9: Old Friends, Take 2
They were scheduled to leave for Coruscant about two days after Revan arrived on Tython. By then she'd seemingly made a full recovery, spending more hours awake than asleep and shivering much less in the warm Tython air. Carth knew better, though. The way her eyes darted at shadows, and how she clung to him at night, said otherwise.
At some point she was allowed to raid the Jedi armory and put together a comparatively plain set of robes that echoed her pre-disappearance choices — a white undershirt with a dark blue robe over black leggings and tall boots, now adding a broad, purple tabard tacked at her waist by a red leather belt. Her lightsabers, thoroughly checked for faults, were still kept within easy reach at the front of her belt, with two matching hilts at her back. He'd asked what they were for, but she'd simply shrugged and mumbled "might be handy."
The night before they were going to leave, when Revan seemed at her strongest, Carth led her into the holoarchives to find Katherion. Revan trailed behind him, his hand firmly wrapped around hers. Carth knew that someone was probably not informed, and he'd never hear the end of it if Revan found out from someone else.
"Master Katherion?" Carth asked, as they reached the Cathar master. He lowered his datapad, glancing between the two of them.
"These really aren't public use," he protested.
"Just this once," Carth said, fully aware that it wouldn't be 'just this once' as soon as Revan found out.
Katherion sighed and stood, waving them after him.
"Carth, we really don't —" Revan protested as they headed into the Noetikon room. Katherion once again removed the Noetikon from its cradle, activated it, and headed out with a nod back. "I really—" Carth glanced back as the three Noetikon masters appeared in front of them. "I—"
Bastila moved her mouth quietly, not speaking, and quickly shooed away her fellows. As they disappeared, she stared at the woman to his left. "Anna?" she whispered.
"Bastila?" Revan sounded almost on the verge of tears.
"Yeah. They added me to —"
"The Noetikon of Secrets, I can tell. I …" She swallowed heavily. "Force."
"Where were you?" Bastila demanded, wrapping a fistful of her robes in her hand. "I knew you were still out there. I knew you were! Where were you?"
"Well, thanks for the warm welcome," Revan replied wryly. Bastil asighed and dragged her finger sover her eyes. "I got sloppy, Bas, I messed up. Carth just found me."
He gently curled his arm around her waist. "She was in a Sith prison, Bastila. Even if she could have escaped —"
"Which would have been impossible."
"— she would have been in a nebula she couldn't navigate. We had to jump through fifty hoops just to find her."
Bastila sighed heavily, and Revan held up her hand. "Don't apologize. I'm sorry, Bastila. I'd planned to come home. It just never worked out that way."
"I know. I apologize anyway."
"You look …" Revan squinted. "Did you really start wearing your hair like that?"
Bastila frowned and touched her hair. "I was busy the day I made this record, I'm sorry I neglected to fix my hair." Revan laughed quietly. "And meanwhile, here you are, looking no different than you did three hundred years ago. Consider me very jealous."
"Should I leave you two to it?" Carth asked, pulling away.
"You don't have to."
"I'll just be right outside." He kissed her forehead and stepped out the doors. Revan sighed and, as soon as the door closed, her face fell. Bastila simply nodded.
"Are you alright?" she asked softly.
"I'll be fine."
"It was the Empire, then?"
"I was right, Bastila, about all of it. The Sith were out there, waiting. I found the outskirts of the Empire and when I learned more I just … I couldn't come back." She looked away. "They were preparing to invade. I had to stop them."
"What did you learn?"
"Everything that happened to me. The Mandalorian Wars, what happened to Malak and I … it all goes back to the Emperor."
"Everything?"
"Yeah. Malak and I tried to kill him — that's how we were captured, that's how we fell the rest of the way. He can dominate minds, Bastila, but not mine — I don't know why. He did that the first time, he tried to do it the second time. So he threw me in a type of stasis, keeping me alive as he sifted through my head and tried to figure out if my resistance was a fluke, or was something the Jedi had cultivated."
Bastila nodded. "The Emperor is a bigger threat than the Empire?"
