Chapter Twenty
Revan nearly tripped and fell three different times trying to make his way to Bastila's cell. She was on a different floor than Caius and Xristos, as he had deemed her more important.
He burst through the last remaining door, slammed his foot into some object, and let his inertia carry him to her. She was sitting alone in the cell. Her back was wedged into the corner and her face was buried in her arms as she was curled up into a ball.
The sight agonized him; he felt that he was witnessing, right at this moment, his greatest moral failure. In the dark room he could only vaguely see that she stirred as he came in. He could see her head lift and look at him. He felt so sick, so terribly corrupted at beholding this image. She was so pure and wonderful to him; he couldn't believe he had allowed this to happen. Never, in all his life, could he have imagined that this would happen. He had once loved her so dearly…and now he felt that he did again, even though it was too late.
He panted, "Bastila…"
Her voice croaked and squeaked, a weak, defeated sound coming from the cell. It said sadly, "Please go away…I can't bear to see you."
He just repeated her name, "Bastila…" He fell to his knees in front of the iron bars of her cell; he clasped his hands together and bent over, looking down at them as they rested in between his knees. His position suggested of some kind of sorrowful penance, as though he was now going to try to atone for everything he had done.
Bastila just groaned quietly, hoping that he would leave.
He said, without raising his head, "Bastila…I am so sorry…"
She gently stirred, but did not speak.
"I am so sorry for all of this—these words…they do not even properly convey the degree of anguish I feel over this." Even now, his formal style of speech was constricting him, he just wanted to spit it all out, but he couldn't. He could only use this language that did not do his feelings justice. He simply continued, "I know you won't forgive me…but I want to try to fix this." He gulped, and he felt his eyes sting, before trying again. He said, "I cannot stand by and allow you to die. I cannot. Bastila…I know you don't believe me…but I love you."
A sort of breathy, choked up sigh came from her as she tried to speak. She asked simply, "Why…why are you doing this?"
"I don't even know anymore," he said woefully, "I was trying to help the Republic…trying to do the right thing. I got confused…lost…I was stupid, Bastila. I know you won't ever trust me again, but…" he clenched his fists harder, but dared to look up at her for the first time since breaking into the room. He could see her steel blue eyes, very watery, through the darkness. Just a gray silhouette and those eyes…it was haunting. The glared right into him, and felt his sight beginning to fog up as well. "But," he gulped, "will you let me try to fix this? Will you trust me? I will get you out of here, Bastila, my love, I don't care what it costs me, I will save you."
He heard a light sniffle, and she spoke again, her voice wet with emotion, "Can you…save me from yourself?"
He had no true answer to this. He only replied sorrowfully, "I can only ask you to trust me…" He slowly leaned forward and held his hand out. In it, he had her comm link. He gently moved his hand between the bars to her cell, beckoning her to take it. He said, "Call your ship…if you can contact it…I can get you out of here."
Slowly, Bastila uncurled from her corner and stretched towards him. She was on her knees still, and one hand on the ground, moving towards him very deliberately. She cautiously reached for his hand.
He held his palm out flat, waiting for her. He wanted so badly to touch her hand, just to feel it again, but she did not indulge him. Her hand shot out quickly, like a serpent, and snatched the comm link out of his hand before he even knew what had happened. He sighed and slowly closed his hand, pulling it out of the cell. He stood up as she began to activate it and said again, "I'm so sorry…"
Allie quickly wheeled around one of the obstructions that jutted out of the wall of the outside of the Sith complex. HK took cover beside her. On the other side of the building, almost inexplicably, a great gathering of Sith had burst outside, guns blazing. They had even fired at the ground as they exited the building, apparently prepping for some kind of skirmish.
"How many are there?" Allie asked.
"Answer: I believe anywhere from ten to three dozen," responded the droid.
Allie gulped—his answer was not helpful, but it did not matter as whatever number it was, they could not defeat them by themselves.
"Statement: I believe I have arrived at a possible strategy for disposing of the Sithbags," HK informed her.
"No, HK," she said quickly and quietly, "we don't need to fight them, we just have to get inside."
Somewhat nonplussed by this information, HK said, "Query: Err…if that is the plan, then why not use this door?" He gestured several yards the other direction.
"A door?" Allie asked, though she did not want nor listen to HK's crass response. She sidled as close to the wall as possible to get towards the door HK had indicated. Once she reached it, she was rather shocked at its simplicity—it seemed to be a simple, forgotten back door, like one that would be found at the back of a cheap restaurant.
"Statement: I believe it has been locked. But this flimsy excuse for defense could be easily blown open."
"No, HK," she said, once again admonishing the droid, "let me take care of it." She knelt down in front of the door and took a few slicing tools from her belt. "Just keep the coast clear."
"Statement: Yes, master's…friend."
