Chapter Twenty-One
Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR2.
The Onderon turrets attempted to shoot the Basilisk down as they plummeted towards Iziz. Not only was that rather pointless because they were landing anyway but even Queen Talia's royal forces were trying to kill the only people who could save them so that wasn't very well thought out. At least they kept missing, proving that they were, in fact, the supposed good guys in this conflict. As if the fact that Vaklu kept bragging about his new and wonderful Sith allies left much room for doubt.
"A Basilisk? A Basilisk here? Mandalorians are attacking the city!"someone shouted as they began to disembark.
"Bad things always happen in threes," someone else said superstitiously. "Let's hide before something else happens!"
"Your timing is terrible," another citizen critiqued.
"Finally! Revan invading us!" another citizen cheered.
"I think the population of Iziz might be slightly…schizophrenic," Revan remarked.
Canderous snorted. "Just Iziz? Try all of Onderon."
"Speculative query: Could Iziz be conquered with just one Basilisk?" HK asked.
Canderous nodded. "Frankly, it's probably overkill."
"Clearly this is Talia's work," an obvious Vaklu supporter concluded. "Who knows how they even got to this part of space? We surely would have noticed them had they been hiding out on Dxun or something."
With that, a fight mercifully broke out and they started to slaughter their way towards the palace.
"I've always wanted to visit a palace," the Exile said happily, looking around. "Everything is so nice here!"
Revan looked around as well at all the ruined finery surrounded them. "Well, it was."
"I have always wanted to slaughter my way through a palace myself," Canderous admitted. "Today is turning out to be a day to fulfill all sorts of childhood ambitions."
HK turned towards him. "Startled cry: It's not just me!"
"I really wonder if I should be worried about all of their bonding," Revan said slowly. He shrugged. "I'm sure it'll be fine."
They saw beasts pawing at a force field in front of them and a man shouted, "Close the outer door."
The door started to slam shut but Revan held up a hand and froze the door in its tracks.
"There is no way I am going to run all around the palace searching for a back way in," he growled. "I say that we kill everyone here for trying to put me through that."
"Innocent statement: The Master's honor must be defended," HK declared.
"B-but that door was made from the material that is used for the hull of capital class vessels!" the man protested.
"That doesn't make it immune to the Force," Revan pointed out. The minute he finished speaking, HK blew a hole in the man's head. He was so considerate to let Revan finish first.
"So now that we killed the beast trying to break into the throne room how do we get the shields down and get in there ourselves?" the Exile asked sensibly.
"That's actually a very good question," Revan said, surprised. "Well, I don't think the force-field is sound-proof so let's try just asking them to lower it and let us in."
The Exile nodded. "Good plan. HEY, EVERYONE. WE HAVE ARRIVED AND KILLED EVERYONE ON VAKLU'S SIDE TRYING TO BREAK INTO THE ROOM SO COULD YOU LET US IN? WE JUST WANT TO HELP!"
It took a few moments but the shields went down and they walked in to find Vaklu and Talia dueling with vibroblades while everyone else just sort of stood around watching them.
"Wait…" Revan said slowly. "If Vaklu and some of his men are already in here then how come Tobin's men needed beasts to get in? Even if the force field was put up after Vaklu got in here couldn't one of his men let the force field down like someone on the Queen's side did? And why is everyone just watching them fight?"
"It's the only honorable way to settle the succession issue," one of Vaklu's men explained.
"That makes sense to me," Canderous said, nodding.
"If you were looking for honor why not have an arena match instead of a bloody civil war?" Revan demanded.
"Says the man who fought a war with us and only at the end of it challenged Mandalore to a duel," Canderous said pointedly.
"We should help!" the Exile said worriedly.
Revan sat down. "You help. I'm going to just sit here."
"Oh, you're going to be using Battle Meditation? What a wonderful idea!" the Exile gushed.
"Wake me when it's over," Revan requested. "Or, you know, don't."
"Sorry I'm late!" Master Kavar shouted out, coming from out of nowhere to single-handedly kill ever Vaklu troop in the room.
"How does he do it?" the Exile breathed, awed.
"Why does he do it?" Revan asked, slightly disturbed.
Vaklu was breathing heavily when he drew back to catch his breath and taunt Talia. "Your time is at an end, Talia. Your people have abandoned you and your life is forfeit."
Talia, who hadn't appeared to break a sweat, narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh no. We are not using 'had a break from reality' to excuse your actions even if it would, in fact, explain why you thought any of this was a good idea instead of just trying to poison me or something."
Vaklu frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"The people are all on my side, the Jedi and Mandalorian that landed via Basilisk war droid took out most of your troops, Tobin died hours ago, and Kavar just personally wiped out all of your forces in this room," Talia pointed out. "And now I'm kicking your ass. No matter how you look at it, I'm winning."
