Father & Son
Chapter II
Revan Shan and Arra Knatea sat together at the holotable of their ship, The Rebel. Revan was busy putting the shell of his lightsaber back together, while Arra was trying to figure out the flaws in her own. Revan closed the crystal compartment and sealed it. He clamped it back down to the table beside his slightly shorter one.
"I can't figure it out," Arra complained as she looked at hers. "You said it yourself. The shell looks good."
"Which means either you have a faulty part or you've set the crystal badly," Revan replied calmly.
"But I've checked all that! It should work!"
"Have swapped out all the parts?" He asked.
"Yes! I've changed the emitter, the lens, the crystal, even the shell casing!" She snapped.
Revan took the faulty lightsaber from her and touched the button. Indeed, there was no reaction. "Then maybe there's a reason this lightsaber won't activate," he suggested.
"Like what?" She demanded.
He shrugged in response. "That is for you to figure out," he replied.
"How am I supposed to start saber training if I can't even use a lightsaber?" She muttered.
"You've done well with vibroblades," he pointed out. "Your Shi-Cho form looks pretty good."
"It's a worthless form," she muttered.
"You'd be surprised how well it works," he rebuked her.
"But you don't use it!" She pointed out.
"Arra, I know all seven forms and I know when to use each one. You will be the same way at some point, I promise." She grumbled as she took back the non-functioning lightsaber from him. "But I agree. This saber should work. Since it's not, I'm assuming that the Force is testing you." He said this calmly, as if he already knew exactly what she was supposed to do, as if he had known her weapon wouldn't work from the beginning.
"How?" She asked suspiciously. He reached into his robes and drew out another lightsaber, one she had looked upon with envy only the day before. The black shell with ancient Sith ruins called to her. "Revan, no!" She gasped as she backed away from him. It was Freedon Nadd's!
"Arra, you've faced the dark side before! You can handle this! I am here with you." He assured her.
"Revan, what if-,"
"There are no ifs!" He thundered over her as he held the weapon out to her. "You cannot hope to help me defeat the Sith if you cannot be one of my Jedi!" He looked her right in the eyes. There was reassurance and resolve in his eyes, while only fear with a touch of hope was in hers.
She reached out to him and touched the weapon with her fingers. She gulped as she instantly felt the dark side energy infused within the crystal within. With resolve, her fingers snaked around the saber and took it from him. The darkness of the Force closed in around her as she held it. She could feel a cloud of fear cover her. The young woman felt as though she would suffocate as it pressed in on her. Her left hand clasped her breast, but the other refused to relinquish hold of the ancient weapon. She was vaguely aware that her knees had hit the ground. Revan's voice was calling to her, but it was distant and the words seemed to blur in her ears.
Every muscle in her body tensed as the dark side began to wash over her. Its appealing side was beginning to appear to her. The intense euphoria it brought came over her like a tidal wave. Her body quivered in a fearful pleasure. A part of her basked in the dark energy that flowed through her, while another part of her mind knew that this was wrong. That small section of her began to search her mind for any trace of the light she could find. It didn't seem to exist. This darkness seemed unending and impenetrable.
Arra tried to scream, but she couldn't hear herself. The panic stricken woman called for her friend, but his voice seemed to have disappeared. She was blind to all but the darkness and the power she felt.
The power?
That's what this was! She smiled. That small resilient part of her let go. Power! That's what this was about. Revan only gave her the lightsaber so she would have the power to serve him! Well that was too damn bad. "I serve no one!" She sneered, finally able to hear using her own ears. The darkness cleared from her vision, but it still coursed through her, sending unending waves of ecstasy through her. Anger and hate filled her eyes as she looked up at Revan. With one hand she smacked his hand away.
The young woman was on her feet in an instant and stared down her old friend and "master."
"You shouldn't have given me this," she said as she held up the lightsaber.
Slay him!
She did not know who the voice that was commanding her was, but she was forced to agree. Revan had lived out his usefulness. She would slay him, here and now. Then she could take control of all the dark side artifacts in his possession and become truly unstoppable. She would finally take her fight to Darth Revan and dispose of him. The galaxy would be hers! She closed her eyes and smiled.
