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It's not a racist thing, it's just that he can't know if aliens have the same emotional range as humans as he's never been anything other than human. He can't speak for them he can only see the situation from a human perspective.
Flaming Man of Iron
If you need any help with your Star Wars SI I would be happy to offer some ideas or to discuss yours.
Sith Gothic. Chapter 17
"There's no one left who remembers Alek. But they'll remember Malak. I'll make sure of that."-Darth Malak
On Board The Leviathan
I awoke in what I guessed to be a torture cell. The forcefield that prevented me from stepping out of the torture cell was fully active. Also I was wearing only my underwear, and both Bastila, Raven and Carth were in torture cells to my right in similar states of undress. Which was embarrassing.
"Well either that was one hell a party we had last night, or we were captured by the Sith and they knocked us out" I said my allies "Any care to tell me what happened?"
"One of the Sith hit you with a stun baton. I was then incapacitated by one of their Dark Jedi" Shan stated calmly.
Which meant my plan to lie and say I was really a spy for the Sith had not worked then. I didn't remember what exactly went wrong and I didn't think I'd ever find out as this was the point the door opened, and a man in the uniform of a high ranking Sith officer entered the room.
"Carth, it has been far too long since we last spoke." Admiral Saul Karath said "You've changed greatly I barely recognized you."
"But I recognized you, Saul." Carth said in a very cold voice, "I see your face every time I close my eyes and every time I do I promise myself I will kill you for what you did to my home world".
I resisted the urge to say something about that being of the dark side as I was not one to judge.
"Did you learn nothing in your time under me?" Saul asked of Carth "As a soldier you should understand that casualties were unavoidable. This is a time of war"
Civilian populations are not valid military targets, so that line of reasoning made no sense to me. Even as a terror tactic it was very wasteful.
"It was a cowardly act of betrayal!" Carth yelled at his former mentor, "Your fleet bombed a civilian target into oblivion without warning or provocation. The blood of those innocent people is on your hands!"
At this point I started to look for a way to escape, without really looking like I was trying to get out.
"In war even the innocent must die" Saul said as if it didn't really matter "The Sith would not accept me until I proved that I had truly turned my back on the Republic by bombing the planet".
That seemed like a rather extreme test of loyalty to me. If I ever ran an empire I'd do things differently.
"My wife died in that attack, Saul." Carth said with a lot of venom in his voice "And for that, I swear I'll kill you."
"You used to be a man of action, not of empty words." Saul replied, sounding rather amused by all this "Cling to your desire for revenge if you must, but spare me your threats. I've heard them all before".
So far I could see a way out so I started to consider using the Force but I wasn't sure how.
"You are an insignificant part of these events, anyway. Lord Malak is far more interested in your Jedi and Sith companions. He has great plans for them" Saul was now saying to Carth".
I did not like the sound of that.
"We will never serve Malak or the dark side!" Bastila said speaking for everyone "The Sith will be destroyed, Admiral Karath. as will you if you don't turn away from this path."
I really hated when she got all preachy. It was not attractive.
"Your words are brave, Bastila, but the lure of the dark side is hard to resist - or so I've been told." Saul said while smirking at us. "I wonder if your companion is as devoted to the light as you are?"
"Go fuck yourself" I told the officer.
"You're defiant." Saul said, "I'm certain Malak will find your loyalty to the Jedi amusing"
I assumed he'd find torturing me for treason to be the amusing part.
"The Dark Lord would probably reward me if I just killed you" Saul then said to me "But he may want to question you given the trouble you've caused him and your betrayal".
Once he had said that the admiral turned to the Jedi.
"The Dark Lord will no doubt torture you all for information and for his own twisted pleasure." Saul told them "Eventually you will tell him everything. The Sith can be very persuasive. However, Lord Malak is in another sector. It may be some time before he arrives, so I suppose I will have to fill in for him until then".
What he meant by that we soon discovered.
"Activate the torture fields" the admiral commanded.
I bit my lip and endured it. I wasn't going to give this creep the satisfaction of hearing me scream.
"Enough! I don't want them to pass out before I question them." Saul said to whoever controlled the torture machine "Malak will appreciate any information I can give him when he arrives".
""Don't waste your breath, Saul! We won't answer any of your questions." Bastila snapped.
