Chapter 6

"I knew you'd come for me Revan…" Bastila said, her beautiful face marred with an evil smirk as she gazed at Revan, her double bladed saber held out perfectly in front of her.

"I won't give up on you Bas…" Revan answered, keeping his cyan saber by his side as he locked her eyes with his "I can still save you…"

Bastila laughed slightly shaking her head "You are wasting your time. I have seen the Jedi for what they are: weak and afraid. The Sith are the true masters of the Force. You have forgotten that lesson Revan. And now you must pay the price"

Her right hand rose and made a grand sweep of the command center "here on the Star Forge, the Dark side is at its strongest. This time you will not defeat me!"

Bastila spun her saber in her hands and charged towards him. Revan's eyes narrowed slightly as he judged her form, her movements and used the way she moved her arms and legs to judge where her attack would be aimed.

Revan leant back to avoid a sweep at his head. As Bastila spun round, he brought his saber up, angling the blade down and to his left to catch her blade before it sunk into his shoulder.

Backing off slightly, Bastila brought her blades down then up and then down again, each time Revan's shining blade deflected the blow with ease. Revan spun his saber back up to his side and then brought his blade across his body to block her blow before sliding it down to block her second.

Bastila used her momentum to spin round using both her blades in a vicious swipe at his head. Revan ducked underneath and then cleaved his blade up towards her. She jumped back slightly in order to avoid and once again swung for his side. Revan caught her blow with his saber and shoved her blade down. In an unexpected move, he backhanded her across the face. Stunned Bastila staggered back and then back flipped away increasing her distance with force so she landed in the hologram.

The fact he had actually struck her surprised the young Sith. She allowed her hand to travel to the spot he'd hit her. She looked at him through the hologram and saw the pain in his face, at having to hurt her. Her heart seemed to leap slightly with joy to see he still cared but she forced it down.

"I see now why Malak followed you" she stated "even though you are but a shell of your former self, you are still a formidable opponent" she allowed herself to shiver slightly as she felt his incredible power call to her through the force. "I can't even imagine the amount of power you wielded as the dark lord. But you were a fool to give it up and follow the light". To her bewilderment, she heard Revan begin to laugh at her words and she looked at him, baffled.

"Do you honestly think I truly follow the light?" Revan replied. "My emotions are too much a part of me to allow me to truly give myself to the Jedi and their code, and these robes…" he indicated to the robes he had donned as the infamous Sith he had once been "Signify that the dark is as much a part of me as the light" he looked back up at Bastila. "That's my strength: balance" Bastila scoffed at his limited theory.

"Whether or not those words are true…you must realise…" Bastila's eyes turned from their blue-grey colour to the golden yellow of the Sith as her emotions began to fuel her new dark strength.

"The dark side has made me far stronger than I have ever been. I have a greater command of the force than all but the most powerful Jedi Masters. As Malak teaches me the greatest secrets of the Sith, I will unlock more of my potential. Soon there will be no limits to what I can accomplish with force".

Bastila leapt from her position towards Revan, hoping to catch him with a surprise blow. But Revan had sensed her intentions and had already made his move. Altering his grip on his saber, and cut viciously through the air. Had she not suddenly pushed herself to her left with the force, she would have been skewered by the Mantle of the Force.

Revan was advancing by the time she landed. Bringing her saberstaff up into a guard holding her right blade near her shoulder and her left lower to the ground, she intercepted a blow from Revan. Revan knocked her left blade to one side, and aimed a blow at her unguarded right side, however her left blade came down to intercept it.

Allowing the dark side to fuel her strength, Bastila powered his blade around and over his head, allowing to her renew her assault. She spun round aiming her right blade for his back. His blue blade came vertically down to deflect her blow, before coming down in front of his chest to parry her follow up strike.

Revan then leapt over an attempt to cut out his legs and brought his saber down to lock with hers. The blade's sparkled and spat as they grinded against each other, Revan holding her blade there by force. "You will only accomplish death and destruction," he told her, keeping the blade's locked together.

