I stepped forward, keyed in the door opening controls. And there he was. Malak, my old friend, my apprentice, my betrayer, my enemy. He stood just a few steps from me, expression impossible to read with half his face of unmoving metal.
I wanted to say something flippant, something casual, something that would assure him that I was no threat. But the only thing I could think while staring at him was how much I hated him. He betrayed me, tried to have me killed, and was too cowardly even to do it himself.
"I should never have let you study with me," I said. "If I'd been more discerning in my friendships, you wouldn't be here."
He laughed, a harsh metallic sound, but all the more chilling for how genuine it sounded beneath the artificial means of its creation.
"Revan, it's been too long. I'm impressed that you survived, and even more surprised that you escaped your new Jedi masters. They must have loved having you back. You always were their favourite."
"I hear you've just destroyed Dantooine," I said. "I hope you didn't ruin the library or star map."
Malak chuckled. "I don't know, I wasn't trying to aim for anything in particular. Much like Taris, you see."
Flame raining from the sky, durasteel screaming in protest as it was ripped apart, carefully designed skyscrapers and platforms in perfect stability wrenched apart as external forces destroyed their supports. People falling, dying, a world shattering. The endless cry of despair, echoing out through the Force, even though I didn't understand it at the time. The death of a world.
And that was all I needed. That spark of outrage, fury at the man - creature - who could do such things without a care, flared up within me and all exhaustion was forgotten. Not gone, I would still be weak, but unimportant next to the imperative of doing something.
My lightning came to me, surrounded me. My lightsabers were in my hand, blades glowing out into the dimness of the airlock.
"You cared for Taris?" Malak asked, his metallic voice carrying just a hint of mockery. "It was a vile, worthless, arrogant society of tiers and oppression and false pride."
"And it was living and growing and could have learned." I retorted at once. "Instead you crushed it in its infancy, before it had a chance to grow to maturity and realize its true place in the galaxy."
"Taris was old and declining, decaying and falling to ruin. You were always sentimental, but now it's become your defining trait!" Malak sounded disgusted at the mere thought. "This is why I had to destroy you. You're far too weak to do what needs to be done. You would have made excuses for our enemies, protected worthless worlds when we had objectives to achieve, and allowed this conquest to drag into attrition for decades given your way."
"You're wrong," I said, pointing my purple lightsaber at his chest. "I don't make excuses for enemies. I destroy them. I simply do not share your especially broad definition of what makes a person an enemy. You seem to include anyone near you as an obstacle, and thus, as an enemy."
Malak ignited his own lightsaber, the blade seeming to move unnaturally slowly as it grew to its full length. He didn't raise it, didn't gesture, just held it by his side. Its vibrant red glow seemed somehow to mock my own red blade, as though his were deeper and sharper and brighter all at once, my own offhand saber seeming pale and wan in comparison.
"I always regretted the necessity of destroying you from afar," he said. "This, blade to blade, face to face, is how we Sith are meant to determine supremacy. It is time for me to prove that I have truly surpassed my master, and am the rightful ruler of the universe."
"Good luck with that," I said, lightning pulsing down my lightsaber and crackling around me. My breath was coming faster, anticipation for the coming fight pumped through my blood, readiness in every muscle.
It wouldn't last, and I had no intention of staying long enough for his greater strength to crush my already weakened defences. But I had to distract him long enough for Juhani and Canderous to reach the ship before I ran for it myself.
Malak strode forward, calm, measured steps. I danced away, circled around to the side. He flung out his off-hand, Force pushing out at me in a focused blast. I dodged, but it still pressed me back and spun me into the wall. I retaliated with lightning, which Malak caught easily. I took a step toward him, added my other hand and increased the electrical storm focused on him, but his protection remained as impenetrable as ever.
I took another step to the side, threw my red saber at him while maintaining a stream of lightning with my other hand, and he almost didn't dodge in time. The blade seared along his arm, scorching his protective suit but not quite penetrating. The angle was wrong, and the blade spun lazily back to me without my full attention on it.
I circled farther, and Malak charged. For a large man, he had the advantage of the Force and maneuverability, as well as his own weight and momentum. I brought both sabers up as if to block, held my ground by the wall until the last second.
The moment he was too close to correct course, I dodged away in a burst of Force speed, slapped the airlock control and dropped to slide under the door as it began opening. I pressed the other control to close, then slashed it with my saber to fuse the mechanism before he could reopen it from his side. Safe, at least for the moment.
