Chapter Twenty-Three

Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR.

As Revan stood around in a Force Cage in his underwear with Bastila and Carth similarly clothed and in their own cages, he was pondering several things. First and foremost, of course, was just how pleased he was to see the woman who he had just been interrupted while making out with in her undergarments despite how non-ideal the situation might have been. Then was the annoyance that Carth and whoever was planning on coming in here to deal with them would also get to see that. There was also some pride in that he looked far better in his underwear than Carth did and some apprehension about what was going to happen when their interrogator finally got there. That was all expected. What wasn't quite so expected was the bizarre feeling that maybe he shouldn't have just stood around and gotten captured but instead fought his way out. It would be really inconveniencing, of course, but torture was probably going to be more so and as only HK knew his way around the ship (and would be unlikely to help the others find a faster path so he could kill more people) it would be quite awhile before they were found. What was wrong with him, to be considering that?

"Whatever happens, be sure to tell him nothing," Bastila told them both sternly.

"I can't imagine they'd just happen to be waiting for us as we left Kashyyyk without knowing what we were after," Carth argued. "If they ask us basic questions like that then they'll just be toying with us."

"But we shouldn't risk it," Bastila insisted. "What's a little torture when the fate of the galaxy is at stake?"

"You've never been tortured before, I take it," Revan said wryly, having no plans to invite their captors to torture them any more than necessary and certainly not for something stupid like this that he didn't actually care about.

Bastila cocked her head. "No, I haven't. Have you?"

"It's…a long story," Revan said shortly.

Before Bastila had a chance to ask him any more, the door slid open to reveal Saul Karath.

"I'm going to kill you for what you did to Taris, Saul," Carth said dangerously. "For what you did to my wife. For the fact that my son almost became one of you!"

" 'Almost'?" Revan repeated.

"It doesn't count!" Carth cried out.

"Yes, that's very nice, Carth," Karath said, stifling a yawn. "Except no one really cares about you as you can't even use the Force."

"Neither can you," Carth pointed out, his eye twitching.

"Yes and that's why I have such a high life insurance policy," Karath explained. "Besides, the fact that I am the one outside of the cage and able to torture you, possibly to death if I'm willing to have Lord Malak kill me too, means that I am – for this one brief, shining moment – actually relevant."

"It occurs to me that perhaps your self-esteem issues are why you became such an evil bastard," Bastila remarked.

"I don't have self-esteem issues!" Saul insisted. He coughed. "I mean, um…Now, Lord Malak is far more interested in the likes of Bastila and Revan. Bastila as she's the vaunted 'Only Hope of the Republic' and Revan because, well, Revan."

"Everyone always says that," Carth said suspiciously. "Why is that? What do you know that I don't?"

"A great many things, I'm sure," Karath said condescendingly. "And it would take far too long to try and explain it to you. So like I said, no one cares about you but what about the Jedi? Bastila might turn but it would take at least a week of torture to do that. What about you, Revan? We all know that your loyalties have proven rather…flexible in the past, to put it mildly."

"What about me?" Revan asked flatly. "I could go to Malak right now begging on my hands and knees for him to spare me and while he would find the image amusing for awhile he would ultimately never be able to trust me and so dispose of me. Besides, he tried to kill me. A lot."

"That's just the way of the Sith, Revan; you of all people should know that," Karath replied.

Revan shrugged. "Maybe but I haven't actually been nearly killed by any of the current people I'm travelling with and I've got to say, that's really working for me."

"I suppose I can leave it at that," Karath decided. "And after all, if I were to manage to turn you then what fun would Lord Malak get to have? He won't be here for a few hours, though, and so I may as well get the preliminary questioning out of the way."

"We'll never tell you anything, Saul!" Carth cried out heroically.

"No, I'm sure you won't," Karath agreed. "But we've already talked about how nobody cares about you and about how Revan is loyalty-challenged as well as seeking to avoid any inconvenience."

"I hate how you're making that sound like I have some sort of disability," Revan complained.

