Author's Notes:

This story's core is first and foremost of Bastila's search for Revan, her lost love. It will hardly be a straight line getting there, however. It's an adventure more than anything, but I won't deny some characters are going to have their moments. It will include some of the main characters from KOTOR I and most of the main characters from KOTOR II, along with a great many new ones. The original characters introductions will be spread out as it seemed disingenuous to dump them all in the beginning. And frankly, it would've been awkward to pull off.

The story outline I'm going by is a fluid document which means I'm always open to others' thoughts and opinions and welcome emails or comments about it. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Clarification Notes:

Chapter 2 had been mostly completed before I learned of the Carth and Bastila cutscene in KOTOR II on Citadel Station(I had chosen Revan to be DS in the beginning since I played KOTOR II first and didn't know any better). For this story's purposes, however, Revan is LS, but Bastila doesn't meet Carth until...well, read on and find out.

Chapter 1

The precipice stood as the barrier to the east and faced west across from the sprawling city. Hundreds of meters high, the view allowed nothing to go unseen. Reaching toward the clouds, the towering silver spires encircling the city center were as tall as the precipice itself. Water pouring from the spire tips produced a glistening shimmer as though they were covered by a million jewels in the receding daylight.

Extending outward from the center several kilometers, Calomé was second only in size and beauty to Arona's capital, Orimar and its Great Columns. Over one hundred thousand people lived in and walked the streets of Calomé.

Hovering in the air like an apparition, his misery was a real as the lurid creature that held its outreached hand toward him. It commanded the invisible fist that squeezed ever tighter around his body, forcing the air from his lungs.

After what felt like an eternity, the great fist vanished and he collapsed into a heap onto the dusty soil. Gasping for breath, the fought to chase off the blackness that was overtaking his vision. As he tried to escape the punishment brought on by his tormentor, he caught the faces of his three advisors that had been brought at blaster point to the precipice's edge with him and forced to their knees. They were all nobles from their respective provinces.

Behind them stood two guards, their armor mirror-like. They were unmoving, emotionless and without fear. They killed innocents as though bred for it. Their true purpose was only revealed by their actions and the large rifles cradled in their arms.

A man next to them in a black uniform with his hands held tight in the small of his back looked on. He was an officer of some sort, but the uniform was one he didn't recognize. Beyond the soldiers and officer sat the ship that brought them all to the precipice.

The advisors held their hands behind their heads while terrified faces reminded him this was no dream and there was no escape.

"Get up," said a voice that was as much felt as it was heard.

Bile rushed up his throat, but somehow he managed to force it down. "Please... please, no more," he muttered.

His thoughts were disjointed, a mishmash of flashes and screams. The screams of the innocent. The screams from his own horrors. The screams of pain from loved ones. How had it come to this, he wondered. How had it happened so fast? The answers were fleeting while the questions kept piling themselves upon him.

It had been a glorious day, as were most days on Arona. His wife had stopped by to visit him in the palace's Grand Chambers and she had brought with her a most precious surprise. Their daughter had come home from her duties with the Republic Senate on Coruscant.

Their world had long tried for many decades to become a full member with voting rights, but the slow process had taken its toll. While they still maintained a representative presence on Coruscant, to show a token continued interest in membership, confidence in such an act had long faded.

The sky had become filled with strange ships that sent fire upon Arona's citizens while other ships touched down to disgorge their contents of soldiers.

Fighting broke out all over the city and the invaders pounded their way into the central palace. He remembered the tall and prominent, five hundred year old wooden doors that stood at the entry way to the Grand Chambers splinter into a million fragments. The twelve meter high sculpted shield of an ancient kingdom spanned across the face of the doors. It had been painstakingly hand carved over many months by a famous Aronian philosopher a century before. Seeing the relic of Arona's past vanish before his aging eyes left him breathless. Memories ebbed to the surface. His father's determined smile sitting in the very throne he now reigned from while he played in the vast corridors of the palace. His tiny hands clutching a toy ship as he ran until exhausted so long ago.

Gunfire jolted him to reality. Shiny armored troops led by dark-robed figures with pale faces blasted their way in and began pouring into the Grand Chambers.

Two of the figures ran up to his wife and daughter. One grabbed his daughter's wrist, pulling her away. His wife had jumped, swinging wildly at him. The second figure approached her frenzied attempt to free her daughter. Without speaking a word, he methodically cut her down with a beam of light that had appeared from his hand. The figure's gray eyes showed no emotion. When he'd stood up to attack his wife's murderer, the figure simply raised his hand sending him tumbling across the floor. They had come for the Chancellor of Arona. They had come for him.

The voice was louder, more powerful than before and it reverberated through the Chancellor like an explosion. "I said get up!"

An unseen power plucked him off the ground as he attempted to crawl away only to be forced to face the creature once again. Its eyes were a deep black as was half of the creature's mirror smooth head. The other half was cracked, decayed and pale, discomforting in its stark contrast. A mechanical appendage took the place where once there was an arm. Any such signs of which race the creature may have been had long been erased behind its black armor and twisted existence.

"What do you want of me!" the Chancellor cried out.

The creature commanded the Force to bring the Chancellor closer. So close that only centimeters separated them. The scent of dissolution swirled around him as he peered deep into the creature's eyes. It was like trying to see the bottom of an ocean of the blackest ink. Powerful visions of the dark side coursed through his body. It mixed up the emotions within him and dispatched an icy chill surging down his spine. He found himself being lured by it. Embraced by it.

