Revan and Bastila looked at the massive tear before them. To the naked eye of a non-Force Sensitive it would only appear to be a few feet tall and three wide. To the heightened senses of a trained Jedi or Sith it would appear several hundred times larger, and infinitely more dangerous.

To one as strong as Revan... it seemed to go from the very core of the world all the way into deep space. A source of near infinite danger, but perhaps also a chance of great power. She looked at the tear, and said, "Seems like the dangers are greater than we foresaw."
"It's massive... It has to be going up at least a kilometer..." Bastila said, her voice filled with awe.

Revan sighed... and said... "It is going into deep space. I don't even know how to bring it down in size to something that I could fix. It's like something purposefully tore it open even wider."

"Didn't you say it was agitated?"

"Agitated shouldn't have pushed it this wide open."

"What do we have to do?"

Revan turned to see a pair of ghostly figures. They raised blades only to vanish in a cloud of smoke. The Knight turned around, and through the tear she saw the ghostly figures smiling at her. She could faintly make out the outline of a third behind them and to the side.
She stared for a moment, before catching the blade of a Force Wraith, burning away its hood. She absorbed its energy, and slowly moved it into the tear. Reaching towards the peak of the tear, as well as the bottom, and trying to bring them closer together.

Revan sighed, as her legs gave out from under her. She looked around, and said, "This isn't going to work. I can't seal it with something so enormous. It's like trying to fix a capital ship with a few welds."

Bastila sighed, and asked, "Then what the bloody hell do we do, Revan?"
Revan looked again at the tear, and saw the smiling figures on the other side. She looked at them and said, "I don't know. I can see figures on the other side of the tear. Part of me thinks that they want me to go in... but... I don't know when I'd find a way to return to the regular world.

"I would probably survive... it might seal that tear. But... if it were sealed with me on the other side... I wouldn't be able to get back easily. If at all in a human lifetime."
Bastila looked at the tear, and said, "I don't see any figures on the other side."
Revan nodded, and continued to look at it. Stare into its depths. She then said, "No one really knows what is on the other side of a tear in the Force. None have tried to venture into those depths, or if any have they aren't back yet."
Bastila sighed, and said, "You're trying to convince yourself to go through, aren't you?"
Revan grimaced, and replied, "Yes. I don't want to go... you've only just begun to forgive me for leaving before. Who am I to go again so soon after that?"
"You think it's the only way, to seal this tear?"
"I cannot see any other way."
"You're awfully quick to give up on any other options."
"It goes to nearly the edge of the solar system, Bas. What chance do we have of sealing it through regular means? It could become so massive as to kill the Force itself... do you want that to happen?"
"Do we know that it will?"
"We can't be certain. Do you want to risk the continued existence of what binds all life together, something that we could not survive without, on the chance that we could find another way?"
"It seems like you're always looking for a reason to sacrifice yourself."
"I'm just trying to make sure that the few people I care about don't die.

Bastila ran a hand through her hair, and asked, "What do you think you'll find on that other side, Rev?"
The Knight looked into the tear. Into the eyes of the smiling wraiths on the other side. Then she said, "A sealed tear, so that you and the rest of the students here on Dantooine can continue to train in peace. Until the time comes that you must stand up to the Council, and go to war."
"Revan... not all of us are soldiers."
"All Jedi are trained in the art of war, Bastila. Who are we to say that we are not soldiers when that is what our order was founded on? Warriors who fight to ensure that a balance is maintained. To prevent either light or dark from growing too strong."

"Times change, Revan."
"I know." the Knight replied. "That's why, Bas, I want to go through. I might learn something... something that could help us stop the mandalorians. Ensure peace in our time."
"Revan... can you for once since they ruined your life think about more than handling them?" Bastila asked, pleaded.

Revan chuckled, and said, "That's why I'm going through. To make sure that you're safe... from whatever this thing could do. And to atone for the deaths it caused."

