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Chapter 8: Spartan Intervention

Aven Sek'tai, former Jedi Knight and Republic Lieutenant, current Commander within the First Legion of the Sith Empire stared at her Lord with shock. Not since the days before the First Battle of Taris had she heard the sound, the exact sound coming from Darth Revan. Chancing a glance at the other Sith around her, Aven saw that they too looked bewildered and quite terrified that their Master had finally lost his mind. Finding the courage to approach Revan, Aven stayed a step behind and to the left of the Dark Lord, knowing that Malak's place would have been to the right of Revan and only Malak's.

"Lord Revan..."

Aven began, Revan continued laughing though there was no evil taint to it and the Dark Lord shook his head, waving away Aven's concern before regaining his composure.
"Very well then. Proceed to beg for your freedom, I'm rather-"

A chuckle, much more subdued escaped Revan.

"I'm rather interested in hearing what you have to say."

Bastila Shan glared at Revan as if he were the devil himself.

"I will not beg to you, Revan. I will not satisfy your perverse delusions of grandeur."

Revan chuckled again, shaking his head to try to get some sense back into him, it didn't work. The Padawan had not just challenged him had she?

"Are you bloody serious? Do you know, do you have any idea the sheer pain I could put you through?"

The doors to the cell block opened and a single Covenant Elite entered, pausing in shock at the sight before him. To Prove his point, and before the Elite could draw its weapon, Revan had raised his right hand towards it, closing his fingers into a fist and making a violent pulling gesture. The entrails of the Elite tore from its abdomen, spilling onto the floor and it dropped to the ground, shock coursing through its systems as it died a slow death. Watching the scene in mute shock, Bastila turned her wide, gray eyes to Revan, appalled.

"My delusions are a reality. Always remember that. It may spare you pain in the future."

Revan's voice could have frozen a star with how cold it was and Bastila merely nodded numbly, not wanting to see anymore displays of Revan's unnatural power. The rest of the humans, the UNSC crew there looked on in shock, though none in the room looked so disgusted by the scene as Bastila had. Disemboweled bodies were nothing new to them and when it was one of their enemies the empathy they felt for them was nearly zero. Watching the cremation of billions and watching certain Covenant feast on their fallen comrades was not a sight that left an endearing image of the Covenant in their minds. Revan's mind was in a similar state as those of the UNSC crewmen and the Dark Lord looked between the cells and then to Aven.

"Take this and release them."

Aven took a lightsaber from Revan, noting with a sneer that it was Commander Sefail's before she moved to a console and punched a glyph, releasing the fields trapping the UNSC crewmen as well as Bastila. Several Sith had helped themselves to the fallen Covenant's weapons and the UNSC crewmen and Marines moved from their cells warily as the Sith trained their weapons on them.

"Captain Keyes."

Revan began, startling most of the UNSC crewmen and Marines since the Captain had never given the Sith Lord his name. Captain Keyes calmly straightened his uniform and walked towards Revan, his spine straight and his features blank. Revan's masked features tilted slightly, considering.

"Keep her..."

Revan pointed to Bastila without looking at her, infuriating the Padawan.

"Under control and I will allow your people to escape. I do not play with the lives of my men and women and I will not let a single Jedi subvert my plans... once more."

Bastila wisely chose to remain silent, feeling Revan's cold glare on her.

"Those terms are acceptable."

Captain Keyes decided, holding out his hand for Revan to shake. Revan looked down at the hand in confusion, reaching forward and grasping Captain Keyes' forearm in a single warrior's handshake common amongst Mandalorians, or at least what was left of them. He didn't expect the humans of this galaxy to have such a gesture. Captain Keyes was merely staring at the Dark Lord's mask, curious about what exactly was under it. He assumed the man was human, seeing as most of the Sith were but then again there was that strange, red woman.

"Am I the only one sensing this?"

Bastila finally found her voice, her gray gaze locked on the door. It felt almost obscene working with Sith but she fought off the urge to spit on Revan. Her options were rather limited and Revan, if nothing else was good to hide behind. Tall and broad and-

Blinking, Bastila swallowed, turning away from where she had watched Revan raise his hand and poke his mask. That was by far the most bizarre thing she had ever seen and the Padawan almost, almost felt like laughing. Two gold eyes, mixed with flecks of brown were narrowed in annoyance as Revan checked his mask for damage from the plasma grenade.

"That blasted plasma fried the bio sensors. Stand ready."

