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: My apologies if Bastila's fall seems unrealistic, I'm not very good at personal things such as above mentioned fall.

Chapter 19: The Rise of Darth Veran

Bastila

I cried for hours after my realization. If Kayle had fallen to the Dark side, what use was he? How would he rescue me from the Sith if he had joined them? Oh, I felt so angry at him.

Maybe Revan was right… was I really hiding from what was rightfully mine? And were the Jedi really using me?

I looked at the facts…all through the war, I had used my Battle Meditation in battle after battle. The Council had thanked me, and yet… and yet something seemed to be missing. There was something I wasn't seeing, something about the Council. The battles would come, the Republic would send for help, the Council would send me with a small group of Jedi, and…

And the last piece clicked into place: the Council never joined us, except in that last battle when we had captured Malak. And even then, they hung back in their safe star destroyer while I risked my life for what turned out to be a decoy.

I felt resentment rising in me. Revan was right; they had used me… I had been nothing but a weapon to them! A tool to exploit in their battles!

A dam broke inside me, and everything – and I mean everything – that I had ever held back, suppressed or hidden came pouring out in a fit a rage, tears and screaming. I gave into it, let it consume me, I didn't want to feel anymore – my entire life I had been living a lie. Helping others when really the only people I'd been helping were a line of old fools in robes.

I lashed out; firing bolts of electricity around the room, not even realizing I was touching the Force again. The stone slab that had held me down and allowed me to be tortured, it was the first target of my anger. I fired wave after wave of Force lightning at it, until it was a few charred pieces of rubble. And then I turned my attacks to the room itself, just letting my anger feed my power. Anything that wasn't resistant to electricity of rock-solid was torn apart or burned to a cinder, nothing remained but the room itself and the cell door by the time I fell into an exhausted slumber.

"It's time, Bastila." I opened my eyes slowly to the voice.

"Leave me alone!" I snapped.

"No, I don't think I will." I heard Revan fire a blast of Force lightning at me. I was on my feet in an instant, hand raised. I caught the lightning in my hand, and fired back at Revan, fuelling it with my anger toward Revan for the merciless tortures she had dealt me.

She caught the lightning like I had, except instead of deflecting it back to me, she smirked, and closed her hand around it, extinguishing it. "I'm impressed." She said, with genuine respect in her eyes. "Even with the Dark side, few have been able to do that." She smirked. "I take it you are ready?"

I looked at the other woman. A part of me was screaming out that she had spent the last however many days making my life hell. Another part was saying that, if not for Revan, my eyes never would have been opened to the lies of the Jedi Council.

"I have one question." I said. Revan looked at me strangely, but nodded.

"Very well, ask." She said.

"Was your love for Carth genuine, or was he another pawn on your dejarik board?" I asked.

Her eyes seemed to grow distant for a moment. "I never would have expected it to happen." She said. "That morning, when I woke up next to him…I could almost believe all the lies I had spread. I was just a Jedi Padawan who had fallen in love with a man. Amidst all the lies, that was the one truth. Something I'd sworn never again to do by the way."

"You swore never to fall in love?" I asked curiously. Revan gave me a searching look.

"No." She said. "I swore I'd never touch a man in that way again after what Malak pulled." She said. Now, when I was a Jedi that might have bothered me. But it didn't now.

I nodded, and I dropped to one knee, bowing my head.

"I am ready now," I said. "I swear myself, in life and after death, on till you release me, to you, my Lady Revan."

Revan nodded, but had a look of only half-satisfaction on her face. "Good, you have passed the first part of my test." She said. "But saying words, and proving loyalty, are two very different things. Follow me." She turned, completely certain I would follow, and walked out of the cell. I followed.

"Before I fully accept you as my apprentice, you must prove that you truly have broken all ties to your old allies." Revan said. She opened another cell door, and took something from the pocket of her Dark Jedi robes, handing it to me. I looked down at the object: a lightsaber.

"Go in, you will find the final half of your test inside." She said. I nodded, stepping through the door. Revan sealed it off behind me.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dark, but when I did, I wished they hadn't.

Lying on the floor in front of me, barely conscious and very badly injured, was Erik. For a moment, I faltered. But then I remembered what Revan had said 'He was sent with you by the Jedi Council, as a test, if you will, to see if you could resist the temptation' and any mercy I may have given him was quashed.

"Bast…Bastila- argh!" I cried out in pain as I unleashed a storm of Force lightning on him. He toyed with my emotions, on orders of those old fools. He deserved what he was getting. His death would not be a merciful, painless death. He would suffer before dying – I would make him suffer, just like Revan had made me suffer.

For the next half an hour, I test my new Force abilities out on Erik: lightning, strangulation, plague, and finally, death field, killing him and rejuvenating my strength.

I smirked down at the charred corpse of my former lover. A small part of me was disgusted at what I'd done. I brushed that small part away. "That chapter of Bastila Shan has come to a close." I said to myself.

"Indeed it has." Revan said. I spun around. She was obviously impressed by what I'd done. She nodded approvingly. "You are no longer simply Bastila Shan. Henceforth, you shall be known to your followers as Darth…" She seemed to consider for a moment. "Veran!"

I bowed my head, filled with an odd sort of pride. "Thankyou, my master." I whispered.

Almost a week passed as we prepared for Malak's arrival. I told my new master of the vision I had. She told me she knew of the happenings on Korriban. She had made sure Yuthura got on Malak's good side – Yuthura was far easier to control the Uthar was, so Revan had made sure Kayle had spared her, thinking he was getting a new ally.

Finally, they arrived in the Rakatan system. I watched from the observation deck on the Star Forge as the Ebon Hawk flew into the disruptor field around the Star Forge, and made an unceremonious crash-landing on the Rakatan Homeworld.

"It is time." Revan said behind me. "Go to the Rakatan temple. It is there that you will face your old friend…and my traitorous apprentice."

"Of course, my Master." I said. I left the observation deck, ready to go and face Malak, and end the war against the Republic once and for all. With his death would come the death of the last chance the Republic had.