Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: Sorry for the long break I just lost track of this story with the writing of my others as well as the interference of life. I'll be taking a break from my new story to work a little bit on this one and you all have Bjrn Fallqvist to thank for bringing this one back.

Chapter 8: Death of a World

"Uhg."

Bastila started and dropped Revan once more, earning another groan from the former Sith Lord. Mira rose a brow.

"Look, I know what he was but you really need to stop doing that."

Scowling, Bastila glared at the red-haired bounty hunter before regaining her control and setting her features into a passive mask. To be honest she was terrified. The last time she had seen Revan she had been his prisoner and under the guarantee that he was going to torture her into joining him. Well not really the last time. The last time she had seen him he looked like a Rancor was digesting him.

"Alright, what the Hell!"

Bastila's shoulder jerked slightly as Revan was instantly on his feet. The former Sith Lord rubbed the back of his head gingerly before glaring at the two women.

"Mask."

Revan ordered. Mira quickly handed him the red and black helm and remained silent. She didn't know whether to laugh or be afraid. Handing the mask to Revan, Mira stood back while the former Sith Lord began pacing in agitation.

"What did I miss?"

Revan asked after a few moments of rubbing the back of his head. Bastila and Mira exchanged guilty looks before Mira finally nudged Bastila, silently pressuring her to explain. Pushing down the open terror that had miraculously not shown on her face, Bastila chose righteous anger instead, her hands balling into fists before she raised one, poking Revan's breastplate with a single finger.

"I had to carry you from the Vulkar base because you were not careful."

His surprised and slightly angered expression hidden beneath his mask, Revan continued to rub the back of his head.

"Sure."

He replied, uninterested as he extended and retracted his wrist blade in silent warning. Getting the picture, Bastila backed away, though her anger was still obvious.

"What are you doing here?"

Bastila spat, hating the tremor in her voice. Noticing this, Mira backed away from the two, her interest peaked. Not many people could get the jump on Revan and even fewer could knock him out with a single blow.

"Rescuing you, Princess."

Revan spat back, clearly annoyed now. Raising his hand to stop Bastila's next tirade, Revan felt the Padawan grab his hand and twist it until he felt the air being expelled from his lungs. Looking up through his mask with a glare, Revan shifted his head slightly as Bastila pointed her active golden blade at his throat, leaving the other extinguished for the moment.

"Can this wait until we are away from prying eyes?"

Revan's voice was a low, harsh whisper and Bastila's eyes narrowed as she gazed down at her opponent through cool blue eyes. Mira, feeling uneasy, searched for anyone who had seen the display before raising her gauntlet at an approaching figure.
"I know you're better than that Revan."

A rough voice called, drawing Bastila's attention to the interloper. A man with steel gray hair and eyes approached, his face chiseled with muscles and faint scars and his teeth flashing white in the dim lighting of the under city. In one hand the man wielded a heavy repeating blaster and the other, a datapad. Quickly taking in the man's red vest and tan cargo pants, Bastila realized he was likely carrying many many more weapons.

"Mister Ordo."

Revan began pleasantly, smirking as he saw Bastila's eyes snap back to him.

"I am very well aware of my abilities; thank you and I can't help but wonder why a man of your... talents is in this place at this time..."

Easing back, Bastila allowed Revan to rise, though her blade remained active and trained on his neck. Revan ignored the deadly beam, his right hand toying absently with his own lightsaber. Bastila had no reasons to spare him aside from curiosity and her Jedi ideals and Revan was feeling a bit uneasy, though he hid it well.

"I have a proposition for you, Lord Revan."

Canderous began, offering Bastila a vicious smile. Bastila flinched slightly but her hand remained unmoving as her blade hovered over Revan's throat. She may have been confused if Revan's intentions were for good or ill but she was far from trusting of him.

"Two conditions..."

Revan began, Canderous gave a single nod, passing along his datapad to Revan which to the former Dark Lord of the Sith's surprise held the schematics of a Corellian transport that had been illegally modified. Meaning it had the firepower and engines of a light Republic cruiser. Raising a brow beneath his mask, Revan turned to Bastila and motioned to her active blade.