I deactivated my sabers and ran. The door wouldn't hold him more than half a minute, and he would not be happy. I had to reach the Ebon Hawk before he caught me, or I was dead. In my present state, I wouldn't have survived even another minute of combat, even if I'd continued fighting evasively and only in defence.
I paused twice to seal other doors behind me, but that slowed me too much and I quickly decided it wasn't worth the effort. I couldn't sense him behind me, the interference of the ship was too strong. That should mean he was still distant, but I didn't dare rely on that assumption. He could be anywhere.
I burst into hangar 23, and there she was. The Ebon Hawk, engines idling in readiness, already aimed for the airshield that shimmered between us and open space.
I flipped on my com. "T3, I'm almost to you. Be ready, Malak's probably close behind me."
I reached the ramp, flung myself up it. "I'm in, close up and let's go!"
Canderous hurried over as I was leaning against a wall to catch my breath. He'd put Kareth somewhere, holding only his repeater, but he looked concerned.
"Where's Juhani?"
I tensed, realized suddenly that I couldn't sense her aboard. At all.
"She didn't reach the ship when you did?" I asked, suddenly frantic. I ran to the nearest window, looked out at the empty hangar as we rose into the air and slid toward the exit. "No, no."
I reached within myself, felt for the fledgling bond between us, vibrating with tension, but otherwise unmoving. She was alive. . . but all I could hear from her was a vague fear.
"We have to go back," I whispered without thinking, but no, Malak was there. We couldn't do anything for her. I was exhasuted, beyond weariness, I could barely stand. If I went back, it would only be to my own immediate defeat.
And I'd thought my heart couldn't be broken any more. It should have been inconsequential, after losing Bastila, what was one more loss?
But it wasn't. It was worse, in a way, because Bastila had at least chosen to leave, and I could assure myself that even if she was wrong it was her decision to make. Juhani hadn't chosen to stay, hadn't wanted to be left behind.
And we flew away, out of Leviathan's hangar, into open space, leaving both my sisters behind at the mercy of monsters.
I couldn't handle it any more. I felt empty and lifeless as I slid, uncaring, down the wall to the floor. I'd sat in this same position, against this same wall, when Bastila and I fought side by side to defend ourselves from capture. Two days ago? A lifetime ago?
T3's stream of beeping and concerned buzzing continued. I ignored it. I reached out through my twin bonds, trying with every bit of my waning strength to connect to them. Either of them, both of them. . . but I only reached silence. We were too far away now, my strength unable to pierce Leviathan's walls to reach them.
I'll come back for you, I vowed silently. I won't leave you to him a moment longer than I must.
I needed to be stronger. I needed to be harder and colder and faster. I needed to be power.
I stood, willed my body not to waver, and walked to the cockpit. Slowly, but steadily.
"Set course for Korriban," I commanded. "It's time we paid my academy a visit."
T3 beeped irritably and very loudly, and I glanced up.
"Oh."
Leviathan was turning, moving behind us. Squads of fighters poured out into space, swarming toward us as T3 ran frantic evasions against the fighters that already dove at us from every angle. The sabotage we'd engaged in seemed to have been successful, as we hadn't been tractored back in or targeted by massive weaponry from Leviathan itself, but the fighters would be able to bring down our shields easily enough and blast us from the sky. The Ebon Hawk for all its upgrades remained a light freighter, not a battleship.
There was no way of guessing precisely where we were in the galaxy. T3 was trying to run location analysis necessary for hyperspace calculations while also keeping us away from the fighters, and I could hear the strain in his rapid beeping.
"I've got this," I said, slipping into the pilot's chair. I couldn't stand for long, but I could at least do this much."Focus on the location and hyperspace." He released the controls and I took over, pulling up the scans of our entire surrounds.
Leviathan was moving away from the fight, pulling up and forward. Its fighters continued toward us, so I banked us in a tight turn and sent the Ebon Hawk toward Leviathan's tail.
Then I understood. Leviathan, with its disable tractors and sabotaged weapons, was currently positioned between us and Domination. Malak's personal interdictor, just as powerful as Leviathan, and this without any damage or deactivated systems.
My heart skittered frantically, and I turned us sharply up. Just in time; a fighter chasing us powered down and slid sideways as it was snagged in Domination's tractor beam.
I turned us back toward the Leviathan, racing along in its shadow, keeping it between us and Domination.
