"From the failure of the Masters, from our failure to properly train Jedi, came disaster. And I wondered, if perhaps, the teachings of the Jedi had been our failing all along … It is easy to cast blame, but it is perhaps time the Order accepted responsibility for their teachings, and their arrogance, and come to recognize that perhaps we are flawed. Not once did I hear one of the Council accept responsibility for Revan, for Exar Kun, for Ulic, for Malak…or for you" - Zez-Kai El to the Exile

Revan cursed all the times she had gone out of her way to privately tutor her blonde friend on the use of the Force as Ga'el raced before her at mind boggling speeds. Revan could still play the game better than the taller woman, however, and let herself fall deeper into the Force as she ran. The world around her become a dimly glowing blur as her speed increased beyond anything a normal human could possibly reach, only the slightly slower girl before her clearly visible in their haste. It was with no small relief that Revan realized they were sprinting not towards the Council Chamber or the Masters quarters, as she had feared, but back in the direction of their own shared dormitory.

She caught up to El an instant before the girl reached the door to their room, wrapping a hand around her friends upper arm in a smaller version of Malak's grip on her from only minutes before. Ga'el didn't meet her eyes as she tore her arm out of Revan's grasp and marched the last few feet to the door.

"Wait." The younger woman stated; the tone so completely devoid of emotion Revan found herself unable to do anything but obey. She had known Ga'el since the girls first year as a Jedi youngling, and she had never heard such a tone from the gentle woman before. The panicked rush of before finally leaving her, Revan was beginning to realize exactly how upset the blonde must be. Her stomach tied itself in knots as she watched Ga'el enter the combination, opening the door to reveal the oblivious faces of Avri and Lae.

"Oh!" Avri chirped, "You found her, good! We were just…" he trailed off, finally catching sight of Revan's sickly pale face and Ga'el's frighteningly emotionless expression.

"Leave." The normal pleasant Jedi commanded, stepping back to allow the two males to file out of the room.

Once they had left, Revan and Ga'el entered the room, the door locking the puzzled males out with a far more ominous swish that Revan could ever recall hearing from it before. Revan stepped forward immediately, desperate to do something, anything, to end Ga'el's crushing disappointment in her.

"El, listen," she pleaded, placing a hand once more on the girls arm, "I…"

Her sentence was swiftly cut off as Ga'el stepped back from her, flinching away from the contact. An instant later her other had flew forward, striking Revan clear across the face in a resounding slap that sent the smaller woman staggering to the side.

Revan stared in wide eyed shock at the wall her head was now turned towards. Her hand came up quickly, touching the steady leak of blood now dripping from her nose and the corner of her mouth where the force of impact had caused her to bite into her cheek. She turned her head slowly to look at the other woman and was startled at the sight before her. Ga'el's eyes blazed at her, outrage covering every inch of the woman's face, her shoulders rising and falling visibly with her accelerated breathing.

"You're…" Revan wondered in a shocked whisper, "you're angry." In the near decade they had roomed together, Revan had seen Ga'el upset, frustrated, annoyed to the limit, but never once really, truly angry. The woman was the poster child for Jedi patience, forgiveness, and tolerance. The furious image before her caused Revan to shrink back, cowering before the blonde as she had never done with another leaving creature in her short life.

"I'm…I'm sorry, El. I'm sorry…." Revan didn't even know what specifically she was apologizing for, she just wanted it to stop, wanted the stranger before her to vanish, and the warm, comforting friend of only hours before to return.

"No, Revan." Ga'el stated coldly. "You are not sorry at all."

"Why are you so angry?" If she new exactly what about the situation was wrong, she could fix it. The look of disappointed disgust that passed over Ga'el's face was not what Revan had been hopping for.

"Why? Why? You've broken the Code Revan! Not bent it. Not tested the boundaries to sate your own curiosity, you broke it. Right in the middle of the Temple Garden, for the world to see you spat upon the Jedi teachings, our way of life!"

"And now," the younger girl continued, a pain and anger bordering hysteria starting to peak through her words, "you stand in front of me as ask why I'm so angry? You are falling Revan, and you are taking Malak with you! You cannot do these things Revan! They are forbidden."

Revan stared wide eyed at the woman before her, her anxiety to placate her friend evaporating as the lecture finished, her normal temper rising to the surface at the words.

"Where? Where in the Code does it say what we just did was wrong, that caring about someone else will end in the Dark side? Where?!"

"Do you really know nothing of the Code, Revan?" Ga'el raged back, "Emotional attachments are forbidden to a Jedi! They have been for a thousand years; all such passions lead away from the Light!"

"So says the great and mighty Jedi Council!" Revan snarled back, the blood from her face dripping down onto the collar of her robes. "The Council is not the Code, Ga'el! Just look at us, look at you! Isn't this an emotional attachment? Isn't the only reason you're here, yelling at me, rather than running straight to the Council because you care? Are you destined for the Dark Side as well?! How is this any different than what exists between Sarevok and me!"

Ga'el staggered back as though she, too, had been slapped, staring at the shorter woman.

