Chapter Seventeen

Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR.

Note: So after last chapter people seem to think that Revan remembers everything but just can't be bothered to tell anyone. Well let me ask you something: does that really sound like something Revan would do? :P

As Revan and his companions set off from their room – which was really, really too small for all of them and so with any luck they'd be able to finish up here without too much difficulty – they walked past a man who was looking quite tragic. Revan, naturally, was disinclined to care but Bastila made them stop.

"Excuse me," she said, "but are you aright?"

The man looked up. "What? Oh, I'm fine. Absolutely fine. Couldn't be better. And let me tell you that I, Kel Algwinn, am most certainly not having doubts about my decision to be a Sith or moral qualms about the kinds of things I'm expected to do in order to just gain entrance to the Academy and which I'm really starting to suspect would only be the tip of the iceberg."

"Good to know," Revan said, attempting to move on. Bastila's hand shot out to grab his wrist and he stopped immediately.

"Are you sure?" Carth asked skeptically. "I mean, that sounds oddly specific."

Canderous rolled his eyes. "Of course he's sure. And if he's not then he needs to fake it until he makes it just like everybody else."

"Agreement: Yes, doing otherwise would probably get him killed and while I am usually all for that, I don't see much of a point if I'm not going to be the one doing the killing," HK agreed.

Kel bit his lip. "Yes, of course I…oh, who am I trying to kid?" he cried out dramatically.

"Oh, here we go…" Mission muttered.

"I don't really think I belong here," Kel explained hurriedly. "I'm not saying that I'm an obsessive moralist or anything but I do have a distinct problem with murdering babies and the things that I've seen in the week or so since I've been here…well, many people here don't."

"How has no one noticed how ill-suited this guy is to join the Sith?" Zaalbar wondered. "Are they really all as apathetic as Revan? And where did he even get a medallion from, anyway?"

"But I really want to learn how to use the Force and if the Sith don't teach me then who will?" Kel asked, anguished.

"Keep in mind that I don't actually care about your problems," Revan began, "but are you aware that there is a group of Force users out there that are also vehemently opposed to baby murdering called 'the Jedi'?"

Kel frowned. "You know, I have heard about them. Don't they refuse to train people over the age of five?"

"Normally, yes," Bastila admitted. "But just tell them that you're a redeemed Sith and they'll get you set up right away."

"So wait…" Kel said slowly. "Anyone over the age of five is out because they might be too worldly or full of anger or fear but someone who used to be a Sith and who embraced all of their darker desires is welcomed with open arms?"

"Yeah, the Jedi are a little…odd," Carth conceded. "Still, if it gets you your training then I recommend just going with it."

"Well, we don't want people already trained in the Force to stay evil so we have to try and work with them," Bastila tried to explain unconvincingly.

"Yes, and those evil six-year-olds are just beyond hope," Mission deadpanned.

T3 beeped his agreement.

Kel shrugged. "Join the Jedi, huh? Sounds like a plan. Thank you so much for this. Although if you don't mind me saying so, I think most of you are unsuited to being Sith yourself so you should really think about following your own advice."

Bastila and Carth exchanged glances.

"We'll think about it," Carth said, managing to keep a straight face.

"Well, I should go," Kel told them. "Now that I've defected, my life is even more forfeit than it was before. The hidden Jedi enclave is on Dantooine, right?"

Bastila started. "How…how did you know that?"

Kel shrugged again. "Doesn't everyone know about that?" With that, he quickly began packing.

"I'm getting a really bad feeling about this…" Bastila said uneasily.

"I'm sure that they'll be fine," Revan attempted to comfort her half-heartedly. "Can we go now?"

"One moment," Carth said, holding up a hand. "Hey, Kel? Do you know anyone named Dustil?"

Kel looked up from his packing. "Dustil? Of course. His room is at the end of the hall. He's a real student here but he's just about the only one I know that hasn't actually threatened to kill me." He paused as something occurred to him. "You know, maybe he shouldn't be here either! Someone should really tell him all about these 'Jedi.'"

"We'll take care of it," Carth promised. "Good luck getting out of here alive."

The group left and almost ran into a blonde woman with short hair that had been at the orientation they had only caught the tail end of.

"Where is that idiot Mekel?" she was muttering to herself as she paced. "Whatever, I don't have time to wait for him. Hey, you!"

