Disclaimer: I humbly disclaim the idea for this brilliant plot twist. It's not mine. Aithne's not even completely mine.

Chapter Thirty-Three

The elevator doors opened onto the hangar level of the Leviathan. Leviathan, Aithne thought. The great beast. The name was eerie in its appropriateness. She certainly never wanted to see it again. If she had the power to shoot it out of the sky, she would. She missed the Hawk. With any luck they'd be there shortly.

Aithne's com-link buzzed again. She switched it on, and Canderous spoke, in his normal tone. "It's Canderous. We took care of the guards. We're all inside the Ebon Hawk and all systems are go. As soon as you guys join us we can get out of here."

"Good work," Aithne praised the Mandalorian. "We took care of the doors. We're on your level and headed your way. Over and out."

Of course on their way to the ship, Sith inevitably came out to look at them and decided to fight. Aithne, Bastila, and Carth left an increasing silence behind them, as well as bodies. All the time, too, Aithne and Bastila could feel the presence of the Dark Lord of the Sith drawing nearer and nearer, until finally Aithne was sure he must be just beyond the next door.

He was. The door directly ahead of Aithne opened, and Aithne almost stamped her foot. The Ebon Hawk was mere feet away, just beyond the next few doors! But they still hadn't been quick enough. Malak was pale, scarred, and tattooed, with a hideous monstrosity of an electronic jaw. He stood near seven feet tall, and wore a cape and a menacing expression.

"Darth Malak," Bastila hailed him defiantly.

Carth's move was nothing short of inspirational. In the face of the Lord of the Sith himself, Carth Onasi whipped out his blasters, tired though he was, and shot, with a cry of defiance. Aithne wasn't sure if she had ever loved him more.

Not that it did any good. With a cruel mechanical laugh, Malak diverted the bolts as if they were merely paper bullets. With a vicious Force shove, he knocked Carth to his knees. Carth rose immediately, but his gun remained at his side as Malak spoke, addressing Bastila.

"I hope you weren't thinking of leaving so soon, Bastila," he said. He spoke in a monotone that the electronic voice box produced for him, as he was deprived of the articulators that lay somewhere with his severed jaw. "I've spent far too much energy hunting down you and your companions to let you get away from me now. Besides," he said, turning to Aithne. He looked her over with something approaching amazement. "I had to see for myself if it was true." Aithne's mouth went dry. Him, too? "Tell me, why did the Jedi spare you?" he asked her. "Is it vengeance you seek at this reunion?"

Something was clawing at the back of Aithne's mind, like an itch she couldn't quite reach to scratch. The fear she'd felt since Karath's dying intimation to Carth, the foreboding she'd felt since her torture an hour or so ago, and the vague unease she'd felt ever since she first got mixed up with Bastila Shan all began to take shape at Malak's words, though she knew not into what. Aithne licked her lips nervously. "I…I don't understand," she said.

Malak's cold, dark eyes widened. "What?" he asked, gaze flickering to Bastila and back to Aithne. Then, horribly, he laughed. "You mean you don't know?" He laughed again, seemingly unable to control himself. "All this time, and you still haven't figured it out? I wonder how long you would have stayed blind to the truth?" he asked rhetorically, reveling in Aithne's ignorance of this terrible truth everyone else seemed to know now. "Surely some of what you once were must have surfaced by now."

Aithne found it hard to focus. The mysterious tug at the back of her mind and in the pit of her stomach strengthened. "What I once…but.."

All the things that had puzzled her since she'd started on this insane quest seemed to be flashing at once into her mind. Her odd importance to Malak. To Bastila, and to the Jedi. Her uncharacteristic and easy callousness on Korriban. How the computer on Kashyyyk had recognized her. Her disturbing thoughts at the time. The way Jolee looked at her sometimes…Something is very dark about you. How the Jedi Council had been so ready to consider her Force Sensitive, but so reluctant to admit her into training. Bastila's constant dodging of certain topics- always those concerning Revan. How she'd taken to Jedi Training, almost like she'd done it before.

"Even the combined power of the Jedi Council couldn't keep your true identity buried forever, could it?" asked Malak silkily.

Aithne's head was reeling. Flashes of dreams played through her head, always from the perspective of Revan, Lord of the Sith. She seemed to feel a lightsaber in her hands, once green, now green again, but…but it had been red. She remembered all at once with new bone-chilling significance how Carth had told her on Taris the ways that the Sith could use the Force to wipe away memories and destroy identities. She felt again Revan's pain and betrayal as a ship deck shook beneath her. The Force is the Force, she thought, anything the Sith can do to a mind, the Jedi can do. So many coincidences swam in her consciousness. Too many. So many dreams…but they weren't dreams, they were memories. Everything came together to form a sudden, terrible conviction. Aithne closed her eyes. Her very soul screamed in pain, rejecting the obvious truth.

"You cannot hide from what you once were, Revan!" Malak said gleefully, and Aithne flinched at the sound of the name. Her name. A brilliant young woman, compassionate and eager to learn. The savior of the galaxy. The ruthless tyrannical overlord that had killed millions, that had held the galaxy at its throat. "Recognize that you were once the Dark Lord- and know that I have taken your place!"

