We found Carth unconscious in front of the tomb of Ajunta Pall. Mission rushed ahead of me and got onto her knees at the soldier's side while I tried to find Dustil who had obviously been the perpetrator.

It was open. Somehow, Dustil must have figured out how to get the tomb open. I approached the entrance, trying to see how he managed to figure it out. The sword slid into the pedestal with ease. An ancient key. My head throbbed with pain with that vision—the same pedestal had an ancient sword with an intricate hilt.

"Carth!"

Mission slapped his face and he groaned in pain. Thankfully, that got him to wake up. He jumped onto his feet immediately and rushed towards the entrance of the tomb, ignoring me.

"Hey!"

He turned and shouted.

"We don't have time—Dustil is going to be killed in there!"

"So are we. I'm not exactly armed with a lightsaber if he or whatever is in there decides to retaliate."

He lifted his blasters.

"I'm not going to make the same mistake I made on Telos. I will not abandon my son." He narrowed his eyes. "I will go in there with or without you if I have to."

Idiot.

I groaned then turned to face Mission. There was no way he was going without me.

"Go get Jolee. If we get into trouble, at least he can save our asses."

She didn't argue with me and sprinted off towards the Academy. Carth didn't wait. He ran into the tomb with both pistols out and I took my own spare blaster pistol out as well as I followed him. To say that I had a bad feeling about this would be an understatement.

No light. Compared to the other tombs which had been recently explored or inhabited, this one had no lights or fires whatsoever. Carth grabbed a pocket torch from his belt and lit our surroundings. It almost felt like that time on Dantooine when we found the first Star Map. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as we walked beneath the entrance.

A tall, cracked statue sat in the middle of the tomb of a balding man in long robes. Ajunta Pall, perhaps, or one of his servants. Surrounding us, from one end of the room to the other, statue after statue of robed, faceless Sith lined the walls like soldiers. Their shadows multiplied their numbers.

Crack. I glanced back at the sound which came from the entrance. Yeah, I should have listened to the bad feeling. Lashowe smirked at me, holding the sword with a lax wrist.

"Master Uthar was right. Knowledge really is power…" She tossed a holocron into the air as she walked away. "Have fun starving to death with Dustil, Wes Gale."

I used the Force on the door or at least tried to. The weight multiplied as I kept trying to hold it in place and Carth shot at the Sith yet she already left.

"Kriffing—!"

I released the door and it slammed shut with a boom. Trapped. We were all trapped in here. Our only hope now was with Jolee somehow getting the sword from Lashowe. That could take a day or more for him to even figure out that she even has it. And if we were stuck in here for that long then we had no hope of finding the Star Map. All of it, killing those people, torturing that student, using the dark side…it would have all been for nothing.

My mouth felt dry. I turned and glared at Carth.

"This is why we should have waited."

He took a deep breath and searched the tomb with the torch.

"There has to be a way out from inside."

"There isn't."

Carth scoffed. "How do you know?"

It was a tricky thing. The slaves had been trapped with their master's corpse, Ajunta Pall, with a mechanism. After the sword was removed from the pedestal, the door shut. There was no way out from the inside. Not without serious force. Skeletons were strewn all over the floor…human skeletons. Sith skeletons. It was a sacrifice of some sort for some unknown evil purpose.

"That sword is the only key. Ajunta Pall trapped his slaves here after his death with it..."

Why did that sound familiar?

"Oh. Right. Of course you know. You're Revan." He laughed. "You've been here before. What sort of demented things did you learn about?"

"Does it matter? Dustil wants to learn the same things, oh and he fell for a trap in the process!" I tried to calm my anger but it was hard to. "Now your stupid son has possibly cost us the Star Map."

"Don't—" He stormed up closer to me, anger flashing in his eyes along with the torch. "—ever call my son stupid."

"Okay. Fine. You're stupid for going after him and risking the mission!"

"So, I should have just sacrificed my son for the Star Map? Like it's that easy?"

"If it came down to it? If it meant saving countless lives? Yes."

His anger calmed into a chill. Something cold brushed my shoulder.

"Of course you think it's that easy." His voice was low. "Whether you're Wes or Revan, you've never given a damn about anyone."

