Tatooine Part 9
Revan stood with his lightsaber ignited, staring into the shadows where he heard one solitary stick break a moment prior, his glare unrelenting toward the sound.
"Come out, now" Revan warned. As if on cue, out of the shadows came a small solitary jawa. The little creature was petrified in fear as it looked up into Revan's ignited lightsaber as well as the gray Jedi's battle stance. When he saw that his attacker was not an attacker, and merely a simple jawa, Revan put his lightsaber away and gave the little jawa a small smile.
"Sorry about that. What do you need?" Revan asked.
"Leader Iziz of jawa said to give this to you" the jawa said, reaching out a hand nervously.
Revan looked down and he saw that the necklace was done. He took the necklace from the little jawa and smiled. The necklace was connected with what looked like standard thread, but it was so soft and comfortable to Revan's touch. There were five little jewels on the necklace and they were symmetrical from side to side. The outer jewels were matching yellow lightsaber crystals and matching purple crystals right on the inside of them. In the center, the krayt dragon pearl was sitting there with Revan and Bastila's initials on the back side of it.
"This is more than I could have ever expected. Thank you so much. What can I do to repay you for this?" Revan asked, reaching into his bag to grab some credits, but the jawa waived him off.
"Payment is not necessary. Leader Iziz has told me to inform you that for saving members of our clan, you shall get this for free" the jawa said. Revan was shocked, but very thankful as well.
"Thank you. I cannot explain to you how grateful I am for this. Thank you" Revan said. The jawa bowed and disappeared back into the shadows, leaving Revan to head back to the Ebon Hawk and return to Bastila.
Revan hustled back to the Ebon Hawk, not wanting to wait any longer to see Bastila. He went onto the ship and first checked the woman's dorms, but Bastila was not there. Confused, Revan searched out through the Force to try and find her. All he could tell was that Bastila was on the Ebon Hawk. He just didn't know where.
He searched the cargo hold and the cockpit, the ship center and the men's dormitory. He saw the doors to both refreshers open so he went to check the meditation room. He saw the door closed and was certain that his favorite Jedi padawan was behind it.
He knocked lightly on the door and listened for a response. There was no response. He knocked again, but there was nothing.
"Bastila, it's Revan. Are you okay?" Revan asked through the door. There was still no response from inside the room.
"Bas, come on, are you okay? It's only me. Everybody else is at the cantina or sleeping. You can let me in. Nobody will be here to overhear us. You can respond. I am just worried about you. Please" Revan called through the door. Right after he finished, he felt something reach around his waist very gently draping hands under his loose sleeveless shirt to lightly caress the bare skin.
He let out a girlish yelp and shoots back into the door, turning around with his hands and arms around his waist, looking up with wide eyes to see Bastila with a large smile on her face at the predicament that she had found him in.
"I wasn't in the room, Revan. I never was" she teased, looking again at the predicament that she had forced him to be in.
"Well, now that you are here. Are you alright?" he asked. When he asked that, her smile dissipated instantly.
"Let's go inside" Bastila whispered, helping Revan to his feet and opening the door.
Bastila sat down on the bed and Revan stood awkwardly by the door, closing it slowly, not knowing that Bastila was still watching him. He winced when the door let out a screech as he shut it before walking over to Bastila and proceeding to stand next to her. She waited patiently for him to say something, but when he never did, she paused.
"You can sit down, Revan. It is just us" Bastila told him, reaching for his hand. He shook his head with a small smile before stepping half a step away.
"No, no, it's ok. I am fine standing" he told her quickly, too quickly.
"Revan, come sit. You are making me feel uneasy" she told him.
"That's fine, I can sit on the floor then" he told her. He moved to sit at the floor of the bed, but a quick burst of Force energy from Bastila pulled him onto the bed next to her. Before he could move away again, she put her head on his shoulder and sighed.
"What's wrong?" he asked, mentally hitting himself, knowing how stupid that question really was. Bastila didn't seem to notice though. Instead, her voice got softer.
"You're sure we won't be disturbed?" she asked quietly. He nodded, using the Force to put a barrier on the door, making sure that none would be able to get in before turning back to the brunette.
"Revan, what did I do wrong? Why does everything I love leave me?" Bastila asked, closing her gray eyes in disgust. Not expecting her to take that stance, Revan was shocked into silence for a few seconds.
"They haven't left you, Bas. You still have the Jedi, your father's holocron, and you know where your mother is going to be when we finish this mission. They have not left you. They are all still with you" Revan explained. Bastila did not respond, instead she sniffled back a few tears, not wanting Revan to see her as weak.
