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: Nothing to report.
Chapter 7: Bacca's Sword
Jolee led us back to his hut, which turned out to be a non-working ship with the chairs turn into beds. At the back, on of the engines had been turned into an oven.
"So, now that we're safe in my humble home, how can an old man help you?" He asked.
"That depends." Kayle said. "Do you know anything about a star map?"
"Oh… A star map, huh? Hmmm, yes, they're not common you know." Jolee pretended to think for a moment. "Ah, yes. I think I came across one of those not long ago, like, eight, maybe nine years ago."
Jolee chuckled. Kayle just stared at him.
"Can you get us to it?"
"Humph!" Jolee said. "Kids today are so impatient." He sighed. "Yes, I know where the blasted star map is!"
"Can-you-take-us-to-it?" Kayle asked slowly in frustration.
"Even if I wanted too, I couldn't?"
"Oh really?" Kayle sneered.
"Yes, yes, really. You haven't been very patient with me, why should I be patient with you?" Jolee asked.
Kayle started saying something but Juhani stepped in front of him.
"Please forgive our friend; he isn't a very patient man." She turned and looked at him for a moment, then back to Jolee.
"Oh, yes, I noticed that." Jolee said, smiling at the Cathar's politeness. "And who might you be?"
"I am Juhani. Kayle rescued me from the Darkness back on Dantooine." Juhani said. "Please, we must find the Star Map; is there anyway we can prove ourselves?"
"Well Juhani, as I said, I can't get you to the Star Map." Jolee said. "You see, I could get there just fine, until about a week ago. I think…you don't get very much sun down here so it's hard to tell the time…where was I?
The old man frowned and tapped his forehead for a moment and smiled, speaking again.
"Oh, right, the Star Map…anywho, the Czerka decided to move down into the Shadowlands. That didn't bother me too much; they left me alone for the most part. But you see, I had the feeling that they were spying on me during my trips to the Lower Shadowlands.
"So, one thing leads to another, I wake up one morning, go on my morning stroll, and there's a dirty great energy shield blocking my path.
He shrugged, "I tried to get them to turn it off, but they said it was there to protect them from the dangerous creatures of the Shadowlands…heh, I saw those Sonic Emitters they installed the day before. They just put the energy field up to spite me. And now I hear that they've started poaching the Tach.
Jolee gave Kayle a hard look, all humor gone from his manner. "So, here's the deal, you deal with the poachers, and I'm sure I can find something in their camp that'll disable the energy field."
He raised an eyebrow, "if you're able to be patient enough for that?"
Kayle grinded his teeth and nodded, "I'll do it, old man, you just better hold up your end of the bargain." He turned and stalked out of the room.
Both Juhani and I could tell that Kayle was not exactly thrilled by the offer, but he was obviously smart enough to see it was our only choice.
We walked along the overgrown forest trail for at least an hour before there was slightest sign of anything manmade. Actually, it was a malfunctioning droid.
"Can you get it working? There may be something useful in its hard drive we could use." I said.
Kayle nodded. He pulled the outer shell of its head away, and began rearranging the wires, hot-wiring the droids playback system.
There was a second of static electricity, and then the image of three men, coming from the view of the droid, appeared before them.
Each of them looked like they were ready to have a heart attack, obviously not the type of people to be exploring the Shadowlands.
"Where the hell is Eli? He told us to meet him down here." One of the men whispered, looking around. Then a slimy looking man walked into view, carrying a hand-held blaster cannon.
"Eli, it's about time you- Hey, what're ya doin'? Hey-HEY-!" The man called Eli suddenly fired a volley of blaster fire from his cannon, ending the transmission.
The three of us just stared at where the images had been. Kayle then suddenly pulled out his com link. He activated and spoke into it for a moment, and then Erik's voice was heard, though there was a lot of static.
"Erik, see if you can find some guy called Eli. If you do, knock him out, tie him down, and wait for us to get back up there." Kayle said tersely; "there's a few things I need to say to him."
