Chapter 16: Sendoff

Too late, Jedi

We warned you

Now come out and play

Revan

These nightmares barely fazed her now.

Revan was, after a week, finally up and on her feet again. The Bakuran base had been more than hospitable, even lending them a technician when Carth finally resorted to whacking random objects with a hydrospanner in an attempt to fix the Ebon Hawk. Everything was fully stocked, almost completely fixed, and would soon be ready to go whenever Revan was.

Revan, however, had much to do here.

She walked into the cantina, looking like an average spacer, and sat down, not intending to drink anything, but rather to scrounge some information.

"Hey," said an unshaven settler. "New around here? First drink's on me."

As the settler flagged down the bartender, Revan smiled and thanked the man politely.

"Hey," he said, "no problem. Name's Oren Minso. You came at a pretty slow time o' the year around here... usually, there's a buncha' vets from the Mandalorian Wars grousin' about... 'bout whatever, really."

"Yeah?" said Revan, acting nonchalant. "How do they get out here? I crashed, myself."

"Heh. You that spacer that came in the Hawk. Yeah, I've seen her before, probably about three owners before you had 'er. Well, spacer, a lot of 'em are like you... supplies. There're some shuttles, though... west end of the base. Go all over... Coruscant, Manaan, Nar Shaddaa... pretty much anywhere."

"I see." Revan made her excuses as soon as the settler began to open his mouth again, and moved out to find these westerly shuttles before another scruffy colonist could buy her any more of those terrible smoke-tasting drinks.

Carth

"Good. Thanks for all this," Carth said to the technician. The boy looked even younger than Dustil, Carth reflected. How frightening. With a feeling of obsoleteness, Carth walked into the cargo hold, where T3 was working.

"T3," Carth called. The droid turned his photoreceptor upwards to look at him. He beeped in acknowledgment, moving closer to Carth.

"T3, there's not much time- I've seen that expression on her face before," Carth said urgently, looking around to make sure no one was there. "Now, I don't know where she's planning on going, but it's dangerous..."

Canderous

He knew what she was doing, of course.

Canderous was not about to abandon Revan that easily, however. She could leave the others behind and say it was out of 'mercy,' but there was no good reason that Canderous should not keep following, and he knew that. He thought that Revan probably knew that, too, and that would be Canderous' ticket out to wherever she was planning on going.

Canderous also knew that Revan was looking at the shuttle bays. An old Mandalorian comrade of his, in fact, had overheard her talking about them in the cantina. If this was some other planet, it would have worried Canderous, but he knew Bakura. He knew that there were a lot more incoming shuttles than outgoing, and that a lot more people wanted to leave this mudhole of a planet once they arrived than wanted to stay. Even if Revan wanted to leave via the shuttles, no mere bribe could get her in, and no Jedi power could, either. She would be forced to make reservations at least a day in advance. In the time between now and then, Canderous figured, he would have his chances to comprehend what was going on.

Of course, the Force always seemed to twist things for Revan a little more than they did for most people, even most Jedi. This was Canderous' only concern. He hated having on gamble on this, but he had no choice. On any other planet, he would have contacts, influence. On Bakura, all he had was a whole lot of chance.

I wonder if the Force works in your favor if you're a Mandalorian, he thought to himself as he scrubbed a silver piece of leg armor at the workbench. She should know by now, he mused. "She can't get rid of me that easily."

"Query: To whom are you speaking, meatbag?"

"Hm?" Canderous turned around. He had forgotten that the droid was there. HK's head tilted inquisitively. "No one, droid," said the Mandalorian gruffly, "and certainly not you. Got it?"

"Response: Most definitely, meatbag."

"Good."

Canderous returned to his armor-polishing, only to be interrupted a second time.

"Hesitant Query: If I may, Mandalorian meatbag, what is the significance of the armor? It appears to be rather old and dented.

"Proud Statement: My own, built-in body armor, on the other hand, is-"

"Thank you, HK. I know about your armor."

"Resignation: Very well. Returning to the question at hand..."

Canderous thought about how best to put it. Really, he would rather not talk about it if he could, and he generally did not trust assassin droids as much as the assassin droids in question would like.

"This armor... reminds me of my goals. It reminds me why I'm still here."

"Query: Here as opposed to what?"

"Here as opposed to doing mercenary work on Nar Shaddaa. Here as opposed to dead in the wars or facedown and drunk in the gutters of any other planet. Here, serving her."

"Addendum: Here, doing something relatively useful."

"Exactly. I guess." The armor shone as Canderous turned a piece of it upside-down in his hands.

Hopefully, he thought, here for a while longer.

Bastila

Everyone seemed unsettled. Bastila was no exception, influenced by Canderous' stubbornness, Revan's evasiveness, and Carth's worried air.

Revan, especially, seemed to be distancing herself from everyone lately. There was a shadow where Bastila could usually feel, to some extent, Revan's feelings, and it was as if Bastila could only feel the edge of Revan's presence. Whenever Bastila tried to talk to any of her other companions, though, they would all manage to avoid speaking to Bastila about it. Carth had repairs to do, Revan had arrangements to make, Canderous had people to stalk. Or polishing. Or whatever it was he was doing. Even T3 would dart around the question when Bastila approached the droid.

