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: The only other chapter that will be told (at least partially) by Kayle. After this chapter, only Bastila and Revan will be telling the stories.

Chapter 18: Revelations

Bastila

"Argh." I cried out in pain as yet another storm of Force lightning coursed through my body. I was chained to a large slab of stone, unable to move an inch, and unable to touch the Force.

When I had first woken up here, I felt like my nightmares had all caved in on top of me. There had been six Dark Jedi surrounding me, all of them with a terrifying hunger in their eyes. I may not have been as terrified if I hadn't found myself blocked from the Force, unable to sense or touch it. It was like being five years old again, when my training under Master Zhar had begun.

The following few hours had been the most horrifying and sickening hours of my life. Unable to fight back, stuck in a preserved consciousness by the Force, I could do nothing but cry and hope that they left me alone soon.

Revan had been even more terrifying when he had learned of what they had done. First, he had murdered each and every one of them in different ways in front of me. Then he had spent the following three hours forcing me to relive my worst fears by using a horrid power of the Dark Side, to vent his frustrations.

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of those horrifying thoughts. I wanted to forget that first day. But at that very moment, I also wanted to die, and neither looked like they were going to happen anytime soon.

I opened my eyes and stared defiantly into the cold grey eyes of Darth Revan, the only part of his body visible now that he was wearing only a half-mask, hiding his face from his nose down. I'm sure he was smiling under that mask as he released another electrical attack.

I cried out again; you would think that after three days of almost non-stop lightning coursing through your body, you would eventually stop feeling, or die. Unfortunately, Revan was making sure the attacks were not lethal.

I say unfortunately because after three days straight of lightning coursing through your body, death begins to seem very welcoming. It would be a release from the seemingly endless tortures I had had to endure from Revan over the past three days.

I snarled at him. "You think torture will turn me, Revan?" I sneered. "You are more a fool then I thought."

Revan laughed, that horrid, synthesized laugh that manipulated his voice. "Torture? No, my dear." Revan came closer, so we were face-to-face. "You misunderstand. This is but a taste of what the dark side is. It calls to you, I can see it. You are tempted to use it against me." He laughed again. "You know it is the only thing that can save you from my torment. And yet you hide from it."

"I'm not the one who is hiding, Revan." I said, smirking. Revan's eyes narrowed for a moment, as if trying to read my face. He laughed again.

"My mask?" He asked. "I wear it so you do not have to look upon a face you once recognized."

"I'd much prefer to see the face of my killer." I said.

"Oh?" Revan was smirking underneath the half-mask. I could see it in his eyes. "I have no intention of killing you, my dear. But, perhaps what you say is true. Malak saw my face before swearing himself to me. But I warn you, I have changed greatly since you last saw me."

He reached up, and pulled away the mask, and lowered the hood. A gasp escaped me as I looked upon the face of Darth Revan.

Kayle

I slowly opened my eyes. Where was I?

And then all the memories flooded back. Being captured by Revan's Ship. Getting to the Bridge of the ship to open the hangar bay doors. Being met by Revan. The battle, and then…

My eyes widened when that last memory came back.

Bastila climbing back up onto the main deck and attacking Revan, and Juhani pulling away, helping me to get away while Bastila fought Revan.

My eyes widened when I realized what had happened. As I did, I noticed a glint of steel by my side. He looked down, and saw what looked like a skeleton bones of an arm – except they were made out of some kind of metal. I flexed the fingers for a moment, confirming that it was mine. Then I stood up.

I suddenly realized that I wasn't on the Ebon Hawk. No wonder, there was nothing on the Ebon Hawk that would have made my new arm, nor was there anyone with the skill to do it.

I looked over and saw Juhani asleep in a chair beside the bed, and T3-M4 active beside her.

I also noticed the datapad Bastila had given me on the table beside the bed. Sighing, I decided to wait a moment before waking Juhani, and got back into the bed, taking the datapad and giving it to T3.

"Activate it, please." I said. T3 beeped, and an image of Bastila appeared in front of me.

Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be pained or saddened by something. She opened her eyes and looked sadly at me.

"Kayle…this data-recording will begin to erase itself as soon as you activate it, a small program I had T3 add to it." My eyes drifted to T3 for a moment, then back to Bastila. "For that reason, I hope you pay attention to what I'm about to say. First, if you are seeing this, then events aboard Revan's ship have played out as I had hoped…"

At that I gasped. She had known. She had known this would happen, and she had still come with us to the Bridge of that damn ship! Damnit, why hadn't I stopped her?

