Jedi wisdom says that when you're about to die, you are filled with the peace and serenity of the Force. There was no serenity and definitely no peace for me. How wonderfully ironic that I die at the hands of a Sith I helped convince to turn his back on the dark side. This was really not my day.
With amazing control, Dustil stopped his lightsaber a hair-breadths away from my neck. The energy from his blood red saber singed the hair off my neck. I could feel the occasional spark leave a burn on my neck. I was proud of myself that I didn't flinch as I stood there. I wanted to, quite honestly, his lightsaber was burning my neck, and I could feel the heat and redness.
"Admirable control, Dustil, I really think you're in the wrong class. You're obviously more advanced than beginning lightsaber forms." When was I going to learn to keep my mouth shut? When was the decorum so honored by the Jedi actually going to take hold of my runaway mouth?
"You dare to taunt me when I have my lightsaber so close to your neck?"
"I keep having to say this to the Onasi men. You aren't the first to do this and you won't be the last. Well, then again, maybe you will be the last. Perhaps you're more a Sith than I ever thought."
"You are the Sith. You are a fraud and a liar. The galaxy will be a better place without your evil taint in it." Dustil's young face was twisted into a fierce scowl of concentration. Every survival instinct in me was screaming for me to roll my head to the side and ignite my lightsaber into his gut. Even better, I could always zap him with some Force Lightening, to really show the dark side taint he was talking about. Yeah, that would really show him.
"Guilty as charged, at least on the fraud part. I have to differ on the liar part; I didn't know the truth, so how could I lie? As I'm guilty on at least one count, why don't you finish your strike? If you'd like, you could pull your lightsaber back and get a full swing in. I won't move or deny you your opportunity. You will make countless billions in the galaxy happen when you kill me." Dustil's face showed his shock at my statements.
"You would just let me strike you down without putting up a fight?" His lightsaber wavered as his focus changed. Fortunately for me, it wavered away from me. The smell of charred flesh was starting to turn my stomach. The pain, which had been excruciating had dulled, probably because he'd burnt the rest of the nerve endings.
"She might, but I won't." Juhani's lightsaber flared to life and thrust Dustil's away from me. "You show why you will never advance. You have no control and too much rage."
"Juhani, he's only saying what billions are saying. He has complete control of his rage."
"You are wrong; his rage has complete control of him. That is why he fell before and that is why he will fall again."
"History repeats itself, doesn't it, Juhani? We have all fell for the same reasons. I fell because I felt rage at the Mandalorian attacks and the Council's refusal to intercede. You fell because you felt rage at your Master."
"I'm not like you, Revan." He spit my name like an expletive. "I haven't slaughtered people."
"You haven't, through your actions, either direct or indirect, caused people harm or even death? Of course you haven't. You didn't torment prospective students on Korriban and of course you stopped those that tortured wannabes to death. You never applauded Sith victories. You didn't view Saul Karath, the man at the helm of the bombardment of Telos, as a replacement father figure. You were an underground hero. You subverted the Sith movement."
"We…we…we aren't discussing my actions. We're discussing yours." Dustil's voice, so strong and self-assured a few moments ago, now wavered and sounded like a lost and confused young child.
"Actually, I think we were discussing redemption for past actions." I noticed the look of confusion pass across Dustil's face. "I'm an easy target, Dustil. I was Darth Revan, I acknowledge that fact. Just because I don't remember being Darth Revan doesn't mean it's not a fact. I perpetuated horrible acts of atrocity. There is nothing that I can do that will atone for those actions. There is nothing that I can say that will bring back the people killed.
"I can only keep walking the path of light and hope that I improve the lives of those in the galaxy now. You can either keep on the same path or you can change it. Whether you want to or not, that's up to you."
"I'm not going to be like you!"
"That would be unfortunate, padawan, you could learn much from Jedi Revan. She walks a clear and honorable path of goodness. Come with me, we have much to discuss with the Masters." Juhani firmly gripped Dustil's shoulders and pulled him out of the room. She shot a quick glance back at me as they left. I'm not sure if it was to say, sorry for that, or if it was way to go on handling that.
I felt the curious stares of the padawans throughout the Temple as I left. I wanted to go home and take a nap. It'd been a long day, maybe I'd even get an uninterrupted visit in the 'fresher. A girl could hope, after all.
I didn't think about Canderous' demand that I comm him when I finished at the Temple so I could have an escort. Instead, I concentrated on putting on foot in front of the other. My gaze never really raised beyond a few feet in front of me. I had too much in my head to worry about my surroundings.
My inattention proved to be detrimental as I felt a dart imbed itself into my side. Numbness started spreading from my waist through the rest of my body. I didn't react fast enough with Force Healing to stop the flow. I only had time to dial out randomly on my comm before my body was immobilized completely. No one on the streets seemed to notice that a Jedi Knight had just been attacked on the street. One human male actually stepped over my prone body to continue along his way.
