Hello again :D Once again, I ask you for reviews, favorites and followings XD And also, I hope you enjoy my story so far. I've also renamed this story cause 'KotOR retelling' seemed to be too simple, and I think that 'Price of the Sacrifice' will better suit this story and the trilogy, I'm planning to write. Write in a comment what you think about this title and have a nice read :D
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 22
Canderous wiped a sweat out of his face. He, Rex, Fox, and Wolfie were pacing across the plains of Dantooine. They were looking through the area, that surrounded the Enclave in search for the Mandalorians who were causing trouble around here. But the old field marshal knew that they were no Mandalorians.
It takes more than only wearing an armor to become a true warrior from the Mandalore planet. And in Canderous' eyes, they were only kids who held their noses too high. Their combat skills sucked at least. They were no ones. Boys who thought that they look intimidating in the armors of the Mandalorians.
For the experienced former field marshal dealing with them was a childish play. Not to mention the support from his companions' combat skills. They were trained just like any other Mandalorian. Canderous found it interesting. Not many of the Republic soldiers posed a challenge for the invader from Dxun, but these three of them were different. He assumed that it was due to the fact that they've served directly under Revan. The young man himself presented many features of the Mandalorians. His abilities as a tactician and a fighter came to the legends amongst Canderous' people. And it was obvious, that he would pass it to those who were his closest followers.
Eventually, the four men stumbled upon a group consisting of the three men dressed in the Mandalorian armors and two Duros. One of the warriors had a red armor on himself – one wore by the rally masters during the Mandalorian wars. Two others had a regular blue armor on themselves.
"Ah, so this is the meddler. You have caused us far too much trouble, Canderous" the man in red armor spoke when he saw the four men and the one in front of them. The old Mandalorian somehow recognized this voice, even though it was distorted by the helmet the man wore.
"You know my name" Canderous commented. He took a better grip on his blaster, as he eyed the man in front of him carefully.
"Of course I do" he replied. "I've served under you during the Mandalorian wars, don't you remember already?" he asked with a mocking tone. Canderous' eyes widened at that. He recalled that man, but still, he couldn't find his name in his memory. After all, many people used to serve under him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"It's sad you don't remember me" the man in red armor replied. "I was with you at the Serroco, and later, during the battle of Omonoth, as well as in many other battles. I was your must trusted rally master, and yet you don't remember me" he said, not even bothering to take off his helmet. Canderous' eyes widened again, this time with realization.
"Sherruk?" the old man asked with a small gasp.
"Ah, I'm glad that you finally remember me" he responded.
"Come with me, Sherruk," Canderous said, regaining his normal posture and regular tone.
"And why should I do that?" he asked.
"To regain our honor, brother" was old man's response. Sherruk snorted at that.
"Honor? Honor?! You dare to speak of honor as you have any idea of what it means, Canderous of the Ordo clan" the man in red armor replied. "Amongst all of the field marshals, you were always the weakest one. I have no idea why I followed you. You were against erasing worlds, even if that meant victory. You weren't Mandalorian. You weren't like Cassus Fett. He was the one who wasn't afraid of exploiting our enemy's mistakes and weaknesses, while you decided to stand back. Don't tell me about honor. If you ever had it, you've surely lost it over the Malachor V on Mandalore's flagship, when you fled from the battlefield, leaving all of us to certain death."
"Others fled as well" Canderous replied with an angry tone "If you haven't seen that, Cassus and Bendak escaped as well, and yet, you say nothing about them!" he spat back at the man.
"But they've earned their receivable respect" Sherruk responded. "They've proven themselves as the true Mandalorians. They've claimed their right to survive the Final Battle, in opposite to you."
Canderous watched the man in front of him. His words touched something deep inside the old field marshal. He enjoyed fighting, as any other Mandalorian, but he didn't support mass massacres. This caused him to be belittled amongst the rest of field marshals, even though he still held a high position in the Mandalorian army.
But Sherruk's words also ignited in him a determination. Even if what the former rally master told was true, Canderous would reclaim his honor. He was going to do everything in order to accomplish that. He clenched his teeth. He promised something to Revan. And he was a man of his word.
"Sherruk, come with me," he asked again. The former rally master again snorted and took a better grip on his blaster.
"I am not going to follow you anymore, Canderous Ordo" he replied with pride in his voice. "I know a lot about you. You have forsaken your honor for a Jedi. You're not a man to be followed" he finished.
Canderous clenched his fists even tighter. Knuckles of his right palm probably went white due to the fact, that he held a blaster in that hand. He possessed honor during the Mandalorian wars. And he wasn't going to allow some youngling to accuse him of forsaking it.
"Then come and show what you've got, rally master," he said with hatred in his voice. Sherruk snorted again.
"Do your worst, grandpa" he replied, activating a shield, that he had on his arm.