"By far. He consumes worlds."
"Like Katarr?"
She shook her head. "I think it's worse. The description I got of Katarr said it was a ragged wound — the Emperor leaves planets severed surgically. Much more polished — much more dangerous."
"I see. So you pose a threat to him?"
"Yes." Bastila nodded, and motioned for her to continue. "Between his inability to dominate me, my strength in the Force, and my stubborn desire to see his entire Empire brought down around his ears…"
"I can guess. Then why did he allow you to live? Wasn't that more dangerous?"
"That's what I thought. But there was information he needed."
"Information?"
"I found the Star Forge because the Emperor wanted me to." Bastila raised her eyebrow. "He wanted the Star Forge's production capabilities to feed the Imperial war machine when it invaded the Republic. There are other factories — he wanted those too."
She frowned deeply. "Other fa— there's more Star Forges out there?"
"They're more specialized — they only do ships or droids, not both. Some need actual resources to use. But he wanted all of them, and I erased the data off the Forge, which means I'm the only person who knows where they are."
"So does that mean he returned your memories?" Revan nodded. Bastila's face softened considerably, and she took the smallest step forward. "Are you alright?"
"I'm … no, I'm not," she said, quietly. "But I've had a few hundred years to come to terms with it, when he wasn't busy with me. After the first few hundred years, when I knew everyone — except maybe Zaalbar — was dead, that was the worst. I couldn't … I'm sorry, Bastila."
She shook her head. "There is nothing for you to apologize for. I'm sorry. I should have come after you. I could have —"
"No! No, you were needed here, and the Emperor would have …" Revan faltered for a moment, swallowing heavily. "He would have just used you to break me, and it may have worked. If any of you had come out after me …" She shook her head. "I don't want to think of what he would have done."
Bastila sighed. "I still wish I could have done something. I felt so helpless, feeling the bond between us diminish and being unable to help. I wish you had been able to come back. We needed you here. I needed you here. Being the sole progressive voice on the Council … I did what I could, but it wasn't enough."
Revan frowned. "Then why did they take her? You knew what that would do to him."
"I advocated against it. I told them to leave her, that Carth would let us train her. I was overruled." She shook her head. "We could have ushered in a complete reform of the Order, loosened the rigidity, brought about another golden age for the Jedi. Instead we were afraid of change, and went back to what nearly destroyed us."
"What happened to her?"
"I took her as a Padawan, once she was old enough. It felt right. I made sure she learned the way you would have wanted her to, even if the rest of the Council frowned on it. By the time I'd made this, she'd been on the Council with me for nearly fifty years, trying to fix the Order. She was easily our best — so much like you and Carth. I told her all I knew about the both of you — including who you were, and what you'd done. I knew you would want it that way."
"Thank you."
Bastila frowned, crossing her arms and raising her hand to her mouth. "If you're such a threat to the Emperor … what is he going to do, now that you're gone?"
Revan shrugged. "Try to kill me? Try to trick me into coming back? I don't know. The Empire doesn't seem to care at the moment, but I'm sure they don't want to admit the Republic bested them. He's got a plan to deal with me, I'm sure of it."
"Can he be stopped?"
Revan sighed heavily. "I don't know. I know he can be weakened — our second duel, I killed one of the bodies he uses."
Bastila almost groaned. "Don't tell me —"
"— that he can pass his consciousness from one body to another? Sorry, Bas. He can."
"This is a nightmare."
"Tell me about it."
"So killing one of those bodies weakens him?"
"I believe so. He seemed weakened after I killed that one, but he was still able to put me into stasis. I think another Voice — without consuming another planet — might make him weak enough to destroy."
"How?"
"A wall of light, maybe? It worked for Qel-Droma. I can't imagine how many Jedi we would need for one, even if the Emperor was weak. That's something for us to find out, I guess, unfortunately. The biggest risk is that he might consume another world … and the Voice I killed, and whatever Voice got killed next, wouldn't be worth a damn."
"You think he would?"
"I know he would. He told me as much."
Bastila shook her head. "So it's a race against time … and against him."
