Chapter 54
"It is believed by many that the military life is one of adventure and excitement. In truth, that life more often consists of long periods of routine, even boredom, with only brief intervals of challenge and danger.
"Enemies seldom seek out their opponents, the warrior must become a hunter- searching and stalking with craft and patience. Successes are often achieved by a confluence of small things: stray facts, unwary or overheard conversations, and logistical vectors. If the hunter is persistent, the pattern will become visible, and the enemy will be found. Only then will the routine be broken by combat.
"It's not surprising, therefore, that those seeking excitement are sometimes weary of long and arduous pursuits. They are relieved when the enemy appears of their `own accord, standing firm and issuing a challenge.
"But the wise warrior is especially wary at those times. She knows there are few things more dangerous than a skilled enemy on her own carefully chosen ground."
Those words echoed through Malak's memory. Revan had always been a brilliant tactician; the Republic had never had a more talented, or more gifted military mind than Jedi-knight Revan- General of the Republic's Grand Army. It was why when the minuscule opportunity came to fire upon the Ravager during Bastila's attack he took it. He'd never have a second chance. He had thought Revan destroyed. He had never been more correct and desperately wrong in the same breath.
If there was anything left of his old Master within this 'newborn' Revan it was difficult to discern. Some of her actions during the Republic's hunt for the Star Maps were very reminiscent of the old general. How she maneuvered events around her, interacted with civilians, even taking pains to ingratiate her and her companions with some of the indigenous inhabitants was very clearly something Revan had done in the past. It wasn't out of some misguided notion of acting out of the goodness of one's heart that Revan had done so. She fully expected to be repaid in some fashion or another. Seed a city with seeming acts of kindness, even generosity, in order to harvest a bounty of favors later- even some so ingratiated joined the Revanchist as new recruits or groundside agents.
Generally, it worked out rather well. Even when he was still the man known as Alek (or to many 'Squint') he rarely ever sought out to curry favour with the locals, he always appreciated a more direct approach, which often resulted in someone dying or wishing they had died. Fear, and the blatant show of power were far more reliable tools than the prolonged seeding gratuity within settlements. The weak beg to be dominated- crushed- and Malak obliged.
The Dark Lord glanced to the walls of his innermost chambers aboard the Star Forge: A massive round room with a great glass dome that offered views of the surface of the Star Forge. From here he need only glance up and see the might of the Sith—his Sith- Empire. Battle cruisers floated out where they have been constructed. By the end of the month he'd have an entire new fleet ready to mobilize: Over a hundred star-fighters, twelve corvettes, and twenty capital ships had been constructed. The Star Forge was truly magnificent. Of course, if not for Revan's persistence they would never have had the Forge in the first place. But it was Malak's tenacity that would see its glory unleashed. A glory more easily realized once he had Bastila and turned her.
The most delicious of all ironies was once he had turned Bastila, Revan would be betrayed once more by her apprentice and this time Bastila would kill her. No Jedi hyperbole—or certain points of view. No ploy to capture her this time, no perverting her broken mind into a mere scout for the Republic. It would be true death. Finally.
Eight comatose Jedi lined the walls in medical bays, all captured during the war, all tortured and turned into receptacles of Dark Side energy. The weak begged to dominated.
He strode to one of the cells, closed his eyes and pulled on the fibers of the Force that linked all lifeformes. The comatose Jedi woman jolted in her cell as if someone had placed a defribulator over her chest. This was no attempt to bring the body back into the conscious world; Malak was pulling energy from the Jedi. Pulling the Force and feasting upon it.
Harvesting the power of the Force of another life-force was something he had learned on Dromund Kaas. Provided by a man of such power, such darkness even to this day it made Darth Malak shudder. Emperor Vitiate.
Years ago, both he and Revan had dared to venture beyond the Outer Rim after the war with the Mandalorians. The words of a dying Mandalor sent Revan beyond Known Space.
"They tricked me. We were never meant to win this war. They used me and my people to test the Republic's strength."
"Who used you?" Revan half-asked, half-demanded of the dying Mandalor.
