Title: Destiny's New Path
Summary: A what if. What if it wasn't Revan on the Bridge when Malak fired on his Master's ship? Suddenly the Apprentice is betrayed by the Master, and Revan then infiltrates the ranks of the Jedi. The Dark Lords mission: turn Bastila to the Dark Side of the Force.
Disclaimer: George Lucas and Bioware own the basis of this FanFic. I am merely entertaining the idea that I am good at making Star Wars stories (stupid ideas).
Author's Note: No author's note onthis chapter.
Chapter 6: Bastila's Lesson
I was forced out of the meditation by a sudden lack of oxygen as I, too, was affected by the Force Plague, Revan had cast upon Kayle. Struggling to breathe as my lungs seized up, I crawled too communicator. My vision swam as I reached up and switched it on.
"Hel…help…me…Kayle…dying" Was all I managed before I lost consciousness.
I woke up in a bed in the infirmary. My vision swam for a moment as I opened my eyes, but I could make out Kayle leaning his chin on his hand and watching me.
"How are you feeling?" He asked. I smiled.
"Not bad, I thought perhaps I'd move some of my personal effects in here, I certainly seem to be spending a lot of time in one infirmary or another." I said jokingly. Kayle chuckled.
"You actually made a joke." He said, grinning. "I'm impressed."
I rolled my eyes. He could be so childish at times.
I saw movement at the end of the room and looked up, but it was only Mission, Carth and the Cathar woman Kayle met in the Lower Levels, Juhani.
"You two certainly gave us a scare." Carth said, walking up to us. Mission came up to Kayle and put a small vase on the bedside table next to his bed. In the vase was, some water and a dozen types of Dantooine flowers.
"Zalbaar and I picked these yesterday, and we decided that we'd give them to you today." She said. Kayle smiled thankfully at the Twi'lek girl.
"How long have we been in here?" I asked. Carth looked up, but it was Juhani who spoke.
"It has been almost a week since Kayle's Padawan Trials." She said. "Speaking of which, let me be the first to congratulate you on becoming a full member of the Jedi Order. The Council say you succeeded, even though you didn't make it back."
"That's great." Kayle said, sitting up, smiling happily.
I also sat up, delighted at Kayle's achievement. "Congratulations Kayle." I said sincerely, before suddenly feeling extremely sick in my stomach and vomiting up whatever I'd been given while unconscious, and embarrassing myself in front of the others.
We remained in the Infirmary for another three days before the healers decided we were fully recovered. Not a minute after we'd left the Infirmary, the Council called forth Kayle, myself and, too our surprise, Juhani.
Master Vandar and Master Vrook were the only two who were present. We three Padawans walked into the Council Chambers.
"Ah, it is good to see the two of you have recovered." Vandar said. "For your next mission is extremely important and requires for you to be well rested."
"Our Chronicler, Master Dorak, has researched the Ruins of your vision extensively in the archives." Vrook said. "However, there is little information on them. For that reason, we sent a Jedi team to the Ruins to investigate. They have not returned.
He paused for a moment, and continued on. 'After your success in the Lower Levels, we have decided to send the two of you to the Ruins. Padawan Juhani has requested to accompany you, and after some much deliberation, we have decided to grant her request." He finished.
Well, that did explain why Juhani had been called before the Council with us. None the less, I was not entirely comfortable taking her with us.
The Dark Side had felt powerful in that place, even in our vision, and I wasn't too sure I wished to take someone who had only just left the Dark Side to a place so strong in it.
We left the Enclave, Kayle leading the way. But not before we left, we found ourselves being shouted at by a very distressed man. Apparently, the Mandalorian raiders had murdered his daughter, and he was accusing of the Jedi of inaction against the Mandalorians again, just like in the war.
Kayle looked thoughtful for a moment after being shouted at, and then, he activated his comlink and muttered something into it. We waited for about ten minutes before Carth, Zalbaar and Canderous came out the Enclave doors, followed closely by Mission and T3-M4.
"So, I'm guessing that means you guys are interested?" Kayle said, seeing our five companions from Taris all well armed. The man who'd been complaining, Jon, I believe his name was, fell silent…for a few seconds; then he thought of something else to complain about.
"You're sending a Mandalorian to fight Mandalorians?" He shouted. "What kind of fool are you? The brute is likely going to turn on you as soon as he sees them."
Canderous opened his mouth to say something, but Kayle was much faster. He had stepped forward and taken the man by the front of his tunic.
"Judging a man by what his species has done is no better then people judging the entire race of humans by your actions or beliefs." Kayle snarled.
"He's willing to aid you in avenging your daughter's death and all you can do is bring up something that happed over a year ago! Get out of my sight!" He shoved the man out of the way and walked away, fuming.
