She could feel their collective fear clamoring to join up with hers.
"Do you know where the ship was?" Katrinaasked.The young man pointed weakly to the north.
"When they said somewhere out of the way, I certainly didn't think they had meant somewhere uninhabitable and unstable," Bastila said grimly, as they both began in the direction the young man had indicated.
A sizable portion of the village was beginning to gather and follow them.
"Leman, you and your people should stay here. This will be dangerous enough as it is."
"We will not leave Tlas to waste away into part of the ruins." There was a flatness in his voice that seemed to say that bringing back a dead body was the least of the reasons for their following.
They moved as quickly as they could, despite Bastila's ankle and the terrain.
The Ebon Hawk could be seen easily amid the relatively flat skyline and the blackness of everything around them. She had landed in the middle of a large clearing, but the terrain wouldn't hold her for long. Already one of her landing columns was half sunk into the earth and she tilted uneasily up towards the sky. A fog-like haze of black dust surrounded her, a remnant of the storm she had started when landing.
Several bodies littered the ground around the ship. There were several uniformed guards from beyond the energy shield, and the young man Tlas was lying off near the edge of the clearing. Several of the villagers who had followed immediately rushed to the body.
A single blaster shot came firing out from behind the black mist. Katrina deflected it easily.
"Mission? Zaalbar?"
"Be more careful. I almost took off your head." She recognized the voice instantly even before his steely face emerged from behind the fog.
Canderous Ordo stepped out, his face slightly bent in what Katrina had realized was the closest thing to a grin he had.
"Your welcoming party wasn't careful enough," he added, gesturing with his blaster towards the bodies.
"I thought you said you would get tired of babysitting a Twi'lek and a Wookie in a day or so." He had said as much to her when they had all parted ways after the Star Forge.
"They're at least doing something battle-related, as opposed to your busy Jedi touring schedule. Besides, someone had to keep this droid of yours from killing all of them." HK-47 was right behind him, his mechanical clink mixing with their loud breathing to create a sort of industrial sound.
"Statement: Master, it is good to see you are alive. I disposed of the meatbags sent to make sure you were otherwise."
"Don't hold your oil, HK, you had quite a bit of help from me. Damn thing wanted to go charging through that field and massacre the whole lot of them at that base."Katrina stared the Mandalorian, not entirely sure he didn't have a slight urge to do the same thing.
She remembered the villagers behind them. They couldn't seem to decide where to focus their attention; on the still smoking bodies of their countrymen or the Mandalorian warrior who had shot them.
"Your friends seem to have a problem with staring," Canderous said, gripping his blaster.
"Question: Would these meatbags be another angry mob after you, Master? If so I shall be happy to terminate them."
"No!" Katrina hurried to say, waving her hands frantically. "No, these are good people who helped Bastila and I escape."
"A Mandalorian," she heard Leman hoarse behind her.
Wonderful. I'm trying to coax these people out of their fear of attacks and into rebuilding the planet, and the first thing I show them is a Mandalorian warrior and an assault droid shooting up their fellow Telosians.
"That's right. Don't tell me this planet hasn't seen them before."
"Canderous,"Katrina hissed.
"They aren't here to attack you. This is our ship, the Ebon Hawk, and these two are members of her crew," Bastila said quickly.
"We didn't happen to shoot a bunch of their relatives, did we?" Canderous said, with no indication that he cared either way.
"Leman, those guards were after us. And they attacked the ship, just like your friend back there said. They shot Tlas, not us,"Katrina continued.Leman seemed overwhelmed with the conflict of her words against the bodies in front of him.
"Look at them and realize what we've been trying to tell you. Unless you and your followers do something and convince the rest of Telos to face their fears and rebuild, this will be the result." Katrina could feel something in her taking over, supposedly that charismatic leader everyone kept claiming Revan had been, but she had never seemed to see in herself. It had only helped her in denying it.
I guess that's one more thing I can't use to make her someone else.
"The war you're afraid of won't come from above, but from within. The fear and pain and anger won't go away, they'll just keep festering until Telos turns against itself and its own people. Those on the other side of that wall can't keep existing like that. Eventually they'll come for you if the conditions over here don't get you first, and then they'll destroy themselves and what's left of Telos." She came closer to Leman now.
"You said you believe Telos still has a chance for life. There is no chance unless you help give it to them. Help Telos rebuild." Leman gazed at her.
"Who are you? You are no ordinary Jedi." She could feel Bastila's eyes on her, waiting for her to say it.
There is no rampant denial, there is no fear that by saying it I will make it true.
"She is a legendary Jedi, a warrior who led the Republic to victory over my people in the wars." Canderous was saving her, and she made a mental note to thank him for it later.
But Bastila's eyes still bored into her, waiting.
"You...but you cannot be...I had heard the rumors but..." She cringed. There was the astonishment in Leman's voice, and she was only waiting for his guillotine, like so many others before him, to come crashing down upon her neck.
"She is indeed Revan, and she has come back from the dark side and become the Jedi that helped to win the Mandalorian Wars once more," Bastila finished.
She was relieved that she had been saved. Feeling relieved made her a coward, and she hated herself for being a coward.
Leman and his followers said nothing. They stared at her, accepting the truth but not ready to condemn her.
She had to say something.
"Learn from it. Anything can be turned. Telos can be turned from the path that it's on, but only if you stop being afraid and do something about it. The war destroyed many things for this planet, but some of them can be repaired."
For no reason at all she thought of Carth.
"Revan." The name broke from Leman's lips loudly. "Only a person truly turned back to good by the Force would care so deeply to help repair a planet that her past had helped to destroy."
She exhaled, visibly relieved.