Elliott was sitting quietly in the cockpit of the Hawk, thinking over everything that had happened. He was second guessing himself about four times a minute, and a heated argument with Dustil had not helped things. The Jedi had gotten so upset that they had almost come to blows. Fortunately for Elliott, the young man was still largely immobile, and could not sustain his wrath. He had almost fainted when he stood up and had to try to calm himself down. Elliott hurriedly escaped to the cockpit afterwards.
The subject of the fight had been Elliott's cowardice, or at least, that's what Dustil called it. The Jedi had called him the "most contemptible person he'd ever met" and then repeatedly challenged him to answer the question, "how can you live with yourself?" In truth, Elliott couldn't live with himself; that was why he always acted the way he did. So much had gone wrong in his life that he had resorted to just shoving it all away and ignoring it, but Dustil was not allowing him to live down this regret. It had only been a few hours since Allie had left, and even now he was being tormented by his decision. He did feel cowardly, he did feel like he had betrayed them, but he felt even worse because he believed that he could no help it.
Suddenly he heard the distinct buzzing and ringing of the comm link—Allie had left it behind after all. Slowly he reached for it. He grasped it tightly in one bleach white hand and clicked it on.
On the other end he heard hesitation and then a faint, dejected whisper. "Elliott?" it said, and he recognized the voice—it was Bastila, and she seemed to be…not herself. "Are you there?" she asked meekly.
"This is Elliott…" he said warily.
"Elliott," Bastila said, her voice becoming harder, though still overwhelmed with emotion, "can you get the Ebon Hawk in the air?"
"I…ca—"
She cut him off, "You have to listen to me…we've been captured, but we can escape through the roof of the largest black building in the area." She went on to describe the directions in detail. She then punctuated it with, "Elliott…get the Hawk to the roof so we can escape."
"What about the Republic?" he asked. "If we don't make it…"
"You have to do this!" she begged him, "they wouldn't make it anyway…"
"Okay," he said, and then shut off the transmitter before Bastila could respond. He opened his hand and let the device drop from his hand to the ground, bouncing haplessly on the hard surface of the Hawk's cockpit.
Now he was faced with an even worse dilemma. What would he do? Should he risk his life to save the crew? At the possible expense of the entire Republic, should he perish? Or should he abandon them and do the logical thing? That is, fleeing and reporting what they had found on Malacandra? He pondered these options silently, but Dustil interrupted his thoughts.
"Don't you dare think about leaving them," said the young man, who had somehow found the strength to walk to the cockpit. He was holding onto the navicomputer wall for dear life, leaning against it, as he was too weak to hold himself up. "Don't…you…dare…"
"You want me to fly our ship over the Sith city to save them?"
Dustil coughed, "Yes, I do."
"And what if we die?"
"Then we die," Dustil answered, "but we're going to try to save them. It doesn't matter if we went back now—we can't leave without Revan, he must know how to defeat the Sith. No one else does."
Elliott scowled tremendously, said, "You better be right, kid."
Silently, he was now leaning towards the rescue. Was this it? A chance for redemption? Would he take it this time?
Even though Revan had let her out of the cell, she still did not venture to trust him. She was only going along with this because the alternative was to remain in the cage, which she did not fancy. They quickly darted through the dark corridors, trying to manage a way to the roof. Revan was leading the way, his mask off and his hood down. He had explained that they were now exposed, a staged attack had led most of the Sith away, but any minute they would realize what had happened and were bound to turn on him and besiege the stronghold.
As they scampered through the darkness, they met up with Hsintah, who looked to be very heavily armed.
They ran as fast as they could, but suddenly a thought seized Bastila's mind—something she had forgotten because of her bewildered state, but something she knew she could not allow to go unspoken. She grabbed Revan's wrist and stopped him. The grip caught him off guard and he was nearly pulled off his feet as they were still trying to run.
He whirled around towards her, and once again she saw the temperamental fire in his eyes. He exclaimed, "What are you doing?"
"My friends," she said simply. "Where are they?"
"They were captured, Bastila, there's nothing you can do," he said, trying to be as vague as possible. "There's no way we can get them out now, we must save ourselves—if any are to be saved at all."
She stared at him for a few moments, but then looked down and released his arm. His words deeply hurt her—she was going to have to leave Caius and Xristos behind, it was not something she thought she could bear. Ironically, after coming all this way, and seeing what Revan had become, she felt that if it were up to her she would choose to have her friends back over him.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and continued following him up to the roof of their complex. She felt that she could not go on, not while abandoning her companions, but she saw she had no choice, and so continued on, but her heart was broken yet again.
Caius waited quietly in his cell. He had long since stopped speaking to Xristos; the guard had eventually gotten angry with them for making too much noise. After a few threats, they went quiet, and Caius thought about what the old man had said. He dwelt on his philosophies and words, thinking mostly about Allie. Xristos was right, he had been an ass—the old man didn't call him that, but Caius knew that's what he was. If he could've done it over again, he would not have treated her the way that he did.
