A/N: Sorry about the one day delay in posting. No great excuse. I just got distracted by Crusader Kings again.

7: A Heart-to-Heart

Revan eventually caved to his demand that she get some sleep, begged him to stay until she woke up, and fell into a slumber reminiscent of the dead on his chest. Carth lounged around for some time, reading news reports, laughing quietly at the inaccuracies in several historical military documentaries about the Mandalorian Wars, and trying to calm the torrent of relief tinged with anger coursing through him. Eventually, someone called him up to the bridge several hours after Revan had fallen asleep. He slipped out of bed — thankfully, she didn't awaken — pulled on his boots, and headed out the door, tucking his shirt back into his waistband. He looked back as he closed the door, feeling the briefest pang of conflict as Revan curled around a pillow.

As he walked onto the Telos' cavernous bridge, hyperspace still streaking by the viewports, he was surprised to see the group from Maelstrom at the front with Oteg and the ship's captain. Thaymina stood still, arms crossed over her chest; Mariamne and Gav'riel paced or shifted on their feet, hands uneasily resting near weapons.

"What's wrong?" Carth asked.

"There's an Imperial fleet following us," Thaymina said.

"We knew they would not have be pleased when we took Revan," Oteg said. "To no surprise, the fleet is lead by the Valor."

"The Valor is Malgus' ship," Thaymina explained. Carth nodded. Apart from the glance he'd gotten on the prison, his name had come up a few times in his recent holonet searches — one of the higher-ranking Sith, with a lot of campaigns and responsibilities under his belt, and the person largely responsible for the destruction of the Temple during the Sacking of Coruscant.

"Yeah."

"He isn't known for talking, either," Mariamne interjected.

"You were a successful fleet admiral," Thaymina said. "I thought you may want to lend your expertise, should things get … out of hand."

He frowned. Thaymina was overstating his previous experience, but — "Alright. Give me the makeup of the fleets."

Further back in the ship, Revan startled awake. For a moment she panicked, recognizing that she was alone in a strange place, her mind whirling into action. She stared blankly at the wall before she remembered she was on a Republic vessel, safe, with Carth nearby.

Or, he should be nearby. She grumbled, climbing out of bed, straightening her robes, and running her hand through her hair. She tried to silence her brain's assertion that this was proof he was a hallucination, and made certain to touch the blasters on the table next to her lightsabers until she'd silenced that lying scumbag of an internal monologue.

Revan stepped into the corridor, holding a coat tight around her shoulders. Since leaving stasis, she'd been freezing. Either stasis had confused her body's systems, or the Republic had cut corners on temperature regulation. She bet it was the former. Cold soldiers weren't as lively as warm ones.

The ship was bustling with activity, but an ensign — she thought, provided the Republic hadn't changed their insignia since the Jedi Civil War — stumbled to a wide-eyed stop in front of her and saluted. She pursed her lips and nodded. She was getting salutes now? That was a surprise. She would have expected shock-cuffs long before salutes.

"Can I-I help you, ma'am— er, M-Master Jedi?"

Revan had forgotten how fast scuttlebutt spread through warships. "Er …" She tugged her borrowed coat tighter. "Have you seen Onasi?"

"I think he was called to the bridge, m-ma'am." Another chink in that scumbag monologue, then. Good.

"Oh. Are we on alert?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thanks."

"Do you know where to—"

"I've served on my fair share of vessels, but thank you." He saluted again and trotted by, and she was absolutely certain he'd edged closer to the wall. She pursed her lips harder and started towards the bridge. It was the same as she remembered, long and open, with neat lines of consoles and stations. Each was manned — typically in flight half would be, so this seemed to support the ensign's assertion that they were on full alert. She spotted Carth first, up front, and picked her way through the bridge to join him.

"— hailed." Judging by his insignia, the speaker was the ship's captain. Oteg waved his hand as Revan drew to a stop behind the group, and someone at the holoterminal nodded and pressed several buttons. The blue beam flickered to life, soon forming into a tall and broad human male in a respirator mask, eyes set in a permanent glower. She frowned.

The Malak look still hadn't gone out of style, then.

:: Republic ship Telos, :: he said, voice a low growl. :: You recently raided a high security prison in the Maelstrom Nebula. You are to stand down and return this fugitive, or face repercussions. ::

"Should we not?" Oteg replied simply. Malgus' eyes narrowed.

:: We have a fleet stationed on the Republic border. Your ship will be removed from hyperspace, boarded, and this individual will be taken into custody … personally. :: Revan frowned harder when she realized Malgus was staring at her.

"And we are more than capable of —" Oteg began.

"How many capital ships would it take to pull a Valour-class ship from hyperspace?" Revan interrupted loudly, making them jump. Malgus' eyes narrowed impossibly further. "You could try, but you'd latch onto one of our fleet vessels. Not effective for pulling us from hyperspace, is it?" Her legs trembled under her, but she frowned and ignored it. "And how many ships are in this fleet you have waiting for us?"