"Do you mind?"

Bastila reluctantly lowered the blade, backing away quickly, though slightly curious as to the datapad Revan had been reading.

"What are you asking for, Canderous?"

Revan began in a pleasant and cultured voice. Canderous smirked, his hand easing on his blaster cannon.

"Passage from this world and a chance to show Davik what it means to cross a Mandalorian."
Revan and Mira smirked at the same time Canderous did, drawing a curious look from Bastila.

"My conditions are as follows. You are welcome to travel with myself and Mira so long as you are not a threat to ourselves or our companions. My other demand is that you not reveal my true identity unless told otherwise. I'm sure they are reasonable..."

Canderous nodded simply, offering more information on Davik's organization. The two bounty hunters and the mercenary began a long winded discussion of the Exchange base before Bastila finally lost her patience.

"And how exactly are we going to get past the auto defenses the Sith have in orbit?"

Revan waved to Mira who rolled her eyes and explained their association with the Sith.
"We have the codes and so long as we create a big enough distraction we'll be fine."

Skeptical, Bastila merely narrowed her eyes and stood back, listening intently to the plan. Revan, Mira and Canderous would work their way into the Exchange base on the premise of joining before fighting and sneaking their way through the base to the Ebon Hawk where they would promptly steal the vessel and make their way to the surface. Once there, Revan would activate his Basilisk and set it to overload once it docked with Bandon's flagship. Time was not on their side, however as Bandon had grown impatient and ordered the Sith fleet to destroy the world. Moving his flagship away from the planet, Bandon smirked as he delved deeply into the Darkside of the Force and waited for the dying world to feed his power.

The Exchange base was simple enough to fight through and Revan, Canderous and Mira were able to procure the Ebon Hawk without incident. Davik was none the wiser and despite a brief run-in with Calo Nord, whom Canderous had blown through a wall with a single blast from his repeating rifle, they were home free. That was until the Sith began carpet bombing the entire planet from orbit. Calling a warning to Bastila, Carth, Mission and Zalbaar, Revan quickly abandoned the Hawk to Mira and Canderous while he rushed to his own vessel, annoyed to find a small astrometric droid lingering nearby. Seeing Davik trying to hack into his vessel, Revan stood back calmly, waiting for his ship's security systems to fry the droid. To the bounty hunter's surprise the droid bypassed his security system and with a curse, Revan rushed towards Davik, firing a blast from his carbine into the Exchange boss' throat. Lying on the ground dying, Davik could do nothing as Revan rushed into his Basilisk along with his very expensive T3-M4 droid and blasted off. The heat from the repulsor's ion fuel fried Davik on the spot and he died a short and painful death while the flower-shaped Basilisk rose rapidly, dodging incoming fire that rained down from above.

Pouring all the speed he could safely within an atmosphere into the Basilisk's engines, Revan did a quick fly-by of the Ebon Hawk, a sonic boom alerting those below of his presence. The Hawk loaded her crew and unable to stay due to incoming fire, was forced to rise before anyone else could be rescued. Rising swiftly through the orbit, the Ebon Hawk wove expertly through the incoming fire of Sith capitol ships while Revan's Basilisk flew around the larger vessel, tracking and destroying Sith fighters with ease only a war veteran could simulate. Carth Onasi briefly admired Raven's piloting skills before being forced to concentrate fully on keeping the Hawk in one piece.

"This is Kriffin insane!"
Revan bellowed over the comm line to Mira as she shot fighters off of his tail from the Ebon Hawk's turret. Silently agreeing, Mira continued firing as she saw Revan's ship do an insane twist and bank along the edge of a Sith fighter, clipping its solar panel and sending it into a wild spin. Revan tore the Basilisk away from the Ebon Hawk and called out to Carth.

"I'm going to draw them away. Mira you know how to find me."

Sighing heavily, Mira clicked off her headset, not bothering to listen to Carth's loud reply or Bastila's sputtering. Obviously the Padawan didn't want to lose track of Lord Revan. He was harmless as long as you didn't piss him off and Mira didn't see the point in locking him in with them when their own ship was more than capable of-

"Raven, behind you!"

