Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 5: Secrets

Waiting for Ian to show up at the 'Jedi Enclave' on Telos in his fighter had sounded like a good idea about twenty hours ago but Revan became sorely aware how small his fighter was as he struck his gloved hand against his leg in an effort to get it to wake up.

"Dammit."

Revan snarled as he threw open the canopy and stepped into the frigid Telosian air. A burst of light caught Revan's eyes as he looked up to see a shuttle being shot down. Revan's eyes followed the trail of the rocket to see.

"HK?"

Revan shook his head as he caught sight of the familiar profile of his beloved assassin droid. The only problem was that this droid was a dull gray and shooting at a transport with Force-sensitives aboard. Cursing, Revan dashed to the shuttle which conveniently happened to crash on top of the Jedi Enclave.

"What is that HK rip off doing here?"

Revan cursed as he caught sight of several figures emerging from the downed transport. Three dots stood before the transport and Revan could easily make out the familiar HK design.

"Ian, kill them!"

He shouted, causing the startled and still dazed former Jedi General to turn to him. Frowning, the man turned from Revan just as the Dark Lord leapt into the air and landed on one of the HK-50 units, splitting it in two with an active azure saber. Startled into action, Ian and his companions, who Revan noted to be a young man and his former Master Kreia, began firing on the droids. All three HK-50's were wreckage in a matter of moments and Revan breathed a sigh of relief as he approached Ian and his companions.

"Ian, what the hell are you doing here."

Revan asked. The Jedi frowned, his eyes narrowing.
"Do I know you?"

Revan coughed, turning to Kreia to see his former Master give a single and firm shake of her head.

"Wedge Suron, how good to see you again."

Kreia announced. Revan winced internally at the false name that the Jedi had given him.

"Master Kreia."

Revan bowed.
"Whoa, whoa, Master Kreia?"

The young man who was accompanying Ian and Kreia blurted as he burst into laughing. Revan cocked an eyebrow and Ian merely shook his head.

"Enough, Atton."

The man regained his control after Kreia shot him a withering glare.

"I'm sorry... Jedi Suron but I do not remember you."
Ian announced. It did not surprise Revan that his friend did not recognize him in his battle robes and it had been over a decade since he had seen Ian last.

"I fought with you in the Mandalorian Wars, I was in Revan's task force."

Ian nodded, eyeing the Dark Lord of the Sith before sighing and motioning to his companions.

"This is Atton Rand-"

"A fool, you need know nothing else of him."

Kreia snapped. Revan chuckled, ignoring the glare he received from the man. There was something strange about Atton and Revan made a note to discover that in a warmer environment.
"Master Kreia and-"

Ian's face suddenly shifted to a worried expression.

"Sith! Where's Bao-Dur?"

Ian turned to see his companion laying unconscious near the fallen transport.
"We can take him below, he should be fine."
Revan calmed Ian's worries, glad that the man held a sense of camaraderie. Revan motioned to an outcropping of rocks nearby.

"The entrance is there, I will make certain that Bao-Dur is taken care of."

Ian nodded thanks and motioned for Atton to follow. Kreia lingered until Ian and Atton were out of earshot.
"Be mindful, Padawan. Powerful forces are at work here, do not interfere where the Exile is concerned."

Revan nodded.

"Don't worry Master, I have every intention of seeing his true potential."

Revan turned to Kreia, his brown eyes flashing.
"Do nothing to harm him."

Revan stated firmly. Kreia nodded.

"I ask only the same of you."

Revan nodded, motioning to Atton and Ian.

"Atris is there, you should hide yourself from her. To know two Sith Lords inhabit her academy may be to much for her."

Revan smirked as Kreia sighed.

"That woman will cause more damage than you or Malak ever did."

Revan silently nodded his agreement as Kreia followed Ian and Atton.

"It is good to see you again, Padawan."

Kreia said softly as she passed Revan. Revan quickly rushed to Bao-Dur's side, examining the man's injuries before several Handmaidens appeared out of nowhere.
"We will take him, Knight."

Revan lifted Bao-Dur with the Force and followed the Handmaidens into the Jedi Enclave below, hoping Atris would not be too disturbed by his presence and that she would not catch sight of Kreia.

"That is just what this galaxy needs. A first class cat-fight over Ian."

Shaking his head, Revan brought Bao-Dur into a medical facility and waited patiently as the Handmaidens repairs his damage and dropped him in the holding cells with Atton and Kreia.

