6: That Old, Familiar Feeling

Carth climbed behind the controls of Moff Kilran's personal shuttle, idling in a nearby hanger. Revan glanced back at the Jedi climbing into the rear jump seats and slid into the cockpit, settling down in the copilot's seat next to him. He glanced over as he guided the ship upwards, unable to stop the warm ache throughout the bottom of his chest.

The green glow of the Maelstrom greeted them as the hangar doors opened. "Oteg sent us coordinates from the Gree computer," Mariamne called. Carth's hand hovered over the nav panel, entering as she listed them, and he pushed the shuttle out.

"Looks like we'll rendezvous with the fleet in two hours, provided we don't get caught by the Imperials."

"If we travel underneath the fleet's flightpath, we'll escape notice," Revan said quietly. "Not sure how your computer works, but Imperial vessels will ignore a shuttle flying their colors."

"You're sure?"

She shifted in her seat, tucking her legs against her chest. "Vaguely."

They flew in silence, as if expecting the Imperial fleet closing in on them to overhear. Finally Revan let out an appreciative whistle. "He did make this place hard to find, didn't he?" She swiveled in her seat, looking back through the door. "I've assumed you're all Jedi?"

They all looked at Thaymina, who nodded. "Yes. Master Oteg is the one who first heard you in the Force, he sent us. We couldn't tell who it was, though — I had no idea we would find you on the prison."

"So was this Council-sanctioned?"

"Sort of. Grand Master Shan asked us to assist him."

Revan looked back at Carth, who nodded. "Grand Master Shan, eh?"

"Yeah."

"Excellent." She returned her attention to Thaymina. "You must be fairly high up in the Order if you got saddled with a mission like this."

"Judging by the number of misadventures we go on, I'm beginning to wonder," Gav'riel said.

"As it is, I'd like to know who broke me out of my cozy little mind prison."

"Master Thaymina Galon," Thaymina said, motioning to herself. Carth glanced over as Revan looked back at him. "My sister, Knight Mariamne Galon, and our companions, Knight Gav'riel, Padawan Kira Carson, and T7-01."

"Galon is a lousy surname to be saddled with. I apologize."

"It certainly has its moments," Mariamne replied. Revan settled back in her seat.

"What's it like out there?" she asked. "I got most of my news through himself, and he was not the most forthcoming of individuals." Revan leaned her head back on the seat. "I'd gathered that he had invaded the Republic and managed to push for the Treaty of Coruscant with my … limited influence … but I doubt it will hold. Not when he bombed the hell out of Coruscant in the process." She rubbed the side of her face as Carth glanced over. "He enjoyed rubbing my face in that."

"The peace will break, likely sooner rather than later," Thaymina said. "How were you able to convince him of anything, if you were a prisoner?"

"Lying, typically. I had a few very good ones. I let him into my memories of Kashyyyk at one point and told him there was a battalion of Wookiee Jedi being trained in secret. I'm still surprised that worked." Carth chuckled. She shifted and yawned. "Anyway, yeah. I tried to convince him the Republic and the Jedi were holding enormous forces in reserve, ready to attack the Empire. He would have to dedicate time and resources — sometimes years — to proving me wrong. Even when he was certain that I was."

They were quiet, until Thaymina said, "he's afraid."

"In a way. He's a man who wants immortality and unfettered power — the idea of losing his life, or losing his power, is the only thing that gives him pause. That's why …" She yawned again. "That's why understanding your enemy is important. People always seem to forget that."

"If you're that tired, maybe you should sleep it off," Carth said.

"I've been sleeping in one form or another for three centuries, I don't think I—" She was interrupted by another enormous yawn, and glared back at Carth's smug grin. "Stop that."

"Seriously, beautiful, sleep it off. You'll have more than enough time to tell the kids how it's done later."

She nestled deeper into the seat, robes billowing out in a sea of black. "Fine. Wake me up if something happens."

"You got it."

"You know," Gav'riel said quietly in the back, after a few moments of silence. "She's not what I expected. Even after listening to you, Thay."

The pile of fabric to Carth's right snorted. He chuckled. "I think the Council is in for a rude awakening," he said.

#

They evaded the Imperial fleet easily, flying below them and just out-of-range of their scanners in the uncooperative nebula. By the time they rendezvoused with the Telos, Revan had been asleep for nearly an hour and a half. After landing the shuttle back on the Telos, and as the others were unstrapping in the back, Carth reached out to shake the bundle of cloth.

"Grmphlmbrrrrrr," it replied.

"C'mon, Anna."

Revan raised her head, let her eyes focus, and grinned tiredly at him. "Oh. Are we there?"

"We just landed."

She sighed and stretched, uncurling herself from the seat. "How long was I asleep?"

"About an hour and a half."

"That long?"

Carth's lips drew into a thin line. "You're that tired?"

"Apparently." He stood, and she held out her hand. Carth pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arm around her. "I can walk on my own, you know."

"I know," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her hair. She shook her head but let him guide her out of the shuttle, into the hangar.