"Do you feel like you have to kill yourself to earn my forgiveness for leaving Revan?"
The Knight shook her head, and said, "No. I know what I would have to do in order to gain your forgiveness. But I cannot. Instead I'll give my life to ensure that you're safe if that's what going through means."
"What is on the other side is a complete mystery, Revan. You don't even know if you could breath. You can't really think that committing suicide to close that thing is the best choice, do you?"
"It has to be done, there is nothing that is too risky to ensure that the innocent do not die to this thing any more than they already have." Revan said, and the look in her eyes conveyed the rest of the message to Bastila.

The younger woman nodded, and asked, "If you can't return... who will lead the Jedi into the war?"
Revan laughed bitterly, and said, "No one will. There won't be anyone who would do it."

The younger woman nodded, and said, "If you... die I'll... try to take your place."

Revan shook her head, and said, "You don't have to take up my mantle."
"If no one does, the Republic would almost certainly fall, we both know that."

Revan nodded, and said, "Hopefully it does not come to that. But I can't waste any more time... this thing has to be closed." as she turned and walked towards the tear.

As she first touched the threshold of the tear, the thin line between normal reality and whatever it was that lay on the other side began to fluctuate. Then in a single instant it vanished. The last glimpse of the other side Bastila saw was Revan greeting two figures on the other side.

And then... a moment later it felt like she was completely surrounded by the Knight. As if she were everywhere at once. The younger woman looked around, and tried to say, "Where are you" over the bond.

But it seemed to hit an invisible wall. One that Revan's prescience could go through, but no words, no thoughts, no emotions. It was as if Revan was both surrounding Bastila and not there. The younger woman stared at where the tear had been for a moment.

-=0=-

Revan stepped through, felt the tear fluctuate behind her, then she felt it pulling much of her strength, to seal behind her. She looked at her mother and father, and asked, "Where am I?"
John smiled, and said, "You are on the other side."

"You mean this is the Force itself? Where everyone goes when they die?"
"Not everyone." he replied, "Only a select few."

Revan sighed, and said, "You were a Jedi in life, weren't you?"
"Do not worry about that now, Revan. The present should be your concern, not the past."

"I'd still like some answers about what you were before you died, Dad."

"Revan, it is not from us that you will learn your mother and I's true history."

"What?"
"There's someone else out there who's role is to explain all to you. You must begin the journey, every second wasted means more lives lost."
"You know about the mandalorian invasion?"
"We may be one with the Force, but we still watch over the galaxy."
"If I'm in the same place as those who are one with the Force, I'm dead, right?" Revan asked, "Don't we have all the time in the universe to talk?"
"You are not dead, Revan." Miranda said, "You just have to find a way out of here."

"How do I do that?"
"We don't know." John sighed, "As those who are actually dead, the path back is locked, we don't have bodies anymore."

"You look like you have bodies to me." Revan replied.

"They are not physical." John said, his hand sinking through his daughter's shoulder.

Revan poked him, and her hand went clear through. She sighed, and said, "No rest for the wicked, huh?"

John laughed, and said, "For those chosen by the Force to change the course of history there is rarely a chance to rest."

-=0=-

Bastila staggered into the Enclave, weak from hunger, she looked around and saw no one else around. She tried to reach out with her senses to find them, but only met with the all-encompassing presence of Revan. She walked deeper into the Enclave, seeking answers for what was going. She leaned on the tree in the center for strength, three straight days without food or water having drained all of her own.

The Padawan stumbled deeper in, reaching the closed door to the Council Chambers. She pressed a key to open the door, and was met with the sight of the entire enclave's population. All sitting in perfect silence, even the Council.

All eyes turned to the young woman, who leaned on the door to stay upon her feet. She then mumbled, "Food... water..." before her legs gave out. She groaned in pain as she hit the ground.

Vrook motioned for a Knight to get what Bastila had requested, before asking the Padawan, "What happened out there? A few days past we could all sense a massive flux in the Force."

Bastila mumbled, "Food and water first..."

