Chapter Thirteen: Secret Test of Character
Instantly, Revan and Malak scattered, drawing their own lightsabers. As she attacked, they warded off a series of thrusts that each nearly defeated them. Driven back, Revan fell into his Soresu stance. He parried and thrust while Malak came at her from behind. Nearing the edge of the cliff, Revan turned her blade and shifted. Spinning around her, he parried a thrust as Malaka came in. Together they droved her back, so she was up against the cliffs.
The clouds were gathering now as he and Malak both went into a full offensive. Their blades moved in a blur of red and blue, and her own blue parried just as quickly. However, she did not cede ground. Her strikes seemed time to intercept their abilities wherever they went.
She was obviously a master.
For a moment, they paused. "Malak, why didn't you there was a psychopathic Jedi over the next ridge!"
"I didn't know she was psychotic," said Malak.
"Fair enough," said Revan.
Judging from her silence, this was a test. She was testing them, trying to see how they reacted. She thought she'd had them beaten already. Well, she wasn't going to have it all her own way. Moving into his stance, Revan sprang back. Malak came with him as one, evidently, he'd guess Revan's mind.
Reaching out with the Force, Revan drew out a blaster and tossed it to Mira. He is disguising the movement with a flourish of his blade. And then she was on him, and Revan fought against her, parrying and thrusting. Mira opened fire on her from behind, however, the Jedi raised a hand, and the bolts vanished. However, even as they did, Malak and Revan went on the attack, Malak following Revan's lead.
Forced to fight one-handed, the Jedi ceded ground without losing composure. Malak and Revan continued striking at her from different sides. At the same time, Mira continued to fire. As they did so, however, the blaster was pulled from her hand and thrown at Revan. He ducked before noticing how near he was to HK 8. Taking a chance, he rolled past the Jedi, parrying her thrust and striking upward. Malak struck down, and their blows were parried.
"HK 8, activate anti-Jedi protocols!" said Revan.
At that moment, HK 8's chassis opened, and a wave of flame poured from it. The Jedi was surprised, judging from the tremor in the Force, and Malak and Revan attacked all out. The Master, however, raised a hand as the flames washed over her. Malak and Revan leaped back.
"...Revan, why did we just set the Jedi Master we were looking for on fire?" asked Malak.
"She came at us with a lethal weapon," said Revan. "What did you expect me to do?"
"You know she was testing us, right?" asked Malak.
"And I'm testing her," said Revan. "Testing how she reacts to the people she attacked for no reason fighting seriously."
And then the flames passed, and the Jedi hurled off her cloak to reveal a Cathar with silver fur. Her fur was singed in several places. However, her face was calm. Reaching out with one hand, she motioned at HK 8. There was a pulse, and suddenly his chassis caved in. She surged forward, and with a strike, his head was removed from his shoulders.
"Systems failing, Master..." said HK 8, voice dying out.
"HK 8!" said Revan, rushing forward.
"...So, you caught on," said the Jedi.
Revan paid her no heed, kneeling down by the dull red eyes of his destroyed creation. It felt... like some part of him had been struck. As if he himself had been wounded in spirit, and there was a black hole where HK 8 had been. Could he be repaired?
Did it matter?
Years of careful repairs, painstaking effort all destroyed. And HK 8, his droid, his most loyal of servants, was wrecked. Anger boiled within Revan, of a kind he had never felt before.
"Caught on to what?" asked Mira.
"She was not actually trying to kill us, Mira," said Malak. "Merely testing us."
"Yeah, I gotta tell you, that looked like some pretty extreme trying to kill you," said Mira.
"She's a Jedi Master, Mira. She'd know when to stop," said Malak.
It didn't matter to Revan. The fact that she hadn't known what she was doing didn't matter. Neither did the pragmatic concerns that had brought him out here. Not even the problems acting would cause later. "You broke my droid."
"I was not expecting it to possess a flamethrower, nor for a Jedi to utilize such tactics," said the Jedi. "I am Master Sylvar of the Jedi, and I am certain it can be repaired."
"You broke my droid," shouted Revan, carrying HK 8's parts to the speeder.
"You knew that I was not trying to kill you," said Sylvar. "Yet you utilized your creation against me out of pride. You were the one who chose to turn this spar into a duel in an effort to win.
"In trying too hard to win, you destroyed him yourself."
Revan ignored her.
"Yeah, well, why did you attack us in the first place?" asked Mira.
"I overheard your conversation and wished to know how you fought," said Sylvar. "From that, I meant to divine the nature of your heart. I had feared you had already fallen to the Dark Side. However, it is clear you are merely young and arrogant.
"You both have much to learn before-"
The last of HK 8's parts were put into the speeder. Revan got serious. Raising a hand, he sent a wave of Force at Sylvar and sent her flying back to the edge. "YOU BROKE MY DROID!"
"Revan, what are you doing?!" cried Malak.
Revan rushed forward, drawing his lightsaber, and struck. Sylvar caught the downward strike but tettered on edge. Bringing up his foot, Revan kicked her in the chest. The blow sent her falling down into the darkness of the ravine below. The clouds now gathered began to rain, slowly at first but faster.