Again I dislike the fact that she speaking for me. But Revan didn't seem to mind for some reason. In fact she was keeping her mouth firmly shut.
"I'm sure you won't." he said, smirking, "However, we both know your friend's loyalty has proven in the past to be somewhat more flexible".
He had a good point there. I was rather flexible in that regard. That was something I might soon regret.
"It is time to put your loyalty to the test. I doubt torturing you will gain me your true cooperation. Your will is too strong to be broken that way. However, even the strongest of heroes has trouble watching those they care about suffering. The interrogation will begin now. Each time you refuse to answer or give me a false answer, Bastila will suffer greatly".
I feigned indifference
"Go ahead, torture her. I don't really like her anyway" I said "between you mean I think she's a bossy bitch".
Shan either thought I meant that or was just playing along, as she glared at me in a way that promised me she would get me back for making that statement.
"You expect me to fall for such a transparent ploy?" Saul asked sceptically, "You travel half way across the galaxy with someone and you expect me to believe you feel nothing for each other? I tire of these games - now I want answers! On what planet is the Jedi Academy at which you were trained?"
"Academy?" I asked in surprise "I was never trained as a Jedi I was trained at the Sith academy on Korriban".
"What?" Saul asked, confused "So you expect me to believe that you are not a Jedi spy sent to infiltrate our ranks. That you just decided to defect to the Republic?"
Bastila's torture field was activated, and she shrieked in pain. I winced and avoided looking at her for as long as I could, but I couldn't hide my concern.
"Enough!" Saul eventually said, "You see what happens when you try to defy me?"
"My pain is meaningless. Tell him nothing!" Bastila snapped.
"This first question was a test." Saul said coldly, "Obviously Lord Malak knew the Academy was on Dantooine, and it has since been destroyed by our fleet! Dantooine is an empty graveyard now. Nothing remains but a smoking ruin and the charred remains of your former Masters!"
Well of course he had known. It wasn't exactly well hidden.
"Never been a Jedi" I repeated.
I was beginning to get the impression that Saul thought I was Reven. That or he didn't know Revan was still alive. It was possible that Revan had always had her armour on around Saul and that it distorted her voice enough that Saul wouldn't recognize her out of it. If that was the case then he might actually believe he'd been sent here to capture a traitor.
"A brave front, but your feigned indifference does not fool me." Saul said, smirking, "The Jedi Masters have eradicated, along with any hope of someone rescuing you!".
That didn't concern me as I had warned them this would happen if they didn't evac that planet. Hopefully they'd at least sent the children away.
Now tell me about your mission. How were the Jedi planning on using you to stop Lord Malak and our Sith armada?" Saul demanded.
"Our 'Mission'?" I asked, "Yes, I can tell you about Mission."
I made eye-contact with Bastila, and she stifled another snort of laughter as she knew exactly where I was going with this.
"She's the blue Twi'lek who was travelling with us..." I started to say.
"Silence!" Saul snapped, "Perhaps you need a reminder of the consequences of refusing to cooperate".
Bastila's torture field was activated, and she shrieked even louder than before. A few coherent words escaped her amongst the shrieks. She was begging for the pain to stop. I closed my eyes and scowled.
"Listen, can you not hear her suffering?" Saul said to me
Then he deactivated the torture field.
"You can spare her further pain by simply answering my questions. Now, I will ask again - on what mission did the Jedi Council send you?"
"You don't know what suffering is, old man." I told the Sith officer "But you will, when I get my hands on you."
"Perhaps another lesson is in order?" Saul said brightly.
After a full two minutes of Bastila's screaming, she then passed out and I reached out with the Force to make sure she was okay. To my amazement as I sensed another presence inside her. Nothing more than spark, perhaps it just the potential for a new life but that spark was still there. Somehow it was still alive. She was pregnant.
"I am surprised she did not pass out sooner. Rarely have I seen someone withstand such punishment and remain conscious for so long" said the admiral as if it didn't matter.
My words on the other hand had a lot passion behind them.
"Listen to me, Saul. I won't kill you. That pleasure will be Carth's alone, but there are things I can do to you that so much worse than death. I am a Sith I know how to break people and I will break you".
Saul acted tough but I was a Force User, he couldn't hide his true feeling from someone like me.