"You got it." Erik said. "By the way, Mission's team is back. Both she and Zora want to go to Tatooine next. Mission said her brother was working for Czerka, and Zora's father is meant to be in some kind of hunting group."
"No problem. I was planning on going to Tatooine next anyway." Kayle said. With that, he ended the transmission.
"Come on, the sooner we deal with these poachers, the sooner we find the Star Map." He said, turning to Juhani and I. We continued through the forest, and the path slowly began to clear, becoming more visible.
Then we found the poacher's camp. The boundaries were four tall stands that we guessed were the sonic emitters Jolee had mentioned.
Juhani suddenly smiled. "You two keep them distracted. A thought just occurred to me." She said. Then she became almost invisible as she enlisted the camouflage abilities her people possessed.
She crept along the outskirts of the camp as Kayle and I walked up to the captain.
"Oh, and what are you doing here?" The Captain asked. The he spotted our lightsabers. "Don't tell me; that old coot asked you to come and deal with us, didn't he?"
"No, Chuundar actually sent us down here to deal with some crazed wookie." Kayle said. I suppressed a chuckle at his joke. Then he continued. "We were actually sent to you by an old man name Jolee Bindo."
"Oh, you think you're very funny." The captain sneered. "We'll see how many jokes you come up with while you rot in a Czerka prison. You Jedi have no power here, and I could have you arrested for wasting my-!"
"Sir, the emitters, they're-…" One of the soldiers was suddenly mauled by a bull katarn.
"What the-…" The captain saw many other beasts rush towards them, mouths wide open. The remaining Czerka soldiers took off in the direction of the elevator basket, the captain in the lead.
We were about to return to Jolee when the ground suddenly shook, and out of the shadows stomped a gigantic monster I'd only ever seen in an encyclopedia: a Tarentatek!
The three of us ignited our lightsabers: orange, green, blue and red blades bursting from the hilts as the Tarentatek sped toward us. Then there was a fifth snap hiss and Jolee was by our side, his emerald green saber ignited.
"I saw those Czerka soldiers running toward the lift. Thought I'd come see what happened." He said. Then the battle began.
Jolee swung his lightsaber at the Tarentateks arm, but it simply took hold of the blade without seeming to notice that its skin was blistering and burning on its fingers and claw like hand.
Juhani bent her knees and then Force-jumped up into the air, landing on the Tarentateks back. She dug her knees into the side of its ribs, and began trying to cut at its back with her two lightsabers.
However, the hide on its back was tougher, then on its hands.
With Jolee using the Force to hold himself on the ground so the Tarentatek couldn't move its hand, there must've been some kind of wax substance in its skin that had melted and sealed the hand in a grip around the lightsaber, and Juhani attempted to attack it from above, that left Kayle and I as targets for its other clawed hand.
The Tarentatek suddenly let out a roar of fury as Juhani drove her red lightsaber into its back; but the only thing it seemed to do was make the creature angrier, because it threw Juhani off its back, and through the air to collide with a tree and fall, unconscious, to the ground.
And then, with a heavy pull, it ripped Jolee's lightsaber from his grip. The blade deactivated immediately, though the Tarentatek was still left with only one hand; the one that had held the lightsaber appeared to have deformed quite a bit under the sabers heat.
Jolee Force-jumped up into the air, did a flip and landed with his lightsaber back in his hand and ignited.
We formed a triangle around the Tarentatek, dividing its concentration, and then all three of us attacked in unison. I raised and swung my orange lightsaber at the monsters' shoulder, and its only good arm fell to the forest floor, before shriveling up into nothing.
Jolee's emerald-green lightsaber went up and through the monsters' chest, just as Kayle drove his green lightsaber through the back of the Tarentateks chin, and the blade burst through the top of its head.
With a shriek, the Tarentatek fell, and shriveled up before our eyes just as its arm did.
"Phew, what is that smell?" Kayle said, waving his hand in front of his nose.
"It smells worse then Bantha poodoo." I said. Then I saw the glint of iron among the gas of what had been the Tarentateks shriveled body.
"What's that?" I said, pointing to the gleam. I used the force tp pull it out of the grass and into my hand. "It's some kind of vibrosword blade, I think."