Mira shouted, flicking her headset back on as fire from a nearby Sith Capitol ship lanced through the backdrop of space and clipped Revan's ship. A flash signaled the loss of one of the ship's engines and Revan cursed to himself, drawing on his years of experience he remained calm as he attempted to regain control of his craft. The Basilisk was lost from Mira's sight as the stars began stretching and flashed to a blue-white tunnel as the Ebon Hawk entered hyperspace. With a curse, Mira tossed aside her headset and dropped quickly down he ladder to the Ebon Hawk's main hangar, running as quickly as she could to the cockpit. Canderous was already there, shouting in both Bastila and Carth's faces about being cowards for leaving a comrade behind while Bastila looked fairly upset. Carth merely looked shell-shocked, memories of Telos returning to his mind as he slumped in his chair and listened to the faint sound of Mission crying in the back of the ship. With a scowl, Canderous abandoned his efforts to return to what was looking to be a promising battle and fixed his cold glare on Mira.

"You got something to say?"

Mira subtly rose the sleeve of her shirt, revealing a Mandalorian tattoo and allowing Canderous to know he wasn't alone in his feelings of leaving a fellow warrior behind.

"He wanted it and I know he'll make it."

Not as certain as Mira but resigning himself, Canderous' features shifted to a neutral expression before he passed her with a simple grunt, his thoughts on harassing the Wookiee and maybe getting in a nice spar to clear his mind. Only a Mandalorian would consider the prospect of getting torn limb to limb or tossed around like a rag doll by a walking carpet a good time.

"So what are we going to do?"

Mira gave Bastila a meaningful look, hoping the other young woman wouldn't mention who Raven really was. She just hoped the stubborn fool hadn't gotten himself killed. She'd definitely hunt him down in the netherworld and give him an earful if he did. Bastila lowered her eyes a moment, still slightly overwhelmed by Revan's actions before giving a subtle nod to Mira's silent question.

"Raven has done a good thing and I hope he escapes..."

Carth jumped at that, turning to the two women next to him and nodding numbly. Despite their differences in lifestyles, Carth knew Raven had been a good man and that he's be dead if it weren't for him or Mira.

"We will go to Dantooine. There I hope we can rest and recuperate. Witnessing the destruction of a world..."

Bastila trailed off, unable to continue as she left the cabin without finishing. Mira calmly seated herself in the copilot seat and sighed heavily, turning to Carth with a slightly forced smirk.

"Sorry about tossing you around and shooting you before, Republic boy."

Giving an empty laugh, Carth shook his head, reprogramming the Ebon Hawk's navigational computer and briefly dropping out of hyperspace to change course for Dantooine before reentering the safety of hyperspace. Mira blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes before removing her wrist gauntlet and cleaning its intricate mechanisms before recharging the power cells and moving to her pistols. It helped keep her mind off of Taris' destruction and Revan's absence.

Revan pulled the Basilisk war droid to its limits as he regained a semblance of control. Seeing that he had nearly crashed into a Sith Interdictor, Revan skimmed the bottom of the massive starship, firing the last of his craft's missiles into the ship's vulnerable deflector relay. The Interdictor ship banked as sharply as it could, forcing Revan to make a dive for Taris' atmosphere. Briefly looking over the spectacle of the world's destruction, Revan shook his head and pulled his ship up sharply, causing the Sith fighters in close pursuit of his own vessel to try a similar maneuver and stall, their tie-shaped forms falling into the atmosphere and burning up in long orange streaks as smoke began rising from the destroyed city scape below.

Briefly free from pursuit, Revan poured all the power he could into the Basilisk's remaining engines and used the magnetic interference of Taris' northern pole to trick the Sith sensors before swiftly calculating a microjump and making it to the edge of the Taris system. Free of the combat and immediate danger, Revan leaned back in his pilot seat with a heavy sigh and pulled off his gloves and gauntlets, checking how much power he had before making a jump to Tatooine. Glancing warily at the fuel, Revan hoped silently that he hadn't burned too much fuel in his atmospheric dogfight before pushing it aside and leaning back to close his weary eyes. It had been one Hell of a bad day.