"We understand the Force," he continued, "How it can comfort, strengthen, revive, and even redeem. And we cannot condemn you for sins of your past when you have tried today to help us correct them."
"But," She saw that tired look come into his eyes again. "How can we hope to try to change things on Telos? We have no political clout, no standing in Telos' new society. We will need the help of the Republic and the Jedi."
"There's a man on Telos who'll help you." I will speak of him and I will not picture that broken creature in the sickbay. "His name is Carth Onasi-" Leman's face visibly brightened. "-and he's an Admiral in the Republic now. I was traveling with him here when..."
I will say it. I will say it, damn it.
"There was an accident, and he's currently recovering from it." She found herself unconsciously rubbing her arm, the still-recovering scars from her burns hidden by her clothing.
"We know of Carth Onasi," Leman offered. "He was a great leader in the wars as well as a hero."
She wondered momentarily what Carth would think of all this hero-worship when he woke up.
"But if you get a message to him, he can help you. He won't stand for this new Telos once he sees it." If he ever wakes up and it doesn't kill him first.
Dustil, she reminded herself forcefully. Dustil is there and he will help.
"I don't know how we can ever repay you." He seemed unable to look at her as he said it, perhaps a part of him still wondering how he was saying these words to the woman who had helped create this new Telos in the first place.
"As long as there are no blasters pointed in my face when I return here, I'll consider us even."
There was the sound of electrical surge cutting through the silence.
"That'll be more of Telos coming to repay you," Canderous murmured.
"Go." Leman's voice had, at first, sounded unaccustomed to speaking at a normal level, and had faded in and out. Now his volume was steady. "We will go meet them."
"Sure that's a good idea? Rebuilding might be a nice idea, but beginning somewhere other than an angry mob with blasters would probably be a better place to start," Canderous added.
Leman met the Mandalorian's gaze equally.
"We are not afraid. Not anymore."
If any of the villagers questioned their leader's judgment, there was no sign of it. Together they all began to move, swift and sure, towards the energy field.
The earth shook beneath them.
"Statement: This area is no longer safe for you Master. So much movement and weaponry discharge is reacting negatively with the weakened atmosphere and terrain."
The Ebon Hawk groaned behind them, shaking with the earth.
"Let's get out of here before we become part of the ruins," Bastila said.
She had no time to reflect on the nostalgia of the ship as she boarded it, and instead continued straight for the cockpit. Mission and Zaalbar sat in the pilot and co-pilot chairs.
"Long time, no see. But I guess Jedi aren't much for the odd letter now and then, huh?" Mission said, her ever-present grin on her face.
"Have you been flying this thing?" The Twi'lek beamed with pride.
"I figured I ought to get better in case, you know, Big Z and Canderous got into a fight or something."
"You didn't land too badly kid. Think you can get off the planet without killing us too?" Mission rolled her eyes at Canderous but said nothing. Katrina guess the Mandalorian was probably not as tolerant of a lecture from Mission on being called a kid.
The ship shuddered as they began to lift off.
"Easy does it..." The ship took a violent curve and seemed to buckle for a moment.
"This planet ain't the nicest place for casual flying," Mission murmured.
Not to mention flying for beginners.She braced herself for more turbulence. But to Katrina's surprise, the ship leveled and they took off towards the sky, the blackened earth growing faint behind them.
"Hah! Let old Carth see that one!" Mission exclaimed. She immediately seemed to catch herself.
"Oh...sorry."Katrina tried to think of what he would say if he had seen Mission flying, not the fact that as of right now he couldn't say it if he wanted to.
They broke free of the atmosphere and were in open space. Katrina settled back into a chair.
Somehow it felt so much worse to be off the planet entirely. While she was on it she had vainly hoped that they would have found and shot whatever person had attacked her, that she could have just gone out into the backyard and accomplished the task, then returned inside again.
Now, as they were confronted with nothing but black sky and white stars, she felt how far away he was, how completely she had abandoned him.
Tears threatened her eyes and she battled them fiercely.
"We should contact the Council and let them know of Telos." Bastila's words broke her thoughts.
"And then what? We're not really any closer to our original goal, which was to find the attacker."
"That mechanic, Genides...he had mentioned Anelli as a possible source for the weapon used." Katrina turned to the rest of them.
"Any of you ever heard of this place?" Mission and Zaalbar shook their heads.
"Statement: Anelli's main source of income is rumored to be the production of grenades and mines to be used as weaponry. It is also rumored to be a very politically active planet."
"Within the Republic, you mean?"
"Clarification: Anelli is located within the boundaries of the Republic, Master, but the planet largely ignores its association with it. Anellians are rumored to be heavily involved in the planet's local government."
"This is all just speculation, however?"
"Clarification: You are correct, Master. All of my information is conjecture based on statements you have made." Katrina sat up.
"Statements I've made? You mean Revan...I mean, I've been there?"
"Answer: Correct, Master. You spoke of Anelli occasionally in the past."
"Do you know under what circumstances I was on the planet?" For example, did I enrage and destroy another local populace, this time one that bases its economy on creating bombs?
"Answer: Negative, Master. I have no knowledge of when or why you visited the planet."
"That would seem an excellent reason to visit the planet ourselves," Bastila murmured. "Mission, Zaalbar, chart a course to Anelli." Mission nodded and turned to begin punching in the coordinates.
"Katrina?" She reveled for a moment at someone calling her by the name she preferred to hide herself in.
"Yes, Mission?" The Twi'lek turned around in her chair.
"Carth...I mean, well, he's not real bad, is he?"
"He's unconscious, Mission. He was burned badly, but he's alive. He should recover." Mission nodded.
"That's what Dustil said."
"Did he contact you from the base?" Mission glanced back at her oddly.
"No, that's what he said a couple minutes ago when he was sitting next to me."