The hissing sound of her new lightsaber igniting filled her ears. She raised it in what she had studied to be the Ataru form of combat. The orange blade shimmered in front of her eyes – her acid yellow eyes.
Revan looked at her, his face impassive and his hands empty. She may not have been aware of much during her transformation, but she knew that he had been panicked. This cool composer was a façade he had thrown on at the last minute. He was fearful of her and all the power she commanded.
"Arra, fight it," he said calmly.
"Silence!" She snapped as she pointed the lightsaber of Freedon Nadd at him. "My control of the-,"
Her sentence was cut off as he threw her to the wall using a Force wave. He quickly pinned her there and deactivated the lightsaber. "Find the light," he said as he walked up to her.
"There is no light!" She seethed. "The dark side-,"
Revan jerked the Solari crystal from his neck and forced it into her free hand. Arra screamed as its light side energy flowed through her, sending agony through her dark infested body. She screamed. She screamed and screamed as the Solari crystal ate through the darkness of the Sith weapon. Again she was blind and deaf to all but her own pain and the war that was raging inside her spirits. Her grip on reality was faltering. Her eyelids drooped and consciousness slowly left her.
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It was several hours later before Arra stirred softly as her mind began to function properly again. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked about. The young woman was alone in her own quarters. She vaguely remembered what happened before she lost consciousness. After a moment it all came back to her. The feelings of cold, suffocation, then power and euphoria, and then agony and pain, and then finally, nothing.
She threw off the blanket that covered her and swung her legs over the side of her bed. Her eyes were caught on her night table. Her muscles quickly tensed as she jumped up and backed away. Freedon Nadd's lightsaber was sitting right there!
"Why?" She demanded as she stormed into the bridge of the ship and slammed the lightsaber down in front of Revan. "After how that went, why would you leave that thing with me?"
Revan sighed and looked up at her. His blue eyes were weary and his face was drawn from exhaustion. "Arra, you can handle it," he assured her.
"No," she replied. "I'm not touching it! Give me one of the Jedi Master's lightsabers. Give me Master Vrook's or Vandar's or Kavar's! Don't make me touch that thing again!"
"Arra listen to me," he said calmly as he stood up. "You can't learn to fight the darkness by living in the light! That's why the Jedi are extinct! They never learned how to truly battle their own nature as mortals. Now they're all dead. You can do this!"
She shook her head and turned away. "No," she replied. "You tested me and I failed! I can't use the dark side like you can! You can fight the Sith with the dark, but let me use the light!"
"Why? You can be so much more than a Jedi! Why would you settle for that?" He demanded.
"I was ready to kill you!"
"How many people do you think I killed when I was a servant of the dark?" He asked. "How many people do you think I cut down unnecessarily? I've been redeemed. You don't need to be! Just start by doing what's right."
"I can't Revan," she pleaded. Her breathing was becoming irregular and tears were starting to formulate behind her eyes. The terror was apparent in her, but he didn't seem to relent. "I can't touch it without going crazy." She was utterly confused when she saw that he was smiling at her. He began to chuckle with amusement as he threw his head back. "What?" She demanded.
"You can't touch it without going insane?" He repeated with mirth still in his eyes. He gestured to the lightsaber on the table in front of her. "You brought it back out here, not me."
She looked at the weapon on the table before her and realized that he was right! She had brought it from her room. How? She backed away from the table and looked at it nervously.
"No," she seethed angrily. With a wave of her hand, the Sith weapon went flying across the room and slammed into a wall. She stormed off, leaving Revan alone with the lightsaber. He sighed and retrieved it from the ground. He turned to P9-17 and looked at the droid thoughtfully.
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The Rebel landed at a small outpost on the outskirts of the Hoth system. The small star ship was instantly covered by engineers and mechanics that were refueling and repairing all the damage that had been done. The boarding ramp lowered and Revan and Arra stepped out. She shivered at the sudden cold that met her, but Revan seemed not to notice. Two men were walking towards him. One he was glad to see, the other he was not. The first was his 'brother', Dustil Onasi, the last surviving Jedi Knight. The middle aged man looked tired, but his eyes were shining with good humor. He stepped forward and embraced Revan quickly.
