Disclaimer: Ash is my creation, sure, but Revan and KOTOR are not.
Well, you didn't get the fourth chapter last night, but the next day isn't half-bad, is it? Everyone knows what happens now. And Ash's behavior will be explained.
The doors to the bridge hissed open. Ash, flanked by Carth and Bastila, stepped forward. Suddenly, everyone was focused on her.
"If you surrender, I will ask Malak to be merciful." Ash laughed.
"I've seen enough of Sith mercy!" Carth snarled, echoing her thoughts.
A fight broke out. The lightsabers belonging to the two women blazed to life, brilliant blue and green and gold. Both were fast, Bastila being in better shape than Ash, Ash using her fury as a sort of superconducting loop. It was disconcertingly easy and familiar, though the dark side tugged at the edges of her mind, she repelled it furiously.
She bent forwards under the sweep of a saber, shutting off both of her blades for the briefest of moments. The dark Jedi she faced stared, eyes wide, as she re-ignited the blades into his chest. Whirling, sabers at the ready, she noticed all was quiet. Adrenaline left her system, leaving her feeling limp and aching, her back searing.
"Carth…" Ash just heard the rasp as she headed for the computer console, to free the Ebon Hawk from the hanger bay.
"Saul's alive." Carth said grimly.
Ash looked at him. "Don't do anything you'll regret, Carth. Don't sink to his level."
Carth's eyes, burning with rage, locked on to her tired gray ones. His jaw tightened as he walked over to the man. Ash heard some garbled half-words, but her focus was on the console. Once security was cracked, it was easy to open the hanger. But hacking had never been her thing.
"You knew?" Carth snarl-shouted at Bastila.
Ash's head whipped around. "what's the problem now?" She didn't have any patience left for tantrums.
"You knew about her…" he waved his hand wildly, "And you didn't tell any of us?"
"Carth," Bastila sounded strained, "trust me, the situ—"
"Trust you?" he roared.
"We don't have time," she pleaded, "Malak is close."
Ash sighed heavily. "She's right. Malak is very close. We can talk about whatever the problem is later."
Carth narrowed his eyes at Bastila. "You're not going to get out of this."
"I'll explain as soon as we're safely away." She said, suddenly looking much older than her twenty-two years.
Carth growled in affirmation. Ash sighed wearily and walked to the doors, the trio taking the most direct route to the hanger bay, taking care of any Sith who met them.
Ash felt Malak's presence no further than twenty-five meters as they entered a red-lit hallway. She wasn't terribly surprised when the lone door at the end of the hall hissed open, revealing Malak.
She surveyed him for a moment. He was tall, very tall, with four pale blue tattoos on his head. His eyes were a deep yellow-orange, skin cracked and ash-hued. A red bodysuit showcased impressive musculature and a black cape was hanging from one shoulder.
He looked… well, he looked familiar, though the metal jaw looked all wrong.
"Leaving so soon, Bastila?"Ash shuddered at the sinister metallic tones, which made HK's voice sound friendly and inviting. "I've spent far too much time hunting you and your companions to let you get away from me now."
Carth sent a flurry of blasterfire, which Malak effortlessly blocked, calling upon the Force to throw Carth back.
"Besides," he sounded like he was grinning, "I had to see for myself if it was true." Ash felt his eyes on her. "Even now, I can hardly believe my eyes. Tell me…" He was addressing her now, "why did the Jedi spare you? Is it vengeance you seek at this reunion?"
Ash laughed. "Reunion? I'd remember a face as ugly as yours." She taunted, knowing exactly how stupid she was being. "And I was bound to meet you sooner or later."
"Oh… yes." He sounded a little contemplative. "I'm surprised we did not meet sooner, given how powerful your mind once was. Even the combined power of the Jedi Council could not keep your true identity buried forever, could it?"
Ash felt her spine stiffen with heavy foreboding. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, a bit nervously.
Then her hands flew to her head, clutching it, as her vision changed…
"The Jedi do not believe in killing their prisoners." Bastila's voice echoed in my head, a remnant of some forgotten conversation. "No one deserves execution, no matter what their crimes."