Silence besides the patter of rain resounded as Revan held his lightsaber in hand. "...She's still alive."
"Okay, let's all sheathe our lightsabers and not kill anyone else we're here to get the help of," said Mira.
"Let's go, Malak," said Revan.
"Revan, do you really mean to attack a Jedi Master?" asked Malak.
"An ex-Jedi Master," said Revan. "And she may have just killed HK 8. And everyone was just pretending like he was some machine."
"He is a machine, Revan," said Malak.
"I'm not going to let it pass like that," said Revan. "She doesn't get to hurt my creations and get away with it."
"But he's just a droid!" said Mira. "He's a CPU processor you gave some amusing quirks to, so it would pretend to be psychotic for your amusement. That's the only reason anyone even tolerates him."
"Revan, this is not a smart move," said Malak.
But he would follow where Revan led. "But it's the right thing to do," said Revan. "How would you react if she'd cut me to pieces and then dismissed it by saying cybernetics could fix me up?
"She hurt HK 8. And she'll pay for it.
"Nobody will ever know. Nobody."
And he leaped down onto the path below and began to scale down. Together, they walked downward in the rain. Puddles were gathering in low places, and he saw the beginnings of a river forming below. As they went lower, Revan reached out and sensed around him.
He calmed his thoughts, allowing his rain to go cold so he could focus. Slowly but surely, they descended the ravine until they stood on the rocks of the forming river. Malak drew his lightsaber.
"She's here," said Malak.
Out of the shadows came Sylvar, and Revan caught her lightsaber head-on. As she did, a stone came at him from behind, but he ducked under it and cut it apart. Malak then struck at her, and they dueled. Sylvar parried their thrusts as stones rose around them to strike at them.
However, Malak and Revan were deadly serious now. They covered for one another, as they always had. Her stones were cut apart and taken out of the air, even as they dueled. Sylvar retreated, and they pursued, leaping from rock to rock and clashing.
Finally, they reached a point where they were on either side of her and attacking at once. The lightning clashed around them as they continued to fight. But it was nothing they had not felt before on Melinda Daan.
"You'll have to do better than that, Cathar," said Revan, clashing blades with her in a lock. Malak came from behind, only for Sylvar to hold him at bay with the Force.
"Why such hatred over such a machine?" asked Sylvar. "You were the more composed of the two before the droid was damaged?"
"HK 8 is my creation. My greatest creation," said Revan. "You might as well have torched a priceless work of art! Or declared a culture's mythology invalid because you bought the rights!" Breaking the lock, he attacked violently and using his rage to focus and strike all the harder. Even as he did, Malak came at her from behind, and Sylvar was now being forced to sweat.
Even so, Malak was not nearly so aggressive as Revan. If both of them had felt the same anger and used it, they could crush her. As things stand, however, they had merely forced her to an unfavorable stalemate.
"I see," said Sylvar, spinning away to land on a higher ledge. "You regard the droid as an extension of yourself. You've poured much of your will and power into it. So you perceive that bringing harm to it is bringing harm to-"
Revan reached into the rising water and leaped. Sending a huge wave at her, it splashed over her, hiding his and Malak's assault. They landed on the pillar of rock and clashed with her, and yet still, they were having trouble driving her back. "Shut up.
"Nobody wants to hear it."
At last, Sylvar leaped further back, out of the flooding ravine and onto a ledge. Even as she did, they were fast behind her. However, to Revan's surprise, she halted and sheathed her lightsaber. "Enough.
"Strike me down if you will. I am unarmed."
Revan thought about it, then thought about the trouble he could get in if she reported this. "Okay."
And he attacked.
"What?!" said Sylvar leaping back. "You uh... you weren't supposed to do that?"
"I'm trying to kill you to avenge my fallen creation," said Revan. "Whether or not you're armed has no bearing on what you've done, or whether or not you are dead.
"If you're stupid enough to lower your weapon and not fight me, fine. I'll just count it as you submitting to justice."
"But Jedi do not kill their prisoners," said Sylvar. "Let alone strike down defenseless opponents."
"Seeing as a Jedi is never defenseless, I don't see how that's relevant," said Revan.
"And are you not a Jedi?" asked Sylvar.
Revan halted and spared a look to Malak, who was still beside him. Malak had always been enthusiastic about the Jedi; he'd wanted to believe in the code. But he would follow Revan if it came to it.
Even so, for his sake, Revan held back the assault.
"Why are you here?" asked Sylvar. "Surely you must have had some purpose for seeking me out beyond revenge? We've never met before today."
"Well, I did, but then you attacked me and cut HK 8 into spare parts as part of a secret test of character," said Revan. "I'd say the previous mission objectives are scrubbed."
"Are they?" asked Sylvar. "I am not fighting back. My damage to your droid was in self-defense-"
"No, it wasn't!" said Revan. "You came at me with a lethal weapon! He was defending me! He had no way of knowing you were testing me!"
"-it is likely reversible," said Sylvar. "The droids head was fully intact, after all.
"If you kill me here, you will have wasted your time and made it, so his injuries were made for nothing. So, why are you here?"
