A/N: And now, as they say, some excrement hits the rotating air flow device.

13: This May Have Been, in Some Manner or Form, Something Akin to a Mistake

Revan reached for the bottle of water at Carth's side as she flopped down on the grass by her training ring. It had been about a week since they'd spoken to Mariamne, and a little over three standard months since the Maelstrom mission. Every day brought news of increased tensions between the Republic and the Empire, signs of an impending war in no hurry to begin.

"Carth," she said finally. "I think I'm getting too old for this."

He scowled, self-consciously touching a graying streak in his hair. "Don't even start. You're thirty-six."

She laughed and touched the streak. "It makes you look distinguished, Carth." He grumbled. "I like them."

"Oh? In that case…" Revan laughed again and laid back, throwing her arm over her eyes.

"Gotten anything from Command?"

Carth picked up his datapad, scanning it again. "No. The last I heard was that Intelligence was getting rumblings the Empire would be declaring war soon, but that was it."

"Ugh." She sighed. "Wish they'd just do it already. Waiting around is almost worse than actually fighting."

"You can feel it coming." He shrugged. "It's better than coming out of nowhere, at least."

"Yeah," she agreed.

Carth looked up as he set his datapad back down. "Thaymina."

Revan groaned and rolled back to her feet as the woman stopped. "Revan, Carth," Thaymina said warmly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you get up."

"No, no, don't worry about it." Revan straightened out her robes. "How are you?"

"I … could be better." Her brow furrowed. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"We — by that, I mean I — just learned of a new phenomenon that is now, apparently, my responsibility. Since you know the Emperor, I was wondering if you might be familiar with it."

Revan crossed her arms, leaning heavily on one leg. "I might."

"The Emperor's Children."

Carth got to his feet when the color quickly drained out of Revan's face. "Anna? What is it?"

"I—"

"I'm fine," Revan said, straightening her shoulders. "I just … was kind of hoping he'd made that up. I doubt I know much more than the Council does."

"There's apparently a former one among the Order."

"Only one?"

"Mari's padawan, according to Satele."

"Kira? Huh." Revan shook her head. "I'll tell you what I know, but it's not much."

"Anything may help."

"There's a lot of them. The Emperor had them stolen from their families as infants and did Force-knows-what with them. He created a link between himself and them that … allows him to possess them at will. Most aren't aware of it. He had them sent out and put into positions to infiltrate the Republic — that's why I asked if there was only one known in the Jedi. I guarantee there are more, plus ones in the Senate, the military, probably the SIS. Major merchant organizations like Czerka, I believe, several Imperial organizations as well as the Imperial military. It's part of how he wields his influence over the Empire without being seen."

"Do you have any idea who might be among them?"

She shook her head. "Sadly, no. I know they're all shielded from the Jedi via the First Son, but I have no idea who that might be."

"Yes, the title's come up."

"How did—"

"The Alliance I'm working with? One of its members was a Child. He was feeding the Empire information to destabilize our negotiations."

"That sounds about right." Revan rested her chin on her hand.

"You said they were linked to his mind?" Carth said. She nodded. "Anna, if you're …"

She laughed and shook her head. "No, no, the Emperor's not about to possess me, don't worry. It's a different type of link. If one of us exerts enough will we might chat, but that's it. I'm going to stay in one-hundred percent control of my own faculties, thanks."

"That's a relief."

"I'm sorry I can't tell you more," she said. Thaymina shook her head.

"No, no, it's fine. I didn't know if you'd have any more information or … not." Thaymina swayed on her feet, furrowing her brow. Carth reached out to steady her.

"Are you—"

"I'm … fine?" She shook her head, steadying herself on his arm. "I don't know where that dizzy spell came from."

"Should you lie down?" Revan asked.

Thaymina shook her head. "No, no, I should be —" She trailed off, and Carth and Revan watched as her eyes rolled back in her head, and she shrieked in pain as she clutched at Carth's arm. He caught he as her knees buckled, and carried her to the ground as she began convulsing.

"Get one of the medics," he barked. Revan nodded and turned for the Temple, breaking into a sprint.

