17: Mysterious Allies

They managed to get the retrofits they were worried about at a decent enough price, spending most on the engines and the hyperdrive. Revan told Carth that night over a celebratory dinner that outrunning Sith vessels was her top priority, and he agreed.

The Hawk's retrofits were slated to take about four weeks — apparently, they desperately needed the space — and they stayed near the shipyard in a decent hotel that was still much nicer than they were used to. Most days they spoke with Command over secure holo, arranging the forces they'd need for the Foundry, or oversaw the work on the Hawk. It was still hard for them to believe their luck. Revan commented at one point early in the week that, while it was slightly contradictory to her own Force philosophy, only one thing could have both ensured the Hawk's protection over the past three hundred years and have led them straight to her.

She slept poorly that night.

Around the end of the second week, Carth had left early to oversee the hyperdrive's installation with T3. Revan spent a good bit of the morning catching up on the war (the Republic was, at least, holding strong, with several victories already), before finally putting on a shirt and opening her holocomm.

Eventually, after a few minutes of ringing, the Grand Master appeared on the other end. :: Is this important, Revan? ::

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the Temple today. Do you have a minute?"

Satele sighed. :: I have a minute, yes. ::

Someone must have seriously ruined her breakfast. "You're not in the middle of a battle or something."

:: I'm en route to one. You have a minute. ::

"The Republic approved the Foundry mission, I need to talk to you about an idea I have that would require me temporarily borrowing a couple of Jedi. By 'temporarily,' I mean, perhaps a week — no more. Call me when you aren't attempting to kick some Sith's ass."

:: Understood. ::

Revan hung up, and promptly pulled her shirt off and turned the vidscreen back on.

As was becoming more common, her thoughts slowly turned to her great-granddaughters. She had been checking up on Thaymina, mostly through Gav'riel — she was awake and coherent now, but had locked herself in the quarters she shared with her sister and had barely been seen since. The Zabrak and her new Padawan were the only two she would speak to, and then only when she opened the door to take a tray of food. Revan had an idea what she was doing — meditating like hell in the hopes that she'd lend her sister even a tiny bit of strength. Admirable, if probably fruitless, and likely helping keep herself sane and in a minimum amount of pain.

Revan straightened up on the bed and folded her legs under her, closing her eyes as she reached out for the Force. She didn't meditate like this often. Typically she had to keep moving, usually running lightsaber drills, her attention waning long before she was immersed - the curses of a genius-level intellect and an oddly-wired brain. And full immersion like this was risky, as it could alert the Emperor to her and cause someone to break into their hotel room when she started screaming.

Almost as an afterthought, she pulled her shirt back on.

Once fully immersed in the currents of the Force, Revan skirted along the edge of the thread that still connected her to him, throwing herself lightyears across the galaxy before breaking off. The darkness at the end didn't stir. She took a moment to wonder if he hadn't noticed her, or if he just wanted her to think he hadn't noticed her. She focused a tiny bit harder and brought the world around her into view, finding herself back in what looked like the same station she'd been on when Vitiate had showed her Mariamne. Even here, projecting herself from lightyears away, she could feel his presence soaked into the steel, a skin-crawling, odious malevolence that seemed to constantly be standing over her left shoulder.

Oddly, somehow, it felt a little like he wasn't entirely on board.

He must have a stronger link to this Voice than she'd thought. Perhaps having inhabited it long enough? Whatever it was, it didn't matter. The hair on her physical neck raised, a weird sensation considering the separation of her body and consciousness. She'd thought he'd rarely left Dromund Kaas. Where was he now? What was he overseeing? What poor bastard's meatsuit was he currently wearing? She decided that, for the moment, she didn't want to know.

Revan made her way through the facility, skirting around red-clothed Imperial Guards and the occasional droid patrolling the halls. The droids wouldn't see her — but she was worried about the Force-sensitives, even though she was masking herself as well as she could. She glanced out a viewport as she passed, spotting the thunderstorm-ravaged surface of Dromund Kaas far below the station, and shuddered as she moved on.

Deeper in the bowels of the station, she began to feel like she was moving closer to her destination. This wasn't the first time she'd tried to see if she could get through to Mariamne. Part of it was concern - if she found her, she would have more information, in case she went after her personally or sent HK. Typically she was interrupted before she reached her. Today, as she passed spots she remembered, she thought she was getting close. At one point she was fairly sure she passed Mariamne's droid, but it was highly unlikely that T7 could wander the station at will.

Finally she stood outside a final door in the bowels of the station, the keypad outside demanding a biometric scan, and raised her hand to push through the steel—

—when her holocomm rang.

Revan was knocked out of her concentration, slamming back into reality with a highly uncomfortable jolt. She grumbled under her breath as she fumbled for the comm. It was either Satele, though she thought it'd only been a half-hour or so, or it was Carth asking about the Hawk. One was more likely than the other. She scrubbed the side of her face as she answered.

"Satele? That was fas—"

:: Revan. :: The hooded figure that met her was obviously not Satele — they were wearing a thick hooded robe that obscured their features, but they looked more broadly built than the lithe Grand Master. That, and unless Satele had suddenly grown, stolen, or been injected with a sense of humor, this wasn't her usual MO.