"You might," Karath remarked, "but can you honestly tell me who or what you're loyal to besides yourself?"

Revan opened his mouth.

"Droids don't count," Karath said quickly.

"Racist," Revan accused.

"They're not actually people, you know," Karath said, a little irritated.

"It's like, do you actually hear yourself right now?" Revan wondered.

"I don't need to hear myself since I'm the one actually choosing the words to say," Karath replied. "Although, since I'm not deaf, yes I do actually hear myself."

"Then you should be ashamed," Revan said flatly.

Karath ignored this and got back to what he was originally saying. "Normally, I would say that I would torture you for every time you lied or refused to answer but I realize that being tortured would make it more difficult for you to answer. Instead, I will torture Bastila. I cannot imagine that you really care for her but she is, at least, very pretty and I know you dislike watching pretty people in pain. Just so you have a full understanding of what is you're risking, let's zap Bastila once now."

He pressed a button on the control pan in front of him and Bastila immediately began convulsing as electricity came down from the top of the Force Cage and struck at her. Revan was reminded uncomfortably of that time on Korriban where Bastila had willingly gone through much the same thing in order to save that wannabe Sith student whose name he couldn't even recall. He had vowed not to just sit back idly and watch that again. But how could he stop it?

"I see that I've got your attention," Karath said with satisfaction as the electricity faded from Bastila's cage. "First question: Where is the Jedi Academy located? And I don't mean the one on Coruscant because we all know about that one."

Revan knew that Bastila would want him to say nothing. She had said as much just before Karath had come in, after all, and getting hit with electricity one time for a few seconds wasn't enough to break anybody let alone someone as strong as her. Her resolve hadn't wavered yet. It would soon but not yet. Just the same…he and Malak had spent quite some time on the Dantooine Academy. Malak knew exactly where it was and even if Karath didn't, he hardly needed to get the information out of them. He was just trying to make the 'betray their principles' or allow themselves to get tortured to keep a secret that wasn't even really a secret. "Dantooine. It's on Dantooine."

"Revan-" Bastila started to say, horrified.

"Ah, so it is. Lord Malak knew this already, obviously, and he's just returning from there where he bombarded the planet and killed every last Force-sensitive being there."

"Unless their surviving was the will of the Force," Revan pointed out, completely unconcerned.

"Well, except for those people," Karath admitted. "But surely we got most of them."

"All the useful people are the ones destined to live," Revan continued.

"Aren't you supposed to be traumatized by our great evil?" Karath demanded. "Instead of trying to take the wind out of my sails."

Revan shrugged. "I'm no stranger to the Sith, Karath, and you know it. Besides, those people were annoying and stupid anyway so it's not like you even chose a sympathetic target."

"Yeah, I guess you were pretending to be one of them for all of two days back on Korriban," Carth agreed, completely misunderstanding.

Karath started cracking up. "Did you…did you really have to apply for entrance to the Korriban Academy?"

"I'm not even going to answer that," Revan said, a little embarrassed.

"I don't blame you," Carth told him. "The thought of having to be a Sith, even just a pretend one and for only two days, is the stuff of nightmares. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a true Sith."

Karath stared at him. "Is he for real?"

"Hey, you've known him longer than I have," Revan replied. "In fact, wasn't he your protégé or something?"

"Or something," agreed Karath. "But he really wasn't like this before Taris…"

"Then you only have yourself to blame," Revan said indifferently.

Bastila was looking expectantly at him.

"That said, I'm very, very sad that the Jedi were killed although I am also kind of wondering why Bastila and I didn't feel any kind of disturbance in the Force from that," Revan said perfunctorily.

"You know, you could at least pretend to care that the Jedi Masters are dead!" Bastila snapped.

"But I AM pretending to care," Revan protested.

"Well put some more effort into it then," Bastila instructed.

"You're never satisfied," Revan complained. "I'm starting to suspect that you might, in fact, be high-maintenance."

