Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the game, characters, or plot.
Chapter Forty-One
CARTH POV
Carth didn't catch up to Aithne again. By the time he got to the Ebon Hawk, she was already in the dormitory. She had been practically running by the end, looking straight ahead as if in a dream.
Carth knew well enough that he couldn't hope to get her to listen to him if she hadn't already. And it was true, too, that they had to get in that temple and shut the disruptor field off. The first Republic ships might begin arriving as early as tomorrow, and the rest of the fleet that remained would arrive within the week. They didn't stand much of a chance even without the field. With it they were coming to their deaths. Aithne could shut it off inside that temple, but as remarkable as she was, with all the Sith in there, Carth knew she couldn't do it alone. She was a terrible stealth op.
And there was more. Something was coming for Aithne. Carth could feel it. That point-of-no-return that he'd foretold was right around the corner. He had to be there for her. He just had to. But how could he if she wouldn't listen? Carth ran his hands through his hair, and then turned towards the med bay.
"Jolee," he cried. "Jolee!"
"Once is enough, dammit!" came the voice of the cranky old man. "That's the problem with the youth of today. Can't wait for anything. Well, sonny, come in before your aura explodes."
Carth went in. He couldn't think of how to phrase his request. All he knew was that Jolee was the right person to ask. He paced back and forth. Jolee watched him calmly for about a minute, and then asked, "And what's got you so hot and bothered then?"
"They're letting her in," Carth said. "But only alone. And she's going."
Jolee focused immediately. "You tried to talk her out of it?"
Carth shook his head violently. "She won't listen to me. She's got this glazed look on her face, like she's not even here anymore. She's been getting further and further away since we set out for this world."
Jolee nodded, face grim. "Mmmhmm. Aithne's aura was always turbulent, even before she discovered her identity. Since then it's been tempestuous. Since we arrived on this planet, it has appeared to me as if the forces of good and evil themselves have been tearing apart her soul. Something's coming. Something big."
"I feel it too," said Juhani. Carth turned. The Jedi Guardian stood in the doorway. Her face was troubled. "I have been meditating, and I see one thing only when I think of Aithne. A lightsaber, blood red, against a black ship and a blue sky."
Jolee closed his eyes. Carth gathered he was communing with Juhani, the way the Jedi did. "Yes," he said presently. "I see it, too. I sense there will be fear, and loss, and confusion, and anger. Beyond that…" his eyes flew open. "Tomorrow on the summit of the Temple, Aithne will be in the greatest danger of falling that she has been yet, even on Korriban."
Carth's stomach dropped. He clenched his fists. "She can't go there alone! Don't you dare let her go alone."
"No, you are correct," Juhani said distractedly. "We must not allow this. Jolee?"
"Count me in," Jolee said.
"I should…" Carth began, but Jolee shook his head.
"You should not. The Republic needs you here, to fix the ship and communicate with any incoming ships. Leave Malak's Dark Jedi to us."
"My place is with Aithne, too," Carth argued.
Jolee nodded. "It is. And…" he closed his eyes again, and gripped Carth's shoulder. Carth felt something vast and mysterious brush his mind- the Force? Jolee nodded again in satisfaction. "Provided she does the right thing, you will fill that place for years to come. I can see that much."
Carth gripped Jolee's arm. "Help her," he said. The words came out half-strangled.
"We will," Juhani said with a bit more bite than necessary. "You are not the only one that cares for her, Carth Onasi."
Carth turned to her. He'd suspected earlier today that there were reasons behind the Cathar's increased solitude recently. "Then I can trust you to be just as careful of her safety- body and soul- as I would be myself," he said quietly, charging her. Juhani lowered her eyes. Anger at him, sadness, self-loathing, and hopelessness warred on her face, but she nodded.
"At the end of the day she will come back to you, Carth," she said. Her voice was almost too low to hear. "I will make sure that she is able."
Carth nodded. "Thank you." He took one last look at Jolee- it was impossible to tell what he thought of the exchange between Carth and Juhani. Carth guessed he hadn't heard or inferred anything he hadn't known already; the old man knew pretty much everything that happened on the ship. It didn't matter. He'd given his word to help, and Carth knew Jolee loved Aithne in the unique way that all the Jedi masters loved their pupils, for all Jolee made no claims to being a Jedi or a teacher of anything. Juhani- Carth didn't even need to look at her again to know she'd do her best. He left the med bay. All he could do now was wait, and hope.
