Chapter Eleven: Bond

Revan placed the laundry basket on her bed and began throwing her dirty laundry in it. She had temporarily stored her dirty robes in the spare footlocker, and was running out of clean laundry. Once she emptied out the spare footlocker, she took off her t-shirt and her sleep pants and tossed them in the dirty laundry bin. Clad in only her underpants, Revan finished sorting through the dirty laundry, then headed for the footlocker at the end of her bed to pull out a clean robe.

The door slid open. "Beautiful—"

Revan shrieked and covered her bare chest with her arms. "Do you KNOCK?"

Carth blushed. "Uh… sorry. I just—"

"Close the door, NERF HERDER!"

Carth coughed, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him. "I just—"

"Out there!" she cried.

"Out there what?"

Revan would have thrown her hands up in frustration, but they were currently covering her chest. "You! Out there so I can get dressed!"

"I've seen you naked before," Carth pointed out.

Revan groaned. "Yes, I think we've established this." She started to head back towards the footlocker, then stopped and looked at Carth. "You could at least turn around, ya know." Carth turned around and faced the wall. "And don't move or I'll throw you in stasis."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Revan knelt down and opened the footlocker and pulled out the first set of robes she could grab. "Nice to see you finally took off that sweater."

"Yeah," Carth said, looking down at the orange-and-rust leather flight jacket. "Mission said it smelled like Zaalbar."

"So it's back to the jacket?" she asked, quickly slipping on a bra and the matching pants to her robes.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. You can turn around now," she said, even though she was barely covered. Carth had seen her in her underwear before. She still had her back to him, though.

Carth slowly turned around. "I just was wondering if you were going to have breakfast—What's that on your back?"

Revan frowned and turned her head to the side. "What's what on my back?"

"You've got something on your back," Carth said. "Looks like a scar, or something."

"I do?" she asked, trying to twist her head so she could see.

Carth walked across the room. "It's really faint," he said. "I haven't seen this before." He raised his hand and lightly touched her back. "Doesn't feel like a scar."

A chill ran down Revan's spine at Carth's light touch. She felt him trace a pattern on her back, down towards the fastener of her bra strap. Revan closed her eyes.

Revan turned around and wrapped her arms around Carth's neck, kissing him fiercely. He kissed back, fueled by desire and need. Within seconds their clothing was in a pile on the floor. Revan pushed Carth down on the mattress. They kissed harder, feeling each other. Revan broke the kiss, grinned, and looked into his eyes—

Malak. She was looking at Malak…

Revan snapped her eyes open. "No," she softly gasped.

Carth pulled his hand away. "Sorry," he whispered.

Silence filled the quarters. "I'll, uh… be out in a minute," Revan softly said.

"Yeah," Carth lamely said, then turned to exit the room.

Revan closed her eyes. "Carth? Carth, I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

"No, it's okay," he said. "I shouldn't've—"

"I saw Malak," she whispered, looking at him.

Carth stopped and looked at her. "What?"

"You… you touched me, and I saw Malak." Revan closed her eyes and shook her head. "Dammit," she muttered.

Carth didn't know what to say. "Visions are getting worse?"

"Just… more frequent," she said.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Revan shook her head. "You'll just send me to Jolee." Then she bit her lip. "Sorry."

She felt Carth place a hand on her shoulder. Revan turned and wrapped her arms around his waist. Carth wrapped his arms around her and gave her a squeeze. "Get dressed," he whispered. "Then get something to eat. I talked to Canderous for you and he said he'd meet you in the cargo hold whenever you're ready."

"Thank you," she whispered.

Carth kissed the top of her head.

"No weapons?"

Revan shook her head. "Not yet. Fists first. I want to be prepared for anything."

Canderous nodded. "Fair enough. What are we starting with?"

"Come at me."

Canderous blinked. He stood a few feet away from the petite Jedi and could see every detail on her face, yet couldn't read her expression. She wanted him to attack her? "What?"

"Come at me," she repeated. "Give me all you got."