"Kayle, this was not your fault, as I know you believe it is. I made a choice to come with you. I made it because I knew I had to, because this was not the only path set before us on Revan's ship." At this, she gave a long sigh. "From the day we left Dantooine, I have known that the day would come when he left Manaan, having faced a Hunter, a Beast and a Killer." Calo Nord, the Krayt Dragon, Darth Taliat. "And we would be captured by Darth Revan. When that happened, one of three events would take place depending on what I chose to do.

"Down one path, Revan killed both you and Juhani, and took me as his apprentice. Down another, he told you what I'm about to tell you myself…you gave into your anger and your hate, you attacked him and he killed you, and then he killed both Juhani and I." She sighed again. "Please know this Kayle: I never meant for you to get hurt. But I also do not believe that none of this was my fault. I should have told you this the day we left Dantooine." The next three words would stay in my mind for the rest of my life: "You are Malak…"

Bastila

"No…it can't be…" I whispered.

"Can't it?" Revan smiled cruelly as I saw her face. Zora Firemoon…Revan… How could it be her? "You Jedi are all so gullible." She smirked, and I got the feeling I was in for a story. Zora…Revan began pacing slowly around the room, smiling as if recalling a happy memory.

"It all started not long after Malak rained destruction upon Telos. Oh yes, that wasn't my doing." She added when she saw the look on my face. "I had told him to conquer it, not obliterate it – Telos had valuable recourses." She frowned. "Well, obviously, I had to give him a suitable punishment, so I…"

Revan

Malak fell to his knees, and then face forward onto the floor of the Bridge, making not a sound except for an occasional groan.

"Let that be a lesson to you Malak." I snarled from behind my mask. "Don't you ever – betray me – again!" The burnt remains of his lower jaw (a lightsaber was such a fabulous weapon) lay not far ahead of Malak. "And let that be a lesson to you all – betrayal is not taken lightly among the Sith!"

I stepped over Malak's unmoving body as I left the Bridge. "Get him to the Infirmary, let them deal with the mess." I added as I left.

He would not get what he had wished for. I would save myself for another, and it would not be him.

Bastila

"You were going to…? With him?" I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"Well, he was a childhood friend. Emphasis on was." Revan said. "We had grown closer during the war, up until the Telos incident. But he had crossed a line – it's one thing to destroy, say, a small city as an example. But to wipe away an entire planet? That's just going too far!"

"And of course, Malak didn't seem to think that his crime had not earned him such a gruesome such a punishment, so he began plotting revenge." Revan laughed as if she found the subject funny. "I wouldn't have found out about it quicker if he had come up to me and shouted at me that he was plotting to take over my empire!"

"I would hardly call a fleet of cowards in a few dozen star destroyers, an empire." I said.

Revan shrugged. "In more recent times, after I'd learned about Malak's plans, I began making some plans of my own." She said. "First, I would need a decoy. If Malak was going to fire on my ship during that battle, some poor pathetic being would need to be there in my place. So I used the Force to take control of one of my Jedi prisoners-turned-Dark Jedi, a young Padawan named Zora Firemoon, would take my place on the Bridge."

Revan

"My Lady, the fleet is in position." The admiral said proudly. I frowned. He was getting a little too ambitious – he would have to go. But for now…

"Very good, admiral." I said. "Dark Jedi Firemoon is on board my ship, as per my orders. The Battle Meditation girl, Bastila Shan, she'll be there. Now let's see if she's as good as she's been made out to be."

We watched over a view screen as she approached my decoy, and ignited her lightsaber. She tore through what little of my honour guard I'd permitted Zora to have, and then said something to Revan. Then I saw the Leviathan power up its torpedo bay.

"I don't think so Malak." I said. I waved a hand and the proton torpedos that Malak had fired became frozen in stasis. I turned back to the view screen. "That little bitch, she's trying to kill her!" I snapped. My decoy seemed to have taken on a mind of her own and had attacked Bastila.

"We'll see about this." I whispered. Separating my focus two ways, I released the proton torpedos, and at the same time I created a Force shield around Bastila. The torpedos hit, the ship rocked, and I saw my decoy consumed by the electrical blast form the power conduit exploded behind her, and killing everyone in the Bridge except Bastila. Smirking, I handed two data-disks to the admiral. "See that this one is transmitted to the Jedi's ship, and that this one is transmitted to Malak's ship. Let me know as soon as it is done."

"Of course, milady." The admiral said, and he set about doing it immediately. I walked out of the Bridge. There was a score I had to settle with Malak for what he'd done to the supposed me.

I went straight to our own torpedo bay, and had a quick conversation with the two men working there. As soon as the admiral gave me the words that he'd sent the messages, I nodded, and they emptied our missile bay out into space, aiming all of the torpedos at the Leviathan.

Bastila

"And so, Malak was no more." Revan continued. "Or so I thought." She seemed annoyed. "I infiltrated the Jedi, assuming the identity of my decoy, Zora Firemoon. Almost no one knew what she actually looked like, so it was easy to do so.