The Master nodded, as the Knight returned. Bastila quickly devoured what was set before her, as Vrook asked again, "What happened out there, Padawan?"
Bastila sighed, and said, "The Force was torn, Master. One of such size and scope we did not realize until close enough to physically touch it. Even one who was not Force-Sensitive would have been able to look through and see the other side. Revan tried to bring it back down to a containable size... but it nearly killed her doing so."

Vandar looked at the young woman, and asked, "How large was this tear?"
"She said it went into deep space. She may be the only one who knows how large it was."

"Where is the insolent child now, Bastila?" Vrook asked.

Bastila glared at the old man, tears in her eyes. Then, she stood up, looked him in the eyes, and said, "She saw something on the other side. Something that told her how to close the tear. How to make so that it wouldn't be a threat to anyone ever again. Whatever it was that she saw compelled her to... go through the tear..." tears starting to flow down the young woman's cheeks.

Vrook shook his head, and scolded, "Control your emotions Padawan. Remember the Jedi Code."

Bastila straightened her back, and said, "No."

"It seems Revan's disrespect and insolence has rubbed off on you far more than I had feared."

"If being sorrowful about a close friend and mentor going through a tear in the Force, probably to never return is in opposition of the way of the Jedi, then this is no longer an Order I wish to be a part of." Bastila replied, turning to walk away.

Then Zhar spoke, "Revan is dead, Bastila. What good will it do her legacy if her only student then turns her back on the Jedi?"

"She isn't dead, Master." Bastila replied, "Simply because she is on the other side does not mean her life is over."

"There has never been a case of anyone returning from such a venture, Bastila. It is not possible."

"How many Jedi have historically made such a venture?" Bastila asked, turning to Dorak.

"Including Revan, four Jedi and two Sith." Dorak said.

"Five other times this has happened in the entire history of the Jedi Order, Zhar," the young woman growled, "you should not be so quick to bury Revan because no one else has found a way to return."

Vrook then said, "Bastila your anger is unsettling. Let go of it now lest it lead you to the Dark Side."

She turned and glared at the Master, and said, "Do not command me how to handle my sorrow, Vrook. We all know that you are dead inside, all that remains in you is a hollow shell of a man who does not understand what it means to feel anymore."

He glared at her, and said, "It seems that Revan's departure from this life has driven you mad, Bastila."

"She. Is. Not. Dead. I can sense more from her even now than I can of any other Jedi in this room."

"You were close with Revan, she has recently become one with the Force, it is not surprising that you can sense much of her."
"The one thing that I sense from her the most, Vrook, is desperation to return." Bastila said, walking out of the room, sealing the door with the Force.

Inside, Vandar shook his hea,d and saids, "You have made a grave error, Master Vrook."
"We cannot allow Bastila to become a second Revan." the human Master replied. "After we have just lost that troublemaker we cannot afford to gain a replacement."

"Bastila will never be a second Revan, Vrook." Zhar said, "She lacks a certain spark. The fire to draw in any and all to her cause."

"Maybe not now, but with Revan gone..."

"Is Revan truly gone?" Vandar asked, the ancient Jedi's voice soft.

"There is no way that she could return. It is certain death to go through, she knew that."
"We also thought she would never fall in love, yet she did." Dorak said.

All the Jedi present looked shocked, and three said, "Who?"

Vrook shook his head, and said, "Mandalore himself knows who, why do you not?"
-=0=-

Bastila marched into the hangar bay of the Enclave fury flowing through her. She saw a single spacefaring vessel inside, the Ebon Hawk. She marched into it, her sabre in her hand. She marched in, to see Razol standing. He looked at Bastila and said, "Sorry, you're not the one I'm here to transport. He's a bit more bald. And male."

"I don't care." Bastila replied, pushing him aside with the Force.

The smuggler laughed, and asked, "What's made you so aggressive?"
Bastila ignored him, and walked into the cockpit. She sat down in the pilot's seat, and said, "Revan has gone through a tear in the Force. The Council here believes she is dead. I cannot gain any information about the matter here. There's no one with any kind of useful knowledge. But on Coruscant there is one who might be able to provide some answers."