"The Sith."
The Sith. The Masters within the Jedi Council knew something, or someone had pushed the Mandies into war. Now confirmed, Revan wanted to know who these Sith were beyond the legends of Exar Kun, Marcos Ragnos, Naga Sadow and Ajunta Pall. There had to be more than the tombs on Korriban. Or the temple on Yavin Four.
They found worlds unknown to the Republic- or rather all records of those worlds had been erased. They found an Empire, the Dark Council and the True Sith.
"So, Mandalore was telling the truth." Reven spoke to her comrade.
"Did you really think his last words would be a lie?"
"Now what?"
"We have our proof. The Sith are not extinct. They have to be stopped."
"What about the Mandalorians?"
"Without the Mask, they are nothing."
The Sith-the red-skinned humanoid with an innate propensity for the Force. They have originated on Korriban and dominated it even before their predecessors gathered on Tython, Yavin Four, and Dromund Kaas.
Dromund Kaas was now the Imperial Capital and it was there the hero Jedi Generals found the Emperor.
The Emperor was no mere Dark Sider. He embraced the Dark Side so fully, so utterly, it had taken over his body and soul. The Dark Side sooner or later corrupted its practitioners. Sometimes horribly so. Power always comes with a price.
When the Jedi were brought before him, the Emperor had given them a demonstration true power of the Dark. He had taken not only the very essence of the Force from lesser Force Wielders-he had sucked their very lives from their bodies and he filled his own with it. After he drained the bodies of life and Force he turned to the Jedi as if they were his new meal.
Revan remained outwardly apathetical, but Alek knew better of his friend. She was terrified, not that she too would be devoured, but for the Republic. Both recalled the dead planet of Ziost. How clearly empty it was, devoid of all life: not even an insect remained. There was noting but empty buildings. All planets hum with the vibrations of the Force. Ziost however did not. There was nothing. It was a place of utter terror.
After the demonstration Revan and Alec realized with horror that it was the Emperor who had consumed the entire planet not some malignant biohazard created by the movement to use on an enemy and gone awry or used by some unknown fore or a something akin to the Mass Shadow Generator used on Malachor Five. It was one single man.
The minds of the Jedi had been dominated by this mad Emperor. The Jedi Knights, once Generals and Heroes to the Republic took the title Darth for themselves. Revan retained her name but dropped the -chist suffix. The Revanchist no longer had any meaning for her.
Given time, Revan managed to break free from his control. She in turn helped Alek, now calling himself Malak, do the same. Once freed of the Emperor's grasp they returned to the Ravager, but they had changed. Significantly. After they fled Imperial Space, Revan told him what was needed in order to save Republic Space from the Empire's inevitable incursion, though she did not know when it would occur. The true Sith Empire would crush the weakened Republic if it was not properly prepared. That was a guaranteed certainty.
She saw only one recourse, Revan had to become Sith- not just in name but in philosophy. She must create an Imperial presence within the galactic order and cut out the weakness while preserving the infrastructure. No easy task. Revan had not so much as fallen to the Dark Side, as sacrificed herself to its power, to understand it fully. The Dark Side had shown Revan visions of galactic salvation. The Star Forge.
Indeed, the Star Forge was a formidable weapon: able to create not only starships, star-fighters, weaponry, armor- it was a bastion of dark energy. It was so easy to connect to the Dark Side of the Force, as easy as it had been on Drummond Kaas. Aboard the Star Forge it was easy to disabuse Jedi to forsake the Light and embrace the Dark Side.
Yes, there were the Temples dedicated to the Dark Side, Korriban and Yavin Four aside there was the Academy on Malachor Five and on the Unknown World, but the conversion of Jedi was much more efficient (if not convenient) to do so within the Star Forge. Reven had proven it so. There was no doubt in Malak's mind that had Revan wanted to, she could have turned Meetra Surrik into a Dark Jedi, perhaps one of the most powerful this side of the true Sith Empire.