"You're right." She stated hollowly, the angering draining from her as Revan's words sunk in. "I have strayed from the path as well. I...I must avoid such errors in the future." She turned from Revan and the blue eyed girl felt the panic rise in her once more.

No, no, no. This isn't what I meant to do, this wasn't what I wanted.

"Ga'el," she pleaded once more, "please, wait."

"No." The blonde raised one hand wearily, signaling the other woman to remain silent. "You are right, Revan. All these years, even as I lectured you, even as I lamented the mistakes made by the Council regarding you, I fell into the same trap. I have indulged you Revan. I have overlooked your flaws and forgiven your mistakes without even wondering if you actually regretted them. I have failed you, and in doing so have failed myself. And now…now my mistakes have failed Malak as well."

She raised her gaze from her hands, looking at Revan once more. "And so it falls to me to make right the wrongs I have helped create."

"You can't tell the Council." Revan hated the begging tone that infected her voice, but could do nothing to remove it.

"No," Revan nearly collapsed at relief as the other Padawan agreed, "I cannot tell the Council. But I cannot continue to clean up after you either, Revan. You must face the consequences for the damage you create."

Revan's hearted plummeted into her stomach at Ga'el's next words:

"You will tell Malak to accept Kavar's offer and go to Datooine."

"No."

"It is the only way, Revan. That I do not go to the Council is my parting gift to mark the end of our attachment, but Malak cannot stay. I cannot knowingly permit the two of you to stray any further from the Code than you already have."

"This is not the Code, Ga'el! You're asking me to choose between life as what the Council says a Jedi should be and life with those I care for based on nothing but the inane ruling of long dead fools!"

"I am asking you to chose between life as a Jedi or life as a Sith! This is our Code, this is our Way. You are a Jedi of the Order, Revan, but you have never had to give anything for it. You never left your parents; you have been indulged by all that have known you since your earliest hour. It is time you learned what it is to sacrifice for your beliefs."

"So this is how it is." She stated, defeat settling over her in the face of Ga'el's conviction.

"This is how it is." Ga'el replied calmly, the typical peaceful aura around her starting to flicker through, colder now than Revan had even known it to be before. "You will tell him to go?"

Revan only nodded, avoiding looking at the blonde in anyway.

"I see." Ga'el turned to collect the few tightly packed bags neatly arranged along her bunk. "I think it would be best if I spent the night on board the transport."

Revan stood quietly, staring blankly at the wall before her as Ga'el gathered her belongings. Numbness had settled in around her, blocking the full impact of her current situation from settling on the slender woman. It wasn't until Ga'el turned to leave that she spoke again.

"We really aren't going to be friends anymore, are we El?"

"No," the blonde quietly agreed, "we really aren't." She swallowed painfully, a look of remorse crossing her expression as she turned back to Revan. "But, Revan, for everything you're done…for everything we've been, I promise you we will never be enemies. I can no longer stand so close by your side, but there will never come a day when I will stand against you. I…" she closed her mouth, whatever else she wanted to express hanging silently between them until she shifted her burden, turning her back on Revan for the final time.

"Good bye, El."

"Good bye, Revan."

The door closed silently behind her and Revan fell. Landing hard on her knees, her head falling forward to rest on the cool hardness of the cement floor, the woman wrapped her arms desperately around herself as the gut-wrenching sobs wracked her small form. Lightening flashed across the room and rain pounded on the window as, for the first time in her life, Revan felt her heart break.

A/N: This chapter is a bit short, as I decided it would stand better alone that with the second half I had planned tagged on to it. To make up for it, here is an unnecessarily long Author's Note.

As some have guessed, Ga'el is the future Exile. The Revan/Ga'el side story, along with furthering the main plot, is honestly here more to resolve something that irked me about the entire Revan/Exile story arch as presented in the games. It bothered me how it is never really explained, despite the fact that the Exile was obviously one of Revan's more important Generals, why the Exile neither helps the Republic in the fight against Revan, nor is hunted down and killed by either Revan or Malak at any point (Since I'm pretty sure letting betrayed former comrades who are intimately familiar with your tactical strategy live is listed as a no-no on the Evil Overlord List. I'd expect that kind of oversight from Malak, but Revan?). You may disagree with me, but I found the whole thing somewhat contrary to the personalities presented for the characters in the game, and this is my small attempt to give at least some initial justification for why neither of those events ever took place.

It is also about time I gave some credit where credit is due. This story, and especially the next few chapters, would never have been written without the KOTOR II story guide done by Scorchy and found here at http://lparchive DOT org/LetsPlay/KOTOR%202/index DOT html Obviously, replace the DOTs with a '.' if you want to follow the link. I was having a hell of a time getting FFnet to let me post the link.

That run through made me wonder exactly what game I had been playing when I went through KOTOR II and made me really think of the life and events that led to the creation of Revan, Malak, and the Exile. I highly recommend reading through it, even parts of the game you're sure you know all of may turn out to have twists and turns you never noticed before.