A/N: You guys are the best, and I love you. :) The good news is that this is something I've been dealing with for over a decade now, but I'm still digging myself out of my last major episode. It's slow going, but I'm finally at a point where I can post for people to read things - which is nice. Anyway, trying to get back into a regular update schedule. Should have posted this yesterday, but it was my day off and Stardew Valley was suddenly very important. Anyway, enjoy.

12: Death and the Jedi Council

After he'd lost her for several hours, Carth found Revan hard at work in the Temple's droid bay, a pair of goggles propped on top of her hair and her hands fist-deep in a scrapped T7-model chassis. He set the caf he was carrying down on a table nearby, leaning against the wall. He wasn't sure she'd seen him, the tongue firmly caught between her teeth hinting at her focus. HK, standing in one corner of the droid bay with his eyes flickering, certainly had seen him. The big red droid tapped his blaster threateningly.

"Is that for me or you?" she finally asked, hands resurfacing with a clump of fried wires.

"Huh?"

"The caf."

"It's mine."

"Damn." She tossed the wires aside and picked some replacements off a toolbox next to her knee. Carth nodded at the droid.

"What happened to it?"

"Flesh Raiders, apparently. Fried his electrical bits, memory, pretty much killed the poor little guy. Bad news for him, good news for me." She looked up. "I'd told the droid bay to let me know if an Astromech chassis came up in decent condition, so I got first call. I just need to scoop out all the fried interior bits and install T3's personality chip and memory core."

"Oh." Carth nodded. "Good."

"Yeah." She grinned. "It'll be good to have him back around."

"You've missed him."

"Of course I have." She wiped her hands off on her pants, and smudged a streak of grease on her forehead with the back of her hand. "It's my fault he ended up just a memory core, after all."

Carth crossed his arms and shifted on the wall. "You never said what happened."

Revan sighed, working her hand back into the chassis. "We had a Sith 'ally' that helped me escape the Dark Councilor holding me prisoner on Dromund Kaas. He wanted a war with the Republic about as much as we did. But when we attacked the Emperor —"

"He turned on you."

"Yeah. Surprise, surprise, right? I ended up fighting both him and the Emperor at the same time — my back got turned on ol' Empy once, T3 saw him going for an attack, and he shot at him. The Emperor destroyed him." She shook her head. "It gave me the opening I needed to kill that body, but it cost me T3. I'm not convinced it was worth it."

Carth frowned, but didn't answer.

"I'll have to source better hardware on Coruscant," she continued, wriggling her fingers elsewhere in the chassis. "The Jedi's best hardware gets immediately installed on their field droids. And their targeting algorithms have always been subpar. The black market was really helpful though — thanks for that. That's always where you find the best toys. The rest of it I might need to fabricate on my own."

"How much are you going to sink into rebuilding him?"

"As much as I have to. T3 was essential when I was out past the Rim. There's information in his core that isn't available elsewhere, and—"

"You can pull it off the core."

"You wound me with your mad suggestions," she retorted. Carth chuckled.

"I'm not saying don't rebuild him. I'm just saying you can get at the information without it, if you need it."

"Could, yes. I'm not going to, though." She leaned back on her heels again, studying her work. "That should do it for the motivators. The chassis should be completely capable of movement now." Revan cracked her knuckles. "Now the important stuff. Hand me that box there?"

Carth glanced at his caf and picked up a box full of droid parts and second-hand upgrades. "Have you been collecting these? Is this where you've been disappearing to?"

"What? It's not like I have anything else to do." She got back to work. "A few Masters have me running sparring sessions with their Padawans, but no one's going to let me anywhere near Force philosophy."

"What, so they don't learn something?"

She snorted. "You're letting my bad attitude rub off on you, flyboy. Better be careful."

"Don't worry, I'm sure my sparkling record will survive."

"Hopefully." She looked up. "Mind getting me some caf, flyboy? Or I'm going to steal yours."

Carth chuckled and picked up his mug, starting out of the droid bay. He rubbed the top of her head as he passed, grinning at the grumbled "don't" as he headed out the door. By the time he returned, the box was almost completely empty. Revan got to her feet, taking the new mug from him and joining him against one of the tables.

"How much more do you have left?"

"Uh, not much. I managed to get my hands on a micro-optics upgrade second-hand, but I've never actually installed one, so that should be interesting. Then just the interface upgrade and a precision manipulator. Oh, and the visual projector. After that, the memory core and the personality chip, and he should be ready to go." She sighed. "I hope he doesn't remember what happened."

Carth wrapped his arm around her, rubbing her bicep. "If he does, I'm sure he doesn't regret it."

"I'm … not entirely sure droids can regret," she mused. "I don't think he'd be mad, though."

"I don't think droids get mad, either."