Whatever was coming, Revan could barely sense and he was impressed that Bastila had even spotted it within the Force. Ignoring the faulty mask, Revan turned his attention to his soldiers and the UNSC crewmen. Most of the Sith no longer had their armor aside from their boots and their gauntlets and the various humans and aliens stood, waiting as only several of the Sith were actually armed with weapons. A clank sounded on the other side of the door and Revan readied himself, appreciative of Aven's presence as she kept her gaze between the door and the UNSC crewmen. Concentrating fully on the door and not a possible attack from behind, Revan raised his left hand, which had steadily been healing and held it in the face of the being that opened the door while his crimson saber remained at the ready, deactivated in his right hand.

John 117 heard Cortana's warning long before the door opened and he came to a stop inches from Darth Revan's extended hand. The Spartan's MA-5B, already at the ready prepared to fire when suddenly, his suit's G-Force sensors went off the chart and he could see nothing. Darkness swam on the edges of the Master Chief's vision as he began to blackout and the Spartan could hear Cortana's voice, steady and calm guiding him. The Spartan's finger closed on his trigger and four rounds were fired before he lost consciousness under the strain of whatever unfathomable force had struck him. The Spartan's last conscious thoughts were musing if a Covenant Hunter had spotted him without his knowledge and had used him as a baseball, its shield being the bat.

Watching the being encased in green armor slam against the adjacent wall, Revan felt a warning flare in the Force and instead of moving, stood his ground, waiting as the green-armored being's weapon spat out four distinct projectiles. One struck Revan's breastplate, the force of the strike moving the Dark Lord an inch back while another grazed Revan's shoulder before striking the wall behind and above him. The fourth of the shots had missed completely, nearly taking off Bastila Shan's head as the Padawan ducked out of the way but it was the third of the shots that had struck Revan, cleanly below his shoulder guards and his breastplate. The Force surged in Revan as he unleashed his rage, adrenaline coursing through his veins and blocking out the pain that seared through him. Stalking forward with blinding speed, Revan's lightsaber snapped to life, reflecting crimson against John 117's faceplate and the Darth Lord prepared to strike, only pausing when his feet seemed to stumble upon one another and his eyes rolled back into his head. All in all the encounter took no more than two seconds and the Sith watched in mute shock as their leader stumbled, falling flat on his face and not moving as he lay at the feet of the being that had entered the room.

"Lord Revan!"
Aven Sek'tai immediately rushed forward, kneeling beside Revan and turning him on his back. The third of the Spartan's shots had struck Revan beneath his left shoulder and from what Aven could tell was perilously close to his heart. Red burned in the Twi'lek's eyes as she unleashed a feral roar and turned to the Spartan's unmoving body.

"Wait! He's one of ours."

Aven's borrowed lightsaber was an inch from John 117's throat when a blue beam shot before her vision, blocking the strike. Bastila Shan had somehow managed to summon Revan's second saber to her own hand and had, with blinding speed to the normal human, blocked Aven's enraged strike. This, however did not spare the Padawan as Revan sat up, surprising both Jedi and Sith.

"That bloody hurts."

Revan's voice was nearly a growl as the Dark Lord bled freely on the floor. Revan's mask had somehow slipped away and the Dark Lord's eyes moved between his unconscious attacker, Bastila and Aven.

"Revan-"

The Dark Lord cut his Commander off with a simple look.

"Aven secure the hallway."

The Twi'lek nodded and the Dark Lord used his feet to push himself against the still opened doorway to the prison block. Taking in a deep breath, Revan merely sat there, panting as he stared at the unmoving form of John 117. A gently hand on Revan's shoulder nearly cost its owner her life as Bastila's concerned features focused on the Dark Lord's wound. Revan's eyes, dark brown in his weakened state were glazed and the Dark Lord was fighting to keep from going into shock as he moved his thumb from his lightsaber's switch. The Jedi respected all life, even that of monsters.
"That bloody hurt."

Revan repeated as if he could not believe it, blood slowly flowing from the edge of his mouth. The clicking of boots on metal echoed in Revan's mind before he looked up in a daze and saw Captain Keyes standing over him, looking down at the wounded Sith Lord with an unreadable expression.