"Imagine my surprise when, by chance, I passed the infirmary and found Malak suspended in a Kolto tank!" She snapped at me. "I couldn't attempt to kill him then and there, so the following night, I took out my battle-robes and mask, and went to the infirmary."

My thoughts drifted back to that night in the infirmary when I'd seen her try to kill Kayle/Malak.

Revan

I looked up at Malak's suspended, comatose form, and smirked. "I warned you," I whispered. "Betrayal is not tolerated, Malak." I noticed the Jedi had somehow managed to grow back his lower jaw – that must've been painful. I was happy about that. I turned and walked over to the Kolto controls, and tapped a few buttons.

The kolto supply to Malak's tank stopped flowing, and his body started to shudder. I was just getting ready to eject him from the tank when I sensed the presence of someone approaching. I turned, and my eyes locked onto the sky-blue eyes of Bastila Shan.

I raised my hand, curling my fingers as if taking hold of something. Through the Force, I was taking hold of something – her throat. I held on for a few seconds, before remembering I needed her. Sighing, I released her, and threw her backward out of the infirmary and crashing into the wall across from the door. I then ignited my lightsaber.

I took a few steps toward Bastila, and then my focus drifted to the snap-hiss of another lightsaber igniting. My focus turned to the Jedi Knight carrying the emerald green lightsaber, and I smirked. I may not have gotten Malak that night, but at least I would get to kill someone.

I sped forward, propelled by the Force, and slashed the Knight across her chest, then stabbed my lightsaber into his stomach. She barely had time to fight back.

I shook my head – Jedi were just too easy to beat these days. So much for a decent kill.

I quickly discarded and hid away my battle robes, and then rushed to the side of the fallen Knight. From what I remembered, she was the mentor of the real Zora Firemoon – perfect, a Master and Apprentice often shared a bond through the Force. I would claim to have been woken by the Bond signifying the death of my Master.

I ran down the hall, and heard more Jedi coming I made myself look like I had just come out of one of the many Padawan quarters, and sprinted down the hall.

Bastila

"You killed her?" I asked.

Revan nodded proudly. "I was being honest with you in the escape pod during our rather rushed escape from the Endar Spire. If I ever get my hands on the incompetent admiral who ordered that attack, I'll tear him limb from limb and feed him to my Rancor!" She was annoyed again. I braced myself, and sure enough, Revan fired a quick blast of electricity at me.

"Stop fighting me, Bastila." Revan said seductively. "Give into the Dark Side. Give into it's call, and feel the true power of the Force!"

"Never!" I spat.

Snarling, Revan raised her hands and released of storm of lightning at me. "I can see into your heart Bastila." She said. "You want to give into it. You want to use its power to punish me like I've been punishing you. Do it!" I shook my head, sobbing uncontrollably. Not because of the pain – because she was right. I wanted to give in, at least a small part of me did. I wanted to hurt her, for hurting me.

"No…no, I…" Was all I could manage before I mercifully passed out.

I woke up, eyes wide and looking around wildly. I was on the floor, no longer chained to the large slab of stone, and I could see a small tray of food not far from the door of my cell.

Sighing, I crawled weakly over to the tray, and hungrily ate the pitiful pieces of meat and the stale piece of bread, and gulped down the foul tasting liquid that had been left for me.

Even hungrier then before I'd eaten anything, I crawled back over to where I'd woken up, curled into a tight ball, and tried to get back to sleep.

But I was woken what seemed like only moments later as another wave of Force lightning coursed through my body and lifted me into the air.

"The best time to attack someone, if you want to break them," Revan said. "Is when they're down and unexpecting." The lightning stopped and I crashed to the floor, hurt and confused for a moment about what was happening. Then it all came flooding back to me, and I small whimper of despair escaped my lips.

"Do you remember Erik?" Revan asked. "You wanted to give into your emotions with him as well, didn't you? Did you know he was never actually attracted to you?"

"You're lying!" I said. I don't know why I said it – I don't know why I wanted to believe he had loved me.

"Am I?" Revan asked. "He was sent with you by the Jedi Council, as a test, if you will, to see if you could resist the temptation. A pawn, just like Malak, just like you."

"No…you're wrong." I said dejectedly.

"No, I'm not." Revan said. "The Council used you, exploited the Bond between Malak and yourself to try and find the Star Forge. I know what they told you Bastila. That you had a destiny before you, that you could do great things with your power."

"I…I…" I couldn't deny what she was saying. They had told me that.

"Well, I got told the same thing. So did Malak, so do all other Jedi in the beginning." She shook her head in disgust. "'You have great power, Revan.' They said. 'You will do great things with your life.' Ha! Every word they say is a lie!"