"You've got me there."

They stood quietly for a few, Revan leaning her head against Carth's shoulder. HK made a couple of irritated clicking noises. "Is there anything I can do?" Carth finally asked.

"I'm sure I can find something," she said, sipping her caf. "I certainly would like company. HK is not very chatty."

"Objection," the droid protested. "I simply do not understand why you must recreate this annoying trash bin, Master, when you have a perfectly functioning superior model."

"He means himself," she said.

"Yeah, I guessed."

Revan set her mug down on the table. "Alright, back to work."

It took about another hour for them to install the remaining components, and finally Revan and Carth fastened the top of the droid chassis. Carth stood, and she wiped grease off her forehead and nose. "Moment of truth," she said. "You ready?"

"Definitely."

Revan reached under T3's chassis, finding the power switch and turning it on. Nothing happened for a moment.

"Hmm. Maybe I crossed a wire somewhere," she mused, reaching for the droid. Its projector light flickered a few times, and she froze as the droid's head raised. It swiveled, looking first at Carth before turning towards Revan.

"T3?" she whispered. The droid chirped happily and extended its manipulator arm, reaching out and petting her arm. Revan pressed the back of her hand into her mouth hard, choking back a sob, and threw her arms around the droid's chassis. T3 turned his head towards Carth with a confused beep.

"She missed you," he said.

The little droid whistled and swiveled back towards Revan, continuing to pet her arm. Revan pulled back, scrubbing her eyes with her sleeve.

"Do a diagnostic?"

He chirped again, and quickly responded with a series of beeps too fast for Carth to catch. Revan scrubbed her face again, nodding to each one. "Alright, little guy. Let me know if anything springs loose. It's been a while, I'm worried I'm a little rusty." He rocked back and forth on his struts and replied with a series of comforting chirps, and she got to her feet. "Want to take the new chassis for a spin? See how the T7-model compares to the T3?"

T3 chirped again and spun in a circle. Spotting HK in the corner he stopped, made a rude noise, and backed out of the room. Revan and Carth both laughed, and he reached forward and scrubbed a smudge of grease off her nose. She wrinkled it up. "Better?" he asked.

"Much."

#

T3 took to his new body easily, and having the little Astromech following Revan around made the galaxy suddenly seem more right. She managed to find most of the upgrades she'd been looking for after a brief hunt on the Holonet, and they arrived on the next shipment to Tython. When Carth asked how she'd found credits for them, she got a little shifty-eyed and mumbled something about borrowing the money from Satele. He was extremely relieved when he cornered the Grand Master and she confirmed that Revan had actually spoken to her about it, not just stolen them.

About a week and a half later, T3 was back to his former operating abilities — and if you believed Revan, he'd gotten a lot of upgrades. The droid seemed happy with them, at least, and didn't seem to remember anything from his meeting with the Emperor except a sudden loss of power. Revan admitted to Carth in private that she was relieved.

That afternoon, Carth was leaning against a tree outside the Temple watching her give a private lesson to an older Padawan. He knew she'd done this before leaving, but he'd never been able to watch - so he was enjoying his newfound ability to see the inner workings of the Order first-hand. HK was still standing guard nearby, whirring threateningly at curious Jedi, with T3 chirping as he drilled a borehole in the tree to test a new analyzation matrix. Carth figured he probably shouldn't let him do that.

"Alright," Revan said, adjusting her student's pose. The Nautolan held his arms where she put them studiously. "Now, have you been practicing your swings?"

"I have, Master Anna." Carth turned a laugh into a cough when Revan half-heartedly glared at him.

"What have I told you about the master-ing? No one's ever gonna make me a Master, believe me." She circled around him. "Good! Good. Show me a couple swings."

He did, and Revan took his arm. "Alright. The practice sabers are a little heavy, but when you have a lightsaber, you have to remember that the only weight is going to be in the hilt. Arm swings are alright, but most of the time you'll only need your wrist or elbow until you get into full dueling. We'll work on some blocks today, alright?"

Revan's lessons were typically a half-hour in length, which she admitted was too short. But after the first couple days she'd ended up with nearly a hundred Padawans asking for lessons and somehow managed to cram most of them into twice a week. Once finished, she waltzed back over to Carth, rested her hands on his waist and bounced up to kiss him.

"Enjoying the show?" she murmured.

"You know I love watching you work."

"True." She rested her head on his chest with a sigh, closing her eyes.

"You alright?"

"Honestly?" she answered. "The Republic didn't break out the stun cuffs as soon as they saw me, I don't have to pretend I don't love you, and the Council isn't trying to control me. This might be the happiest I've ever been."

Carth grinned and wrapped his arms around her. "How much longer before your next lesson?"

"Fifteen minutes."