"Why aren't you locked up in here?"

Atton whined as Revan seated himself on a plasteele container. Revan chuckled as he looked at the imprisoned man.

"Lets just say I know their boss."

Revan frowned slightly, looking to Kreia as she shrouded herself from Atris.

"It is good you are here, Padawan. Yours and the Exile's presence hides mine well from the Librarian."

Kreia whispered in Revan's mind through their old training bond.

"Perhaps."

Revan said aloud, smirking as Atton looked between the two with obvious paranoia.

"Don't tell me you're doing that Jedi Mind trick."

Revan shook his head as he left the room, leaving Kreia to torment Atton. The Enclave turned out to be an almost perfect replica of the Jedi Temple's upper levels on Coruscant. Revan found several turbolifts to lower levels with hidden training facilities and several other hangars containing Jedi Fighters. Overall, Revan was impressed that the Jedi Council had managed to hide something to massive on the ravaged world. In his explorations, Revan stumbled onto several of the Echani handmaidens speaking to each other. From their conversation, Revan gathered that Atris had retreated into her little meditation chamber to escape Ian's presence and that Ian had somehow convinced her that he wanted to help. Brianna turned to Revan and froze, her blue eyes seemed to pierce the Dark Lord and he could feel the subtle and untrained Force-probe.

"Jedi Suron, may we help you?"

Revan's face remained expressionless as he looked between the four gathered sisters.

"No."

He replied simply before retreating into the shadows darkly. Brianna shivered slightly at the sight. The man she knew as Wedge Suron was strange. He seemed to possess a carefree or indifferent attitude at times but also closed off when around her. His actions around her mistress were strange as well. She also shuddered at the thought of this man. The way he had simply appeared and vanished and how he moved. From his movements she could tell that he was VERY deadly and from her subtle understanding of the Force, she knew he was powerful. She had also seen the stress that his arrival had brought Atris and after studying the journal of this Jedi in the Enclave's computer, she found little beyond a basic description of him and his rank. It was strange to her, most Jedi were well documented in the Order and he seemed to be almost purposely shadowed.

"Shadowed."

That seemed to describe Revan well. When she looked at him it was like looking into power coupling, the air seemed to be charged with static energy and his movements, it was almost as thought the lighting shifted to hide his features. She could also tell by his movements that he seemed to be used to wearing armor. He moved lightly and gracefully, but his gait was off. He seemed to favor heavy footsteps and his movements seemed too natural.

"I will have to watch him. Atris says that he is not a threat... but such... power..."

Brianna blinked for a moment before following Revan's retreat. She soon found that his path had taken him to his fighter. There she paled slightly when he pulled from his fighter's cargo compartment a double-edged vibroblade with the mark of her father. Without looking at her, Revan spoke.

"This was Yusani's brand. The weapon of your father..."

Revan noticed the surprise in the young woman's already shocked features.
"Ho- How did you know?"

She asked in barely a whisper as Revan quickly sealed his cargo compartment to keep his armor hidden.

"I... fought with him... long ago and I knew your mother. I found this weapon in the hands of a merchant on Tatooine... I am not honored to carry such a weapon and it was his dying wish that it be given to the last of his blood..."

Revan looked up to see the girl close to tears as she slowly walked to him and brushed her hand across the well-kept and maintained blade that seemed to shine blue in the bright Telosian snow.

"I- I cannot accept this from you, Knight Suron..."

Revan fought the guilt warring within him.

"His death was not meaningless... He died with honor and so many more would have died had I not destabilized the Echani threat."

Revan's eyes widened at his own thoughts as his mind shot to all he had lost to Malak's treachery and his alliance with the Jedi and Republic.

"But that all is meaningless... The worlds I conquered are no more and now my Empire spans a completely different area of space..."

Revan shook slightly as he all but forced it into Brianna's hands.

"Take this weapon, Handmaiden. You deserve to carry it more than I... I taint it with ownership for it is not mine."

Revan did not give the last of the Handmaidens a chance to reply before he hastily retreated from the scene and entered the Enclave, only to come face to face with Atris.

"This deceit is meaningless, Revan. They will discover who you are soon and then you will be broken."

Atris spoke evenly. Revan turned to Atris, stepping into the antechamber and looking off towards the Council Chambers.
"I have already been judged for my crimes... What the Republic did to my friends after the Star Forge was unacceptable. You can threaten my all you like but always remember that I am Darth Revan, Lord of the Sith and I answer to no one."

