CHAPTER 11

Plans

"Bastila!" Carth scrambled over the rubble, the city behind him quickly crumbling beneath the rain of neon red. The hallway was open now, a huge hole torn through the side of the apartment building they'd been squatting in. The savior of the Republic lay face down, most of her robes now a dark crimson. The steel rod she had been impaled upon still stuck outwards from the wall, smeared with red, though the constant rumbling of a building collapsing section by section had shaken her loose. She was not moving.

Mission slid another centimeter, her hands gripping the ledge of crumbling floor, feet dangling in open air.

"Uh... uh, guys?" A chunk of rubble fell past her, bouncing off an extended bit of floor a few stories down and tumbling down into the rising black smoke. The building shook again, one of her hands slipping off the floor and the other rapidly losing its weakened grip. "AHHH! GUYS!" It was somewhere between a scream and a cry. Another laser hit the base of the structure, the impact easily throwing Mission's failing grip free of the ledge.

"Hang on, kid!"

A large hand grabbed her slender wrist, Trask Ulgo grunting as he tried to stop the Twi'lek from disappearing into the Undercity, and to keep from joining her. Mission's free hand grabbed desperately at his arm as he, too, began to slide over the edge. Their eyes locked, and in that moment of mutual terror, they became closer than many would have in a lifetime. Trask was suddenly, almost violently jerked into the air, a great, furry arm emerging from behind him and grabbing Mission by the shoulder. It swung her away from the building's ledge and planted her safely, if somewhat roughly, against the far wall. Trask was deposited next to her immediately after, and certainly no softer.

"...thanks..." He managed. The wookie howled something he couldn't understand in reply. It certainly didn't sound pleased about the whole situation, though, he could make out that much.

"HOLY SHIT!" Mission's eyes were frozen open, the city around her coming apart at the seams and disappearing into an ocean of rising smoke and fire. There was a glint of something in the distance, hardly noticeable between the laser storm and the crumbling world. Trask, however, had seen that glint many times before. A ship was coming directly towards them, and the afterburners were roaring.

---

The Ebon Hawk was shaking apart at the welds, hurled through a hurricane of fire and destruction by engines many times too large for its size. The pilot was not speaking, though a whisper-quiet scream of rage was escaping through his clenched teeth, inaudible against the roar of the ship and the Sith bombardment. White knuckles held the throttle in a death grip, the device almost snapping under the strain. He could feel her through the force, like a lighthouse shining through a tempest.

"CANDEROUS."

The Mandalorian in the navigator's seat eyed him cautiously. He had come to respect Jedi, however grudgingly, during the war. This Jedi in particular had earned a great deal of respect, if for no other reason than he single handedly destroyed a Sith military base and killed Davik Kang, Calo Nord, and all their guards in less than ten seconds. He was also very angry, and an angry Jedi was a rare and terrible thing.

"Yeah?"

The Stranger took a breath to calm himself. Then two. Then three.

"There's a woman inside that building." He glanced at one of the taller structures in the quickly disappearing Taris skyline. "When I stop, get her on this ship. Get her to the medbay."

"Alright, I'm on it." He began to stand, looking at the large hole in the rapidly approaching building, and the large collection of silhouettes on almost every floor. "What about anyone else with her?"

"I DON"T CARE! JUST GET HER ON THIS DAMN SHIP!"

---

Carth injected another medpack uselessly into Bastila's side. There was no point, even if they weren't all about to die, they'd never be able to repair this kind of damage. Saul had done it. He'd finally won. Without Bastila the scattered victories would cease, and there would be nothing to stop the Sith from surging into the core systems, maybe even into Coruscant. If there was just some way to-

"Carth, we've got company!"

Carth looked up, away from the fallen jedi as a small cargo freighter fired its reverse thrusters, roaring to a stop directly in front of them. It hovered impatiently, hail of orbital lasers passing behind it. The loading ramp began to extend, revealing a large Mandalorian holding an almost larger gun and hanging onto the supports.

"Hurry up! Get her onboard!"

He was shouting at Carth. Zaalbar was already tossing Mission across the tiny gap and onto the safety of the ramp. She scrambled up it as Trask lept onto the shaking platform himself, the wookie waiting at the ledge for the last two members of the group.

"I'll take her, get going!" Carth moved as steadily and quickly as he could, Bastila held in his arms, trying not to injure the jedi any further. He'd never move her in the first place if there was any choice at all. Zaalbar howled, pushing him onto the ramp and climbing up after him. The Ebon Hawk reared backwards, a laser blast striking the building just above them. As rubble crashed onto the ship, the Ebon Hawk spun around and up, after burners igniting as it charged through the orbital bombardment and towards the Sith blockade.

"They're onboard." Canderous said, sitting down in the navigator's seat once more.

"They're?" The Stranger glanced at Canderous.

"You said you didn't care what I did with her friends."

"That means leave them! That doesn't mean-" A laser beam glanced off the top rear of the ship, sending it spinning. The shield indicators were flashing red, now, their defenses vaporized by a chance blow from a Sith capital ship.

"Damn it!" The Stranger jerked the ship sideways, correcting course and concentrating on the immediate danger.

"Are we still stopping on the Leviathan?"