"No you're not," Vaklu denied.
"I will not let you lay the grounds for an insanity defense!" Talia cried out, attacking Vaklu again. She considered. "Oh, and your ambitions would destroy everything, especially since the Sith you allied with are, well, Sith and thus prone to destroying everything."
"They're just misunderstood," Vaklu claimed.
"Not with dark side-induced ugliness, they're not," Revan spoke up.
"Nobody asked you!" Vaklu said, scowling. "And so what if I destroy everything? I'm trying to make things better here!"
"I'm pretty sure that if you want to make things better then 'destroying everything' is not really the route you want to go," Canderous advised. "Well, you can destroy everyone else's things but not your own. Trust me, we tried that and it really didn't work."
"Shouldn't we do something?" the Exile asked uncertainly.
"It would be rude to intervene before we're asked," Revan assured her.
Talia finally managed to knock the vibroblades out of Vaklu's hands and held her own blade at his throat.
"Your skill with a blade won't you from my men, Talia," Vaklu said contemptuously, even now unable or unwilling to face the fact that she had won. "Fire!"
Nothing happened.
Vaklu looked around. "I said fire!"
"Your men are all dead," Canderous said bluntly.
"It's not very Jedi-like to have killed all of my men, Kavar," Vaklu said, now forced to acknowledge this as well.
"It was self-defense," Kavar said smoothly.
"And how are you all still alive anyway?" Vaklu demanded. "I must have thrown dozens if not outright hundreds of men at you!"
"Proud statement: We killed them all!" HK rejoiced.
"Kill them and the Queen quickly, men!" Vaklu commanded. "They must not be allowed to live!"
"Your men haven't come back to life since the last time you ordered them to kill something," the Exile informed him.
"And even if they had, they weren't enough to kill us before so what makes you think they'd succeed now?" Canderous challenged.
"Fine, I guess you've won the battle," Vaklu sulked. "But your reign won't be an easy one. The Republic is a sinking ship and you're too attached to it."
"Maybe it's because idiots like you decide that the Republic is too weak and try to tear it apart," Revan suggested helpfully. "Just a thought. Honestly, if it weren't for Bastila's decision that the Sith aren't for her after all I would seriously reconsider my alignment at this point."
Kavar sighed. "Revan, do you have to flaunt your utter disdain for the Jedi Code in our faces every time you turn around?"
"Seriously, where is that in the code?" Revan demanded.
"As distasteful as it is, Onderon won't be safe with him alive so I say kill him," Kreia's voice echoed in the Exile's head. She dutifully repeated it word for word.
" 'Distasteful'?" Revan repeated, laughing. "I'm looking forward to his public execution."
"Do try to at least pretend to be committed to the light side, Revan," Kavar entreated.
"Go ahead, lock me up. My loyal forces will just let me out within the week and I'll be back to try this whole thing all over again," Vaklu freely confessed.
"Are you so sure of my decision, Vaklu?" Talia asked him. "I appreciate the Jedi's counsel but-"
"Wait," Kavar interrupted. "I'm so sorry but I realized that I haven't actually given you any counsel and Revan wants you to kill him. I feel obligated to remind you that killing someone, especially your kin, in cold-blood is very immoral."
"But he's freely admitted that he'll just cause trouble if left alive and frankly I don't need the hassle," Talia explained. "Plus this whole business has annoyed me, too. I think Revan's public execution suggestion is quite sensible. Unfortunately the longer he is alive the more danger we are all in so we'll just have to kill him now. Somebody turn on the holorecorders so we can broadcast this and hopefully end the fighting."
"You know, this is the kind of leader I can really get behind," Canderous said admiringly.
"I'm not sure what kind of moral authority she can claim if she does this," the Exile spoke up.
"Oh, who cares?" Revan asked rhetorically.
"But…that's not fair!" Vaklu protested. "What about my trial! I want a lawyer!"
"Well so did all those people your secret police were rounding up," the Exile told him. "I haven't heard an apology about that yet."
"A trial would just be a formality, Vaklu. Your little coup means everyone knows of your treason and the punishment for treason is death," Talia said coldly. "Goodbye, Vaklu. I never liked you."
With that, he was shot by every Talia man still in the room.
"Well, I'm off to get this broadcast and to give a speech to my people," Talia informed them. "While you are speaking to Kavar, I'll have one of my men grab some jewels for you to take with you as repayment for saving my life and winning this battle for me. Farewell."
"That's nice of her," the Exile said, smiling.
"You over Vaklu dying, then?" Revan asked.
"Well, she does seem like a nice person," the Exile said slowly. "And really, nobody's perfect."
Kavar came up to them. "How very noble-minded of you, Exile. I can only hope you'll be able to apply some of that same sentiment to me and the others on the council."