:: Is there a point to this? :: Malgus growled.

"Approximately the number we have, considering most of the fleet is skulking about elsewhere in Imperial space," she continued. "That's not the crushing power you're insinuating, Malgus. Perhaps if you spent more time planning and less time glowering, you'd've successfully destroyed the Republic by now. Here's some advice: next time threaten someone, at least make it convincing."

Malgus was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was even lower, more threatening. :: You are insignificant, Revan. A mutation. The only thing that gave you notice, that made you special, was chance. ::

She tugged her coat closer and took a step forward, and Carth gently grabbed her shoulder. "Tell your master," she growled. "Next time, his party trick won't save him." The Sith huffed and motioned with his hand, and the feed cut. Revan echoed his huff as her leg caved at the knee, and Carth caught her as she stumbled.

"I'll get a medical team up here," Thaymina said, and Revan waved her hand.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, just wobbly."

"Either way, Master Shan is interested in speaking with you immediately, and I will not have you exhaust yourself before we arrive on Tython," she chided. Revan grumbled, but didn't argue as Carth helped her to one of the command chairs.

"You're sure you're fine?" he asked, brow creasing. She nodded, resting her hand on his.

"I'm just cold," she answered quietly. "And I'm not exactly used to standing." He nodded, but the deepening furrow in his brow belied any thought that she might have reassured him. He pulled off his jacket and added it to the one already wrapped around her shoulders.

When a team with a hoverchair in tow jogged onto the bridge, she started to voice another complaint that was shut down in a surprise alliance of Carth, Oteg, and Thaymina. The former helped her into the chair and followed the team out, while the other two stayed behind. Revan complained the entire way.

Fortunately, the medical bay was mostly empty, so the team diverting to her meant they weren't abandoning other patients. Carth helped her to a cot, and she settled down and frowned stormily. They initially tried to shoo him away, but Revan kept a firm grip on his hand and demanded that he stay, or that she return to his room to recover on her own. When she refused to cooperate, they gave in. What followed was a barrage of questions — medical history, itself a fun discussion, then current symptoms. How was she put in stasis? (It didn't matter, but tech, the Force, and Sith alchemy.) Did she know what long-term effects to expect? (No.) How did long-term exposure to Sith alchemy affect the body? (No idea.) Were there any Republic experts on it they could contact? (Probably not.) Eventually they took several blood samples and scans and headed off, leaving them alone. Revan kicked her feet as Carth sat down next to her, staring after the medics. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder, and smiled weakly as he wrapped his arm around her.

"I promise I'm fine," she comforted. "I'm just exhausted. Mentally. Trying to adjust to dealing with actual people again, and just … the actual act of being awake."

"I believe you." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm just worried."

"You're always worried."

"I'm not always worried."

"Just usually worried." Carth huffed and she half-grinned. "Also, don't think I didn't notice that you left me."

"I got called up to the bridge."

"I know." She nestled closer to him. "I'm just saying, though."

Mariamne took that moment to head through the medbay doors, spotting them and hurrying over. "We'll be meeting a nearby Expeditionary," she said. "They'll escort us into the Core Worlds. Malgus' fleet is similar to ours — it should be enough to give us an edge if he has any surprises for us."

They both nodded. "Dropping out of hyperspace to join the fleet will expose us to Malgus' —" Revan started. Mariamne nodded.

"It's a definite risk, yes. It'll take a minute to reorganize. Oteg is certain we'll be fine. Even so…" She sighed and leaned back on the cot opposite them. "I'm supposed to stay down here in case we're boarded, and Thaymina and Gav'riel are posed to intercept. If we are, we'll head back up to the bridge and pool our strength there." I've been …" Mariamne rubbed a long scar on her chin. "… looking forward to seeing Malgus. Face-to-face."

"You and me both," Carth muttered.

"By the way, I'm not as big into the family history as my sister is," she said. "But it is a great honor to meet you. Both of you, really. Some of the techniques I learned date back to things you developed."

Revan replied with a sideways grin. "I'm glad at least one of our descendants developed a habit of playing with dangerous weapons in highly illogical ways."

Carth shook his head, and Mariamne echoed her grin. "It was going to come back up, I suppose." The intercom above them intoned, in a vaguely discomforting female voice, Leaving hyperspace. Remain at alert level mauve.

The chief medical officer returned, handing Revan a datapad. "Everything appears fine," he said. "Apart from these abnormal brain scans—"

She looked at the particular one. "No, those are actually normal for me."

"In that case, everything appears to be fine. You have some surprisingly minor muscle atrophy, some nutritional and electrolyte imbalances. All over, unexpectedly minor. Just take it easy for a few days, make sure you get enough rest and follow the nutritional plan in there, and you should be fine."