Captain Jacob Keyes looked down on the face of the most feared man in the Jedi Order's galaxy and could scarcely believe his eyes. The Sith Lord's eyes were glazed and it looked like he was about to go into shock from blood loss but that was not what had caught the UNSC Captain's eyes. The beard hid it well but Keyes could tell the man was no older than twenty five and while it was normal for humans of any age to die, how in the twisted Hell had the kid he saw before him end up as an Emperor? As a Supreme Commander of a military from a war that to his knowledge of Bastila's galaxy had taken place half a decade before. This Revan couldn't have been more than twenty when the responsibilities of a Vice Admiral had been dumped on his shoulders and the UNSC Captain looked at the young Jedi that was carefully applying pressure to the wound as she tried to stop the bleeding. These were the strangest people he had ever met. If this Revan was so horrible, why was Bastila trying to save his life and why did her face look so concerned for the man who had brought war and terror upon her world. Just moments before the Sith Lord had disemboweled a Covenant in a silent threat to the young woman's life but there she knelt, pulling away his armor and binding her enemy's wound. Looking into the two's young features, Captain Keyes sighed, wondering if he had ever been that young before he turned his attention to Spartan 117.

"Cortana, Chief, can you hear me?"

Static crackled before Cortana's cheery voice answered.

"In a manner of speaking, Captain."

Shaking his head, Captain Keyes looked up at the dent John had put in the wall when his shields had flared and died under the violent force of his impact. Whatever powers these Jedi possessed were well beyond anything he had seen the Covenant do. Even the brutal strength of the Elites were nothing compared to the unseen power of this Force the Padawan had told him of.

Darth Malak's pacing of the bridge of the Interceptor halted abruptly as soon as the third round from John 117's MA-5B struck Revan. For a brief moment, Malak's expression grew troubled before steadily, Revan's presence calmed, the darkness enveloping it backing away and receding into the Sith Lord. Turning his eyes back to the distant forms of Threshold and Basis, Malak frowned deeply.

"How far away is that transport?"

Malak asked, his crew having been monitoring the transport Revan had taken from his base to investigate Sefail's disappearance since it had left Halo.

"Another ten minutes, Milord."

Malak said nothing, turning back to look at Threshold and Basis. Linda had been removed from the bridge under the pretense of a medical checkup but in reality, Malak did not want the distraction on his bridge. Linda was a warrior, that much was clear and if worse came to worse, Malak did not want to have to watch his back too closely.

Doctor Halfan calmly looked over the reports of her patient, her back arching slightly as she sensed her patient sitting up. Turning her yellow eyes to Linda, the Cathar tried to look as non-threatening as possible as she spoke, seeing the wariness in her patient.

"The ceramic injections into your body had to have been agonizing..."

The Cathar stated, drawing Linda's sharp gaze. The Spartan merely nodded, not bothering to summon the memory of the painful procedures that had cost half of the original seventy-five Spartans their lives.

"Its almost impossible to determine your age... how- how old are you?"

The Spartan stared at the Alien Doctor with no expression and the Cathar frowned, slowly moving her sore arm as a bone knitter attempted to repair the damage done by the Spartan's violent reaction to her resurrection.

"I was born in 2511 Ma'am. Its 2552... I suppose that would make me forty-one."

Doctor Halfan examined the human's hardened features, noting with some unease that she didn't look more than twenty-five.

"When were these procedures administered?"

The Cathar asked, curious to if all humans in this galaxy had such agonizing operations done to them. They would certainly be stronger and faster but the genetic mutation rate of such a procedure would be horrendous in comparison to its success rate.
"I'm not at liberty to say, Ma'am."

That answered the Cathar's question and the Doctor nodded, not pressing the issue as she turned her attention back to the datapad in her hands.

"Well you are in superb shape for a woman of your age... I'd almost think you were a Jedi if I didn't know better."

Raising a brow at being compared to one of the Sith's enemies in their own galaxy, Linda tensed slightly, though she felt no threat from the alien doctor.

"How is that?"

The Spartan ventured, having nothing else to do and deciding silence would not fit. The Cathar's eyes narrowed the slightest of fractions before she weighed her words and spoke.

"Jedi train from a very young age. Over the course of their lives they grow into the peak of physical perfection but the damage done to their bodies at such a young age, mainly in the Guardian class remains in their bone structure. You share a lot of those same markers in your structure..."

That was way too close to the mark and Linda said nothing, merely staring at the Doctor in silence. For some odd reason the alien reminded Linda of Doctor Halsey, the creator of the Spartan II program and in many ways the Spartan's surrogate mother. The Cathar had overcome her anger at her injury and in her current state, Linda could draw a great many deals of comparisons between her calm and collected creator and the alien before her. With her thoughts falling to Reach and the Doctor's likely demise on the world, Linda's expression grew blank as she mused quietly to herself of the fate of her people and what these Sith would bring to the table in regards.

