Betrayal
Danika
We retraced our steps, and this time the mammoth door opened with a smooth hiss. I ran up the ramp, and as I did, I felt a chill. Something awaited me at the top of the temple, and it resonated in my heart.
The upper door opened, and I felt the worry increase. There was an opening leading onto the landing of the pinnacle, and I felt the dread build until I could not stand it. The others felt it too. Juhani was, to pardon the expression, as jumpy as a cat.
I stepped out into the sun, and there ahead of me, I could see the fighter that had come down the night before. A woman stood beside it, and I didn't need to see her to know who it was.
Bastila. She wore the robes of a Dark Jedi, and as she saw us coming she gave a small smile that froze my heart. I knew without even touching her Force aura that she had begun her fall.
"Bastila!" Juhani cried.
"Don't move Juhani." I said softly.
Bastila walked toward us. She had never looked more beautiful, and I dreaded that beauty. She smiled one of the first smiles I had seen that wasn't shadowed by her own worries.
"Revan. I knew you'd come for me. Malak was sure you would be afraid to enter the temple, but I know you so much better than he does since you have changed."
"Bastila, hurry, we must escape before Malak arrives." Juhani said. She hadn't realized the depth of the change yet. But along what remained of our bond, I felt her contempt.
Bastila looked at her with pity. "Escape? You don't understand. I have sworn allegiance to Malak and the Sith. I am no longer a pawn of the Jedi Council." She smiled again, and it worried me that it was the first actual happy smile she had ever worn. "But you know that Revan."
"Don't go over to the dark side." I whispered.
She laughed. "You speak as if the Dark side was some ravenous beast! The Jedi council would really approve of my work. You have become the properly programmed drone, willing to spout what they say. They fear the dark side not for what evil it might do but for the power they could attain if they only grasped it! Instead they run from it like frightened children, and use their own skills to yoke those with the most power to their own outmoded ideals.
"Why do you think they forbid you and Malak from joining in the Mandalorian wars? They knew that you would have the veil ripped from your eyes. You would see the world as it really is! You would recognize your true potential and form your own union of other Jedi that have done so. Malak has shown me that the Council was using me the same way they had wanted to use you. They have been holding me back because they know I will surpass them all one day!"
"Don't do this, Bastila." I reached out. "You can return to the light."
"Don't make me laugh! Return to that narrow cage they kept me in?" She shook her head. "I resisted at first, as I should according to the Jedi. I endured torment with all of the serenity they teach. I finally cut the link between us because you were hindering me. That's right, hindering! Your own darkness was calling to me, and it was helping Malak!
"But I learned. After a week of agonies, I became angry, and he showed me what anger can do. I broke the chains they bound me with and he applauded my efforts! He forced me to acknowledge my pain, my anger. He showed me how those things the Jedi fear most would liberate my mind and soul. Then he showed me how the Jedi Council was denying me what is mine by right!
"Oh they were happy to use my battle meditation to win their battles, but for what purpose? Merely to return those idiots they call senators to their seats, to allow chaos and bloody-mindedness to wreak havoc. They were jealous of me, of my power that none of them had. If they'd had the courage, they could have ripped it from me for their own use. Instead they treated me like a child too stupid to move her hand from a burning fire. I was to bow and scrape to them, obey every word as writ. Yet all they wanted from me was that battle meditation!"
"You know that's not true. Those are lies."
"Ha! You're the one living a lie, Revan! The Jedi council was happy when I had put your mind together. Think how they must have felt when I delivered a woman with all of the Force capability you possessed! A willing drone that would fight and die like a toy soldier. A slave!
"You used to be the Lord of all the Sith. Now all you are is an expendable pawn they can send on a suicide mission. I was like you until Malak freed me. A pity your power has waned so much since then. You could be as strong as I am this very moment, perhaps even stronger! But that will never happen now. With the Star Forge at his command, Malak will sweep away the anarchy of the Republic, and install an order of the strong and obedient. He will conquer the Galaxy! I shall be at his right hand, and together we shall create a new order spanning the Millennia! But first I must rid myself of one thing." She glared at me.
"Break the bond." She demanded.
"I will not." I shook my head. "If there is any way to return you to the light, I will need that."
"Fool! If I kill you, it will be broken, if you kill me it will be broken!" She struck at my head. I blocked her blow, and she leaped back from my automatic riposte.
"Jolee, Juhani, stay back." I warned. "I promise, Bastila, that if kill you I must, it will be quick."
She laughed. "Feel the power!" She screamed. Force lightning leaped out, and both Juhani and Jolee were blown back off their feet into the wall. I staggered backward, but blocked the blows she aimed at me. Then I reached out, picking her up like a toy and slamming her into the opposite wall. The lightning died, and my companions collapsed to the stone.
I wanted to run to her side, make sure she was all right, but I suddenly understood that if I did, I would fail this test. I knew that now. Malak had sensed the depth of our bond somehow, and she was the key that could drag me down. The last battle for my soul was being fought here,
Bastila shook her head, then sneered, standing again. "You are stronger than I would have thought possible after what the Jedi Council and I had done to you." She smiled again. "Malak was wrong; the dark side is still strong in you, Revan."