"Bastila, your father loved you so much. And he loved your mother too. He sent you to the Jedi because he knew that it was a better life than what he could provide for you. Even now, he is still with you, and because of that holocron, he will never leave you" Revan explained. That was all that it took for the dams to break.
Bastila spent the next few minutes crying into Revan's shirt. Once she calmed herself down a little bit, she apologized for using his shirt as a handkerchief.
"It's alright. Better to let it out now than hold it in. we wouldn't want you to become a volcano whose emotions being held in and erupting all of a sudden into a terrible act. Letting them out in small bursts, small eruptions like this, is better overall because you aren't running from something that is a part of you; your emotions" he told her with a small smile.
"Revan, that was very deep!" Bastila told him, looking at him with an impressed stare. On the other hand, Revan's smile dissipated and he started shaking his head, refusing to believe it.
"You take that back!" he exclaimed.
"No, I'm serious. You have been very insightful lately and very sensitive. I am so proud of you" Bastila told him. He shook his head again, this time resigned to the fact that what she was saying was the truth.
"I have had a really bad couple days" he muttered, wiping a fake tear off his cheek. Bastila laughed, and he knew that his little façade was worth it all. Once she was done laughing, he looked down at her again, his own smile was matching hers.
"Thank you, Revan. You always know what I need to feel better" Bastila told him, giving him a tight hug.
"What did I do?" he asked in confusion, scratching his head as he looked at her, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to figure out what she was talking about.
"You, Revan Surik are the one person who I would ever tell to any of these things. That is not just because I trust you more than anybody else in the entire universe, but mostly because you are my oldest friend" Bastila explained.
"Hey, I am not old! Meetra is over three years older than me! Carth is old enough to be my father, and don't even get me started on Canderous" Revan exclaimed.
"Revan! You know what I mean!" Bastila exclaimed, stifling a laugh at his antics.
"Sorry, Bas. It's not my fault your laugh makes everything better" Revan said, giving her another smile.
"Revan, I am supposed to be the ice princess of our crew. I can't even keep a straight face for three seconds when I am with you" she complained, putting her hands on her hips in mock anger.
"I would apologize, but like I said, hearing your laughing makes it all worth it" Revan told her, giving her a cocky smile.
She shook her head and turned away so he couldn't see the smile that was threatening to break out onto her face, but she couldn't turn away fast enough. Revan had already noticed and he let out a quiet cry of victory.
In mock anger, Bastila pouted and crossed her arms across her chest. Revan chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. She got her arms free and wrapped them around his waist, putting one of her hands under his shirt and caressing his waist again, causing him to yelp again before jumping away from her quickly.
"Ok, the first time, it was funny. This time, I am just totally confused" Bastila told him, looking half amused and half concerned.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it, Bas!" Revan exclaimed, getting very defensive and looking anywhere but at her.
"Oh, Revan. You have always been a terrible liar. Tell me the truth, Revan" Bastila told him, moving down to sit next to him. She took his hand in her own before waiting patiently for Revan to tell her.
At first, he muttered incoherently, but after seeing Bastila's death glare pointed in his direction, he realized that he had no choice but to tell her the truth. He tried to tell her again, but she could not hear him.
"Revan, you have to speak up. I can't hear you" Bastila told him condescendingly. He took a deep breath and looked away from her, not wanting to see the look on her face when he told her the truth.
"At least I am not as ticklish as you are" he muttered, his face completely red from embarrassment. Bastila looked at him, first in shock before she started laughing. She eventually had to hold her sides because they hurt from laughing too hard.
"You're kidding, right Revan?" she asked through bursts of laughter. Her laughter caused him to redden even further. She gave him a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck, trying to hold back her laughter. It was to no avail, though.
"I cannot believe that this is the one weakness of the great Revan" Bastila said shakily, her laughter still echoing throughout the room. Upon hearing her laughter, Revan had no choice but to start laughing himself. The fact that Bastila seemed happy was too much for him to resist. Once they finally stopped laughing, Revan put an arm around Bastila's shoulder, smiles still on both of their faces.
"So, I have a question for you, Revan. It has been on my mind for a while now. Can I ask you?" she asked. Revan, still recovering from his fit of laughter, just nodded, unable to say anything in response to her.
"So, you forgot to tell me why I am always followed by your war droid!" Bastila exclaimed angrily. Revan's smile was pulled off his face unceremoniously as he looked down.
"Yes, I am sorry about that, but I was just trying to make sure that you were safe. I can't be next to you all the time, so I think HK is the next best thing, honestly. I just want to make sure that you are safe, Bastila" Revan told her.