I was still cognizant as my attackers came up to me. I could hear the brawny tones of a Devaronian as I lay there, looking up at the towering buildings. A Rodian answered him as they crowed about their catch. Bounty hunters, I thought, why me? This was really not my day.
"I thought Jeedai were harder to capture. This one was easy."
"Perhaps too easy, this may be a trick." The Rodian looked around nervously. He twitched as he moved, probably hyped up on glitterstim. Great, how was I going to explain this to the crew? I'd gotten myself nabbed by a couple of glit-bits right out in broad daylight. Canderous was going to kill me.
"Let's get her out of here. Someone might stop." The Devaronian picked me up and laughed as my arms lolled off to the side. Since I couldn't do anything else, I kept mental notes of all the twists and turns and some landmarks so that when I got control of my body, I could haul carcass out of there.
We eventually ended up in a seedy little apartment on top of an even worse looking cantina. They tossed my inert body onto the bed and laughed as I sunk into the mattress without bouncing. I think the floor would've been softer than that bunk. The bounty hunters used their comlinks but the conversation was so low that I couldn't really hear what they were saying. I only heard a few words consisting of "capture" "Jedi" "bounty".
I have no idea how long I lay there as my captors played Pazaak to pass the time. I only hoped my own comlink was still on and that tracking device Canderous had snuck into it was active. He'd thought he was being tricky but I'd noticed right away he'd tampered with my 'link. I may not be mechanically inclined, but I'm not completely clueless. I'd had HK look at the 'link and he'd told me what Canderous had done. It wasn't harming anything, so I'd left it alone. Now, I was glad that I'd done it. It didn't seem like I was going to get control of my body anytime soon.
There was a knock on the doors and the two glit-bits quickly answered it. Just my luck, I thought, a Sith Lord. This Sith Lord was wearing the full robes and was looking properly evil. A mechanical voice came from behind the Force Mask that adorned the face.
"You have the Jedi?" I couldn't tell if this Sith Lord was a male or female, human or not. There was nothing remarkable about the height and there was no obvious sign of protrusions to give away the species. It spoke Basic with no inflection, probably compliments of its modulator.
"We have the Jeedai. She is right here." The Rodian walked over to me and gestured down. The Sith Lord followed and a slight chuckle escaped the mask.
"I will pay your price." It tossed a bag of credchips at the bounty hunters and, with a gesture, floated me into the air. I was forced to float behind the Sith as it winded its way through countless alleys as I lost track of the twists and turns. We finally ended up in an even filthier quarter of Coruscant. I was really getting the opportunity to tour the dredges of Coruscanti society.
"I understand from my compatriots that you claim to be the Sith Lord, Revan. Is this true?" Obviously the Sith that were left were of the idiot variety, if I couldn't move any part of my body, how did this creature expect me to answer them? I couldn't even blink, for Force's sake.
"You cannot hope to resist me." Like I was really trying, there was no way I could answer. If it wanted to take my inability to move as resistance, it was more than welcome. "I admire your dedication to the Jedi ways, but the Sith have their ways of getting information from their victims." All I could think was, yeah, good luck with that, you idiot.
"You will answer me. Save yourself the pain of torture and confess to your lies now."
"Did you get hit with the idiot stick or are you naturally this stupid?" Did that actually come out of my mouth? If I could move my mouth, maybe I could…
"You dare call me stupid? You do not know who you are talking to, imposter!" The Sith paced back and forth as it continued its rant. "I will be the next Supreme Sith Lord. I will follow in Revan and Malak's footsteps. I shall rule the Sith Empire and conquer your weak Republic. The Jedi Order will feel the wrath of…" Whoever was behind the robes stopped the tirade when I put it in a stasis field. I hit it in the pressure point on the back of the neck, hoping it was at least humanoid enough to have it and luckily enough for me, it collapsed, unconscious.
"Now, let's see who you are, you Supreme Sith Lord you. Supreme Sith Lord, who talks like that? Seriously, how pompous, if you'd just gotten to your point instead of posturing, you'd have had me. Instead, you just kept going on and on and you captured yourself." I ripped the Force Mask off the creature's face and found myself staring at a young human girl, no older than Dustil. I bound her hands and, to satisfy my ego, floated her behind me like she'd done to me.
After exiting the slum that my "friend" had called home, I had no clue where to go. I grabbed the 'link off the girl and called Canderous. He didn't sound happy with me when he picked up.
"You'd better have a good reason for not calling earlier."
"I figured you'd know where I was at, what with the tracker and all."
"Just stay where you are. I'm on my way." Canderous hung up on me before I could say anything else or warn him about my Supreme Sith Lord. After twenty minutes of glaring and looking menacingly at anyone who even thought of looking at me, Canderous showed up.
"Who's the floater?" Canderous didn't look surprised to see me. "What's that in your side?" I looked down. Sure enough, there was the dart still hanging in my robes. "What did you do to your neck?" Hm, I'd forgotten about that. "How did you conquer the Mandalorian people when you can't even be trusted to cross the street?"