Something hurt in my chest after he said that. His hands…melted on his face. Liam's small body. Bastila's smile…then her pained screams as she was…tortured by Malak. Malak's jaw…gone. Cold. Like a droid.

He was right. I was a selfish bastard. Why was I pretending that I wasn't?

Carth's face softened as if he already regretted saying it. He opened his mouth to possibly apologize but I didn't give him a chance to. I walked past the statue of the Sith.

"It's too late now anyway. May as well go find that idiot."

Thankfully, Carth silently followed me with the light.

Emptiness. Darkness. The long halls were filled with both. Carth's light flickered despite being in perfect condition as we traveled in silence. I had a feeling we would be looking for a long time. Ajunta Pall's tomb was a maze—each hall had five to ten more halls attached like the many appendages of a kinrath spider. I had a feeling that we were the only life in this tomb for…years. Since Revan first came here and before that…decades more.

Too long...too long in the cold and the dark.

I flinched and raised my blaster. Carth raised his too and pointed it down the same empty hall at one of the columns.

"What is it?"

I paused, then lowered my weapon.

"Sorry. I thought I heard…"

No. It was my mind playing tricks on me. Or a vision. As always.

"Heard what?"

"Nothing."

We continued through the tomb. Dustil was nowhere to be found. Either he had a map of the tomb and found the sarcophagus already or he ended up trapped somewhere else. We must have spent an hour walking because, eventually, the back of the Sith statue showed up again. We'd looped around the entire place without a sign of Dustil.

Carth noticed it too. He cursed and leaned on his knees.

"I can't believe this."

"We'll look again." I crossed my arms. "It's dark in here. We might have missed something."

He looked up at me, eyes wavering.

"Look, I…before we go, I shouldn't have said—" I walked back into the labyrinth with a quick step and Carth somehow followed my pace. He shouted at me. "Okay, why the hell are you going so fast? You're running!"

Oh. Huh. I was.

"No time."

"Shouldn't we be taking our time? We might miss something again."

I didn't listen to him though. We ran for at least ten minutes, quickly checking all of the passages. Yet there was still nothing. The only thing of interest had been a dark obelisk. At first glance, it appeared like a pillar or another Sith statue, so I touched it with my bare hands. It was cold to the touch, as expected, yet that cold spread throughout my body until I was shivering.

I avoided that thing after that.

Time passed and fatigue weighed down my limbs after the fifth trip through the tomb. We sat at the steps beneath the statue of the Sith, as far away from the corpses as possible. Carth set the torch down, twisting it so that it lit a wider area. For some reason, he chose to sit next to me.

I kept my gaze fixated on the light, ignoring the occasional brush on my shoulders.

"I know what you're doing, Wes."

My skin chilled at the sound of my old name. I didn't look away from the light.

"What are you talking about?"

A sigh. "I've been trying to talk to you for the past hour yet you run away every time I say…anything!"

"Run?" I dared to glance sideways. "I wasn't running away from you. That's just a coincidence. Hell, I'm not running now. Paranoid much?"

"It's a pattern. Not a coincidence. I'm not paranoid. You're avoiding me."

"Hmm, sounds paranoid to me."

"Figures. Now you're gaslighting me about it."

"Gaslighting? That's a great conspiracy theory you got there—"

"I'm sorry, alright!" His voice echoed with the statues. "There. That's all I wanted to say. I'm sorry. I didn't…I didn't mean to say that you didn't give a damn about anyone. I know it's not true. You wouldn't have bothered to come with me…to help me save Dustil if you didn't care. I'm sorry for saying that—it was just…the heat of the moment...and this stress getting to me…"

Great. Just what I wanted to avoid. I didn't say anything after that. I kept staring at the light, leaning on my knees, trying to ignore both Carth and the…uneasy feeling from within this tomb.

The silence must have annoyed Carth though. "Why were you avoiding me?"

That made me finally look at him. Carth was visibly distressed. Sad. I frowned.

"I was avoiding you because we should focus on finding Dustil. Also, I don't want you to apologize. Since you're right."

