Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's note: In response to the pairing I am going to use for this story that is still up for grabs. While Revan and Bastila are crucial to one another for her to return to the lightside in the game, most of their closeness is due to a bond that doesn't exist in this story. Atris, I like because she isn't some mindless Jedi Master spouting superiority. Well okay she is but she has very visible flaws and it shows in the game when she finally admits to herself that she is not the Jedi she thought she was and falls to the darkside. From my own perception of Star Wars I don't think of the darkside of the Force as some spirit that possesses someone nor do I think it changes a person so radically that they are hardly recognizable from who they had been. I personally think the darkside is like a drug, a power trip and it adds focus to certain emotions such as anger like alcohol is a depressant, the darkside enrages someone. The lightside is quite the opposite, calming and cleaning in a way though not as simple to access and not with the direct results the darkside offers. Imagine it as someone hopped up on PCP and someone high on life getting locked in a room together and you tell me who's going to walk out of there. While it may impair judgement, I don't think the darkside changes someone or twists what they were. It merely adds on to what is already there, making the flaws in that person's character more tangible. As for Mira... we'll just see where I go in this story. While I favor a Revan/Bastila pairing in most stories I still haven't decided on this one where I want to go.

Chapter 11: My Brother's Keeper

Two brown eyes opened wearily to darkness. Suppressing the panic that threatened to rise within him, Revan blinked several times before his vision cleared and he found himself in a cavern, voices raised in argument echoed though its structure and Revan forced his numb body to sit up, his head turning left then right as he experimentally opened and closed his right and left hands. His armor was coated in a fine mist of dried blood and the stench was still clinging in the air, letting the former Dark Lord of the Sith know he hadn't been unconscious for too long. Slowly turning his eyes to the light glaring through the entrance of the cavern, Revan swallowed a deep breath before rolling to his knees, breathing in deeply and making mental notes of the pain in his chest and shoulders. At the base of his neck, Revan could feel a tingling along his spine as he unconsciously reached for the Force. Quickly drawing away when the memory of searing agony caught up with his consciousness, Revan stood with a suppressed groan, hunched slightly as he breathed heavily against the broken ribs beneath his armor.

"Little help here?"

Revan called weakly to Eric Shan. The man quickly turned from his wife, his eyes wide as he stared at Revan. Helena gaped as well, having thought the man was dying and not expecting him to come to and stand on his own.

"Are- are you."

An exasperated look crossed Revan's features and the question died in Eric Shan's throat.
"What- what were you two arguing about?"

Revan gasped, slowly making his way to the two humans and leaning against the cavern wall as he turned his eyes to his Basilisk and the still smoking corpse of the Krayt Dragon in the distance.

"I managed to carve out two Krayt Dragon pearls from the Dragon and I wanted to get you to a hospital... as well as Helena but she insisted you should be treated first..."

Revan shrugged as best he could, wincing slightly as pain flared from within.

"Family comes first and medical bills are expensive. No worries I'm ridiculously rich so we can solve both of our problems back at Anchorhead. I'm sure Czerka Corp keeps a medical facility open for its miners."

Eric Shan nodded quickly, glad the argument was over. Helena had outright refused to go to a hospital unless Revan was fully healed first. Knowing the man had risked his life twice to save their own was enough to speak to her of his character, despite the stories she'd heard. Eric had wanted to as well but had pointed out that they couldn't move Revan far if he had a head injury and that they had enough to find treatment for Helena's illness. It was selfish but then, it was his wife and in a choice between Revan or his wife he would chose Helena any day.

Feeling suddenly uneasy, Eric Shan looked back up to meet Revan's eyes. The younger man held his gaze for a moment before he suddenly smirked, due to the pain and blood splattered on his face it looked more like the kind of smirk a Kath Hound would give a Gizak before it devoured it than a playful one.

"Wan- Want to see the reason I fell to the Darkside?"

Revan muttered, his eyes slipping in and out of focus. Eric Shan shook his head, not really wanting to know what horrifying secrets the other man held. Bored, Revan nodded, deciding he would ignore the Starmaps for the time being. He couldn't remember the exact coordinates for the Star Forge but he was certain it was stored on his yacht he had used to escape from Malachor V. He was also certain the Jedi had tried and failed to slice his computer files and that likely the yacht had followed standard security procedure and erased its data banks. Suddenly realizing something, Revan frowned.