AITHNE POV
The sun was rising over the Ancient Rakatan Temple when Aithne ran up to it. Five Elder Rakata knelt in a circle in front of the entrance around a small fire. At Aithne's approach, one rose.
/You have arrived. I will begin the ritual. It will take many hours, but when it is complete you must be ready. The shields will not stay down for long. Prepare yourself./
Aithne knelt behind the Elders, and they started to chant. But footsteps sounded behind Aithne, and they stopped. Another Elder stood. /Wait, someone's coming./
Aithne stood and turned. Jolee and Juhani were running towards her across the field. Aithne frowned. They shouldn't have come. She was even more annoyed at how grateful she was that they had.
Jolee stopped a few feet away from the fire. "You can't go in there alone," he said to Aithne.
Aithne sighed. "Jolee, Juhani…I must. It's tradition."
Juhani shook her head. "We have had a…a premonition. The Force has given us a vision. A lightsaber…"
Aithne felt a bit ill. "A red lightsaber raised against a black ship and a blue sky," she finished.
Juhani nodded. "There is great danger within the Temple. We will not let you face it alone."
Jolee continued, "You might be walking into a trap…maybe Malak himself is waiting inside."
Aithne closed her eyes. "Maybe not Malak, but something's waiting. I've felt it for some time."
Jolee stared her down. "Even if there's no extraordinary danger, that Temple will be crawling with Dark Jedi. Aithne, you'll need our help."
/No other can go with you into the Temple,/ protested one of the ritual-speakers. /You must enter alone. That is the way of the ancient ritual./
Aithne opened her eyes. She swallowed, and turned back towards the Rakata. "Jolee, Juhani, you shouldn't have come. This is my fight. My wrong to right. Besides, the Rakata won't allow it."
Jolee put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him again. "Both of us decided to come here today," he said with some asperity. "Your fight? We have made it ours as well. Are you going to stop us from throwing in our own destinies with yours? That's not your right. Your destiny-maybe the fate of the entire galaxy- could be forever changed inside that Temple. I'm not about to let you face that alone. Not after my premonition. There's a reason we have shared in your vision."
Juhani nodded briskly. "Jolee speaks for me as well, Aithne," she declared. "You must enter that Temple, but just as surely we must go with you!"
"So you just tell that guide of yours to do whatever he has to do to get all three of us inside that Temple," Jolee ordered.
Aithne stared at them both. Their faces were set. A huge weight seemed to lift off Aithne's shoulders. "You aren't going to change your minds about this, are you?" She smiled. "Thank you," she murmured. She turned back to the guide. "I won't be going in alone after all. Lower the shields, please."
/No!/ cried the Rakata in question. /You must enter the Temple alone! I will not lower the shields!/
Jolee sighed. "I haven't had the time to absorb the language as you and Juhani have, but it sounds like your guide is being stubborn."
"He is," Juhani confirmed.
Jolee grimaced. "We don't have time for this. The Republic Fleet is on its way and we're stuck on this planet until we deactivate that disruptor field. You have to convince him to get us inside that Temple!"
Aithne nodded. "I'll try," she said in an undertone. She focused her attention on the guide, the one that seemed to be in charge of the ritual. She layered her words with the Force, and spoke with conviction. "I will not be able to destroy the Star Forge on my own," she said smoothly. "My friends must come with me into the Temple. Please."
The Elder considered, then nodded. /I believe you. The Elder Council has said that you wish to destroy the Star Forge and the terrible legacy of our ancestors. If you need help to do this, I will not stand in your way any longer./
"Thank you," Aithne murmured.
The guide knelt. Aithne followed suit. /I will resume the ritual now,/ he informed her.
Jolee and Juhani knelt behind Aithne, so the three of them formed a triangle. Jolee muttered to the others, "Why do I get the feeling that this is going to take a while? Still, we better stay ready. As soon as those shields go down we have to get inside that Temple."
Aithne's knees were aching, and sweat was trailing down between her shoulder blades several hours later. Her eyes were bleary from staring at the Temple entrance. Judging from the way the sun beat down, it was nearing noon.
Aithne was aroused from her contemplation of the shape the Temple made against the sky when the droning of the Rakata reached a climax. A beam of energy took shape above the fire. Aithne rose, and the beam shot towards the shields. Aithne started running. Jolee and Juhani followed close behind. Aithne ignored the groaning of her muscles as she ran. Her feet met the stone of the Temple floor, and the coolness of the dark halls enveloped her just as the shield came down behind Juhani.