"Who is this?" she demanded. "This is a private, encrypted number. How did you get it? You bett-"

:: That is not important. ::

"I damn well think it is. I—"

:: This is in regard to your great-granddaughter, Jedi Knight Mariamne Galon. :: Revan closed her mouth. That probably explained how they got her number, then. :: She is being held by the Sith Emperor in a hidden station above Dromund Kaas. ::

"I am aware," she replied dryly.

:: I have access to this station, :: they continued. :: I am working to secure her release. ::

Uh-huh. "Are you, now?"

:: Don't sound surprised. There are Sith who do not follow the Emperor. ::

There was something vaguely familiar about the mysterious caller. Something in the voice, she thought, or the set of the shoulders under the robe. Revan narrowed her eyes. Something she would have preferred to never think about again. Those memories - clear, and suffering from the same horrible hyperthymesia of all her memories now - were not good ones.

"Who is this?" she demanded again.

:: You will be contacted once we have left the Emperor's station. Do not expect to hear from me again. ::

"Don't you hang up on me, you son of—" The call clicked off, and she nearly threw her holocomm. When she examined the call, it said only what she expected: Kaas City.

Revan groaned and flopped back down on the bed. She'd have to get T3's opinion when they came back. She had an inkling of why the figure felt familiar, and she had absolutely one opinion about it.

"If it is that asshole," she muttered, throwing her arm over her eyes. "I'm going to punch him in the face."

#

Carth came back in the early afternoon.

She was alerted to this because HK, who insisted on standing guard outside their room, announced his intention to fire a warning shot if the "whiny meatbag" refused to desist. Revan sighed and opened the door, finding Carth glaring with a take-out bag in hand and T3 slowly encroaching on the assassin droid's position, shock arm extended.

"Force," she snapped. "HK, it's frakking Carth. You've known him for something like three hundred years now."

"Warning:" HK began, and Revan's eyes started to roll of their own accord. "Sith agents can be suspiciously clever, master. Suggestion: Opening with blasterfire removes all doubts."

"I cannot believe I ever trusted you around an infant," she mumbled. "Stop. I'm not in the mood."

"Thanks," Carth replied, eying HK as he edged past him into the room. "What has you on edge?"

Revan huffed as she closed the door behind T3. "Grab my holocomm," she told him. "I want you to trace the last call I received."

"What?" Carth asked. "Who called you?"

She huffed again and flounced down on the bed, throwing her arm back over her eyes. "I don't know. No, that's a lie. I have a reasonable suspicion. And it's pissing me off."

Revan relayed the morning's events — calling Satele, investigating the Emperor's secret station for Mariamne's location, and her caller — while Carth laid out their lunch, his frown deepening.

"I don't like you doing that," he said, when she finished.

"What?" Revan sat up. "Out of all that, you don't like me —"

"You've talked a lot about the Emperor and what he can do. What if he has a way to trap you while you're doing that? What if —" Carth swallowed heavily. "What if I come back here and find you dead because he'd, I don't know, trapped you there or something?"

"I wouldn't be dead, just comatose. It's not like I'm leaving my body. My reptilian brain would still be intact."

"That's not — that's not the point! The point is that I don't understand it."

"That— what?"

"I don't understand it. I don't understand him, or what he did to you, or how it worked — hell, I don't even understand the godsdamned Force, but I put up with it because I love you! And I can have your back out here, but I can't when you do that. If something happens, I'll never know. After all this, after everything that had to happen for us to be here, I'll never know, and there's nothing I could do about it."

Revan got to her feet, curling her arms around him and burying her face in his chest. "I'm an ass," she admitted. "I'm sorry."

"You are an ass," he agreed, burying his face in her hair. She stepped on his foot. "Ow!"

"You don't have to agree so wholeheartedly!" Revan frowned. "Doing that … the risk of something happening is low. As far as I know, there's no way to keep me from coming back. I'm only throwing my consciousness out there — it's no different from a Jedi viewing something remotely, just more personal. But." She sighed. "You're right. If someone's found a way to frak around with it, it's the thing I learned the trick from."

"You learned it from him? And then tried it? What the hell, Anna."

"It seemed useful at the time, alright? I just admitted you were right."

"I noticed." Carth raised his head. "Hey, T3, make a note of the date and time that I was right." T3 whistled, and Anna stepped on his foot again. "Will you stop?"

"Make me," she replied, staring up at him through her lashes.

"Uh-uh. Not until you tell me you'll stop. Or, at least … only do it when I'm here. I don't know, maybe if he does something, I can pull you out of it. I just — I feel helpless around you a lot, with the problems you seem to stumble over. Doing things like that when I'm not around … I don't know. I don't have a good feeling about it."

"Alright. I won't go gallivanting about in the Force when you're not around," she agreed.

"You aren't just saying that to make me feel better?"

"No, Carth. Your concern is a good one. I won't do it again. I meant it when I said you were right."

"Thanks," he said, kissing her forehead. "It does make me feel better." Carth stepped back, handing her a food container. "Got this while I was out. I figured you'd forgotten to eat again."

