Chapter 21

Revan did not like Dromund Kaas. The entire planet was just jungle except for the Sith city. Had she been in charge she would have chosen a very different planet, but then again, she had not been alive when they had first settled here. She knelt down in front of her new master in the middle of the metal temple, feeling the heat from the midday sun creeping in every inch of it. Again, who had had the brilliant idea to build every single damn building out of metal in a planet that got up to 32 degrees in the middle of the day? She merely casted those thoughts away when her master started speaking, now was not the time for complains.

"It is your duty to find the Star Forge. This weapon of conquest will accelerate our revenge by centuries, and will allow us to crush the Republic, once and for all" the ancient emperor told her in the forgotten language of the Sith.

"Yes my lord. Where should I begin my search?"

"In Dantooine, there is a temple, an ancient relic filled with Dark Power, find it and inside you will find the first locator that start you on your quest."

"I will leave at once my master, should I take Malak with me as well?" she asked him, hoping she would receive a positive answer.

The Sith lord was silent for a moment as he explored her feelings towards him. Looking for something incriminatory in her thoughts, but Revan was good, she was very good and he only found wild, unbuckled passion for him, and that pleased the emperor.

"Yes. Make sure his presence does not prove to be a distraction for you, my apprentice" he told her carefully.

"Your wish is my command Master" she said, lowering her head even more so that it was ridiculously close to the floor. Without looking at him, she stood up and turning on her heels, went outside the temple and back to her ship, where Malak was waiting. As she walked outside and felt the wretched heat strike at her again, she felt her anger grow. Soon she would be able to strike back at the feeble Republic, soon she would be able to strike back at the foolish Jedi and soon Malak, her master and she would rule the galaxy, crushing the weaklings and bringing a new order that would last for a millennia.

"I can hardly wait" she muttered to herself with an evil grin as she climbed the mountain where her shuttle was waiting for her.

She arrived to her ship and immediately gave the order to jump to hyperspace as soon as they could. She left the bridge and went directly for her room, hoping to catch some sleep before some stupid idiot woke her up with some stupid triviality. They always did. She entered her room and locked the door behind her; she took off her cloak, her mask and threw herself down on her bed, hoping to fall asleep before that stupid communicator went off again. This however, she did not manage and she gritted her teeth as she reached for her comlink, flicking it on she spoke.

"Revan here" she said with a tired voice.

"How'd it go?" Malak's voice came from the other end as she rolled her eyes. Some stupid idiot indeed…

00

Aspyre woke up, in her bed this time, and was surprise to find that she was alone. She stood up slowly and went to the main room, where she found Canderous watching one of Davik's old holos, this one was about something called a cowboy, that apparently could walk right into town and shoot the "bad guys" and then leave with his reward, something that really revolted Aspyre, but something Canderous wished he could do, no doubt.

"Hi" she said sleepily.

"Hey" he growled back at her.

"Where is everybody?" she asked.

"Princess and flyboy still haven't returned, Zaalbar went outside to make sure nobody was sneaking around the Hawk and the runts locked themselves up again."

Aspyre groaned with distaste.

"I thought they had stayed behind to look out for me" she protested as she sat down next to him in the table and watched how the "cowboy" stayed still with two other of them just standing still in the middle of what appeared like a cemetery, as Canderous snorted at her innocence. "What are they doing?"

"The runts or these guys?"

"These guys, I KNOW what they are doing" she told him with a smile on her face as she pointed to the med bay. She just hoped that Bastila and Carth had not been hurt; otherwise, they were in for a not so pleasant surprise.

"It's called a standoff, they wait to see who draws first and then they shoot at each other, last man standing wins."

After about a minute had passed, Aspyre felt like she could take no more.

"What's going on?" she demanded when she saw that the blonde cowboy, the fat ugly man and the black haired evil-looking cowboy stood still for what seemed like an eternity.

"It's to create tension" he explained to her as his eyes stayed glued to the holo.

"Well then they are really good at it" she muttered.

She watched as the trio stood still like they were carved in stone, and finally, finally the blonde cowboy shot the black haired one while the fat one looked rather surprised that his weird looking blaster had not worked. She blinked a few times in confusion, there had not been any blaster bolts, what had that been?

"What the hell did he fire?"

"They're called bullets. They don't exist anymore, even in the most primitive worlds, but before we had blasters, we had bullets."

"Oh" she said as she slid closer to him.