Aithne looked around. The Temple was stone, and remarkably stable for its age. Reaching out with the Force, Aithne recoiled from the strength of the Dark Side around her. It was more malicious and older than anything she had encountered on Korriban, even.
A great door stood right in front of her. She tried it, reaching out to it with the Force to compel it to open. Nothing happened. But Aithne had a feeling that this was the door she was to pass through.
She sighed. "That's the way we have to go," she said. Her words echoed in the listening silence. "But we can't yet. I think we're going to have to go around the entire building to go next door."
Jolee frowned. "We don't have time for this," he said, with no real anger. "Which way?"
Aithne thought for a moment. "Right," she said finally, turning and leading the way along the labyrinthine corridors.
They ran into droids relatively early on, but Aithne, particularly since the discovery of her identity, had been practicing on her ability to dispatch these with the Force. They were easily dealt with.
They combed the rooms of the Rakatan Temple of the Ancients, dealing with a few training Sith apprentices that got in their way, and searching for something, anything, that would enable the disabling of the disruptor field and get them to the summit of the Temple.
About halfway through the ground level of the Temple, Aithne came to a massive door similar to the first. She tried it wearily, and was surprised to find a steep ramp leading downward. Her brain pricked in uneasy recognition. She turned to Jolee and Juhani. "Come on," she said.
A droid guarded the lower level, but Jolee took it out without a thought, and Aithne continued through. She came to another doorway, this an open arch. Beyond it, she saw a massive computer interface, similar to the ones she'd seen in the mound on Dantooine. She walked forward apprehensively.
/Hello, Revan,/ the Computer said pleasantly in the Rakata tongue. /It has been some time since you last accessed my database. I was beginning to fear you had been terminated./
"Almost," Aithne said uneasily. "My identity was, anyways. I go by Aithne Morrigan now."
It turned out that the computer had been created by the ancient Rakata to keep an entire, uncorrupted history of their Empire and species. The computer controlled access to the upper levels, too. Aithne had been unable to access the Temple Summit because, due to neurological changes that had taken place since she had been Revan, similar to those the interface on Kashyyyk had denied her for, it no longer recognized her. By a brief conversation with the interface, though, the computer determined that she was still the same person it had previously granted access, and reset the door to recognize her again.
Aithne also learned a bit more about the Rakata than Orsaa, with her rote-learned tale, had been able to tell her. The Rakata had indeed once been a Force-wielding people. But they were evil and paranoid by nature, and when the Force had mutated out of their species, they had ultimately destroyed themselves. Their technology was superior to themselves though, and the Star Forge, a Dark-Side feeding space station and factory, and the Star Maps that led to it, had survived the collapse of the Rakatan Empire. But the Star Forge was more powerful than anyone who could try to wield it. Malak's followers would eventually be consumed by the Dark Side they tried to wield, and his empire would dissolve into chaos, just like that of the Builders.
Aithne thanked the computer, and turned to go. "That was useful," she remarked to Jolee and Juhani.
"Was it?" Jolee asked lightly.
"Yeah," Aithne said, forging ahead. "We really have to stop the Sith, guys. Both for their own sake and for the Republic."
"Aithne, forgive me," Juhani ventured, "but isn't the Summit the other way?"
"I got the layout of the Temple from the Rakatan computer," Aithne said. "It's roughly circular, and we're halfway through it. We trashed the cameras, so they're blind, but odds are that anyone going through the other half of the Temple will be looking for us, with the droids and bodies everywhere. They aren't really expecting us this way."
And they weren't. Aithne made her way through the rooms and corridors, looking for the right door.
"They all start to look the same after a while," she complained, striding into another room.
Two Dark Jedi arose from their meditation, glaring at her. "Who dares intrude on our meditations?" one, a female with a pretty strong aura, demanded. "You know the penalty for…" she took in Aithne's face and blanched. She gripped her lightsaber tightly, fear plain in her eyes. "Revan!" she exclaimed. "You are back!"
Aithne was a little impressed. "You recognize me? Hmm. You must have been pretty high ranking. I don't think I was in the habit of showing my face to the general public."
"You weren't," the Sith woman said in confusion.
Aithne extended her arms in a helpless gesture. "Look, I'm sorry if I knew you at all. I don't remember you. Well, I don' t remember anyone, really. I'm not exactly Revan anymore, you see, and I've definitely no interest in ruling the galaxy and whatnot."
