Chapter 36
"Don't worry my dear, it wasn't you, that woman seemed to always have a layer of frost around her, it was only appropriate that she dressed and looked like an Ice Queen," Revan said as he leaned his head on Bastila's shoulder, "Malak always had something for her though, he never acted on it because… it was Atris, she always acted as if she answered to a higher power. She even thought that she could have bested me in direct combat."
Bastila laughed, "She taught me history, quite badly I might add."
"I will give the poor woman that, she was smart," Revan shrugged, "But she never liked me and I never liked her. Our mutual dislike for each other only increased when the Mando War started, she never liked the fact that Arenna Kai choose to come with me instead of staying with her studying and reflecting on how cowardly they were."
"They were friends?" Bastila raised an eyebrow, "Atris? The Ice Queen?"
"Arenna was her only friend," Revan nodded, "The only one she ever had."
Bastila sighed and looked at the ceiling, "I remember the day you came to Dantoonie and spoke to us on why we should have gone into the war. I was young at the time, and I wanted to come with you, but my master would have spaced me. You were so damn charismatic and charming. I knew that if I would have gone with you I would have followed you into hell."
"Perhaps it was a good thing you didn't join us then," Revan told her, "It was a vile war, and the way it ended left everyone with deep scars. Malachor V and its subsequent semi-destruction left something of a deep crater in the Force. Something that, if given the proper manipulation, can be a dangerous weapon, but there will be a time and a place for that discussion later. But back to my point, I'm very glad that you did the wise thing and stayed out."
She looked down to him, "Why did you go to war?"
"What do you mean?" Revan asked her seriously.
"I mean why did you go to war? With Mandalore first and then the Republic, I've heard many things, but I feel that it's best to get it straight from you because after all, only you know the real reason," Bastila reasoned to him.
Revan blinked once before sighing a laying his head down on the pillow and bringing his hand up to caress to the life growing inside, "No one understood why I did it, for both wars really. They all seem to think that I'm some madman who wants it all. They know nothing of what I've gone through and what I've seen or what's made me into the person that I am today. If you knew, if you really knew the whole picture, you wouldn't begrudge me a bit."
"That didn't answer my question," Bastila told him.
Revan scowled a bit, but then his face dissolved into a serious expression. It was something that he thought about almost every single day and he was well prepared to tell her, but he needed to ease her gently into this, "Let me ask you something, if your mother was sick and the only medication that could help her recover was in the possession of a large pharmaceutical company and it cost way beyond what you had to get it, would you go to any lengths to get what you needed, the ends justify the means, or would you let your mother die for the sake of following the established order?"
"I-I… don't know," She answered after a moment of hesitation, when Bastila considered her own mother, perhaps not, but possibly for her father.
"Well, contrary to everything that you've heard about me, I'm not some maniac with a bloodlust for destruction," He turned and leaned into the crook of her neck, "I've done the things that I've done for a reason, not for the power, not for the sake of destroying things, but for a purpose. When they said that about Malak, they were very much correct, but me, no, never trust what you hear. When I killed Mandalore over Malachor V, he told me a secret, it was the reason that the Galaxy was flung into Chaos, I found the source of it all and it led to this war. I won't trouble you with the details, but to suffice it to say, my justification for going to war with the Republic is not unjustified. You don't need to worry about this Bastila, you're going to be busy enough with pregnancy…"
Bastila sighed and leaned back against the pillow, "Is it going to be that difficult."
"You've never been around pregnant women have you?" Revan asked wryly.
"Not since I was in my mother's womb," She retorted dryly.
He smiled and pointed up at the computer terminal, "I don't mean to be cruel, but search for the side effects of all nine months of human pregnancy."
"You don't mean to be cruel?" Bastila asked him with a hint of amusement in her voice as she got up from the bed and made her way to the desk at the front of the bed.
Revan smiled and moved further onto the bed and drummed his fingers on his stomach. He could get used to this, this beautiful woman was about to have his child, which was something that he never really considered before, and he was about to conquer the most influential planet in the galaxy. Revan knew that he was the most powerful person in this galaxy, or at the very least, he shared that position with the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. Though, even Revan knew that he was a touch powerful then both of them. The Grand Master was his Jedi Equivalent, but she was nowhere as near powerful as he was, though she had age on him, but Revan found that didn't count for much. The Chancellor was a weakling. He was the head of a dying, sick, shrinking giant and the Government that Revan had put in its place had already topped the Republic.
"Oh by the Force," Bastila gasped, "Is this really what's going to happen to me?"
He smirked, "More or less, you might not get some symptoms, but you might get an extra dose of others."
"Well the first time I vomit, I'll be sure to be aim for your boots," Bastila responded.
"Very funny," He grumbled, "Though I have little doubt that if I annoy you, you will very much do that."
She turned and grinned at him, "Oh mighty Sith Lord, you can see into the future."
He had managed to get a few hours sleep, but he found that he was restless.
There were so many thoughts racing through his mind that he couldn't concentrate, everything was coming to a head and somehow he felt as if he was missing something. From everything that had happened to him in his life, there was never a moment in which he felt as much pressure as he did now. Everything that he had done had been so meticulously planned out, and sometimes he wished it would move a little faster, but it was impossible to ensure the desired effect if he rushed things. This Empire that had forged took hard work, not just from the beings that joined him, but from himself in particular. Every light year that he took from the Republic was critical and he needed to foresee everything that could happen. The perfect example of this was evident with Hutt Space.