"Mind If- if I ask how we got in the cave?"

Eric Shan looked up at the cave and then back to Revan.

"Uhm, this is where you got blown to by the explosion..."

Revan turned his head slowly to see a dubious looking chunk of charred flesh as well as Calo Nord's corpse nearby and shook his head.

"Well at any rate want to do me a favor? If you do I'll get your wife the best treatment the galaxy has to offer?"

Eric and Helena exchanged curious but slightly suspicious looks. Seeing this, Revan resisted the urge to sigh again since the last time he had he thought he felt his lung get punctured by some stray shard of his ribs.

"Not far back in this c-cave is a map. I want you to take a holocron and record it. I don't know whether you have one or not but if not I can g- get one from the ship."

Eric Shan shook his head, reaching for a small device on his belt.

"No its alright, I have one."

Nodding, Revan pushed himself against the cavern wall he was resting on and slowly trekked back to the Bloodraven. Helena turned to her husband slowly, finally feeling the situation they were in falling around her.

"What an interesting day."

Helena muttered, moving to help Revan while Eric Shan turned his attention to the large blaster secured on Calo Nord's dead body. Quickly pulling the weapon free of the man's body, Eric Shan unhooked one of Calo's gun belts and turned to the darkness of the cavern, narrowing his eyes against the darkness as he raised the confiscated Mandalorian heavy blaster. If a Krayt Dragon had been there it was unlikely anything else had but it was better to be safe than dead.

Far from Tatooine in near the Galactic Core, the Jedi Temple rose high above the Coruscant city scape. Within its spires and massive halls were arguably some of the best and worst kept secrets of the galaxy. The best since none outside of their practice knew about them and the worst because their enemies did. This was a civil war. A war between Jedi started long before Revan had begun calling himself the Dark Lord of the Sith and long before the Dark Lord of the Sith was any real threat to the Jedi Order. The Jedi Civil war had begun thousands of years before with an idea. The idea that passion gave you strength where serenity could not and because of that idea and that the Masters of the order could not accept it because of the dangers of the darkside, countless billions had died.

Revan had touched the Force briefly on Tatooine. Something that should have been impossible to do without aide. It was impossible; but the Jedi could never have guessed how far the powers of the Force could manifest themselves. Within the bowels of a long abandoned section of the Jedi Temple, the white-clad form of the Jedi Master Atris paid a visit to the Jedi Temple's single prisoner of war, all of the other fallen Jedi had either been killed or were rehabilitated but the Sith in this dark corner of the temple was simply too recognizable to be allowed to roam free, despite his recent rehabilitation. Upon passing a series of sealed corridors with passcodes known only to herself and four other High Council members, Atris paused as she considered her words. Shaking off her indecision, Atris stepped past a massive security droid meant to keep others out rather than in and took in the room's sole inhabitant.

At Six feet six inches the man towered over her but Atris did not feel intimidated. Instead she merely took in the faint scar along the man's jaw where a combination of technology and cloning and the Force had restored much of what was taken from him.

"Malak."

Atris greeted the supposedly dead Dark Lord of the Sith. Malak rose his brown eyes slowly to Atris' blue and smiled, though his eyes seemed much less vibrant than they had before the wars, when they had been colleagues and comrades in the Jedi Order and not bitter enemies.
"You're here about Revan, aren't you?"

Malak asked, his voice deep, though if one with the proper hearing listened closely they could hear the mechanical undertones of Malak's reconstructed voice box. Atris nodded in response, taking a seat on a small couch and brushing a hand along her elegant robes to straighten them out. Malak in turn seated himself in a chair and abandoned the datapad he had been reading as he gathered his dark brown cloak around him.

"I'm surprised they didn't sent an entire legion of Jedi down here when they felt him..."

Malak muttered more to himself than Atris. Atris rose a brow, smiling slightly.

"I knew it was you, Malak. And besides I think I can deal with you. I nearly bested Revan during the raid on Foerost if I recall correctly and only your intervention saved him. Enough though, are you certain he is ready? It took nearly a year for you to even heal from the wounds you suffered and nearly another before you could touch the Force. And that was after spending most of you efforts on just regaining contact through the light. Revan has had no such assistance."

