Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 8: In the Wake of Hatred

"What significance is Telos?"

Malak questioned as he followed Revan swiftly down the corridors of the Leviathan. Revan turned to his Apprentice and smiled coldly beneath his mask.

"They are to be made an example, Malak."
Malak seemed taken aback for a moment before his eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean, an example, Revan?"

Revan resisted the urge to sigh as he spoke in a business-like tone.

"The Telosians have been far to giving in the Republic's military. They have proven to be a nuisance and one that I will no longer tolerate."
Malak took in the information calmly.
"Do you want me to destroy them?"
Malak asked. Revan laughed.

"No..."

He replied after having his fill.

"The Telosians have vast resources and manpower... They would make an excellent addition to my Empire."

Malak seemed troubled for a moment.

"Oh I'm sure you can find an excuse to kill someone, my bloodthirsty apprentice."

Malak seemed offended for a moment before his eyes smiled towards his Master.

"You have a plan?"

Malak said in certainty. Revan nodded his head as he eyed his surroundings.

"A Republic officer... I believe you know him. Admiral Saul Karath. Has asked how he can show his support to the Sith Empire. I want to you secure Telos' resources and I want you to make certain his priorities are in check."

Malak nodded, pondering how he would force the Republic officer to prove his loyalty.

"Does it really matter if I reduce the entire planet to ashes?"

Malak's mechanical voice asked eagerly. Revan felt his lip curl into a sneer.

"Do what you see fit, Malak."

Malak's mechanical laughter answered the Dark Lord.

"Be mindful, Malak. I would prefer to have the resources of Telos at my disposal but I will accept whatever you deem necessary. The Star Forge is more then capable of providing us our immediate needs."

Malak gave Revan and incredulous look. To him the Star Forge was all they needed. The Galaxy could burn for all be cared. It was always so much more enjoyable and simpler to annihilate his enemies totally than try to convert them like Revan. He has seen his master waste hours of precious time that could be spent killing Jedi trying to convert them. Through the horrors and pains he forced upon them, they had fallen and willingly followed his Master. It still confused Malak how they could be so completely loyal to Revan after torturing them for so long, but he asked himself why he still followed Revan.

"Power."
He knew that Revan held more power than him, more power than he could imagine. A painful stab in his abdomen brought him from his thoughts. Malak turned his eyes to see Revan's fist clenched against him as pain shot through him.

"Get the hell out of my sight. I do not need a worthless meatbag that spends his time fantasizing. Get me those resources."

Malak could feel Revan's penetrating glare though the mask and nodded his head, making his way to the bridge of the Leviathan. Revan eyed his apprentice warily. Malak had long since taken to bloodlust and seemed to revel in the feelings of mass destruction and death. If his apprentice could not see the larger issues beyond a simple victory in battle, he needed to be removed. Honor would only go so far and he knew that Malak was on the brink of insanity.

"Lord Revan."

Revan turned, raising an eyebrow to the approaching Dark Jedi. The Sith shifted nervously for a moment under the cold gaze before Revan's head tilted slightly in acknowledgment."We have... captured a new specimen."

The Dark Jedi stated emotionlessly. Revan chuckled, unnerving the Dark Jedi.

"Show me to our guest then."

Revan was led to the Leviathan's landing bay where he boarded a transport, returning to his own flagship. To Revan's surprise he spotted a young Jedi Padawan being led towards him in binders.

"Padawan Arkesh..."

The Padawan gave Revan a slight nod, surprised when he struck her painfully across her face. It had been a month since Revan had allowed the Jedi Padawan to escape and he was certain his message had gotten through.

"Take her to the 'guest' rooms."

Revan hissed. Selene's eyed widened as she was dragged away and into the all to familiar torture cells. Hours later found her in Darth Revan's presence.

"Why are you here?"

Revan asked calmly. Selene pulled angrily against her restraints.

"I did what you asked, I can't go back to the Jedi now."

Revan raised an eyebrow beneath his mask.

"Oh?"

The girl seemed to be pleading to him with her wide blue eyes and Revan found himself curious to the questions lying beneath.

"They said that what I told them about you was a lie and that you had no honor."
Revan tensed slightly at the poorly veiled respect he heard in that statement.

"They wanted me to see a mind healer... They kept asking me questions, again and again about my Master and-"

The girl's breath seemed to catch at the mention of her deceased Master. Revan stalked towards the girl, eyeing her.

"What do you want, Selene?"

Revan asked, startling the Padawan by using her first name.

"I want to follow you... I want that power you spoke of..."

Revan gave the Jedi Padawan a calculating look.

"I will ask many things of you..."

Revan whispered. Selene merely stared back at his in defiance. Revan chuckled darkly.

"I want you to beg."

The Dark Lord hissed. Selene's brow furrowed in confusion, unable to track the movements of Revan's hands as he pulled a small vibroshiv.

"Rev- Ahhhh!"

Her words was cut off by a scream of pain as Revan dug the small cutting tool into her painfully.