Looking back, it was odd to think about how their "relationship" had even happened. Allie had been a last minute addition to the crew, only because of a change of plans concerning the navicomputer. He had not known how to regard her—she seemed younger than him, but she wasn't. She seemed like she would not be helpful, but she turned out to contribute more to the quest than he did. It was rather awkward for him. But in his cell he realized that the reason he had had such a hard time talking to her was because he had been attracted to her since the very beginning. The only problem was, being a Jedi, he hadn't known it. How would he know? The confusion made him distant and unlikable and bewildering, and it's a wonder she didn't hate him.
Although, he realized, she probably did after their last conversation.
Still, he knew now that she was special to him. They certainly made an odd pair, but then again who didn't? At least they would not have had the emotional struggles that Bastila and Revan had. And that would be a true blessing, or it would have been, had things turned out differently.
Caius's thoughts then wandered to Bastila. He wondered where she was, and he wondered if she was having as hard a time dealing with this turn of events as he imagined she would. She was strong, she could handle emotional trauma, but this would be a veritable holocaust for her. He did not think anyone could withstand being betrayed like this—if she had even been captured. The possibility entered his mind that she could be dead, but he didn't want to think about that.
His mind stopped wandering and he found himself staring at the guard, who was sitting directly opposite of his cell. Maybe he could try choking him. He had not really thought of using the Force against the guard until that point. Even if he succeeded in killing him, he could not escape, so the thought never entered his mind. Now, however, he was considering killing the guard just to take someone down with him.
He squinted in the darkness to determine when the best opportunity to strike would be, but he would not get the chance.
Inexplicably, the heavy metal door that led to the halls outside of the prison blasted open. Sparks and smoke exploded into a whirlwind of movement. The Sith screeched, rising from his chair and spastically going for his pistol.
There was another screeching hiss, but this one was altogether more familiar to Caius—indeed, it was like music to his ears. An incandescent blue beam shot out of the smoke and carved a swathe through the dark air. The Sith shrieked and fired, but two of his shots went wide and one was bounced off of the beam. There was some kind of scuffling noise and then the blue beam arched through the air and sliced through the Sith's torso. Its movement seemed distinctively wobbly, as though the wielder was unsure of how to properly use the device. The Sith, nevertheless, was split in half and fell to the ground in pieces.
Out of the dust and debris came a rather short Sith soldier who happened to be wielding the beam…a lightsaber. Caius was so stunned by the apparition that he did not know what to think, let alone do. It strode closer and then after staring into his cell for a second, spoke.
The voice caught him even more off guard than the image. Instead of the garbled, low voice of a Sith thug, it was high-pitched and sweetly pleasant. It said, "I found them, they're in here!"
"…What?" Caius ventured to say, as that was the only word his mind could process.
The Sith reached for its cowl and in one smooth gesture let it fall down.
Caius could not suppress a shout and exclaimed in the kind of stupefied shock that one person might only experience once in a lifetime, "Allie?"
She smiled crookedly, her teeth showing through her parted lips. Her wavy, brown hair was frayed outwards unnaturally because of the hood, and her face was dirty, but it was indeed her.
Xristos, apparently as stunned as Caius, said from the other cell, "Well…I can't say I expected to see you here!"
HK, covered in blood, then stumbled clumsily through the door and slammed his left arm against it as he came in. He said, "Statement: Six—I just slew six of those abominations, my behavior core is glowing. Query: And what is this? Do my photoreceptors detect the master?"
"HK…?" Caius asked, not sure that he was awake and not dreaming.
"Answer: Indeed, master. I have come with Madame Meatbag to rescue you."
Allie, not wasting any more time, held Caius's blue lightsaber to the lock on his cell until the energy beam tore through it. It made a strange popping noise before falling onto the ground. She then took a step into his cell and cut through his chains, freeing him from bondage.
Just as quickly as she entered, she moved to Xristos's cell and did the same for him. A few seconds passed, and then Caius heard his lighstaber deactivate. Allie then came towards him, a look of cold determination on her face, and then tossed him his lightsaber. She gave Xristos his, too.
"How did you learn to use a lightsaber?" Xristos asked.
Allie simply shrugged, "I don't know—I just turned it on and tried to swing it."
Xristos snickered slightly, said, "I suppose that is all we do, too."
Caius wandered out of his cell, but was still in shock. He simply stared at her. He felt, at this moment, that her dirty, bruised, and sweaty face was quite possibly—no, it definitely was—the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
"I love you," he blurted out.
Allie's brown eyes met Caius's, and he could almost see the uncomprehending confusion behind hers. She only managed to stutter an incoherent answer, "I…um…all…"
Xristos then cut her off, said to Caius, "Well, you are a romantic after all, but I think we would be better served escaping right now. Agreed?"
"I…uh…yes," said Allie. Caius nodded.