Aithne assembled all the countless clues, bringing them together in her mind. Each and every one fit into that same conclusion. She opened her eyes, looking at Malak. "I'm Revan," she murmured. "It makes sense."

She turned to Bastila, quite calmly, though her soul felt as if it had been ripped out of her body and stomped on. She remembered her dear father, all those years of scouting and loneliness, and realized that it was all a lie, a fabrication of the Jedi. "And yet I never could have guessed. How is it that I don't remember?"

Malak's eyes gleamed in malicious triumph. "The Council used the Force to reprogram your mind," he volunteered. "They wiped away your identity and turned you against your own followers."

"Bastila," Aithne said again urgently. "Answer me. Why am I alive?"

Malak answered again. "The Jedi are fools. They do not believe in executing…"

Aithne rounded on him. "Last time I checked," she said quietly, "Your name wasn't Bastila. I'll deal with you in a moment. My mind's full of lies, true. But a few things have managed to slip through the cracks. For example, I remember that you fired on Revan…on…my ship." She stumbled over the words, barely managing to keep her voice from breaking. "While Rev…while I was fighting Bastila."

Bastila finally spoke. "It's true," she said. "When Malak fired on the ship you were badly injured. We thought you were dead. Your mind was destroyed, but I used the Force to preserve the flicker of life in your body. I brought you to the Jedi Council. They healed your damaged mind."

Aithne couldn't take the dishonesty. She shook her head, rejecting Bastila's words. "Maybe they kept me from dying. Maybe they restored me so I could function. But they didn't heal my mind, Bastila. My entire life, every memory in my recall, is a lie. The Council did that. And for what? The Star Forge?" Her voice broke finally.

"They tried to make you their slave," Malak interjected. Aithne felt sure that if he had a mouth, he would be grinning.

Bastila shot Malak a look of annoyance. She extended a hand to Aithne. "It's true that the Council created a false identity for you, a soldier under my command. Your subconscious memories were supposed to lead me to the Star Forge. We had no other way to get the information."

"Revan never left a trail," Aithne murmured, thinking over the few flashes of memory she had left- Bastila's 'visions'. Her stomach twisted. "She didn't like the risk."

"You mean you didn't like the risk, Revan?" Malak reminded her smugly.

Suddenly Aithne was no longer afraid of him. She glared at him. "Shut up, ugly! I'm processing!" she snapped. She rounded on Bastila again. "You were going to tell me?" The words were a challenge.

Without hesitation, Bastila nodded. "I promise I was," she answered.

Aithne raised her chin, daring the Sentinel. "You trusted me?" she asked.

Bastila gazed steadily at her, refusing to back down. "I thought you deserved a chance to be trusted," she said carefully. "I think you do."

Aithne looked at her handler. For the first time she realized exactly how difficult a position Bastila had been in. Any affection, any trust Bastila had for her was of much more import now than it would have been had she actually been Aithne Morrigan. The bond between them, too, took on new significance. It had not been forged on Taris, but on Revan's doomed ship when Bastila had saved her life, taking mercy on a woman she might have been wiser to allow to perish.

Finally Aithne nodded. "Okay," she said quietly. "Okay. We'll talk later. Right now I want to get off this ship!" She turned to face Malak at last. He looked disappointed.

"You are weak, Revan," he informed her. "I was right to betray you. You are not fit to rule the Sith. A small part of me has always regretted betraying you from afar. I always knew there were some who would think I acted out of fear, that I did not want to face you. But now fate has given me a second chance to prove myself. Once I defeat you in combat no one will question my claim to the Sith throne; my triumph will be complete."

Aithne activated her lightsabers. She could feel nothing now but contempt for the giant of a man before her. Despite his protests, she suspected he had fired on her ship out of fear. "No one will question your claim to the Sith throne but your own apprentice, maybe. And shut up, already! You talk too much." Malak's eyes widened, and a pang of recognition went through Aithne's chest. "I said that then, too, didn't I?" she murmured. She forced a smile. "Well. I bet I can still kick your incompetent butt from here to the Unknown Regions, too!"

Malak twitched, and Aithne's fake smile became real, a little. "The Jedi Council were foolish to let you live," he observed. "I won't make the same mistake. We shall finish this alone in the ancient Sith tradition: master versus apprentice, as it was meant to be!"

He let loose a wave of the Force before Aithne could counter it and froze her companions into a Stasis. It was outrageously unfair to Carth and Bastila, and Aithne was already churning with emotion at having discovered that she had been a murderous overlord and her entire life was a lie, and annoyed at Malak for being so thrilled with the whole situation. She fell on him.

Aithne had never much liked using Force Attacks in combat, though she would when pressed to the wall by several opponents. Ordinarily, though, they felt far too much like cheating, and she preferred to rely on her considerable dueling skills. Malak, on the other hand, seemed largely to rely on Force attacks. His lightsaber strokes were powerful, but they were artless and clumsy, too, Aithne noticed. He seemed to be trying to keep her at a distance as they fought. Malak was continually sending Lightning at her that she had to divert or dodge, though he was also incredibly fond of the Push.