"I am not Revan any more." I said softly. "You made sure of that Bastila when you redeemed me. I am Danika Wordweaver Jedi and Consular now and forever."
"You can lie to yourself, but not to me. I have seen the shadows of love, anger and hate you close up in that little box in your mind. I know the truth. Remember that I am the one that put your mind together after the battle. I used the Force to remake your life! I did! Not the Council! All they did was poke and prod at what I had done afterward!"
"And you linked to my mind when you did." I said.
"Yes! And that link will survive as long as we let it."
"It is through our bond that I know you will come back to the light, Bastila."
"Those aren't your true feelings, Revan." I saw the bathing pool, Bastila cuddled in my lap, all of the desire, the comforting yearning, yes, the love in that embrace. She was sending it down the link to me, making me see it from her view as well. "You wanted me for myself! The Jedi council would never have sent us on this mission if I had told them of that! The Jedi used me, and I used you to make an instrument for them to strike at Malak. I was as wrong as they were!
"The council wanted to use that bond. They hoped that I could draw out the information they needed about the Star Forge. We were both slaves to their will as all Jedi are! But in that bond, I felt the taint of what drew you to the dark side. Not power for it's own sake, but your own compassion for the downtrodden. The desire of the premier warrior of her age to end war forever! Such a farce denying your skills and the arena to use them in the same thought. Even I can see how stupid that is.
"It wasn't Malak that brought me to the dark side, Revan, it was you. Your darkness came from all that love you could never have, first with Malak, then with me. All that repugnance at things you can't change within the Republic as a Jedi, but could as a Sith Lord. I resisted all of that, but I resist no more!" She bowed mockingly. "I thank you for striking the scales from my eyes and making me see the truth."
"If you saw the truth in my mind you must also have seen my mistakes." I pressed. "Learn from them!"
"Mistakes?" She laughed. "No, my dear Revan. The only real mistake you made in your life is the one you're making now. You are denying yourself the power that is yours by right. And it still is your power, not Malak's. Only now, facing you in combat do I see the truth.
"Your deserve to be the true Lord of the Sith. Malak will destroy the galaxy if he cannot win it. All you ever wanted was to save it. All he wants is to rule it. Join me! Together we can save the Republic from itself. We can be together forever." She reached out her hand, and I suddenly saw how close she had come during that speech. I could almost feel her touch on my face. I wavered. I could join her, I could be with her-
Mission screaming as she died.
-I backed a step.
"Take my hand, accept your destiny! We will destroy your old apprentice and remake a better safer Galaxy! Join with me now and regain your identity, your life, and your position!"
"I am not Revan any more!" I stepped back again. "I have no memory of what I once was!"
"Your mind was shattered by the damage, Revan. You may not remember all of who you were yet, but I know you remember some of it. The essence of the woman that led the Sith is still there!
"Once long ago you defied the Jedi Council. You freed yourself from their control, and see what you have wrought! The largest Sith fleet in history is in orbit of the Star Forge, awaiting your command to attack! Together we can retake that power, and fling it in the Jedi Council's face."
"No." I shook my head. "I will not slaughter A trillion or more to undo your work, Bastila. You saved me, please let me save you."
"Bastila, it is not too late to be saved." Juhani cried. "Remember the teachings of the order. You can find your way back to the light. Let Danika help you as she did me!"
Bastila looked scornfully at Juhani. "You are beneath my contempt, Juhani. When you felt the stirring of the dark side, you could have gloried in it, you could have slaughtered the masters of the Dantooine council itself. Instead you ran away and hid in a cave like the pathetic animal you are, like your entire race is. You know nothing of the Dark side, or it's potential."
Juhani retreated stricken.
"She is my friend, Bastila. Leave her alone."
"Oh yes the famous 'Revan' speaks again. You always considered those around you as your possessions, didn't you?" Bastila asked sweetly. "Well this little slave has broken free of your chains as well! You can join me as a partner, or you can die. I will not be a slave to your will any more."
"Ask Juhani if she is a slave, or Zaalbar. Both know the meaning of the word, the feel of the collar forever on their necks. I defend my friends because that is what a friend does." I sighed. "Revan is no more, Bastila."
"You pathetic fool!" Bastila raged. "We could have ruled the galaxy together! Instead Malak will crush the Republic, slaughter the Jedi like the cattle they are, and I will be at his side when it happens!
"I find it ironic that you could have saved yourself all the pain that is to follow, but think on this, my dear Revan. To keep the bond now is madness for you as well I was dragged into the dark by your own darkness, and if I live I will drag you back to the darkness as you did to me! Think of that when we launch our attack!" She reached out, and all three of us were picked up and slammed into the walls. She spun on her toes and raced to the fighter. We had barely reached our feet when it lifted off. Bastila waved mockingly, then we were slammed down again as she went supersonic.
I watched the fighter disappear in the distance, and my heart was torn in two. When next we met, I would be forced to kill her. Not because I wanted to, but because she didn't want what we already had. I went to the computer console, and deactivated it. I felt the temple screen die, and the disruptor field went down. I stepped back, and my lightsaber blade shattered the console. The self-repair could rebuild it, but it would take time. Time when any attempt to restore it would be in vain. We ran from the temple parapet, and down through the structure. There wasn't much time.