No sooner had she finished her uncertain statement than did a violent convulsion seize the entire structure. It seemed to come from an explosion, or some large collision, as debris fell from the ceiling onto the ground, dust flying everywhere.
"HK," began Caius, "can you lead us out of here?"
"Answer: Of course, Master—it is simply a matter of determining whether or not escape is possible at this point."
Ardashir stood outside the complex. His soldiers were beginning to lay siege to the fortress. Severus had betrayed them, this he knew. They had hauled out their bombs and were blowing the doors and walls down in order to break in. They would gut the complex and cleanse it of life.
"My Lord," began a captain, "we have broken in through three different avenues, but we are experiencing resistance from our own—confusion reigns."
"Shoot without discretion," Ardashir answered, "friend—foe; it makes no difference. Leave none alive."
"As you wish."
Inside, it was absolute chaos. Ardashir's Sith were breaking in through at least threw different outlets and were killing everyone inside. Some of Revan's Sith were fighting back, and some of them were fleeing. Some of them were attacking Revan and Bastila as they found him escaping and learned his true identity. All things considered, it was a mess.
A small group of Sith soldiers had attacked Revan in the hallway, but he and Hsintah cut through them with their swords. Bastila just watched indifferently. She felt as though she was just floating through this whole debacle. She was completely and utterly detached, unable to even muster the will to fight. She just stood there and watched.
One Sith flew at Revan and tried to pin him to the wall, it's hands on his face, but it was stabbed in the back by the Hasan servant and thrown to the ground.
Bastila took a large step over one of the dead, but as she glanced down she realized that the creature was still alive. She gazed at it awkwardly until she noticed that it was shakily holding a gun at her. It writhed and turned over, trying to steady its aim. She did not move, just stared emptily at the gun barrel. Just as the Sith seemed poised to pull the trigger, the gun was pulled from its hands by an unseen force, and then it was jolted sideways into a wall where it died.
Revan leaped in front of her and grabbed her wrist, shouted, "Come on! We are nearly there!"
Lord Ardashir entered the complex himself. He burst through a shattered wall and was immediately engaged by about six confused underlings who had once served Severus. As they fired at him, he calmly struck the ground. His fist punched into the dirt and, through the Force, blasted a sonar shockwave outwards. The shrieking wail gripped his attackers and broke their minds.
He stood up and calmly proceeded forwards.
HK led the small team through the corridors, wandering blindly from room to room.
"Where are we going?" Allie asked him, "do you even have a plan?"
"Answer:" began HK, "the most statistically probable avenue of escape in the event of an attack from the outside is via the rooftops. These buildings are not far apart—we should be able to make our way out."
"Over the rooftops?" Caius exclaimed. "That's our plan?"
"Statement: We have no alternatives."
Caius sighed and they continued on. They only made it through a few more identical, dark rooms before being assaulted by a relatively large group of Sith insurgents. Shockingly, they seemed to be warring against each other. However, as soon as they beheld the humans in the area, they ceased and opened fire, bullets spraying against the stone walls and ricocheting every direction.
Allie and HK ducked for cover, and Caius and Xristos did their best to dodge the myriad of shells. A quick strike with the Force threw most of the attackers backwards, and then they counterattacked.
HK unleashed a torrent of blaster bolts into them as they careened into the wall at the other end of the room, and Caius and Xristos threw themselves into the fray. Their lightsabers swept through the mangled heap, severing all sorts of limbs from an indistinguishable dark mass. The Sith were scrambling in all directions, but with the Jedi in their midst they could not fire at such short range. Allie vaulted into the mix and stabbed one of the Sith in the chest with a knife, and after a few more whirling lighstaber attacks, the entire group was dead.
"That was weird," Allie said. "What is happening?"
"Civil war?" Xristos suggested. "I don't know."
"Statement: We must proceed," HK informed them.
They made it through several more rooms and then found a staircase that took them to the next floor. They went fifty yards through the adjacent hallway and towards another staircase before Xristos halted them with a suggestion.
He said, "Wait—Revan must have some communications equipment here—you said you saw it, right Caius?"
"Well…yeah," said the Exile, surprised, "but why the hell are we stopping?"
"The Republic," Xristos said through labored breaths, "has to be warned. We need to contact Admiral Onasi."
"We can do that at the Ebon Hawk," Caius stated.
"No," the old man insisted, "our equipment is destroyed—we have to do it here or they won't be able to prepare a defense."
Caius did not know what to say to this—was it wise? HK spoke for him, said, "Statement: Time is of the essence, my sensors detect a high level of heat generated from potential communications stations at the other side of this floor; but escape after finding it would be unlikely."
As if to punctuate his sentence, several shrieking noises slithered out of the stairwell they had just emerged from, indicating that a group of Sith were on the way.
Caius tried to urge them onward, he said, "We can't do it, Xristos, we have to keep going."
"I'll go," he said.