"Wait, right?" He sat back. "No, it's like I said, it just—"

"—came out because you're used to saying it. Wes didn't give a damn about anyone. Wanted to run away to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Maybe still does. Darth Revan didn't give a damn about anyone. Obviously. So, nope, for once you're very right."

"Force, stop trying to convince me that I was wrong!"

"Yeah, well, you're wrong about being wrong."

"Wha…? Damn it, why do you have to be so stubborn about this?"

"I don't need your apology. I thought that was pretty clear."

"So, you don't accept it? Accepting a kriffing apology is beneath you now?"

I paused. "I would. If it was needed." I sighed. "Can we drop it?"

"Wes…"

I glared. Carth's face had turned from frustrated to sad again.

"What?"

"Has anyone ever…apologized to you?"

Huh? I looked at him as if he'd grown another head.

"Sure. Right now. It's annoying."

"No." His gaze was serious. "Not in general. I was thinking back there…did the Jedi apologize for abandoning you…?"

What was he saying?

"For abandoning me and Bastila on this mission? No. Practically kicked me out the door with a 'may the Force be with you.'"

"No. Kriff…" He rubbed his forehead. "I forgot. You wouldn't have known so they wouldn't have."

"Known what?"

"I still think that it was a mistake for the Jedi to not support Revan during the war. I think it made things worse. After getting to know you, I'm even more convinced that their lack of support is what hurt you in the long run. In fact it might have been what made Revan go to war with the Jedi and the Republic in the first place."

I felt my fist tighten. "That conclusion you made is worthless. You got to know Wes. Not Revan. I was a smuggler who wouldn't have joined this war or any war of my own volition."

"No, actually I think you would."

I blinked at the soldier. Was he really this obtuse?

"You haven't been paying attention then."

"Oh, I've been paying attention. Paranoid, remember? Something I noticed about you is that you can't stand any injustice for long. All problems must have a solution now. You always act. You risked the mission to help the Wookiees. Helped Sunry as his Arbiter—though he might not have deserved it in the end. You followed me here despite it being a better idea to stay behind. I'm starting to think that all of that complaining about joining this war, about the bond, it was posturing. If you could join the Mandalorian Wars just like before, you would have."

The coin glimmered in the light of the lightsaber. I felt my shoulders fall. He still wasn't getting it.

"No. I don't remember going to war as Revan, I remember surviving in the Outer Rim for most of my life. All I do is…run away."

"Well, if you wanted to run away you weren't trying that hard. Sure, you don't remember being Revan but in some ways you still act like him. So, yes, after getting to know you I think I…understand why Revan fell."

You really haven't learned a thing, have you? Stubborn, arrogant…failure. You act exactly like him. You're Darth Revan, after all. Vrook kept saying I acted like Revan, but how much of that was simple confirmation bias? How had Revan acted before?

Cold. Calculating. Sociopathic.

"I was a Sith Lord. What would the Jedi even apologize for? Whoops, sorry you fell to the dark side. Sorry you started a war that killed thousands. Millions. Billions."

He frowned. "I don't think that's what they should apologize for. Did they apologize for abandoning you and the other Revanchists during the war?"

It was a dumb question.

"Of course not. They wouldn't have had a chance to though given my lack of memory of participating in said war."

"Yeah. That's why I said you wouldn't have known." He growled, waving a hand. "Forget it."

Yet, would they? I thought back to my training and the rare times they spoke about Revan's fall. Every time they talked about him, they mentioned how arrogant he'd been. How dangerously curious he was about Sith artifacts, how it was his mistake that he'd joined the war in the first place. It was always implied that if he hadn't gone to war he and Malak would have never fallen.

"I don't think they would have even if I remembered." I shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They're probably dead anyway."

"Well, they should."

I raised a brow at him. "What makes you say that?"

"Selene."

"Huh? What about her?"

"The Sith killed her because she was helping Dustil heal from…Telos. They killed her because they knew she could help him come back to the light. I…wasn't there to save Dustil and it poisoned his life. Who was there to save Revan?" He shook his head. "No one. You had no one. That's what they should apologize for. The Jedi Masters should have been there to help you, not abandon you the moment you defied them. If they had been there, none of this would have happened."