Circumstances
Carth
We had seen the Sith fighter rip past at supersonic speed, and everyone tensed. It could have blown us away sitting on the beach, but the pilot didn't notice, or worse yet, didn't think we were important enough.
"Carth? Check the repeater." Mission shouted. I switched the screen to the senor array. A huge portion of the fleet was leaving their orbit. Almost all of them were the Rakata designed ships. As we watched, they leaped into hyper.
"Where are they going?"
"I don't know."
I bit my lip. From here half the Galaxy was within striking distance in just a few days. I hoped that whatever the Republic would send wasn't supposed to be guarding their target.
"People coming down the path." Canderous shouted. I flicked to that screen instead. Jolee Juhani and Danika had stopped outside the weapon's perimeter. I shut down the intruder system, and cracked the hatch. We all gathered at the ramp. Sasha charged through all of them and bulleted into Danika's arms. They hugged, but I could see that Danika was haunted.
"You're back!" I shouted. "What happened inside the temple?"
"We fought Bastila." Juhani said. She looked even more haunted than Danika.
"Fought her? But why?"
"She has turned to the dark side, Carth." Danika said. "She fled to the Star Forge."
"No! How could that happen!"
Jolee shook his head sadly. "She was always in danger of falling to the dark side, Carth, as are we all. Bastila is strong, but she is also headstrong and impatient. Malak preyed on her weakness. Where he had her didn't help." He waved at our surroundings. "This place has been under a pall of darkness for almost fifty millennia! Throughout the reign of the Rakata, and sealed when they fell over 20,000 years ago. It has seeped into the ground itself like poison. The Star Forge and the temple has twisted the Force into a giant dark sucking mass that draws in everything, and spits it out tainted, Just as Malak did to Bastila."
"But she can be saved." Danika sounded like a child asking if the monster under her bed could be friendly. Jolee looked at her sadly.
"Malak has too strong a grip on her here. It will be difficult to break her free, especially considering the long association you have had with them both. Remember that she created the bond between you to save that last spark of life and kindle it into what you are now. Through that bond she touched the you that existed before and especially the dark taint within you."
"But there's still hope, isn't there?" I waved at Danika. "Revan was saved. Can we deny Bastila that same chance?"
"We will try." Danika set the girl down. "I will try. I will not let her be dragged away from us."
"I do not know what fate awaits us all, but I sense Bastila has a role to play yet." Juhani said. "I have no doubt that she will be waiting for us on the Star Forge when we arrive."
"No doubt." I said. "We had best get off this planet before she calls in a larger reception committee."
We ran aboard the ship. I reported the departure of some of the Sith fleet and Danika nodded.
"Good, less of them to run through to get to the Star Forge." She said.
"Wait a minute! The ship is fast and we are pretty well armed, but against a hundred or more ships? We don't stand a chance!"
"We will get through because it will tickle Malak's vanity. I intend to broadcast that I am aboard, and that this is between my apprentice and me. The Sith will understand and back off. No one interferes in a duel of succession."
"Then, you're going to go back to the dark side." My fingers brushed my holstered pistol.
"No, Carth." She shook her head. "I have a way to destroy the Star Forge, or at least severely weaken it. But I must be aboard for that to happen." She looked haunted. "Even if I have to die in the attempt." She smiled sadly. "Trust me for just a little longer, my friend."
"Well no one said we'd live through this, did they?" I asked with a chuckle.
"That is what all people forget." She said. "No one gets out of life alive."
She stood. "Take us up."
Ebon Hawk staggered a bit, and I set the auto-compensate system. As we roared up out of the atmosphere, I felt it smoothing out.
"Carth!" Mission screamed. I flicked to the senor screen, and felt my blood run cold. Almost a thousand ships had appeared in space, and they were coming toward us at high speed. The damn fleet had returned!
A moment later, another massive trace appeared. Before I could curse the IFF read their transponders. I whooped in joy. "It's the Republic fleet!"
Armageddon
Danika
Everyone ran to the mess hall as Carth punched in the codes necessary to communicate with the fleet. A holographic image of a dark haired woman in uniform appeared. She would never be considered beautiful at first glance. Handsome was the best I could say for her. Her green eyes moved from face to face, stopping on Carth.
"This is Admiral Forn Dodonna commanding the fifth, ninth, and fourteenth combined fleets. Who is in command of Ebon Hawk?"
"This is Carth Onasi, Admiral."
Her face broke into a smile, and I revised my estimate. She was a very attractive woman. "Carth! I'm glad to see you're still alive. We are about to begin our assault on the Star Forge." She looked away, and she looked shocked. "My god, how did the Sith ever build this thing in secret?"
"The Sith didn't build the Star Forge, Admiral. We don't have time for a full explanation, but that station is older than the Republic."
She scanned the invisible monitor. "And they outnumber us almost four to one. We didn't bring enough firepower to break through that. Not and live. I am ordering the fleet to withdraw."