When Revan's fleets had moved into that region of space, the Hutt's came to him with a deal.
He would be their ruler and the Sith Empire would be their defacto government, provided that he allowed them to be autonomous and to protect them with his mighty fleets. In addition, the Hutt's agreed to become a valuable contributor to the Economy and to pay tribute to the Sith in the form of 10 Percent of their combined Gross Planetary Products and Income. Revan would have imagined that they would have resisted him, but they did not and after thinking it over, he agreed to it. It was special circumstances like such as that which required his constant attention. When you looked at the Galaxy as a whole, he had crafted its current look with his thoughts alone. He didn't think that many people appreciated the amount of discipline and focus it took to control the Galaxy.
He had lied, cheated, killed and held no remorse for some things that he had done, but they had to be done.
The Star Forge was a prime example of that.
When he and Malak had finally made it to Rakata Prime, they had begun to negotiate with the natives for use of the Star Forge. They had told him simply that they wanted to destroy it, and he sensed at the time that it was the only way he was going to be able to get to it, short of exterminating the entire species that protected it. He lied to them, but he had to. There were people in the Galaxy who craved that Space Station and would have stopped at nothing to get their hands on it, he had needed to get to it first and secure it from the Sith Emperor. Only one thought went through his mind as he lied to the Native's faces and as he whispered off and on to Malak throughout the talks, his mind was on one image. The Sith Emperor, on his throne in an entire galaxy he ruled:
He must not be allowed to use that station, all other concerns are secondary.
From that moment, to this one, he had set out to conquer the Galaxy, unite it and take it to war against the True Sith Empire that was in the Unknown Regions.
But for that to happen, his personal life had to take its share of hits as well.
From the time he entered the Jedi Order, he had two constant companions: Malak and Arenna. The first one had gone from being his best friend, with whom he trusted his life, to his apprentice, with whom he needed to watch with both eyes for any sign of betrayal and had eventually gone down a road of destruction. The second had been his first love, his most trusted general in the war second to only Malak. Revan had at one time trusted Arenna with anything, at some times more than Malak. She was even trusted to activate the Mass Shadow Generator that would destroy that accursed planet over Malak, which irked him considerably. Revan had been aware of the reputation that she had garnered. When the troops and even other Jedi would grow frustrated with their lack of ascension through the Military Chain of Command, they would either take it out on Arenna or Malak. The rumors against Arenna were horrendous and they angered him to this day.
If there was ever one person he would have let the Galaxy die for, before Bastila that was, it was Arenna Kai.
He, with that thought, had even considered allowing Malak to activate the Mass Shadow Generator for her safety, but she had been very convincing.
"You don't control me and I'm not some weak little woman who you can stand around and patronize, I'm doing it and I don't give a damn if you hate it or not," had been her exact words.
A fond smile came across his lips, but then he forced a scowl on his face at the realization that he was going to have to kill her within the next few days. All narcissism and words behind, Arenna knew, like Revan did, that she didn't stand a chance. He had literally taught her everything that she knew. From the time that they were children, she had learned from him, her entire ability to battle with both a lightsaber and the force was molded from his own. He knew her every weakness. He even knew that she was prone to being tickled for the sake of the Force, she was no match for him.
If she stood in the way of his final victory over the Republic and the Jedi, he would put her down hard.
Otherwise, standing on the cusp of his victory, he would grant her a merciful death, the death of a warrior as she deserved.
'A death of a warrior? I'm honored,' Her voice suddenly filled his mind.
Revan groaned and rubbed his forehead and responded to her, "You've been listening to my thoughts? You've picked up some things in the Unknown Regions."
Her laugh was soft and smooth, but it was no less wicked, "It is a kick isn't it? Your thoughts turned on me, and I suppose that's how I was tempted to enter your mind. Your defenses around your mind are powerful and I wouldn't have been able to get through them if you were on focus. But as always, the thought of me knocks you off balance, only nowadays, it's in a bad sense."
"What happened to you?" Revan pleaded with her.
"Why do you care?" She hissed back.
Revan's eyes softened, "You are really asking me that? After everything that we've been through together? We've known each other since we were small children, I knew you before I knew Malak. I was torn to pieces when you decided not to join us after Malachor and I wanted to personally rend every Master on the Council who forced you into Exile. I even loved you at one time, more than anything, and dramatics aside, a part of me will always love you and care for you."
"I know," She responded softly, "I know that, I never doubted it, but after you flatly ignored me the night after the Battle on Malachor, it did something to me that cannot be reversed."
His eyes widened, "You fell to the Dark Side of the Force and have desired to kill me because I ignored you? First of all, that's a idiotic reason to make that much of a life style change, all because I was busy having my ear talked off by the Republic Bureaucrats. And why am I getting the feeling that I'm missing something, because I would have never ignored you if I didn't have to."
"You don't know?" Arenna sounded positively shocked.
"No, I don't know," He answered flatly.
"Malak was supposed to hand deliver it to you! I trusted that fool, are you telling me that he didn't give it to you?" Unadulterated rage poured into the bond created between the two.
"I trusted him too and looked what happened to him?" Revan responded wryly.
"How I have missed your sarcasm," Arenna retorted with an unreadable tone, "Malak… he was supposed to deliver the test result from Aloris Van that confirmed I was pregnant with your child."