"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I don't need to be protected all the time? Haven't you realized that I can protect myself?" Bastila asked, glaring at Revan. The former Sith Lord looked down at her and sighed, not wanting to believe that he was wrong.
"Bastila, I am just trying to protect you" he started, but was interrupted unceremoniously.
"Well, you don't need to protect me anymore. I am not the youngling you knew before the Mandalorian Wars! I am grown up now, Revan. You need to realize that!" Bastila exclaimed, looking into his eyes, showing him how serious she was about what she was saying.
"I know you can protect yourself, Bastila, but I still worry about you. I don't know what the deal is with the Jedi Council, well I do…" Revan tailed off, but he shook his head out of his thoughts as he saw Bastila glare at him. He gave her a sheepish smile before continuing.
"Anyways, they tend to put their most valuable recruits on the most deadly missions, such as when they sent me and Meetra right into the heart of a Mandalorian base on Cathar. As valuable as you are to them, I could see that they would put you in even more danger than they did for me or Meetra" Revan told her. At first, what Revan said did not register into Bastila's mind, but once it did, a sly smile appeared onto her face.
"Are you saying that I am more valuable than you are, Revan?" Bastila asked with a small smile.
"I never said that!" he exclaimed.
"Perhaps not directly, but you did say it. By saying that you believe the Jedi Council would send me on missions that are more dangerous than the ones you went on, reading between the lines forces me to realize that you believe that I am more valuable to the Jedi than you ever were" Bastila told him. Revan tried to find a way around her statement, but he crossed his arms in annoyance when he could not do it. On the other side, Bastila had a victorious smirk threatening to cross onto her face.
"Alright, fine, princess. Come with me" Revan said, pulling her up and opening the door.
"Revan, where are we going?" she asked, trying to catch up with his quick steps toward the exit ramp on the Ebon Hawk. They went back out onto the surface of Tatooine and went right for Anchorhead, going through the city quickly as they were rushing toward the Dune Sea. They slowed down slightly as they passed by the cantina.
"Should we stop in and see our friends, Avner?" Bastila asked, checking herself before she slipped and said 'Revan' instead of using his pseudo identity as every member of the crew knew him.
"No, let's just keep going. No need to bother them during their party" Revan told her. She shrugged, not realizing what Revan meant by that, but she kept wondering about it.
Little did they know that right as they passed the cantina was when the two couples decided to split up and sit two to each table as Mission and Zaalbar had already gone back to the ship earlier in the evening.
Bastila followed Revan through Anchorhead, struggling to keep up with the pace that her bond-mate was setting for them, wondering what he was leading her to. When they passed the cantina, she got really confused.
"Revan, where are we going?" she hissed at him. He looked back at her and smiled, shaking his head at her, refusing to say a word. Bastila growled and looked back at him. He led them to the gate to the Dune Sea and scanned their card to open it. After a glare from the nighttime gate guard, they walked out onto the Dune Sea.
Revan led Bastila through the dusty plains quickly. Bastila looked up and saw that the center moon was directly overhead. When she looked down, the duo had reached the broken down sand crawler.
"Revan, why are we here?" she asked. He smiled at her and motioned for her to enter the sand crawler. She looked at him but he ushered to the ladder again. She still refused to move, but he pushed her in the direction of the ladder and she sighed. She climbed up the ladder with Revan right behind her.
"Enjoying the view, you jerk?" she hissed as they climbed. Revan ignored her and he held his breath as she pulled herself up onto the landing and looked at the inside of the sand crawler.
He had just begun to pull himself onto the landing when she gasped and looked around. The heart of the sand crawler was lit by candles. In the center, there was a bantha rug with blankets folded next to it. On the rug was a small basket with a single wine bottle sticking out. On the side of the room, there was a single bed against the wall.
Bastila looked at him with her eyes wide and her mouth agape. She was unable to form any words. He opened his arms and wrapped them around her body. He felt her body lean into his chest, trying to choke back tears.
"Revan, what is all this for?" she asked, looking up at him with a sparkle in her gray eyes. He smiled at her and took her over to the bed and they sat down. Her eyes did not leave his face once.
"Bas, I wanted to do something special for you. I had no idea what to do, but this was the only thing I could consider. I came out here earlier today and I did this for you. I just want you to know that even though your father is one with the Force now, you aren't alone. You will never be alone as long as I am breathing and, uh, well, I really care about you. Um, oh, man" Revan told her, feeling his words start to blur together. He sighed and looked up at her with an apology in his eyes.