You were alone. Tainted. Why would you ever go back? After everything they did? After all of the pain and suffering they wrought with their inaction? Judgment and scorn. That is all that you would receive. No medals. No warm embraces. Nothing.

Only darkness.

I was about to answer him yet the light flickered once then twice before disappearing. We both shot onto our feet, Carth rushed to the light and tried to turn it on again. He hit it against his hand yet it refused to come back on. A large presence in the Force that felt similar to Exar Kun's ghost pulsed from within the tomb. Cold fingers brushed my face near my scar and I took a wide step back at the tingling sensation around me. Carth flinched as well, taking five steps back.

"That isn't funny."

I narrowed my eyes. "What?"

"Tapping my shoulder. Are you five?"

"I didn't."

"Now really isn't—"

The statue…shifted. Carth cursed and we both dove away from it as it toppled to the ground, crumbling into millions of pieces. The dust from it rose, causing me to cough after I breathed in thousand-year-old particles. Lovely.

I stood and scanned the area near the statue with the Force. Something or someone was there. A shadow moved in the darkness towards the maze.

"There!"

I grabbed Carth by his arm and dragged him toward the shadow. Once he got his bearings I let him go and he slowly ran after me. I chased the mysterious shadow that almost killed us, using the Force as my eyes.

"Come on, it's getting away!"

"What?"

"A ghost."

"Ghost?" He groaned. "No, come on, there is no such thing."

"You don't believe in ghosts, Carth?"

"Of course not!"

"After everything we've been through…ghosts are too much of a stretch?"

"We've never seen ghosts."

"Well, I saw one on Yavin. A Sith one."

"No. Stop. There aren't ghosts for the love of—"

"Hmm, actually maybe you can't see it since you can't use the Force."

"You're joking."

"For once, Carth, I'm not."

The shadow turned the corner towards that obelisk from before. I hesitated then ran towards it once I saw it bleed into the stone. I stopped with Carth huffing beside me and hovered my hand over it, barely touching the smooth surface. I took a deep breath and pressed my hands onto the stone, sensing the cold with the Force. Something was blocking our way, preventing whatever entity that was beyond from letting us pass. Why? Why wasn't it letting us through?

Ajunta Pall despised the Jedi and the Sith who betrayed him. And so, he made sure that only one of great power could gain passage to his body and soul.

Sparks lit my fingers as I thought about the pain…about the past. I lit the obelisk with Force lightning, the sparks danced about the air, warming the stone. Carth took many paces back as I lit the thing up.

"What are you—?"

The rock shifted and sank into the ground, revealing the dark chamber beyond with steps that trailed down and around. The shadow must have trapped Dustil down here for nefarious reasons. We climbed down the steps, going as fast as we could in this darkness, before we finally reached the bottom of the tomb.

Blindly, we walked into the chamber of the sarcophagus. The air was frigid—our breath made clouds as we walked in. The shadow that marked Ajunta Pall's tomb felt like a black hole in the midst of space. Strangely I sensed…warmth too. I used the Force to try to sense Dustil's location and spotted him immediately at the top of stone steps leaning against an intricately designed sarcophagus. He let out a pained moan.

"Dustil!"

A chill brushed the air, cutting Carth off. He took a step back as if he felt it too before he cursed when the shadow corporealized into the figure of a man. The same balding robed man as the statue. Unlike Exar Kun's ghost, this one felt…old. Older than anything I'd ever felt or seen. His eyes were pure black, his skin wrinkled, the outline of his body wavered almost like a holo yet I could sense the figure's presence.

The ghost lit up the tomb so that we could finally see where we were. It was an exact replica of the foyer except instead of a marble statue, there was the sarcophagus. In the far back, three statues stood—each a Sith Lord with the one in the middle representing the ghost before us. Carth didn't hesitate—he lifted his blasters and shot multiple rounds at the Sith ghost. The bolts rippled through the ectoplasm, making useless waves. I froze, waiting for it to attack, but when it didn't I stepped up to his side with a shaky smile and raised brow.

"Not real, huh?"

He was not impressed.

"Too long…" The ghost's words were echoey as if he was speaking to us over a large distance. "Too long in the cold and the dark."

"Can…you see us?"