Carth shook his head. "You can't do that Admiral. The Star Forge is a factory of incredible design and capability. It has been churning out warships, fighters and assault droids since Revan and Malak found it. If you retreat now, they would merely leave this fleet here to protect it, and you will still face an unending supply of reinforcements. It will be the same as before you arrived, except we will never have another chance to destroy it."
She nodded at the logical statement. "Then I guess we have no choice. But it isn't going to be easy. The Sith fleet is maneuvering to block us even as I set the fleet into motion. We may all die without getting within range of the Star Forge itself. Almost as if they know what we plan to do."
"The Jedi Bastila went over to the dark side." Carth said. "That is her battle meditation you're seeing. We suspect she is aboard the Star Forge using it even now."
Dodonna shook her head. "You can really pick the fights a smart Admiral would avoid." She turned, then motioned to her side. Master Vandar entered the holo-projection. "This is Master Vandar. A number of Jedi have joined our fleet."
Vandar leaned on his cane. He looked his age. "If Bastila is using her battle meditation, the Sith fleet is invincible. Our only hope is to stop her somehow."
"Can we do that?" Dodonna asked.
"The Republic cannot, but we have Jedi equipped with their own snub fighters. I will order a squadron to fly through the enemy fleet and board the station. If they can fight their way to her location, they can stop her by whatever means necessary. That should allow you to move your capital ships in for the kill."
I tugged Carth's sleeve. He looked at me, then back at the holo-projection. "Some of our crew has a plan to defeat the Star Forge. Request permission to join that assault, Admiral."
"After all you have been through, no one would be surprised if you wanted to rest. Except for me, Carth. I hate to ask you all to risk your lives again, but the Jedi could use your help."
"We wouldn't miss it." Carth replied.
"May I speak to our Jedi aboard?" Vandar asked. I stepped in to face the hologram as Dodonna stepped away.
"Master Vandar, there is a way I can cripple the Star Forge, at least briefly." I reported. "Almost every weapon they have here was made by the Star Forge, and they will also be affected. But there is a great risk to all that use the Force within this system."
He shrugged. "There is risk in everything we do in life, young Jedi."
"I only meant to warn you. We will be more affected than the normal people on both sides. But it will level the playing field." I looked down. "I have worried about the Jedi on Dantooine. How many survived?"
"All of the very young did." He answered sadly. "The rest of us fought to assure that. But of the Padawan and Masters, only Master Vrook escaped when I did."
I felt a hand clutch my heart. "Master Zhar?"
"His body was not found. A number of the bodies were not found. We do not know what happened to them."
I lowered my head. Then I looked up. I could tell there were unshed tears in my eyes, but I refused to cry until it was all over. "Then we shall send them an appropriate honor guard, Master."
"May the Force go with you." Vandar replied.
The hologram collapsed, and I turned to the others. "Let's go."
Picture a chip in a millrace. For those of you that have never seen one, Picture an ocean going ship in a storm beyond imagining, or picture a kayak in white water, the kayak driven by only oars plunging through water that will tear it to shreds in a second if the pilot makes a mistake.
Now picture that water as fire, and you have an idea of the next fifteen minutes. 200 hundred massive Republic capital ships were plunging into that hell, fighters screaming through their formation as the smaller ships charged in to come to grips with the foe. From the other side almost 800 enemy ships from corvettes to massive cruisers were charging toward them, their own fighters plunging into the maelstrom. In fighters the Republic was actually fielding more, but that wouldn't matter. The fighters could destroy capital ships only by throwing themselves enmasse at it.
Through that hell Ebon Hawk charged. Energy ravened as the capital ships tried to destroy us, fighters roared in on us. We lost count of the fighters we destroyed on that day. I figured thirty or more. Canderous estimated maybe fifty. We even slipped in close enough to slam several salvos into a frigate that was ripped apart even as we fled its return fire. We burst through their lines and behind us less than a dozen Jedi followed. Vandar had sent not one squadron but two. It was a wise decision. Only eight or ten docked ahead of us as we dived toward the landing deck of the massive structure. Over half dead in as many minutes.
Ebon Hawk roared in, thrusters blasting madly to halt herself as Canderous and I left our stations. Beyond the force field barrier, the madness continued.
A Jedi ran up as we exited the ship. "I'm glad you made it!" The young woman called. "I didn't expect any of us to make it!" She waved toward the lift shaft on the right. "A number of others have gone ahead. We have to strike deep and fast while we still have the element of surprise." She looked haggard. "We have to stop Bastila any way we can or the fleet is doomed!" She motioned. "Come on before-"
A lightsaber flicked across space, and she went down, head bouncing on the deck. Four Dark Jedi charged toward us. There were only three Jedi remaining, and I leaped to their defense followed by Juhani and Jolee. We made quick work of them.
"So much for surprise." Another of the Jedi commented. "We'll hold here to protect the exit."
I nodded, turning to my followers. "All of you stay here." I ordered. "Support these Jedi. Juhani, Jolee, this is our party."
We ran to the shaft. The car was large enough for a snub fighter and we faced outward as it shot half a kilometer upward. I led my smaller party out onto a walkway. I stopped them, and we flinched as the heavy battle steel doors to either side exploded. Droids of a design I had never seen before stumped out. Their arms rose, blasters appearing.