I sprinted after him, Juhani right behind me. Canderous led his group away in another direction, toward the Matale land, as that was where the Mandalorians were last seen.
…Neither of us, Juhani and myself; spoke to him as we reached the ruined temple of black stone; Kayle was irritated, angry even.
I did not think it was wise to talk to him about the result of such it emotions at the time, making a guess it would not help to cool his heated temper.
Instead, I simply watched as Kayle opened the door into the temple, and stepped through. I walked forward to follow him, but as I reached the doorway, I suddenly felt electricity pulse through my body and was thrown backwards to the ground. Juhani rushed to my side, the Cathar Jedi taking my hand and helping me stand.
Kayle had felt my pain and turned back to look at me, but was not fast enough as the great stone doors slammed shut. As the doors shut, I also felt our connection weakening. Perhaps there was some kind of Dark Side aura or bubble around the temple that was neutralizing the connection.
I closed my eyes, hoping to send a message through our bond. Kayle…? Kayle, you must do this alone. It appears we are not to aid you, and so we will wait.
I felt his already fading presence become almost nothing. I focused trying to stay connected to him like when he'd gone into the Lower Levels of the Enclave, and on Taris when he'd gone to meet Canderous.
But, no matter how hard I tried, I could not penetrate the strange defences of the Temple.
Until, somehow, the doors slid open again. I heard a beeping, which was my comlink. I activated it, and Kayle's voice came through.
"All the doors have been opened and the Force-defences have been deactivated. Any resistance the Temple once had has been beaten." He said.
"Okay, do not go any further until we have reached you." I ordered.
"Okay." Kayle said. "Kayle out…"
Juhani and I stepped through the archway that was the door to the temple, and Juhani suddenly hissed.
"This is no Dark Side Temple." She whispered. "It is a tomb!"
I looked around. Indeed, the floor of this room was littered with the bodies of Jedi. As was the next room where, Kayle was waiting for us impatiently.
"I came in here to find them all dead." Kayle said. "At first I thought they'd been killed by the Battle Droids that guard the entrance. But then I took a closer looked at one of the bodies."
I knelt down and looked at the body of an aged Jedi, probably in his late sixties. He had a look of utter terror on his face. And he had not been killed by blaster, or fire, but-
"Those are lightsaber wounds!" I exclaimed, shocked. "The team of Jedi the Council sent here… they must have been killed by Dark Jedi."
Kayle nodded. "But what I found strangest was that there was not one Dark Jedi body, anywhere. These were full Jedi Knights and Masters. One would think that they'd have killed at least a couple of Dark Jedi."
Juhani sniffed the air. "It is strange; I cannot smell any Dark Jedi. Most have a certain odor, like decay. She glanced at me and Kayle with a puzzled look on her face; "Yet I do not smell any."
I nodded. Even without the advanced smell of a Cathar, I often noticed the stench of a Dark Jedi.
"Come, we will dwell on this later. For now, we must continue our mission." I said. Kayle nodded. He led the way through an open door, into the last, and darkest of the rooms.
At the back of the room stood the same strange tripod that we'd seen in our vision.
The three tall claw-like mechanisms separated like a giant black flower as we approached. From the center rose a small sphere of swirling light, that expanded to reveal a galaxy maps of green, blue and black lights.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"It's some kind of Galactic Map." Kayle said. "Probably leads too the Star Forge."
"The Star Forge…?" I whispered.
"Oh, right, you don't know." Kayle said. "I met some type of droid back there before you and Juhani came in; it called itself the Guardian, or Overseer. It kept mentioning a Star Forge, the 'pride of the Infinite Empire' whatever that is."
Juhani suddenly looked closer at the map. "If my calculations a correct, that world looks like Kashyyyk. And if it is, that would mean this planet is Manaan, and Tatooine. And that is the Sith World, Korriban."
Kayle nodded, though he was still looking at the map. "It's not a complete map." He suddenly announced. "There are parts missing."
I narrowed my eyes, and saw that he was right. There were indeed pieces of the galaxy missing from the map; parts I knew should be there.
"Do you think perhaps there are more pieces of the map on those worlds?" Kayle suggested. "Like a puzzle, and perhaps together they'll lead us to the Star Forge."
"But…what is the Star Forge?" Juhani said, turning her gaze to Kayle. "Is it perhaps a factory?"
"It's possible." I answered, before Kayle could. "It would explain the Sith's endless fleet. But I feel that it is more then a mere factory.
'We should report our findings to the Jedi Council. They will know what to do."
Kayle nodded, and he walked up to the map, pulling out a data-recorder and scanning the map into it.
We left the Dark Side temple, running at high speed to get away from it quickly.
When we finally got onto the Enclave grounds, we slowed down. I looked around. Even though the sun was setting, there was still enough light to see that Jon was no where to be found.