"A vibrosword hilt…!" I handed it to Jolee and he examined it. "I don't believe it. This-this is the hilt of Bacca's Sword!"
"…Bacca's Sword?" Kayle and I asked in unison.
"It's a legend, or, I thought it was just a legend." Jolee said. "You see, according to Wookie history, Kashyyyk was not always there home, and that they came from across the galaxy to settle on this world. And they were led by a mighty chieftain named Chewbacca, or Bacca for short.
"When his tribe, and the other tribes of there former Homeworld, crashed onto Kashyyyk, it is said that he forged a mighty vibrosword from the remains of their ship.
"Bacca's Sword was passed down to each Chieftain of the Rwookrrorro tribe. Each Chieftain used the Sword with strength and with wisdom, until about a century ago. The last chieftain before Zaabar's father was, by all means, very powerful and extremely strong.
"But was also very foolish; he felt his strength made him strong enough to defeat the Shadow Beast, the Tarentatek, an creature that only Bacca had fought with and survived, though even he couldn't kill it.
"This chieftain escaped the battle with his pride wounded and his sword broken. Since then, Bacca's sword has been two separate pieces: Bacca's Hilt and Bacca's Blade. And the Blade has been lost since the Chieftain lost his battle with the Tarentatek."
"Until now..." I said.
"Exactly…" Jolee said. "And this may be exactly what we need to stop Chuundar's reign of terror."
Kayle stared skeptically at Jolee. "A broken sword blade?"
"Only a true Chieftain can hold both the blade and the hilt as one. Chuundar knows this as well as Freyyr and I, and will probably be reluctant to have the two pieces reunited. Or, at least, he used to." Jolee sniggered. "He's trying to put an end to the old traditions, and I'm guessing that he has forgotten a lot of it.
"So all we have to do is make sure that the blade and hilt reunite while he is holding one of them." I said.
"Yes, it will prove Chuundar isn't worthy of being Chieftain, and that his father is." Jolee said. "So, as soon as we've gotten your Star Map, I'll take you to Freyyr. Then we can discuss what to do next.
"Wait." Kayle said as we started to return to the path. He turned and ran back over to where the Tarentatek had fallen, and I remembered; Juhani had fallen by the tree, during her attempt to distract the Tarentatek.
Jolee and I both ran after Kayle. By the time we reached him, he'd lifted Juhani into his arms and was already on his way back to us; actually, he was on his way back to Jolee's hut.
As soon as we got back to the hut, Jolee checked to make sure she was okay.
"Well, she's unconscious, but aside from that she's okay. I'd say she'll be out of it for another couple of hours." He concluded.
"Well just in case she wakes up earlier, we should leave her a holovid so that she knows where we are." Kayle said. Jolee nodded, and we set to work to get the holorecorder working.
About half an hour later, we were trekking down the forest path toward the forcefield Jolee had mentioned. We found it easy enough, and Jolee bypassed it easy enough with the key he'd stolen from the Czerka camp.
As soon as we passed through the framework of the forcefield, it started up again. This was okay, as it would stop any of the more dangerous beasts from crossing up into the less dangerous Shadowlands.
"Hey, what's that?" Kayle said, pointing forward. I followed his gaze, and noticed the glint of steel-against-steel, like one would see in a sword fight. We started running, and saw that there was a severely wounded wookie battling against three heavily armed Mandalorians.
Without thinking, I ignited my lightsaber. Jolee and Kayle followed suit, and the three of us rushed toward the Mandalorians. Kayle leapt to the aid of the wookie while Jolee and I took care of the other two Mandalorians.
The Mandalorians were both strong and skilled with swords, but there was one small problem with their swords: the cotorsis that was weaved into most swords had worn away from too many battles, and our lightsabers easily cut through the steel blades, before killing the Mandalorians quickly and easily.
"Oh Bacca, let this offworlder be unlike the others." The wookie growled.
"Who are you? What happened here?" Kayle asked, already reaching to his belt for a medpack. While he and Jolee treated the wookie's wounds, he explained his ordeal to them.