Halfway across her training ring, her defenses shattered. Pain slammed into the back of her eyes, and she stumbled to the ground with a cry. She felt him again, sweeping into her mind, smug and self-satisfied as usual. Darkness crept into the edges of her vision, nausea burning in her chest as she scrabbled on the ground for something, anything to anchor herself.

"Master A—" someone started, a distant call that she tried to latch onto.

"Statement—" She reached out and grabbed onto HK's metal leg, gripping it like a lifeline as the ground in front of her disappeared.

What appeared in its place was a long throne room, not unlike the one she'd destroyed his first Voice in. Different, though — outside the door she could see a long viewport, clearly marking it as a station. Her eyes slid back to the front, and her heart stopped.

Mariamne was picking herself onto her hands and knees, surrounded by a few immobile, robed forms she couldn't recognize through her tunnel vision. Her great-granddaughter was panting heavily, one hand pressed into her side, brow furrowed and hair coming out of a thick braid. A hand raised — the current Voice's, she assumed — and the room filled with the bright purple of Force lightning, sending Mariamne convulsing back to the ground with a scream.

Do you see this, Revan? he asked. She is just like you, isn't she? It was very rude of you to not admit you had offspring.

"Let. Her. Go," Revan snarled. He chuckled.

Oh, no, I don't think so. She seems to have inherited your … tolerance. Since I lost you, perhaps she will be a suitable replacement. Perhaps she will serve, where you did not.

"If she's anything like me, she'll resist," Revan growled. The lightning ended and Mariamne collapsed to the floor, a trembling mess of brown robes and red hair. Vitiate lowered his hand.

We shall see.

Revan snapped back to Tython as the dark edges of her vision retreated, the sight of her great-granddaughter fading back to the bright midday sunlight. She forcibly uncurled her hand from HK's leg and pushed herself onto her knees, wiping wetness away from her upper lip and finding a streak of blood on her hand.

The thing that frightened her about her rage — the times where she was actually, truly, angry — was that it was empty, cold. It burst out of her chest, chilling the rest of her body, an implacable frost she had to fight for control. She rose to her feet in one smooth motion, ignoring the medic trying to speak to her. She looked back and found Thaymina surrounded by a small army of Jedi healers, and her eyes met Carth's. He took two steps towards her as he paled, realizing —

And she turned on her heel and stormed towards the Temple, her jaw clenched and her hands balling and unballing.

By the time she hit the Temple, she had cut a wide swath through the training Jedi and Padawans, and forced more than one hand to a lightsaber. Just outside the doors she spotted a recognizable Master, and stormed towards him.

"Where's the Council?" she demanded. He stammered, hand resting unsubtly on his weapon.

"I … think they're in a meeting?"

Revan left him and strode up the ramp, that indeterminate blinding rage building in the back of her head. She had known - Force, she had known that they had some poorly-planned idea in mind, but she hadn't thought they would head straight for him. She should have expected it - the Jedi had never been subtle - but to completely disregard her? To ignore her? And then to send her own child straight into the Emperor's arms? To give him at least half of what he wanted? To send one of their best into what she personally knew would be a hell like no Jedi alive had experienced?

She had calmed herself a little by the time she hit the top of the ramps, slamming both hands and the Force into the large double-doors leading to the Council chambers and making them bounce off the walls. The present members of the Council got to their feet as she hardly broke stride.

"Revan, we are bus—" Satele started, as her hand fell to her saber.

"How dare you?" Revan demanded, moving her hand and sweeping the chairs on the closer half of the table aside. "How dareyou send her straight at him? What the fuck were you thinking?"

"What are you talking about?" Kaedan's lightsaber was already in his hand, but unlit. She didn't care.

"You sent my granddaughter straight at the godsdamned Emperor! After I told you — I told you! Ehotl manchur hirlan, what were you trying to do?"

"We sent Braga and Knight Galon to cap—"

"You sent them to capture him?" She thought she'd descended towards calm, but that made another wave of rage explode in her chest. "You fucking sent them to cap-ture the most powerful Force user in the godsdamned galaxy?After I told you there was only one way to deal with him, you completely ignored my kriffing advice on principle?" One of the chairs she'd thrown aside spun and crashed into a wall, cracking in half.