"No, we're not stopping. I need to fall back, I need to make a plan. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

The ship rolled out of the atmosphere, blasting past the orbiting fleet. The point defense systems of the Sith warships began to open up, a mass of fire converging on a single, tiny freighter trying desperately to break free. Sith fighters began to slide out of their hanger bays, slipping into space and unfolding their wings. The Ebon Hawk darted through the wave of fire, as if it knew exactly where and when a path would open. As the fighters began to close the distance, the freighter escaped the planet's gravity well and disappeared into hyperspace.

--

"Okay, well, this certainly went tits up, didn't it?" The Stranger said to Canderous, resting an elbow on the control panel and his chin in his hand as he pretended to read the sensor data.

"I don't know, you never told me why we needed to save them in the first place. Or why it means we can't do whatever fool thing you were planning on doing on the Leviathan."

"Actually, I don't believe I said anything about saving them." The Stranger glanced at his navigator. "I believe I said 'Save her' without saying anything about saving half the crew of the Endar Spire." He turned, watching Carth and the others entering the cockpit from the main hold. The Stranger's chin never left his hand, and his eyes never went wider than half open.
"And yet here everyone is. It's like Lifeday."

"Bastila's in the medical bay, she's stable but we don't have the equipment to deal with a wound like that, we'll have to get her some treatment planetside wherever we decide to go. We're lucky you showed up when you did, don't know how much longer she would have made it. That was a pretty daring rescue, by the way."

"Harrowing, I'm sure. You are Carth Onassi, correct?"

"...Yes, that would be me. We met once on the-"

"On the Endar Spire, yes, I remember you. If you're half as good as the rumors, I think you should be the one to fly the ship." The Stranger said, standing and stepping aside, gesturing to the empty seat.

"I... don't know that that's necessary. You did a really good job getting us out of Taris."

"Yes, but now I need to attend to my apprentice and I have a feeling that wherever we end up going we're going to need more than 'really good', and you're the best. So hop to it."

Carth glanced at the Stranger as he slipped into the pilot's seat, the Jedi... at least, Carth had assumed he was a Jedi, brushed past the rest of the disoriented crew towards the medical bay.

"Where should I go?" He shouted over them.

"I don't care. Somewhere populated." The Stranger dismissed the question with a wave.

The Ebon Hawk's medical bay was small, most of it currently occupied by Bastila's unconscious body. Revan sealed the door behind him, leaning against the recovery bed and examining the life support readouts. He spoke as he read them, half to Bastila and half to himself.

"Wonderful. You did this on purpose, I'm sure." He glanced at the jedi, now in her under garments and crudely bandaged on the table. "You're quite dedicated to ruining me, though, I'll give you that. I certainly wouldn't take a steel beam to the spine in order to upset your ingenious if delicate plan." He pulled a datapad from the foot of the bed, scrolling down the information. "Oh good, you're going to live. I suppose I could keep you comatose in a kolto tank deep within the bowels of the Leviathan under constant, heavy guard, but that might be more trouble than its worth. And you'd be quite the liability in the meantime. Hmm." He scrolled idly through the pad some more, re-reading old data while he thought.

"It seems like there's more to this, like you're meant for something greater..."

"Is that... why you came back?"

The voice was weak, and Revan was caught off guard. He turned to Bastila, lowering the datapad. Her eyes were half closed, her vision and mind clouded by the gallons of kolto and painkillers, though both side effects were doubtless much less than an ordinary person in a similar situation. Much less. Even Bastila would have died from that injury had Revan not strengthened her through the bond they now shared, willed her from the jaws of death.

"Oh, you've started eavesdropping without letting anyone know you're there. You are no longer my padawan, you are now a Jedi Master." Revan moved his hand, giving her a Mandalorian blessing. "The Council has nothing more to teach you."

"How can you not... take this seriously? An entire world..."

"Was destroyed by Malak, yes. It was not the first and it will not be the last. He has committed many such failings."

Bastila blinked, drifting quickly out of consciousness once more. Revan reached into his pocket, speaking to her quickly before she faded away again.

"I don't know why this has happened the way it has or what the force intends for us, but I know that whatever it is, there will be suffering and there will be death." He pulled the lighsaber hilt from his jacket, the double-edge silver shining in the artificial light. He placed it in her hand, letting go only as her fingers weakly curled around it. "And I know you will die if you do not have this."

"Thank you..." She whispered before she slipped away, life support pinging steadily, her condition critical, but stable for the time being. Revan stood, watching her for a moment before sighing and opening the door of the medbay. The republic soldier was waiting for him, blaster rifle in his hands.

"Carth's set course for Dantooine. We should be there in a few hours."

"Dantooine." The Stranger replied.

"Yes, ah... yes, sir."

There was a long, pained sigh as Carth looked behind him to see the Stranger coming up from the main hold, speaking to him, apparently.

"You know what? From now on, I care about everything. I care about every little thing and it will be done exactly how I say because if I don't, we get shit like this. Hello, Carth. Going to Dantooine are we?"

"Is that problem? It's the nearest planet with decent medical facilities that isn't part of the Sith Empire."

"It's also the nearest planet that we're not going to. Find another one."

"Another one?" Carth turned around, confused. "What's wrong with Dantooine?"

"Everything. Everything is wrong with Dantooine."

"We're already in the hyperspace lane, there's not much I can do."

The Stranger sighed again, turning around and leaving for the ship's dormitories.

"Fine, maintain course and put us down on the planet. There's a Jedi Academy you should land at, it will make everything go quite a bit quicker for me."

"Ah... alright, sir. Where are you going?"

"To make a plan." The Stranger said, disappearing past the main hold.