"High-maintenance?" Bastila demanded outraged. "I'll have you know that-"

"Can we just move on?" Karath asked wearily. "Now I remember why no one else would agree to come in and talk to you…What is your current mission?"

There was no way that Karath couldn't know this. Carth was right, it was just too much of a coincidence for the Leviathan to 'just happen' to be waiting for them outside of Kashyyyk and even if they had just gotten lucky and realized that the Ebon Hawk was on the planet, the fact that the Star Map was really the only interesting thing on that planet and that Malak knew that they had already been to Dantooine meant that he'd figure it out before long. Malak was a bit of a brute who always insisted on doing things the hard way but he wasn't stupid. "We were tracking down the Star Maps."

"Why don't you go ahead and tell him the Republic's top-secret military strategies while you're at it," Bastila said, irritated.

"I don't actually know any top-secret Republic military strategies," Revan pointed out.

"And this is exactly why!" Bastila fumed.

"And since I don't I might as well claim that I would never reveal those if I knew them even though we all know that 'never' is such a strong word," Revan said lamely.

"You're really bad at this," Carth said judgmentally.

"It happens," Revan said, unconcerned.

"I knew you'd be reasonable," Karath said smugly. It was really too bad the Force wouldn't reach through these cages or Revan would be Force Crushing him right about now. "And how did you learn about the Star Maps?"

Now that was an interesting question. Bastila knew he was Revan but didn't appear to notice the rather obvious fact that he was also aware of this, Karath knew that he was Revan and didn't seem to realize that he was supposed to have amnesia, and Carth was chronically suspicious of him but didn't know that he was Revan. He really didn't want to risk Carth killing him for the whole Revan thing or deal with a lecture from Bastila about how he should have made it more obvious that he knew who he was. He could say that he had had a 'vision' which was what the official story was but that was just how Bastila and the others had found out about it. "I had heard rumors of the Star Forge out beyond the Outer Rim."

"I must say, I'm a little disappointed that you've proven so cooperative," Karath said, almost sadly. "I had wanted to see you all turn against each other but I suppose you'll have to deal with Bastila's wrath for being honest with me. Later. For now, I'm going to leave you with a little preview of what you can expect when Lord Malak returns."

Revan blearily opened his eyes. It hurt to breathe. Well, it had been quite some time since he had felt like that.

"Are you okay?" Bastila asked worriedly.

"If I say 'no' would it matter?" Revan asked, shakily forcing himself to his feet.

"Saul has turned into such a sadistic bastard," Carth said angrily. "He tortured all of us but you got the worst of it by far. He kept going long after you passed out from the pain."

"The dark side can corrupt even the most noble of souls," Bastila opined.

Carth just shook his head. "Don't make excuses for him, Bastila."

"I…Revan…I am forced to admit that I am a little grateful that you didn't allow me to be tortured extra," Bastila admitted. Of course, if he tortured Bastila and Carth just until they passed out from pain then chances were that it didn't actually make a difference as an early jolt of electricity would have caused her to pass out sooner later. Still, no need to bring up uncertain possibilities like that. "Though I fear what may happen now that Malak knows all of this."

"I know Karath," Carth said grimly. "And he didn't ask any questions that he didn't know the answer to already, believe me. He was just toying with us. I could see it in his eyes."

"I figured as much," Revan agreed. "Plus I couldn't willingly allow Bastila to suffer."

Bastila's gaze softened. "That's sweet, Revan. I only hope that doesn't end up coming back to haunt us."

Revan was about to ask her how the fact he didn't want her to get hurt could possibly come back to haunt them when the door slid open again. Everyone tensed, expecting Karath back but it wasn't him. Instead, everyone else from their group – including Zaalbar – came pouring into the room.

"Sorry we took so long," Mission apologized. "We got here as fast as we could but HK gave us lousy directions. We must have killed everyone on this level before getting here."

"Blatant lie: It's been quite some time since I've been here so I must have been mistaken," HK replied.