"Jedi lies!" she spat as she struggled vainly to push him back. For all the good it did, she might as well have been trying to push down a durasteel wall with her little finger. "The dark side is a tool and Malak will instruct me in its use. Eventually I will surpass my master and challenge him. If I am worthy he will fall by my hand. I will then take my own apprentice and the cycle will begin anew"

Revan finally grew tired of the pointless lock. Despite whatever power the darkside gave her, he was still much stronger than her physically. He threw her backwards with a powerful shove and Bastila rolled backwards into a crouch. Her breathing was slightly more ragged than his but she hid her diminishing power well.

"So you doom yourself to an endless cycle of betrayal and death" he muttered as she leapt at him again. He rolled under her blow and raised his saber to his chest to intercept her spinning blow, their faces mere inches apart.

"No, Revan. It is you who is doomed!" she spat.

She broke their sabers contact and her blades became a hurricane of lightning and thunder. She struck at him, from left to right, bottom right to high left, from high left to bottom right and then center. But no matter how she angled her blades or tried to change her barrage of blows, he was there, keeping her blades at bay and intercepting them with his own.

She swung low at his legs. He jumped over it.

She aimed a stab at his chest. He batted it away.

Turning movement into kinetic force, she spun hoping to carve open his solar plexus with her blade, only to have the blade battered away again.

She aimed at his head, but his cyan blade denied her once more. Before she could counter this, he smacked the blade away and knocking her off balance.

She spun around regaining her balance. A frustrated and animalistic growl emitted from her throat. To her complete and utter fury, he took a neutral stance, held out his left hand and gestured for her to attack again. She did so with more tact than the last time, keeping herself on the attack. But the ease of which he deflected her blows only began to amplify her frustration.

High, left, right center. Duck, block, block parry. Low, right. Jump, block.

Bastila roared in rage, stepping back to begin her assault once again.

Revan now took the offensive, striking towards her head. Bastila intercepted the blow, and whirled her dual-blades in a cyclone trying to ward off his powerful, punishing and lightning fast blows.

She was able to counter, aiming her left blade at his kidney's but as before his blade got in the way, before he shoved her off and quickly drifted to the right to catch her follow-up blow. It was like he could foresee her every move.

Then Bastila realised that not only could he but he was. And at the same time his level of speed was faster then her own. A flash of cyan light from her hilt caused her shut her eyes. Revan used a force-empowered spin kick to send her sailing back into the control panel with a shriek. She collided with the panel before sliding off it. The parts sparked as the hologram flickered and then died.

Bastila rolled onto her back and kipped up onto her feet, brandishing her saber staff before her. She blinked, as something felt odd about it. Looking at it, she saw he'd completely split the blade in two. However both blades were still active and she snarled slightly, spinning both blades in her hands, switching to a Jar'kai variant of the Juyo form Malak had taught her. She stood keeping her blades posed in a stance hold one blade in front of her and then other held behind her back.

"You grow weary I can sense it" she hissed. "Your strength falters. The light side is failing you, soon this will all be over". Revan caught his breath as she spoke.

"I don't falter Bas…" he replied. He paced sensing her desperation, despite the confident face she put on. "And like I said I draw my power from both sides of the force…" he decided to test her resolve in the darkness that had supposedly empowered her and deactivated his saber.

"If you truly believe I am weakening than strike me down…" he said calmly "I won't defend myself…" she blinked slightly and her golden eyes faltered slightly.

"What kind of trick is this?!" she demanded, hesitant to attack and cleanly kill him, though she could not explain why.

"You see?" he stated, "there is still a small sample of light left within you," she snarled once again.

"The dark-side will always triumph over the light! Malak has assured me victory! You can't defeat on the Star Forge! YOU CAN'T!!!!!" with that Bastila leapt forward and slashed her blades in a desperate attempt to cleave him in two. However her blades cut nothing but air. She looked up in terrified bewilderment as he had vanished from her view.