It was obvious, that Canderous and Sherruk were going to fight toe to toe, so no one interrupted them. Rex, Fox, and Wolfie took care of two others, who wore a Mandalorian armor, as well as the Duros. Just as they expected, they weren't any Mandalorians. They were only kids dressed as the warriors.
They have quickly managed to deal with Sherruk's companions. For someone as experienced as they, these four excuses for fighters meant no challenge. They knew perfectly well the disadvantages of the Mandalorian armors, and they exploited it to the fullest.
Canderous and Sherruk were engaged in a fight. After missing dozens of times with the blasters, they've decided to transform their battle into a melee combat. The vibroswords clashed against each other, bringing out sounds of a metal against metal. The former rally master had the advantage of age. He was much younger than the field marshal from the Ordo clan.
Canderous though had the upper hand in equipment. The Mandalorian armor was thick and provided a great defense, but it had one weakness. It was extremely heavy. This, and the blind spots on neck and under the armpits. And the old field marshal was going to exploit it.
A powerful blow was dealt in the older man's face. Sherruk used the moment to hit his enemy with an armored fist. Canderous heard clearly a crack of breaking a bone. He's heard that many times in his life. And it wasn't the first time when his nose was being broken. He brought his free hand to his face. He felt a blood on his fingers, and when he tried to breathe an air through his nostrils, he found this action impossible.
The old Mandalorian decided to ignore the pain. Thinking about it was for nothing. After all, he had much more important things to occupy his mind. Like a man in the red armor in front of him. He wiped his left hand clean out of the blood. It wouldn't help him if it was slippery. There could be a danger of the vibroblade slipping out of his grasp.
Canderous straightened his grip on the blade and parried the attacks of his opponents. Each of these strikes were heavy and could easily decapitate him. They were directed in different parts of his body. One at the neck and second at his midsection and even lower. He also had to parry few pushes, which were directed into his chest. Now he understood, why Sherruk had such a great position in the Mandalorian army.
His fighting style was one of the best, Canderous has ever seen. His strikes were fast and strong at the same time. The precision of them, combined with pace, could easily make him best most of the soldiers in combat.
But Canderous wasn't like most of the soldiers.
He found a small gap in Sherruk's attacks. They all came in sequence. One blow directed at his side, then another from the opposite direction, repeated twice. Later came a heavy blow from the up, and that was where Canderous had to calculate his counterattack.
First, exploit the weakness of the enemy's armor. He had to deal a quick cut at Sherruk's armpit. Canderous started to count. One, two, three, NOW!, he shouted in his own mind. He made a swift attempt to reach the former rally master's spot under his right arm. And he has managed to reach it.
His vibrosword cut Sherruk's lining. It tore apart the thin material and hurt his armpit. The man in red armor screamed in pain, though it was muffled by the helmet.
He quickly regained his posture and resumed his sequence, though now the blows weren't so strong, as previously. Now, Canderous had an easier task of defending himself.
There again, Sherruk revealed himself for the attack from the older man. Canderous cut his another armpit, but this time, the blade went a little deeper.
The former rally master let out a groan, that he tried to silence with clenched teeth, but it was for nothing. Now the offender had to move to the defense. He found it difficult to protect himself from the field marshal's attacks. They were strong and the blood, that was running down his arms, caused his grip on the vibrosword to lessen.
Sherruk began to pant heavily. Canderous was patient and was dealing a blow after blow. After another powerful strike, he has managed to knock out the blade from the hands of his enemy.
The former field marshal didn't bother with playing in this stupid game of a 'last word'. With his next strike, he decapitated his enemy. The head flew a good few meters away from the body. The headless corpse remained in a standing position for few seconds longer, but soon it has fallen on the ground with a soft thud.
Canderous supported himself on his knees and panted heavily. He spit out the blood that has gathered in his mouth from the broken nose. He brought his hand to his face and set the broken part of his body. It let out a loud crack, and soon, even more, blood started to come out. He didn't as much as flinch, as he repaired his nose.
"I think we're done here" he commented. "Let's go back to the Enclave."
"We're right behind you" Rex replied. They came back to the Jedi Academy minutes before the sun has set down fully. They walked in silence all the way back there.
Revan was sitting in the archives in the Jedi Enclave. The content of the library was computerized long ago, so the researches were even easier. He was looking for some unusual for him.
He was pacing through the content of the medical notes.
The former Dark Lord was looking for this strange creature, Rakghoul, he believed that it was how Mission described it.
After few hours he has managed to find what he was looking for. There was a lot of information about the creatures themselves and their venom.
Rakghouls are the creatures blind in the Force. They leave no trail in it. Their biggest advantage is their numbers. They are being spawned by infecting a human, or any other humanoid being. Their bodies are covered in poison, that causes series of damages in one's body, after getting into his blood system. The transformation takes around two and a half month. If it's not healed immediately, the infected is sentenced to become a Rakghoul. There is an antidote, though. First, Kolto is needed to disinfect the wound. It's recommended to apply it every second day.
