Chapter 5: Old Friends, New Problems

Carth

Carth fired, hitting another fighter.

"Nice shot." Revan's voice was laced with static over the comlink. "Just a million more to go."

Carth checked his radar. There were at least thirty of these pesky little insects left, and they just kept buzzing around, whittling away at the Lumos' shields.

He took his aim and was about to fire again when, suddenly, the fighters dispersed in opposite directions, leaving the way clear in front of the Lumos.

Revan's voice came crackling in. "Carth?'

"What just happened?" he asked incredulously, still staring at the empty space before him.

"Look at your radar, Carth."

He looked down. The radar was detecting a massive… object. Carth looked into space and back at the radar a few times, then switched his comlink back on.

"Uh… what… what is that?"

"I don't know, but the way those fighters just scuttled off like that, I'm guessing it isn't good."

Carth's mouth went dry.

"Maybe the radar is malfunctioning. I'm going to contact Cyde. Don't go anywhere."

"Right."

Carth switched channels.

"Cyde, do you read me? Picking up a massive unidentified structure on radar. Could this be an equipment malfunction? Over."

"No, no," said the Rodian in spotty Basic. "Radar good. We pick up structure too."

Carth clenched his teeth. "Right. Thanks." He switched over to Revan.

"Carth?"

"The radar… it's fine. There's something there."

Revan sighed. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Bastila

Bastila was jarred from her restful meditation by ominous waves of panic.

"Revan," she whispered to herself.

Trying to shake it off, she rifled through her cabinets and threw on a blue robe. Her hands shook as she tied it around her waist.

Bastila slipped on brown sandals and walked out her back door. She stood beneath the golden sun, absorbing its warmth. Still, the foreboding feeling did not leave her in peace. Her head began to ache slightly.

"By Ragnos," she complained in an undertone, "I knew that Iridonian caffa was too strong."

A distinct taste filled her mouth, a rancid sense. Bastila gagged, then went cold as she felt the darkness around her.

No. The darkness was around Revan, she knew.

Bastila sat right on the grass beside the lake and meditated as hard as she could muster the strength for.

Revan

Revan felt as though fear was gripping her by the waist and whispering death sentences into her ears. Still, she fought. Carth was trying to hail the vessel with Kaas and Cyde, and there was no way to contact any of them.

Revan thought she heard a lilting voice calling to her, stretching like wisps of blue smoke from the planet below. Revan reached out to Alderaan with her mind, pinpointing one spot.

:Bastila…:

:There is no emotion:

:There is… peace…:

As Revan played the words of the Jedi Code through her head, they became stifled by the darkness around her.

-Have you at last, Darth Revan.

"Not… a Sith," protested Revan, the voices ringing with mockery through her head.

-You were. You can be again. The power you once had… the worlds you collected… held like a string of krayt dragon pearls… do you not wish for them when you're alone?

Revan struggled to fend off the solid evil forming around her like a wall.

:No: cried Bastila in her mind. :Don't let them block you from me:

Revan shut her eyes and tried to scream without air. Sweat streamed from her hairline.

Everything was darkness.