Chapter Eighteen-Temples Shrine (All Sorrow Leads to Battle)
Canderous glanced around quickly as he recognized the slight metallic hum of a stealth field generator being deactivated. He stumbled to his feet clumsily, supporting Revan as she scrambled up beside him. To his amazement he saw Kex, his quartermaster appear angrily before him, blaster rifle raised and aimed menacingly. He walked across to where the quartermaster stood, raising his arm out in greeting.
"Canderous Ordo! I know you. You have betrayed us, and you will pay for that, you and your accursed Jedi!"
"Kex…what the hell?" Canderous glared at him in confusion.
"You have betrayed the clans, Ordo. You now follow the Jedi. They were our enemy!" Kex stared down the barrel of the weapon levelly at him.
Canderous shook his head tiredly, "That was a long time ago, Kex. They are not our enemy anymore."
"You are wrong, Ordo," Kex spat angrily.
"Is there any point to this?" Canderous demanded.
"Oh, yes," he replied, firing the blaster at the Mandalorian leader, "the point is that you die like the dog you are," he fired again, blasting Canderous squarely in the chest and sending him sprawling to the ground, "and your Jedi harlot dies with you!"
Canderous weakly tried to get to his feet, but Kex kicked at him viciously with his booted foot, knocking him to the floor. He stood over him, firing his rifle continuously. Orange plasma reigned down over the fallen Mandalorian leader.
Revan watched impotently, as if from a dream. In what seemed like a matter of seconds, she saw Canderous fall to the ground, and watched in horror as Kex repeatedly fired on him. A rage like no other flowed through her being, and poured through her channel in the Force. Silently, she ripped her remaining saber from its pouch, activating it with a single fluid motion. She ran at the Mandalorian, swinging the saber in bright arcs. It connected with his armour, sparking and sizzling in bright splashes of blue, images that imprinted themselves heavily behind her eyes. She raised her hand and using the Force, she threw him repeatedly against the wall. His blaster was ripped from his hands and she flung it across the great room. She descended on him furiously, and with the Force she pulled him up into the air by his throat. He dangled several feet of the ground, his battered body armour splashed vividly with his own blood. She tightened the grip around his throat; squeezing the life out from him, then she threw his body savagely against the wall, where it fell in a crumpled heap.
She stood for a long time, feeling the Force rage all around her.
Revan slowly walked across to where Canderous lay sprawled on the hard ground. She lifted his limp head into her lap, her hand trembling as she stroked his hair. She leant down over him, and she kissed his cold lips passionately, her hot tears spilling over his pale cheeks. "I will avenge you, my love," she cried into the still air. She caressed his cold cheeks, running her fingertips over the old scars on his face. Her grief consumed her, and she gave into it willingly, allowing the surge of emotions that poured through her being.
She gently placed his head from her lap, onto the hard unforgiving ground. She knelt by him, focusing all her Force power. I can bring him back, I can bring him back, I can bring him back, ran through her head like a dark litany. She placed her hands on his charred battle armour, and closing her eyes, she tried to bend the Force to her will.
Sobbing, she pushed herself away from her, glaring around her in her confusion. Damn you, damn you, she hit him hard across his chest, then still weeping, she threw herself against him, and laid next to him on the cold floor, her arm draped across his battered chest. She cried until their were no more tears left, her breath rising in great hacking sobs that tore through her cruelly. Slowly she rose to her feet, glancing down at the fallen Mandalorian that lay by her feet, and then she ran swiftly into the deep gloom of the temple.
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The Terentatek corpses slowly floated towards her as she climbed the steep corridor where she had fought her last battle with Canderous. She sighed as she felt the grief tighten her throat, and choking back the tears, she stepped past the bodies.
A shrine, to some forgotten nameless entity loomed ominously before her. She felt the dark reach up and caress her like a forgotten lover. She fought against the surge of emotions that threatened to rip through her, and mastering herself, she stepped into the deep chamber.
A huge long sarcophagus lay in front of her. Its entrance carved deeply with unknown creatures and men. She gripped her saber, and slashed at the stone, until it broke asunder from her might. Inside lay an intricately carved light saber- strange runes and creatures adorned the heavily gilded hilt lying with a blackened mummified corpse. She snatched it from the corpse's hand, breaking its rigid fingers as she did so. She stuffed the saber deeply into the front of her robe and glanced around the chamber, aware that something was menacingly observing her.
She raised her hand slowly, angrily willing the beast to reveal itself. She shot her hand out, and deftly spun the Force to her will. A cascade of electricity flowed willingly from her hand, striking the unseen creature deep in its chest. The hssiss revealed itself momentarily, and she took advantage, striking it at it with bolts of dark blue energy which ran tremulously from her open hand. The creature writhed at her, thumping its great body against her, but Revan ignored the momentary pain. She thrust her hand out, and shattered its body with her mind.
She slowly walked around the room, her eyes narrowing as she sensed the lone Sith holocron. She approached it reverently, and taking it from its place in the wall, she gripped it between her hands. Garbled voices sang at her with an almost indignant tone, but Revan smiled darkly at it.