My own voice echoed. His dark eyes looked up from his blank stare and made eye contact with me with such intensity that I took an unconscious step back.

"I am disturbed again? A human…"

Dustil groaned again and sat up, rubbing his head.

"What…is going on…?"

"Dustil." Carth stepped around the ghost who, thankfully, didn't attack him. "What the hell were you thinking!?"

His son shot onto his feet yet staggered back onto the tomb. He released his lightsaber and the red blade hummed.

"I've had enough of this, father! I won't hear it! If you want to live, stay back—" He glanced at the ghost and his mouth gaped. "Gah!" He shuffled back and away, behind Carth—using him as a shield. "No. Is this—? It can't be…"

"Do I know you?" I asked. "Have I been here before?"

The ghost hovered near me, so close I smelt something like dust or iron.

"It...seems as if we have met."

I tried to think…tried to conjure Revan's memories but there didn't seem to be anything familiar about this ghost. If we had met, a memory would have arisen by now like all the others I'd had while exploring this tomb.

"No, I don't think we have."

"Are you certain?" I felt something brush my head, my scar, again. It was invasive. "You...the Force is with you. So strong, so bright." His sad eyes looked deep into my soul. "Ah, you remind me of someone I once knew, so long ago…"

"Are you…" I glanced at the many corpses strewn about. "Ajunta Pall?"

He took a moment to answer.

"I had a name, once. Ajunta Pall. Yes, right, that was my name. I was one of many. We were servants of the dark side. Sith Lords, we called ourselves. So proud. In the end we were not so proud. We hid...hid from those we had betrayed. Here. We fell...and I knew it would be so."

"He's a Sith Lord from ancient times." Dustil shook, his hand shivered, as he took another step away from the ghost. "His ghost is still here."

"Ancient?" His form hovered closer to the sarcophagus. "Has it been so long that you use the word 'ancient'?"

"It's been about two to three thousand years give or take," Dustil said. "You must know some Sith secrets. Powers that have been forgotten. You must tell me. I need prestige—"

"Ah." His spirit wavered. "I have been here so long, so lost, I cannot...cannot remember…" His wrinkled face dimmed. "We were the first. The first to rebel, to betray. So strong, we thought…" He sighed. "So wrong…"

"Wrong?" Dustil sounded insulted. "You were the first Sith Lord of Korriban. If you think it wrong then all of us…would be wrong."

I ignored Dustil's arguments.

"Who did you betray?"

"Our Jedi Masters. Those who had taught us to use the Force...who warned us against the dark side. Yet we embraced it in secret, reveled in its power."

"Why?" I stepped forward. "Why did you use it? You must have used it for a reason."

"It…" He shuddered. "I do not remember why. I don't think it matters anymore. We were...discovered? Or did we act? I can no longer remember. But here is where we came...to hide, to grow. And here we fell." He glanced about in the darkness at the statues. "Our temple...our tomb. Built far from our enemies. We revered power and threw off the teachings of our old masters. It...we were not the first to fall to the dark side. But we had more power than those before us. It...came from elsewhere…"

What?

"Where?" I felt my chest hitch with fear. "Where did this power come from?"

If there was a source of all of this, we had to get rid of it. Ajunta Pall's ghost flickered. His eyes smiled.

"Our oldest secret. Only we would know, we lords. Only we would know where our power came from…"

"Tell me."

My words were dark. Forceful. I stepped closer to the ghost, feeling the cold dark side energy rushing off of him. His eyes kept smiling at me.

"I cannot, human. It is a secret of so long ago, I no longer remember. You who bristle with the Force, you must find this place…" He stopped smiling. "Or have you? Or did you? Or…will you? Oh, so many images."

He wasn't making sense, but I needed answers now.

"Do you remember Revan?"

"Revan." His dark eyes blinked. "No. That name isn't familiar to me."

"You said that I was familiar though?"

His eyes scanned me again. "I see your heart, human Jedi. I see your power, your pride. You will find, or have found, the old place, the dark place…and you will regret it."

A chill rushed up my spine at his words.

"Why would I regret it?"

"So much power…" He winced away from me. "It is blinding. I...I remember so little."