"You need to calm down," Satele said, placating. "Or —"

"Don't even start with me!" she snapped, hand raised accusingly. "I am the closest thing to a fucking expert you have on the Emperor and you ignored everything I said! Do you even know what you've done, you vacuous, di'kutla sof'lamya! You sent him exactly what he wants!"

"How do you even know—"

"He showed me, usen'ye. He showed me." There was a sudden change in the atmosphere — whatever they were expecting, that answer likely wasn't it. Satele's shoulders sank as she glanced back at the others, just enough for Revan to notice. "He can't dominate her, so you know what he's going to do, right? Do you?" When no one spoke she raised her hand, and another chair sailed into a wall. At least one Councilor flinched. "He's going to torture her. Do you understand that? Is that something you can comprefuckinghend? That's what he does. That's what he did to me, and now he'll do it to her! And who's fault that is? You say you value my fucking expertise and this is what you do with it? If you'd listened to me this wouldn't have happened! This is entirely on your heads, I—"

Someone gently touched her arm. She almost whirled before she recognized the presence, and Carth gently whispered her name as his other hand came to rest on her back. Revan closed her eyes, drawing several long, slow breaths in through her nose as she pushed her anger back down, hard. Finally she opened her eyes and raised her head.

"Fix it," she said, coolly, raising her hand again. "Fix it, or I will."

"Revan—"

"Considering the Council believes they can get by without my opinion, I will return to Coruscant and work full-time with Command," she continued, just as coldly. "After this brazen attack, the Empire is certainly going to declare war. Good job. You frakked it up for everyone. I hope you're very proud." She turned on her heel and took several steps for the door.

"Revan—" Satele started again.

"Nar'sheb," she spat back, disappearing through the door. The chairs, still levitating a couple inches in the air, dropped with a loud clatter. Carth glanced back at the Council.

"Admiral—" Kaedan started. Carth shook his head.

"I heard enough," he interrupted, brow furrowing. "Good to see the Jedi Council never changes."

The path Revan cut through the sea of Jedi and Padawans was still visible as he jogged after her, following her outside. Eventually he found her by the river, throwing rocks into the water as hard as she could manage. T3 chirped nervously behind her, rocking back and forth on his struts.

"Anna?" Carth asked quietly. She lifted another rock about the size of her fist and hurled it into the water in the middle of the river.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she mumbled, though it came out as more of a growl. She threw another rock.

"Don't you think you were a bit hard on them?"

"No."

"Anna—"

"No, Carth," she snapped, whirling back. He winced and she sighed, raising her hands.

"Carth," she started quietly. "We knew before I left that whatever happened to me was bad. The dreams I had when I was pregnant with Nova just …" He nodded. "When I got my memories back, I remembered it all. All of it, every second of those two weeks. And I…" Her shoulders sagged. "If he does to her even half of what he did to me, I swear, Carth, I will find him. And this time? I won't let him escape."

He shook his head. "You wrecked half of the Council chamber. You know what they could do to you."

She laughed humorlessly. "What, cut me off from the Force and maroon me on some asteroid? They could try."

"Anna, it's just —"

"I lost control, Carth, I'm sorry." Revan sighed. "I … haven't been that angry in a long time. Last I was, Malak lost his jaw. I just — ugh." She moved her hand and hurled another rock without looking. "They say they value my expertise, my experience, my information, and then they completely refuse to include me in planning that would benefit from that? They thought they could just waltz right in, Carth, right through the front door. Say pretty please and the Emperor would come quietly like a good little Sith and submit to the Council for rehabilitation. This man eats worlds for power, his moral compass is already broken. And he hates the Jedi. Quite frankly, I can see why.

"No one ever takes me seriously. This is why I went with the mask to begin with." She threw another rock. "The only way they ever notice me is if I lose my temper. And I fucking hate it."

She heard him sigh heavily, then felt his arms curl around her waist. Carth rested his chin on her head gently, staring at the river. "Alright. What's your plan?"

"Huh?"

"Someone around here has to take you seriously, don't they? You must have an idea."

Revan stared at the water for a few more moments.

"I think I need to talk to Bastila."