"I see now words won't be enough to convince you…" she turned to Revan standing where she had been only a few seconds ago, a pained look on his face though it was hidden by his hood. "If I have to use force in order to save you then so be it…" he held out his left hand and his second lightsaber flew into his grasp in an unorthodox reverse grip.

With a dual snap-hiss the cyan and bronze blades slid from their respective hilts, the bronze blade angles horizontally behind his back, the cyan held vertically in front of him. Bastila backed up slightly feeling a bead of sweat run down her face.

Jar'kai was a form very few Jedi or Sith had ever mastered. Revan had not only mastered it, he defined what Jar'kai was. A perfect equal balance of offensive and defensive. While Revan's prowess with a single blade was unmatched today, his skill with the dual blades was undisputed within the recent millennia's.

Bastila pushed her fear aside, suddenly unleashing a desperate howl and charged Revan a final time. Revan closed his eyes for a brief moment. This was it; this was their final clash.

And then Bastila was on him. Both their dual blades were singing through the air as Bastila attacked desperately hoping she would create an opening, but one never surfaced. Revan calmly deflected her blows as he back peddled away from the panel. As he was backed into a corner, he was able to take away one of her blades, by severing the top part of the cylinder. He kicked her back, and deactivated the heart of the Guardian once again, now relying on his single blade mastery of Djem so, a form he preferred.

He rushed forwards swinging his blade down in a one-handed strike. Bastila neatly deflected the blow, but Revan spun his blade around his hand three times, forcing her to deflect the blows while he turned round.

Bringing his blade round, Revan struck at her side, and then round again as she deflect both that and his follow up strike.

Bastila attempted a stab but Revan swung his blade in an arc to knock her blade aside. She caught his arm and spun him round, and then leaning him over backwards brought her blade down towards his chest. Revan's blade, through the tangle of their arms, was somehow able to block the blow. Bastila hopped back as he straightened up.

Soon the air became ripe with clashing blades as they barraged each other with blows. But Bastila gradually began to tire, as her desperation finally giving way to fatigue. Both began spinning their blade's around the bodies and then red met silvery-blue in mid-air, Revan's blade held in one hand and angled down, Bastila holding hers in both hands aimed at his side.

Both tensed and shot out one hand each attempting to force push the other away. Bastila groaned slightly as she strained due to the effort of trying to push him back. But Revan's superior strength finally overpowered her. Bastila felt herself soaring backwards for a second time and crashed to the floor her lightsaber clattering away into the abyss beneath them. She staggered to her feet but soon fell to her knees her chest heaving. Revan slowly approached her keeping his blade trained on her. But unfortunately Bastila tried one more time to kill him.

She screamed and literally leapt at him through the air. Revan's reaction was immediate but not lethal. Using years of training and experience, Revan's cyan blade flew past her right side. Her sudden gasp of pain told him he had not missed her. In the same motion, he dropped his saber allowing it to retreat back into its hilt, and turning, caught her before she landed on the unforgiving metal floor.

Revan carefully turned her over onto her back as he lowered her to the ground as she whimpered in pain. Bastila groaned as the fierce burning of the wound engulfed her nerves and Revan propped her head on his knee. She looked up at him in pained shock as he covered the wound with his hand.

"No this is not possible" she whispered and she coughed weakly "You have rejected the dark-side. You are a weak and pathetic servant of the light. How can you still stand against me? Why can't I defeat you?" Revan chuckled dryly as she still hadn't accepted what he said.

"The dark is not stronger than the light Bas…" he replied as his hand began to glow blue on her lightsaber wound.

Bastila coughed again and swallowed painfully "Yes I see now you speak the truth" she muttered, "I am no match for you…" Revan felt his mouth open slightly as tears began falling from her yellow eyes. "Please for the sake of what we once shared. Do not make me suffer. End my life quickly. There is no other way."