"No!" Allie interrupted, "you can't!"
"The Republic is more important than one person," he replied, taking a deep breath afterwards.
The clamoring at the stairwell was becoming louder, and they were standing dangerously close to it.
"You can't go, Xristos, you'll die," Caius cautioned.
Xristos gave a wry smile, replied, "What is death but my birthday into eternity?"
"This is no time to get philosophical, old man!" shouted Caius over the approaching din. He and Allie took three instinctive steps towards the staircase to the next floor. "Come on!" he yelled, "come with us!"
There was an explosion of noise, and then a flurry of bullets blasted out from the lower stairwell. The shots chipped away at the wall, throwing dust and debris everywhere, blocking their vision. A minor explosion, perhaps from a small grenade, threw Caius to the ground. He rolled backwards, towards the upper staircase. Allie was next to him, and HK was ready with his rifle.
Xristos was wedged into a nook at the opposite end of the hallway, right nearby a corner. He had his lightsaber on, and he regarded them gravely, said, "I love all of you." There was another explosion, he continued, "If you find Bastila, tell her to remember what I said."
"Xristos—don't do this!" Allie yelled over the din, more bullets chipping away the wall and throwing dirt into their faces.
"Goodbye, my friends," he said calmly, "and may the Force be with you."
"No!" screamed Caius. There was another explosion; a flurry of movement, and the Exile lunged blindly out into the hall. He was immediately amidst a throng of Sith soldiers, his lightsaber carving through them almost automatically. He was scoured the dark corridor, but could not see the old man anywhere.
He was gone.
"Take care, my lord," said Hsintah before he threw himself into an entire battalion of Sith soldiers, hacking violently into them with his sword.
Bastila was watching in awe, but she was pulled back to reality by Revan. He gripped her arm, said, "Come on!" He pulled her along behind him towards the final staircase. Apparently Hsintah was not coming with them, using his life to buy them time. Normally she would have been thankful for such a sacrifice—but right now she simply did not seem to care.
Revan tugged her nearly limp body up what he indicated was the final staircase. As they ascended, the light was growing brighter, penetrating the cavernous blackness that was Revan's stronghold. The unnatural darkness was no doubt an affect of the Sith's attack, and it served to make the light of the outside world nearly blinding.
Revan burst through the final door and threw himself outside, Bastila at his side. He almost collapsed to the ground, but forced himself up, hands on his knees.
"Where is your pilot?" he roared.
Bastila paid him no heed.
The door that Revan had shut behind them was now at the hands of their attackers. The Prodigal Knight threw himself at it to keep it from opening, using all of his might and the Force to try to keep it shut, but slowly it began to inch open.
Bastila, however, did not watch him. She squinted out towards the horizon, watching the empty nothingness that was the skyline. She couldn't see anything, but she did not care to move. The wind rustled through her hair, blowing into her eyes and restricting her vision, but still she looked.
Revan yelled at her, "Help me keep this closed!"
She did not say anything, but was now watching a rapidly approaching object in the distance. It seemed to be streaking towards them at an unnaturally fast pace. It came closer and closer, revealing itself to be a dark red and white disk whirling towards them.
A strong blow from behind the door catapulted Revan three feet backwards and onto his back. He tried to roll to the side and cover his head, scrambling to prepare for the oncoming attack.
The streaking white disk then burst into flames. The front of it suddenly exploded into a red beam, and several laser bolts blasted past Bastila, over Revan's head, and ripped into the door that had just opened. The unfortunate Sith that had opened it were incinerated immediately.
Revan couldn't believe it, and, looking up, he saw the last thing he could have possibly expected: the Ebon Hawk, circling in the sky and preparing a descent.
Xristos knew that he would not survive this, but it was something he had to do. The Republic had to be alerted to the danger—there was not much time, so he had to do it now. He had not wanted to say this to Caius, but he doubted that they would escape. He needed to at least buy them some time. And if they all perished, then there was no way the Republic would ever be warned. He would have to do this now to make sure at least one warning got out.
He scrambled as fast as his old legs would carry him through the black interior of the fortress. He had opened three doors and found nothing, and time was growing shorter. He rounded a corner and set his eyes on another door, this one conspicuously ajar. He sprinted towards it, bashing it open with his shoulder, not even taking the time to stop running, and burst inside.
This was the right one. Inside were dozens of shimmering screens, wires everywhere, and somewhat archaic antennas. He had counted on this, since Revan had likely constructed this equipment, it would have an interface he could work with. A simple emergency broadcast would do the trick. Even if it were intercepted, it wouldn't matter now, as the Sith knew they were there and they would not be able to understand it.
He quickly ran to the nearest console and ran his hands over it, trying to clear the wires out of the way. He began working furiously at the machine, trying desperately to put in all the necessary information before sending it off. He heard footsteps clanking loudly in the distance, and he knew they were getting closer.