"Yes?" Revan asked warily.

"My name's Lashowe and I'm another one of the initiates trying to gain prestige," Lashowe introduced. "I found an ancient Sith holocron and was going to take it to Master Uthar but a Tuk'ata ate it and so I asked Mekel to aid me in killing it and its pack but he's taking too long so would you like to help me instead? We could split the prestige."

Revan stared at her. "Not for nothing, but isn't the more Sith-like thing to do killing me the minute the Tuk'ata is dead?"

Lashowe shrugged. "You've got me there. How about you aid me in taking the holocron and then one of us attempts to kill the other? I'm sure that the fact that I'm by myself and you have two droids, a Twi'lek, a Wookie, a Mandalorian, a soldier, and someone who also happens to have a lightsaber with you means that I can't lose."

"…If you say so," Revan said, shaking his head at her blatant stupidity and wondering why she apparently just watched a Tuk'ata eat the holocron. "Where should I meet you?"

"I'll be at the Valley of the Dark Lords," Lashowe answered. "Don't make me wait too long or I'll find someone else." With that, she turned to go.

"You know, this whole prestige system makes no sense," Canderous complained. "On the one hand, only letting in the best and even having some of the weaker killed off is a sound move but only letting one person from every attempt in? What if one group contains five weaklings and a second one just happens to contain five people who are twice as strong as the average student? You lose four extremely promising students and have to accept a weakling who probably couldn't handle the Academy anyway."

Carth shrugged. "The Sith aren't any brighter than the Jedi, really."

"Hey!" Bastila protested.

"Come on, I think Kel said this next room is Dustil's," Carth said, walking quickly towards the room at the end and barged right in.

"Hey, can't you knock?" a young man who strongly resembled Carth demanded, irritated. "Wait…Dad? Why are you here?"

"Dustil," Carth said his name as if it were a benediction. "I never thought I would see you again."

"Me either," Dustil agreed. "In fact, I was rather hoping for it. Hint hint."

"What are you even doing here?" Carth demanded.

"I'm learning how to be a Sith," Dustil replied, rolling his eyes. "Duh."

"But…but the Sith are evil!" Carth protested.

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil," Dustil countered, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Okay, I get that we may engage in some morally suspect practices at some points," Bastila conceded, pointedly not looking at Revan. "But we're not the ones who will raze an entire planet to kill one person, encourage killing your fellow students to get in here, talk about how mercy and compassion are weaknesses, have a master and apprentice relationship designed to end when one kills the other, tortures people into switching sides, believe in torturing people for their own personal amusement, value strength above any kind of morality, don't believe in caring about others, regularly use or kill the loved ones of their allies and enemies to get what they want, regularly-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Dustil looked annoyed. "But do you know what they didn't do? They didn't totally abandon my mother and I while my planet was under attack!"

"Yeah, you know why that was, Dustil?" Carth demanded. "Because they were the ones attacking everyone! You're upset that I wasn't there when your mother died – and I was, by the way, I held her as she died – and didn't find you? Fine. But don't you dare tell me that your new Sith friends aren't the ones to blame for what happened since they were the ones who killed your mother, they were the ones who kept me busy elsewhere fighting, they were the ones who hurt you…all because one defector from the Republic wanted to 'prove his loyalty' by attacking his home planet!"

"…You may have a point," Dustil admitted. "Actually, that's a damn good point. The Sith were the ones to kill my mother no matter where you were. And they do have a torture chamber right down the hall. And they really don't bat an eye if you randomly kill a passer-by...maybe I should get out of here. Do you think the secret Jedi enclave at Dantooine will take me in?"

Bastila groaned. "Seriously? Someone else who knows?"

"Lord Malak trained there for a while as did Lord Revan," Dustil explained, nodding Revan's way. "Of course we all know about it."

"One would think that the Jedi would have realized that if Malak had been to Dantooine before that he knew they were there," Zaalbar remarked.

"So you'll leave?" Carth asked hopefully. "Good, I don't think my poor heart could take having a son that was also a Sith."

"I will," Dustil promised. "But first I've got to talk my friends into coming with me. Just give me a few hours and I'll be out of your hair. I may even be willing to sit down for a nice talk in which I rant at you for not being there when mother died while you try and explain yourself while I don't care and afterwards we can try to have a real relationship."