"You really don't want to know about the time we had," Zaalbar announced. "Honestly, attempting to get here to rescue you was perhaps the most insane, bizarre, and outright random think that I've ever been called upon to do."

"I vote that we never speak of it again," Jolee suggested.

"Seconded," Canderous echoed the sentiment.

"Can someone just hurry up and get us out of these?" Revan asked, annoyed.

T3 beeped in the affirmative and went over and connected to the interface. Seconds later, they were freed.

"We'll need to split up," Bastila decided. "One group needs to secure the ship so that we can be ready to leave the moment the other group arrives and the second group needs to get to the bridge and open up the docking bay doors."

"I have a score to settle with Saul and I'll likely meet him on the bridge," Carth announced. "So I'm going after him."

"Right, I cannot in good conscience let you go off alone all set on vengeance so I suppose I'll be accompanying you," Bastila decided. "Revan should probably hurry up and get off of this ship before Malak comes back so maybe Jolee-"

"Bastila," Revan cut her off, deciding that there was definitely something wrong with him. "This has 'bad idea' written all over this. You're the Republic's Only Hope. Malak would jump at the chance to take you and turn you."

"I'm not quite so weak-willed as that, Revan," Bastila said, completely misunderstanding what he was trying to say.

"I'm not saying that you are but if he has you then he can keep trying to turn you indefinitely and sooner or later you will crack. The stronger you are, the longer it may take to happen or the harder he'll have to try but no one can resist forever. And even if you could, I don't want to leave you at his mercy," Revan told her.

"Jedi ruin everything," Canderous muttered, annoyed.

"See, that's what I've been trying to tell you people!" Jolee said blithely.

"But if you get caught that could end up making all of this even worse," Bastila told him.

"So let's just both not get caught," Revan suggested. "And the easiest way to do that would be if neither of us ended up going."

Bastila hesitated. "I would love to not have to run the risk of getting captured and tortured until I become a Sith but I just can't let Carth go down this dark path alone. I need to be there for him."

"No, you really don't," Carth assured her. "I know exactly what I'm doing here and, as a non-Force sensitive, I won't snap and turn evil at the drop of a hat like one of you might."

"You sure about that, Republic?" Canderous asked him. "Your son is Force-sensitive and from what I understand, these things usually run in families."

"Besides," Bastila continued as if she hadn't heard any of that, "it's always useful to have a Jedi along in a fight and if we DO run into Darth Malak then without a Jedi then the group would be utterly helpless. Mind you, I don't think we'd do much better with a Jedi but it could give one of us time to sacrifice ourselves and to allow the others to escape."

"And by 'one of us' you mean 'you'," Revan said flatly. It wasn't a question.

"You're too important to be risked," Bastila told him softly. "If I turn, my battle meditation would be catastrophic if used against the Republic but if someone got to me then I could be killed. If you turned and Malak convinced you to actually work against the Republic-"

"Which is really no guarantee," Carth interjected.

"Then all hope would be lost," Bastila finished.

Revan said nothing for a moment, realizing that she was right. "Maybe Jolee could-"

"Hell no," Jolee cut him off.

Revan made a face. "I never thought I'd say this but we really should have brought that one Jedi who wanted to come back on Dantooine. She seemed like the self-sacrificing sort."

"It wouldn't have been worth it," Mission disagreed. "I mean, she'd have been with us the whole time! I realize you're being hormonal and whatnot but SO not worth it."

Revan took a deep breath, pointedly ignoring her. "If you say that you're going to go with Carth and risk capture by Darth Malak then I really can't stop you but you can't stop me either."

"What do you mean?" Bastila asked, frowning lightly.

"I'm coming with you," Revan announced. "Maybe this will all blow up in our faces and maybe we're making a big deal about nothing and we'll get away without Malak coming anywhere near us."

"Helpful hint: If Malak does barely manage to catch up with you, perhaps you should look back at this moment and realize that if you hadn't spent the last ten minutes arguing about who was going it would have been fine," HK told them.

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