"What is it, Revan? You can tell me" she whispered, giving him a smile.
"I just care about you so much, and I, uh, well" he started. He swallowed once before taking a deep breath and looking away from her.
"I got you something" he whispered.
"What? Revan! You got me another present? Isn't you being such a great friend to me good enough? Isn't this good enough?" she asked, waving her hands around pointing at the candles and the wine.
"Not for me. That one wasn't enough for me. I had to get you something special and that is what I did. Close your eyes and hold out your hands" he told her, his voice shaking slightly. The nerves were threatening to overwhelm him. Bastila looked at him with a small smirk but she did close her eyes and she put both of her hands out.
Revan reached into his pocket and pulled out the little box that he had put the necklace in. He looked down at it and took a deep breath, opening it before putting it in Bastila's hands.
"Ok, you can open your eyes now" he told her after a few seconds. She did so and as she looked down at the box in her hands, she let out a gasp. She saw the pearl and looked up at Revan. She kept looking between Revan and the pearl, unable to say a word, finally stopping at the pearl, just staring right at it in shock.
Hands shaking, she reached down and touched the pearl, recoiling her hand right away. Unbeknownst to her, Revan saw that and his shoulders fell slightly.
"Revan… why?" she asked in shock after a few tense, silent moments.
"I'm sorry if you don't like the necklace. I was just trying to get you something that was really special and I just thought of this so I took it to the jawa leader and he had this made and I just really wanted you to feel better and I know you don't really like this gift, but I don't know. I'm sorry" he finally said, taking a deep breath, cursing his nerves for getting in the way once again.
He winced when Bastila snapped her head up toward him and glared a glare he hadn't seen from her since he was the dark lord of the Sith.
"How could you even think that I didn't like this gift? I love it!" she exclaimed, smiling at him.
"Really? I saw you touch it then pull away really fast so I thought you didn't like it" he told her, looking down again.
"Revan, I just can't believe that you would do something like this for me. I mean, it really is a piece of you and me that I can keep forever and I love it" she told him. It was then that she took the necklace out of the box and saw the engraving. She let out a gasp and put the necklace back in the box before throwing herself into Revan.
Then, all of the emotions exploded out of her like a hurricane. The tears started flowing freely and Revan started to feel his shirt struggle to take in the moisture. Then, she started smiling widely and thanking him repeatedly before kissing him on the cheek. Right after that, she started babbling about how she could not believe anybody would do this for her. Then, the tears started to fall again and she crushed herself into his chest again. But, the tears did not last. As the tears began to slow for the final time, the smile began to creep back on Bastila's face as she allowed her face to rest in his chest, wiping her eyes on his shirt before looking up at him with an innocent smile on her face.
Meanwhile, poor Revan was absolutely astonished. First, he could not believe that a person could experience that many emotions in one day, let alone at the same time. He also couldn't figure out how they ended up lying on the bed instead of sitting up. He had ended up lying on his back while Bastila was on her side, between Revan and the wall with her head resting on his chest.
"I'm sorry" she whispered.
"For what?" he asked in shock, looking down into her eyes that still had some tears glistening.
"For forcing you to endure that exchange. Sorry, Revan, but girls are like that" she told him.
"You're not going to get down on yourself about the whole being a Jedi issue?" he teased. Once he said it, he wished he hadn't, but it had no effect. Bastila just kept smiling.
"Tomorrow, we are Jedi. Today, it's just us" she whispered, closing her eyes and snuggling closer to Revan.
To say that Revan was confused would not be a strong enough description. He was stunned silent, but he wasn't complaining.
"Goodnight, Revan. Thanks for being my best friend" Bastila whispered.
And despite looking over at the wine that he was not going to have a chance to drink that night, Revan could not help a smile from breaking onto his face as he closed his eyes, allowing himself to slip off into dreamland, clutching his precious Bastila close.
When Revan woke up, he felt a weight on his arm. Out of instinct, he tried to move to get away from it, but stopped when he heard a female groan. He opened one eye and looked next to him to find Bastila snuggled into his side, her smile starting to fade into a frown at being awoken from dreamland.
"Last night wasn't a dream" he whispered, shaking his head in disbelief. He smiled when Bastila started to stir and wake up, excited to see her reaction.
She opened her eyes and yelped in shock to see Revan lying next to her.
"Last night wasn't a dream" she muttered, ignoring the small smirk breaking its way onto Revan's face.
"We should get moving" he said shortly after she woke up, moving to stand up and get ready to leave.
