Chapter 11: Return

I stepped into the cockpit as I heard the hyperdrive slowing down. I looked out the cockpit window and saw Dantooine coming into view. I wondered who had decided to come here and help with the academy and who had decided to go to Coruscant and meet with Senators and the Council.

I wondered if any member of the old Order had come, or if there were any at all left to return. So many lives had been lost in such a short amount of time, and I often wondered if the Order could ever recover.

"Hey, Matt. Where am I supposed to land? Things have probably changed and I don't think I can land in the destroyed academy." He asked.

"I funded the rebuilding of the academy when I last visited Dantooine. You can land in the academy." I informed him.

He put his head in his palms. "So much has changed my old friend. Everything is moving so fast. I don't even know who lives anymore." He told me, a bit shaken.

"You can't feel who is alive?" I asked him.

"I have only felt my dear Bastilla. Other then that I have felt much death and evil ripple out through the Force. I wasn't even sure if you were alive. I knew many of people from my old lives were dying. Even many Sith that were under me have died. I just don't know who." He said while turning the Ebon Hawk towards the academy.

"What is that like, to feel death but not know who is dying."

"Okay, close your eyes." He said. I closed my eyes and he continued, "Imagine you are in a field of grass. It is pitch black with no stars or moon in the sky to light it up. Suddenly people begin walking up to you holding candles close to their faces. As they get closer you can begin to make out features on them. You soon realize they are your loved ones, your closest friends and allies, and people you have fought with, or just passed on the street. They are all around you, forming a giant circle around you in the field, giving it light. Suddenly and without warning, they start backing away from you. When they get far enough away from you that you cannot see their faces, all the candles starting going out. Within seconds, where there was once thousands of candles, there are only a few dozen, and they are so far away you don't even know who's candle is still lit and who's went out. That's what it was like for me to feel all the deaths that transpired the last few years." He explained.

"That is amazing, and saddening at the same time. To feel such death, but not know who is dying." I asked.

"Many times I just had to block all the death from my mind. It was distracting. But that is the best way for me to explain what I felt. Hopefully, Bastilla was able to contact all of my companions. I would like to know if they all made it through those trying times without me. Hopefully, they all kept their heads down and stayed out of trouble." He said while turning on the Ebon Hawks landing gears.

"I know many of my companions came here. They were able to decide if they wanted to travel to Dantooine or Coruscant. We are all meeting on Coruscant after this. I think they all planned to stay longer on the respected planets they choose. They weren't expecting me to be gone less then two weeks." I said.

"What were they planning on doing?" He asked.

"I'm not sure. Bastilla and Carth had several things in mind to do." I said before he interrupted in excitement.

"So Carth is alive?" He said loudly.

"Yes. He was promoted to Admiral in your absence." I told him happily.

"Wow, that is quite the promotion, but well deserved. He will do well I'm sure. Anyways what were our allies planning on doing?"

"I think on Dantooine they are aiding the local government and militia prepare for military training, and are preparing the academy to hold students once again." I explained to him.

We landed and he lowered the boarding ramp and we walked that way together while he asked, "So there is a militia here on Dantooine?"

"Just here in this local settlement. I don't know about the rest of the planet. I think that the nearby settlement will be a good place to base a planet-wide militia out of. The militia leader there is a hardened man, and knows battle. He might not be the best fit, but he will work for now."

As we were walking down the ramp he asked, "Okay, and what about what they were doing on Coruscant?"

"I think they were trying to allocate funds to the Order again, and re-integrate the Order into the working government and trying to get Atris out of the picture."

"That schutta is still alive? Blast it." He said under his breath.

"Yes, and last I met her she was wielding a red lightsaber and was guarding a room of Sith holocrons from one of my close companions."

"That is grounds for exile. And as you informed in your story of events that have taken place in my absence, she is very fond of exiling people. She may have to taste her own medicine."