Of course, if the highly clever General had been turned, Malak knew he would never have been able to betray and 'kill' Darth Revan. Surrik was as much as a strategist as Revan; in addition, she was gifted with Force ability of Battle Meditation. She would have seen the coming betrayal a parsec away. A power she had once kept well hidden from the Masters both on Coruscant and later Dantooine. It was not until she had joined Revan that she allowed her power to be openly revealed and at first it had only been to Revan. Revan was privy to a great many secrets, one was that before Surrik became her lover, she was the lover of Master Astrid—Mistress of the Archives, who sat upon the Jedi Council, and even Astrid did not know her illicit lover possessed the ability of Battle Meditation.
Perhaps it was all for the better Surrik was not only cut off from the Force, but had also been exiled to the Outer Rim.
Something of Darth Revan had to have remained for the newer version of the woman and Bastila to see the star maps within Force-given visions. She and Bastila only had one more map to go before the pieces fitted together to give them the location of the Unknown World.
"But the wise warrior is especially wary at those times. She knows there are few things more dangerous than a skilled enemy on her own carefully chosen ground."
Those words echoed the loudest. Despite his hatred for always living in the shadow of Revan, as a Jedi, as General, as a Sith Lord: now he was the Master. How he hated her even more because he needed her insight. Of course, where she was going to go was clear and thus setting up a trap within the hyperspace lanes to capture the Ebon Hawk was simple. Leviathan would pull her in and seize the crew.
Had he the capability to do so, he would have smiled. Within that singular trap he'd have his prize Bastila and the luxury of tormenting, even torturing and re-killing Revan. AND he'd have the luxury of revealing just who she was in the past, how the Jedi Masters lied and betrayed her, how her lover Bastila had betrayed her, and even how he ultimately betrayed her: all before he killed her again. This time he'd make sure of it. On a side note he'd allow his Admiral to have special alone time with Commander Carth Onasi. Who knows, Karath might well be able to turn Onasi to the true vision.
During the Mandalorian Wars, Carth Onasi was a brilliant tactician, one the Jedi admired and most certainly the non-Jedi looked up to, aspired to be like, even more than Admiral Saul Karath. Onasi was someone the common solider could relate to, more so perhaps because Onasi started out as a grunt and rose up through the ranks from the very bottom. Onasi's mind was sharp even if he had the personality of cardboard cutout. Either Onasi was turned or he would die on the Leviathan, either way it was a win for Malak.
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Darth Malak felt the presence of the other enter his private chambers; he didn't turn as he addressed the intruder. "What is it Admiral?"
Karath braced himself giving unexpected information especially the bad kind. "My Lord, our informants on Manaan report the Ebon Hawk has left port."
"I assume the tracer beacon was successfully installed."
Karath stifled the shudder of fear that rippled through him, making him feel like a first-year cadet. "Both were successfully planted my Lord. One they were sure to find, the other is still actively transmitting. Even with elaborate scans they will not find it, not with the irregular asymmetrical design of their ship.
"Our informants have reported Ebon Hawk has rerouted back to Tatooine- apparently the Mandalorian on their crew had issued a challenge to rival Mandie. It is to take place upon that rock. We can reroute one of the Interdictors to intercede. Though I am convinced this is nothing more than a diversionary tactic. The Revanchist was well known to use such tactics against the Mandalorians. The Leviathan can maintain course tacking the signal."
Malak turned, his dark eyes focusing on Karath: and he heard Revan's words echo once more.
Enemies seldom seek out their opponents, the warrior must become a hunter, searching and stalking with craft and patience. Successes are often achieved by a confluence of small things: stray facts, unwary or overheard conversations, logistical vectors. If the hunter is persistent, the pattern will become visible, and the enemy will be found. Only then will the routine be broken by combat.
"I am well aware of the Revanchist's capabilities, strategies, craft and patience… logistical vectors."
"My Lord?" Karath frowned he was more accustomed to long silences from his master, not mutterings under his vacillator.