"I see I am wasting my time here. When Lord Malak arrives you will learn why my interrogation techniques are considered merciful among the Sith"
Saul had been on the receiving end of such techniques at some point in the past, that was why he was scared of me and given what he'd done he had every reason to fear me.
"I will leave you here in your cell with a small taste of the horrors you will suffer when Lord Malak arrives." Saul said, smugly.
Then the torture fields were activated and all I could hear was the sound of people screaming as the electric pain ripped through all of us.
(Line Break)
On Board The Leviathan
In no time at all we reached the elevator, and I was left wondering how the hell Carth, Revan, Bastila and I had managed to make it this far. I was aching all over because of the torture, and I found it hard to focus so I was just following Revan, which a lot of people seemed to do.
Revan's comm beeped as the lift doors closed
"Report" she said sounding a little peeved, but that was understandable as no one liked being tortured.
"It's Canderous," came a gruff voice on the other side. "We took care of the guards. We're inside the Ebon Hawk and all systems are go. We even disabled the tractor beam so as soon as you guys can join us we can get out of here."
Things had actually gone to plan. Which was nothing less than a miracle in my books.
"Understood" Revan replied. "We'll be down soon".
When the lift doors opened again we walked down some halls in silence. The ship seemed to be deserted for the most part, but we still ran into a room full of lagging, inattentive Sith troops, and another room with some Dark Jedi in it. Bastila and Revan, quickly took then all down.
"Blast doors," Carth cursed "They're blaster proof so you'll have to cut them open with your lightsabres"
Revan cut through the door and when we got into the next room we were greeted by a frightening amount of Sith troopers. Now I understood why the ship had seem to deserted, they'd been trying to trap us so the regular crew had gotten the hell out of the way while the soldiers surrounded us.
We three Forces Users rushed forward and took the soldiers out. Killing normal humans was depressingly easy for me.
"We must go on," Revan said as the last trooper was cut down by one of her sabers.
That was when I felt something with the Force. The door before us opened and in strode Dark Malak. He was tall, dressed in all red and he had that weird helmet thing on.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Carth draw his blaster so he could began shooting, but before he could he was thrown at nearest wall. I already had my weapon lit and was getting ready for a fight.
"I had to see for myself if it was true. Even now I can hardly believe my eyes… tell me: why did the Jedi spare you?"
It almost sounded like he was talking to me. I had turned myself over to the Jedi, but it was clear that Malak was taking to Raven by the way their gazes had locked with each other.
"You mean you don't know? All this time and you still haven't figured it out?" Malak asked his former friend.
Well I knew and Bastila knew, but Revan and Carth didn't.
"Figured what out?" the former Sith Lord asked.
"I wonder how long you would have stayed blind to the truth. Surely some of what you once were must have surfaced by now. Even the combined power of the Jedi Council couldn't keep your true identity buried forever".
The visions that had guided Revan as she sought out the Star Maps were not glimpses into the future, but in fact images from her past. She was simply repeating a quest she had already completed.
"You cannot hide from what you once were, Revan! Recognize that you were once the Dark Lord – and know that I have taken your place!"
Revan was was understandably upset by all this.
"This is some type of trick! A Sith lie!"
Darth Malak seemed to be having fun toying with Revan, and if I wasn't so scared of the guy I'd have told him to shut the hell up. But I could sense just how powerful he was, and that terrified me.
"You do not remember, Revan?" Malak was now saying. "The Jedi set a trap. They lured us into battle against a small Republic fleet. During the attack a group of Jedi Knights boarded your ship. The Jedi strike team captured you and the Council used the Force to reprogram your mind; they wiped away your identity and turned you against your own followers".
It all sounded very bad when put that way, and the sad thing was that it was the most accurate way of looking at the situation. The Jedi Master's had brainwashed Revan and turned her into a weapon to use against the Sith. And I was a Sith so that meant me too.
"I don't believe you, Malak!" Revan cried
Yet I felt that she wasn't so sure of her words.
"You must have seen flashes of your old life in your dreams, Revan. " Malak continued "Surely you remember the battle in which you were captured?"
If I remembered the game right she would have seen it in her dreams. Her memories hadn't in fact been erased they were still in there somewhere.
"Why wouldn't the Jedi simply kill me?" Raven argued.
Malak shot Bastila a confident look before he spoke again with a little more conviction.