At first, Malak's Force attacks drove Aithne back. She had been tortured that day, after all, and had been fighting nonstop ever since her escape. So a few times she fell. A few times she got stung with a charge. It only increased her annoyance, and every time she went back at him more fiercely than ever.

Eventually, Aithne began to notice certain muscular patterns that preceded Malak's Force attacks. Once she identified these, she began to dodge them. Malak's brow crinkled in bewilderment as Aithne began to dance through his attacks untouched, off the defensive and on the attack now in earnest. Aithne began to grin as Malak lost ground. In the middle of a left-handed back slice, Aithne suddenly let loose with her own round of Force Lightning.

It hit Malak in the chest, forcing him back a foot or so and making him grunt in surprised pain. Malak's eyes widened as Aithne came at him again, lighting up with horrific recognition. For just a moment she paused. She could own him. She was Revan. It hurt to think, and the pain distracted her just long enough for Malak to catch her in a Force Whirlwind.

Her advance was halted, and through the dust that surrounded her, Aithne saw Malak dart away back through the open door in front of her. He closed it behind him.

Rage coursed through her. "Coward!" she shouted after him. With a supreme effort she broke the whirlwind's grip on her. She fell on her feet and hit the ground running, darting around a block of doors she'd seen on the schematic on the bridge, racing to cut him off.

She came out on the side facing the Ebon Hawk and turned back towards the closed door. Malak was there behind it, in between her and where her companions stood frozen. Aithne took a deep breath, harnessing her anger lest it cripple her, and passed through the door. Malak beckoned to her as if he'd never run away. Aithne glared at him, and renewed her onslaught.

Malak's command of the Force was running low. Aithne could feel it. His continued hold on Carth and Bastila was draining him fast, and Aithne could sense that even now they were fighting hard against his bonds. She grinned at him.

"Getting tired, Malak?"

"Not so tired as you," he answered. "We shall see which of us breaks first."

Aithne darted and sliced and ducked and parried. She met all of his clumsy blows with a block of her own, but the sheer power behind his hand jarred her bones. He had the reach and height of her, and she was finding it difficult to penetrate his guard. Her eyes flickered up and down, taking advantage of her trained senses to search for openings as she circled him.

She grew overconfident. She was so intent on their swordplay, so secure in her knowledge of his weariness, that she forgot to watch for his signals. But just as she'd finally found an opening, Malak let loose of Carth and Bastila and struck out with the last of his strength in a violent, desperate push of the Force.

The push sent Aithne hurtling into a metal wall. She hit hard and slid to the ground, winded. For a moment, just a moment, she was unable to rise. It was all Malak needed. He moved forward, about to finish her, but the door to his left opened, and a defiant voice rang out, "This isn't over, Malak!"

Bastila stood in the doorway. Malak immediately turned his attention to her. "Your friends do not give up easily, Revan," he remarked. "You always could inspire loyalty." He sounded envious. Judging from the reports she'd heard of Malak's indifferent success with his followers, Aithne supposed that he was. "But even the three of you together cannot stand against my power!"

"For the Jedi!" Bastila cried, throwing her lightsaber in a beautiful arc. Malak ducked in the nick of time, but part of his cloak was singed. Suddenly, another push moved Aithne, who had climbed to her feet, outside of the central room. She fell against Carth, who apparently had been standing there, about to join the fight.

"I'll hold Malak off!" Bastila called. "You two get out of here! Find the Star Forge!"

Carth shoved Aithne away, darting forward. "No, Bastila, he's too strong!" he began, but the door came down between Bastila, Malak, and Carth and Aithne. Carth tried to open it, but in vain. Bastila, using her Force powers, was holding the door.

"The door's sealed," Carth said to Aithne, who was recovering herself. "We can't get past! C'mon, we have to get to the Ebon Hawk!"

"But Bastila!" Aithne cried, trying to get past Carth now to aid her friend.

Carth grabbed her arm, none too gently. "Bastila doesn't stand a chance against Malak," he confirmed, "But we can't help her. Not here. We have to get off this ship and find the Star Forge. That's the key to beating the Dark Lord! Bastila sacrificed herself so we could get away. We can't let her sacrifice be in vain! C'mon!"

At first, Carth half dragged her away. Later, Aithne began to run, tears blinding her vision. As she scrambled up the ramp to the Ebon Hawk, she heard the first screams begin. Behind her, with her ears, but also in her head.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed that. Angst lovers, keep reading. The next chapters are going to be full of it. How will Aithne respond to knowing she was once a mass-murdering tyrant? How will Carth respond to knowing Aithne was once a mass-murdering tyrant? Will the crew abandon her? What happens to Bastila? And who is to blame for the whole big mess? Oh, yes, Aithne's life is suddenly much more dramatic than even is usual for her, and there will be tears, and there will be shouting, and there will definitely be trouble in the Carth-Aithne paradise, and Aithne hatred of Revan and the entire Jedi Council. Don't forget to review on your way out!

-LMSharp