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: A one night stand with another Jedi. Or is he a Jedi? What will Bastila do about the result?
Chapter 12: T3's Temper
Bastila slowly opened her eyes. Erik was laying next to her, a half grin on his face as he stroked her hair. His cheeks coloured when he realized she was awake, but his smile broadened. "Hello." He said.
Bastila sat up, looking around. "Oh." Was all she said, and it was weak, as if she'd given up a losing fight. Then she turned to Erik, and the look she gave him told him she didn't feel the same way about their night as he did. "We... we shouldn't have done this." She whispered. "It was wrong. The Jedi aren't allowed to fall in love."
"It didn't feel wrong to me." Erik said weakly, obviously hurt by what she had said.
"It was... it was a moment of weakness. When I kissed you... we shouldn't have... no, I'm sorry." Bastila stood, and picked up her clothes, pulling her cloak around herself. "I know we both wanted it, but we shouldn't have given in to our desire. We're Jedi! We can't act like this. Not now, not while we still have to deal with Revan! I'm... I'm sorry. I don't blame you, but... it was a mistake. I have to get out of here before somebody sees us together!"
With that, the young Jedi fled the Dormitory and rushed through the Ebon Hawk to the Refresher, and came out again a few minutes later as if she'd just had a shower. After breakfast, the crew gathered in the central room, and Kayle divided everyone into groups again; Carth, Zora and Erik were together – Bastila purposefully avoided Erik's gaze – and would be asking around to see if they could find anyone who owned a translator droid that could speak Tusken (the Sand People language).
Mission, Seth, Zaalbar and Jolee would remain on the Ebon Hawk to make sure no one boarded without permission.
And Kayle, T3, Canderous and Bastila would all be using the Hunting Licenses to scout the area outside Anchorhead, so they wouldn't get lost later on during the actual mission.
Zora sighed as she the greedy Ithorian spoke, "It's a very solid machine, in good shape. I can't let it go for less than 5000 credits." He was talking about the rust-coloured, demonic-looking droid that stood in a corner. While Erik examined it, Zora and Carth were bargaining for it with Yuka Laka.
"Could I convince you to lower the price a bit?" She said in her most sweet-innocent-girl tone.
"4000, not a credit less!" Said the Ithorian. Zora muttered a Huttese curse under her breath, then smiled at Yuka Laka. It wasn't that she couldn't afford 4000 credits, it was the fact that she despised the Ithorian enough to not want to pay him that much, especially if the droid was as 'uncooperative' as he had described it.
"Perhaps you should lower the price a little more." She said persuasively, backing her words up with the Force. The Ithorians' eyes glazed over for a moment.
"Perhaps I should lower the price a little more." He said, mimicking her almost word for word. "2500, no less."
"2500 then. I can pay that." She handed the credit chips to the Ithorian, being sure to wipe her hand after he touched her, and then went over to the HK-47 and had his restraining bolt removed.
"This droid is quite a fascinating model." Erik said. "I may take a look at its circuitry later; see if I can't find out where he really came from."
While all this was happening, Kayle, Bastila, Canderous and T3 had made it out of Anchorhead. Before leaving, they had been asked by a Jawa to rescue his tribe from the Sand People. Kayle had obliged, saying he would seek out the Sand People and be sure to find out about the tribe.
After leaving Anchorhead, they had been confronted by a woman. She had said something about an anniversary gift, and in a way that made it seem like she was planning to kill him.
"Oh, I'm through planning. I just left him a little mess that he has to take care of. If he's smart, he'll be just fine." The woman said when Kayle said this. "But he's not smart." She added flatly.
Bastila seemed intrigued by the woman, and Canderous gave a complimentary nod. Kayle was somewhat perplexed by their vague admiration of the woman, but he quickly forgot about it as he saw a group of tall robes running towards them.
"Sand people!" He shouted. He and Bastila both ignited their lightsabers – green and orange blades appearing side by side – and Canderous and T3 powered up their blasters. The woman – Marlena, she'd said her name was – pulled out a pair of short swords and the three Melee combatants split to face one Sand Person apiece while the Mandalorian and the Astromech droid rained blaster fire down them.
"That's one thing about this planet I won't miss." Marlena said as the last Sand person fell. "Don't forget, when you see, Tanis, tell him his wife says hello." With that, she went back through the gate. A moment later, Carth, Zora, Erik and an evil looking droid came through, and there was a quick discussion on what to do next. Erik, Bastila, Zora and Carth ended up going back; leaving Kayle, Zora, T3 and HK-47 to deal with whatever else they met during their current sweep of the dunes near Anchorhead.
Not far out into the dunes, Kayle heard a whiny sort of voice, "Anyone out there...?" Kayle tried to duck behind a dune before the man saw him, but he wasn't fast enough. "Could you help? I seem to be... ah... doomed."
Sighing, Kayle approached the man, and guessed that it was Tanis by the predicament he was in.
