Chapter 15:

Revan

Opening her eyes, Revan saw blurred faces swimming above her. She watched as liquid features solidified and became distinct faces. Feeling returned to her body gradually, causing her to gasp and tense her limbs.

"Don't struggle," came Bastila's voice. Her face appeared above Revan, as calm as it always was. "We're at the base. While you were unconscious, I ran through the jungles to get help. Canderous waited with you, just in case he needed to fend off any more of those beasts. We decided that it would probably be unwise to move you ourselves."

Revan's mouth twitched as she attempted to smile. "Thnks." Her brow furrowed in thought. "Crth?"

"We contacted Carth on the Hawk. He'll be here."

"Cndrs?"

"He took some damage back there. He's just getting checked out. He's not very happy about it, either." Bastila sat down beside the hospital bed. "He feels a little guilty, I think. I probably should, too. Your vitals are definitely stabilizing, though. You're fine. Or you will be soon."

Revan shut her eyes. Bastila was talking too quickly for Revan's drowsy mind to totally comprehend. Carth was coming, though, and hopefully would be safer than they had been on their trek through the jungles.

Suddenly, a burst of pain rushed to Revan's side. She doubled over, her eyes wide. Bastila jumped up, putting her hands on Revan's bandaged waist. Revan could tell that Bastila was concentrating all of her mind on it, trying to heal the pain. Gradually, Revan relaxed her curled body. She uttered a sound that was meant as a 'thanks,' and was close to falling back into a weary sleep when she heard Carth's voice.

"Bastila," he called from far away, and he walked into the room. Revan's vision was getting blurry, and she knew that moving right now would hurt.

Carth knelt down in front of Revan, and she could barely see him learly. "Hey," she said softly.

"Hey, beautiful," Carth whispered, "you okay?"

Revan nodded. "Just need... sleep."

Carth looked up. Bastila reassured him that Revan would be fine.

"Okay, gorgeous," Carth murmured. "You go ahead. I'll be waiting."

Revan slipped back into slumber without another argument.

Canderous

"I'm fine. I need to get out of here, got it?"

The doctor looked at Canderous sternly. "You're done here," he admitted, readjusting a green lekku. "You check out. Just don't overexert yourself. Lucky you've got that implant thing. Which probably isn't completely legal, but who am I to judge?"

Canderous fixed his steely gaze on the physician. "So I can go. Right?"

The Twi'lek nodded, sighing. Canderous left immediately. He walked briskly down the corridor to where Revan was by following Bastila's voice.

"Onasi beat me here?" said Canderous in mock disgust. "I knew that examination was taking forever. How is she?"

"She'll be fine," Bastila repeated mechanically. "She's sleeping."

Canderous sat on a chair next to where Carth knelt, looking over Revan. Her waist was stiffly bound, and some of the blood had soaked through. Canderous' own hand still carried some of that blood. Looking at the wound made him grimace, remembering how after Bastila had left, he had had to watch her bleeding on the ground, holding her head up as he kept trying to halt the red liquid from pooling around her, stanching the blood with his strong hand and Revan's Jedi robes.

"Hey," said Carth, disrupting Canderous' horrible memory, "what's wrong?"

Canderous looked at the fear on Carth's face and paused, speechless.

"She..." Canderous began. He looked from Carth's anguished features to Revan, who slept peacefully, and back. "She's fine, Onasi. She always is."

Bastila

Uneasy vibrations moved through the room as Carth and Canderous periodically checked on the sleeping Revan. It became impossible for Bastila to center herself in the midst of such base emotions and worries. In turn, this worried Bastila: if she could not revive Revan quickly, would Revan even wake up before the Sith struck again? Or at all? Revan's condition was much worse than Bastila had told Carth and Canderous, and she was not about to brake her promise to them that she would heal soon. Maybe if those two didn't keep sticking their heads in here, thought Bastila irritatedly. I'll tell you how Revan's going to be if you don't stop harassing us.

Finally, it seemed as though Carth and Canderous were done pestering Bastila, and she began to collect her energies, as though packing all the power she had into a compact wad, concentrated and potent. Bastila focused on this power, transferring it to Revan in the form of healing, utilizing the bond they had to make the healing more acute than an ordinary healing. Revan's sleeping body absorbed this energy, rolling over to face Bastila as though for more. Her eyelids fluttered. Bastila tried to keep restoring Revan's energy as the latter's glazed eyes began to become alert and her body began to twitch.