A great tactician creates plans. A good tactician recognizes the soundness of a plan presented to him. A fair tactician must see the plan succeed before offering approval to those with no tactical ability at all, who may never understand or accept it, nor will such people understand or accent the lactation. To those without that ability, those who possess it are a mystery, and when a mind is too deficient in understanding, the resulting gap is often filled with resentment.
"Order the rerouting. Take the Ebon Hawk before they make the LZ on Tatooine. This needless detour of a Mandie's arrogant pride has made time our ally. Bastila and Revan will be focused completely on the Star Forge. They will not sense our approach we must strike before Bastila's battle meditations spike. I will tolerate no further delay, when has become now. We will take them while within the hyperspace lane."
Malak pondered what sort of leader Revan became after the Jedi Masters reprogrammed her memory. If there was anything of left of his former master in the woman that was Skye Ravensong. In hearing that she was racing off to Tatooine to a fucking Mandie to settle some Clan dispute. General Revan or Darth Revan would never have ever done such a thing for a mere grunt. She wouldn't have done so for even one of her flagship team. Though admittedly she would have done anything for Surrik… anything. Surrik would have done the same; as for Malak's part, he had never seen that kind of loyalty in anyone—ever.
That sort of loyalty could be used as a weapon-manipulated against the one offering such loyalty and the one reserving it. Revan often exploited such loyalties when dividing Mandies lines of defence. In fact, she had done so when she challenged Mandalor in single combat.
What the manipulator sometimes forgets, and what a warrior must always remember, is that no two sets of circumstances are alike. One challenge is not like another. The would-be victim may have learned from the earlier mistake. Or there may have been an unanticipated or unknown crossing of life paths.
"Order one the Interdictorsto Dantooine; as soon as the Leviathan makes contact with the Ebon Hawk they are to come out of the hyperspace lane and bombard the Jedi Academy. It is time to remind the Jedi of the might of the Sith."
Karath's throat muscles tightened briefly, "Do you want merely a reminder and not actual destruction of the planet My Lord?" The tension in his face and voice rose noticeably. He was accustomed to flashes of rage emanating from the Sith Lord. He had lost count of how many times he felt the brunt of it.
Malak's voice dropped to dangerous levels, his eyes blazed. "For the moment, yes." His voice icy. "Let them all pray I do not change my mind, let the inhabitants blame the Jedi for the attack."
"Understood, My Lord."
"Admiral, any fleeing Jedi are to be captured—alive. Is that understood?"
"Yes, my Lord. I will see it done."
Karath looked at the cells of the comatose Jedi and suppressed the urge to shudder. He knew that his master fed upon them as a mynock feeds upon the power cables of a ship. The older man was acutely aware that the woman flanking his Master's left side held a sunk face as if seriously malnourished, her body but a husk. The life-sign monitors bleeped indicated the Jedi was in distress, but yet alive-barely. She wouldn't last long. His lord would need more 'batteries' soon.
"I'll have the Leviathan ready within the hour my Lord. Will you be joining us or rendezvous with us once the Ebon Hawk has been seized?"
"Bastila will sense me if am aboard the Leviathan even in the hyperspace lanes. No, I will remain on the Star Forge until you have them. During your questioning of them I want you to discover the measure of their mission as well as if there is anything of Revan left in this Skye Ravensong, if she recalls anything of her former life."
"Despite the fact that we know they are after the Star Maps my lord?" Their enemy's mission was clear, gaining the intel from the Star Maps that will eventually lead them to the Star Forge and to Lord Malak. The Jedi and the Republic needed to end Malak and the Star Forge to win the war. There was no other way for a Republic victory. "…and if Revan does recall her former life?"
"Leave that to me. That is not the true purpose of the torture. I want you to test the strength of Bastila's connection to Revan. How loyal is the knife-ear to her, to the Republic. If Revan will not break punish Bastila for all defiance. Use your imagination, Admiral when you question them but leave them alive. Bastila's' conversion to the Dark Side will start there in the torture chambers. Either she sees Ravensong betray the Republic or she sees that her friend is unwilling to spare her unimaginable pain."