The dark skinned man was surrounded by four droids – each of them was making a strange buzzing sound and shivering as if caught in a program glitch.
"I don't remember you from Fazza's club." Tanis said, looking Kayle up and down as if sizing him up. "You new to Anchorhead? Could you maybe help me get out of here?"
"You're Tanis, right?" Kayle said. "You're wife says hello."
"I'll bet she does." Tanis said glumly. "She's decided I've finally worn out my welcome, and she's "fixed" my droids to do her dirty work."
"Commentary: One would hope the female is better at repairs than Yuka Laka." Said HK-47. "I still would like to crush his neck, master."
"Perhaps later." Zora said, as if she didn't really care.
"I triggered some sort of trap she programmed." Tanis said, his voice returning to its whiny tone. He didn't appear to notice what HK had said. "She probably figured I wouldn't be smart enough to get out. Uh, she was right."
"What do you want me to do?" Kayle asked flatly.
"The wife put a kink in my battle droids. They're in some sort of discharge loop, and if I move from this spot, they're threatening to blow up." Tanis gave a sad sigh that almost made Kayle pity him. Almost. "She knew I wouldn't know how to fix them. Could you try to do some repairs? They don't care if you move. It's just me who's stuck."
T3 gave a beep, and Tanis' eyes lit up as if he'd just seen a couple thousand credits. "Hey yeah! You've got yourself a 'mech droid, there! Tell it to do it! Please!" Kayle winced when Tanis said 'Tell it to do it'. The little Astromech droid could be quite tempermental.
T3 made a strange splurging sound and sent a small bolt of electricity at Tanis.
"Hey, now... did your droid just spit at me? I just need a little help here."
"Commentary: I say we blast the meatbag and save you the trouble, master." HK said.
"What's with all the droids, lately? My wife get to you, too?" Tanis shook his head as if trying to rid himself of a terrible thought.
"Negative. I just don't like organic meatbags. Except for the master, of course. Ha ha."
Sighing, Kayle raised a hand and gestured in the general direction of each droid. All four of them suddenly stopped moving, then fell in a smoking heap onto the sand.
"There, you're safe." He said. "Anything else?"
Tanis looked like there was something else, but he flinched under Kayle's stare and ran off in the direction of Anchorhead.
"Okay, one sniveling idiot taken care of, one to go." Kayle said.
"Who's the next one?" Zora asked, catching up to Kayle as he trudged in the direction of a Sand Crawler. The Czerka woman had given them the hunting licenses on the condition that they dealt with the Sand People. The best way to find an angry native was to find the invaders main vehicle. The natives would most likely not be far off.
"Griff Vao. Mission gave me the rundown on what the Czerka bitch in the office said." Kayle said flatly. "From the description she gave of Griff, he doesn't sound much better then Tanis."
As they approached the Sand Crawler, Kayle spotted six or seven Tusken's in a battle against nine or ten Czerka miners – the Sand people were winning.
Kayle ignited his lightsaber and leapt into the battle, swinging the blade in an emerald green arc that took out three Sand people. Zora rushed over and let loose a blast of Force energy that threw another couple Sand people to the ground, then decapitated each of them in turn. HK-47 seemed to be having the time of his life – shooting anything that moved (minus Zora, Kayle and T3-M3).
"HK-47, stop shooting the miners!" Zora shouted over the blaster fire. The droid ceased fire, and then turned to Zora.
"Statement: As you command, Master." The droid said.
"Who are you?" One of the miners, obviously the leader, asked. "Ah. It doesn't matter. I saw how you fought that last group of Sand people? Be ready, they may attack again at any second."
He was right, the next half-hour was spent doing nothing but wiping out Sand people that came too close to Kayle and Zora's lightsabers, or came within firing range of T3 or HK. When it was all finally over, the miner leader spoke up again, "Thanks for your help. I don't think we'll try holding this position for much longer. We're not soldiers." He looked Kayle up and down, as if only just realizing the younger man was carrying a lightsaber. "What would someone like you be doing all the way out here?"
"I'm…" He wasn't sure he should tell a member of Czerka what their plan was. Zora came to a quick solution.
"We've answered your question and you will now return to Anchorhead and tell the woman in the Czerka office to be ready for a ton of Gaffi sticks." She backed up her words with a push of the Force through their minds, and they all suddenly started running in the direction of Anchorhead.
"Okay, grab the Gaffi sticks and a few of the robes." Kayle said.
"The robes?" Zora asked as she bent beside the nearest corpse to grab the Gaffi stick.
"Mission said that the Sand people had stolen all of Czerka's land-based turrets, and used them to fortify their enclave." Kayle explained. He handed Zora the bag that held their supply of water. "We'll need disguises to get by unseen." Zora nodded, dumping four pairs of robes into the bag. They then collected the Gaffi sticks, and started the half-hour walk back to Anchorhead.