"The Far-Seer, Kreia." Razol said, "Fortunately I'm already heading to Coruscant. Just give me a moment to pick up the bald guy and we can all go together, peacefully."
"There's no time to pick up Alek."

"Afraid you won't get this ship off the ground until we grab him."
"Why are you even ferrying him to Coruscant?"
"Davik fired me. Tried to kill me. He learned about me helping Revan get off Dantooine. Wasn't too pleased. Relying on the good will of the Jedi to stay alive."
Bastila sighed, and said, "Fine, go grab him. Just be quick about it."

-=0=-

Two days later, Meetra was walking out of the temple, where she saw Bastila leaning against a pillar. The older woman looked shocked to see the Padawan standing there. Bastila looked at Meetra and said, "I need to talk to Kreia."

"Whoa, what's with the all-business attitude? Where's Rev?"
"Revan is precisely what I need to talk to Kreia about."

"What happened? It was just a few days ago she went back there to try and make up with you."
"That happened. But she's gone again, and I need to find out if there's any way to bring her back."

"WHAT!" Meetra screamed, "She fucking ran away again? God she's more of a fucking coward than I fucking thought!"
"She wasn't running away, she was doing what she had to in order to save the most lives, Meetra."
"You don't honestly believe that nonsense, do you?"
"She went through a tear because it was the only way to seal it."
"Holy shit... forget what I just said. Comon, I'll help you find Kreia."

"Thank you." Bastila said, "They didn't want to let me into the temple, something about my psychological state being dangerous."

"Well no shit, the woman you love just went through a fucking tear in the Force. What the fuck do they expect?"
"Can you keep your bloody voice down? I haven't even told Revan how I feel, and I'd appreciate if she were one of the first to know, rather than the last."
"Good luck." Meetra said with a smirk on her face.

Bastila shook her head, and continued to follow Meetra, until they were at Kreia's door. The Far-Seer said, "Enter, but only Bastila." Kreia said.

-=0=-

It was four months that Bastila followed Kreia's cryptic instruction to oppose the Council's claims that the Jedi was dead, before a monument to the Knight was raised. Even then Bastila opposed it, for she insisted that Revan was still alive. That she would find a way to return. They would not listen.

The monument was the Knight's name engraved upon the wall, alongside those who had died in the Exar Kun War and the following Great Hunt.

Three days after that, she stood alone on the plains, staring into the wilderness on her own. Staring out, a kath hound walked up, and sat down beside the young Jedi. She looked down at it, saw the horns that had been broken from its head. Staring out onto the plains, she heard a voice say, "Why do you grieve, child?"

She turned around to see a man with only a view grey hairs left upon his head. He walked up, leaning on a cane, and said again, "Why do you grieve, child?"
Bastila sighed, and said, "There was someone I cared for. She stepped through a tear in the Force, and now everyone is convinced she's dead. They all consider me to be a crazy woman for disagreeing, saying that the act of stepping through such a tear is fatal."
The old man laughed, and said, "That lass never did know how to stay out of trouble."
"You knew Revan?"

"Know her? I saved her from Nar Shaddaa."
"You say she never knew how to stay out of trouble, did you keep an eye on her?"
"Only on the journey from the Smuggler's Moon to Coruscant. Every time we landed on a new station to resupply and refuel she would find some method to infuriate the locals. There were more than a few times I was tempted to leave her behind."
"Revan was always a troublemaker, sounds about right for that bloody woman."
"She didn't mean to, but her paranoia from those years of slavery. Those years of being trained to be an assassin for the crime lord who had bought her changed that lass. Before, she was almost as she is now."
"So you believe her to be alive?"
"If her childhood couldn't kill her, nothing can."

"Do you know what happened to her from her own mouth? Or did you watch it, without acting?"
"The lass wasn't willing to talk, I had to learn from what she muttered in her sleep."
"What did she say?"
"She spoke of Deralia more often than not. It would be... vague. As if she barely remembered that at first. But over the weeks and months it took to reach Coruscant, I learned all I needed to understand the girl.