The woman's brow darkened. "Malak told us what happened to you," she said harshly. "The Jedi Council has stripped you of your power. You are a shell of what you once were."
This irked Aithne, but she forced herself to smile amiably at the woman and her companion. "Care to test out that theory?" she asked, and was gratified to see both Sith flinch. "Since you know me, though- I don't know- we may have been friends, were we?"
The woman sneered. "We were not, but the fact that you would consider sparing me for that reason proves your weakness."
"You are not fit to rule the Sith anymore, Revan," the man said. "Malak will reward us greatly for destroying you!" He and the woman ignited their sabers. Aithne ignited her own.
"Or," she said lightly, "I could reward you for trying." She met the woman's downward stroke with a crossed-saber block.
The man proved a pushover. He was young and overeager. The woman who had identified Aithne was much trickier. She threw Force attack after Force attack at Aithne and her companions, so that much of the energy they could have directed towards killing her was expended defending themselves. Finally, Juhani caught her off-guard with a lucky Force push, and Aithne was able to finish her.
An adjoining door opened, and a bald, scarred, older man peered out to see the source of the commotion. He caught sight of Aithne withdrawing her left saber from the side of the Sith woman, and his eyes widened.
He stepped into the room, grinning and activating his own double saber. Aithne groaned.
"Revan!" he said in a low, menacing voice. "Lord Malak told us you still lived! At last- a challenge worthy of my skills. I grow so bored with slaughtering these mindless training droids."
Aithne was so tired of Sith bravado. She stood up straight and put her hands on her hips. "As an opening combat statement that was disgusting, sloppy, and showy," she said. "You call yourself a Sith?"
The Sith drew himself up, needled. "I intensified my training tenfold in the hopes that I would get the chance to face you in mortal combat!"
Aithne rolled her eyes. "Did you? That was stupid of you. Apparently I'm 'a shell of what I once was', and your Lord Malak still ran last time we fought." She remembered a certain dream she'd had, and laughed. "Have you ever asked him how he lost his jaw?"
The Sith couldn't take her ridicule. Aithne reflected that the Sith were by and large a humorless lot. Not one of them could take a joke at their expense. The ugly bald man attacked with a roar. Aithne sidestepped neatly, and sent a Force Wave at him that dropped him to his knees. Jolee hit him with a bolt of Force Lightning, then, and Juhani delivered what would have been a bone-crushing blow, but he blocked it, staggering to his feet. Aithne stepped up, and the Sith whirled to face her, only to meet a booted size ten to the chest, inside his guard. He stumbled backwards, and Juhani decapitated him with a look of serene contempt on her face.
"He should not have tried to fight angry," she said quietly. "Perhaps he was as formidable as he seemed to think he was, but because he was angry, he was the easiest opponent we've had in this Temple."
Aithne laughed. "Juhani, you have learned so much," she said. She clapped the Cathar on the shoulder, and Juhani's eyes lit with pleasure at the unaccustomed compliment.
Aithne led the trio into an empty adjoining room. She closed and locked the door and slid down the wall to sit momentarily.
"Let's breathe," she said. "Fifteen minutes. We need the break."
Juhani and Jolee sank to sit on either side of her. All three of them were sweaty and grimy, but more or less untouched. Juhani had a shallow scratch on one cheek. Jolee had been burned on the left wrist by a lightsaber that came just a bit too close. Aithne herself was limping a bit from a Dark Jedi they'd encountered earlier that had ambitions as a wrestler.
"I'm glad you guys came," Aithne said presently, after her heart rate had slowed a little.
"Jolee?" she asked a little later.
"Hmm?" he asked.
"After twenty years of being happy on Kashyyyk with the Wookiees, why'd you leave?"
"Are we back to that again?" Jolee grumbled.
Aithne chuckled. "Yes. Why me?"
Jolee seemed to consider. "What's the best way for me to approach this?" he asked. He seemed to be asking himself. Juhani and Aithne listened intently. "Ah, perhaps it's time for a little story."
Aithne grimaced. "You and your stories, I swear!"
Jolee glared at her. "You just keep quiet there. I've had to put up with all your busy body questions, haven't I?"
Juhani laughed, a soft, furry sound. Aithne grinned. Juhani had had more than enough experience with Aithne's questions herself. It was good that she was entering in on Jolee's criticism of them, though.