"Sounds like a plan," Carth said, grinning broadly. Dustil slipped him a way to contact him before wandering off to go find his friends.

"Wow…despite the fact that Dustil was a freaking Sith I think that that went better than my family reunion did," Mission said, stunned.

"Finally!" Lashowe exclaimed. "I've been waiting for at least twenty minutes! I summoned the Tuk'ata when I saw you approach and so it should be here any minute…oh, there it is."

Instead of just one Tuk'ata there was the one giant one and several small ones. Lashowe just stood by and allowed Revan and company to dispatch of them and then the minute the fighting was over, she deftly sliced open the Tuk'ata and pulled out the holocron.

"Excellent," she beamed. "Now, to kill you so I can get all the prest-" She was cut off as HK shot her in the head.

"Lecture: Kill first, brag and mock later," HK sniffed.

"So now what should we do?" Revan wondered.

"Let's go explore the other tombs that we can get into," Mission suggested. "We might find some cool stuff there or at least another way to gain prestige."

"Fine…" Revan sighed. He looked at the one closest to them. "I suppose we can start there."

"Stay back or we'll kill you!" a human woman said bravely. Her two Twi'lek companions nodded firmly.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Zaalbar wondered.

"You…you mean you don't know?" the woman asked, shocked.

"Wait…so they can understand Zaalbar and I can't?" Carth demanded. "My life sucks."

"It's not our fault you're an unrepentant racist, Carth," Mission told him virtuously.

"My name is Thalia May," she introduced. "And my companions and I weren't able to bring ourselves to murder some orphans at the Dreshdae colony and so Master Uthar wants us dead. Not badly enough to do it himself or to have any one come after us even though we're sure he knows where we are but he would sincerely like us all to die for this."

"So you're just going to stay here until you do die?" Canderous asked, surprised and disapproving. "Lame."

"Well what else are we supposed to do?" Thalia demanded, her hands on her hips. We could escape the caves and get off-world but there's a giant terentatek guarding the passage and we're not suicidal."

"We apparently are as we killed that thing fifteen minutes ago," Revan announced.

Thalia's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Really? So we could actually get out of here?"

Revan shrugged. "I honestly don't give a damn."

"Maybe the Jedi will accept us," Thalia said slowly. "I don't know that they will but we've got to try!"

"Oh, they will," Bastila assured her. "Just mention the whole 'redeemed Sith' thing and you won't have any problems."

"It's off to Dantooine for us, then," Thalia said cheerfully. "Thanks again for all your help and feel free to tell Master Uthar that you killed us."

Bastila walked over to the wall of the cave and began to bang her head on it.

Revan stopped as everyone but HK and T3 slumped over unconscious. That was strange. Maybe the strange green gas had something to do with everyone getting knocked out.

A crazed-looking old man soon came to collect the bodies and started to see Revan standing there looking annoyed. "Why aren't you knocked out?"

Revan shrugged. "Damned if I know. I'm just that awesome, I guess. Now who are you?"

"My name is Jorak Uln," Jorak said proudly. "This used to be my school before Uthar banished me here after he met those two crazy Sith kids."

"So you are Uthar's master who he failed to kill like he was supposed to," Revan said, shaking his head sadly. "Why does no one do things properly anymore? I mean, I suppose I'm not one to talk but in my defense, I haven't seen Kae since before I left the Order…"

"Kids these days," Jorak agreed. "I stabbed my master forty-seven times just to make sure he was dead, you know. I was going to have you wake up in my lair and force you to prove your worth as a Sith or else I'd use Force Lightning on you but since you didn't pass out from the gas like you were supposed to and seem to have some of the same pet peeves that I do, how about I do that with your friend who has a lightsaber instead?"

Revan shrugged. "I really can't do anything until they wake up anyway so why not?"

Jorak waved his hand and levitated the bodies of Revan's companions into the next room where a groggy looking man wearing a Sith uniform was standing frozen from the neck down by Jorak. "This is Mekel," Jorak introduced. "One of your fellow students. Knows nothing about the Sith and is a huge disgrace, too. I was going to kill him outright but then I saw you guys coming and decided to try something a little different."

Within a few minutes, they unconscious people began to stir.

"What's going on?" Bastila demanded. "Why can't we move? Why can Revan?"