"Don't worry," Revan assured him. "She will."
"It's ironic, really. We spent all this time looking for you and now you've come to us," Kavar mused.
"Wait, wait, wait," the Exile said, her eyes wide. "You were looking for me?"
"Of course," Kavar confirmed, surprised. "Am I the only one you've found so far, then?"
"No, we found Zez-Kai Ell on Nar Shaddaa and he didn't mention it," Revan said, annoyed. "Vash had died by the time we got to Korriban, though."
Kavar closed his eyes. "Poor Vash. A death on Korriban couldn't have been a kind death."
"It wasn't," Revan confirmed grimly.
"I had suspected that you might return to Onderon which is part of why I came here," Kavar announced. "It looks like you did just in time."
"Well I only came here because you were here," the Exile informed him.
"However it happened, I'm glad you did. I was worried for a minute that you might support Vaklu out of spite," Kavar confessed.
"I'm not capable of spite," the Exile said matter-of-factly.
"Glum agreement: It's true," HK confirmed.
"Somehow we're being hunted and killed through the Force so we had to go into hiding," Kavar informed them. "And wounds in the Force keep appearing, both where Jedi die and where other violent events have happened. It reminded me of you."
"Touching," Canderous said dryly.
"Kavar's a romantic," Revan confided. "So, you will tell the Exile what happened to her, right?"
"Oh, yes, I was just about to do that when Tobin and his men interrupted us, wasn't I?" Kavar mused, rubbing his chin. "Alright, here goes. Exile, when you came before us that day you were already cut off from the Force. We didn't understand it but we knew that it was dangerous. We saw the death of the Force and of all life in you. We couldn't just kill you because you had surrendered and were thus our prisoner and we didn't have the time to investigate what happened with Revan returning to attack."
"Maybe if you had come back sometime in the three years between Malachor and our return," Revan hinted.
"I was working to come to terms with what had happened before returning to face the Council," the Exile said virtuously.
"We were disturbed and didn't want you to complicate things by being a living hole in the Force so we sent you away," Kavar concluded.
The Exile's eyes were wide. "So that's what happened."
"That's what I've been saying all along," Revan said, exasperated. "Don't act like this is some new revelation."
"So now what?" the Exile asked. "Zez-Kai Ell wanted everyone to assemble on Dantooine before he told me anything and he's headed there but I already know so do I need to bring the Council together?"
"No, no we do absolutely not," Revan said loudly.
"It might be a good idea," Kavar disagreed. "After all, together we can try to work out what's happened since we've spent the last few years investigating and we can formulate a plan."
"I thought wherever Jedi gather, Jedi die," Revan said dryly.
Master Kavar smiled at that. "How many Jedi do you have on your ship, Revan?"
"Only the seven…" Revan said sheepishly.
"We'll be fine," Kavar said. "And if anything comes then it will give us a perfect opportunity to face down whatever is hunting us."
"And it will likely kill us," Revan pointed out.
"If it's going to kill us then it's going to kill us," Kavar reasoned. "So we might as well at least try to fight it. I would have died here without you, you know. My battle plan took the Sith into account but not the beasts."
"Revan's would have," Canderous said immediately.
Everyone looked at Revan.
"Well…yeah," he admitted. "But only because it's really obvious that on Onderon of all places they'd use beasts and because there have been problems with them for weeks."
"We've all been trying to find out what's happened for far longer than you have and yet somehow the two of you are the only ones making any progress," Kavar noted. "I wonder if I should be surprised by that."
"I wouldn't be," Revan told him. "Having people kill your way through everything in your past has remarkable results."
"I'm sorry that I defied my exile to come back here," the Exile burst out suddenly, apparently unable to keep that in for a single second longer.
Kavar looked startled. "Oh, don't worry about that. The exile was never supposed to be the punishment you thought it was and I thought you realized that. We had no real power to exile the only hero of the Mandalorian War who hadn't later died or become a Sith, after all."
The Exile frowned. "I don't follow."
"Of course you don't," Revan said, sighing.
"When I first sparred with you as a Padawan I could tell you were different," Kavar said wistfully. "And it wasn't just your strong connection to the Force."
"I'll say," Canderous muttered.
"It's a good thing Atton's not here," Revan remarked.
"So what now?" Kavar asked curiously. "Will you kill me and seek vengeance or shall we all meet up on Dantooine?"
"Why do people actually ask that like there's a chance she'll do anything less than perfect?" Revan wondered aloud.
"I don't believe in vengeance," the Exile said virtuously. "Since we're going to Dantooine as well, would you like to ride with us?"
Kavar looked awkward. "I would love to. Really, I would. But…well…I've got to go. I sense Talia needs my help. Or something."
With that, he took off again.
"Why does nobody want to spend a prolonged period of time with us?" the Exile wondered, hurt.
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