This was pointless. He'd forgotten so much and was forgetting things even as we were talking that this conversation was going to go nowhere. When I didn't respond to the Sith, Carth took over conversing with the ghost he hadn't believed in.

"How did you fall? What happened?"

"Is it not...obvious what happened? We destroyed each other. Here…I was laid to rest after I was killed, betrayed myself, with a blade of night. We desired the secrets of each other, to increase our power. We battled until finally our fortress rained down on top of us."

He sighed. "I suppose that's the nature of the dark side. Power, but no longevity. Eventually it just consumes itself."

"You're wrong, old man." Dustil spat. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. The strong survive, and the weak—"

Ajunta Pall chuckled. "Is this strength? To wither away here…as a ghost…forever chained to the darkness?" Dustil's face shifted into horror at the ghost words. Ajunta sighed. "In life I desired…strength. Immortality. I have earned it yet…here our old secrets are buried yet none of us remember it anymore. Is that not right? With immortality, our power fled." Anger. It permeated through the Force. "Oh, what became of us? Do...do the Sith still thrive? Did they ever return?"

Dustil's mouth opened and then closed. He was in shock. So, I answered.

"Yes. They did. As they always do."

His image wavered as he closed his dark eyes.

"So much...so much time has passed, and yet we have learned nothing...nothing…" I felt…pain in the Force as he looked at his tomb. "Immortality? No. A corpse as I am a corpse. I am dead, as my faith...is dead. And I shall remain here—surrounded by blackness in death as in life…"

It was odd how sad this Sith ghost was. With Exar Kun I felt power and rage, yet perhaps after years, after generations, he may end up like Ajunta Pall is now. Suffering in the dark, alone, into this nothingness. Who deserved that kind of torture even if it was of his own making?

"I feel sorry for you."

He opened his eyes and smiled.

"As did my Master…all those years ago." His smile wavered. "I'm sorry. Those were his last words to me. When I…killed him, I disposed of his broken lightsaber yet his kyber crystal…I took it with me. I intended to corrupt it yet…never did. I…do not know why I kept it. I cannot remember."

"You felt sorry for what you did," I said. "You kept it to remember him."

"No. A Sith doesn't feel…I…" He shivered with the wind. "Yes. I…did. It's…" He pointed at his tomb. "There. It has been with me ever since. Even at the end." His face twisted into a sneer. "Take it and go. My darkness awaits me..."

"Take it?"

"It…shouldn't be there…in the hands of a murderer."

I glanced at Carth, he gave me a concerned look back, then at Dustil who hadn't said a word since he'd been shut down by Ajunta. Carefully, I walked up the stairs to the sarcophagus. Lifting my hand, I removed the lid with the Force, the heavy thing slid to the ground.

Ajunta had been wrapped in what had been white linen but after millennia it disintegrated away, leaving brown strips. Dressed in dark robes, the stark mummified corpse of the Sith Lord lay there with closed eyes, seemingly peaceful, yet his final expression was one of anger. In his hands cupped at his hips, he displayed a kyber crystal of pure blue. The middle pulsed with light—the warmth I'd sensed before. Some light had scared away the taint within the tomb.

I went to pick it up yet stopped myself.

"I can't."

Ajunta Pall's ghost hovered next to me.

"Why? I am offering you power…power even I couldn't wield. You are a Jedi. You should take it."

"Because I am no Jedi. I was a Sith. I'm a murderer too."

His face stretched, his bald head bowed, sadness so heavy hit me in the Force that I almost cried.

"I see." A cold hand hit my shoulder. "A cruel fate we share then. My Master would never let me return to the light side. It is too late...too late for us."

I turned and looked up at the ghost.

"No, I don't believe he would turn you away. You have suffered long enough—longer than your Master ever suffered. Isn't that justice? Suffering for thousands of years in the dark. It has to be enough."

"If...if I could return." He shook his head. "No. I cannot go. Not without forgiveness. I…deserve this."

"No one deserves this. And...no one who would have cared is alive to forgive you." I faced him. "You need to forgive yourself."

"Master…" His eyes, once dark, lightened, revealing silver eyes. He looked at me as if he recognized me. As if he saw someone else. His Master. "Oh, of course. That's who you are. My Master, it has been...so long and I regret…so much. Please take it. Take your crystal—the Mantle of the Force. Forgive me."