HK-47, of course, would listen for about a minute before labeling Bastila's comments as peacemongering. Then the droid would begin to use its 'veiled threats', preceding each one with that exact label. That did not remotely ease Bastila's fears, so she decided not to make the same mistake twice, and merely isolated herself from everyone except Revan herself.

Bastila got the feeling that Revan was not going to tell her anything, though. Revan did not make eye contact with anyone these days, even when it was Carth. It was not even the typical cryptic Jedi personality quirk, which Bastila was somewhat used to.

Now, all Bastila could do was to sit and meditate, hoping that by centering herself better, she might be able to reach Revan, to pull her out of whatever hole she was lowering herself into.

Revan

Revan's main concern with all this planning was how small this base was. Word could easily get out about the shuttle tickets she was reserving or all the supplies Revan was ordering for the Hawk. There was a high risk that it would get back to Carth or Canderous in the cantina, and while Revan knew that this could set back her plans indefinitely, she could not help but feel that it would be liberating to tell the truth. No matter how mad it would make Carth, she thought, toying with the Onasi crest around her neck and bringing it up to her lips.

She could not tell them, though. And that might hurt her even more than it would seem to hurt them, at first.

Revan heard T3s cheerful beeping from behinf her seat in the shuttle bay, making her mind return to the task at hand.

"Everything under control?" Revan asked. T3 beeped affirmatively.

With a sigh, Revan said, to no one in particular, "I hope they forgive me."

"Dwoooo."

Revan and T3 returned to the Hawk under the vivid sunset. Revan tried to act unperturbed as she walked into the ship, but Carth's eyes almost made her break down and tell him her entire plan. Instead, she put her cold arms around him, and he kissed her passionately.

Revan took a closer look at the stress reflected in Carth's eyes, and she saw how much he loved her, maybe even unconditionally. She almost forgot what she was going to do to him the next morning. Instead, she focused on the moment, as she had once been able to do with such ease.

"Looking for something?" he joked as she kept staring into his eyes. She stroked the top of his head.

"Yeah, I think I lost my mind in there."

He laughed genuinely. "That's got to be one of the worst pick-up lines in the galaxy. And I should know."

"I'll bet it works, though." She grinned at him. Her eyes glittered.

"No question," he said, kissing her.

Carth lifted her up, and they went into the dormitory, forgetting everything that was happening around them and, for however long they could, letting it all melt out of their minds.

Bastila

When Bastila snapped out of her meditation the next morning, she knew that Revan was somehow gone. She was completely unreachable to Bastila, at least. T3-M4 rolled into the room and began to hum excitedly, punctuating instructions occasionally by rolling back and forth. As Bastila realized what the droid was saying, a horrible thought came to her.

"Carth," she gasped. "Thanks, T3. I'll go to the shuttles now."

Bastila tried to keep her pace in check, but soon she was running towards the shuttle bay, hastily tucking her lightsaber into her belt.

Finally, Bastila made it to the shuttles. She reached out with all of her power for Revan, but found no sign of her. She did, however, find a horrible, familiar feeling as she searched and it seemed to slap her in the face.

She looked up, paralyzed. "Carth?" she called, looking for the source of that pain. Finally, she found him and ran towards him. His hands shook as his eyes kept reading and rereading a datapad, probably Revan's. HK-47 was nearby, silent for once as he sat near the clearly unstable Carth. Dnapping out of her shock, Bastila ran to them.

"HK," she demanded softly, not wanting to shatter Carth into a million psychological fragments, "where has she gone?"

Carth handed the datapad shakily to Bastila and buried his face in his hands. She read the note as her own hands shook.

Carth, Bastila, HK, Canderous,

I have to leave for now. I'm sorry to all of you for making you come out here, for leaving like this. I don't expect you to fully understand why I'm doing this, but I'm going to Malachor V.

Bastila gasped.

I don't think it was the Mandalorians who decided to attack the Republic; not truly. There was something else, something far deadlier that the Republic could not defeat. It was for this reason that the Republic was losing before the Jedi joined.

Whatever it was, Malak and I found it, and it let us win. Now , I intend to find this destructive power again, to destroy it. Perhaps it is the True Sith, but I can't know for certain yet. Be that as it may, it must be stopped.

I know, almost certainly, that his will lead me outside the edge of the galaxy. I don't know how far or for how long, but I cannot take anyone I love or care about. That is why you are all here now, at the shuttle bays.

Carth, I want you to wait for me, to never forget me. I love you, and that is why I can't take you. I will be back for you, I swear.

I have left you all tickets to Coruscant, as you have found. From there, I have arranged for some of Carth's Republic friends to get you wherever you need to be. Your things are probably already on Coruscant, and if they aren't, then they will be soon.

-Revan

Bastila's jaw had dropped some time ago.

Malachor V. No wonder Carth was so shocked now.

As Bastila looked at the tickets stuck to the back of the datapad, she noticed that Canderous was not here, although he had been addressed in the datapad.

No, she thought. How did he know?

Shaking her head, Bastila said sympathetically to Carth, "We'd better get going. Please, Carth. She'll be back soon."

He looked at Bastila. The wounded look in his eyes struck Bastila like a blow to the stomach, and she gasped. Never had she seen Carth Onasi so helpless.

Silently, they rose. With HK-47 beside them and heads hanging low, they boarded the shuttle.