Revan tried to ignore the off-duty soldiers peering in from the hangar's control deck, or the on-duty personnel in the hanger itself feigning activity. She turned the metal cube in her hands over again with a small frown as Carth guided her further from the shuttle, hand firmly on her back. The Jedi that had rescued her were nearby, talking to —

"Is that Vandar? I thought he was dead."

"It's not."

The diminutive green alien was standing on a small hoverpad, floating at about Mariamne's eye level. He spotted them and steered away from the conversation. "I must say, when I was first aware of your presence, I did not actually expect it to be you," he said excitedly. "They are not lying, are they? You are actually Revan."

"I see my reputation precedes me," she replied, holding out her hand. "Revanna Galon, or, whatever you feel most comfortable calling me."

"This is most fortuitous timing," he said. "I am Master Oteg, currently assisting with Jedi Intelligence and the SIS. We will need to debrief you, of course, and our medics will—"

"I understand." Revan held up the hand not currently cradling the metal cube to her chest. "First, though, I desperately need a 'fresher and a change of clothes. Can that be arranged before any debriefs?"

"Of course, we can—"

"If it's all right with everyone," Carth interrupted. "Anna, I have one of the staterooms. You can use mine."

She nodded, and looked back at Oteg. "Oh, yeah. That works."

Oteg seemed conflicted for a moment, then nodded. "Very well, whatever works best. Let me know when you have recovered."

"Of course." She looked back up at Carth. "Lead the way."

Carth nodded and steered her for the hangar exit, past a sizable crowd of superficially-working soldiers and into the Telos' corridors. His hand was heavy on her back, and she was somewhat thankful for it. She recognized the tension in her shoulders as an unspoken fear that she would be jolted out of this at any time, find that she was still in her never-ending hell.

He finally stopped at one door several decks up from the hangars. It opened into a moderately-sized room with the door to the fresher in one corner, opposite a bed partially hidden by a partition. Closer to the entrance was a desk and chair, and a large footlocker. Comfortable but not extravagant — what she'd come to expect from a Republic capital ship. The door slid closed behind them and she moved away from him quickly, setting her lightsabers and the metal cube on the room's desk.

Carth nodded to it. "What is it?"

Revan sighed, pausing before she shed the voluminous layer of robes she was wearing, leaving her in a tighter, dark jumpsuit. "T3's memory core and personality matrix."

"…oh. What happened?"

"The Emperor disintegrated him," she said, keeping her eyes down as she toed off her boots. "It was … unpleasant."

"He left the core?"

"Information. On me, the Republic, whatever. I don't know if he ever got access to it. I hope not." She ducked her head lower. "You must be terribly angry with me."

Carth sighed and stepped forward, resting his hand on her arm. "I was. I mean, I still am, a little. You left us. Both of us. But after … I heard what they heard, when Oteg sent us off to find you. I can't imagine what you've been through."

Revan turned into him, nestling into his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, tucking her under his chin and closing his eyes.

"What happened to her?" she asked, quietly.

"Take a guess. She started doing things with the Force before you'd even left. I kept it under wraps but … eventually she levitated a sofa in front of someone. I think the Jedi were just waiting for it. Without you, or Jolee, or Juhani …"

She sighed and buried herself closer to him.

"I always meant to come back," she said. "I just needed answers, I couldn't stop remembering. I thought if I could find out, I'd stop the nightmares. But when I found out about the Emperor, what he can do, I had to stop him, Carth. And I failed. I killed the body he was using, but it didn't stop him. And then all I could think about in stasis was how I'd never see either of you again, and…"

He murmured something and kissed the top of her head, tightening his arms. "Just answer me one thing, gorgeous," he said. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes."

"Was it worth it?"

She shook her head. "I don't know yet."

"Then that's that." He rested his chin on her head again and they were quiet for a few minutes, calmly nestled in each others' arms. Finally Revan drew back a little, tilting her head.

"Tell me you're at least a little angry. I'd hate for us to not bicker about this at all."

Carth chuckled, tilting her head up and kissing her. "We'll start eventually."

"Good." She pulled back further, taking his hands in her own. "Carth, there's one other thing."

"Yeah?"

"When I was in stasis … the Emperor needed everything I knew. He undid what the Jedi did. I-I have all my memories back. I don't know if that's a problem."

Carth shook his head. "Just tell me. Telos."

"I needed the fields. I was called away and told Malak to take it with ground action. When I came back and saw what he'd done I took both him and Karath to task for it." She looked away, scratching her nose. "Malak pulled his lightsaber, said I was getting soft, challenged me for my position. That's how he lost his jaw."

"What about everything else?"

She ducked her head. "When we came out here, we tried to kill the Emperor. He captured us, tortured us, sent us out for the Star Forge. He can dominate minds, Carth, but he can't mine. I'm not sure why. He drove Malak to the brink of insanity but … well, I did what I did best."

"You plotted against him."

"I took the Star Forge for my own. I was going to turn the Republic around, by force if I had to, and destroy everything he'd built for what he did to me. I thought it was the only way to save it." She lowered her head again. "I was only twenty-three. The things he'd done to me … I was so angry. I was so angry and I nearly ruined everything."