She saw the blonde cowboy aim the gun to the fat one while he screamed at him that he had sabotaged his gun and that he was a cheater, but the blonde cowboys merely smiled and told him to keep digging. The other one did so and after he had pulled eight bags of some golden bright metal, he aimed the gun at him again and told him to climb on a chair, where a noose was waiting for him.

"What's he doing?" she asked Canderous worried what the answer might be.

"You have to watch the whole thing to understand this part, long story short; he is going to shoot the rope to free him, like he did before. Why, I don't know, he should have let the bastard to rot there."

Aspyre nodded as her eyes returned to the screen and her body moved closer to him.

She kept watching the screen and she saw the blonde cowboy getting on his animal and riding away, leaving the poor fat one standing on the chair, trying very hard not to fall down or he would choke to death. Aspyre tensed as the seconds ticked on and the blonde man seemed even farther away and she unknowingly gripped Canderous' arm, which made him tense in return.

The two of them kept watching and Aspyre finally let out a breath she did not know she had been holding when the blonde cowboy shot the rope from far, far away, making the fat cowboy pummel to the ground, but he was on his feet in an instant, and he yelled at the blonde one, telling him that he was a… before switching to another language Aspyre did not understand, possibly to curse at him.

"What is that last word he said?" she asked him as she let his arm go.

"I don't know, I never known what it is, but I'm pretty sure it's an insult" he told her as he got up. Aspyre also got up too and headed back to the med bay, this time intent on getting them out of there before Carth arrived. Without knocking, she opened the door with the Force and surprised the pair, who looked at her with shocked eyes, but who were visibly relieved she wasn't Carth. Mission grabbed her jacket again and got off from on top of Dustil as the boy lifted his head to find out what was wrong. His face redden again when he saw Aspyre looking at the two of them and he grabbed Mission's pants to cover himself.

"Aren't you the busy Gizkas. You lucked out, can you imagined what would have happened if I had been Carth?" she asked the blushed couple. Dustil turned even redder and muttered something under his breath while Mission looked slightly more defiant and sat straighter as she addressed her.

"Well I don't recall you being my mother or anything like that, I am not a child and I can do whatever, or whoever I want! And I think it's very hypocritical of you to tell us we can't have sex while you go at it every night with Bastila!" she snapped at her.

"Ah. First of all we don't 'go at it' every night, we have to control our passions, something I think the two of you fail miserably at. And second of all, I can't tell you what to do, is that you're saying?"

The blue Twi'lek nodded at her and crossed her arms.

"Well, has it occurred to you that this is MY ship?" she told them with a pair of raised eyebrows. Mission looked rather surprised at her comment, and for a second she had no response to give her. She opened her mouth but not finding anything to say, she closed it again. "Exactly. So hurry up, get dressed, clean this mess and go play or something!" she ordered them as she poked her tongue out at Mission. A thought flashed through Dustil's mind, making him shiver.

"Has it ever occurred to you that sometimes Aspyre is very childish? During missions and in periods of stress she is very calm, controlled and serious, but when there are no threats, she seems even more immature than Mission?"

Mission looked at her with her best we-were-already-playing-before-you-barged-in look and she slowly stood up and Aspyre turned around and left the pair alone.

"If they were both human we would already have a litter of them" she whispered to herself before she went back to her bed.

00

Bastila did not care much for environmental suits, they made her feel like she was helpless. Sure she could still use the Force, but there was no way she could grip her lightsaber with that huge monster-like glove, and despite using Force Speed to make herself go faster, she was still moving slower than what she usually did on dry land. She turned to her right and saw HK walking right beside her, his scanners checking for any threat signals before reporting them as 'terminated' to her. She walked over to the console and pressing a few buttons she started the program that would turn the gas inside the machine into liquid, and then make it blow up, but a large group of Firaxia approached her and she was forced to jump out of the way of their razor steel jaws. She saw HK turn around slowly and fire his sonic gun at the retreating group, hitting the last row and killing a few of them. Bastila used the Force to hold most of them on stasis while HK shot them quickly, and efficiently. After a few more shots, the sharks started to rise to the surface, their brain matter completely ravaged by HK's sonic gun. She continued with the program, but soon she found that there was no way she could proceed, the system was asking her for a password, and she didn't have it. She couldn't go back to those scientists and ask them what the password was, that would take hours, and she had had enough of Manaan and she wanted to get out as quickly as possible. Thinking it over a few times, she opened the hatch to the ventilation shaft and poured the black contents that the scientist had given her, hoping it would only kill the shark, and not damage the kolto. To her horror and eternal shame, the black thick liquid poured out of the ventilation shaft, and went inside the gills of the shark, which after a few seconds started squirming and died, but that was not what horrified Bastila, what shocked her was that the black liquid was swept away by the current of water and headed directly to the fault. The semi-white kolto that was rising to the surface turned a deep grey and then to black, and the amount that kept rising to the surface was very limited. The poison must have made the kolto thicker as well as compromised its integrity, just like the woman said! Turning around quickly on her heels, Bastila ran as fast as the stupid environmental suit would let her, calling HK to follow her. She arrived at the star map located on the other side and was immediately covered by its dark embrace. Shaking it off, she activated it and connected her datapad to it, transferring all the information to it. After she was done, she stood up and ran back towards the base. They arrived at the hatch and after the water was drained, they found Carth on the other side, standing over a small pile of dead Selkath.