"Has she told you any of it?"
"Only that she was taken from Deralia as a child, sold by a Marthan Ordo on Nar Shaddaa, and that years later you rescued her. Helped her kill the bastard that owned her. Then left her on Coruscant."

Jolee laughed, and said, "She doesn't like sharing the deals. Not even in her sleep did she say much beyond that."

"Why are you here? How are you here?"
"I'm not."
"What?"
"Your mind is grasping at straws, trying to have any connection with Revan that agrees with you. Anyone who will tell you what you want to hear. You don't want to hear the truth of her fate. You don't want to acknowledge that the woman you love is dead. You cannot accept it. You figh it, and you will until the day you die. You'll insist, even as the Republic burns to the ground that Revan still lives. That one day she will come back. That she'll eventually return to you, that eventually she'll admit she loves you.

"But we both know that isn't the truth. Reality doesn't work that way, and you have no reason to try and convince yourself that it does. You must embrace what is, and move past what could have been. The time has come for you to take Revan's place, and lead the Republic to victory."

Bastila sighed, and said, "Go away, you aren't even real."

"I am the voice of reason that you insist on ignoring. There is no reason for you to keep opposing me. I speak on what is, while you dream of what might be."
"I do not care if you really are just trying to help me, go away before I do anything you'd regret."

"Very well." the man said, disappearing.

-=0=-

The next day Bastila was once more staring at Revan's name on the Wall of Fallen Heroes, when Veras said, "I never thought that woman would die off the battlefield. But I am not that she died saving others. Heroes never die in their beds."

"She isn't dead. She's trying to find a way back, I know it."

"The Council told me that no one has returned from where she went."
"Revan's been known to surprise everyone."

Veras shook his head, and said, "I shouldn't be the one who has to break this to you, kid, but Revan died. Four months ago. She went into a place where there isn't even air. Much less food, water, and everything else someone needs to survive. You have to accept that she's dead."

"Revan didn't die that die, Veras. She can't have." Bastila said, her voice calm, devoid of emotion.

"What makes you so certain that she still lives? That who and what she was is now gone?"
Bastila sighed, and shook her head. "Because if she had died, the shock would have killed me."
"Why?"
"We are... bound by the Force. Normally when one member of a bond dies then the other follows them into the void. The sudden loss of such a strong connection, it's violent end because of another's... if you haven't been preparing for it, almost always causes death."

"So you believe that your life proves hers... it's not strong enough evidence. All continuing to fight for her memory will do is discredit your own sanity. The Republic can't afford for Revan's protege to be viewed as a madwoman who doesn't believe her teacher is dead. What we need is for someone to rally the Jedi to the Republic's aid."
"If I were to try and take Revan's place I'd be a faint shadow of what she is."

"We don't need you to be a general, or even an exceptional warrior. What we need from you is to be someone to be a symbol of hope for the Republic. The men are beginning to lose hope for victory, every day the mandalorians push deeper into Republic space. Soon they'll be in the mid rim. All we need of you is to remind the other Jedi of the alliance between your order and the Republic. Bring them in, so that maybe there can be hope."
Bastila shook her head, and said, "It is not I that will light the Republic's darkest hour, that role is Revan's, and soon she will return."

"What makes you so certain, Bastila?"
"Because, I can feel it in the Force. Anyone could."
"How soon is soon? How many more days will pass? How many more lives will be lost because of Jedi inaction, Bastila? Because you do not take the action that Revan herself would?"
Bastila glared at him, and said, "I'm not Revan, I'm just her protege. You said it yourself."

"You need to stand up for the good of the Republic."
"I am, by not acting rashly. By not allowing emotions to cloud my better reasoning. Revan is the one who will save the Republic. After all, soldiers fight harder when they have someone waiting for them back home. Someone who reminds them of what they're fighting for, someone who anchors them to their humanity."
Veras shook his head, and said, "Maybe for some soldiers. But for most, all that matters is having an attractive woman lead them into battle. Because most aren't noble heroes. Most are the worst stains of all races working together for a paycheck. They have an attitude that if they're going to die, they might as well do so looking at a nice ass."