"Oh for the love of-"
Revan was leaning against a wall, breathing heavily as he tried, very hard to remain calm. Blooding to death internally was not doing his patience any good and Revan was already in a foul mood. Closing his eyes, Revan kept his breathing calm, trying not to overtax himself. The Spartan as they called him, the Chief was speaking with the Captain and occasionally glancing at Aven and himself. Revan understood enough of the conversation to know that his assumptions of Halo had been correct. If the Covenant thought that whoever controlled the fate of Halo would control the fate of the universe, he'd just have to start controlling it them. The long walk to the bridge had been agonizingly slow and Revan had to stop several times to keep from falling flat on his fact. Each time the Jedi, Bastila had asked him if he needed help and each time, Revan had said nothing, forcing himself to move. Move or die became a mantra within his own mind and the bridge of the Covenant cruiser was a welcome sight.

"Aw man! We're trapped in here! We're screwed! We're screwed, man!"

Revan had no idea what the UNSC Marine was whining about. They were on the bridge of the Covenant ship, the heart of it and they could easily gain total control. Revan said nothing, smirking when Captain Keyes reprimanded the soldier.

"Stow the bellyaching, soldier. Remember you're a leatherneck. Cortana, if you and the Chief can get us to one of those Covenant Dropships, I can fly us out of here."
The plan was quickly formed and carried out, though two stealthed Elites nearly brought an end to their merry incursion into the Covenant ship. Revan at some point had blacked out and awoke within a Covenant dropship en route to the UNSC Alpha base on Halo.

"You're bleeding internally..."

Bastila stated, her features set in a tiny frown as she knelt beside Revan. Revan nodded, smirking. Catching the smirk, Bastila's frown grew.

"Is dying here something you find amusing?"

The Padawan asked, blanching as she saw the burned wound in Revan's chest was bleeding externally as well. Revan chuckled, shaking his head.

"No I just think the blood loss is going to my head. you're very lovely when you're flustered."

Revan's eyes were unfocused as he felt shock wearing on his system. He honestly had no idea what he was saying as he slipped calmly into unconsciousness, the Jedi Padawan's wide gray eyes regarding him with shock while a faint flush fell on her normally pale cheeks. Bastila regarded the man with a sense of detachment, wondering what exactly that had meant and not having much experience in that area of study if it could be called a study. Shivering slightly, Bastila removed the bandage she had placed on Revan's wound and frowned.

"I hope you have a medical facility at your base."
Bastila said aloud to Captain Keyes. The Captain did not turn from his uncomfortable seat as he piloted the Covenant dropship, only nodding grimly as he worked the unfamiliar alien controls. John 117 was standing calmly to the side, having a private conversation with Cortana over the recent turn of events. Whoever the wounded man was he was a threat and while the Captain had seemed to strike up an alliance with the Sith, John and Cortana shared the belief that such an alliance was out of necessity and only temporary.

"Jedi you'd better do something fast."

Aven spat, glaring at the Jedi and then returning her glare to the green armored being that had wounded Revan. The Padawan scowled at Aven, about to suggest she do something when she felt a massive disturbance within the Force and her gray eyes turned back to Revan, her brow furrowing slightly with worry.

"If he dies, Malak will kill everyone and everything on this ringworld."
Aven warned, knowing it to be the truth. Malak would not take Revan's death well and she herself was almost powerless to do anything. So immersed in the Darkside, Aven could scarcely summon enough lightside energy to heal her own wounds let alone Revan's and with a scowl, the Twi'lek turned her sharp obsidian gaze back to the Jedi. If Revan survived he would awaken to the knowledge that a Jedi he had been threatening with torture and death moments before had saved his life. It would be a significant blow to the Dark Lord's pride and likely a blow to what little morale the stranded Sith had. They were dependant on their enemies for help and at that thought, Aven turned her gaze back to John 117, her cold eyes never leaving the Spartan as the Jedi behind her summoned the Force around her, trying desperately to save her enemy's life. Aven knew Revan had enough honor to let the Jedi live, he'd likely even refrain from torturing the silly girl and the Sith Commander scowled. At this rate she'd never be Revan's or Malak's apprentice.

Watching the Jedi as she had been identified by Captain Keyes trying to save the Sith Lord's life, John furrowed his brow in confusion. The lines between friend and enemy were blurring and that was simply something that the Spartans were not familiar with. When something was unfamiliar it was a threat and the Spartan kept his gaze locked with Aven, noting the similarities between the Sith he had killed and the one glaring openly at him.

"You'd almost think she knew."

Cortana muttered out of the blue as if reading John's thoughts. The Spartan blinked, wanting to frown but keeping his face expressionless as he silently agreed with Cortana. What a mess this had turned out to be.