"You want to learn that power?"
Revan snarled as he continued to cut away at the Jedi Padawan. Her screams beginning to rack with sobs as her small frame shivered and convulsed. Then as suddenly as the pain was there, it vanished. Revan brought his masked visage inches from Selene's face and waited as her blue eyes fluttered open. The eyes were filled with confusion and hurt as Revan laughed maliciously.
"I warned you and the other Jedi to go hide in a hole until I was finished."
Revan snarled.

"Now I will not let you go until you are dead, or mine!"

"Please! –"

Revan placed his gloved hand over her mouth.

"Shhh..."

Revan chided. Removing his hand, Revan was pleased to hear only the girl's ragged breathing.

"I am no fool, Selene. Why did they send you?"

Revan questioned as he wiped the blood from the vibroshiv and glanced at the girl. Her once confident eyes had filled with terror and betrayal.

"Not answering?"

Revan shook his head mournfully.
"You will..."

He promised as he allowed his hand and the torture implement to hover over the girl's bloodied Padawan robes. Selene gasped as the blade dug into her flesh once more.

"You will beg me to listen."

The next few hours where nothing but pain for Selene. As Revan had predicted, she begged and pleaded with him to stop. The unshakable Jedi resolve being shattered under his torturous hands.

"Spy..."

Selene gasped through the pain. She had already confessed things to Revan that she would never tell another soul. Part of her felt peace at ridding herself of the lies and frivolities of her short life but another was mortified that this man, who she had felt the smallest respect for, had shattered her image of an honorable Lord and held her deepest secrets. Her fears, her dreams and her very life were all in his hands. Revan's painful ministrations ceased instantly as she heard the vibroshiv being placed on a nearby table.

"Tell me something I don't know."

Revan said in an amused tone that made Selene sick to her stomach.

"Is he actually enjoying this?"

Revan quickly grasped the stray thought and smiled.

"I am so enjoying our time together, Selene. But I do have other matters to attend to."

Revan eyed the bloodied teenager for a moment before shaking his head.

"Tomorrow, we will continue our discussion."

The Dark Lord stalked from the room and Selene released a breath she did not realize she had been holding when she heard the mechanical locking of the door.

Darth Revan coughed violently as he leaned over the refresher, releasing the last of the sickness that clenched his stomach. His hatred of the Jedi had multiplied substantially after hearing the words leave her mouth that she was sent to spy on him.

"A sixteen year old Padawan. A little girl sent to spy on the Dark Lord of the Sith. Oh how far the Jedi have fallen."

Revan turned his eyes to his mirror and sneered as his hatred rose. Utter disgust had filled him. Not at his own actions, but at what the Jedi had done. Some small part of him had never accepted that they were the careless and emotionless robots he had accused them of being. That minuscule part had died as she whispered his suspicions. He did not regret the pain he had caused Selene. It was a lesson to her. She would either hate him, or the Jedi for what had happened and that hatred would release the power she had asked him, begged him for. He had given her what she wanted. Revan leaned over the refresher once more, fighting to swallow the rising bile as he closed his eyes tightly.

Hours passed and Selene groaned in pain and apprehension as Darth Revan returned to her cell.
"Where were we?"

Revan asked lightly as he leered over the Padawan.

"Ah yes, you were about to tell me how you planned to spy on me..."

Selene resisted the urge to cry as Revan lifted the vibroshiv and stood over her. Her blue eyes took in the dried blood of the small knife that she knew was her own and she looked pleadingly into Revan's mask.

"Bastila!"
She screamed. The sudden jerk in Revan's stance told her she had hit a nerve. She began telling him the indignant rage Bastila had when she had delivered her message and how the Padawan insisted she held no feelings for Revan. She told him how Bastila's once dull and tired blue eyes has shined with anger as she spoke of Revan's deeds. Glad that he still wore his mask, Revan leaned back against the wall for support to the emotions that threatened to cripple him.

"She hates me then..."

Revan whispered to Selene. The Padawan nodded eagerly.

"That is what you wanted... isn't it?"

Selene asked, curious as to the strange stance Revan had assumed.

"Yes..."

Revan hissed angrily. There was deafening silence between the two until Selene finally spoke.

"Is it?"

She asked bravely. Revan looked as if he would explode with rage but to both their surprise he threw the vibroshiv to the floor. The Dark Lord lingered for a moment, staring at the girl.

"Are you a Jedi or a Sith?"

Revan asked finally. Selene stiffened. She knew that her answer would seal her death or her damnation. Taking a moment to collect herself, she stared at the Dark Lord with something resembling pity as she whispered to him.

"I am a Jedi."

She did not see the frown under Revan's mask as he turned from her.

"Then I can do nothing for you, foolish girl."

Revan stalked into the dormitory of the Sith interrogators on his flagship with a sneer on his face.

"It doesn't matter what happens to her!"

He snarled to himself as he eyed the Sith soldiers that stood stiffly at attention before him.

"I have a young Jedi girl that needs some sense knocked into her..."

Revan began. Seeing the smirks on most of the faces, Revan sighed. He had grown tired of dismembering his best torturers.

"You."

Revan pointed to the only man who wore a scowl on his face. The brown haired man's scowl was prominent as he heard the term Jedi and Revan could feel the hatred the man held of the guardians of peace and justice radiating from him in thick waves.
"Cell 5-D."