"Yeah. One I don't think we can win."
She narrowed her eyes as she thought for a moment. "Even with you—"
"I'm not a god, Bastila, and he's the closest thing we've seen. I'm good … but I'm not that good."
"You are, though. Even if he is as strong as you say … The first time I saw you, on your bridge, I could feel your strength in the Force. It was overwhelming, like looking at a star. I don't know that I can comprehend a Force-user who surpasses you, but I can see you defeating them. You have always found a way to do the impossible. I doubt this will be any different."
Revan laughed and shook her head. "You have no idea what I'm up against, Bastila. This guy wiped the floor with me — twice. I've spent three hundred years in his head. I know how slim the odds are on this. I'd take Cassus Fett again any day."
"Be that as it may … I believe there is nothing you cannot handle."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Revan mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. Bastila frowned. "I'm just … I'm sorry. I wish I could impress what we're dealing with on you, but I don't know that I can. He's horrible, absolutely horrible. He could likely destroy an entire army by blinking, he can control the Empire without raising a finger himself. He is unbelieveably dangerous. More dangerous than I am. I'm …" She sighed and looked away. "I'm so tired. No one believes me. The current Council thinks they're just dealing with another overblown Sith Lord. I showed Carth what he did to his homeworld, Nathema … I think he may be the only one who believes me. The Council's up to something, but they won't listen to me. Why is it that no one listens to me until they know I'm right?"
"I don't know."
She was pacing now, agitated, motioning with her hands. "They'll play right into his hands because they think they're just dealing with another Sith. They'll make a mistake that hands the Emperor exactly what he's after. I don't know what his endgame is — it's like playing dejarik with a quarter of the board obscured — but I know he will destroy the Republic doing it. He's going to destroy the Empire, eventually, but we both know no one is going to believe their god-Emperor has anything but the best in store for them. I know he'll wipe the galaxy clean of life, but I don't know how, or where, or why. He's up to something, and I have to find out what it is, but I can't do that if the godsdamned Jedi play right into him!"
"I know." She looked up, finding Bastila watching her with a mixture of concern and pity. Revan raised her hand.
"Don't start with that."
Bastila held up her hands. "I'm not. I just … I'm sorry. The things you've been through, I cannot imagine. Everything that I thought you might be experiencing, out there … this is so much worse. Thinking that I could have stopped this, had I tried—"
"Don't start doing that to yourself."
"I will try not to. I wish I could help you now, but I can only offer you this." She sighed. "Not that I expect you will need my advice—"
"I'll probably want it. Half the time you know me better than I know myself, after all."
She laughed. "That is true enough. Do you feel better now?"
"A little," Revan admitted.
"Good."
"I just wish I had another chance. To go back and go home. The time I spent with all of you after the Jedi Civil War … those two years were the happiest in my life. I'd give almost anything to go back to them."
"Then do me a favor," Bastila replied. Revan nodded. "Let Carth help you. He took an enormous risk to see you again — one I almost wish I had taken. For the galaxy's sake, don't push him away."
"I hardly plan to. He froze himself in carbonite for me. Having him now … I was so certain I'd lost everyone. I thought I was hallucinating — I'm still not entirely sure I'm not, but the longer I'm free the more I believe I haven't gone mad.
"I don't know that I deserve yet another chance from the galaxy. I wish I'd had the good sense to turn around and go home before … well. Maybe I'm just getting old. I don't know."
"It has been three hundred years," Bastila said gently.
"I don't know that I deserve that type of loyalty, after everything." She sighed and looked away. "I told him as much as he'd understand. But I don't want to drag him into this grudge match. The Emperor will find out, and I don't want to know what he'll do."
"I am afraid that Carth is already involved, regardless of what you want."
"I know."
"Are you certain you're alright? What you've been through, and with your memories returning—"
"I'll be fine. I just need time to adjust. Three hundred years is a long time to live in a fantasy world, Bastila. I'm just … I'm so tired."
She was quiet for a while. "I know," Bastila finally murmured, looking away. "I know."