on her in a second and she parried two blows and followed up with one of her own. The attack was blocked and she moved to slice his chest, only to be denied once more and she quickly had to resort to deflecting his strikes. She ducked under a swipe at her throat and tried to take his head. The man locked his blades with hers and they began to struggle against each other.

Bastila leapt over her opponent, and calmly deflected a first stroke, returning one only to have that blocked as well. She used a powerful force wave to send her opponent into a tree and tried to run her through. The woman quickly spun away and Bastila had to alter the stance very quickly to defend herself from the counter-attack and they began duelling once more as Bastila held her ground.

Falcan moved to the side to avoid the lance like blade of his opponent. He quickly rolled under it and then side-flipped over a sweep at his legs. Falcan blurred forward and went to carve open the mans throat. To his surprise he felt his blades impact on the lance. Falcan felt himself shoved into the air and he quickly flipped onto his feet and slid between his opponents and kicked them out from underneath him. The man caught himself and propelled himself up onto his feet. Falcan was in front of him in a heartbeat and both his gauntlet slammed against the lance.

For half-an-hour the battle waged on as the Leviathan troops and the village protectors fought one another an equal ground. The new Sith troops were incredible in a dark and twisted way. They were stronger, faster and more cunning than anything the Republic could have mustered. Even the Sith assassins Kazel had fought seemed like child's play compared to this. As time went on, Falcan was able to find his opponents weakness, Bastila noticed an opening in her opponents defences and Brianna was able break open her challenges walls. Kazel on the other-hand did not have such luck.

Caught off guard by his opponent's skill, Kazel allowed his surprise to get the better of him and his usually intense fighting style became sloppy. Kazel felt his blade beaten down and received a knee in the gut. As he doubled over, the Sith slammed his hilt into Kazel's back and kicked him hard in the face sending him sprawling into a hut. Falcan sliced through his opponent's waist, and saw the Exile's plight, as Bastila deflected a final blow from her opponent and spun ready to deliver the final blow.

"Kazel!" he shouted over but a new Sith blocked his path and Falcan hopped back to avoid the man's attack. Brianna noticed too just as she thrust her blade into her opponents heart but as with Falcan another member of the Leviathans attacked her and she was forced onto the defensive.

Kazel looked up from his spot where he had landed as the Sith charged him. His vision blurred slightly as the warrior raised his blade ready to deal the finishing blow. Suddenly from the shadows behind Kazel something shot through the leaves and impaled the charging warrior. The man fell, a double-bladed vibro-sword in his chest. Two other Sith troops charged forward without hesitation, one leaping up ready to finish what his dead comrade started. However a figure leapt out of the shadows and draw two knives, slicing the man through the chest, killing him in mid-air. The second did not have any time to raise his weapon as the new attacker drove both into his neck, forcing onto the ground as he landed, on one knee over his victim.

Time stopped, the world froze, as everyone realised there was a newcomer on the battlefield. All eyes had turned to him as he remained on the ground; his position and posture unchanged as his jet-black hair covered his eyes. Bastila, who had just stabbed one her blades through the gut of her opponent, stared at the new comer. The man's head and eyes turned to her and they were golden, a fierce Sith golden but she knew their true colour and the man who owned them. They could hear the man's breathing like a heartbeat in the air, as the Leviathan troops responded to the interloper.

Revan looked back from Bastila to Kazel who was still slumped against the wall. Revan's eyes narrowed dangerously and he turned to see more members of the Leviathan troop advancing on him. Revan gave a feral snarl, releasing his grip from the two knives in the body beneath him and back-flipped, kicking the dagger out of the hands of his new opponent and away into the air. Landing in front of him, Revan delivered a force-empowered kick to his opponent, crushing his solar plexus. As the man soared back, Revan crouched down taking hold of the charging Leviathan's leg and flipped him over himself causing him to land on his head. As he straightened up, Revan clotheslined a second would-be killer, causing his head to snap back and him to flip backwards onto his front. The third aggressor was able to seize Revan's head in a front face lock and tried to lift him. But Revan was able to counter the attack and reversed the momentum in order to suplex the man onto the ground with awesome force, breaking his spine over a hard root. Revan kicked up onto his feet and tucked his hand behind his back to catch the knife he kicked up early and then threw it into the leaders throat and the body crumpled.

The Leviathan troops quickly backed up as Revan took a couple of steps forward, his eyes gleaming. They all seemed to lose some confidence, but not all as they continued to try and size Revan up but it would not last. Revan looked at them for a second and then his body crackled with electricity, his entire body sparking. The Leviathan troops hefted their fallen leader and turned, walking away and leaving the battlefield, much to the shock of everyone.