"Ugh. I did." She settled down at their table. "How's that trace coming, T3?"

T3 whistled, a series of ascending notes followed by a low, quiet, nervous dwooooo. Revan sighed. The Dark Citadel, as expected. The droid offered to dig further, and she shook her head.

"No, if it's going there, I don't want you poking further." Revan sniffed at the contents of a large travel cup Carth passed her. "Is this spiced caf? On Talus?"

"Mandalorian stuff seems to be getting popular again."

"Remember when they renamed this stuff during the Mandalorian Wars?"

Carth chuckled. "What did they start calling it? Freedom caf?"

"Something like that."

They ate in silence for a few moments before Carth asked, "So who called you?"

"T3 was tracing the call." The droid chirped. "Went back to the Dark Citadel. Proves it's Imperial, at least, probably Sith, and probably high-ranking."

"How so?"

"Dark Citadel's the Sith version of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. If someone's making a call to a highly encrypted private line associated with Public Enemy Number One from the seat of the Empire itself, they've probably got their own highly encrypted private line, with very little concern that Intelligence is going to come down on them with the wrath of …" She trailed off briefly. "Well, with the wrath of the Emperor, which might be slightly appropriate in this circumstance."

Carth moved his hand when she paused again.

"I'm pretty sure I know who it is. Remember the Sith I was telling you about?"

"The one that threw the fight with the Emperor?"

"Yeah. Him. I think it's him."

"That was three hundred years ago, Anna. He's probably—"

"Nah. The Emperor rewards people who serve him well. He handed me over on a gold platter — only thing missing was my hands tied and a fruit in my mouth. He got a minor repeat of the ritual that gave the Emperor immortality, plus a fancy title. 'Emperor's Wrath.' Makes him … well, not one of the Emperor's hands or something, those titles are literal and already handed out. More like the Emperor's big toe, or second finger on his right hand."

"And you think it's him? Why would he betray his master?"

"Sounds to me like he gets off on it, he does it so often," she mumbled. "If it is him, and he is still alive, then he's probably been running a centuries-long con on the Emperor. I don't believe he wanted a war with the Republic any more than I wanted one with the Empire. I'm certain he thought a variable changed, and threw the battle because of it. I know he didn't have any love for his master, and I doubt that changed. Plus … he has a very bad habit of rescuing his own prisoners."

"But it might not be."

"No, it might not. And that's what worries me. If it is, though." She chewed her food thoughtfully. "I'm going to break his nose."

"An—"

"And don't you try to stop me, Carth Onasi." She waggled her fork at him. "He's why I got put in stasis. You should be offering to hold him down for me."

"I didn't say I was going to try and stop you."

"Good."

#

Revan didn't hear from her mysterious caller again.

Installation of the ship's new engines and hyperdrive went as anticipated, and the brief in-atmosphere test flight Carth and Revan took her on had both of them nearly in tears by the time they landed. They both admitted it was a little ridiculous, having that sort of emotional reaction to the ship, but it was the first time they'd both truly felt at home since waking up.

Carth and Revan on the Ebon Hawk, like it should be.

By the time the Hawk's retrofits were done, arrangements for the Foundry operation were nearing completion and they were due back on Coruscant for the last stages. As Carth settled behind the controls and Revan strapped herself into the copilot's seat, the ship herself seemed to anticipate her return to the stars.

Carth glanced over at her and grinned. "You ready?"

"Never been more," she replied with her own grin.

"We'll start her easy. That way, if something goes wrong—"

"Just get us out of here, flyboy."

"You got it."

As the ship came to life around them, a series of clicks and whirs and lighting panels, they glanced at one another and grinned again.

"You know," Revan said. "It's too bad she needed repairs. We could have just stolen her. It's tradition at this point, isn't it?"

"It's only tradition if the planet's being bombed around us."

You're no fun."

He raised the ship off the pad, the engines thrumming under his hands. Revan began plotting the hyperspace route to Coruscant as Carth directed the ship upwards. "Here we go," he said as the viewports streaked red with heat. Neither breathed until the red broke into black, dotted with distant stars and the looming planets of Corellia's system. Carth leaned back in his seat heavily, and they both stared outside for some time.

"Well," Revan said finally. "As long as she goes to lightspeed, I think we're set." Carth opened the intercom.

"T3, you finished your —" A series of chirps answered him, text flashing on one of the screens on the ship's controls. They both studied it. "Looks like everything's in order, then," Carth continued. "Shall w—"

He was interrupted again by a comm ringing back in the communications room, and Revan stood with a sigh. "I'll get it."

They had condensed the communications equipment into more compact, newer arrays. Revan leaned over one of them, answering the alert. "Revan."

:: I have news. :: Satele appeared on the screen, her voice rushed.

"…about what?"

:: We made contact with Mariamne's Padawan, Kira. They are back in Republic space, returning to Tython. ::

Revan stared down at the screen for a moment, blinking. "We'll be right there."

:: Re— ::

She hung up and stepped back into the cockpit. "Change of plans, Carth."

"Huh?"

"We're setting course for Tython. Mari's back."

- 12 -