"Looks like we hadn't gotten them all" he said with a grim smirk. Bastila nodded and the trio began to leave the cursed underwater base. They however did not arrive at their submarine because three men were standing in front of the door that led to it. Bastila felt the dark presence of the man in the middle and her hand immediately went for her lightsaber.

"Sith" she said grimly. Carth and HK both took offensive positions next to her and waited for her to make the first move. As they approached them slowly, the bald man in the middle spoke to her in a deep voice.

"At last my search is at an end. You may have defeated the useless bounty hunter, but you will not escape me, I have trained under the Dark Lord himself!" the man informed them as he turned on his double bladed red lightsaber. Bastila ignited hers and threw back her own insult at him.

"So, Malak doesn't have the strength to come and face me himself does he? He has to send his little Pet Hounds to do his dirty work for him?" she replied with a sneer.

"You're words mean nothing to me, unless you wish to beg for your life" he shot back.

Bastila jumped forward and using the same move she had pulled on Revan, she brought down her lightsaber with all her might on him. He parried the blow and jumped backwards, creating some distance between him and her. Bastila turned to her left and threw her lightsaber at the two thugs on his side and she flipped backwards to avoid the blasters being fired in her direction from the thugs in the right. She heard two shots being fired that collided with the temples of both men and they collapsed to the ground. Retrieving her lightsaber, Bastila saw Carth running towards her with the corner of her eye and HK on the other side. Carth dashed forward and jumped to the right, firing at the bald Sith in mid-air while HK barraged him with a volley of his own. The Sith jumped out of the way and went inside the hangar. Bastila cautiously stepped forwards and checked with her eyes. She saw nothing except the flicker of the dying lights and the steady glow of the light in the sub's cockpit.

Using the Force, she launched herself at full speed against the wall at the other end of the Hangar and flipped in mid air, turning her feet to the wall and kicking it off, dodging, just barely, the Sith's red lightsaber. She flipped again and landed in the middle of the hangar, as the Sith landed right in front of her and pressed his attack. She was forced in the defensive as the Sith gained ground, steadily pushing her against the wall for the next minute or so, he was in control, and Bastila did nothing but parry his blows. Before she connected with the wall itself however, a few bolts were heard and turning her head, she saw Carth shooting at the Jedi. The Sith jumped back to dodge the bolts, but he had not expected HK to sneak behind him and plant mines all over the walkway, and he stepped on one of them as soon as he landed. With not enough time to jump back up, the Sith lifted a mighty barrier before the mines went off and engulfed him in flames. Bastila shielded herself and Carth from the mighty flames and turning her head, she saw HK in the water, holding on to the railing in order to protect himself from the flames. After the blast died down, Bastila lowered the shield and walked over to the Sith. She turned on her lightsaber and kicked him on his chest, forcing him to turn around. The Dark Jedi turned and groaned with pain.

"Have you transmitted our location to Malak?"

"I will tell you nothing Jedi!"

"Have, you, transmitted, our location, to your master, dog?" she repeated as she pressed her foot against his chest, slowly applying pressure to the burnt area. The Sith moaned in pain but said nothing. Bastila stopped for a second, she couldn't do this. The Jedi did not torture their prisoners, not matter how important the information they had could be. But, what if Malak knew where they were? He could set a trap for them and then Aspyre… "Tell me what I want to know!" she screamed at his face as she pulled her fist back and punched him straight in the nose, breaking it and sending pieces of cartilage into his skull. Despite her best efforts, the Sith would not talk, and his mind was too well protected to break it. Gritting her teeth with frustration, Bastila did something she never thought she would do. "HK can you come here please?"