They stood in companionable silence for a while, T3 quietly chirping to himself and HK occasionally whirring threateningly.

"Hey, Carth?"

"Yeah, gorgeous?"

"Do you think, if I tried to jump from the balcony in front of the Council chambers—"

"Don't—"

"— I could land on top of the floating holocron thing?"

"No, I definitely don't think that."

"Should I t—"

"No! Definitely not."

She looked up at him, bottom lip thrust out. "You're no fun."

He was about to kiss her when he spotted someone approaching, and raised his head. "Mariamne."

"Oh!" Revan pulled away from him and turned, waving her over. Mariamne trotted towards them, the man they'd met earlier on her ship in tow. "I wasn't expecting you back for a few weeks."

"We wrapped up on Hoth early, thank the Force." Mariamne said. "You remember Doc, right?"

"Of course they do," the man said, leaning on the side of the tree opposite HK. Mariamne stooped and rubbed T3's head, and the droid chirped and rocked back and forth.

"Who's this little guy?"

"T3-M4, model number two," Revan said. "His personality matrix and memory core were with me in the Maelstrom. Finally managed to rebuild him last week."

Mariamne chuckled and stood. "Uh, there is a reason I looked for you," she said. "The Council's sending us on a particularly dangerous mission, and I'm not entirely sure when we'll be back—"

Revan's eyes narrowed. "What type of 'mission?'"

"I'm sure it'll go fine." Revan's eyes narrowed further. "But I wanted to ask if I could spar you, since I don't know when I'll be back. And I was wondering if you might show me anything else useful."

"Absolutely," Revan said, starting back towards the training ring with Mariamne behind her. "Grab a couple practice sabers and we'll get to work."

They both picked up a couple, testing the weight in their hands, before taking up spots across from one another. Both raised their right saber to their foreheads and swept it back down.

"Should I go easy on you?"

"I'm one of the best duelists in the Order," Mariamne said with a grin. "Don't."

Revan chuckled. "Suit yourself."

With that, she threw her right training saber. Mariamne leapt to the side, then straight at her — Revan rolled back, grabbing her returning practice saber and blocking her next strike.

"Good," she said, replying with her own strike. Mariamne blocked it. "I never learned how to do that."

"It's useful," she replied. Revan blocked another swing, using the interruption to duck out of the way. The two women adjusted their grips and relaunched their assault.

Carth had seen Revan lose fights before — Malak had swept the floor with her once then nearly killed her on the Star Forge, and a number of Sith had overwhelmed her when they were captured by Karath on Korriban. But he'd never seen her evenly matched, on her own terms. Overcome with brute strength or numbers, yes, but not fighting an opponent using the same light-footed, quick-acting strategy she did. Mariamne would strike, and Revan would simply be gone; then Revan would strike, and Mariamne would be absent.

It took only a matter of moments for nearby Jedi to notice the duel and hurry over, watching the women dance around one another. Carth glanced over at his companion, noticing the way Doc's eyes were following the younger Jedi. He recognized that look - it was very familiar. "By the way," he said. "The Jedi rules on attachments are annoying as hell."

Doc chuckled. "Trust me, I'm aware."

Mariamne swung her practice saber high, bringing it down on Revan's head. Revan tapped the blade away, dancing back on her toes and returning with a low strike that her opponent arched around. "I'm impressed," Revan said. "I've never met a Jedi who actually can back up a boast like that."

"Thanks," Mariamne replied, swinging both practice weapons in quick succession. Revan launched herself backwards, springing away on her hands and back to her feet before responding with a powerful, bottom-to-top swing with both weapons. "I think." Mariamne blocked, leaping out of the way.

She immediately pushed again, driving the younger woman towards the edge of the practice yard. Mariamne spun back, her back now towards the middle instead of the edge, and relaunched her attack. Revan dodged it, rolling back across the yard and coming up next to the weapons rack. She glanced at it, and came up with an idea. "You're impressive," she complimented, bringing her weapons into stance. "But do you want the full experience?"

Mariamne responded by bringing up her weapons into a stance that echoed Revan's. "I'd expect nothing less."

"Good!" Revan threw both her weapons at her opponent, who blocked them. With her hands free, Revan grabbed a pair of double-bladed practice sabers off the rack, swung them into position, and charged.

"What the f—" Mariamne started, dodging out of the way. Revan swung one blade over her head, slashing it down towards Mariamne's shoulder, and bringing the other around her back towards her opponent's arm. She immediately forced her to dodge again, and continued to press. Carth straightened against his tree.

"Is she doing what I think she's doing?" Doc asked.

"I think so."

Revan knocked one of Mariamne's weapons aside, sweeping one of the two double-sabers towards her front. As she dodged, Revan swung the other weapon low, at the back of her knees. Her great-granddaughter stumbled, landing on her rear hard, and Revan placed the tip of the other at her throat.