Revan watched them leave his eyes turning back to their normal cyan colour. Revan suddenly growled and fell to one knee as a painful spasm jerked over his body and braced himself on one hand. Revan closed his eyes and allowed his pain ebb a little. A foot came into his view and he looked to see Bastila standing above him. Bastila knelt down in front him and for a long period of time they simply stared at each other, Bastila looking over his bruised and battered form. No words were spoken, none had to be. She raised her hand and cupped his check, smiling at him. Revan smiled back as the others watched from afar. Brianna knelt down next to Kazel who watched the two with a strange look as the couple shared their silent yet joyful reunion.

Presently Falcan approached Bastila and Revan and for a second the two looked at each before Falcan extended his hand. "Good to have you back…" Revan smiled and took Falcan's hand and was pulled to his feet, while Bastila quickly supported his weight. "Typical, we spend all this time looking for you and you find us…" Falcan scoffed. "Why do you always play the hero?" Revan smiled.

"Just so happens to be something I'm good at" Berail approached from the walkway ladder and looked Revan up and down with an almost fatherly gaze and an uncle like smile.

"I trust they treated you well…" He asked sarcastically.

"Yeah the food was good but service was lousy" they laughed at Revan's humour as the villagers began to emerge from the tree huts and began to see to the wounded, Berail moving off to aid the wounded Zeven, who took a blow to the shoulder during the melee. Revan looked around and suddenly groaned again as his body jolted once more as a result of a fierce spasm and he dropped to the ground, unintentionally taking Bastila with him. Revan got on to his knees as another fierce jolt of pain emitted from the inhibitor from his neck. Revan placed his hand on the inhibitor and received and electric jolt to his fingers.

Bastila heaved him onto his knees and looked at him worriedly. "Revan? What's wrong?" he indicated the inhibitor and Bastila turned to Falcan, who also noticed it. "Can you get it off?" Falcan knelt down behind Revan and looked it over.

"Yes…but it's gonna hurt" He looked at Revan who simply nodded and reached into his belt to pull out a small device. He found the lock and pressed the button of the device and a small thin blue beam began to cut away the lock. The inhibitor continued to send painful jolts down Revan's spine as Falcan cut off the lock. Eventually the lock clicked and the inhibitor fell from Revan's neck. Revan popped the joints of his neck very slowly and then got to his feet rubbing his neck and used the light of the force to heal his wounds.

Soon you could not tell he had ever been wounded. Revan stretched and looked over to where the Exile was slumped against the wall. Revan made his way over followed by Bastila and Falcan. Kazel looked, his vision re-focused to see Revan standing over him. For a moment neither said a word, finally Revan extended his hand towards Kazel with a smile. Kazel raised an eyebrow and then smiled as well taking the offered hand and was pulled to his feet. As he got to his feet, Kazel looked at Revan and the two men shook hands in a silent yet mutual sign of respect before they turned their attention to the wounded within the village.

Later when the sun began to dip beneath the horizon leaving a faint red glow to the sky, Revan stood in the hut he was now sharing with Bastila, looking out at the rain that had been falling since sunset. He was redressed in clothes Bastila had brought from the Ebon Hawk and was leaning against the wall next to the window, which without glass allowed the sounds of the falling rain to reach his ears unhindered. As he did so, he felt a hand slip into his and Bastila's head rested on his shoulder.

"I missed you…" Bastila whispered as together they watched the rainfall against the leaves.

"I know…" Revan replied quietly. "I missed you too…" she turned to face him and the look in her eye was distant.

"Why did you leave alone?" She asked looking at him with pained blue-grey eyes. Revan sighed; he knew that would have been the first question she would ask. And he turned to look her dead in the eye.

"Because I did not want to risk putting you in danger" Bastila listened to him carefully. "I don't want to lose you Bastila…" Bastila sighed taking a deep-breath and Revan felt himself caught completely off guard from her next movement.

Bastila's hand rose and swiped through the air and planted a hearty slap across Revan's face. Revan staggered slightly, his hand touching the place where she had slapped him and he looked at her but smiled roguishly.

"I deserved that…" he muttered. Bastila huffed indignantly.

"Yes you did…" she hissed angrily, hands on hips and her eyes angry. She approached him. "You're an idiot Revan" she smiled lovingly and kissed his cheek where she had slapped him. "But you're a well meaning idiot. And that's how I always want you to be…my love." Bastila leaned in, cocking her head to the side as her lips met his, her arms wrapping around his neck to deepen the kiss. Revan smiled through the kiss and pulled her in order to add more passion to the moment.

For a brief moment they broke apart, but Revan began to explore Bastila's neck with his lips. Bastila cooed as he kissed her neck with an open mouth and the couple fell as one onto the bed.

The couple continued to share their blissful tryst as the rain continued to batter against the leaves off the forest and a gently and almost romantic beat to the atmosphere that the forest had become steeped in.


There you have it. Good? Bad? Reviews please!!