"Irritated Query: What do you want from me now meat bag?" he asked her as he stomped towards her, extending portions of his body in order to dry them.

"I need… I need to get information out of him. I need to know if Malak already know if we are here. Could you… could you help me?"

Had HK's eyes been able to shine they would have. The droid looked as humanly joyous as it was possible for a droid without a face and had it been in his programming, he would have surely clapped his hands with happiness.

"Amused Statement: I am surprised that you would ask me to torture this prisoner, I thought Jedi were peaceful, foolish beings."

"Please just do it" she muttered under her breath as she and Carth went to the sub.

"What are you doing?" he asked her once they were inside.

"What?"

"I know for a fact that you're breaking the Jedi code by doing that."

"We have no choice Carth. If Malak already know we are here, he could set a trap for us and we cannot allow him to succeed, the fate of the galaxy depends on our success. I cannot allow him to succeed, I cannot."

The pilot looked at her with concerned eyes but turned his attention to the control panel in front of him, he started up the engines, made sure the oxygen supply was high enough to get them to the surface, and waited for HK to come back.

After a few more minutes, the rust red droid entered the crowded cockpit of the covered in blood. Both Bastila and Carth looked at him with eyes filled with shock.

"HK… did you manage to make him talk?"

"Satisfied Response: Indeed I have meat bag. He said many things, although most of them where made up of a incoherent ramble. Extrapolation: It can be deduced that his lack of focus and concentration while speaking was caused by my most effective method of torture."

"Well… What did he say? Does Malak know we are here?"

"Response: He does not meat bag. He however, informed him that he was headed for Manaan a few days ago and that he would report tomorrow to him."

"We still have time, if we can get out of this planet before Malak realizes that something is wrong we might be able to make it to Kashyyyk unscathed. But I fear we might not be able to find the star map in secret with Malak actively on our tail. For now let us return to the Ebon Hawk, I want to check on Aspyre."

"Can't you feel her through the bond?"

"Yes, she has been sleeping a lot, and that is what worries me."

"Okay then. Let's go" Carth said as he turned submerged the submarine. With the corner of her eye, Bastila saw the remains of the Dark Jedi. He was twirling very slowly, like a pendulum, hanging from some kind of cable. She turned her head and feeling her lunch return to her throat, she saw what was holding him by his neck. Not a cable, but his intestines. Bastila had to take several deep breaths to stop the imminent spill of her stomach contents in the submarines floor, which would be very, very unpleasant for Carth and for herself.

00

Aspyre woke up after finally getting some restful sleep, she stretched her legs and arms with a huge smile on her face. Reluctantly, she got up and as she opened the door, she greeted Zaalbar, who was standing guard near her door. He acknowledged her and followed her to the main room, where she poured herself a bowl of soup and began eating with him.

"What time is it?"

"It is morning, you slept from yesterday afternoon until today, are you feeling refreshed?" he roared at her and she smiled in delight at being able to hear him without feeling like her ears were bleeding.

"Yes, I feel great actually. My head no longer hurts and my body is as fit as ever" she replied with a smirk.

"Then, I have some news you will find unsettling. Bastila and Carth have not returned yet. The Manaan authorities contacted us an hour ago. Bastila, Carth and your droid have been detained and are going to be trialed today in a few hours."

"What? What did they do?"

"They did not tell us, they only informed us that we had been granted permission to be present in the trial, it will begin in half an hour. Are you fit to travel?" he asked her.

"Yes, yes of course, give me a minute I will go get ready right away" she said as she stood up and headed for her room. "Wait, where is Canderous?"

"He has already left, he said he wanted to see, and I quote 'how the princess bored them to death with her speeches' and left a few minutes ago."

"And Dustil and Mission?"

At the mention of the boy's name Zaalbar grew rather upset.

"They are locked in the medical bay since yesterday, I wanted to go and rip the door open, but I could not leave you unguarded, I have failed you twice and I refuse to do so again."

Aspyre groaned and placed her head on her hands. Would those two ever stop? She walked to the medical bay and Forced the door open, revealing an exhausted Dustil and Mission who seemed like they had not slept all night. Mission laid on top of him and she looked more passed out than asleep her eyes not completely closed and large amount of drool falling on the bed next to Dustil's head. Dustil however, was still awake, but he seemed rather comfortable with Mission on top of him, and he was hugging her tightly against him.