"Revan?" Bastila whispered weakly, trying not to attract the attention of Carth or Canderous.

"How... how am I?" asked Revan.

"You're fine," Bastila assured her with a smile. "You really are, this time, too."

Revan was still unable to sit up, but her eyes were clear, and she was finally coherent again.

"So what's going on?"

"Not much. Do you know where we are? And what happened before you came here?"

"We were on Bakura. I was... we were fighting. Animals. They ripped my side open. Canderous held me up. Then... I don't know. I felt like I was out of my body."

"Good," breathed Bastila. "Memory seems fine, anyway."

"And then I woke up once, right? And I saw Carth... was it a dream?"

Carth walked in. "No, it happened," he said, kneeling down to embrace Revan. Canderous stepped in after Carth, hanging back in the door frame. "You were out for so long," Bastila heard Carth murmur to Revan. "Had me worried." Revan mumbled something back to him, but as Bastila edged away, she could not hear it.

"I thought you two had forgotten about us," Bastila said to Canderous, "as you finally stopped barging in every thirty seconds."

"Far from it," Canderous sighed. "I've never seen anyone talk as much as Onasi when they have a drink in front of them."

"So that's where you were? Getting Carth to drown all his sorrows in juma juice?"

"Trying, anyway," corrected Canderous. "He wouldn't touch the stuff. Just kept talking about anything he could think of. I got so many strange looks that I finally had to take him out."

"Didn't seem to take very long."

"Yeah, this base isn't very big. Probably everyone around here now has heard of the Mandalorian and his babbling lunatic friend."

Bastila looked over at Carth and Revan. Carth had laid the side of his face down, gazing squarely into Revan's eyes. Revan was still weak, but whatever she was able to say seemed to be very amusing to Carth. When Bastila looked back at Canderous, it seemed that he was also watching the two quite intently.

A shiver traversed Bastila's spine, and she looked warily at Canderous. Finally, he noticed, turning to her.

"What?"

"Nothing. Sorry."

Quickly, Bastila rushed over to Revan's side. "I hate to break this up," she began, interrupting Carth and Revan, who seemed deeply absorbed with each others' eyes, "but we should probably decide on a plan of action now, while you're recuperating."

Revan sighed. "We're going to resupply. Are the droids still on the ship?"

"Yeah," answered Carth.

"Do you think I could get T3 out here before I'm out of the hospital?"

"Onasi'll get the droids," Canderous called out. "It'll be good for him to get some exercise." Carth rolled his eyes, but got up and left for the Hawk all the same.

'You've got that one trained pretty well," quipped Canderous, moving closer to Bastila and Revan. "Does he know 'shake?'"

"Nice to see you, too, Canderous."

"I knew you'd pull through, Rev. How're you doing?"

"Could be better," Revan admitted. "Like my head could stop throbbing. Or maybe the lights could stop humming so loud. And the feeling could come back to my legs. Otherwise, I'm fine."

"Glad to hear it. I expect to see you shooting up rancors by tomorrow, then."

"Whatever you say."

"So, Revan," Bastila interrupted abruptly, almost nervously, "where after Bakura?"

"It isn't where we go, it's how we get there that matters. I say we just run around here for a while. You know, as soon as I can run again."

Bastila nodded. "Sounds good. Carth needs to finish up the repairs, anyhow."

"Then we'll wait," Revan concluded.

Revan

T3 rolled towards Revan as she lay in bed, alone beneath the dim light. Satisfied that no one but the droid was there, Revan began to talk to it.

"T3, the voices are back. While I was unconscious, they spoke to me... and I know where I'm going now."

"Dwoo?"

Revan's veins felt like they were filled with ice as she said the name. "Malachor V, T3. I have to go back there. And from there... who knows? Somewhere far away, T3, that's all I'm certain of. I'm going somewhere..." she bit her lip, "where I can't take them. Not... not even Carth. Or you. It could destroy me, T3, but there is a force out there that will destroy us all if I don't leave here. I won't put the rest of you in danger, T3. I already owe you all so much..."

"Dweet?" inquired T3.

"I need you to help me... get everyone else away."

T3 backed away slightly.

"I know. I don't want to. But I don't want anyone to get hurt."

T3 whirred quietly in concession.

"Good. Just don't tell anyone about these conversations. We've got a lot to plan..."