It didn't take the two Jedi long to be ready to go. Soon, the necklace was safe in the box in Bastila's pocket and Revan was holding the bottle of wine in his hand as they left the sand crawler, reentering the burning suns one last time.
The journey back to the Ebon Hawk was quick. Canderous, Carth, and Meetra were all waiting outside the Ebon Hawk when Revan and Bastila got back to the ship.
"Where were you guys last night?" Meetra asked, a smile on her face.
"We were both in the ship last night. We left early this morning because Bastila wanted to go back to make sure we didn't leave any loose ends at the Czerka Office, which we didn't, and I wanted to get this bottle of wine. So, we were busy" Revan said simply. Meetra looked at him with a raised eyebrow but thankfully for the sweating revanchist, she didn't mention it any more.
Canderous looked like he was about to say something more, but he whipped his repeater out quickly and shouted at the Jedi to duck. They did so and he unloaded on a trio of spectators.
"What the hell was that for, Mandalorian?" Carth shouted. Canderous just glared at him and pointed at the entrance to their spaceport.
"Recognize the uniforms, Republic?" the Mandalorian snapped, opening fire again.
By this point, Revan had gotten back to his feet and had surveyed the odds.
"Get back to the ship! Carth, get her fired up and get her up in the air as soon as we can. Fly low until I instruct you otherwise!" he shouted. At first, Carth was going to argue, but one look at Revan's face made it clear that any arguing was not going to get him anywhere.
The pilot raced up the ramp and into the cockpit, starting the preparations to get the ship in the air. It was a slow process, but he was doing it as fast as anybody could.
Outside, it was starting to become a blood bath. The four remaining crew members were looking at the numbers and were shaking their heads. There were too many and they all knew it.
"Princess, get back to the ship! We need to get out of here one at a time! Go!" Canderous shouted. Normally, Bastila would not have listened to the Mandalorian, but did so, knowing that the rest of her companions would not be too far behind. She heard Meetra come up the ramp behind her. Just as the engines fired up, Canderous ran up the ramp, leaving Revan alone defending the ship. Carth raised the ship slightly off the ground and Bastila rushed off to the cockpit to assist him in the takeoff procedures.
Back out in the space port, Revan sensed that the ship was ready to go and jumped up onto the open ramp, before he ran into the ship, he saw two of the Czerka bosses entering the spaceport. He gave them a solute before rushing into the ship, closing the ramp and shouting at Carth to get the ship out of there.
The pilot did so, and it did not take long before the group was on the road to Kashyyyk, two out of five star maps in hand. There was still much work to be done.
As the Ebon Hawk began to take off from Anchorhead, the Czerka leaders looked at the carnage left behind. The walls of the spaceport had holes through them. The paint was scorched and nothing was left standing.
"Imagine how much this is going to cost to fix" one of them mentioned with a glare.
"I'm going to call headquarters. We have that ship's serial number; when they land at a Czerka port, we will know" the other responded. The first man nodded, turning away.
The other man looked back at the Ebon Hawk and scowled as it escaped the spaceport. He saw a sticker on the hull.
Jedi on the streets; Sith in the sheets.
Author's Note: Well, now this is really a surprise chapter to all of us. It will be a very long time before another one comes; probably October if not even later. I only got this chapter out because I wrote about 3000 words tonight and did not edit it very well, so please forgive me for that. I just wanted to get one more chapter out before hiatus. School payments are due and I am way behind. It is very sad, but I am invoking an official hiatus on this story.
This story is not abandoned. I swear that to you. If there is any time that I have for writing that is not spent on my novel, I will be spending it on this story. I love this story, I love the plot, I love where I plan to go with it, and I hate that I can't put as much time into this story as I'd like. But, alas, sleep is necessary to survive. Sucks right?
Anyways, it really would mean the world to me if you would review, just to let me know that I am not alone on this planet, the planet of people who still want to read a Revan and Bastila story. That is really why I put that little moment in this chapter here. I will leave it up to your interpretation as to what you think about it. Personally, I am curious what you think about that and would like to hear it from you.
Even if you don't have a comment to that, just review anyways. I would love to talk with any of my readers who still are reading this story, as I can reply to private messages on my cell phone when on break at work. I can't write stories on my phone, so private messages will have to do.
A huge shout of thank you to anybody who is still reading this story and a bigger shout out is due for anybody who leaves me a review too, so I can thank you in person. This is not goodbye, by any stretch of the imagination. Instead I will leave you with a quote that I heard when I was young but for the life of me can't figure out where I heard it from.
"I'll see you soon, but if not, I'll see you later"