"Well now you'll listen to a story, dammit!" Jolee cleared his throat. "Now where was I? Oh yes, the story…you almost made me forget about it. Nice try, but I'm not that old just yet." He chuckled, and continued. "Now then, a young man sees a terribly venomous snake slide in his small village. Nervous, he watches the snake carefully until it leaves. The young man follows the snake into the forest. He clears the branches out of its path and even works to keep it fed."
Juhani's eyes flickered between Jolee and Aithne's faces. Aithne kept hers expressionless. "Does he, now?" she said. "Why?"
"Shush!" Jolee scolded. "Many nights pass and still the young man continues to follow the snake. He even follows it into the sands of a great desert. In the desert, the snake eventually grows hungry. It turns and bites the young man, its poison quickly working its way into his system. Finally curious, the snake looks at the boy as he lies dying and asks,
" 'Why were you foolish enough to follow me all the way out into the desert?' The boy looks back and replies,
" 'Did I follow you? I thought I was leading you away from everyone else.' And then he died."
"So what?" Aithne said, voice empty of emotion. "Was I the snake?"
Jolee pursed his lips. "Well now, that's what I wanted to see for myself." Juhani regarded the old man.
"You remind me of the teachers I had as an apprentice, "she observed.
"Jolee," Aithne said calmly. "I'm not a snake." But the implications of his story stung her.
Jolee seemed to accept her assertion. "Well, then, let's hope you're not the young man, either. I've told you before that you have a destiny before you," he instructed. "That doesn't mean, however, that your future is already written. They are not the same thing. You have a choice of which direction you take your destiny in. Certainly more than engine-sucking Andor, but even he had a choice. So far you've chosen to take the lighter path. Can you stay that course, even through the challenges ahead? We'll have to wait and see. I'm not here to judge you or tell you which path to take. I'm here ready to offer my help…should you ask for it."
"And sometimes even when I don't," Aithne muttered. Juhani glared, and Jolee ignored her.
" I do that because I think it's important. More important than remaining in my home and pretending the galaxy doesn't exist. That's why I'm here."
Aithne considered all this for a moment. Then she rose, helping Jolee up as well. She kept his hand, smiling.
"You know, you're a good friend," she informed him, then expanding the smile to include Juhani. "Both of you are. But Jolee, you're a good Teacher, too. I'm glad you came."
Jolee chuckled. "I'm rather glad I came, too, really," he admitted. "You're a fine young lass. I hope…I hope things turn out well for you."
Aithne grinned. "Let's go make sure they do," she said, leading the others out.
Rejuvenated, Aithne, Jolee, and Juhani got to the Temple Summit door in another fifteen minutes, despite a few Dark Jedi interruptions. They met no one else that recognized Aithne, or even was able to put up much of a fight. Aithne got the feeling that Temple duty was what Malak assigned to Sith either too annoying or too incompetent to send to war.
Still, as she stood in front of the door to the Temple Summit, she hesitated. She felt that presence, waiting for her. She shivered, not afraid for her life exactly, but more for her soul…and someone else's.
Finally, she opened the door and stepped through. She blinked in the bright light of the high afternoon sun. It was dazzling after two hours of running around in a dim ancient temple.
Then she saw it. There was a black ship parked on the opposite side of the roof. It stood out against the clear blue sky. This was it. Her vision and destiny had drawn her here to this moment. Aithne tensed, then walked forward apprehensively. A figure stood in an archway. As Aithne came closer, she recognized the person standing there. She bit back an exclamation.
"Revan," Bastila said coolly. "I knew you'd come for me. You spoke into my mind. You promised. Malak thought that you might be afraid to enter the Temple again, but he doesn't know you like I do. Not anymore. Not since you've changed."
Juhani strode forward. "Bastila, quickly," she said. "Come with us! We have to escape before Malak arrives!"
"Leave off, Juhani," Aithne commanded, stepping so she stood in front of Juhani and Jolee. She didn't take her eyes of Bastila for a single moment. The young woman in the Sith uniform smiled unpleasantly. Aithne's heart broke.
"Yes, Revan. I have sworn allegiance to Lord Malak and the Sith. I am no longer a pawn of the Jedi Council."
"Were you before?" Aithne asked, her voice quiet.
Bastila shook her head in a horrible put-on pity. "Surely you know what I mean, Revan," she said in her most arrogant, holier-than-thou tones. "Look at what the Council did to you; they turned you into their puppet. The same thing they do to all who are truly strong in the Force." Her face twisted in sudden anger. "They speak of the Dark Side as if it is something to be feared. But in reality their only goal is to manipulate those who are strong in the Force. The fear of the Dark Side is a tool to maintain control."