"The Council would not normally accept and adult for training, but… this is a special case." Zhar, answering my question.
"They say the Force can do terrible things to a mind." Carth now, with the fuzzy background of the Upper City apartment on Taris. "It can wipe away memories and destroy your very identity!"
Planets flashed in her vision, star maps opening like poisonous flowers. "Tatooine." Bastila's voice calmly intoned. "Kashyyyk. Manaan. Korriban. Revan visited each of these worlds searching for clues to reveal the location of the Star Forge."
Vrook's stern face appeared now. "The lure of the dark side is hard to resist. I fear this quest could lead you down all-too-familiar paths." I didn't remember that conversation, though I remembered him saying it.
"What better weapon than to turn an enemy to your cause?" Me and Bastila had been discussing war tactics, for some reason. "To use their own knowledge against them?"
The star maps strobed across my vision, mixing with flashes of the fight, my first dream of Revan. Red, gold, pain, falling. Someone rolling me over. A mask, a hot mask, lifted gently from my face. Two blue eyes…
Then I swooped from the sky, landing on a stone dais. A robed figure turned to face me—Revan! Two gloved hands slowly reached up, loosening the ties that held the mask. A face was revealed.
I cried out, recognizing my face, though it was warped by the dark side. Two baleful golden eyes shone from under black lashes and brows, the skin paler than snow. A breeze whipped the hood away, showing short black hair shot with white.
Then I was sucked into Revan, my—our—my lips curving into a smile of victory.
"I'm Darth Revan." Ash said flatly. She wasn't sure how she felt, shocked calm the best description she could come up with.
"You do not yet remember, Revan?" Malak's voice held malicious glee. "The Jedi set an ambush. During the fight, a strike team boarded your ship. The team captured you and took you to the Jedi Council, who used the Force to reprogram your mind. They wiped away your identity and turned you against your followers."
Ash knew she was taking everything too calmly. "Somehow I doubt that's the whole story," she said drily.
"Once I served you, Revan," Malak began, his tone gloating, "but I always knew that one day I would take the title of dark lord. I knew my day had come when the Jedi strike team boarded your flagship!"
Ash remembered another fragment of that first dream—memory, she supposed. "So you shot me in the back like a coward." Her voice was flat, no peaks or dips of emotion, no inflections.
"I never dreamed the Jedi would take your body from the wreckage." He conceded.
"Bastila, do you have anything to add?" Ash turned her face to the woman, knowing Malak wouldn't attack.
"It's true. I was part of the strike team sent to capture Re—you." She corrected herself. When Malak fired on the ship, you were badly injured. We thought you were dead." Bastila sighed heavily. "Your mind was destroyed, but I preserved the flicker of life in you with the Force. I brought you to the Jedi Council, so they could heal your mind."
Malak laughed coldly. Ash felt a flicker of rage blooming in her chest. "The Jedi Council did not heal your mind, Revan! They merely programmed it with a new identity—one loyal to the Republic! They tried to make you their slave."
Ash turned her head. "I don't recall asking for your opinion." His words had fanned her rage. She sighed deeply. "I understand the Council's decision, Bastila. It was their only chance. I," her voice cracked, "was their only chance."
"Forgiveness, Revan?" Malak snarled scornfully. "You are weak—I was right to betray you. You are not fit to rule the Sith. My triumph is complete. Now to defeat you."
Ash flashed a feral grin, pleased by the flow of rage his words incited. "Triumph? I'm still alive." She hissed, leaping. Malak froze Bastila and Carth, bringing up his single red saber.
The fight was brutal, Malak struggling to block a lightning-fast, near-feral Ash. He caught her in a Force whirlwind mid-flip, sending her spinning back into a wall as he fled through the door he'd entered by.
Ash rose to her feet a little unsteadily, leaning against the wall before calling her lightsabers to her. Then she walked to the door, watching it hiss open. The red lights revealed three more doors. She tried the center one, which would lead her directly to Malak, only to find it locked.