I didn't worry about it. With any luck, he'd gotten sick of complaining and gone home.
We went through the halls of the Enclave, and to the Council Chambers. After reporting our findings, the Council told us to retire to the Ebon Hawk while they discussed the new information.
Juhani left for her Enclave quarters not long after we left the Chambers. However, Kayle insisted she joined us on the Ebon Hawk. After some persuasion, she agreed.
As we approached the freighter, Kayle suddenly chuckled. "I bet Carth and Canderous killed each other today over who killed the most Mandalorians."
I nodded, doing my best not to smile. "Yes, you are probably right." I said. But then I suddenly heard laughter. "Is that Carth?"
"And that sounds like Canderous." Kayle said, as a gruff laugh came down the ramp.
We walked up the ramp and found Carth and Canderous in the living quarters, which doubled as a garage, obviously drunk; laughing like maniacs.
Kayle and I both stood there, stunned.
"Ummm, Carth…? Canderous…?" Kayle whispered. "You two okay?"
"What?" Carth said, only just noticing they were standing there. "Oh, Kayle, how you doing, eh…?"
"Er…what happened out there?" Kayle asked. But the two soldiers simply started laughing, well, gurgling by now.
Shrugging, Kayle left the garage and went into the Starboard Dormitory, where we found Mission tinkering with some kind of device with T3-M4.
"Hey, Mission, what happened to the two drunks in the Living Area/Garage?" Kayle asked. Mission giggled.
"I don't know what happened with the Mandalorians, but those two were at each other's throats when Big Z, T3 and I split to go exploring." She said. "And when we got back, we found those two, on their fourth bottle of Telosian Rum, and laughing like a couple of old friends."
Kayle had a look of utter disbelief on his face.
"Are you kidding me? Carth…and Canderous…?" He muttered. Still with a look of disbelief, he turned and left the dormitory.
About an hour later, I found Kayle in the men's dormitory, Carth and Canderous were still drinking in the garage, and Zalbaar was in the storage compartment checking the supplies. I decided to ask him something that had been on my mind for most of the day.
"Kayle, do you think you may have come down a little hard on that man, I mean, his daughter had just died." I said.
"Maybe, maybe not..." Kayle said. He stopped what he was doing, sketching something on a data-scanner, and looked up at me.
"Okay, just for a minute," he said earnestly, "just think …of yourself in his place back there. You've just lost a war and your people have lost everything. You want to start anew.
'But you can't because everyone else sees you only as you were during the war. No one will help you, because they will only see you as a brute and a monster that killed thousands of innocent civilians and people on their side. And they definitely will not see everything you've lost."
I was somewhat taken aback by his outburst, but in a way, I could see the sense in it. Canderous had indeed proven himself to us when he'd helped us off Taris, but I'd not accepted him as part of the crew like everyone else had.
Juhani, who apparently had come to speak with him also, suddenly spoke up.
"I see you have great wisdom Kayle." She said. "When I saw you traveled with a Mandalorian, I saw only the ones who destroyed the Cathar Homeworld." She fell silent for a moment. "It is, ironic, really, that I would judge others as I many once judged me."
I thought for a moment about what he had said. "Juhani is right. You are wise." I said. "It seems I still have much to learn; about being a Jedi, and about myself." I bowed out and returned to the Starboard Dormitory. Mission and T3 vacated the room, seeing I needed space.
I had a long, and thankfully, visionless, sleep that night; and was awake early to go in to meet the Council.
Kayle was also up, and was trying on his new Jedi Robes. After that, the two of us left the Ebon Hawk to speak with the Council.
When we arrived in the chambers, only Master Zhar was present to greet us. Kayle and Zhar had a short conversation about Juhani's redemption, before Master Vandar and Master Dorak arrived, and then finally, Master Vrook.
"Now that we are all gathered, it is time we told of what we know." Vandar said. "Master Dorak has spent much of the night searching the Jedi Archives. Sadly, there is almost no information on this Star Forge."
"For that reason, the Council is in agreement that you and Bastila shall travel to the four worlds believed to hold a Star Map." Zhar said.
Kayle nodded, then spoke up. "With your permission Masters, there are others I wish to join me in our mission."
Vandar nodded. "Of course, those who aided you on Taris will be accompanying you also." He said. "All of them hold skills that may prove indispensable in your mission."
"And Juhani will also join be joining you." Vrook said. "Do not forget the lesson she holds; the lure of the Dark Side if very difficult to resist. I fear that following the trail of Revan and Malak, will lead you down an all too familiar path."
"I will do my best to remain true to the Light, Masters." Kayle said with the utmost sincerity, and then bowed out of the Chambers. We were taking our first steps down a very shadowed path.