"Dustil" she said softly. The boy almost jumped out of the bed when he heard his name, but grabbing hold of Mission's right head tail, he lifted it and peeked from under it, directly at Aspyre.

"Hi" he feebly said.

"How long ago has she been like that?" she asked, pointing to the passed out girl on top of him.

"Hum… I'm not sure, I can't have been more than an hour though."

Aspyre raised her eyebrows, she had to admire their endurance, they had been 'going at it' for the past 22 hours at the least and she had only recently passed out? Damn.

"We got trouble, wake her up and get dressed, I'll explain along the way. I mean it this time, Dustil, get up" she firmly told him, but the boy shook his head and pointed at the drooling Twi'lek on top of him.

Aspyre sighed and she walked over to them, trying as hard as she could to ignore the stench of bodily fluids and sweat that seemed to have filled the med bay. She very carefully lifted Mission's head tail and placed her lips very close to her ear, and taking a deep breath… she screamed as loud as she could.

"MISSION!"

Aspyre was sure that in the years to come, she would remember this moment and tell it to her children, to her grandchildren and if she was lucky, to her great-grandchildren, and describe it as the single most amusing moment in her life. Her voice must have been heard all the way down to the bar. The blue Twi'lek shook like she had been touched by electric wires. She screamed back at her and held on to Dustil tighter than if her life depended on it. Her eyes were absolutely filled with fear and her usually smooth blue skin had been filled with goose bumps. Slowly and taking sharp, short breaths, Mission looked directly at her eyes and managed to mouth a single word.

"Wh-wh-what?" she whimpered softly.

"We got a situation here, let's go" she said as she grabbed the girl's arm, which was, like the rest of her body, covered in a white liquid Aspyre tried really hard to ignore, and pulled her off the boy that by now she was practically glued to. Taking her through the garage, in order to miss Zaalbar's gaze, she took the naked alien to the girl's quarters and threw her on her bed, after which she cleaned her goo-filled hand on Bastila's robe before throwing it in a corner. She grabbed a pair of panties, a pair of black pants and a red shirt and threw them at the still shocked girl and ordered her to put them on. She them grabbed a white jump suit, placed her armor plates again and threw her white cloak on. She looked for her mask but did not find it, she kept looking for it desperately even after Mission was done dressing.

"What are you looking for?" she asked her quietly.

"My mask! I can't find it!" she responded, her voice filled with anguish.

"You didn't have it when I saw you in the Sith Base. It must still be there."

Aspyre turned to look at her, her eyes on the verge of tears.

"In… the Sith base, but… I need it! I… I-I… We have to get it back, after we get Bastila and Carth out of there, we have to go back to the Sith base and get it back!" She told the young girl, who looked at her like she was insane.

"Aspyre, we can't go back, you know that. They sealed the Sith base because of all the 'mysterious murders' if we try to go back inside they will surely arrest us" the girl said, being the voice of reason for the first time in her life.

Despite knowing that she was right, Aspyre muttered something about Canderous killing her, but dropped the subject. The two of them went to the main room and they found Zaalbar still there. He turned his head to greet Mission, but soon he wrinkled his nose and turned away from her.

"Mission! You have that child's stench all over you!" he said as he placed some distance between himself and the girl. Mission sighed and she hurriedly grabbed a couple of emergency bars, storing one in her pocket for Dustil and the three of them left the Hawk, but not before telling T3 to lock it and not allow anybody except them to enter it. Dustil joined them outside, wearing his only pair of regular clothes, a pair of red pants with dark blue shoes and shirt. The four of them quickly headed to the courthouse and after identifying themselves with the security guard, they entered it and found Canderous sitting on the farthest bench away from the judges and Bastila, Carth and HK 47 locked in force cages, while the judges angrily demanded to know why the kolto that was arriving to the surface was much less than usual, and why it was contaminated. Bastila simply insisted that she had acted out of the best interest for the Selkath, but when she told them she had introduced the toxin inside the ventilation system to kill the massive Firaxia shark, the judges went pale. They began talking amongst themselves and Aspyre took this moment to send soothing waves inside Bastila's tense mind. Bastila looked over at the crowd and found her and after waving to her, she turned to Carth who also seemed relief that his son was also there.