"How've you been, Dust?" Revan asked as the two broke apart.
"Busy, you?" Dustil replied.
"Same old," the younger man replied.
Then with a sigh, Revan turned to the other man, General Korith. The older man had served in the Jedi Civil War and Mandalorian Wars with a Jedi woman who had long since died on Malachor V. Korith still told many stories of her braveries, but Revan was not overly fond of him. He had a tendency to cause trouble, despite his sense of honor.
"Jolee, I was wondering when you'd show up," the general said impatiently to Revan. Revan ignored the insult that had been poorly hidden.
"Had work to do, Korith," he replied evenly.
"Well Bindo, the admiral wants you. Get!" He ordered.
Revan rolled his eyes as the general walked away. Dustil turned to him and smiled wearily. "He just lost the swoop bets. He's in a mood," the Jedi explained.
"Really?" Arra muttered sarcastically. "When isn't he?"
"When aren't you, you brat," Dustil teased the young girl.
"Me?" She said in mock offense.
"Jolee!" Korith yelled back at him. "Cut the sexual tension between those two and get going!"
Revan sighed and looked at the two of them. Korith truly was a sick man. Arra was a sixteen year old orphan who traveled through space hunting Jedi and Sith weapons. Dustil was a forty-five year old Jedi Knight. The idea revolted all three of them.
"Let's go, 'Jolee' before he starts something," Arra suggested.
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Revan, Dustil, and Arra entered the personal quarters of Admiral Carth Onasi, the man in charge of the entire Republic resistance movement, and the man who raised Revan since the day he was born. Carth quickly got up from his desk and walked up to his children. (foster, implied, and biological) Revan embraced the older man and was quickly shoved aside by Arra. The three Force-wielders sat down in front of his desk and the meeting began.
"Anything?" The old soldier asked.
Revan nodded. "Some old stuff. Really powerful actually."
"And?" Carth said hopefully.
"Voice still says no," the younger man replied.
"Can't say I'm surprised," Carth muttered. "Been that way for four years now."
"It says it's almost time," Revan said trying to restore his foster-father's faith. "It's almost over."
"Well you're right about that," Carth agreed grimly.
"What do you mean?" Arra asked, noting that Carth looked depressed and drained of hope.
Carth pulled out a datapad and handed it to Revan. "These images were taken just outside the Horuset system, moving towards Korriban."
Revan looked at the images. There was a large ship or space station of some sort moving passed the satellites that had taken these videos. Whatever it was, it was enormous and moving at unbelievable speed.
"What is it?" Revan asked.
"It's the Star Forge," Dustil replied.
Revan went wide eyed as he saw it and Arra gasped. "No!"
"We can't fight him yet!" Revan whispered. "He'll kill everyone!"
"That's not all," Carth said gravely as he handed an even more recent report to Revan. "Look. Just outside known space, an entire fleet is coming in. It's not the Resistance and it's not the Sith Empire's."
"Then who?" Arra asked as she looked at the image.
"We don't know, but they've landed on the planet Ison, and are heading in."
"Wait Ison?" Arra gasped.
"They're right outside our front door," Revan realized.
"That's why we called you two back so abruptly," the admiral said with a nod. "We've lost all communication with the scouts we sent there to negotiate with the Chelin resistance."
"You're sure they're not the Sith?" Revan asked.
"No," Dustil replied. "They're not Star Forge or Mandalorian ships."
"Revan," Carth said solemnly. "I know what you're thinking, but we don't know who these people are. You said it yourself, you are not ready to fight him. Now these people on Ison could be good or bad. I need you to-,"
"I'll do it, Carth. Arra and I will leave tomorrow morning, as soon as the blizzard blows itself out."
"Thanks kid. If there was anyone else…"
"Don't start," Revan interrupted. "You know I'd do this in a heart beat."
Carth smiled and dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Get some rest."
"Not likely. I need all the reports on these people that we've got."
"I'll have a droid bring them to you," Dustil replied.
Revan turned away and started off, patting Dustil on the back as he went. Arra followed, but turned back as if she wanted to say something. She thought better of it and left the room.
"See you tomorrow," she said to them.