Malak unconsciously touched the device attached to his wrist. A constant reminder of his deeds and he frowned deeply. There were artifacts and devices that could be used to cut a Jedi off from all but the Darkside of the Force and so to were there objects that could do the same with the Lightside.

"I betrayed him because of the my own feelings not the Darkside. The Darkside merely made it easier to stomach and Revan still knew the attack was coming."

Though he had put it behind him long ago, Malak could still feel the bitter sting in his heart when he thought of Revan's lightsaber slicing through his jaw and maiming him. The insanity of it all was still lingering deep within him but Malak had, with the help of Atris overcome his darkness. He could only hope Revan was still in control of himself now that the Force was slowly opening up to him.

"Darth Nihilus was supposed to seal Traya in a prison of darkness as he had put it. Cut her off from the Force so that only one with the lightside flowing through them could free her. It was done to Revan as well and I am still surprised he escaped with his life despite Bastila Shan's assistance. Revan was so vibrant in the Force I could never see him without it..."

Atris nodded, feeling the same way as Malak on the subject and decided to broach a still unresolved issue.

"Why do you not help us in stopping Darth Bandon? Why would Revan not help?"

Malak's lips pursed slightly as he considered. Finally shaking his head, Malak spoke.

"I will not speak of this, Atris. Bring Revan to me and let me speak to him privately and we may consider telling the Council but I cannot say now. The Council wouldn't believe either of us even if we did tell the truth."

Atris sighed, not pressing the issue singe Malak had been stubbornly refusing to give up all but the most insignificant secrets of the Sith.

"We've learned enough from the Sith we've captured to know there is something called the Star Forge fueling the Sith's war efforts. I don't suppose you'd feel like telling me about that either?"

Sounding bitter, Atris silently waited, calculating the look of pain on Malak's face.

"Revan had a plan. A good one that the Jedi and the Republic could never carry out. Let me tell you right now that a galaxy under Darth Bandon's control is better than the alternative."

Looking angry, Atris spat back.

"And what is that alternative? Why all this secrecy, Malak? Its not as if it could get any worse."

Years before, Malak had said something similar to Revan and he was still reeling from what Revan had shown him. The horror of the True Sith was almost too much for his mind to take, perhaps it was too much but Malak would not blame his actions on madness. He had simply done what he saw was the best for the galaxy as a while and not just the Core or the Mid Rim. The suffering of the Outer Rim still continued despite his and Revan's efforts during the Mandalorian wars and Malak could feel the dark grasp of the True Sith hovering around the edges o the galaxy, waiting to consume the victor of the Jedi Civil War.
"Bring Revan here. Now that you know he is the Bounty Hunter Raven you can find him. The Force will begin to manifest itself within him once more and perhaps then we can get some results here. The galaxy will never, can never understand why Revan and I did what we did but in a few years none of it will matter, Atris. We'll either be dead or no one will care anymore."

People couldn't care about mass murderers amongst them when they were dead and this was the only thing that stopped Malak from telling Atris what he knew of the True Sith's return. Their reach was further than the Jedi or the Republic could ever guess and only Revan's war, a war of unity despite it being one under a dictatorship was a threat. The Sith could not fight the galaxy as a while but with the Republic as divided as it was, they could easily overtake them and control everything. It was not in martial might that the Sith fought but with lies and deceit and treachery and assassination. Revan had adapted to follow similar guidelines and somewhere along the way, the lines between their enemies and them blurred significantly and suddenly it stopped mattering to them. At least that was how Malak had felt near the end.

"What did you see when you died, Malak?"

Atris asked a familiar question, one Malak had heard nearly every night the past three years. Turning slowly to meet his friend's eyes, Malak licked his lips slightly and sighed.

"Failure."