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Revan strode down the long corridor, stopping as she noticed her lost saber lying in the dust. She bent and retrieved it, slipping it into its pouch at her side. Some distance away, Canderous' blaster lay gleaming in the dull light, and she knelt by it, her hand reaching out tentatively to touch it. She picked it up, and held it against her cheek, feeling the cold of the metal against her skin. Weeping, she stood, and grasped it firmly in her hands, and walked the long lonely distance back to where the Mandalorian lay in the dark.
She walked past the fallen Mandalorians body, a slight pause in her step. She gazed down on his face-fleeting memories of their forbidden love touched her soul. She smiled softly down at him, and kneeling by his prone form, she rested his rifle against his chest, and placed his hand on the barrel of it, you will not be alone, Canderous-for what Mandalorian should lay in a dark place weapon less? She bent down towards him, her hair falling across his face, and she gently kissed his cold lips for the last time. Sighing deeply, she rose to her feet, and with revenge stirring in her heart, she strode past him, and out from the temples plateau.
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Kelborn stood outside the temples entrance, with dread lying heavily in his heart. He hoped that he would find Kex soon.
Kumus approached him warily, "Kelborn, there are Sith that approach us…what should we do?"
Kelborn slowly raised his head, staring at his comrade, "We fight them, Kumus, until there are none left alive."
The Mandalorian saluted him, and strode into the camp, calling his men to arms.
Kelborn sighed impatiently, Mandalore and Kex would just have to wait-there were more pressing matters at hand.
Around the camps perimeter, the Sith seethed in their masses. They spilled out, in their hunger for the Mandalorians. Lines of them broke upon the blue armour of the warriors, to be repelled and struck down in their masses.
Kelborn raised his blaster, and shouting on behalf of his leader, Mandalore, he uttered his war cry "For Clan Ordo!" at the top of his voice before ploughing into the lines of black that swept upon them. Kelborn fired blast after blast, relishing the blood lust that grew in his chest. He ran through the Sith masses, pouring shower upon shower of orange plasma upon the dark Sith tide.
He glanced over his shoulder to see Zuka swirling two scimitars, their blades stained a deep crimson. The Mandalorian cut a path towards Kelborn, and stood fighting side to side with him. Kelborn smiled grimly beneath his helmet, and dropping his blaster to the floor, he pulled at the vibroblade at his side, "We will fight like brothers, Zuka!" he yelled before sweeping through the black mass.
Several plasma mines detonated in front of them, a trap laid previously by the warriors. Sith flew in all directions. Laughing as he saw their masses thin out, he launched himself at them, grinning as he saw a tide of Mandalorians swarm around the back of the Sith lines.
The Sith, knowing that they were trapped, fought aggressively, and several blue clad warriors fell to their swords and blasters.
Revan appeared at the temples entrance like a forgotten wraith, her eyes squinting in the light. She grasped her saber in her hand, and with the same bloodlust stirring in her heart, she ran like a dark fiend at the Sith, her saber gleaming a dull blue as she chopped and sliced all that lie in her path.
Kelborn glanced across at her, "Where's the Mandalore?" he shouted to her above the din of battle.
"He is dead, at the hands of one of your warriors," she replied tonelessly, as she swung her saber.
He panted, "Dead…? I don't understand…"
"Fool," she cried, "Kill them…kill them all. Avenge your master." Avenge the hatred in my heart.
She turned abruptly from Kelborn, and ran at the lessening numbers of Sith, screaming in her anger at them. She raised her hand, and unleashed all her Force powers at them, laughing bitterly as she watched them die beneath her feet.
It was Kumus that laid his hand in concern on her shoulder, "They are gone, Revan…they are all dead."
She turned towards the Mandalorian with blank eyes, lowering her arm; she replied softly, "Dead? No. They are not dead. They never die…they always come back."
Kumus backed away from her; the lifeless look in her eyes worried him.
"Come," she said to him, "I know where the Sith hide themselves. Are you ready for the battle of your life? Do you want glory for your Mandalore?"
Kelborn stood next to Kumus, and nodded to her slowly, "Lead the way, Revan." He gestured to the assembled warriors, "Pack the camp away, we depart from this unholy place now."
A voice shouted to him, "But what of the Mandalore, Kelborn. We should not move until he orders it."
Kelborn glanced across the throng of weary warriors, and shouted, "The Mandalore has been slain. As Mandalore's second in command, I now take sole control. We leave now."
Revan stared up at him, and smiled sorrowfully, "And I will accompany you," for revenge.
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The body of the Mandalore lay in the impenetrable darkness of the temple. He remained as Revan had left him, back pack at his side, his hand placed coldly upon the barrel of his blaster rifle. Silence reigned heavily. The body of his former quartermaster remained heaped untidily against the far wall; the nature of his death an uneasy legacy of the dark fury of the Jedi. Blood dripped leisurely, and pooled into a black puddle at his ruined side.
The still body of the Mandalorian leader lay alone and forgotten in the darkness of the temple. Slowly, his fingers began to twitch against the cool metal of his rifle.