"The Jedi are fools; they do not believe in executing their prisoners" Malak explained "I assumed you had died in the battle. Imagine my surprise when I found out you were still alive, Revan"
Revan seemed to be coming to terms with all of this, but there was something that still confused her.
"How did they capture someone as powerful as Revan… I-I mean… me?"
"I helped them, Revan. I always knew that one day the title of Dark Lord would be mine! When the Jedi strike team boarded your vessel I saw that my day had come. I ordered my own ships to fire on your bridge. I thought I would destroy all my enemies with a single glorious victory!"
Such a typical Sith. They always focused on themselves while ignoring the big picture, the things that mattered on a galactic scale. Revan hadn't set out to conquer the Republic for power, she'd wanted to build an empire that could take on the real threat: The True Sith.
"I never dreamed the Jedi would take you from the wreckage" Malak then said to Revan.
"Bastila, is this true?" Revan asked Shan.
I knew she wouldn't lie. Not now.
"It's all true. I was part of the team sent to capture Revan… to capture you. When Malak fired on the ship you were badly injured. We thought you were dead" Bastila Shan admitted "Your mind was destroyed, but I used the Force to preserve the flicker of life in your body. I brought you back to the Jedi Council. They were the ones who healed your damaged mind"
Revan looked to be sincerely trying to sort all this out. The poor woman was no doubt more confused now that she had been in her entire life.
"But the memories I have… where did they come from?" Revan asked.
"The Masters..." Shan started to say.
However Malak decided that he wanted to talk at this point.
"The Jedi Council didn't restore your wounded mind, Revan!" he shouted. "They merely programmed it with a new identity – one loyal to the Republic! They tried to make you their slave!"
Revan laughed at this point. I didn't know why. Maybe she was going mad.
"I understand, Bastila" Reven said to Shan "You had no other choice".
Well she was a lot more forgiving than me. I'd been super pissed at this point and would be tempted to go fully dark just to spite the Jedi.
"Forgiveness, Revan? You are so weak; I was right to betray you" stated Malak. "You are not fit to rule the Sith!
Then the Dark Lord's mood changed and I didn't like that.
"A small part of me always regretted betraying you from afar. I always knew there would be some who would think I acted out of fear, that I did not want to face you" Malak then said.
Well she was Revan. The Heart of the Force. You'd have to crazy to take her on fairly.
"But now fate has given me a second chance to prove myself!" Malak said, sounding so like a movie villain that I wanted to snigger "Once I defeat you in combat no one will question my claim to the Sith throne; my triumph will be complete!"
Revan raised her two blades and prepared to fight.
"The Jedi Council were foolish to let you live" Malak was now saying "I won't make the same mistake. We shall finish this alone in the ancient Sith tradition: master versus apprentice, as it was meant to be!"
All I did was watch as Revan and Malak went at it. I'd never seen a fight like this there was so much movement, and so much energy. Malak kept spinning and striking. Revan's weapons were like extensions of her own body, but I could tell that she wasn't going to win. Malak was playing with her, it was a deadly game, sure it was game he couldn't afford to lose, but still just a game no the less.
"This isn't over, Malak!" I heard Shan shout as she tried to help Revan and I followed her "There a three of us and one of you".
"Your friends do not give up easily, Revan" said Malak as Bastila and I moved towards him. "You always could inspire loyalty. But even the three of you together cannot stand against my power!"
He was right about that, Revan didn't have her memories and Shan and I were novices when compared to Malak, but one of us could keep him busy long enough for the others to make their escape. I knew that Shan would sacrifice herself, but I couldn't allow that since she carrying what would soon be a new life inside her. So when she used a Force Push to move Malak I grabbed her with Force and pushed her away from the door.
"I'll see you later" I told a confused Revan "Get to the last Star Map and tell Bastila that I'm sorry about this".
Then I ran towards Malak and used my sabre on the lock of the door. This being Star Wars it closed the heavy blast door to close and lock. Which left me alone with the Dark Lord of the Sith.
"So the traitor returns" said Malak as I called upon the dark side.
This was going to be the most important fight of my life, and most likely the last, but I didn't have to win I just had to keep the Dark Lord busy long enough for the others to get away. For Bastila to get to safety.
"Shut up and fight" I said as I attacked Malak.