Thoughts become words, words become deeds.
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"Thoughts become words, words become deeds." Bastila uttered as the Ebon Hawk slipped from normal subspace into the familiar streaks of the white-blue starsream of hyperspace.
"You sound like Master Vandar," Reven quipped
"Purely coincidental I assure you," Bastila retorted.
"I'm sure," Revan answered then she frowned. Those words sounded so familiar. As if she had said them before…
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"Thoughts become words, words become deeds. Bastila."
"You sound like Master Vandar." The younger woman teased watching as her lover finished packing her gear into her shuttle that would transport her, Alek and a handful of Jedi from the Temple on Coruscant to one of the Republic cruisers.
"At least you didn't say Vrook." Revan tossed over her shoulder.
"Stars forbid."
"Jedi are words and deed and thoughts, it's the fundamental aspects to our demeanour. It is within our natures to act when necessary upon our thoughts, those thoughts become deeds, those deeds become our legacy whether we will it or no. I speak not of glory; glory is useless to the dead and needless to the determined strategist. Glory is folly. Stand upon the souls of trillion dead and ask yourself if honor matters.
"I don't go to war for glory or honor- those concepts are fallacies. We are needed. That is the bottom line. Jedi are needed. Thoughts – words- deeds. If we are peacemakers then let us make peace. If we are defenders of the innocent then let us defend. If we are protectors then we must protect. Thoughts become words, words become deeds. Jedi have a purpose. The Council wants us to turn from that path. All because they say there is something else pushing the Mandies and until they figure out what that is—worlds are dying. No more. After what became of Cathar no more, Bastila.
"If there is something pushing the Mandies to wage war we act now against this flood to save as many souls as possible. We become prey no longer, but the hunter and turn the game on itself. Once the Mandies have been vanquished, we then solve the issue of what caused that flood however we needed to. What greater power is there than to turn the power of the enemy against themselves?"
For a long moment Bastila digested those last parting words. "Do you intend to use the Mandalorians might and ferocity against them?"
"Of course. It is the only true way to end their assault."
"And after?
"I will go where the Force directs me, Bastila," the Nagi turned and cupped Bastila's chin in her palm and kissed her. "Last chance Bas… come with me."
Sadly, the human pulled the delicate long fingered hand away from her face. "You know I cannot. The thoughts, words, deeds you will do within this war are not mine and never will be. May the Force be with you, Jedi Knight Revan."
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Bastila shook the last remnants of the old memory from her mind as she focused upon the present.
"So, are you going to tell me Master Shan what's on your mind, what makes you spout something like that?"
Shan choked back the response 'Those words… you so easily dismissed-were your own.' Instead she said: "This is folly going back to Tatooine and you know it. I can't believe you'd agreed to this."
"I didn't," Reven ignored the insinuation.
Bastila frowned.
Revan flashed that annoying half smirk that said: 'Trust me.'
"So, it was some other Nagai Jedi that said 'Yes Canderous, we'll travel back to Tatooine and resolve this issue of honor.'"
There was that beautiful full smile. And it was more annoying now more than ever, stars Bastila loved that smile.
"Yes… I did say we'll be going back to Tatooine. As you recall I said it loud and often."
Bastila opened her mouth, closed it again and winced. "Of course, you did." She made a disgusted noise but this time it was made against herself. "Because you are counting on Malak's informants reporting back to him that we were not going to Korriban but Tatooine. "
"Yep and after T3 found that tracker beacon, that's where they will be looking for us, especially since I had our wily little astromech transfer it on a transport going to Anchorhead… It will give us a small head start, not much but enough to get a vision where the last Star Forge map is and plan on how get to it."
A chiding soft smile sparkled within the Nagai's eclectic blue eyes. "Do you actually think I'd jeopardize the paramount importance of our mission for a Mandie pissing contest over some battle over Althir? Hardly. Even Canderous knowns rerouting to Tatooine within the tight confines of our mission is foolish. He knows we cannot afford the time. But still he will need to address this mess. Madies tend to hold long grudges.