A hiss of frustration escaped her lips as she went to one of the side doors and opened it. One semi-circle later, and she faced Malak. Weariness had descended, though she fought gamely.
Malak got the upper hand quickly, slamming her hard into a wall with telekinesis. Ash got to her feet dizzily as her air was cut off, Malak choking her with the Force.
Seconds before she slipped into unconsciousness, the grip dropped her on the floor as a gold lightsaber flashed past her. A blast of the Force sent her tumbling across the floor, coming to a stop only twenty meters from the Hawk, her lightsabers at her fingertips.
Ash grabbed the sabers, rising to her feet even as her body exploded into throbs of pain that matched her rasping breaths.
"Let's go." Carth said curtly, offering his shoulder. "You can't help Bastila in your state."
Ash tried to protest, but her tongue felt thick and fuzzy. She couldn't tell if she were in pain or floating on a cloud. That's bad, a corner of her brain asserted.
She barely registered Carth picking her up, her head lolling against his shoulder. Nor did she register being dumped unceremoniously on the floor of the Hawk's common room.
"Ash, are you okay?" Mission rushed over.
" 'm fine." Ash mumbled, almost incoherently.
"No, you're not, lass. Mission, help me get her to the medbay."
" 'm fine!" Ash mumbled louder.
"You are not fine, lass." Jolee said sternly.
" 'course I am," her words all slurred together, " 'm Darth Revan. 'm always fine."
"Ash, you're not Darth Revan."
"Am so." Ash slurred, leaning heavily on Mission as she was levered to her feet and half-led, half-carried to the medbay.
She winced as syringes of painkiller were inserted into the crook of her arm. She felt better though. A liberal application of Force healing and kolto got her feeling almost human.
"So, what was the 'Darth Revan' comment?" Mission asked.
"I'm Darth Revan. Or I was. It's confusing, because my mind apparently got shattered and the Jedi Council put it back together with new memories and a new personality or something." Ash rubbed her head. "Canderous will be overjoyed," she said dryly, "and Carth is not happy. Dustil probably won't be happy either."
"I don't think it's a big deal. You don't remember anything and it's not like people turn evil in a day." Mission said brightly. "On top of that, you're my mom."
"Glad you still think that." Ash muttered, giving the teen's hand a squeeze.
"Family is family." The girl shrugged, but squeezed back.
"Sweet." Jolee said dryly.
"So, old man, did you know anything?"
He guffawed. "I knew you were Revan the minute I laid eyes on you. The Jedi may have changed your memories, but they couldn't change your personality. Your outer aura wasn't right, so I looked past it."
"You didn't tell me because?" Ash invited.
"It wasn't my place." He informed her. "Would you have believed me anyways?"
"Probably not." Ash admitted. "So, did I meet you, or did I just saunter past?"
"We had lunch. You liked kinrath legs then, too. You were a very polite little miss with a very sharp tongue. You weren't so much dark as resigned. After lunch, you told me to lay low and left."
"I guess I didn't want any of R—my Jedi hunters after you or something. I suppose I could've had a vision." Ash sighed. "Eh, well, I guess I'm just glad you're here." She stood, a little unsteadily. "Time to face the rest of the crew."
"Well, Canderous and HK will probably be quite pleased."
"Yeah, they probably will."
When everything was over, Ash was surprised. Yeah, Carth was pissed at her and Canderous was overjoyed to serve Lady Revan. That wasn't the surprise.
HK was her droid, built from scratch by her hands. HK was her personal assassin droid. Yeah, that one threw her for a loop. The other looper was that Dustil hadn't really been angry with her. He'd asked her to be his Jedi master, to take him as a Padawan!
Ash knew the only reason she was still taking everything in stride so calmly was because of the painkillers that had been pumped into her system. Well, that and the alcohol she was now drinking.
She wasn't sure what to say to Dustil's request. Sure, she'd been a Jedi Knight, but she'd also been a Sith lord and didn't remember either.
"My life," she mused aloud, shot glass lightly gripped in her fingers, "would make a great soap opera. To unconsciousness." She lifted her glass in a mock toast and downed the shot of fiery tihaar.