"I cannot believe — two doubles?"

Revan laughed and dropped the one, helping Mariamne back to her feet. A few of the Jedi — mostly Padawans, probably — clapped, and she was sure a couple of the older Jedi mumbled to themselves unhappily, and the crowd slowly dispersed. "I have to keep myself entertained somehow." She dropped the other weapon to the practice yard with a clatter. "It's not as easy as it looks, I assure you."

"I'd assume not." Mariamne grinned, retrieving one of the sabers and pressing it to her forehead. "Thank you."

"Anytime." Revan rested her hand on Mariamne's arm. "What mission are they sending you on?"

Immediately, the younger Jedi grew cagey again. "I can't really say. It's highly classified."

"Don't give me that," she replied.

"The Council asked for me specifically," Mariamne replied sharply. Revan frowned.

"Who did?"

"Master Braga." Revan's frown deepened. She remembered that Braga had shown interest — too much interest — in her experience with the Emperor … and had then never spoken to her again.

Revan lowered her voice. "Just tell me one thing," she asked. "Does this have something to do with the Emperor?"

It took Mariamne a few moments to answer. "I can't say."

That feeling took place in her gut - it was enough. "Listen to me. Get out of this mission. Don't follow through."

"I'm not going alone," she insisted. "Braga is coming, as are two other Jedi Masters. It will be more than enough."

"No," Revan said. "If you're doing anything with the Emperor, a hundred Jedi Masters will not be enough. Listen to me, Mariamne."

"I will take it under advisement."

Revan shook her head. "No, you won't. You're related to me, after all. I just … be smart about this, Mariamne. You saw where the Emperor was keeping me. You've heard me talk about him. I don't know what insanity Braga's gotten into his head, but it won't end well. You don't have to go down with him."

"I'll be fine," she said, a cocky smile creeping onto her face. Revan threw her hands up.

"It's like you're descended from some rule-breaking monster," she complained.

"I trust the wisdom of the Council. They would not send us on this mission if they didn't think we'd be successful."

"Give it time," Revan said. "They'll do something to rub that shiny glow off. Believe me, only two things in this galaxy are certain - death, and the Jedi Council frakking up."

Mariamne nodded. "Again, I'll keep that under advisement."

Revan shook her head as Carth and Doc joined them. "Carth, she's definitely ours."

"How so?"

"She's more stubborn than a bantha."

Mariamne snorted as her comm rang. When she answered it, Braga appeared over the disk. :: I need to speak with you, if you're quite finished. ::

"I'll be right there, Master Braga." She sighed and closed the call, looking up. "I guess duty calls."

Revan nodded. "Just … remember what I said." Mariamne nodded and turned on her heel, tossing the two practice sabers onto the rack as she started back towards the Temple. Doc shook his head.

"She hasn't told us what stupid idea the Council's gotten into their heads," he said. "I don't like it, though."

"That makes two of us," Revan said, staring after the knight.

"Three of us," Carth mumbled. Revan didn't trust the Council, that he knew, but she usually wouldn't advocate someone else outright challenging them — or refusing to follow an order — without a damn good reason.

"Three of us," she corrected, finally turning to Doc. "I'm assuming you're a medic."

"A doctor, thank you."

"I don't know what idiot idea the Council's gotten into their heads, but I'm about eighty percent sure it involves someone it shouldn't. If it even looks like the mission is going south, you have my permission to drug her off her ass, drag her back onto her ship, and get the hell out of there. Am I clear?"

He replied with a sideways grin as he started towards the Temple. "Honestly, I would have tried that without your permission, but yes."

As the training yard cleared and Carth and Revan were left alone, he glanced at her. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that Braga is planning on going after the Emperor," she muttered, lost in thought.

"What?! You don't think …" If Revan was right — and he suspected she was, if the man had taken her out the way she described — then they would need a lot more than three Masters and a young knight to even make a dent. "You don't think the Council would be that stupid, not after everything you've told them."

Revan replied with a short, barking laugh, turning back towards their droids. "It's the Council, Carth," she replied. "Their great plan for ending the Jedi Civil War was mind-wiping my unconscious ass and teaching me how to love, essentially. If they are — well, they can't let a Sith like the Emperor sit around unchastised, can they?" She sighed. "I just don't want the Emperor to get his wrinkly little hands on … it doesn't matter."

He gently rested his hand on her arm. "On what?"

"On one of our descendants. If Mariamne is enough like me …" She shook her head. Spotting a Padawan walking towards the yard, Revan waved Carth towards T3. "Duty calls, Carth."

"If she's enough like you…?" he asked. Revan shook her head again.

"If she's enough like me, he might get what he wants anyway."