Revan responded emotionlessly as he turned his dark gaze to Atris.
"You where the first to try to violate my mind, do you remember what you saw?"

Atris shivered involuntarily and narrowed her eyes.

"I saw the darkside."

Revan chuckled, but there was no humor in the action.
"You and the others tried to reprogram me... to murder me and make me forget... It was your plan all along wasn't it?"

Revan snarled as his eyes flashed. Atris remained unmoved, though her eyes had seemed to narrow to tiny slits.
"You were tainted and we could not break your connection to the Force. Had you been injured we may have, yes, but you were always too powerful."

Revan glowered towards the Echani Jedi Master.
"I once said that only one Jedi walked away from the Mandalorian wars... that one Jedi survived the Mandalorian wars... I still believe that because he WALKED away. He did not follow me and yet you choose to accuse him of following my path? The arrogance!"

"How DARE YOU!"

Atris snapped, balling her hands into fists.

"How dare you to presume that he was blinded by darkness. You felt Malachor V, you felt that from Coruscant. He was there and he was one of only a handful that lived to tell about it. By all rights he should have been dead or have fallen and I never once sensed the darkside in him."

Atris remained silent, her mind recalling the heated conversation she had with Ian.

"Darkness knows darkness, Atris. He is the Jedi's only hope. This... resurgence of his power... it is a sign. One that cannot be ignored. You all thought that he lost his connection because he fell so far? The darkside does not abandon its most loyal servants, it embraces them and hides them. He was deafened to the Force, Atris. Now it has returned and is more powerful than before, surely you can feel it-"

"Of course I can feel it, but that is not the point! Ian followed you to war and went against me, against the Jedi! You can't honestly tell me that the countless millions you've murdered have been for the good of the galaxy!"
Atris all but screamed. Revan was grateful that Ian had challenged the Handmaidens and that no one else was within earshot.
"Everyone, every last person who's life I pulled from them was for a reason, for the greater good. You have NO idea what stalks the Outer Rim and unknown space... There are things that should not exist. Not just Sith but other things, absent in the Force that murder countless billions, leaving only graves!"

Revan shuddered at the brief and deadly encounter his fleet had with an asteroid-like vessel that belonged to a race simply called the Vong. He had heard that they lived beyond known space and that they rarely left their world. He had seen several of the worlds they offered as sacrifices to their gods shortly after seeking the Star Forge and he shuddered at what remained. Even the Mandalorians and the ancient Sith were not as senseless in their slaughter. That was not true, their slaughters held a purpose and that was what frightened him. Drawing the weapons of the Star Forge and throwing them against that enemy would have driven them back. He still had yet to see more than one of their vessels, but after losing so many ships to a single Vong ship...

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Atris stated in a considerably calmer tone. Revan was silent, bowing his head in acknowledgment.
"There is more truth in those worlds than in any other... The atrocities I've been responsible for... that I allowed to happen... Force there must be another way."

Atris seemed thoughtful before shaking her head.

"I do not know, Revan. I see much of myself in you and that frightens me. I know that somehow you were corrupted and I know that somehow you fell but I saw part of your intent when I broke through your mental barrier... I know you where trying to do what you thought was right..."

Atris sighed and turned from Revan.

"We all did many things we were not proud of those days, Revan."

Revan nodded, his thoughts drifting to the savage aliens and their strange biological ships and technology that he had the horror of meeting only once. That brought him to where he was now. Ian had something that he needed. Ian possessed the knowledge of how the Mass Shadow Device worked. With the help of a few Interdictor ships and their ability to create gravity wells, Revan could use the Mass Shadow Device on a smaller scale to crush these asteroid-like ships into dust before they could regenerate or whatever the Sith they did. There was also the threat of the Sith Empire and Revan knew that somehow the Ancient Sith had held this strange enemy at bay. Of course, the Ancient Sith held the knowledge to destroy a star and create subspace tears with the Force. The Dark Lord shook his head in a mixture of morbid awe and disgust.

"Its amazing how ignorant the Jedi are to the powers of the darkside. Why should we allow the enemy a weapon and deny it to ourselves..."

Revan sighed, seating himself in what appeared to be the hidden Jedi Academy's cafeteria.

"At least the food is good."