He set it so the message would repeat, and ordered it to broadcast not to any single point, but in the general area of Kuat—the center of the Republic military. Once it got there, any ship in the area could pick it up. Although civilians probably would not be able to understand it.
He then sabotaged the equipment, throwing the Sith communications channels into disarray. Through luck he stumbled across another computer that was monitoring the defense systems of the fortress. He scrambled the settings so that the turrets would fire upon identified friendlies. Lastly, he sent set off every alarm and emergency transmission that he could find, hoping to distract and confuse the Sith who tried to respond to the prison break. He might have even tripped an alarm in other buildings, he could not be certain. He simply had to destroy as much as possible.
The footsteps grew louder, and eventually manifested in the door to the comm room flying open violently, slamming hard into the wall.
Xristos hurriedly finished his work. No sooner had he done so than did he hear a loud crack from behind him; a horrid pain in his left arm immediately accompanied the noise. He fell to the ground, his right hand still holding onto the console. He used his good hand to turn his body around and threw a wave of the Force at his attacker in the process. The Sith soldier went flying into the wall and slumped to the ground.
The Jedi slowly got his feet, gripping his wounded arm. He staggered forward, tried to use the Force to stabilize himself as best he could, and then activated his green weapon.
The door flew open again and more Sith rushed through it, their guns blazing.
One of them lunged at him and he shifted to the side and let his sword cut through it like butter. Its body fell lifeless to the ground. The other Sith opened fire and he did his best to avoid getting hit, but could not stop them all.
More bullets tore into him, but the pain was almost gone at this point. He cut down two of the closest Sith, but they continued to pour in, running in closer. He was hit in his hand, causing his lightsaber to fly from his hand across the room. He fell to his knees, succumbing the vestibular nightmare. He was only vaguely aware of the horde swarming towards him. The mass of Sith overwhelmed him, all of them right there. His vision went. Then his hearing began to fade. Slowly it morphed from calamity to a high-pitched buzz, and then it disappeared.
He now felt that he was in a void, somewhere in between. So, he thought to himself lucidly, this is death? It is like…passing through a door…
He slumped to the ground, amidst the all the screaming attackers, and did not move again. His life expired, and all of his questions were answered.
Minutes later, Ardashir was given another report. Alarms had begun ringing wildly, and the automated defense systems of the fortress were now firing indiscriminately. A turret that had surprisingly turned on him had nearly shot him, but he dodged the bullets and then dismantled it with his mind.
An orderly hurried to report to him, "My Lord, one of the humans Severus was hiding sabotaged the defenses—we are being pinned down."
"Solve the problem," ordered Ardashir.
"We are trying, my lord, but with the defenses the way that they are—we cannot get to the roof, which is where they are headed."
Ardashir began to shut the orderly's trachea, but not enough to kill him. He ordered, "Get to the roof and stop them, do not fail."
Caius could feel it. Xristos had left, he could feel the little light of goodness that was on the other side of the building get snuffed out. And it was gone, as though it had never existed. He wanted to grieve, but he couldn't. Instead he was just angry. In a mad rage he had cut through nearly twenty of the Sith attackers. The entire group that had pursued them up the staircase was dead at his feet.
An explosion of loud noises, sirens, and explosions all set off almost instantaneously.
"What is that?" Allie asked.
"I don't know! Keep going!" shouted Caius.
Gunfire started erupting from almost every part of the building. Bullets flew everywhere, automated turrets firing on their Sith allies. The party rounded one corner and found almost two dozen dead Sith in front of them.
"They're…dead?" asked Caius.
"Statement: Move!" commanded HK.
They continued on. Caius insisted on taking the lead. Any Sith that he came across, that was still alive, he gutted, the body count growing incredibly large. Allie and HK both fought respectably, but Caius single-handedly slew almost all of them.
They stormed through the remaining passageways until HK alerted them, "Statement: The exit to the roof appears to be at the end of this staircase."
They quickly ran up the steps, skipping two and three at a time, until the reached the mouth of the corridor. Strangely, the door was unhinged and half a dozen dead Sith were strewn about. The frame of the door was blackened and charred, apparently from an explosion. The group nimbly stepped between the bodies and then emerged into the unrelenting brightness that was the outdoors.
Caius squinted, but then couldn't believe what he saw.
HK informed him that he wasn't dreaming, "Statement: I believe the Ebon Hawk is here already."
Sure enough, the freighter seemed to have landed right on top of the building, waiting for them. Caius tried to get a grip on what he was seeing, but still was having difficulties. He then noticed a figure standing out against the backdrop of the ship, merely waiting on top of the loading ramp.
"Bastila!" he called out as loud as he could. What is she doing here? he thought to himself. He reasoned that she must have escaped and brought Elliott to save them. Although it seemed very convenient.
The Jedi was completely caught of guard. One minute she was barely holding onto her will to exist, and then suddenly she saw half of her crew running towards her. Instantly her mind snapped into action. She yelled inside the ship, "Wait! Caius and Allie are outside!"
