Chapter 4: Old Friends, Same Problems
Revan
Onboard the Lumos, Revan arose from her meditation, treading lightly in her mind around stressful topics so as not to upset the crystalline peace she had surrounded herself with. Revan sat down at the ship's dejarik board and exhaustedly rested her head on her folded arms.
"We're not going to Nar Shaddaa?" Carth's voice startled her, and she bolted up.
"Oh," she replied, relaxing, "no. Later. We have to make a quick stop on Alderaan first."
Carth strolled over and sat opposite Revan. He activated the board. Miniature holographic creatures flickered into existence on black-and-white shapes.
"Your move," he said. Revan chose her piece, and it jumped forward a space.
"I'm not going to make you book passage on some ryll-infested shuttle from Nar Shaddaa, Carth. Not in a million years."
Carth moved a piece towards Revan's side.
"And I'm not going to make you get that old ship. Do you even know if it still works? Safely?"
Revan's piece attacked from behind, an opening Carth seemed to have missed.
"The Hawk is not old."
"Oh yeah? How would you know? From all the owners who stole it before you?"
"That's not what this is about, Carth."
Carth's piece grabbed the throat of one of Revan's.
"You're right," said Carth, "this is about you leaving me because you've been having bad dreams. Checkmate."
Revan looked Carth in the eye as she switched off the game. Carth's jubilantly victorious pieces ceased their dances and vanished. Carth reached out and wove his fingers with Revan's. Her frustrated stare quivered.
"So you're just going to drop me on Alderaan or what?"
Revan lowered her gaze to their locked fingers. "No," she corrected, "you're dropping me off. I'm going to see an old… an old friend of ours."
Curiously, Carth raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't know you two still kept in touch," he remarked.
"We don't," Revan responded, "but she's there."
"Oh?"
Revan gave him eye contact with a smirk. "Looks like you'll just have to trust me, Carth."
Bastila Shan
Bastila stared intensely past the serene natural beauty of Aldera's outskirts.
Revan. Bastila could feel her former companion's presence growing closer. Their bond may have atrophied from lack of use, but it was still active, still functioning as a link between the two Force-users.
Bastila still hesitated to call Revan a Jedi. Technically, Revan did not live by the strict discipline of the Order, nor did she seem to intend to, judging by the last time the two had seen each other. Not that Bastila considered herself an ideal Jedi: her fall to the Dark Side about a year prior had proven her all-too-human fallibility. Their last reunion had been one on interesting terms: both had been returned to the Light Side by each other at some point, and Bastila felt that she understood Revan much better than she had before.
That had been months ago, but surely Bastila would have felt it if Revan's mind and heart had changed to such a degree. No, decided Bastila, their bond was not so weak yet that she would stay completely ignorant to significant changes in Revan.
Once in a while, Bastila was sure she had even glimpsed some of Revan's dreams. Otherwise, she reasoned, would she really have had such graphically violent dreams regarding cantankerous Master Vrook? Beheading of curmudgeonly Jedi Masters was not Bastila's preferred method of anger management.
Then there had been the more deeply disturbing dream of that cold, dead planet, seething with darkness, so real that Bastila was barely sure it had even been a dream. Young Malak dueling with a masked figure that could only be Mandalore himself. There was a massive shadow hovering over Revan, waiting for its chance to consume the young rogue Jedi. Before it could strike, however, Bastila had awoken, her heart beating double the rate of her already hastened breathing.
A silver lake stretched before Bastila's steady gaze. She brushed a lock of her chestnut hair behind her ear with a dexterous ivory hand.
Revan was going to have a lot of questions to answer if she was planning to come anywhere near Bastila.
Revan
Revan paced nervously around the room. Carth lazily reclined on a miscellaneous piece of fairly sturdy furniture that had come with the ship, sipping warm Rishiian syal nectar.
"Are you sure you don't want to sit down?" he asked tentatively. She shook her head, a movement Carth barely caught as she continued pacing. He shrugged and took another long drink of his beverage. When he lowered the glass, however, Revan came over and sat at the edge of the blocky mattress, tapping her fingers impatiently on the side of it.
Carth reached out and put his arm around Revan's waist. She clung to the furniture, grunting in protest, but Carth's superior strength pulled her back to him. He kissed her slowly, pacifying the rhythms of her fingers, and Revan could taste the sweet nectar on his lips. She felt its soothing effects set in, and as Carth looked into her eyes, she felt lethargic, but in such a way that it felt more like a quiet strength than a lack of energy. Revan nestled her head into Carth's chest, and Carth remembered how young she was. She sighed, and her eyelids lowered so that her lashes almost touched her face. Carth brushed her smooth cheekbones, and she looked up at him, her eyes emanating calm radiance.
The Lumos was suddenly shaken. All the serenity flew from the room as Carth and Revan jumped to their feet and rushed towards the cockpit.
We've taken a hit! shouted Kaas in Huttese. -Someone get in the turrets!
Carth and Revan turned in opposite directions and ran.