"Sure," Revan said, handing the datapad to Carth. "I'll see what I can do."

#

Fortunately, they avoided Malgus' fleet, supporting Revan's claims that the Sith had been bluffing. After a few more hours, the medical bay released her and she and Carth made their way back to his stateroom, where she promptly staggered back to the bed and fell back asleep.

By the time she woke up several hours later, Carth was sitting at the desk skimming a datapad with a tray of food cooling at his elbow. She stretched and he looked up, appearing at her bedside with the tray.

"Grabbed this from the mess," he said, setting it down on her lap. "It's what the medbay said you needed."

She crinkled her nose. "Well. I suppose it's better than what I ate the last three hundred years." Carth sighed and settled down on the edge of the bed as she picked up her spoon. "Sorry."

"No, it's …" He sighed again. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah." Revan frowned, lowering the spoon back to the tray. "You're still angry. I'm not surprised. You have every right to be."

"Well, I'm glad we're agreeing on that," Carth muttered. "It's not … no matter how mad I am, I'm not going anywhere, gorgeous. I made that decision a long time ago. I just didn't know what to think, and now I'm — I don't know."

"You're angry because I left," she said simply. "I'd be worried if you weren't. And I know there's no way to make it up to you — but I promise, Carth, I always intended to come back. I didn't expect to be gone for so long. I thought it'd be a couple months, no more."

"I know you were having nightmares, but why was that so much more important than us? Our child?"

She was quiet for a while, staring down at her food. Carth sighed and looked away. "I was afraid," she finally said, quietly, and he looked back. "I thought there was something terrible I'd forgetten. The more I looked in the Archives, the more it looked like the Sith might be behind it, and I was … if I'd run into them, what if they knew what'd happened? What if they came after me, and found the two of you? When I found Nathema, I realized it was so much more serious than that. I couldn't come back, not until I'd dealt with the Emperor."

"Nathema?"

"It …" She drew a deep breath. Even thinking about it, this far removed, made a chill run down her spine. "It's a planet wiped clean of the Force."

"Like Katarr?"

"Probably worse." Carth furrowed his brow. "The Emperor … you know the Great Hyperspace War, with Naga Sadow and Freedon Nadd?"

"Yeah."

"The Emperor was given his title by Naga Sadow — Lord Vitiate — but stayed out of the war. When they were defeated, he drew the remnants of the Empire to his homeworld. He dominated a group of Sith and performed a ritual that wiped the world clean of the Force."

"His own homeworld?" She nodded. "Why?"

"So he could have immortality. He absorbed the Force from the world, extending his lifespan indefinitely and giving him a hell of a lot of power."

"He's — what?"

"Yeah. Sort of. That's the worst part. He'll have to repeat the ritual eventually, but I don't know when." She wet her lips. "I don't know that I can … it's not really something I can describe. Can I — Can I show you?"

Carth frowned, but nodded. Revan hesitantly set her hand on his arm, and closed her eyes. His sight blurred, and the stateroom around them disappeared, replaced by a vast, empty plain covered in piles of black ash that eddied around his ankles. A few skeletal structures loomed in the distance, all gray, just like the dust and dirt — even the sky — around him.

The worst was a feeling of emptiness that ate at his chest, like everything was simply gone — only he existed, a small dot in the entire universe, his only anchor Revan's hand. It was a cold, terrible, sick feeling in his gut, burning at the back of his throat. "Stop," he murmured, and the scene immediately disappeared. The coldness lingered for a moment before quietly dissipating.

"Sorry," she said. When he opened his eyes, she was watching him sadly. "Short of taking a field trip, I didn't know how to to describe it."

"The Emperor did that?"

"Yes. And … I know he has to do it again. He won't stop — not until he's consumed everything. Once I found out, how could I come back? He was preparing to invade the Republic, which meant one of our worlds would get the same treatment. I couldn't let that happen to her, or you." She shook her head. "And he knew. When he was trying to get me to break, he showed me Coruscant like that. The Core Worlds. The Republic. I have to stop him. I'm the only one who can."

He shook his head. "There's always someone else."

"No one else can. He's said as much." Carth narrowed his eyes. "While I was in stasis — one of the times I slipped through our link. His Voice putting Malgus in charge of my prison. He said I was dangerous, and for him to make sure no one found me. Or that, if they did, they didn't survive long enough to free me. The Emperor is the closest thing this galaxy has to a god — not much is dangerous to him. Whether it's because of my strength in the Force, or because of my resistance to his control —" She paused. "That said, I haven't tried throwing a corpse full of Ardroxian flu at him. Might work."

Carth almost laughed. "His Voice?"