"You, human, how large was the shark?" the judge in the middle demanded.

"I do not know for sure, it has well beyond the size of that of a regular Firaxia shark, of that, I am certain" she calmly replied.

"It was the progenitor!" one of the judges exclaimed, but the rest told him to be quiet and deemed his claims as fairy tales and legends. They turned very angrily again towards Bastila and ordered that they were taken to be executed at once for their crime in poisoning the kolto from Manaan and treachery against the Manaan government.

"NO!" Aspyre, Dustil and Mission yelled. The judges turned their head towards them and ordered them to be silent. Aspyre saw how a group of combat droids turned off the force cages and dragged them away, taking them to the execution grounds. Aspyre reacted without thinking. She turned on her red lightsaber and jumped forward, cutting through the droids and severing their heads. She cut Bastila's and Carth's restrains and focusing with all her might, she placed all the security guards on stasis. Still maintaining her grip, Aspyre grabbed Carth and Zaalbar and used Force Speed to run away towards their ship as fast as they could. She saw Bastila behind her holding on to Canderous and HK, and Dustil had Mission on his arms while they were dashing through the city, racing against Aspyre's own strength. They were near the hangars when she had to let them go, and a few seconds later, the alarm sounded on the entire city, and the blast doors began to close. Aspyre dropped Carth and Zaalbar inside the hangar and told them to start the ship, she saw Dustil and Bastila do the same and the three of the ran towards the shield generators. They destroyed them and the shields dropped, but the blast doors where still closing, and the Ebon Hawk would not be able to take off. Using the Force, Aspyre crumbled the circuits leading to the right door and pushed it open, while Bastila and Dustil did the same thing with the left door. They ran back towards the Hawk and Dustil and Aspyre were back inside when they saw the door to the hangar open and a large group of Selkath officers aiming their rifles at them. She saw Bastila turn on her lightsaber and without hesitation, without remorse, without any doubts, she threw it at them. Aspyre felt her throat clench itself shut and her eyes widen to the point her view was distorted, but she still recognized the golden blade cutting threw the alien officers, taking them down like they were made of butter. She saw one of them run away in fear and she saw something that would haunt her till the day she died. She saw Bastila stopping him on his tracks and guiding her lightsaber at him, cutting him right in the middle. The golden blade returned to her and she entered the ramp, stopping only for a split second to look at Aspyre, who look completely crushed. Ignoring her for the moment, she yelled at Carth to take off and took the shocked girl to the main room, where she strapped her to her seat and grabbed on to the table as they took off.

00

"YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED THEM ALL! YOU KILLED THEM!"

Bastila tried really hard to calm her down, but Aspyre was so furious, so sad and so disappointed at her that she would not even listen to her voice, and was only punching her arms, stomach and chest in anger. Bastila herself could not explain why she had stopped the last one, the one that was running away.

"He would have warned other guards and then you would have been forced to kill them too, this way there are less casualties."

"Liar, you wanted to kill him, that's all there is to it."

Bastila tried quieting her conscience, but she couldn't focus on doing that when Aspyre was punching her furiously and yelling at her directly in front of her face.

"You killed them! You killed them! Why did you kill them?" she kept asking as her strength faded away and her voice died down. Her punches lost their strength and her screams of anger turned to sorrowful weeps. Bastila herself started crying and they both fell to the ground, Bastila holding Aspyre tightly and Aspyre not having the strength to push her away. "Why did you kill them?" she asked her softly.

Had Aspyre not said anything, she would have been able to overcome what she had done. Had Aspyre in fact not seen what she had done, she would have managed to convince herself that what she had done was justified and she would have felt little remorse about it. But her voice, her innocence filled voice, her cute, tiny, precious voice was what completely crushed her, what broke her heart, what made her feel like she was worse than Malak himself. It was her childish desire to understand why somebody that was good had done a bad thing that wormed its way into her conscience, and made her want to kill herself.

"I… I don't know" she said between sobs. She held Aspyre even tighter, but the girl did the one thing that could make Bastila feel more miserable. She pushed her away, stood up and ran away from her, hiding her face in her hands and running towards cargo hold, which she locked behind her. Bastila felt broken, she felt as if Aspyre had taken a very large piece of her soul when she left, she felt… hollow. She stopped crying, she stopped feeling guilty, she stopped feeling regret about killing those Selkath. She felt… nothing. Nothing at all.