"I'd say it's a gut reaction, but odds are it is the Force pulling at me to make sure Ordo unites the Mandies under new Mandalor. Him." Revan frowned as if she were tying to find the start of her thoughts but without well a starting gate. "After we land on Korriban, I'll let him take the Hawk to go back to Tatooine and settle this score he had with this Jagi. Hell, he can take the kids with him. It will keep them out of Sith's clutches for a time, keep them safe and distracted. If I could only send Carth with him it'd be a win-win."
"That's not ever going to happen, not with his hatred for the Mandalorians. Carth holds grudges deeper and harder than any Mandalorian." It sounded more like a warning then a pedestrian comment over one of their companion's demeanour. "Let's not forget the rumor we gained on Kashyyyk that his son is enrolled in the Sith Academy."
"Believe me, I have not forgotten. Even if I wanted to." Revan put up a hand forestalling any arguments, "Which I don't. I wouldn't leave a kid in the hands of the Sith- not when I have the ability prevent it."
An unvoiced thought slipped between the Jedi: 'The Sith do not need another Dark Jedi within their ranks'
"Do you plan upon rescuing them all?" Bastila half joked half serious. "Or leave them for the sake of the mission."
The younger woman referred to the story Skye had told Mission about having to leave a thousand slaves behind during the war least the success of the mission be placed in jeopardy. The needs of the few were outweighed by the needs of the many. The slaves were sold, a thousand lives lost to despair and the brutality of slavery so that many more thousands would live. It was the bitch of the ruthless calculus of war.
"I will put an option in front of the students to leave on their own accord. But the risk to leave their Sith Masters and the choice to find another path must be completely theirs alone."
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Traveling the hyperspace routes cut off light-years in any journey but it wasn't instantaneous. One simply didn't travel the length and breathe of the galactic core with a blink of an eye. They were only one day in the three and half days it would take to reach Korriban from Mannon when the vision of Korriban pressed into the minds of the slumbering Jedi. A place of cold and darkness. A place—now a tomb riddled with the Dark Side of the Force.
Both women snapped awake, their bodies coated in sweat, their breath heavy, their hearts heavier still. They sat hunched over their knees, in the bunk they shared.
"The Dark Side," Bastila uttered. "Even awake I feel its touch. It is so close."
"I know. I feel it too. It's like it's ghosting us. More than just the visions, its… like it's…"
The ship rattled.
"What was that?" Bastila demanded.
"A Sith Interdictor ship, they must have been waiting for us in the hyperspace route. We're caught in their tractor beam." Carth's hands frantically worked over the Hawk's controls, there was no choice: if he didn't shut the engines down they'd burn up.
There was a lurch and the sudden deceleration that came from a sudden drop out of hyperspace.
"They found us!" both women cried out in unison. Within seconds they were out of bed, fully dressed in their Zeison Sha and Jal Shey armours and on the bridge.
"How in blazes did they find us?" Mission blurted out frantically as she was moments behind the Jedi to the Hawk's cockpit. "I thought we got rid of the tracking device."
"Better question is how in the kriffing hell did they knock us out of hyperspace? No ship can do that." Canderous retorted.
"Obviously this one can, for it has." Jolee pointed out. "We have no idea what advancements the Star Forged ships have."
"That is not a Star Forge ship. I know that ship. It's the Leviathan. I flew on her before: during the war. Saul Karath's vessel." Carth said folding his arms over his chest. "My old mentor."
"Then she's been upgraded," Canderous said admirably.
Revan said, "As for how they pulled us out of hyperspace, they probably mimicked the power signatures of a gravity well forcing our nav-computer to drop to normal space. Right now, it doesn't matter."
"Skye is right," Carth said gravely. "Admiral Karath taught me everything I know about being a soldier. He was a legend in the Republic Fleet and a hero to me. Until he betrayed us. When the Sith attacked my homeworld, the Leviathan – Saul Karath's flagship—was at the head of the fleet. My family was destroyed that day and my wife died in the Sith Bombardment. I thought I lost my son too."