I gasped, because I felt the Force from them as if they were alive. Malak had included life force in their construction somehow. Just as the ancient Rakata had.
I lowered my lightsaber reaching out as I would with a living mind, and felt that spark. "We are authorized. You will let us pass." I ordered.
"We will let you pass." One of them spoke.
"Negative, Jedi mind powers being used. Eliminate." Another spoke almost in unison.
Juhani reached out, lifting two of them, slamming the metal forms together Metal sheared, and both collapsed in ruin. I reached out, catching another pair, and flung them off the walkway to smash kilometers below us. Jolee threw his lightsaber, the blade flicking through the carapace of one, then circling to cut the last from behind. We charged past the wreckage.
Ahead of us I could hear the snarl of lightsabers in battle, and flicked mine on as I continued to run.
Below us on another walkway, three Jedi faced three dark Jedi. As I skidded to a stop, the last of the Jedi fell. One of the women looked up, and I could almost see her eyes twinkle.
"Good. More for us to slaughter." She purred.
I charged down, and when I was close enough, threw a ball of light that illuminated my face.
"Revan!" One screamed. I singled her out, reaching out with the Force, caught her face, and squeezed until she screamed.
"Yes. I am back!" I twisted, and the woman moaned, holding her head in agony. "Who dares stand against me?"
They backed away, trying to avoid my stare. "If you are going to fight, do so! If not, cast your lightsabers off the edge. Now!"
Four lightsabers flew, glittering as they disappeared into the depths. The women moved back, fearful of my very presence. "Get out of here while you have the chance." I ordered. We brushed past them, running toward the entrance to the lift on the right.
Canderous
We had set up to defend the lifts using crates as makeshift breastworks, and had barely gotten into position when the first of the Sith armored troops poured out. Carth, Zaalbar, Mission and I met them with a hail of fire, HK popped grenades into their midst. The Jedi took care of any that got through our fire. It was over in just a few moments.
The lift that Danika had ridden up opened, and a device from a nightmare came out. It was huge; a droid weapons platform the size of a heavy cargo lifter. I flicked a switch, shouting, "Duck!" As I dove for the floor. The Ebon Hawk lifted, pirouetting, then her mainguns roared, blasting the huge weapon into scrap. A figure cut across behind the wreckage, and I started to my feet.
"Sasha!"
She stopped, saluted with her lightsaber, then was on the lift before anyone could stop her.
"Who is that?" One of the Jedi asked.
"A little girl. We rescued her on Dantooine." I replied.
"The little fool thinks she can take on dark Jedi?" He started toward the same lift.
I stopped him with one hand. "The little fool fought with that lightsaber aboard the Leviathan, activated the intruder system of our ship without being able to read, and killed about fifty Sith there." He looked at me shocked. "And she spent three years of her life among the Mando'a. If she wants to die
fighting, we will not stop her."
Another rush poured down on us, and I went back to killing the enemy.
Danika
We ran onto another walkway. Heading for a door that should lead to the factory floor. It opened and a dozen dark Jedi poured out. We fought savagely, piling up a windrow of dead before us, yet still they kept coming. Force bolts shot through from either side, and anyone who didn't deflect or dodge them died.
They finally stopped coming, and Jolee leaned on his knees, gasping. "I'm getting too old for this." He wheezed.
""We'll probably die before we're done, so stop worrying!" I shouted gaily.
"Don't tease me." He grumbled back.
We came out on the factory floor. Before us was the massive factory chamber. As we watched a form began coalescing from the haze of particles, and a snub fighter suddenly gleamed in the lights, then floated upward. Beyond it a frigate was almost completed.
"We must stop it." Juhani shouted.
"This way." I led them down the floor to another room. This had Rakata computer consoles. Attached to them were ones designed by the Republic, translating instructions and replies for those that hadn't learned how to operate a Rakata computer. I pushed past them, going to one of the original consoles. I tried to access it.
ACCESS DENIED
I considered, then put in the back-door password I had created. I saw now that even in my fall I hadn't been a blind trusting fool.
ACCESS GRANTED
I slipped the datapad into the interface. CONSTRUCT
QUANTITY?
I considered. I didn't know what it would do. I know what I expected it to do, but it is like the first fission weapons made by humans millennia ago. The theoretical mathematics had suggested that the chain reaction they wanted to create might be self-sustaining. A raw burst of power that would only stop when it ran out of fuel meaning the entire planet would have gone up in nuclear fire. If they had been correct, there would have been no human race afterward.
Foolish humans that they were, they used it anyway. Or maybe they felt as desperate as I did.
I typed in ONE.
CONSTRUCTION COMMENCED was followed an instant later with CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE.
"Juhani get the grenade from the container over there and bring it here." I ordered. I took out the datapad, and reduced it to slag. DELETE ALL SPECIFICATIONS OF GRENADE CONSTRUCTED.
ALL SPECIFICATIONS DELETED
Now how to bollix up the works? I typed CONSTRUCT FIELD EXPEDIENT SHELTER, CORELLIAN.
QUANTITY?
I typed in INFINITE.
The system hummed, then answered. PRIORITY?
I typed in REVAN 201 ULTIMATE. SHELTERS MUST BE CONSTRUCTED USING ALL RESOURCES.