I had to now. Even if I didn't deserve it. Even if it would, once again, go into the hands of a murderer. If it stopped his suffering, it wouldn't matter.

I used the Force and removed the bright blue kyber crystal, the Mantle of the Force, from his dead hands. It glowed brightly in my fingers, warming them as I felt its edges.

"I forgive you."

Immediately, the cold vanished. As I turned, Ajunta Pall's ghost dissipated into the air. Gone forever. What had once been a black spot in the Force near the corpse was now nothing. My warm breath no longer mingled in the air. I shoved the crystal into my pocket, next to the coin.

He'd returned. He'd forgiven himself. And now…he was one with the Force.

The holorecording wavered in the darkness just as Ajunta Pall's ghost once had. Dustil sat on the steps before the now toppled statue of the ancient Sith Lord. Carth sat beside him after he set up the memory core to play using his datapad. The light of the torch once again flickered across their faces. I gave both him and his father some distance as they watched the evidence play.

"...you know, I think I might love him." Mark VII didn't respond. Selene snorted. "What am I even doing…talking to a tin can like this…" Silence. Then she sighed. "After that Echani woman brought us here, Dustil refused to go through the training. He was still…loyal to the Republic. They were going to kill him if he didn't try. So, I convinced him. Told him that…his father left him." She sighed. "Now he helps me and I can't stop thinking that…I made a mistake—"

"I'm sorry."

Mark VII's hands lifted and with great force he shoved her over the side of the valley.

The holo clicked after it stopped.

Dustil rubbed his forehead, hiding his face. Carth gripped his shaking shoulder. I leaned against one of the columns as I watched the scene.

"She lied to me." His voice cracked, I could sense tears. Heartbreak. "She lied. She lied and loved me and…"

Carth rubbed his son's back.

"It's okay…take your time."

"No!" Dustil shot onto his feet. "They killed her! The Sith…killed her. If I hadn't been close to her—"

"No, son, that wasn't your fault." Carth stood and held Dustil's head like one would to a child, steadying him. "They killed her in order to manipulate you. They're evil. I could never blame you for that."

"How…" He took a deep breath through his tears and then closed his eyes. Put himself together. "They have to be stopped."

Carth lowered his arm. He glanced at me.

"We're working on it—we came to Korriban to find a Star Map. It will lead us to the Star Forge, the Sith's ultimate weapon. When we find the Star Map at the SIth trial, this war will end." He smiled. "I'm…so glad you've seen the light, son."

"I...I have some other friends here. I have to warn them about what's going on before the trial. And maybe I can, you know, look around and find out some more information. From the inside. Something that might help you."

Carth shook his head. "I don't suppose there's any way I could talk you out of that, is there? I mean, you're not going to do anything halfway." He chuckled. "Sounds familiar."

He grinned back. "I guess…it does."

"I'm proud of you, Dustil." He patted his son's shoulder again. "You aren't hanging onto a lie after you see it for what it is. Not everyone could do that."

"Yeah, well, there's no way I want to end up like…that." He cringed at the Sith statues. "And I need to honor Selene's memory somehow…" He paused. "By the way, Father?"

"Hm?"

"You…saw that ghost right?"

"Yes…" He frowned in my direction. "I saw it, alright?"

"But, how?" Dustil scratched his head. "Only Force sensitives—"

A rumble interrupted their conversation and we all faced the entrance. Dustil took out his red lightsaber and brandished it as the morning light created a shadow in the tomb. As the stone door rose, I immediately recognized the shadows beyond.

Yuthura stood with her hands on her hips. She seemed…pissed off. At her side, Mission looked nervously at me. Instead of Jolee, for some reason, she'd gotten the Sith Twi'lek's help. I narrowed my eyes at Yuthura. What did she do to her?

She gave Dustil a smirk.

"Nice going there, initiate. Falling for a trap like that…you're lucky I'm merciful today." She waved. "Go."

Dustil sheathed his lightsaber and ran out, giving his father one last forlorn look. Carth and I followed him out at a slower pace. Yuthura crossed her arms once I made it to her while Mission walked to my side as far away from her as possible.

