"What the hell is she doing?"

An irritated voice rose in a subsidiary room of one of the countless cantinas on Coruscant. The man who had spoken these words was pacing back and forth across the gloomy room, only lit by a light bulb perched above a single round table at which I was seated. On the tabletop were two glasses filled to the brim.

"Be patient. She'll be there soon." I replied in a calm and serene voice.

The man stopped his walk, gave a long sigh and came to join me at the small table. He was of a particularly impressive size, a slender body ending in rather broad shoulders. He sat down next to me and tapped the tabletop nervously. Slumped in my chair, arms crossed, I turned my head towards my companion and gave him an amused smile. At last the long-awaited third person appeared and entered the room. We instinctively glanced at her. She was a woman in her late thirties. She approached us with inspiring confidence, and sat down facing us. Before she spoke, the young woman took her lightsaber from her belt, placed it on the table, and ran her hand through her chestnut hair. My companion gasped in anticipation, while I still wore the same amused smile.

"Gentlemen, I just returned from Dantooine with more news." The young woman eventually announced.

"We know that, Meetra," the tall man retorted with annoyance, "can you get to the point?"

The woman glanced at her friend and grinned back at him, then she turned her attention to me.

"I'm getting to that, Alek. We'll be joined by eight Padawans, and six Knights. It was quite an achievement, the Masters were keeping an eye on me. They're waiting for your instructions before they join us on Coruscant, Revan."

I nodded contentedly, but remained silent.

"There's something else." Meetra added, even more seriously. "The Council of Dantooine seems to be storing up a particularly promising element."

Alek and I frowned, waiting for our friend to continue.

"A very young Padawan. I've seen her at work, she is a shining star. An excellent fighter, but there is more to it. It appears that she has a serious aptitude for Battle Meditation."

"Where is she from?" I retorted urgently, now fully straightened up, hands resting on the table.

I was particularly intrigued by the news. Meetra briefly looked at me and then said:

"Talravin."

I was silent. Sometimes the Jedi would travel in search of sentient beings they could detect through the Force. But such cases were extremely rare. Most of the time, the Jedi would just happen to come across sentient creatures on their journeys, and then offer to train them according to the Jedi teachings. Talravin was certainly a planet full of charms, but there was currently no reason for a Jedi to be wandering around. It was a rather dramatic wild land, whipped by brutal winds, sprinkled with medium-sized mountains and lakes. If the Jedi had decided to reach the planet, it wasn't to enjoy its scenery. They went to find her. They had felt her.

"What is her story?" I spoke again in a serious tone.

"I don't know the details," Meetra admitted, "but she's the daughter of unknown people who were quite happy to give her up when the Jedi found her about fifteen years ago. A child to be disposed of, it would seem."

"Do you have her name?" Alek asked.

"Bastila Shan." The young woman replied plainly, addressing the tall man. She then turned her gaze to me.

"They'll be sending her to Coruscant soon. We need to rally her to our cause."

"No." I retorted sternly. My two companions gave me a questioning look.

"No?" Meetra repeated, taken aback. I stared at her and announced again.

"No."

"Did you hear what she said?" Alek threw back. "That girl is talented, and she can use Battle Meditation. Can you even imagine the power of our strike force with someone like her? Dantooine is sending her to Coruscant very soon! It seems like she''s never stepped foot there before, she''ll probably feel lost, that''ll be the perfect time to get close to her!"

"Do you really think, Alek, that the Masters are going to let her land here and leave her alone? Do you really think they're going to let us approach their little secret protégée just like that? They suspect our conspiracies, they'll never risk this girl turning her back on them. And, even if we manage to approach her, I doubt we'll be able to convince her. Ever since she was a child, her only stable anchor has been the Order. Believe me, the Masters took care of her indoctrination the second they got her. Someone who has been followed so closely will never be convinced by strangers like us of the merits of such a project; a project that the Order completely rejects, by the way. It is unfortunate, but it is a waste of time. Let's move on."

Then I got up from my chair and said:

"Let's leave this so-called golden gem to the Order, and concentrate on the next step. We are wasting too much time, the Mandalorians are invading new systems every day. I am expected at the Chancellery, to organise the departure of the troops with the high dignitaries and general officers. Meetra, you come with me. You will report on your expedition to the Dantooine Academy yourself.

"Agreed." The woman flatly replied, taking her saber and clipping it to her belt, then stood up, ready to follow me.