The fighters turned and came after us in a cloud, firing as they bore down on us.
Then we began firing back, blasting fighter after fighter out of the sky. Canderous and. . . who? But it didn't matter, my focus needed to be on flying.
We were too exposed out here.
Dipping the Ebon Hawk into a dive, I brought us around close to the Leviathan's underbelly. Covered with more guns than any ship had a right to, all of them offline for at least the moment, I flew in close to the crippled ship and slowed, turning carefully and aiming the us back toward the ship. We were upside-down, from the perspective of Leviathan, hovering just under it. The sith fighters came charging down under as well, racing toward us head on.
"Blast the turret installations now!" I yelled into the com.
The aim of our forward gunner shifted from the incoming fighters to the inactive cannons on Leviathan's side.
"How are those coordinates coming?" I asked T3.
He beeped a short working sound, not sparing the power or attention to go into more detail. Every second he could devote to calculating would bring us that much closer to escape.
The turret exploded, scattering debris across the space in front of us. I eased us back, lined up another cannon. Another blast, this time catching two sith fighters and sending them spinning away.
Then a hum vibrated through the controls, and the Ebon Hawk was forcibly pushed away. Leviathan had recovered shields.
"T3!"
Working beep.
I turned us around, evaded the onrush of sith fighters, but we were taking constant fire now. The shields were above fifty percent, but only just, and dropping rapidly.
The edge of Malak's Domination came into view and I turned us sharply, skittering back under Leviathan to hide.
"T3?"
Working beep.
The Leviathan turrets started powering up. Hissing in a breath, I had no choice. I abandoned the close cover offered by the larger ship, slipped between the sith fighters flowing toward us, and aimed for open space. I could only hope to reach a safe distance from Domination before the Sith ships positioned themselves.
Our shields were barely holding against the fighters, if an interdictor got in even one or two hits we would be disabled. . . or obliterated. And Domination had working tractor beams.
"T3!"
Fighters exploded behind us, Canderous and whoever was on the other gun doing their jobs well, but there were too many for them to hold off. More and more shots got through to the shields. We would start taking major damage any moment.
The Leviathan began to tilt, bringing its recovered guns back in line with us, even as it continued to slide forward. Still hoping to expose us to Domination for capture, but content to destroy us if necessary. I couldn't dart around it, or risk being exposed to attacks or capture by Malak's ship. And I couldn't go in close again because of the shield.
"Kriff."
My energy was flagging, I'd gone far past any reasonable limits on strength and stamina, the weariness and exhaustion seeping relentlessly back into me. I was alone, both my sisters gone, my strength gone, and our advantages disappearing one by one. It was hopeless.
I could hardly summon the strength to carry on. It would be easy enough to give up, let them capture us. Reunite with Bastila and Juhani in captivity, let them break us or kill us slowly and terribly, but together. What did I care about the rest of the galaxy? What did it ever do for me? It couldn't protect itself, so what. Not my problem. Why should it be my problem?
But before this madness had taken hold of Bastila, before she ran into Malak's grasp willingly, she'd believed in me. In my plans. She cared. That's why it was my problem, because it was our problem. Saving the galaxy. Hopeless, but necessary. I hadn't come this far to give up.
I dragged the Ebon Hawk around in a tight arc, giving us a broadside view of the two interdictors. Leviathan had shields and weapons active now, but only a few guns were firing. Our sabotage must have been more effective than they could easily repair. Domination edged around it, trying to move into position to get a clear shot at us.
Our shields were critical now, warning lights blared that only essential areas of the ship were covered. Fighter fire jolted into us, sending panels and external armoring pinging off and flying away.
There was nothing more I could do, in any event. Fight or surrender, fly or fall, our only real hope was to flee.
"T3?!"
Three seconds passed, long eternal seconds stretching on and on as I dodged fighters and turbolaser blasts, moving away erratically, as our shields flickered closer and closer to complete failure.
Done, T3 beeped at last, and relief flooded me. I felt the controls go dead under my hands as he overrode manual input; we turned sharply and faced out into space. One fighter remained in our path and we twisted past, blasting it into shards of metal, then the stars burned into lines and we shot away.
I collapsed against my seat, utterly spent. As the comforting blue haze of hyperspace surrounded our ship, my eyes closed without any conscious decision. I didn't fight the exhaustion, seeing no purpose in a facade of strength any longer. I needed rest desperately, and once I reached Korriban there would be no more time for weakness.