The creature slithered its presence into the Chancellor's mind and reached out to that of his advisors. He immediately felt the horrifying repugnance that raced through their fragile mental states. One stood out. It was Mesol, who specialized in finances and commerce and had long been the arrogant husband to the Chancellor's sister. Thoughts pulsed from Mesol's mind. Weak. Worthless. Incompetent. His thoughts rang out and the Chancellor realized they were directed at him. While it was true that Mesol was overly ambitious, he was also a trusted advisor. How could he think such things?

The Chancellor became confused. It wasn't my fault, there was nothing I could've done. Why was he being betrayed by such thoughts from someone he trusted with so many things in his life?

He became irritated. The defenses were overrun in minutes, soldiers died still sleeping in their barracks. What else could I do!

He became angry. If I had useful advisors that would've warned me of such threats, we would've been prepared!

Hate boiled behind clenched jaws. It clouded his mind and he realized he wished Mesol dead. He wanted him to pay for his insolence.

The corners of the creature's lips pulled back and through the power of the Force, it rotated the Chancellor to face his advisors. "Let me be of assistance," it hissed.

With an outstretched arm, bolts of energy arched from its fingertips across the distance and the left advisor screamed as the they danced across his body. Without warning, Mesol fell forward and remained unmoving. Acrid smoke billowed from his charred flesh. While grisly to witness, the Chancellor felt strangely satisfied by the sight.

"Please Chancellor Oryan, do as they want," begged the advisor kneeling next to Mesol. "Before it kills us all!"

Advisor Iwona had also been a long trusted friend, but the Chancellor found it odd she was suddenly so willing to give in to their attackers. Especially considering her oversight into military and defense matters. Maybe that only meant she knew all too well how dire the situation had become. How no amount of resistance from any of their remaining, but scattered, defensive forces could pose a challenge to a creature of such power and resources.

The Chancellor realized he was no longer being suspended in the air and was once again on his own feet. His knees quivered and was sure he'd fall. He thought of the darkness the creature had sent through him and found its echo still within. He focused on it and managed to pull together enough strength to remain standing. His skin tingled as the creature's survey of him became apparent. Gathering what might he could, he looked up to meet the creature's eyes and then followed its gaze to Iwona.

Its words were subdued, but carried the focus of a diving bird of prey. "Beg for your life," it demanded.

Iwona's jaw worked futilely trying to release the fragments of sounds caught in her throat. Her mind had already seized from sheer terror of the creature's words and the hideous death she'd witnessed. Like ancient machinery nearing its end, the full functions of her mind were quickly grinding to a halt.

The creature responded slowly. "So be it."

Without warning or expression, the creature blurred into explosive speed. Something shot from its belt to its hand and with a momentary flash of burgundy light, it was over as fast as it had begun.

Chancellor Oryan noticed Iwona had stopped moving, her expression blank. She seemed almost at peace if it weren't for her saucered eyes. He couldn't quite understand why she seemed to be coming closer, yet her legs did not move. A moment later he realized she wasn't approaching by will, she was simply falling forward. The body made a hollow thud on impact, but her head rolled on toward the Chancellor. In stark horror, a level of dread he'd never experienced before swept through him as he watched the head stop just short of his feet. Iwona's face stared blankly up at him. Unknowing of what to do, he kicked her lifeless head away and watched it disappear over the edge of the precipice.

The remaining advisor attempted to scramble away. "Madness!" he screamed. One of the troopers smashed him in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle, flattening the fleeing advisor of any further movement.

The creature snatched the Chancellor up, lifting him to eye level. The metal fingers that wrapped around his fragile neck were icy and indifferent. "You've seen the power of the Force. You've seen the power of my resolve. Now witness the power of the fleet overhead."

The Chancellor was tossed to ground where he crumpled into a pile. Sweeping its steely hand across the cityscape, the creature said to no one in particular with a vicious but measured slither, "Bring fire to this place. Burn it all. Captain."

Without skipping a beat, the officer tapped the comlink on the back of his hand and raised it to his lips. "Fire," he ordered.

A moment later, great flashes washed across the valley as columns of coherent plasma began raining down over Calomé. After several seconds, the staccato pounding of the impacts echoed against the precipice. The superheated energy burned away kilometer wide holes through the clouds overhead and liquefied the ground below. The land quaked as the impacts thrust thousands of kilograms of city structure and soil into the air. Several of the spires shattered from direct strikes while others toppled, crushing thousands of innocents. Permacrete ejected skyward in wave after wave while screams of twisting metal pierced the air.

The pang of the dying seemed to fuel the creature's power. It released a noxious laugh that echoed along the precipice as it watched the punishment play out below.

Chancellor Oryan watched and wept for many minutes as the debris rained down causing tremendous secondary explosions and fires that burned out of control rising hundreds of meters. It was as if the flames were licking the wounds made in the clouds. Fires quickly swept through the city and he knew little would remain by morning.

His distraught spirit broken and what remained of his will shattered, Oryan pushed himself to his knees. My Wife... My Daughter... My people... His heavy heart sank away into a bottomless pit of darkness. Unable to raise his lowered head to face his new master, "I—I will do whatever you ask of me."

The creature felt the last remnants of hope fade away within Oryan while the power of the dark side poured in, filling the void. Reveling in the Chancellor's consumption, it wet the lips of a vicious smile that spread across its face. Its blackened orbs gleamed with an inner knowledge. Whispering seductively, "I know."