Alek, on the other hand, seemed somewhat confused, and wore the characteristic look of someone who felt left out. I was his friend, but there was always a kind of asymmetry between us. Even if it wasn't intentional, I held a superior position to Alek. I was an extremely talented Jedi, certainly one of the best - if not the best - of my generation, and I was known as someone with a particularly sharp intellect. I was a charismatic leader, able to carry out any project due to my ability to gather people. I knew that Alek admired me and loved me dearly. But he knew that he was not as powerful, not as intelligent, not as efficient as me. Somehow, he must have envied me deeply. And, at times, I felt a touch of jealousy in him when I neglected him in favour of someone else, accentuating this feeling of inferiority even more. But there was one thing Alek also knew: he wasn't serving a cause, he was serving a man. He was serving me. He was caught in my web, and he would follow me to the end of my ambitions, whatever it took.

"Revan!" Alek shouted. Meetra and I, just a few steps away from leaving the room, turned back to the tall man, finally rising from his chair.

"I'm going with you." He then announced firmly.

"No, Alek." I resumed pedagogically. "I said I was going with Meetra. You have nothing to report. Go back to working with the lower level weapons suppliers. And try to be as discreet as possible. It won't look good to the people we're trying to protect to know that we're dealing with these criminals."

With these words, Meetra and I left the room for good, leaving Alek alone. I heard him sigh in the distance, and the grinding of a chair's legs. The man had probably sat down again. I decided not to burden my mind with these questions, which were quite simply a threat to the smooth running of our crucial business.


I had isolated myself in the Ebon Hawk storage area. Since the revelation of my identity on the Leviathan, I had been receiving more or less regular images and scenes from my past. It was as if my mind had, as a result of this discovery, agreed to unlock some of my memories. But it was all still very cloudy. The scenes I was visualising seemed very clear, very limpid, they opened the way to a part of my life that had been totally obscure until now. Nevertheless, they presented themselves to me with irregularity and discontinuity. I was not going to recover my identity as quickly as I had imagined. Which was perhaps preferable, after all. My mind appeared to be engaging the process gradually.

During the recent excursions to Korriban, I had had time to consider the relationship I had with Alek. With Malak... I felt somewhat miserable for having been so frequently cold, or even indifferent, to my former friend. I held no resentment for him, quite the opposite. I really valued the man. But the realities of the Mandalorian wars did not allow me to spare Alek's feelings. I wasn't necessarily more delicate with Meetra. It's just that for a long period of time, she carried more responsibility than Alek, which is why I was particularly interested in her.

Korriban had been a challenging passage. Infiltrating a Sith academy, pretending to be a student, when only hours before you had been told that you were a former Dark Lord yourself, was not an easy task to master. This was especially true of Carth, who had insisted on accompanying me on the search for this last star map. He clearly wanted to keep an eye on me. He must have thought that I would fall again because I was reintegrated into my "natural environment". But I had never faltered, not for a second, despite the recent traumatic events of the Leviathan. Even better, I had been given many opportunities to help acolytes and students at the academy, even though I had been distinctly ordered to silence those students who were considered weaklings harmful to the Sith cause. Revan, like Corem, would have been totally incapable of doing this. I had managed to save many lives, by letting my instructor believe that I had killed them. As I performed these virtuous deeds, Carth's attitude towards me grew more peaceful. He was slowly coming to trust the Jedi that I really was. After many duties for the Sith instructors, we had finally gotten our hands on the ultimate star map. Then we returned to the ship and left this evil planet.

I was persuaded that I would not be able to conclude this mission without Bastila to support me. Indeed, since the beginning of the quest for the star maps, I had relied completely on her. She was the head of the mission, the link with the Council and the Republican authorities. I had adopted an almost passive attitude; I had been told that I was only a student, chaperoned by the famous Jedi. And I was comfortable with that. I had demonstrated my talents on many occasions - I had even proved, without necessarily trying, that I surpassed my teacher - but such a sudden change of life and such a unclear past made it impossible for me to act with complete confidence. Bastila was there to support me and get the best out of me. Then she was no longer there. Beyond the grief I felt, I was afraid to take over. At that moment, I was the only one who possessed the knowledge that would allow us to find the last star map. Everything was now resting on me. But it was also at this point that my mind started working again, ready to deliver memories that would help me regain confidence in myself and my natural ability to lead. In record time, the somewhat lost student that I was had waved goodbye and made way for a convalescent, but promising leader. On Korriban, I had acted with responsibility, and also with the utmost benevolence. I had not fallen again. And everything led me to believe that I would not fall so easily. I had once again become a reliable ally of the Republic.

The Ebon Hawk had left the Sith planet, and set out on her final journey. I left the storeroom and made my way to the ship's cockpit to join Carth. It was now time to board the Star Forge and put an end to this chaos.