Malak replied simply. For a moment, when Revan had destroyed his ship, Malak had seen the future as the Force opened up to his dying body and mind and he saw something that broke what little drive he had left. He and Revan would fail and the galaxy would fall. Unnerved, Atris merely said nothing as a silence only comfortable between the closest of friends and siblings formed between the two. If one had asked Atris four years before it she could see herself sitting next to Darth Malak and having a civil conversation she would have likely used the Force to hurl them from her sight but following the exile of Ian Kenobi from the Order, Atris had calmed significantly and the true issues opened up to her, beyond the bitterness of the betrayal of her three friends.

"How did it come to this?"

Atris asked finally. Malak could say nothing since he had no answer, his mind plagued with his own damning knowledge. How he wished to go back to when he was a mere Padawan. Back to where his only worries were of being late to a practice duel or a class and if his and Revan's pranks on Atris and Ian would be discovered by the Masters, or of course if they retaliated in kind.

Mira sighed in sheer frustration as she lowered herself from the branch of the small tree she had climbed.

"Stupid Kath Hounds!"
The red-haired bounty hunter spat, kicking the corpse of the Kath that had jumped out at her from almost out of nowhere, forcing her to climb the tree quickly before she could even get a good shot in from her wrist gauntlet. Wishing she had taken the time to grab her pistol, Mira silently fumed at the world before something caught her eye.

"Huh. Dead Mandalorians."

Thinking she had finally found Canderous' trail, Mira was sorely disappointed when all she found was a meditating Jedi, a Cathar by the looks of it.

"Hey, you haven't happened to see an angry Mandalorian around here, have you?"

Mira asked, gesturing to the dead bodies before something finally registered to her. One of the dead Mandalorian's armor was burned completely through by a precise hole the size of a lightsaber and on closer inspection the other had a charred black line running along the front of his own armor.
"I guess you have, uhm. Have you uh seen..."

Mira trailed off as two golden eyes opened slowly, watching her as if she were an snack. It was the same look the Kath Hound had given her earlier. Slowly, the Cathar rose to her feet and stalked to the edge of the grove she had been meditating in. Mira had time to get a bad feeling before the Cathar raised her hand and she suddenly found herself unable to move.

"The Hell?"

Mira shouted, struggling to move as the Cathar stalked closer, her golden eyes narrowed.

"I am Juhani and this is my grove, my place of Darkness."

A crimson beam erupted from the Cathar's hand in a snap-hiss that was all too recognizable and Mira's bad feeling rose significantly.

"Darkness? Oh You've gotta be kidding me!"

Annoyed, the Cathar's eyes became two golden pinpoints as they narrowed dangerously.

"You mock me? I should strike you down like I did my Jedi Master you insignificant ant!"

A pull at the back of her mind had Mira free of the Force-hold.

"Leave me be you fool or I will kill you."

Juhani all but hissed. Mira raised her hands in compliance, a mistake as her sleeve fell slightly to reveal something she probably shouldn't have to someone who's home world was destroyed by Mandalorians. Juhani's eyes locked with the Mandalorian tattoo and she froze, her eyes studying the mark before slowly turning to Mira's.

"Oh Kriffin- Look I know what you're thinking but-"

Mira was cut off by the humming of the Cathar's crimson lightsaber as she gave an enraged battle cry.

"I will be your doom you Mandalorian scum!"

Moving back with instincts honed by three years as a bounty hunter, Mira narrowly missed being sliced in two by the Cathar's lightsaber. Continuing to back away quickly, Mira's leg caught on one of the dead Mandalorians and she fell back, landing with a thud on the ground as the Cathar's lightsaber again streaked where she had been an instant more. Shooting her hand out, Mira took the fallen Mandalorian's vibrosword and pulled it back in a move Revan had shown her, intercepting the Cathar's blade and backing away from the tornado of fury the Cathar had turned into.
"Look, I'm not one of these guys, okay? I came from the Enclave to find my fri-"

Juhani cut Mira off with another strike, her fury making her attacks much easier to see.

"So you've been sent by the Jedi to kill me then, hunter?"

Surprised at the cold feeling within her mind and the intrusion, Mira frowned.

"Hey, don't read my mind and no I am not here to kill you."
Breathing heavily, Mira wondered if the Cathar even heard her protests as she struck again. The sound of a blasterbolt whizzing by drew the Cathar's attention as she moved to block it and Mira sighed in relief when she saw Carth, his pistols raised in both hands. She knew it was a warning shot to the enraged Cathar but she had serious doubts that the Cathar knew. Juhani in turn called on the Force and leapt high into the air, causing Carth to look up with an almost comical expression before he reacted and rolled away, Juhani's lightsaber driving into the ground where he had been an instant before.