I looked around us and saw that forest floor around the wookie was covered in wookie corpses.
"I am Kiyarr. They came out of no where, blending in with the bushes until we were unarmed." Said the wookie. "They fought like predators, but they attacked like cowards! They slew my kin as we slept, and they only revealed themselves when we had disarmed. I only just managed to reach my sword before they were on top of me."
"Is there anything we can do?" I asked.
"My kinsman must be put to rest, but I am too weak to enact the Ritual of Farewell." Kiyarr said. "Not only that, they are guarded by those who have slain them; they are prisoners even after they are dead."
Kayle nodded. "Very well, I shall see to this immediately." Kayle said.
I would have preferred remaining focused on the mission. The first mission was finding the Star Maps. But I realized that there was no turning Kayle off the idea of helping overthrow Chuundar so that Freyyr could rule again. So the more wookiee' that actually liked us, the better.
It was not hard to find the Mandalorians. Although they had stealth units on, they had left a lot of evidence as to where they were: the wookiee corpses.
And, according to Kiyarr, the Mandalorian's had attacked when he and his kinsman had been unarmed. So we all attached our lightsabers to our belts as we stepped toward the pile of corpses. We'd barely gone three steps before three Mandalorians appeared, seemingly out of thin air, all their blasters trained on us.
Kayle smiled, despite being surrounded and having a blaster pointing at his head. A second later, he held his hand out toward a fallen log, and thrust his hand toward the Mandalorian nearest the log.
The log lifted off the ground as Kayle gestured at it, and then flew through the air to collide with the Mandalorian, Kayle had thrust his hand at. All this happened in about five or six seconds.
In those some few seconds, Jolee and I had used our own methods. I used the Force to trap the Mandalorian nearest me in stasis, whilst Jolee trapped his in what seemed to be a mini whirlwind of Force energy.
Then we both leapt upon our paralyzed opponents, cutting them down with our lightsabers.
We'd barely finished killing those three Mandalorians when we were attacked by another three. The end result was the same, it just took slightly longer. And even longer on the Mandalorians' third attempt to kill us.
Finally, they stopped, and we were able to return to Kiyarr to tell him.
"I thank you, offworlder. Ah, if only Freyyr was still Chieftain. The Mandalorians would never have gotten a foothold like this if he was."
Jolee raised an eyebrow. "You are one loyal to Freyyr?"
"My Kinsman and I are and will always be, Freyyr's most loyal followers. We came down here searching for him…sadly; the Mandalorian's found us before we could find him."
Kiyarr appeared to sigh, or at least, I'm pretty sure it was a sigh. "I cannot find him on my own, and without him there is no way to stop Chuundar."
"Oh, I think there may still be a way…" Kayle trailed off, then he detached a scabbard from his belt and tipped it upside down. Bacca's Blade slid down into his hand.
Kiyarr's eyes widened in awe and shock; "You…you carry the blade of Bacca?" Kayle handed the blade over to the awe-struck wookie, who turned the blade over in his hand, examining it. "It is as sharp now as the day it was forged…the symbols carved still perfect…it is indeed Bacca's Blade.
"But without a Chieftain to hold it, it is still useless. Chuundar will never allow the blade and hilt to rejoin; it would at once prove he is not a true Chieftain."
"We've got that covered as well." Jolee said. "I know where Freyyr is hiding. If you could gather any who are still loyal to Freyyr while we find him, it may help us greatly in the confrontation against Chuundar."
Kiyarr nodded. "I will do this thing. I shall see you in Rwookrrorro Village, where we shall take back Freyyr's reign as Chieftain." That said, the injured wookie ran back up the path, and with amazing power, bent his knees and propelled himself off the ground, just high enough to take hold of the top of the forcefield, and pull himself up and over.
With that done, we continued our journey deeper into the Shadowlands…
Authors Note: Oks, this chapter is ended rather abruptly, I'm having trouble with ideas and how to do this reasonable different from the game. Suggestions would be nice, and I'd also like to hear your guess on who Revan is disguised as.