Revan considered his surroundings. He calculated that he was likely unable to kill Sylvar if this fight continued. Malak had too many doubts, and they were clouding his blade. Better to put off vengeance until later.
Then he considered why he'd come here in the first place. "The Mandalorians are about to launch a full-scale invasion of this world. They have a Sith Lord working for them named Aedal. Their starships are pillaging their way across the Outer Rim. King Jagthar dispatched me to get your help against them.
"Everyone on this planet is going to die, and they know it.
"Oh, and there's also a galactic plague spreading that is going from one planet to another. Mass riots are all over the city planets. And huge corporations have begun to brainwash the populace with the approval of the Jedi.
"Wookies are being skinned alive. Should I go back further than the last year, or is that enough?"
It obviously took Sylvar off guard. "...I see. That's uh... that's a great deal of information to take in all at once. I had heard of the Iridian plague in rumors some weeks ago, but I was not aware it was this bad."
"Can you help the situation?" asked Revan.
"Well, I can aid you against a Mandalorian invasion," said Sylvar, beginning to walk. "I have actually been preparing for just that for some years now.
"It is too soon to say for the rest. We'd best get back to your speeder. The creatures in this place do not like your presence. I am restraining them for now, but it would be best not to test their patience."
"What creatures?" asked Malak.
"They are known as the kiltik. They were a terrible threat to the surrounding countryside," said Sylvar. "I have been working on trying and understanding and pacifying them across Cathar. It is my home to make them coexist with the rest of the world over time.
"For many years, my people engage in a ritual known as the Blood Hunt to purge them. During one such hunt, I nearly fell to the Dark-"
"I don't care," said Revan simply. "You just cut one of my friends into pieces."
"Revan, you're not being rational here," said Malak. "Master Sylvar, how many of these kiltik have you pacified?"
"Many," said Sylvar.
There was a time where they had reduced vast regions of my world to desert. Now, however, they have reigned in their destructive tendencies. They have also begun to control their birthrate so as to not devour the world."
"How did you get them to do that?" asked Revan, regaining his composure.
"They operate on a hive mind of sorts," said Sylvar, leading them up out of the rain. "I was able to commune with the hive mind and make it see that its actions would destroy Cathar. And once it destroyed Cathar, it would starve and die. Now I have been working to ensure it coexists with the people here.
"There are many smaller problems, of course.
"But it is learning."
"Can it still fight?" asked Revan.
"Yes," said Sylvar. "I have been trying to convince them to help defend the planet if any hostile invasion were to happen. I believe it would go a long way to getting my people to stop hunting them.
"However, they are hesitant to defend the Cathar."
"The Mandalorians represent a clear and present threat to this world," said Malak. "If they come here, they'll probably kill everyone here. And then they'll kill the kiltik for sport."
"I know," said Sylvar. "I fought on Cathar during the wars of Exar Kun. I was there when their ships descended, and they rampaged, killing at will. They have all the brutality of civilization and none of the sophistication. And they have the savagery of the wild and none of the nobility.
"The hive mind could turn the tide of the war, were they to invade."
They arrived back in the pouring rain and found Mira had set up the roof. She peered out of the door as they arrived. "Oh, you're back. Did uh, everything go..."
"Get me my welder and hydro spanner; I've got repairs to do," said Revan. "Oh, and Sylvar, if HK 8 has endured any kind of permenant damage as a result of your actions, a meatbag will surely pay." He wasn't sure why he was using the terminology, but it seemed to fit.
"...What are your names?" asked Sylvar. "I know he is Revan, but..."
"I am Malak, and Revan is my best friend. He likes droids better than people," said Malak as they do inside.
"Well, of course, I like them better than people!" said Revan, looking over the damage. "A droid would never come after you with a lightsaber, chop up your friends and then say he was just testing you!"
"This is Mira," said Malak, continuing on. "She's sort of a tag along."
"I'm a bounty hunter," said Mira.
"She helps Revan with repairs and such while I handle computer use and demolitions," said Malak. "The two of us were on our way to that Fortress in the mountains. Our hope was to shore up the defenses in the mountain shelters."
Sylvar nodded. "I see.
"Very well then, I will go with you. But where is your Master?"
"Master Kreia is with the Cathar fleets, fighting Mandalorian raiders," said Malak. "Revan felt that an aggressive strategy would yield better results than waiting."
"And King Jagthar listened?" asked Sylvar.
"People usually do," muttered Revan. "Ugh, this is going to take all day. Let's just get to the fortifications, and I'll see if I can repair him in a proper facility.
"Still, count yourself lucky he should make a full recovery.
"Now, the way I see it, these kiltik, I read about them in the library, are a valuable asset. However, they will be all the more valuable as a trump card. Malak, you will not mention anything about using them against the Mandalorians. Simply tell the people that Master Sylvar has pacified them and leave it at that.
"When the Mandalorians make landfall, we should be able to do some serious damage to them." He made his way back to the front and put on his seatbelt. "Buckle up all of you; we're not wasting any more time."
"Shouldn't we-" began Mira.
Revan stepped on it, and her voice was drowned out by the hum of the engines.
The chasm was filled with rushing water and became a river.