"So I should do the wrong thing, Veras? I should go to fight a war I have no place fighting, because you are too impatient to wait for the one meant to save the Republic? I should attempt to take the place of Revan, when not even the entire Jedi Council would be able to draw on as much power and influence as she?"

"You can draw on her influence, on her power over the hearts and minds of the Republic people. That's what we need, no one else currently available to us will do."
"No, Veras. I will not. Revan would never forgive me if I took away her chance at vengeance. I would be a terrible friend if I took what mattered most to her."
Veras sighed, and said, "Very well. Give Revan my regards, should she return."
"She will, every day she draws closer."

"Maybe. I just pray that she does before it's too late. Or you realize she isn't going to come back to you just because she said so."
Bastila sat down beside the monument, and said, "She didn't say that she would return. Before going through not even she knew if it would be possible to do so. But, she still lives, and I know Revan would destroy the Force itself if she learned that was what it took to get back."
"She really does have it..." Veras said, smiling.

"What?"
"Revan, she really does have the fire inside to inspire undying faith in her. Even in death, she inspires such loyalty, such faith."
"She still lives, I can feel her all around me. I cannot sense another thing because she fills the entire air around me. So I would appreciate if you quit insisting that Revan has become one with the Force!"
He nodded, and said, "Very well. You know how to contact the Republic if you think you can help."
-=0=-

Revan slammed her fists against the wall, as she saw Bastila leaning against it. She roared at Veras, insisting that she was dead. She turned to the Lone Traveler, and said, "Let... me... go..."
"My hands are tied. The Dark has demanded that you do not return. You should have known better than to travel through his lands while having earned his attention."
"I don't even know who the Dark is. You won't tell me anything about him."
"You say that, yet you know what the Dark is."
"So you say, but how can I be sure that I do know?"
"I cannot say any more. I too am a prisoner of his will. Even allowing you to watch her is risking my life."
"What if we stand up to him? What if we fight him?"
"We cannot, here he is eternal. He is a god in this place."
"So let me go, I must journey beyond this place. I have already traversed the Land of the Light, will you lock me in the Domain of the Dark forever?"
"You came here with the Light's blessing. Now you must obtain the Dark's. It is simple as that. But I still fail to see why you wish to journey into the uncharted lands."
Revan sighed, and said, "It's silly. But I remember a story an old woman on Nar Shaddaa once told me. She may have been a crazy old crone, I don't know. What I do know is that... when I was just a little girl. The sonofabitch had just learned of my Force sensitivity. This crone was to teach me the ways of the Sith Assassin. But instead, she just told me a story. Told me about the Force. Said that, if I one day found myself on the other side... it's ridiculous. But it's the only clue I've got."
"You are embarrassed to say it?"
"She told me that if I were to find my way back from the other side I would have to journey beyond the Light and the Dark. Said that, beyond there was a land of gray. That I would have to traverse past light, dark, and gray to return to..."
"Again such shame, why?"
"It's an old crone's story, I don't want to say the rest."

"Tell me."
"To return to the one I love. That beyond the land of gray was the way home."

The traveler sighed, and said, "I've been here ten thousand years. I fell victim to the Dark. You will not pass through here with his blessing. I cannot leave, but you are still untainted by his evil. You may find the way to return in this land. I will release you from the cage. And kill the Dark in my memory, please."
"I will do what I can." Revan replied, leaving the cage. "Thank you, Traveler."

"You're welcome." he replied, "Good luck. May you be the first to find your way back alone."
"Hopefully I will. Who knows what lies beyond the simplicity of light and dark." Revan said, a small smile on her face.

"Perhaps it is life as we know it on their side."

"Perhaps." Revan said, "Farewell, traveler. May the Force be with you."

"It always is here." he replied sadly.

-=0=-

A/N: So... yeah... the wait on this was shitty long. Hopefully it's good enough to make up for the wait. I hope you all liked it, I worked really hard on it. And if you did, please leave a review.