We opened the back entrance and headed to the council chamber in peace, with nothing to say. The academy was in much better shape then last I had saw it. There was furniture once again in the building, and where all the grass had overgrown it was once again tamed and looked livable. I could see Revan looking around admiring the restored academy. Last he had seen it, it was a pile of rubble thanks to Malak.

I couldn't hear my companions, but knew they were here because I noticed landspeeders parked outside the academy as we landed.

"Maybe they are in the sub-levels." I suggested.

"Let's go see." He picked up the pace to a jog and I fell in step behind him. As we got outside I saw there was enough landspeeders for about ten people. As we got closer to the sub-levels we heard blaster fire and lightsabers.

I looked to Revan, who wasn't wearing his mask and I saw concern on his face as we took off running into the entrance.

We ran into the entrance and could tell that without a doubt, there was a small skirmish taking place. I heard it coming down the right hand hall. We took off in that direction. As soon as we took the turn to the left, we saw what was taking place.

There was a female Jedi Cathar I didn't recognize, Mical to my surprise was fighting with a lightsaber and wearing Jedi robes, Atton and Mira, Administrator Adare, Zherron, Akkere, and a short blue Twi'lek were all fighting a massive pack of huge laigreks, probably around thirty or forty, with nearly a dozen bodies of dead laigreks already piling up around them. They were running in and out of the rooms, they were filling the halls and my friends were following them, or falling back. It was a scene of minor chaos.

Once we judged the situation, Revan and I covered the distance of nearly twenty yards in one leap with our lightsabers drawn cutting two laigreks completely in half. Our companions seemed to catch a second wind once we leapt into battle to help them. Although laigreks were fierce creatures, we quickly and efficiently killed all of them, with no injuries.

There was only one close call, where a laigrek lunged at Akkere, who was very out of his element fighting, but the Cather Jedi cut his head off right before the creature reached Akkere and the lifeless creatures body and some of it's insides thudded into Akkere, knocking him off his feet.

We all gathered around after the battle, stepping over the nearly fifty carcasses of laigreks.

"For those of you who don't know, this is Revan." I told the small group of my friends. There eyes were all lit up in amazement at the sound of his name.

"About dam time I meet him." Atton mumbled under his breath.

I looked to the Cathar woman, and the Twi'lek the only people I didn't know. The Cathar woman looked excited to see Revan, but the Twi'lek cut her eyes down and stepped back away from the group.

The Cathar woman ran to him and embraced him, breaking the silence.

"Juhani, it is so good to see you." Revan said with a smile.

"No, it is good to see you my old friend." Juhani replied with a smile.

Revan looked to me, "Matthew, this is Juhani. She went with me on my journey to find the Star Maps. She was a great help and is a powerful Jedi Guardian." He said introducing her.

I shook her hand.

"Are you the famed Jedi general from the Mandalorian Wars?" She asked.

"Well I wouldn't say famed, but I did serve under Revan as a general for ground forces in many battles in the Mandalorian Wars." I responded

"It's great to meet you." She said while stepping back.

"As I was saying everyone this is Revan." I introduced everyone to Revan that he didn't know and greeted my old friends.

When I finally introduced him to Atton, Revan cocked his head to the side, thinking.

"Atton you say?" He looked to him. "Are you Atton Rand?"

"Yes." Atton looked confused. "How do you know me."

"Your name was mentioned to me several times in the Jedi Civil." Revan said.

Atton turned ghost white once he realized the reason knew him.

"Do not worry, Atton. I understand that both of our pasts are best left forgotten."

Atton sighed in relief.

"Mical!" I called to him, breaking the silence, and he looked to me.

"Yes?"

"When did you learn to use a lightsaber?"

"Well I had been studying for some time and had started practicing before we met. After my encounter with you I decided to start practicing more. I can already do simple things, like closing doors with the force, or picking up a pen, but nothing to extreme. However, I seem to be a very efficient combatant already. I have managed to find a holocron on several Jedi teachings and a few texts on lightsaber techniques." He replied.