"Carth, don't let your anger cloud your judgment," Revan said "We need you level headed and your fighting skills to escape."
"I'm not going to do anything stupid. I won't throw our lives away in some mad quest for vengeance," he looked pointedly at Canderous and his own need to settle a score on Tatooine. "But if I get a change to kill Saul during our escape, nobody get in my way."
"Talk of an escape is somewhat premature, don't you think," Bastila said primly. "We don't even have a plan to get out of this mess yet."
"I'll admit it won't be easy. Saul's no fool and he won't underestimate us either. You can count on plenty of guards watching every move we make." Carth nodded.
"Maybe Admiral Karath doesn't know how many of us there are on board. We all have special talents, talents we could exploit so that one of us can stage a rescue," Bastila offered. "It's a long shot but it's our only hope."
"We have two other Jedi with us. Juhani, we'll need your skills. You're a natural at being stealthy, stay cloaked until after our capture."
That was true; the Cathar had an innate ability to cause their bodies to remain unseen even without the use of a stealth belt. It was why the feline race were such superior ambush-hunters. No one saw them coming if they willed it so.
"T3, HK you're going in camouflaged use those fake restraining bolts Mission rigged up, let the Sith think you're bound. At the very least it may stop them from tossing you on junk pile immediately. Though no doubt they will schedule for a memory wipe—but we're not going to let that happen," said Revan. She was about to say more but Zaalbar snarled out a very loud protest.
It was more than evidently clear he was not big on this whole idea of being captured. He knew what became of Wookiees in the clutches of the Sith, they became slaves or they died.
"I don't like it either Big Z but we gotta trust Skye, she never let us down before," Mission put a hand on the arm of her furry 'big brother', "Come on, she rescued you from Gamorrean slavers, and your people from Czerka slavers and restored your honor and your Dad's and… and you gotta trust her."
There was a muffled protest but the wookiee complied. He had promised a life debt to the Jedi. And after all she had done for his family, for his people, he felt as if his whole clan should have offered the Nagai a life dept in return. He did trust Skye Ravensong.
He wasn't going to make it an easy capture, but he'd go along with the ruse.
"Wouldn't want it any other way Big Z, besides the Sith would never believe a wookiee will go down easy. Take out a few Silver-Backs but not enough that they'll kill you. Hopefully, they will want prisoners with threats of torture to make us," Revan gestured to Bastila and Carth "more compliant with their interrogations."
"Suddenly I'm not so sure about this plan." Mission grossed.
"Don't worry street-rat, I'm betting the bucket heads aren't going to start with us. The three of them are going to have their undivided attention." Canderous said without sarcasm.
"I will not let you linger long," Juhani vowed. "I alone of all the group might be able to remain hidden if the Sith search the ship. I will wait until the guards have completed their search, then come to rescue you."
"May the force be with you," Revan smiled encouragingly "I trust you."
"We all do," Jolee added. "Just don't wait too long."
"Hold on, they're dragging us onto the docking bridge." Carth announced almost needlessly.
'Love, Karath will know about who you really are. There is no way to keep your identity secret.' Bastila whispered through their Force Bond, gaining the older woman's attention.
'No. But we can still pull this out. I'll play the ignorant card, it will make them think they have the high ground, putting me off balance when I 'find out' who I truly am.'
'You may not be off balance but Carth and the others will be. Especially Carth.' Bastila warned. 'He may well do something rash and something we will all regret.'
'I know, nothing can be done about that now, Princess.'
The whole internal conversation lasted the space between two heartbeats.
In the spur of the moment, Bastila snatched Revan by the arms and pressed a very hard very fast kiss upon her lips. "For luck," she said to the very stunned Jedi still in her arms.
They had never expressed their deeper feelings for one another so openly, nor showed such public displays of affection. Now, apparently, was the time.
All the others had one communal thought: If they had voiced it in chorus they would admit each of them had a bad feeling about this. Most especially Revan.
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AN1: Italic = past memories
'Italic' = bond thoughts
Bold italic: recalling Revan's words