The Ebon Hawk Part 5
"I'm not Melina" she whispered. When she finished talking, she let the Force flow around her body and her physical features changed. She still had the same figure, but her hair changed to black, and her skin took a tan glow to it, like she was always in the sun, tanning on the beach.
She sighed and looked up at him. Her eyes were now green instead of brown, and they were full of guilt.
"I'm sorry, Revan" she whispered, turning away from the hurt look on Revan's face.
The former Sith Lord was silent for a minute or so after, just staring at the scene that had unfolded in front of him. Finally, once he had assured himself that he was not just imagining anything, he was able to will himself to speak.
"Meetra, how could you do this to me?" Revan asked, surprised that she would hide her identity from him for this long. He did nothing to try to mask the feeling of betrayal, knowing that she would see through it without much struggle.
"I didn't do this to hide it from you, Revan. I was worried about what the Jedi Council would do to me if they found out that I had returned after the war, so I hid my identity" Meetra told him.
"I thought you lost all your power after Malachor V" Revan told her.
"I used almost all my power to resist the effects of the Mass Shadow Generator. After that, my power was diminishing, so I knew I wouldn't be any help to you in the Unknown Regions. I had to go back" Meetra explained.
"Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped you" Revan exclaimed.
"At what cost? You couldn't afford to be taking care of both Malak and I, so I went back to the Jedi. I used up all of my remaining strength into creating this new identity. After that, I had to go back and train so I could eventually bring myself back. When you returned as the dark lord of the Sith, I knew I had to work faster. I didn't think you would be captured by the Jedi right when I finally worked up the power, so I couldn't change back. I didn't want to alert you to what the Council did to you, not when I didn't know your next move" Meetra told him sadly, looking away from the former Sith Lord in front of her.
"So, after you found out the truth about me, why didn't you tell me the truth?" Revan asked, fighting the urge to glare right at her.
"Well, first off, I didn't want the Jedi Council to find out that I had deceived them. It would have led to a very tough road to getting off of Dantooine. Secondly, I had earned everybody's trust as Melina, so I didn't want to tell everybody and ruin the trust that I had already earned, so I kept up my incognito identity; you caught me tonight and ruined my plan, though" Meetra told him, her emotions spiking all over the place from happiness to sadness to anger, and Revan couldn't get a reading from the Force as to what Meetra was thinking, but he wasn't too worried.
"Meetra, you need to tell everybody, now" Revan told her. His tone left no room for argument about what she had to do.
"But, Revan, don't you think it would be a better idea strategically to keep everybody in the dark?" Meetra asked, giving Revan a sheepish look when he narrowed his eyes at her.
Revan got out his personal communicator and cleared his throat.
"Attention everybody, all crew to the main hold as fast as you can get here. Melina has something to tell everybody. Thank you" Revan said into the com-link before turning back to Melina, who was looking at him with a deadly stare that would make most mortals cringe.
"You'd better get your disguise on and get your story ready, Meetra. Have fun" Revan teased, letting her go to a small room in the main hold, shutting the door behind her. Revan sat down on the workbench to watch the show from a distance, waiting for his entertainment for the day.
Once Meetra let her disguise down in front of the crew, she was assaulted with questions, but one thing that really surprised Revan was that Carth Onasi was just standing in silence.
"Carth seems a little off. He isn't even glaring at Melina" Revan muttered, making a mental note to talk to the pilot when an opportunity presented itself.
Before Revan could react, Meetra's explanation was done, and everybody was going their own separate ways. Revan thought about following Carth, but thought better about it when he saw the blank stare on the pilot's face.
What really turned him off from following the pilot is how he looked when he looked back at Meetra after she turned away. Carth Onasi was sympathetic for her.
Suddenly, Revan was thrust into a memory from the Mandalorian Wars, right after winning a large scale battle with Mandalore's fleet, just days before the final battle at Malachor V. He was on the bridge, talking about strategy with Malak, Meetra, Saul Karath, and one of the captains under Karath.
"Captain Onasi, you have fought on the ground against the Mandalorians. Is there any way for us to gain an advantage against them? One big enough to get us a victory that could possibly demoralize them" Revan asked, looking through his masked face at Carth.
"I've fought those savages a couple times, and they are brutal. I have never seen any way to break their spirit. It's like they're machines. There's no off button on them!" Carth explained slowly. Revan nodded and looked out the viewport at the crew cleaning up after the battle, overseeing what was going on.
"You have served under General Surik for your entire stay in the war, correct?" Malak asked, looking across from the now nervous Karath to Meetra who was very calm.
"Yes, I have. It has been a great pleasure to serve under her for these last eighteen months. She always treats us soldiers with the upmost respect and commands us to victory very often. Even when we lose a battle, she rallies us up better than any commander I have ever fought under before" Carth explained.
"Captain Onasi, I will be frank. You are here because we would like to promote you to a commander under Malak. One of his commanders was killed in action during the last battle, so we need a replacement, and you have been recommended for the position" Karath explained slowly, looking at Carth with a sense of dread. The captain was silent for a minute, pondering his options.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Carth asked. Karath nodded and Carth took a deep breath to steady himself.
"To be honest, I am going to have to decline the promotion" Carth said strongly. Malak was so shocked at that, he dropped his lightsaber on Karath's foot. Revan turned around and glared at the cursing admiral before looking at Carth.
"What makes you choose to do that? You are giving up a larger pay, command over more soldiers, and a higher ranking position in the fleet. Why?" Revan asked.
"I can't really explain it, sir, but I just cannot imagine fighting a battle without her as the commander. It is nothing against General Malak or even you, sir. I just know that I speak for my platoon as well, that we are not comfortable with changing that right now" Carth explained. Revan walked around him, surveying the captain in front of him.
"I can certainly respect that, captain. I appreciate the loyalty that you are showing to your general. I can tell you for a fact that this war would be going better if everybody showed that kind of loyalty. Unfortunately, that is not something that can be taught. Although, I think you have taught everybody here a little something about loyalty" Revan said, glancing at Malak for a second before turning back toward the viewport, effectively cutting off any retort.
When Revan pulled out of the memory, he saw Canderous walking toward the table in the main hold. Knowing that he couldn't postpone the conversation any longer, Revan had to follow the Mandalorian into the main hold.
Canderous sat down at the table and looked up in shock when Revan sat down across from him. Revan's stare was cold, looking right into the eyes of the Mandalorian sitting in front of him.
"Revan, what do you want?" Canderous demanded, looking at Revan with a casual, but weary glance.
Author's Note: What does Revan want from Canderous? One can only imagine. I don't even know what Revan wants yet, so that is what makes it fun!
I know a lot of you got that Melina is really Meetra Surik, but I will definitely add to what is really said about her. And by the way, I know that the Jedi on the Endar Spire was supposed to die, but this is an AU story, so I can do what I want with it. So, I hope that little change won't turn people away!
And I also hope everybody has enjoyed the chapter and the story so far. I hope everybody still reviews this story, but in your reviews, I would like you to tell me what about the story in general needs improvement. Not just this chapter, but the story in general. I have tried to improve, but I can only do so much with only one critical review each chapter. Now, I'm not asking for flames. I just want people to review even if they don't like the story. Tell me what I could do to improve. That would be very helpful to me. I would really appreciate it if you could do that for me. Thanks for reading and I hope you hit that review button at the bottom of your screen.