Bastila had a point, Aithne reflected. The Jedi Council had certainly manipulated Aithne, but she didn't believe the reasoning Bastila was giving her. "That doesn't even make sense," she argued. "The Jedi shun fear. You know that."
Bastila's cold blue eyes narrowed. "Why do you think the Jedi forbid you and Malak from joining the Mandalorian Wars, hmm?" she asked with a cruel twist of her lips. "They knew you would realize your true potential and break free of their domination. Malak has shown me how the Jedi Council have been using me the same way they once tried to use you. They've been holding me back because they knew one day I would surpass them all."
Words Bastila had spoken before to her floated back to Aithne. The Dark Side can twist your ideals; it can turn you into a mockery of everything you once stood for. Here in front of her, Aithne beheld a caricature of Bastila Shan. All arrogance and pride and anger, with none of the compassion and understanding she had also grown to associate with Bastila's china doll face. "Bastila, stop it," she said finally, shaking off the horror that gripped her lungs. "This isn't you talking. Come back to us. Leave the Dark Side."
Bastila smiled bitterly. "Oh, I resisted at first," she said softly, but every consonant crackled. "I endured the Sith torments with the passionless serenity of a true Jedi, emptying my mind. But after weeks of endless tortures, I finally saw the truth. Malak forced me to acknowledge my anger and pain." She spat the words at Juhani, in particular. "He showed me the liberating power of these emotions. Then he made me see how the Jedi Council has denied me what is mine by right!" She continued, half to herself. "The Jedi Council gladly used my Battle Meditation in their wars, but they still treated me like a child- like an inferior. They were jealous of my power…of what I could become! They wanted me to bow and call them Master and follow their Code and obey their every order. But all the while they were exploiting my Battle Meditation for their own use!"
Aithne sighed. There, again, Bastila spoke half-truths. She wished so much that Malak had filled her head with lies. Lies would be easier to sort out than the twisted truths Bastila was speaking now.
"The Council has been utilizing your Battle Meditation, Bastila," she said carefully. "I won't bother denying it. You're a commodity, and both sides in this war have been battling to make use of you. Hold it," she said, as Bastila opened her mouth in an angry retort. "It's the truth. Think about it. You have to see that Malak is using you just as much-more- than the Council did. You call him Lord. Master. You are expected to obey his orders, or you are punished. You just admitted that he's tortured you, Bastila! He's using you, like the Council did. But! I never saw any evidence that the Council didn't care about you, and there's overwhelming evidence Malak doesn't. The Sith leave destruction in their wake. You've seen it. The Jedi build. Don't be taken in by Malak's lies."
Jolee nodded in approval, but Bastila bridled. "Lies?" she demanded. "You are the one living a lie, Revan. The Jedi Council made you into something you are not; they programmed you to be their slave."
That stung. "I'm no one's slave," Aithne growled.
Bastila smiled infuriatingly. "You used to be Revan, Master of the Sith, but no longer," she taunted. "You are simply a pawn of the Jedi Council and the Republic they serve…like I was until Malak freed me from their shackles! A pity the power you once had is so diluted in you. You could have been as strong as I am now…"
Aithne glared at her, crossing her arms. Bastila looked a bit chagrined for the first time since they'd started speaking. "Stronger, even," she admitted. "But that will never happen now. With the power of the Star Forge Malak will destroy the Republic and conquer the galaxy. And I will be the apprentice at his side- after I prove my worth by killing you!"
"Bastila!" Aithne cried as the younger woman suddenly activated her double-bladed Sith lightsaber. She lifted it high, and time seemed to stop. Red on black on blue. There it was. Was the premonition that had been haunting Aithne all week the premonition of her death at the hands of her best friend? Or did it foretell that she would kill Bastila? Aithne stared, all at once sweaty all over. Time restarted, and Aithne reacted just in time to activate her lightsabers and catch Bastila's down stroke. The force of the blow rattled her bones. Aithne stepped back warily.
She kept her guard up, but whatever her vision meant, she would not attack Bastila. Never. Apparently Bastila was restrained by no such scruples.
She attacked again in earnest. Aithne shoved Bastila's strokes to the side with the Force, shoving her back roughly with her hands. Juhani and Jolee watched the encounter. Their lightsabers were drawn. They stood ready to interfere if necessary, but they would hold back until then.