"I can too! This wasn't my fault!" After my protestation, I remembered the bus incident on our first day, was it just yesterday, on Coruscant.
"Come on, you can explain on the way. We need a place to stash your floater."
"We'll take her to the Temple. They'll be able to do something with her. She's a Supreme Sith Lord, you know." At my ironic tone, Canderous cocked an eyebrow at me. I quickly brought him up to speed. I slightly exaggerated the number of bounty hunters to make me feel better about getting captured.
As we walked up the steps into the Temple, I finished the story. "So she was going on about being the Supreme Sith Lord and bragging about taking over the galaxy when I just knocked her out. It was great. I wish I could have seen her face."
"And, how many were there that you battled through again?" We walked through the foyer of the Temple. We got a lot of funny looks as we bantered back and forth with the girl floating trailing behind us.
"There were at least fifty. I took out a good thirty of them before the drugs took effect."
"I thought you said there were at least thirty and you took out a good twenty of them? You are a terrible liar. How many were there, honestly?"
"Honestly?" Canderous nodded. "There were two." Canderous laughed. The Jedi we passed looked askance at the Mandalorian laughing in their midst. "But they were hyped up on glitterstim." My justification only made Canderous laugh harder.
We eventually entered the Council's antechamber. The majordomo for the Council stared in shock at our group. He quickly ran in to the Council and we had permission within seconds of entering.
"Jedi Revan, I understand that you brought us a gift." One of the Masters I was not familiar with addressed me.
"Yes, Masters, I have brought a self-appointed Supreme Sith Lord." I pulled the mask off the girl. The Masters shared looks but didn't appear shocked or amazed. "I was attacked after I left the Temple by some bounty hunters." I looked over at Canderous, daring him to tell the Masters just how many had managed to get the jump on me. He only snorted. "They sold me to this Sith Lord."
"We have much to discuss. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."
"I'm not going to be part of this discussion? I'm the one that was attacked." I was a little upset about not being included.
"That is one of the things we'd like to discuss, Jedi Revan." Master Vrook's voice wasn't caustic. "Please trust in the Council."
"I'll leave it in your hands, then. I'll keep hauling in whatever Sith are attacking me so you can discuss them at length." I turned and walked out of the room, with Canderous laughing behind me.
"What are you laughing at?" I wasn't in a very good mood. This had really not been my day.
"You constantly amaze me." I wasn't going to touch that with a bantha prod.
By the time we got back to the apartment complex, I was completely exhausted. That nap that I'd contemplated earlier had turned into a lust for going to bed early and sleeping through the night. Somehow, with the day I was having, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get to do that.
Carth, Mission and Big Z were all sitting at the table, eating dinner, when Canderous and I walked through the door. Carth threw Canderous a suspicious look, but I figured that was just for show. They liked to play the "enemies on opposite sides of the battlefield" but I knew they trusted each other at their respective backs.
"Hey, Revan, you look beat, rough day?" Mission's perkiness normally cheered me up but right now, it just annoyed me.
"Yeah, you could say that. I think I'm going to head to bed. You guys have fun." I waved at them as I went back to the bedroom and locked the door. The bed bounced under me as I flopped onto it. Something started to dig into my back where I lay. I grudgingly switched positions and pulled the offending item out, fully intending to hurl it at the wall.
I stopped myself when I noticed it was the datapad that Vrook had handed me earlier. Supposedly, this was my entire history with the Jedi. I would have thought that I'd require at least a score of datapads; I was a legend, after all. I opened up one of the files at random.
Revan continues to impress the Masters, me included. She has shown aptitude for the lightsaber and force forms. Her graceful movements belie her age. Remarkably, she doesn't seem to have even been challenged by the forms presented to her so far. I've recommended that she train with the older padawans at force forms. Would that Malak showed the same aptitude, instead he lags behind his contemporaries in skill.
The only thing that Revan shows more aptitude for than lightsaber techniques is the use of the Force. She quickly masters any power she is shown. The Force shines like a beacon within her little body. She will be a great asset to the Order someday. I foresee a bright future for her.
I am concerned, however, with Malak's progress. He constantly looks to Revan for approval. Approval should come from his teachers, not his older sister. With her influence, perhaps she will lead Malak into greater control. Hopefully Malak learns to judge his successes for himself.
I was kind of hoping for more detailed records than old training notations. The only interesting bit was about Malak's looking to me for approval. I scanned a couple more, but all they discussed were different training regimens I went through. Nothing in the files I scanned alluded to why I turned to the dark side. None of the files told me what happened while I was Darth Revan.
My exhaustion finally got the better of me and I fell asleep. It'd been a long day that was thankfully over.
A/N - the term glit-bits is from a friend of mine. I think it may have been used in the Rogue Squadron series of books by Corran Horn. I use all of this without permission. I make no profit off this work. In fact, this story has been detrimental to me as I spend more time on playing the games and writing the stories than I do working...
thanks to all the reviewers. Didn't mean to sound like a wanker. Was just feeling like the story was tanking and not up to snuff.