The system hummed again a little irritated now. PREVIOUS CONSTRUCTION TO CONTINUE?
NEGATIVE CANNIBALIZE ALL PREVIOUS CONSTRUCTION
REVAN 201 AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED. COMMENCING CONSTRUCTION.
Behind us there was a rattle, and a pile of cloth followed by metal tent poles and stakes fell to the floor from a slot. Another followed it almost immediately, and then another. They were starting to jam in the mechanism as we left. Droids came, and began stacking them in the corridor.
There were more guards and dark Jedi awaiting us, but we cut our way through them
Mission
I ducked as another mass of Sith erupted from the lift. How many of them were there? I flicked a thermal detonator over their heads into the lift, and it landed at the feet of a Jedi in armor. The man screamed, and dived forward as the detonator blew the platform to fragments. The thermal shock wave threw smoking bits of him out of the door as well. I gasped as the metal began to reform, almost as if it was healing.
Canderous turned, and his blaster leveled as he began blasting another wave coming down the other lift. "Mission! Power packs!" He screamed.
I ran aboard the ship, snatching up a bunch of bandoliers that Canderous had laid out. Each carried a different power cell size. Some for his weapon, One for Zaalbar's several for Carth's HK's and mine.
I dropped back to the deck, running to cover behind Canderous. I handed the correct belts to him, and then low crawled to where Zaalbar was. He retreated from a pile of bodies he had created with Bacca's sword. He took his belt without speaking loaded his bowcaster, and continued firing into yet another wave of attackers. Carth was kneeling behind the wreckage of another one of those tanks. He grinned at me, grabbing a belt when I got to him.
"I don't want to be here!" I screamed.
"Who does?" Carth asked, popping up to shoot a Sith crawling toward us. "How are we doing for ammo?" He asked.
"This is the last of it!"
"All I have to say is I hope they finish up there fast!"
Star Forge
Malak
Malak walked down to stand behind Bastila. A pity. The chit had power he could use, but there wasn't much time. "Bastila."
There was a long moment. In the holotank, the Sith attack faltered, and an arm of the Republic's dwindling fighters punched through to rip into a score of ships. She opened her eyes, then stood. "Master, why have you summoned me?" She motioned toward the Republic counter attack. At least three of the massive ships were dying even as they watched. "Without my battle meditation there is a chance that the Republic capital ships will break through to attack the Star Forge itself!"
"I only interrupted you for a moment. You will return to your meditation. I just wanted to inform you that Revan is fighting her way here even now." He looked at the holotank. The second tier of warships had closed the gap. Not soon enough to save a dozen of his ships. "The Force has arranged a nice neat confrontation for us. Revan, the Republic fleet, the Jedi. All of my enemies in one place so I can destroy them all in an afternoon!" Malak swept my hand toward the screen. "Even without your battle meditation, we cannot fail. There are too many of my ships, and too few of theirs.
"But there is something you must do to prove your worth as my apprentice. You must finish what you started in the Temple. You must cut the bond that links you two together. Revan must die here by your hand."
"Y-yes Master." She replied in an uncertain voice.
"I sense your fear but it is unfounded. The Star Forge surrounds us. Pure Dark side energy in metal and Force combined. The Star Forge will feed the dark side within you, and sap the light from her. Stay here in this chamber. She must pass through here to get to the floors above. Kill her. Earn your rightful place."
"Of course, Master. I will not fail you again." She turned, kneeling, and returned to her meditation.
He walked away from her, stopping as the lift door closed. "Perhaps you will triumph, Bastila. But your death serves my purposes as well. It will give me time to finish my last card. Cutting Revan's heart out before she faces the power of the Star Forge itself." Malak chuckled as the car rose, then he roared with laughter.
Danika
The last of the Sith died, and we paused for a moment to gasp. I knew we were only three levels from the upper observation deck where Malak would be watching the slaughter. I fingered the grenade I carried. I had to be sure of where Malak was when I triggered it. The door opened onto another floor, and we charged the group of Sith soldiers blocking our way. We bowled through them and into another series of walkways. There were a few dark Jedi here, and we dealt with them swiftly. Three had been before another door, which my memory told me led into the command center. I stepped over their bodies, and pushed the button. The door opened and I paused.
Bastila knelt there, and before her I could see the carnage of the battle beyond the station. The Republic fleet was being mauled; both fleets were being shredded like two beasts unwilling to give up, yet those valiant warriors of the Republic pressed forward even as they died toward the Star Forge. They knew that even death would not stop their victory if they could destroy it, and were willing to give their lives in the final act. I mourned all those lives on both sides; my final act of betrayal. I straightened my shoulders, and stepped over the threshold. As I did the door slammed shut behind me.
Bastila
I felt her presence, along with Juhani and Jolee. I rose from my meditative state, and a flick of power leaped out, sealing the door behind her.
"So predictable." I said, standing smoothly. "The grand leader with her hounds at her heels."
"You knew I'd come, Bastila." She said with a sad smile. "It's starting to look like it might be a habit."
"What?"
"Saving you."
I barked a laugh. "As always you think more highly of your own actions than others would. "How can you rescue someone from something they do willingly?"