Bastila concentrated, and the Force rippled in the way that Aithne knew was Bastila trying to cripple her with fear. She merely shook her head, and stepped aside. She formed steel walls around her mind and body with the Force.
Bastila let out a cry of frustration and ran at Aithne again. Aithne stepped to the side quickly. She danced behind Bastila's guard and tapping her on the shoulder with a forefinger as she passed. Bastila knew she could have decapitated her, and it infuriated her.
"Coward!" Bastila cried. "Fight me!" She whirled, executing a complicated lightsaber maneuver. Aithne anticipated her. She locked Bastila's blade between her two sabers and exerted her greater strength and height to force the younger woman to her knees.
Bastila deactivated her saber, panting. Aithne stepped back. "You got that out of your system?" she said calmly, after a moment. "Bastila, you're good, but I got the Mandalorian Wars on you, even if I don't remember it. And though I make no claim to having mastered Battle Meditation, I've always been stronger than you in the Force."
Bastila accepted her defeat with grace. She nodded and rose. "It seems that Malak was wrong," she said breathlessly. "The power of the Dark Side is not lost to you after all, Revan."
Aithne shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. She looked away. "No. But nevertheless, I reject it."
Bastila shook her head. "You can deny what you are, Revan," she said softly. "But you are only fooling yourself. I know the truth. I have seen the shadows inside your mind. Remember: I was there when you nearly died in the trap set by the Jedi Council. I used the Force to preserve your life, Revan. We are forever linked by my actions on that bridge!"
Aithne didn't want to think about the implications of that. She closed her eyes briefly, praying for strength. "Actions from a person too full of compassion to ever fully abandon the Light," she said.
Bastila rolled her eyes. "These are not your true feelings, Revan," she said passionately. "You are speaking as a tool of the Jedi Council- as I once did. But now I see how the Jedi used us both! The Council tried to exploit the bond between us. They hoped I would draw out your memories to lead them to the Star Forge. We were slaves to their will- like all who follow the Jedi Code! But in our shared visions of the Star Maps I also felt the so-called taint within you. I resisted it at first, but now I embrace the power of the Dark Side- your Dark Side!"
Aithne shuddered. She gazed at Bastila, considering. Yes. Here were some of her darkest thoughts personified. Here were some of her least admirable traits. Looking at the woman in front of her was rather like looking into a dark mirror, now. The guilt fell onto her shoulders with all its original weight. "What? You've embraced my arrogance? My foolishness?" Her voice cracked.
"Your power, Revan!" Bastila cried. "You deserve to be the true master of the Sith, not Malak. I see this now! Together we can destroy your old apprentice. Join with me and reclaim your lost identity!"
Aithne started shaking. "Stop calling me that," she said weakly. "Revan's dead. She died on the bridge of her flagship about two years ago. I don't remember her."
Bastila's eyes flickered with what appeared to be genuine pity. "Your mind was too badly damaged to ever fully restore your memories, Aith…" She cut off. Aithne blinked. Bastila scowled at the slip-up. "Revan. But your power, your strength of will, the essence of who and what you are, these things remain! I've seen it to be so since Taris! Once, long ago, you defied the Jedi Council, freeing yourself from their control. You claimed your rightful title of Dark Lord of the Sith. Together we can defeat Malak and take back what is yours!"
Aithne gazed at her in amazement. The real Bastila mocked her beneath the Sith uniform. The passion of the longwinded speeches. The genuine desire the woman was displaying for her companionship and help. How she had almost called her 'Aithne'. Bastila was still in there somewhere, but lost. So lost. And was it really Aithne's fault? Didn't she have some sort of responsibility to fix this? She sighed. "Take back what? A people that constantly fight among themselves? A giant space station, only good for destroying the galaxy? Bastila, look, I want you with me, too. You're my dearest friend. But you can't do this, and I won't do it with you"
The Sith's face rippled again, and Aithne saw Bastila look out at her for a moment.
Juhani saw it, too. "Bastila," she pled, "It is not too late for you to be saved. The teachings of the Jedi can lead you from the Dark Side back into the Light and a true understanding of the Force."
Just like that, Bastila retreated, leaving a sneering Sith. "You are beneath my contempt, Juhani," she said. "When you felt the power of the Dark Side you fled to a cave like some cowering animal! You know nothing of the Force or its true potential!"
Aithne stepped in front of Juhani again. "Leave her alone!" she snarled at Bastila. "She's stronger than you know, and your speech is with me."