"I will kill you both! Just as I killed my Master Quatra!"

Carth fumbled to get a bearing on the Cathar's expecting to be dead when he heard the sound of a dart flying through the air and saw the enraged Cathar stagger from a paralysis dart. Nearly fifteen yards away, Mira pulled her left hand away from her gauntlet with a sigh.
"I remember how that feels..."

Carth grumbled, pulling himself slowly to his feet as he turned to look at his and Mira's attacker. If he hadn't overhead another Jedi speaking of a Master Quatra being injured in a duel he may have considered disposing of her then and there. Well that and it looked like Mira had other ideas.

"Alright now lets talk like civil people here. I didn't come here to kill you I came here to find a friend of mine who happens to be a Mandalorian and before you say anything he's a good Mandalorian. He's going around helping the people of Dantooine by killing all of this Dravi Clan scum but if he was here right now you'd probably be dead. A friend of mine knows all about this darkness stuff and I think you should talk to him before you go deciding to join the Sith. He might have a thing or two to say to you about that."

Carth furrowed his brow in confusion as he turned his attention to Mira. Shrugging off his suspicion since she was a bounty hunter and likely had a lot of contacts, Carth turned back to the paralyzed Cathar
"You didn't kill your Master. She's still alive and back at the Enclave's medical facility. I know as much because I didn't have much to do this past week besides talk to Jedi. Mira's right I think you should reconsider the whole Darkness thing... whatever that is..."

Having not heard the initial conversation between the two, Carth sighed and turned to Mira, deciding to get to the reason he was there.

"We found Canderous sitting with Zalbaar on a hill, roasting a Kath Hound and regaling each other with tales of unpleasant things. Mission's back with them and Bastila is settling a dispute between some locals over- Hell I dunno she sounded pretty flustered when she called my comm and wanted us to head over there."

Mira nodded absently to Carth, eyeing the Cathar a moment before she stalked over and pulled the deactivated lightsaber from her hand.

"I'll hold on to this a moment and just..."

Injecting the antidote to Juhani, who appeared much calmer than before, Mira quickly backed away, enjoying Carth's exasperated curse as he readied his blasters.
"You- you both speak the truth..."

Juhani said slowly, probing both human's minds with the Force and pulling away before lowering her head in shame.

"I- I am I am deeply sorry I-"

Unable to finish, Juhani turned away from the two.
"I think we're good here, Carth. Go help Bastila with those locals while I clear some things here."

Nodding slowly, Carth lowered his pistols, offering one to Mira who quickly shook her head to the offer.

"No thanks, just go."

Casting one last wary glance at the Cathar, Carth trudged away towards the Matale estate where Bastila had found herself between a feuding family who's children had decided to fall in love and were causing quiet the scene. Arriving on the scene nearly an hour later, Carth found that Bastila had bothered Canderous and the others into helping her as well, resulting in Canderous knocking out both of the two arguing adults and telling the kids to beat it before he blasted them. When the fathers of Shen Matale and Rahasia Sandral regained consciousness, both looked slightly fearful in the face of the glare Canderous sent them while being more reasonable, Carth attempted to explain to the two men in a reasonable tone how they should put aside their differences for their children. When the two men began bickering like an old married couple, Carth threw his hands up in surrender and walked away.

"Forget it Bastila. There's no point and I think if we stay any longer Canderous is just going to shoot them."

Seeing that Canderous was grinning at the idea, Bastila quickly interjected and allowed the Mandalorian and Wookiee to return to their meal while Mission looked on blankly at the two arguing adults.

"This is lame."

Mission decided, turning to join Canderous and Zalbaar while Carth snickered and decided it would be best to return to the Enclave to stock up on supplies for the Ebon Hawk and see if the Republic Fleet Command had a new assignment for him or if they wanted him to just sit on Dantooine for another week. Remembering that he was being pressured to take break from the combat by his previous commanding officer, Carth frowned. Maybe he would wait for them to contact him.