"I'll never give up on you, Bastila. I know you can be saved."
"Quit wasting your time. I see the Jedi for what they are; weak fearful old fools that cling to a path no one in their right mind would follow. The Sith are the true masters of the Force, and have always been. You have forgotten that, Revan.
"Now you must pay the price. Here on the Star Forge, the Dark side is supreme. This time you will die."
"Please, Bastila." She said softly. "We don't have to do this."
"I do. As long as that bond exists I am linked to a whining cowardly being that doesn't have the decency to let go, or die. I can take my rightful place at my master's side without the anchor you have become. Without you I am superior to all but him. With you, I am nothing."
"No. You have never been worthless." She said sadly. "You are the one that put a shattered mind together. That redeemed me. I must try to do the same for you."
"Don't make me laugh!" I snarled. "When I found you all I had to work with was a mewling pile of flesh without the wit to stop drooling! I didn't redeem Revan, I put together a composite of one stupid woman with another and here you stand! All I did was reprogram your computer, and over-write it, as the Jedi would have wanted."
"True." She smiled sadly. "But did you actually read the file on the real Danika you left for me? There are memories here that are not hers." She tapped her head. "Danika was from Deralia, true. But she worked in one of the resorts. She never saw what I was able to show you. Revan-I however went to Deralia on a hunting trip with my father and older brother just before I went off to the Jedi Academy. I met a girl a few years older named Kalendra. Kalendra introduced me to the Tirlat, and the idea of compassionate love.
"That memory. You lying on the ground, me above you, and you asking me to bond,. That really happened, except it was me as a six-year-old girl on the bottom," She touched her chest, "And a nine-year-old kneeling over me. Not the love you created for a much older girl. I didn't bond then because I had sworn to bond with the Jedi. It was I that didn't want to be separated, I that cried in her lap wishing I could change the world and stay.
"Don't you see?" She stepped toward me, hand out. "You didn't just create another program as you think. You took what I was, merged it with a person so selfless that she died assuring all of you would live, and made... me. I cannot help being what and who I am. You made me in the image of what you wanted in a companion and life mate. How else can we feel as we do?"
I screamed and cut at her savagely. She blocked, and suddenly she smiled.
-It was evening, Danika faced me. We were dueling. Not with lightsabers, but with long springy vines. Our movements were fast and clean, but they were more two girls playing rather than serious. "Dance with me." She whispered.
-"Stop it!" I leaped back. She didn't follow. I laughed, but even I could hear a string of panic in it. "I see now why Malak followed you. A shell of what you once were but still a formidable opponent. I can't even imagine the power you once had and wielded as the Dark Lord. You were a fool to give it all up and follow the light."
"I am as strong in the light as I ever was in darkness, Bastila." She replied.
"Lies! The dark side has made me stronger than I have ever been. Stronger than Master Vrook, stronger than Vandar! I will have control of more power than their strait minds would even imagine!
"As Malak teaches me the greatest secrets of the Sith I will unlock all of my potential. Eventually there will be will be no limit to what I can achieve. I will even learn to build another Star Forge!"
"As Ajunta Pall told me, all you will accomplish is death and destruction. Those around you, then yourself."
I shook my head. "Ajunta Pall is dead for two millennia. He speaks no more. If any knew the true strength of the Sith it was he! All else is Jedi propaganda. The dark side is a tool, nothing more. A more efficient and cutting tool than the light. Eventually I will surpass my master. When I do, I will challenge him, and he will die.
"Then I shall take on my own apprentice and the cycle will begin again. This has always been the way of the Sith. It assures that only the strongest rule us."
"We fought among ourselves to see who would be the greatest among us, and we brought our own fortresses down upon our heads." She repeated.
"What?"
"As I said, I talked with the spirit of Ajunta Pall. The first human lord of the Sith, yet he knew at the end, that it was all a lie." She said. "You doom yourself; you try to doom the Galaxy, to an endless cycle of death and betrayal."
"No, it is you that are doomed!" I cut at her knees, but she blocked me. Then she began a fluid attack that had me backing away desperately. I leaped backward ten meters, throwing my lightsaber. She flicked it off with the Force, then caught it. She smiled, then flipped it back to me.
"You are growing tired! I can feel it! Your strength falters as the dark side saps the light!"
"Then strike me down, Bastila." She sighed, setting her lightsaber on the deck. "I won't fight you any more."
"Then die!"
"Bond with me." She knelt, and again her hand was reaching out, beseeching. "You only see the pallid shapes of the bond, Bastila. You didn't know how to bond fully with an Echani, and all you get is shadows of what can be. I know this because you would not fight me if you had. I see all of who you are inside, and it is wondrous and magnificent. All that you are, all that you had, all that you feared. I see it!"
Bond with me. My mind repeated the phrase over and over. I remembered kneeling over her body as she lay dying. Frantically I had reached into her mind in a way I had never imagined, a dark place, yet in it was a spark of light. It was a vision of a young girl, her heart racing, looking up at an older girl laughing at something. She was older than I was so I substituted us for the girls. As the younger it was I that lay on that suddenly soft grass, touching the face that hovered above me.
