"Who's this?" Mission asked when Arias walked in with Bastila.
Mission Vao was only fourteen years old, and was pretty much lived on the streets. Since Arias helped her find her wookiee friend Zalbaar, she and the wookiee joined their group. Mainly because Zalbaar pledged a life debt to Arias for saving him from the gamorean slavers.
Mission was average height for her age; she was roughly 5'6". She was a blue skinned twi'lek with brown eyes, and an intricate black headband that decorated her lekku. She wore a black t-shirt and a gray padded vest. She also wore gray shorts that went about midway down her thigh, as well as brown boots that stopped exactly where her shorts did. As for Zalbaar...well, he looked like what any other wookiee did. Covered in fur, black eyes, no clothing. And, like every other wookiee, he was pretty secretive. Whenever Arias tried to start up conversation with him, Zalbaar told him that he would honor their life debt, but he was not obliged to reveal anything about his past. Arias just gave up after his second attempt. If Zalbaar ever wanted to talk, he knew where to find him.
"This is Bastila Shan, a Jedi Knight," He emphasized, motioning towards the lightsaber hanging on her belt. It was twice the size of a regular hilt, in order to house the twin crystals that generated the dual blades.
"Oh, cool!" Mission replied. Arias wanted to face palm himself, just because he was completely dumbfounded by her response. "Nice to meet you, Bastila," She said, extending her hand for the Jedi to shake. "I'm Mission Vao, and this is my friend, Zalbaar."
Bastila smiled and shook Mission's hand politely, and also nodded at Zalbaar. The wookiee just nodded back; he was either shy, or didn't know if Bastila understood the wookiee language. "It's nice to meet you both," She said kindly. She quickly withdrew her hand, then said, "Now, where's Carth? I need to speak to him as soon as possible."
Just then, the refresher door opened, and Carth stepped out. "Did I hear my name?" He asked. He stopped dead in his tracks, and a smile of disbelief suddenly appeared on his face. "Bastila, you're alive! Finally things are looking up!" He said, laughing a little bit out of sheer relief. "This is- this is great! Now we just need to figure a way off this planet."
"What do you mean, Carth?" Bastila said, frowning at him. Arias suppressed a sigh, seeing where this was going. He jerked his head at Mission and Zalbaar, pretty much telling them to go talk somewhere else. Mission just nodded, and grabbed Zalbaar's hand and dragged him off. As he was being dragged off, he said something along the lines of, 'Aw, but I wanted to see the fight!' Arias chuckled a little bit, then turned his attention back to Bastila and Carth. "You mean you don't have a plan to get off Taris yet? What have you two been doing all this time?" She demanded.
"We were looking for you, remember?" Arias interjected.
"I see," Bastila said, merely glancing at Arias. "Well, now that I'm back in charge, perhaps we can start doing things properly. Hopefully things will go more smoothly than when you "rescued me" from Brejik." She said. And here Arias thought that incident had all ready been worked out. She has quite an attitude for a Jedi...
Carth frowned, his mouth hanging open as if he had just been slapped across the face. He looked at Arias, then he focused back on Bastila. He closed his mouth, and stepped forward to join the two of them. "Okay, first of all Bastila, I don't remember making you leader of our group." He said, his voice slowly rising from it's usual soft tone. "Second, a commanding officer doesn't start berating her troops just because things aren't going as planned. If anything, you should ask for our opinions and then make a decision on our next move."
"That hardly strikes me as a proper way of addressing your commanding officer, Carth," She replied smoothly, with just a hint of irritation underlining her tone. "The Jedi Council put me in charge of this mission, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm still in command. My Battle Meditation has won the Republic many battles, and I'm sure it will help us here as well."
Carth just frowned at her in shock; Arias and Carth were probably thinking the same thing right now: How the Hell does your Battle Meditation make you a good leader? Arias was willing to bet any amount of credits that Carth was thinking the same thing.
"Your talents may win us a few battles," Carth retorted; he was clearly starting to get fed up with Bastila all ready. Arias was starting to feel the same way. Is she all ways like this? "But that has nothing to do with your ability to lead. A good leader sets an example for her followers; a good leader doesn't insult her troops just because they aren't fully prepared in an unpredictable situation like this!"