She took a step toward me, and I tried to back away. "Break away from the Jedi, Bastila!" She whispered. "You can do great things, that much is true, but to do it, you must use the Force as it was meant to be used – without the restrictions of the Jedi."

"I will not give in to the Dark Side!" I snapped.

"Light side, Dark side!" Revan held both hands out in front of her. In one, a bright white light gathered, in the other, a swirling black mist.

"What…?" I have to admit, I was intrigued by what she was done.

"Nothing more then speeding up molecules to create light," She nodded to her left hand, where the light was. "And expelling the light from the air to create darkness. Now, watch what happens." She brought her hands together, cupped in front of her. The mist swirled around the bright lights, but nothing more happened. "Notice, neither is conflicting with the other, they are exact opposites, and yet two sides of the same substance.

"The Force is the same." Revan said. "The Jedi would tell you the Dark Side is evil, that it is to be feared. But the Dark side is no less dangerous then the Light side." Both the light and the mist faded. "Did you know that many see the Jedi and the Sith the same way. Two different names for exactly the same thing."

"Then they are fools." I said.

"In that, I agree with you." Revan said. "The Jedi seek knowledge and wisdom from the Force. But knowledge can only be gained by understanding the whole, not merely the easy."

"The Light side is not easy-" I started.

"And you think the Dark side is?" Revan demanded. "The Light side is very easy compared to the Dark side. It is a constant struggle for control, never ending." She smirked. "'Harmony erodes us; it is conflict that strengthens us' my old Master once said that."

And with that, another wave of lightning was thrown at me. I screamed in pain, for what seemed like hours. It was a merciful relief when I once again lost consciousness.

Bastila/Vision

"Sorry, Uthar... I'm with Yuthura on this one." I said.

"Do you hear that, my master?" Yuthura asked, her lekku's twitching with excitement. "That is the sound of a new leader rising to replace you."

"So the time has come, has it?" Uthar did not seem surprised at all at the outcome. "You both wish to stand against a Sith Master and perish, do you? THEN SO BE IT!" He ignited his double-bladed lightsaber, the crimson blades shooting from both ends. Yuthura ignited her single lightsaber, while I ignited the Sith Lightsaber I had gotten.

I attacked with aggressiveness and raw power, again and again I struck, Uthar was unprepared for such ferocity from a mere 'student' and was quickly forced onto the defensive by Yuthura and I. Within moments, it was over.

"Uthar is finished, and a new order is brought to the academy." Yuthura laughed, an exhilarated smile on her face. Then she turned to me, and smiled evilly. "While I do like you... truly... I'm afraid I'm not the type to share power with anyone. Even you."

"Typical. I knew this was coming." I said, igniting the Sith Lightsaber again, smirking. This would be fun. "

"I... I did tell you there was no such thing as friends among the Sith, didn't I?" Yuthura said apologetically. "Let's get this over with."

She leapt forward, igniting a second lightsaber in her left hand, and attacking with the same ferocity the two of us had used against Uthar just seconds ago. As soon as she was within range, I ignited a lightsaber I'd smuggled into the tomb with me, it slid down my sleeve, and the crimson blade erupted from the hilt, blocking both of her lightsabers, and I swung the Sith Lightsaber around to decapitate her.

She blocked the attack with barely a second to spare, spun around and made another attack with her offhand lightsaber. I blocked that with the Sith Lightsaber and slashed at her side with my own. The attack grazed her, and she back away, discarding the burning black cloak of her robe.

We circled each other, both of us waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, she stepped forward, swinging her lightsaber toward me. I blocked, pushing my lightsaber harder and harder.

In one fluid motion, I pushed her backwards, my lightsaber cutting across the side of her arm, and the Sith Lightsaber grazing her left leg.

She gasped in pain and staggered back, dropping both lightsabers to the ground. "Stop! I... I yield!" She gasped. "You are... too strong for me. I was a fool to think otherwise. I am... at your mercy." She fell to her knees, bowing her head in shame.

I looked down at her, and a thought crossed my mind. "Yes…you could be of use to me." She looked up at me, shocked. "Know that this is not mercy, but I will need someone to take care of the Academy after I have killed my old Master." I said, helping her to her feet.

"Of course, but…" She stopped, suddenly realizing what I had said. "Old master?" She fell to one knee. "Lord Malak, forgive me, I did not know it was you."

"Rise, or I will…"

Bastila

I woke slowly, the vision ending. So Kayle had the final Star Map? I thanked the Force, he was on his way. On his way to save me, and…

And then I realized just what I had felt in that vision. Darkness, corruption, anger. And I realized what had happened: Malak had fallen to the Dark side.