"You're going to prove whether you deserve to be Sith," Jorak explained. "Revan already proved himself so now it's your turn. I'm going to ask you some questions. Get them right and I torture Mekel. Get them wrong and I torture you. Whoever is still alive gets to go. I really don't think poor Mekel can take very much more torture at this point."

"You're sick!" Bastila accused. "I would ask why Revan isn't doing anything when he clearly can but at this point I really don't want to hear some variation on the theme of 'I couldn't be bothered' and at least hope that if we were going to be killed while unconscious that he would have stepped in."

Revan decided not to answer that.

Jorak shrugged. "We all have our faults. First question: There is another Sith that you have the opportunity to kill and take the position of. He's a fine leader and good for the Sith. What do you do."

"I kill him because I don't want the Sith to have good leadership and it's my duty as a Jedi to kill Sith," Bastila answered.

Jorak threw out his hand and shocked her. "Wrong answer. You're supposed to kill him and take his position."

"Thus weakening the Sith as a whole?" Canderous demanded. "That sounds like faulty logic that would keep the Sith fractured and weak. I suppose that if he really is so inept that you can kill him than he wouldn't be around for very long to be a visionary anyway…"

"Exactly," Jorak nodded. "Besides, you're evil so you're not supposed to be focused on the long-term consequences of your actions here. Now, a group of innocent people are being attacked. They offer you a reward to help them. What do you do?"

Bastila steeled herself as she responded, "I refuse their offer of a reward and help them anyway as that is the Jedi way."

Jorak shocked her again. "Wrong! I'm really starting to think you may not be very committed to the Sith mentality. You're supposed to accept the reward and then leave them to their fate. You discover knowledge that can be used to strengthen the Sith as a whole. Do you share this knowledge or keep it to yourself?"

"I destroy this knowledge as I cannot possibly be fine with strengthening the Sith," Bastila said defiantly. "And depending on what the knowledge is, I may share it with the Jedi."

Jorak unleashed yet more Sith lightning. "You know, even Mekel got that one right. You have an apprentice who has been very loyal and competent over the years but he has made a serious error in judgment and the mistake costs you. What do you do?"

"I kill him because he is a Sith," Bastila told him. "Presuming that I can't use his loyalty to talk him into joining the Jedi, of course."

Jorak didn't even say anything as he shocked her yet again. Revan was actually starting to get a little worried but surely there couldn't be too many more questions that Bastila refused to play along with him for, right? "Final question: you are about to die. Do you pass on your knowledge to your apprentice or do you let it die with you?"

"I pass my knowledge that isn't too evil on to the Jedi, allow the rest to die with me, and then kill all the Sith I can," Bastila replied promptly.

One last burst of Force lightning hit her and Jorak waved his hand at Mekel, freeing him. "You can go, I suppose. Upon seeing how much she failed at being a Sith, you really aren't so bad."

"Or…or I can free her and then we can kill you together!" Mekel said, waving his hand at Bastila and freeing her.

They both looked to be in pretty bad shape and so Revan honestly wasn't sure if they could take Jorak on. He felt…Watching Bastila get tortured like that wasn't easy like it was supposed to be. It made him all tense and unhappy. He wasn't quite sure why that was but he wasn't about to risk Jorak hurting her more.

"You call that Force lightning?" he asked quietly. He threw out his own hand and watched the lightning dance towards Jorak. It didn't take long at all before, twitching, Jorak expired.

"Thank you," Mekel said shakily, looking at Bastila uncertainly. "You had to have known what the right answers were and yet you purposely baited him…to save me."

"I knew that I could survive it and you couldn't," Bastila replied simply. "It was the right thing to do."

"I never thought I'd see the day that someone I didn't even know would allow themselves to be tortured to save me," Mekel said softly. "I've done some bad things, some horrible things and I don't deserve this. Maybe the Sith aren't the place for me, after all. I don't think the Jedi are, either, but I should probably get out of here. Thank you."

As he turned to go, Bastila glanced over at Revan. There was no accusation in her eyes and that sort of made it worse.

"Bastila…" Revan said hesitantly, not really knowing what to say.

"I know," she said quietly.

She seemed to forgive him but, strangely enough, Revan was the one having difficult forgiving himself. He wouldn't just stand by next time.

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