She then turned on her heels and ran down the ramp, towards the oncoming party. As she sprinted, she heard several wailing shrieks above her head. A glance upwards revealed that a dozen or so scarab-esque Sith attack fighters were lining up for a strafing maneuver. "Come on!" she urged them, "quickly!"
Shockingly, the AA guns situated around the fortress began firing upon the Sith fighters. Seven of them dropped almost immediately, caught completely unaware. The remaining planes rocketed out of the way—two of them collided—and began returning fire on the turrets. Three of them managed to break through the volleys of rockets and hail of bullets.
The first of the fighters opened fire. Caius and Allie ducked as the spray of bullets ripped into the ground around them. HK obstinately returned fire on the plane.
Another fighter lined up an attack, but this time Bastila was ready for it. It flew too low overhead, its shots going wide. As it passed, barely ten yards from her, she threw her lightsaber at the rear stabilizer. Strengthening it with the Force, the beam cleaved the stabilizer from the ship, sending it into a violent tailspin. It flipped out of control and smashed into a nearby building, bursting into flames.
Caius and Allie met up with her, HK bringing up the rear, and they moved back towards the Hawk as fast as possible. As they sprinted, the last fighter fired, but fortunately missed them. It screamed overhead, but was met with a volley from the Hawk, blasting it to pieces.
The group made it to the lowered ramp just as Elliott was lifting off. The ship shuddered as it raised from the ground. Bastila and HK deftly leaped inside, but Allie and Caius were still at the base of the closing ramp. As they turned around, the ship shuddered and threw them to the ground—the last remaining Sith fighter having struck it with a missile.
The blow did only superficial damage, but it had thrown everyone to the ground. Allie hit the surface of the ramp and rolled down it. She tried to grab onto something, but her inertia carried her away.
Caius, in a miraculously quick movement, torqued his body around and threw his hand out, grabbing her wrist before she was thrown outside the ship. However, she was still dangling halfway. The ramp was quickly shutting, and it if didn't crush her in the process, it would kill the rest of them if Elliott left the atmosphere.
Caius fused himself with the Force and pulled as hard as he possibly could. He had not tried to exert this much strength in his life ever before, but with only one arm he tried to pull Allie up and inside the Hawk.
His voice contorted as he tried to lift her, the pain from such exertion causing him to audibly scream. His veins bulged from his neck and his face reddened, but he somehow did it. He rolled over and pulled Allie's arm over his shoulder, just barely lifting her inside in time for the ramp to shut harmlessly.
He dropped her hand and gasped for air, not even bothering to get up. Allie was next to him, hardly moving, but still trying to get up. After three more labored attempts to breath, he tried to sit up. He looked down at Allie and asked, "Are…you okay?"
She pushed herself up and looked at him in the eye—she did not speak, only nodded slightly in the affirmative.
Caius realized that they were actually on top of each other, having not noticed it before. Allie's head fell downwards as she tried to breath, apparently having as much difficulty as he did. Without speaking, Caius put his arms around her and embraced her, bring her head to his right shoulder. He did not know why, but it just felt like the right thing to do. And as soon as she realized what was happening, she reciprocated. Neither of them moved for some time, they simply sat there resting.
The Exile's mind was a blurred whirlwind of images and noises, he could not think straight. He was trying to just gather his strength, but his brain wouldn't let him alone.
And that was when the finality hit him—Xristos was dead.
It couldn't be, not that grandfatherly old man who had always been there with annoyingly persistent philosophical advice. How is it that fate had allowed him to die? It was not fair.
The Exile realized that he would have to inform the rest of the crew. Bastila was no doubt wondering where Xristos was, though, considering her intelligence, she had likely deducted what had happened.
Slowly Caius let go of Allie and tried to stand up. She did not, but moved backwards and leaned back against a wall, letting her head fall back as she tried to rest.
Caius rose labouredly to his feet, took a deep breath, and then began to walk. The depression was hitting him hard, however. He realized that their entire mission had been a failure. Xristos was gone, the Sith were invading, and Revan had betrayed them.
Revan—it was his fault. They had come all this way and he had tried to kill them. What would he tell Carth? Or the rest of the Republic? Assuming it survived…
And then Caius was frozen. His gaze fell upon the man, beholding him—right there, just standing in front of him. Revan was standing innocently in the briefing room of the Hawk, and he didn't even see the Exile. Bastila and Dustil were nowhere near, and neither was HK. It was just the two of them.
How can this be? Caius thought. But the answer did not matter; now he would be given an opportunity for revenge. Rage welled up within him, roaring like fire. So great was his hate for this man that he could not even refrain from yelling as he lunged at him.
Revan turned around warily, completely unaware of what would befall him. He saw Caius out of the corner of his eye, but by then it was too late.