"No…" Revan hissed still trying to heal her wound "I could never kill you Bas…" she looked at him tearfully.

"What other choice do you have? I have fallen to the dark side; I am…" she gasped painfully "an apprentice to the dark lord himself. You cannot let me live"

"I was redeemed Bastila…so can you"

"You were a special case…you"

"Shhh" he placed his right index finger to her lips, "save your energy"

Bastila closed her golden yellow eyes, gulping painfully and took a deep breath, allowing the hate and anger to ebb away. When she reopened her eyes, they were shining a light grey blue as they had whenever she looked upon Revan.

"I was supposed to guide you away from the darkness" she whispered hauntingly.

"You did…" he replied.

"Did I? I'm not sure I did. I watched you walk the path of light with so much ease…and I could only walk behind as you did so…" her tears began to fall again as she felt the burning pain be replaced by a dull throbbing indicating he'd healed her. "Seeing you do so…I doubted myself and look where that led me" she closed her eyes.

"Bastila…" she looked at him again. "I need to defeat Malak…but I need your help to do it"

"How do you know you could trust me?" she replied, brushing her hand down his cheek "How do you know I won't betray you when you turn you back?" he smiled and unclipped his second saber and pressed into her hand and then guided it to his heart.

"You won't Bas…" he answered with conviction.

" You play a dangerous game" she asked in return "I could end you life and gain Malak's favour just by pressing the ignition to this lightsaber" Revan lowered his hand, though she continued to press the hilt to his chest.

"You won't Bas…because I believe in you…" she closed her eyes sadly and for a second he thought he was wrong.

"You are brave, and some would say foolish…" she breathed out sigh and dropped the lightsaber "but you are also right the dark side has lost its grip on me…I cannot raise my blade against you…" Revan smiled and helped her to her feet.

"You will go on to defeat Malak, of this I have no doubt. You will have gone from being the Sith Lord himself, to the saviour of the galaxy" Revan began to call his lightsabers to him but she caught his hand and turned him to look at her. "But before you go…I need to know something first…" he looked at her softly asking her to continue with his beautiful eyes.

She took a deep breath" After everything that has happened…is there…is there still a place for me in your future?" she paused for a second "do you still love me?" Revan gazed at her for a few moments and then he smiled.

"I do still love you Bas…" he whispered approaching her gently.

"I love you too…" she replied with the utmost conviction. "With all of my heart…and after this…nothing could make me feel safer then to be loved by you" Revan felt his heart jump a couple of beats. He slowly leaned down, and Bastila tilted her head slightly to allow him to kiss her closing her eyes slowly.

Their lips met in a soft chaste kiss. Bastila lifted her hands up to pull down his hood so she could run her fingers through his jet-black hair. Revan brought one hand up to cup her cheek. Bastila deepened the kiss a little more as the kiss became slightly more passionate and she gave a quiet moan at the sweet attacks his lips made on hers.

They broke apart, both breathing heavily. Bastila pulled him down for an embrace, which he readily returned. She sniffed determined not to breakdown again. Reluctantly after a few perfect moments she pulled away and cupped his face with one hand.

"You should go…Malak awaits and this is far from over for any of us…I'll stay here and use my battle meditation to aid the republic" Revan nodded.

"If that's what you want…" he whispered.

"I'm not sure I could resist the temptation with Malak so close…" she whispered. He nodded again. "You will go on to defeat Malak but you must hurry, once the Republic break through we will only have a short amount of time to escape" Unable to help herself, she pulled him down for another passionate kiss, fuelled by the week she spent without him. She pulled away after a moment pecking his lips a final time.

"Good luck my love…" she whispered. "May the Force be with you…" Revan smiled.

"I don't need the force…" he replied. "Because I have you…" she smiled and kissed his cheek before kneeling back in a mediation position as he recalled his lightsabers to him.

Revan looked at her for a few seconds before moving towards the door on his far right.

Time to end this…he thought pulling his hood back up.

Add there we go...What do you think guys???