The antidote is easy to make. It's an extract of the many plants and creatures, that can be found on Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, Onderon, and Iridonia.
The venom of the Kinraths will be necessary, so one poison can be occupied with another, but the effect will be temporary, the juices of the trees of Wroshyr,…
Revan downloaded the content of the datapad to his own one. The list of the ingredients was quite long. And from what he understood, he had little over one month for the transformation to begin. He had to hurry.
Vrook was sitting in his private chambers, occupied with a deep meditation. He had a hard time understanding what has happened recently.
Revan has cleansed the grove by returning Juhani to the Light Side. This placed him high in the eyes of the other members of the Council. But Vrook knew better.
Even if now this man was remaining at the Jedi teachings, there was a danger of him going down the path of the Dark Side once again. And as the sworn protector of the Republic and the Jedi Order, he couldn't allow that to happen.
Atris' words were fresh in his mind. You have a permission to slay him. He smiled slightly. He would finally do, what was supposed to be done on that Mandalorian world, where Revan was born.
"There you are" Bastila's voice interrupted his research, although it was practically done. "I was looking for you."
Revan looked up from the desk at which he was sitting. Dozens of the datapads laid around him. He carefully turned them off.
"What are you doing here so late?" Bastila asked. He smiled in response.
"I'm trying to make my knowledge of the Jedi ways bigger" he replied with a cocky smile. She raised an eyebrow at that.
"You surely do" she commented, walking closer to him. "Anyway, I was looking for you for a reason."
"Oh, have you found my company pleasant?" he asked with a mocking tone. Bastila chuckled slightly at that.
"No, I…" she started but was cut off by Revan.
"You don't? What a tragedy" he exclaimed with a playful tone, bringing his palm to his forehead. Bastila laughed again.
"Mock me as often as you want" she replied. "But I wanted to speak to you," she said. Her serious tone meant, that she didn't come here to crack jokes.
"What is it then?" Revan asked. There were no traces of his previous playful tone.
"I wanted to speak with about your quest at the Grove" she replied. "This what you have done for Juhani was… magnificent, I must admit."
Revan nodded his head in response. He didn't know where this conversation was heading.
"I wanted to know how you have done that" she added, looking at him. She sat on the desk he was working at. "Many Jedi struggle with the temptation of the Dark Side, while you have not only resisted it but also turned someone else from it. How have you done?"
With a determination to blind this foul, Master Vrook, he said in his mind, though he didn't say that out loud.
"I wanted to prove myself worthy of the task," he said instead. "I've seen what the Sith are capable of and I wanted to save that woman from it. I've found it right to try to convince her to come back to the Jedi Order. I think, that everyone would do what I did" he explained, trying to sound as much convincing as he could.
Bastila nodded in response, saying nothing. They were just sitting there in silence. After a moment, the female Jedi Padawan stood up from the desk.
"Thank you for your honesty," she said. "It means a lot to me" she added and with that, Bastila was gone. When the doors were closed, Revan let out a groan.
He didn't like lying to her, but it was necessary. But that wasn't the reason why he groaned. It was the way she was dressed.
She was still wearing the same form-fitting outfit, that she wore so often. And it matched her woman curves so perfectly.
Her breasts were large enough to see them in these unusual Jedi robes. The material was covering them perfectly, matching her chest. Her hips were rounded a little. They were few inches wider than her waist. This gave her an amazing hourglass shape. And when she turned around to leave, by the Force. Who taught her to sway these gorgeous hips in that way? Revan had no idea and he couldn't help but admire her from behind.
He has barely managed to keep himself from running up to her and starting making out with Bastila. He was so eager to kiss her. To touch her, to make her his and only his. But he couldn't. At least not now.
He let out another groan and looked back at the datapads. After a moment he decided to come back to his quarters. He was too tired for any research, and he has done well in the past few hours.
"Their leader was Sherruk, one of the rally masters, who served under me during the war. I haven't managed to convince him to join you, forgive me" Canderous said. Revan was listening in silence, as the older man reported how he solved the threat of few Mandalorians. He let out a sigh.
"Nothing happened" he replied. "After all, we're not going to die, if we don't have one more Mandalorian at our side. I'm glad you were trying, Canderous" he said to the old field marshal. The man bowed slightly in response.
"What's the plan now?" Fox asked.
"We'll see tomorrow" Revan replied. "If things will play out how I want, we will be leaving Dantooine soon. But we'll find out tomorrow" he repeated, and turned to leave, giving a clear signal that the conversation was over. The former Dark Lord retreated to his own quarters.
And Revan failed to notice Vrook at the far end of the corridor. The old man was watching and listening carefully, golden flames burning in his usual blue eyes.
So here ends another chapter, let me know what you thought about it. See you next time!