Crap, this is gonna get out of hand pretty quickly.
Before Bastila could give Carth a venomous tongue lashing, Arias spoke up. "All right, first of all Carth, Bastila does have a point: You can't talk to your superiors like that, even if they are wrong." Carth remained silent, and just nodded in agreement. Before Bastila could open her mouth again, Arias continued. "Secondly Bastila, Carth is also right: You should be setting an example for all of us by staying calm and asking our opinions. Arguing isn't going to get us off this planet, so make peace with each other now."
Carth and Bastila stared at Arias; Carth wasn't expecting the outburst, and clearly, neither was Bastila. He laughed and shrugged. "What? I'm just speaking the truth."
Bastila chuckled a little bit, then turned to Carth. "He's right. Please, forgive me; these past few days haven't been easy for me, so I'm not in the best of moods. Of course, I am happy to accept any advice the two of you may have."
"Apology accepted, and I'm sorry too," Carth said quickly. It's not that he didn't mean it, it's just the way he spoke. "Well, first of all, we can't get hung up on who's in charge. We're a team, so we have to work together if we have any hope of making it off this rock alive."
"Well said, Carth," Bastila nodded. "I think we should start by asking around the cantinas; surely there will be someone with a ship who would be willing to sneak us past the Sith blockade; and the sooner the better. I've all ready been a prisoner of the Vulkars, and I have no intentions of being captured by the Sith."
"Don't worry," Arias assured. "We'll be sure that doesn't happen. Now, let's get going. I'm getting pretty tired of Taris."
Bastila just nodded in agreement, then her gaze seemed to drift off into space. Arias disregarded it, then went to check his equipment in case anything was missing. When he was nearly finished, Bastila grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the other side of the room. Before Arias could ask what was going on, Bastila interrupted.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, her features troubled. "You seemed a bit distracted on the way back from the race."
Well, if I want to have any clue about these...dreams, who better to ask than a Jedi?
He sighed, then finally spoke up. "Something weird happened to me when we first met. Like a vision, or something."
"A vision?" She asked, frowning in curiosity. "A vision of what?"
"Of you, fighting a Dark Jedi," He said with a shrug. "Revan, I guess."
"This is...this is strange," Bastila said. It seemed like she was trying to avoid looking him straight in the eyes. Rather, she tried to make it appear that she was searching for some explanation. "Such things are often a sign of Force sensitivity."
"Are you saying I can control the Force?" He asked hesitantly. This came as a shock to him; never in a million years did he think he'd be able to control the Force.
"The Force is complicated," She replied quickly. "During the aftermath of the battle, the Force might have allowed you a glimpse into one of my more...intense memories."
"But...it happened before the battle, not too long after I saw you in the cage."
"Really?" She said, genuinely surprised. In comparison to her current tone, everything she said previously sounded like an act. "Then...perhaps you are Force Sensitive. Perhaps if you...well, if you were younger, the Council would consider you for training. But, given our current situation...
"Please, forgive me. I've overstepped my boundaries. Come, let's get back to the task at hand. Perhaps we can speak of this later."
------------------
"This is...this is strange. Such things are often a sign of Force Sensitivity."
"Yes, Bastila," Revan said aloud as her voice resounded in his subconscious. "This is strange, for many reasons. But what I'm talking about is the fact that I can hear you, and sense you, when I can't sense anyone else outside of this prison."
Revan knew Bastila wasn't the only one Arias was with. He knew from little snippets of information that there was one Republic soldier with him, and two street urchins. If he tried hard enough, he could breach into Arias' mind and gain whatever information he needed. In fact, he was going to, until he sensed Bastila's presence turn from a whisper into a scream. Now he could sense Bastila's presence, and hear her. If he concentrated hard enough, he could block out her voice, but he couldn't block out her voice forever. Instead, he simply chose to ignore it.
"Perhaps I released the memory too soon. If I pull something like that before it's the appropriate time and place, she might become suspicious, and the Council would only place more powerful barriers in my way, and then the memories might never resurface," He paused once more, and thought about the situation and what Bastila's obvious presence might mean.