"Yeah. He possesses people, works through them. I don't know where his first body is, what species it was, or even if he still has it somewhere. From the way his mind works, and what I gleaned of his childhood, I'd say he's a Pureblood — not that it matters, probably."

"Did you know before you left?"

"What I was dealing with? No. By the time I did, it was too late." She frowned. "By 'too late,' I mean 'in stasis.'"

"Yeah. I figured."

"I did ask him, once, you know," she said, looking away. "Not long after it started. I told him I'd leave, never come back, if he just let me go. He laughed. Asked me why I thought he'd let someone like me run amok. Spent a good year trying to figure out why I was so desperate to leave, so he could use it as leverage. I think she was six, then, so probably around the time…" Revan shook her head and sighed. "I'm sorry. I made a miscalculation, and it cost us everything."

"Not everything."

"You could leave," she replied. "I'd be … I'd understand. I'd almost prefer it, really. It won't be safe near me. The Emperor obviously wants me back, or dead. I'd understand if you didn't want to endanger yourself. We've seen what Sith are capable of first-hand, and these are worse."

He shook his head. "I don't want that. I want to understand."

"Do you?"

"I don't know. Maybe a little. I'm still …" He sighed. "I understand why you decided it was important. It's just that we — I fell apart without you. I couldn't go through that again. I kept it together until Nova … but after that, there just wasn't enough, you know?"

Revan carefully scooted around the tray and curled her arms around him, tucking her head into the crook of his shoulder. Carth did the same, hands heavy and warm on her back.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "You and her were the only good things this galaxy ever let me have, I just didn't know it until I couldn't come home. I'm sorry. You deserve so much better than this."

"Maybe I don't."

"Say that again and I'm gonna smack you." He half-laughed. "I'm dead serious, Carth Onasi."

"I know you are." He pulled away. "Is that it? Be honest, for once."

"It's all I can tell you without making your eyes roll back — unless you want an in-depth lesson in Force theory and Sith philosophy?"

"Not when you put it like that."

"That's what I thought." She frowned. "There is one other thing you should know."

"Oh?"

"The Emperor created a neural link between us. I kind of said it already." He nodded. "I thought it might disappear out of stasis. It … hasn't."

Carth frowned. "He's still in there?"

"It's weak, but I can feel it. I assume the most he could do is annoy me occasionally. But you wanted to know everything, and, well. That's probably important for you to know."

"Alright, then." Carth nodded to her tray. "Finish eating, or the medbay is gonna kill me."

"Well, we can't have that," Revan said as she picked up her spoon.

#

She spent most of the ride back in Carth's stateroom, sleeping with occasional breaks where Carth tried to coax her to eat. By the time they said goodbye to Thaymina and Gav'riel and stepped onto Mariamne's light Corvette-class ship, most of the color had returned to Revan's skin, and she'd successfully spent about four hours awake sketching out a new design for T3 and commiserating with Carth over the plethora of highly inaccurate Mandalorian Wars-era documentaries.

After a brief introduction to her crew, or the one remaining person who hadn't come with them on Maelstrom, Carth and Revan settled into the cockpit with Mariamne and Kira. "We're going to Tython, birthplace of the Order," Mariamne explained. "After the Temple on Coruscant was destroyed, Master Satele found Tython and moved the entire Order's operations base from the Senate tower. It's just a short jump from where we left the fleet."

"Probably for the best," Revan said, watching one of the navigation screens. "I can't imagine much got done with the Senators breathing down your necks."

"No, no, I doubt it. I was eleven when the Temple fell — got shuffled off to the Rim with a Master only a couple years later." Mariamne guided the ship into hyperspace, light blurring past the viewports.

"Where are you off to once you drop us off?" Carth asked.

"Ugh," Kira said. "Hoth."

Both Revan's and Carth's noses scrunched. "Ew." Revan shook her head. "I hate that place. What mission does the Council have you running off on?"

"Oh, you know." Mariamne shifted in her seat. "Defeating the Sith Empire, hunting down Var Suthra's godsdamn superweapons, the usual."

"Right." She looked up at Carth, who shook his head and shrugged. "Well, good luck."

"Thanks, we'll probably need it." She slowed the ship, carefully bringing it out of hyperspace. "Here we are. Kira, call the Council and tell them we're on our way."

She nodded and opened the comm, finding the right frequency. Mariamne pointed her ship at Tython's orbital docking station. "This is Knight Galon's ship to the Council. We've got two special guests on board, wanting to know if we can give them the VIP treatment, over."

Revan looked over at Carth and mouthed I like her. He grinned.

A few moments later, a woman answered over the comm. :: This is Satele. I've transmitted instructions to the pilots on the station. I will meet them at the Temple landing pad. ::

"A personal welcome from the Grand Master," Kira said as she hung up. "Congratulations."

"Looking forward to it," Revan said dryly.