"And you're lucky Lashowe wasn't paying attention." She waved at the sword which had been put back into the pedestal. "I keep telling you, Gale, attachments only weaken a Sith. If I hadn't been here to rescue you, you would have been trapped in that tomb and you wouldn't have made it to the trial." She glared at Carth. "The Republic soldier leaves the Academy. Now. Or I will kill him myself."

Carth sighed then shot me a small smile as he left for Dreshdae. I watched him go with pursed lips. His son was truly saved from the Sith and with it, some amount of...peace washed over the soldier. Peace that I hadn't felt from him even after Saul Karath's death. This is why we fight, we fight for those we love. The morning sun cut into the valley. I walked over to the sword and took it out of the pedestal. The entrance once again closed but this time it would shut forever.

I used the Force to throw the blade back into the tomb.

Yuthura grabbed my shoulder.

"No! What was that for?!" She tried to use the Force on it but it was too far and too late. "We could have finally explored Ajunta Pall's—"

"There's nothing left to find."

"You wouldn't know." The door shook the ground as it shut. "Not like it matters now."

She paused as she looked Mission up and down. I sensed…rage as she did so. So much so, I stood between them.

"What did you do to her?"

Yuthura snorted. "Nothing."

"Okay, then how did you know we were trapped?"

"Your 'slave' came to me on her own. I did nothing to her. I would never—" She stopped herself before the anger became too overwhelming. "Find me at the training grounds after you've eaten. We need to prepare for the trials."

She stormed away again, and I felt…pain of a sort rushing down her back. Something was troubling her. The poison. Ah, right. So, HK-47 was successful. For some reason that didn't reassure me.

Mission stepped up to my side.

"Wes, I'm sorry…"

I sighed. "Don't apologize. I just…don't know why you went to get her help."

"Well, I actually ran into her." She looked to the ground. "Jolee and I found the tomb closed so we split up to try and find the sword I saw. We didn't know who had it. That's when I ran into her. She asked me…why you'd enslaved me. Why I…was here. Who my first master was and—"

Wait, what? Why would she care?

"Why was she asking you that?"

"I don't know!" Mission took a deep breath. "I lied, of course, and said I was bought from Sleheyron. She got really quiet after that. Then she asked if I was owned by Nilo. I was…I was a little scared so I said sure. After that, I didn't want her to ask me any more questions so I told her about you getting trapped in this tomb. She took off after that. I wanted to go after her, but she was so fast…so I just came back here."

I frowned. Nilo? That was rather specific. Was she figuring out that Mission wasn't my slave? The thought of her discovering Mission's vulnerability made my heart flutter with terror.

"You need to lay low until the trial. Take this." I took off the stealth unit around my waist and passed it to her. "If you run into trouble, use it. Go find Jolee and get back to the Ebon Hawk. I'll go get Canderous and Juhani tonight at the cave…and bring them too."

She smiled. "We're getting everyone together again?"

I nodded. A battle was going to happen the day of the trial so we needed to prepare for it. After I got the Star Map, this place was going to burn to the ground. It was my duty now to destroy everything that Revan had built. In the meantime, I needed to act like the perfect Sith student to Yuthura these last few days…even if I had to do more awful things.

I put my hand in my pocket, the crystal was still warm compared to the cold of the coin beside it.

At least…I knew the Ebon Hawk crew would forgive me in the end.

Sigh...Ajunta Pall. I thought his redemption in the game was so beautiful, a great antithesis to Malak in the game with his situation and his quotes, but I always wanted a bit more from him to suggest that he might have had some regrets in his life while, well, he had been alive. And so I planned for his Master's kyber crystal to be here as a representation of that regret instead of the sword...that was used to kill him...yeeeeah, not a believable redemption trigger there XD!

I also always planned for Carth and Dustil to reconcile here. It seemed...fitting (and hell I think anyone would reconsider being a Sith after seeing Ajunta on top of everything else lol). Look forward to seeing more of them :)

I hope you enjoy my changes! We are getting close to wrapping up Korriban - next chapter will focus on Yuthura Ban. Oh and thank CreedTheCheshire for your review - I do love Wes moments...it is fun to write his antics ;)