Revan had locked himself up in the training room soon after he sensed Bastila's presence. He placed a Force stasis barrier on both the Council chamber doors, and the door that led from the Enclave into the training room. Those lesser presences were probably Jedi, and they would have surely felt the death of..."Master Zhar." He soon figured out that in his subconscious, days moved faster. Within a few hours, morning was over and the middle of the day began; and within a few hours mid day ended, and evening began. The day cycles were probably irrelevant to that of the external world, so it was useless trying to keep track of the days that had gone by. Instead, Revan would have to try to pace himself, otherwise he'd exhaust himself.
"Maybe being trapped within my own subconscious is making me go crazy. Wait, if I were crazy, would I be aware of it? I doubt it..." Revan said to himself. "Wait wait wait, I must be a little insane to be talking to myself." He paused again, and chuckled a little bit. "These would technically be thoughts, though. After all, I am within my own mind, so therefore, when I talk to myself, I'm technically thinking. And if I could piece that together..."
Revan trailed off, and frowned to himself.
"Maybe I am going crazy...did the Council see this coming? I doubt it. If I am going mad, then should I just stop talking to myself? No, no, no, I'd be bored then. Plus, if I'm going to be pacing myself, I need something to keep me busy." He stopped, a thought occurring to him. "Maybe if I could just meditate? No, no, no, meditation increases one's capacity to channel the Force. If I meditate too much, I might speed up Arias' connection to the Force, and that would be very suspicious."
He stopped, and stared off into space. Something had just dawned on him; something that never even occurred to him as a possibility before. He leapt up from his cross legged sitting position on the floor, suddenly realizing what had been staring him in the face all this time.
"It's a Force Bond!" He exclaimed. "Bastila saved me from death, and now our fates are intertwined! Dammit...that explains it!"
He began quickly pacing back and forth, revelation after revelation coming to him.
"The only reason I can sense her and hear her, and her alone, is because our minds are linked to one another's. But wait...can she hear me? No, I don't think so. Perhaps her subconscious hears me...yes, that would make sense." He stopped pacing back and forth, then fell silent for a few moments before continuing. "Perhaps the next time I make one of the memories resurface, I can attempt to feed it to her mind as well. Wait...wouldn't that happen automatically? Probably, but only if they are close enough to each other for it to happen. Eh, I'll test that out later.
"What I'm truly concerned about is how I'm going to retrieve the memories without causing too much Force activity, at least for now."
That's the main thing that was bothering him since he first sensed Bastila, and now it could become a problem. If he could sense her, then chances are she could peer into Arias' mind and get a glimpse of what was going on. Revan could do the same to her, but if he were to try to probe her mind, then chances are she'd sense it and do something...and whatever she did could possibly ruin his plans. The Jedi had all ready set him back once, and he wasn't about to let that happen again. Surely there was something he could draw on...something he knew. His mind was superior to these chains, but subtlety was the key. Wait...my mind! That's the answer!
"If the Jedi can create metaphysical obstacles in my mind," Revan said, holding out his hand. "Then perhaps I can manifest minions for myself, as well."
Revan dived into his own mind, looking for someone or something that could suit his needs. He shifted through memories of the Mandalorian Wars, and the battles he had seen in his war against the Jedi. Then he began to look through the ranks of Dark Jedi in, what used to be, his Sith Empire.
"What is your bidding, my master?"
Revan smiled to himself, pleased at his success. And it didn't require any use of the Force, either. He had managed to summon ten Sith Lords from memory. Each of them wore black tunics and black robes, with hoods drawn to cover their faces. Along with the ten Sith Lords, he had summoned a squad of Mandalorian soldiers to provide cover fire.
"Our next challenge awaits beyond these doors. We search and destroy, not leaving a single living thing standing," Then, a thought occurred to him. The Jedi might have set traps in case he did something like this. No, they wouldn't have seen this coming. And even if they did, he could wipe out his creations just as easily as he had summoned them. "Destroy the Jedi."
"Yes, my lord!" The Mandalorians and Sith said in unison.
Ah, music to my ears.