"What would your Republic boyfriend say?"

Revan glared.

Canderous shrugged. "All right." He took a swing at Revan. She blocked. He took another swing. Block. Revan side-swiped Canderous, her foot contacting his side. Canderous retaliated with a swing to her mid-section. Revan elbowed his chest.

Canderous knocked Revan to the ground, then pinned her, sitting on her hips and holding her hands behind her head. "All right, sweetheart. Get outta this one. And no using the Force. That's—"

Revan brought her knees up and hit Canderous hard in his backside, causing him to slide up on her chest. Revan raised her hips and twisted them, sending Canderous falling off of her. She'd done the move so fast, Canderous didn't have time to react. One second he was sitting on her, next he was on the floor, Revan standing next to him ready to attack.

"If you're gonna kick me, KICK ME!" Canderous cried.

Revan kicked high, but Canderous blocked. She went to take another shot, but stopped. Her eyes grew wide and she looked distant. Canderous wasn't sure if this was some kind of tactic, so he stood in his defensive stance, ready for anything.

Revan fell to her knees, the palms of her hands flat on the floor. "Revan?" Canderous hesitantly asked.

Revan let out a scream, then whimpered.

"Revan, are you okay?" Canderous asked.

Certain she wasn't going to attack, Canderous knelt and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Revan, what's wrong?"

Her face twitched and turned. She looked like she was in pain, like someone was torturing her. But nothing was there. No one was touching her. She let out another scream.

"Frack," Canderous cursed.

"Statement: READY!"

Canderous looked up and saw the barrel end of a gun in his face.

"I didn't do anything, ya demented droid!" Canderous cried, pushing HK-47's gun out of his face.

"Statement: I am programmed to protect the Master—"

"Yeah, and I'm programmed to find a can opener and put it to good use!" Canderous spat back.

Revan let out another cry, like someone had punched her hard in the stomach.

Canderous turned to HK. "Be useful and go get Carth!" he barked.

"Observation: And leave the Master alone while—"

"Dammit, I'll do it myself," he cried. Canderous ran to the door and screamed down the hall. "CARTH! GET YOUR FRACKIN' REPUBLIC ASS IN HERE NOW!"

Revan softly gasped. "Bastila."

Canderous ran back to Revan and tried to get her calm down. "It's all right, Revan," he soothed, seeing tears fall off her face and land on the floor of the cargo hold. "It's all right. Carth's coming. You're gonna be okay…"

Canderous's voice faded away in the background. Revan closed her eyes and let out another scream as Force Lighting struck Bastila's body. Bastila tried to resist; Revan could feel it. But she couldn't resist the temptation to scream. Revan hadn't felt the Force bond since the Leviathan, when Bastila sacrificed herself to save the rest of the crew. She'd tried to reach out to her Jedi sister, but could no longer feel her presence. Jolee assured her that Malak wouldn't kill Bastila, but Revan had her doubts. Malak destroyed Taris in an attempt to kill Bastila, then sent Dark Jedi's out to capture her alive if possible. All along Revan secretly thought Bastila was dead, and said nothing about it, not even to Carth. But she was alive… and Malak was torturing her…

Why did she suddenly feel the Force Bond now? Were they close to the Star Forge?—No. No, Bastila and Malak weren't on the Star Forge. They were… somewhere else… A stone room…? A temple of some sort? A cave, maybe? Why didn't she feel the bond before? Did the bond only work via close range? Was it amplified due to stress, or panic, or fear?

Revan let out another scream and fell to the floor of the cargo hold, face first. The pain was too much… she felt like she was back in the torture chambers on the Leviathan…

"Beautiful, I've got you," Revan heard. The voice sounded distant… "Everything's going to be okay."

"Carth?" she whispered.

"I'm here." The voice sounded closer.

Revan blinked a few times, then found herself back in the cargo hold, sitting on Carth's lap, his arms around her. The link to Bastila the bond provided was gone again…

"Bastila," Revan gasped. "Bastila… she's alive…"