The Exile, still with the broken chains of his imprisonment on his wrists, wrapped them around his fist. He lunged forward and let fly the most violent punch he had ever thrown. The chain on his fist collided squarely with the left side of Revan's face, tearing into his flesh and Caius's hand. The Prodigal Knight went reeling from the blow, blood flying from his mouth. He fell onto one of the chairs nearby sideways, instinctively feeling the side of his face.
It did not matter that Revan was such a powerful Jedi—Caius had gotten the jump on him, and with the fury of the Dark Side behind him, Revan would stand no chance.
"You bastard son of a bitch!" Caius yelled. "Xristos is dead because of you!"
Revan tried to go for his blade, but Caius merely whacked it out of his hand, sending it across the room. The Exile then thrust his knee into his stomach, expelling the air from Revan's lungs. He gripped him by the shoulders and head butted him, sending the Knight to the ground. Revan flailed into a corner, his face broken and his body almost completely immobile.
Caius pulled out his lightsaber and activated it, letting it spin around his wrist. He said, "I'm going to enjoy killing you."
He raised his blue beam over his head, but Revan did nothing to resist—he was beaten. The Exile let the sword fall, but was suddenly met with resistance of a different kind. Two more blue beams, both of them crossed with his strike falling in between them and halting, intercepted his blow.
Bastila spun both of her lightsabers around and Caius's arm twisted, his weapon careening across the room to join Revan's. She held one lightsaber up to him, and another was pointed at Revan, who was still bleeding out of his mouth and forehead.
She said, "No one is killing anyone. Understood?"
Caius felt his rage boil over, but there was nothing he could do. He was now beaten. Slowly he ventured a look around, and he saw that everyone was there, Dustil was standing wearily behind a chair, Allie was next to him, HK and T3 were on the other side of the map, and even Elliott was there. Apparently, during the scuffle, they had jumped to hyperspace.
Caius took a step backwards, wiped his mouth, and then gathered his wits. He pointed accusingly at the bludgeoned Revan, said, "Do you understand what this man has done to us?"
Revan strained and stood up, favoring one leg and holding his hand on his face.
"Xristos is dead because of him," Caius stated.
Bastila, though she knew this, let her guard fall. Hearing the words hurt her, and she did not want to have to think about it.
Allie lowered her head and looked at her feet.
Dustil fell into the chair he was standing by, his hands shaking. "The old man…he's…dead?" he asked, disbelieving. His face twitched a little bit and he put his hand over his mouth and muttered, "That can't…no…"
Caius felt his eyes well up as he spoke. He couldn't even remember the last time he actually cried, and he didn't want to do it now, but the death of Xristos was too painful to try to stop it. He looked around and noticed that everyone else's eyes were watering too, even Elliott's. Bastila's head drooped.
Caius swallowed and said, "Whatever…but we…" he then pointed at Revan again and raised his voice, "I'm not going to forget this. I promise you."
Still Revan did not speak. He merely glared at Caius, and an intense, minute-long staredown resulted. It only ended when both of them heard Bastila's lightsabers deactivate and they instinctively looked at her.
Elliott tried to clear his throat and said, "We're on our way to an outer rim military outpost—some kind of station. We need fuel…so…we're going there first."
"Thank you, Elliott," Bastila said, her voice overcome with emotion.
Caius fell backwards into one of the available chairs.
"We'll be there in a few hours…" said Elliott.
No one answered him. Dustil tried hard to get up, and when he finally did he struggled to walk away, but said, "I want…I need to go away."
The rest of them all filed out of the room. Elliott went to the cockpit, Bastila took Revan to the medical room to try to heal as many of wounds Caius had inflicted upon him in the beatdown as possible. Allie walked by Caius, but only regarded him with a distant look, and then she left to go to her dormitory.
That left Caius alone with the two droids and his thoughts. He knew that he should not have exploded with such anger, but if anyone deserved it, it was Revan. Their whole mission had been compromised, and now it was as total a failure as could have been imagined.
Surely Nantaris would not be pleased—rather than finding out anything, all their expedition had managed to do was trigger war. Just as he had tried to caution them against. Caius believed that this would have to be the single most destructive disaster in Republic history.
And it would likely be the last.
Ardashir towered above his underlings as he stood on top of the ruined fortress that had once belonged to Severus. He watched as the Ebon Hawk launched into hyperspace, taking advantage of the confusion and fleeing. The infernal man that had stayed behind had bought them just enough time to escape. The Jedi was lucky he was dead, Ardashir would have broken him had his idiotic servants not slain the man. But they had. And the old Jedi had saved his companions—for now.
The Sith Lord had been duped. Severus had betrayed him and escaped, but it was far from over. His armada was ready; they merely needed to initiate their invasion.
His orderly was sprawled out on the ground, dead. It was not his failure that allowed Severus to escape, but Ardashir slew him anyway. He turned to a wary captain and bellowed, "Follow them."