Revan mused as he ate a nerf steak that one of the Handmaidens had made for him. Ian still did not remember him and Revan was beginning to worry about his old friend's mental condition. He still recalled his own reaction to seeing the man deafened to the Force. He was horrified and despite his own darkness had gone to him and told him to seek out the Jedi and speak with them. Revan may have hated the Jedi Council, but he knew that they could help Ian.

The Dark Lord winced slightly as he raked his mind over what had happened. How the Jedi had treated Ian as a traitor despite his commendable actions and how they treated him like the plague, charging him with things not even Ulic Qel-Droma had to endure.

"If he wasn't already deafened to the Force, they would have likely done so to spite me. The only reason I survived was because I held too much power. They needed me to destroy Malak."

No arrogance was in his thoughts as Revan sneered.

"What the hell am I so important for? The bastard of two Jedi Knights... I don't even have a last name!"

Revan shook his head as he took a final bite of his meal and left, leaving the cleaning droids to take care of his mess. The Dark Lord approached the meditation chambers Atris had hidden in since Ian arrived and used the Force to manipulate the seal, eyeing the Sith holocrons warily.

"You should know better than to speak with them..."

Revan chided as Atris' eyes snapped open and regarded him with a predatory gleam.

"Perhaps, but you yourself said that we should not deny ourselves a weapon if the enemy was willing to use it against us."

Revan was amused that the holocrons would not speak in his presence. The secrets of the Ancient Sith Lords of Malachor and Korriban were long ago his and he was in no need of knowing how to destroy a sun.

"Yet..."

Revan mused to himself as he casually lifted one of the holocrons and smashed it on the floor.

"These will show you nothing, Atris."

Revan ignored the shocked glare and left, hoping the Jedi Master would understand his actions.

"They should be destroyed and forgotten."

Revan shook slightly, not wanting to recall the maddening power that the holocrons had shown him when he had first used them.

"They should be preserved and taught. Remembered for what they represent and despised!"

Atris argued. Revan turned to the Jedi Master and shook his head once in warning.

"I say this for your own good. Destroy them before they consume you, my old friend."

Atris gave Revan a skeptical look before he was gone. The holocrons hissed at the Jedi Master in their ancient language and Atris sighed as she looked to the destroyed holocron and Revan's retreat.

"These are who I am..."

She whispered as she lifted the smashed holocron and replaced it, hoping it was not entirely damaged.

"Knight Suron!"

Revan groaned inwardly as he caught sight of Brianna. Her sisters had apparently gathered alongside her and all were waiting for him in the Council Chambers.

"Yes, Handmaiden?"

Revan asked in a polite tone, though he was still greatly disturbed by Atris' holocrons.

"We would like to thank you for returning our father's blade to us. We wish there was something we could give in return to you."

One of the Handmaidens spoke. Revan assumed she was the eldest and acknowledged her with a nod.

"There is one thing..."

Revan added as he stroked the goatee that he had grown thoughtfully.

"Yes?"

Brianna asked after several minutes of silence.

"Tell me what you think of your father's murderer."

Revan asked.

"Our father's killer."

One of the Handmaidens spoke quietly. Revan frowned slightly. He had murdered Yusanis. Killing him for his own intent, though the Echani General had fought back he had still killed him without pure intents and to him, that was murder.

"Our father was killed dueling Revan. He died challenging the Dark Lord of the Sith and even though he failed to prevent Revan's actions from destabilizing Echani worlds and died..."

The Handmaiden speaking paused before another took where she left off.

"Our father died a martyr and with honor."

She finished.

"No one may understand why Revan did what he did. The path to the Star Forge that Atris rarely speaks of... His fall... Whatever happened to him it did not change who he was. Revan's actions always had a purpose unlike the senseless slaughter of many of the other Sith Lords. He had a way of orchestrating the most complex of battleplans and always took part in the battles themselves. It is a great honor in our society when one commands as well as fights..."

Revan knitted his brows in thought.

"So you don't hate him?"

Revan chanced. The Handmaidens looked to each other and all seemed to shrug at once.

"We are saddened by the loss of our father but we know Revan granted him an honorable death in battle instead of killing him in his sleep like many other assassins would. We are grateful for that but we would still challenge Revan for the sake of our father's memory if we were to face him."

Revan sombered slightly, looking down to the floor before removing his lightsabers and holdout blaster and setting them on the floor.

"What if I told you I was Revan."

Revan asked, staring challengingly back at the Handmaidens.