Revan responded. The young man nodded, saluting Revan. Revan cocked his head slightly as the man gathered some things and left the room. He could feel beyond the man's anger the bright burning of the Force. Whatever had spurred the man's hatred must have been spectacular.

"Who is that man?"

Revan asked one of the commanders. The commander stared at the Dark Lord in fright as he spoke.
"Atton Rand... one of our best..."

Revan nodded his head slowly.

"Atton... I've heard of him. Wasn't he the one that captured that Bothan Jedi Master on Almania?"

The commander paled at Revan's knowledge of the low level soldier.

"Y- yes."

Revan nodded.

"He's powerful in the Force... I want to speak with him when I return from Telos... We are in desperate need of new students."

Again the commander's face was ashened. Revan smirked.

"Friend of yours?"

Revan asked offhandedly. The commander nodded.

"Good, then you would like to see him ascend in rank."

Revan said calmly as he left the uneasy commander be. The commander immediately sighed in relief.

"I gotta tell Atton to get the hell out of here. If Revan's taken an interest in him..."

The commander shuddered at the thought of seeing his comrade being tortured and twisted into a Dark Jedi. Resolving himself, the commander went about his duties, waiting to warn his friend of the Sith's plans for him.

Revan stared indifferently at the smoke-filled atmosphere of what had once been Telos.

"Malak has certainly been busy..."

The Dark Lord muttered dryly as he shook his head. Deciding that training would be the best form of meditation, Revan settled into a private training room and pulled an ancient holocron from his cloak. Taking a moment to look over the holocron reverently, Revan depressed the switch to see the barely distinguishable image of an ancient Sith Lord. Having spent weeks secretly studying the holocron of Tulak Hord, the Dark Lords already remarkable skill with the lightsaber had improved a hundred times over. The technique of the ancient saber master was strange to the Dark Lord and defied all he had learned of lightsaber combat from the Jedi. It felt strangely natural to infuse himself with the Force and follow the odd techniques of the ancient Sith Lord. Launching himself into a deadly kata, Revan strove to perfect the art that had he had long ago mastered.

Two weeks passed before Revan's curiosity got the better of him and he returned to the cell he had left Selene Arkesh. Telos had been a disaster. Most of the Telosian Security Force had been absent when Saul Karath had launched his assault alongside Malak on the world and all that was gained was another martyred world for the Republic to gain support. Malak had escaped unscathed of Revan's wrath along with all those who had been involved. The Dark Lord knew that in time, war would weed out those who lacked the resolve to do what had to be done.

As Revan entered the dimly lit torture chamber he paused, eyeing the mangled corpse that lay strapped to the torture slab. Sighing, Revan shook his head as he walked towards Padawan Arkesh's corpse.

"Too stubborn..."
Revan sighed. The Dark Lord cocked an eyebrow as he caught sight of the angry bruises that ravaged the girl's neck. The dark blue and purple contrast against her dead pale skin and Revan knew she had been dead for only a few hours.

"Perhaps you did not know when to be silent..."

Revan ran his hand across the girl's face, closing her now lifeless gray eyes.

"Another casualty of the Jedi's failure."

Revan snarled as he tore the restraints that held the girl's body and lifted her corpse in his arms. For some reason beyond his control, all Revan could see when he looked into her lifeless face was Bastila, and the thought drove him to his breaking point as he carried the girl's body to a transport and burned her remains on the planet below. Revan watched the ashes rise from the pyre as he spoke softly.

"She would be eighteen now... Only two years older than you..."

Revan knew he was not an elder at his twenty four years, but what he had seen had seemed to age him by decades. His youthful and fit body was weary and pained. Nearly all his actions caused a pain to clench his body or mind and he dropped to his knees as he stared at the burning fire.

"This is what has to be done..."

Atton had vanished, fleeing from either punishment for killing the girl or from what fate awaited him in the ranks of the Sith Knights, Revan did not know nor care. The man had taught him a valuable lesson and one he would not soon forget.

"Even if I am ready to kill... Can I?"

It had never been a question for him during the Mandalorian wars. He simply weighed the pros and cons of a battle and made the most efficient and tactical decision while the soldiers died. He would fight alongside them in the thick of battle, but countless thousands he had fought beside lay rotting on those worlds or were blasted to ashes while he continued his war across the galaxy. But now he was killing children. That was what the Jedi seemed to be throwing at him or what they were sending to spy on him.

"This is ridiculous, of course I can."

Revan resolved as he stood, watching the pyre die. The Dark Lord knew that a confrontation was coming with the Jedi. The first few months of the war had been mainly been a constant stream of victories against weakly defended worlds or poorly structured Republic fleets. The Dark Lord never considered the Republic to be the real threat. His eyes stared at the ashes within the pyre.

"The Jedi are the enemy..."

For weeks his spies and agents had reported to him that the Republic and Jedi had been working together to unleash some type of weapon. What the weapon's nature was was unknown to Revan or his agents and the Dark Lord continued to make preparations. Casting one last look at the smoldering cinders of the funeral pyre, Revan sneered.

"Let the Jedi send their children to me... Let them see what I am capable of..."