Bastila shook her head in admiration. "Look at you. Such strength. Such passion. Revan, the power of the Dark Side is yours to command! You can use it to destroy Malak! With my help you could rule over the entire galaxy! We could make it a better place!"
All prior argument seemed to lose its meaning. Aithne's heart turned over. Bastila had been with her in the beginning as they set out to destroy Malak. Could she destroy him without Bastila? Mightn't it be better to just—go along with Bastila for the moment. No doubt Malak needed to be destroyed. He'd betrayed her. He'd tortured and twisted Bastila. He had burned Telos and Taris and Dantooine, had hurt Carth and Mission and countless like them, had killed millions. Bastila could help her fix things. They could end this war and reshape this twisted, corrupted galaxy into some semblance of order.
Aithne bit her lip. She was surrounded every day by idiots. Surely she could do better. Surely she had the strength of will to command the Star Forge to build, not destroy. She had crushed the Mandalorians. She had been on the verge of conquering the galaxy…and now she had come all this way just to have that destiny handed to her again. Maybe…maybe it was her fate. It would be so easy to just reach out and seize it. She wouldn't have to hurt Bastila…they could fix everything. The Dark Side sang to her in encouragement.
Suddenly her vision came to her with new significance. A red lightsaber upraised against a black ship and a blue sky. It didn't necessarily mean Bastila's, Aithne realized. The Sith lightsaber she'd won on Korriban was in her pack. She knew it was. She felt its weight there. It seemed to press on her back. How had it ended up in there? She'd taken it out weeks ago…this morning she hadn't been herself, though. She could take it out, ignite it, and the red lightsaber in her vision would be hers.
That was what it meant, Aithne realized. There's going to come a time very soon when you're going to have to make a choice, Carth had said. And there won't be any turning back. She remembered his earnest face, pleading with her to make the right decision. This was the moment when she chose who to be. Was she Revan, Lord of the Sith? Or was she Aithne Morrigan? Who was Aithne Morrigan? The weariness she'd felt in her dreams of Darth Revan came back to her, and she recalled the utter futility of Revan's path. She was no goddess, to hold the galaxy in the palm of her hand. How many times had she snapped and made mistakes on this journey alone? She was a utterly human woman. And she couldn't pay the price of being a Sith Lord. She wouldn't. She had too much to lose.
Aithne stopped her hand halfway to Bastila's outstretched one. "I…I don't want it," she said with some surprise. "I don't want the Dark Side, or the galaxy." She smiled, relieved. "Bastila, as incredible as I am, I'm not big enough!" she laughed, delighted. "And I have too much to give up to go after galaxy domination." She smirked. "Maybe I'm amnesiac and half-mad, but I seem to remember there wasn't much fun in it, anyway."
Bastila's face contorted in disappointment and anger. "You are a pathetic fool, Revan!" She looked down at her lightsaber contemplatively.
Aithne focused on Bastila again abruptly. The joy of self-discovery gave way to a deeper peace and sudden insight. "And you still love me," she said gently.
Bastila shifted, buckling her saber hilt to her belt. "Together we could have defeated Malak and ruled over an Empire," she said bitterly. "But now I will be at Lord Malak's side instead. You will be crushed with the Republic and all the fools who bow to the Jedi Council!" This was said with a measure of regret. "No one can stand against the power of the Star Forge or the Sith Fleet!"
With that, she turned and darted away. Aithne ran after her. "Bastila!" she called. "Bastila! Wait! Don't run from this! We need to talk…" but she was gone. Aithne watched. The engines of Bastila's ship blew Aithne's hair out of its arrangement as it lifted off and flew away.
Aithne's heart sank. Her eyes stung as she watched her friend fly away, deluded, twisted into something that Aithne knew that deep down she must despise herself for. Then she caught sight of a terminal beside where Bastila's ship had been parked.
Feeling a distinct sense of anticlimax, Aithne strode over to the terminal. There were only two commands on the computer, completely unsecured. One disabled the disruptor field. The other took down the Temple shields. Aithne ordered them both, then turned away, grimacing.
"Let's go. The Republic will be here soon."
A/N: Five chapters to go! And I might write an epilogue I never finished the first time 'round. The AU turn starts next chapter with the arrival of the Republic Fleet. Also up next, Carth confesses his love for Aithne, and we discover that not all the Jedi on Dantooine kicked the bucket when Malak attacked. Please leave a review if you have any praise or criticism to offer on this chapter, the story as a whole, or my writing in particular.
May the Force Be With You,
LMSharp