Bond with me.
She had resisted, but I refused to let her go. In the vision she had kissed me, accepting the bond, and I felt myself kneeling again, holding her hand. She was alive, but if I moved away from her she spasmed as if being struck by seizures. I had to touch her every second.
The others had helped, carrying her on a stretcher as I ran along side. We had reached the escape pods, and the door had barely closed when the ship began to break up. Something shattered the pod's engine, and we whirled away as the ship exploded.
Long hours had passed, and the others had fallen off to sleep. I was bound to Revan by that link I maintained so I did not get any rest. Then I felt the wreckage shift. I looked up, just as a faceplate blackened. It was the real Danika. She was dying from anoxia even then; not the several minutes she remembered, but less than two. Somehow I reached out a second time, feeling her thoughts and memories flowing through her. Then starting to fade as she died. I touched her mind, and was suddenly inundated in them. While she had consciously known she must die, and had accepted her fate. But her spirit had railed against that. Now that spirit had a conduit through me.
I found her memories trying to force themselves into my mind, and frantically I pushed them away into the only receptacle free for them, the now empty mind of Revan. As the shuttle came alongside, I felt the last of them pass through me into Revan.
When I was done, two people had become one. Yet I could feel her mind questing outward for something, and when she felt my mind in the sickbay where we pretended to restart her heart... it were as if our minds were pieces of a mechanical puzzle that belonged together, and with an almost audible click we had bonded. She awoke, remembering Danika's life vividly, and nothing of her past... or so I had thought until now.
Now I could feel her questing again, pushing along the bond like an eel slipping through a crack in a wall. "Revan-"
"Bond with me or kill me." She whispered. "I who was once Revan Chandar Bai Echani ask you Bastila to bond with me in full. To share the joy and the sorrow, the pleasure and the pain, to share all that two people can share until death. To stand with me until the universe dies." She closed her eyes, looking down. "After seeing what the bond can truly be...Don't make me go through life alone."
She was defenseless! I could kill her! I raised my lightsaber, ready to cut down-
-The only person who had never asked for more than I might give at any time. Never berated, never screamed, never pressed too hard. That had answered harsh language with gentle reason. The person that had held me in my pain at my father's death. That had forgiven me for what I had done to save her life. That here and now was not fighting me, only asking, no begging for me to join her. The person-
-Whose hand I touched so delicately. Her fingers spread, and I felt my own interlace. My other hand came up unbidden, and those fingers locked as well. I found myself looking at her as her eyes opened, and in them I could see myself. Not the inner picture of yourself you create. Not the mirror that you preen before. I saw myself dirty and bedraggled in a slaver's cage. Snarling at my rescuer. Pontificating to both her and Carth. Woebegone as she stood on the floor of the apartment on Taris when I was lifted out. Deep in thought as I puzzled out the first star map. Stricken when I learned of my father's death. Huddled in pain when we found his body. Bleary when she had taken off that collar on Manaan. Screaming in fury as I had charged Malak. Haughty when I faced her in the temple. Then the same sneering face when I fought her here.
Yet all had the same glowing quality, as if the person who saw me saw deep within, measured all my good and bad, all my faults all my petty worries, then accepted all I was and embraced them in a love that cannot be matched by any hate. I felt as if my father held me again, as if nothing would ever hurt me, and I knew she would protect me from anything as long as she lived.
At the same instant I understood why she was always so hesitant around me, because I realized that she had been feeling and seeing all of this. My doubts about her ability, my lies when I spoke to her on Taris, on Dantooine, every lie I had spoken since my first terror at being linked to someone else this tightly. Yet she had continued to reach out rather than thrust me aside. She had felt that I was betraying her trust, no, known I was betraying and using her, but what she saw had convinced her to strive to maintain the link.
Only now I felt it, a soft whisper of thought. Mine being answered, touching me in ways no one had ever done before. It should have been terrifying, but I had been doing the same clumsily with her thoughts all this time. How many times had she supported me on this mission, and I had felt it, and ignored it. I had failed to break the link because part of me had been answering her feeling, and that part had not been willing to give it up.
I found myself kneeling with her, my head buried against her neck, hugging her tight enough to cause bones to creak, but she never wavered, her voice crooning softly to me. I couldn't hate her. I could never fight her. It would be like slicing off my own hands.
"I always had faith in you." She whispered, her lips brushing my cheek.
I opened my eyes, then suddenly spun, staring at the battle. The Republic fleet was being smashed before my eyes. "What have I done!" I wailed.
"You can help them." She said. She reached out, touching my face. "I must deal with other business."
"But I can help you!"
"Do you think you're strong enough to face Malak again?" She whispered gently.
I shook my head. It had been too easy to turn me to the dark side before. She must know my own strength, and my own weakness. "You are right. Go, I will help the Republic fleet as long as I can."
"Only if you promise me one thing. If you feel as if the Force has left you suddenly, run. Get to the ship. Get away."
"I don't understand."
"Trust me." She walked toward the door. She looked back, and gave a small wave. I knew she didn't expect to see me again.
I reached out, feeling the struggling Republic soldiers stand a little straighter. "I will be here when you return, my heart." I whispered.