"Amazing. You picked up on lightsaber techniques and simple force techniques without a Master? Imagine what a little bit of mentoring can do for you. You will be powerful indeed." Revan said.

"That is quite the compliment coming from you. Thank you, Master Revan." Mical.

"Call me Revan. Just Revan." My old friend responded.

"So what happened here?" Revan ask.

"Well as you can see we were attack by laigreks." Atton answered. I waited for him to continue, but he left it at that.

"What he meant to say," Mira picked up where he left off, "was that we found a nest of laigreks a little deeper in the catacombs while checking on the progress here, and Zherron here decided to lob a thermal detonator in there to kill them while they were sleeping rather then call and wait for militia reinforcements." She said with an attitude, upset at Zherron's impatience.

"Well it worked." Zherron said flatly.

"Yeah, until the roof caved in and all the laigreks above us fell on our heads." Mira snapped back.

"I m just shocked that the repair team I sent out here missed an entire nest of laigreks." Administrator Adare said.

"Well they mentioned they ran out of materials in the sub-levels and you can tell where the walls hadn't been repaired in the area we found them. They were extremely lucky they didn't move further back or there is a high chance they all would have died here. We may have died here, if not for your help." Akkere stated.

"Ah, but the Force was with us today." Mical answered.

"Well I trust that is enough here for one day." Adare said, speaking up. "Let's all get out of here."

We walked outside. The blue Twi'lek but Revan called out her name, "Mission! Come here please. Let me speak with you. Matt why don't you go ahead to the government building. I will catch up."

I went and hopped in the landspeeder with Mira and Atton, and we sped to Khoonda, exchanging conversation.

"So that is Revan?" Atton asked.

"Yep. That is him." I answered.

"He isn't as tall as I would have imagined, Or as arrogant either."

"Arrogance will get you killed." I responded telling him a quote Revan had told me at the start of the Mandalorian Wars.

"Oh. Will that explains that. But why isn't he taller?"

"Atton shut up." Mira said plainly.

He mocked her silently while continuing to drive.

"Who was that young Twi'lek that was with the group?" I asked.

"That was Mission. She is a young Twi'lek that went on Revan to find the star maps. She was barely 14 but the Cathar woman spoke very very highly of her abilities and toughness. Supposedly there is a Wookie that is almost inseparable from her, but is also a chieftain on Kashyyyk and is reorganizing his tribe for war. he is a fierce warrior and was able to kill his brother and multiple Wookie warriors with just a ceremonial vibrosword in order to become the Chief. Scary." Atton explained to me.

"Well if Juhani spoke highly of mission and the Wookie was capable of that, I imagine Revan's companions can handle themselves." I told them. "Why was she being so quiet?"

"She was all in a fuss about him leaving so quickly without telling her bye or something like that." Mira answered.

"Well, here we are." Atton said, slowing the speeder down as we approached the building.

We all arrived around the same time as the others, besides Revan and Mission.

Zherron approached me. "Adare, Tekkare, and I have matters to attend to. I was under the impression that you and many of your friends are leaving for Coruscant?"

"Yes that's right. We must meet with the council and what remains of the order." I told him.

"I understand. Well I wish you all the best of luck. I want you know that you are always welcome here after everything you have done for this settlement." He told me, giving me a firm handshake.

"That means a lot coming from you, truly." I told him as he turned and walked away.

Mical walked with me. "Matthew, am I to stay here?" He asked.

"Absolutely not. You are coming with us to Coruscant?"

"Really?" He asked with childlike excitement climbing into his voice.

"Yes, really. We will need your help." I told him.

About that time, Revan and Mission pulled up, Mission's spirits seemingly lifted after her talk with Revan.

"Well," I spoke up, "The people here are very busy, so it is time for us to leave for Coruscant."

"Are you telling me we have to walk back now?" Atton said, complaining.

"Yes we can't just leave there landspeeders out there. So we brought them back. And I also expected them to ask for some sort of help honestly. Oh well. Lets go."

We all headed back to the Ebon Hawk in casual conversation, anticipating our journey ahead.