Carth pulled her back into him, and she followed willingly. "But you also put everything back together," he said quietly. "I wouldn't have frozen myself in carbonite otherwise."

"We're going to have to talk about how stupid that was sometime," she muttered into his chest. He laughed.

"I'm just glad we found you."

"So am I." Revan started to pull back again but Carth twined their fingers together, resting his forehead on hers. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and she closed her eyes.

"Leaving so soon?" he murmured. "After so long?"

"I really want a shower, flyboy. It's been three hundred years."

"You're just gonna shut me down like that after centuries?"

"I wouldn't think you'd appreciate your girlfriend smelling like three hundred years, would you?"

"Mm. I'd rather just appreciate her."

She smirked and tilted her head enough to kiss him. Carth responded eagerly, threading his fingers through her hair. To be fair, she was right. She could certainly use a shower.

"You can do that later. When I'm clean." Revan pulled away. "Can you get someone to find a spare uniform? I'd really like to get out of this."

"I'll see what I can do."

She nodded and started back for the door as he turned for the comm. It slid closed behind her as someone picked up, and Carth relayed her request. After hanging up, he gently picked up T3's memory core and turned it over in his hands with a deepening frown. He'd known the droid had disappeared, sometime after the Exile had returned to known space, but not to where — but Revan worked miracles with droids. If anyone could rebuild him, she could.

Someone knocked and he set the memory core down, opening the door to find Thaymina waiting for him. "Carth," she said warmly, handing him a stack of what looked like nondescript Jedi robes. "I wanted to check on Revan. How is she?"

Carth glanced over his shoulder, back towards the fresher. "I think she's shaken," he said as he looked back. "And disoriented. But she'll be fine. Where are we going? She would ask."

"Master Oteg has to check in with Command. You, Revan, and Mariamne will leave in her ship for Tython as we get closer. Gav and I will be continuing on to Coruscant. It should be another thirty hours, all-told."

"Thanks."

"Of course." Thaymina inclined her head. "Let me know if either of you need anything else."

Carth nodded, and Thaymina drifted back down the corridor. He stepped back in and over to the fresher, hand hovering over the lock.

She was singing.

He'd heard her sing a couple times, usually when she thought no one was around. She'd never told him why it made her self-conscious — she had a good voice, smooth and husky like some of the more popular singers so many years ago. At first, she'd said something about it feeling weird. Later, she told him she never felt up to it.

He took a breath and knocked and, as he suspected, she stopped immediately. "Where do you want your clothes?"

"Right in on the floor is fine." He slid the door open, dropped them in, and started to close it, knowing that too long might tempt him to join her. "Thanks, flyboy."

He chuckled as he let the door close and began to take off his gear, setting his blasters on the table next to her lightsabers and peeling off his gloves. When there was no sign of her returning shortly, he grabbed the pile of black fabric and folded it into something more manageable, setting it neatly on the desk chair. For once, her leaving her things everywhere didn't bother him — the fact that she was there to leave her things everywhere was far more important.

Nearly an hour later, as he was checking the Holonet to see if the Empire had started complaining, the fresher door slid open. Revan stepped out, hair damp and hanging down her back. She dumped her jumpsuit on the floor just outside the door and ran a hand self-consciously over the plain brown Jedi robe Thaymina had found for her. It was slightly too big, hanging limp and boxy off her shoulders. Carth wordlessly handed her the belt from the robes she'd worn in stasis, and she lashed it around her waist.

"Thanks," she said. "I think these belonged to a Cathar. Or someone with a cat."

"Why?"

"They're covered in fur." Carth chuckled and rested his hand on her waist, and she stepped into him. "Where were we, flyboy?" Revan asked as she slid her hand from his chest to his neck.

"Here, I think," he murmured as he closed the distance to her lips. She sighed happily, curling her hand in his hair as he pulled her impossibly closer. There was a type of longing between them, Carth's the unspoken fear that he'd taken drastic measures for nothing, and Revan's the belief that she had lost him to the ages. He stepped her backwards, and she pulled him after her as she sank down onto the bed.

He dragged his lips to her neck and she leaned her head back. She tugged his shirt from his waistband, hands gently searching under it, tracing out the lines in his chest. Carth sought her lips again, groaning into her as she wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him against her; something like electric, long forgotten, skittered up their spines.

"Were you awake?" he whispered into her. She opened her eyes.

"Hm?"

"Were you awake? All those years?"

Revan cupped his jaw with her hands, rubbing her thumbs along his cheeks. "Does it matter?"

"Yes."

She sighed. "I lived a thousand lifetimes with both of you. They got so real that …" She met his eyes. "Even now, I'm not sure this is real."

"It's real," he assured her.

"By about year two-ninety, so was the time I single-handedly restored Telos using a horde of Wookiee Jedi," she said, her lips twisting into a smirk. Carth leaned the last few centimeters to her lips, kissing her languidly.

"I promise, this is real," he murmured. "We're both here. And I'll never let you go again."