Happy July Fourth, to my fellow Americans!

Revan and his crew examined the map of Corsec's main building, containing the main evidence vault of the worldwide Corsec security force, for a final time as they approached Coruscant. "Okay, so there are three entrances total for the Corsec building," Ana explained, pulling the blueprint up on the holo-table. "The logical step – and the one we're taking is the backdoor. Least fortified, least likely for us to get even remotely caught. Sound good to you, Lil' Smuggler?"

Van growled. "Can we not? Please?"

Ana shrugged. "Van and I will enter first, stunning the few guards – two to four – that guard the door. From there we move as quietly as we can through the hallways until we reach the evidence room," she explained, pointing her finger down the hallways until reaching the evidence room. "Revan, there you'll hack the door open and we use the anti-grav carts to move as much of the evidence as we can."

"But why not use this entrance?" Revan asked. He pointed at the side entrance. "It's the closest to the evidence vault."

"That's the Corsec barracks entrance. The place will be swarming with guards on any given day," Ana explained. "No – the back door is our best bet."

Revan smiled and shook his head. "No, it's really not."

Ana growled. "Care to explain, Rev?"

Revan laughed once. "Think about it. Our job is to win, limit the number of competitors we have to deal with. I say we do that."

"You mean we tell Corsec there's going to be a break in?" Van asked.

"That's suicidally insane!" Rhen shouted. "We'd be overrun in minutes!"

"No, we really wouldn't. They'd send as many men as possible to that back door, leaving the barracks empty. They'd take out almost all of the competition for us, leaving us home free – or nearly – to take part in the heist with Smuggler Sr. Ah, the family together again – wouldn't you be happy Van?" Revan joked.

"I said 'Could we not.' So why keep bringing it up?" Van asked.

"I always thought your mom would be a stripper," Ana supplied.

"Hey!" Van growled.

"Prostitute," Rhen supplied.

"Not cool, dude," Van snarled.

"Senator," Revan finally said with a laugh.

"Okay, that's the worst one," Van snapped.

"Worse than smuggler?" Revan asked. "And you call yourself a lawful citizen of the galaxy."

Van sighed and leaned on the table, his hands over his eyes. "Okay, fine. You all want to know what happened? Why I'm a soldier instead of a karking smuggler?" he asked. He slid his fingers apart to look out and saw the entire group nodding vigorously. "Well too kriffing bad. I'm not bringing it up."

Revan growled disappointedly, but Ana put one hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, you can always ask his mom when we end up working with her."

Revan laughed. "Well, I guess I can look forward to seeing Van's face when Mara Zros tells us the tale," he said, drawing chuckle even from Rhen. "Horrified, or petrified?"

"I wish I could kill you three," Van said with a sigh.

"You mean you wish you were allowed? Or that you had the skill?"

"Either," the pilot groaned. He pushed himself up from his slouching position with a new, hard gaze. "You're sure about calling Corsec about the break in?"

Revan considered for a moment. "Yeah. It'll get criminals arrested and make it a lot easier for us to break in and steal the Spice. I'll go in with Rhen and Ana, everyone wearing the masks," he said, holding up the wookiee holo-masks that had been left by Mara Zros shortly before they left Hutta. "Van's the best shot, so he'll cover our backs and watch out for guards or other... 'contestants.' Lightsabers stay here, blasters only on stun. What do you think Van?"

"What do I think?" the pilot asked. He grinned and grabbed a holo-mask. "I think my tactical genius is rubbing off on you."

SWSWSWSWSW

Revan ducked behind the armored cart of Spice that he had been dragging from the Corsec evidence vault. Blaster fire flew over his already aching head and echoed with their vlorp-hiss against the metal. The beat began to pound into the Gray Jedi's brain, a blinding drumbeat that made his vision a blurred swirl of colors that slowly began to shift to a bloody red. Slurred words echoed into his ears and he shut his eyes to block out the ever sickening round of color. He hissed and waited as the pounding continued to intensify. "KARK!" a man screamed, immediately snapping Revan out of his stupor. Revan's eyes snapped open, catching immediately the burn on Rhen's arm. "Care to kriffing help out!?" Revan snarled angrily and looked over his cover unleashing a bolt of energy at the attacking smugglers. The blue stun bolt flew towards the woman – a Devaronian with a shattered left horn – and dissipated against an energy shield with a slurp noise. The shield, also, disappeared with a flash before quickly returning.

Revan ducked behind the cart again, watching the red bolts of the enemies' blaster fire hissing against the wall. "They're wearing low intensity energy shields!" Revan hissed towards Rhen and Ana.

"We're not activating the blasters' kill settings!" the Jedi commanded. He aimed another blaster bolt over his cart and it collided harmlessly with one of the smugglers. He crouched behind the cart again and glared at Revan. "You could forget to switch back and kill a Corsec officer, besides there's no guarantee it'll work!"

"Kark this," Revan growled to himself. He thumbed the switch on the side of the blaster and the weapon primed, the battery core immediately channeling more energy. Revan looked over the cart once more and launched a volley of blaster fire into the enemy ranks. The red energy overloaded the shield of the Devaronian, who stood still, confident in the capabilities of her shield. The red light tore through the woman's body and she fell, lifeless, to the ground. Revan ducked behind the cart once more and saw Rhen glaring at him before also flipping his blaster into kill mode.

The blaster fight did not last long after this change of pace. The group's enhanced Force senses, reflexes, and intuition all aided them in deftly avoiding the incoming blaster fire. Or, if such a thing would be nearly impossible, deflecting the incoming bolts with laser volleys of their own. "You know," Rhen began as the fight ended, all smugglers dead or severely injured on the floor, "I read once that there was a group of Jedi – Paladins – who would use blasters exclusively."

"What, they weren't in to the whole 'more elegant weapon for a more civilized time' bit?" Ana asked. She looked over at Revan, expecting some sort of laughter; he wasn't listening however. He stared at the four corpses in the hallway as he tried – and failed – multiple times to holster his blaster. "Revan?"

The man jerked his head towards her, his half-glazed eyes staring confused at her as his shorted out mask began to reboot around his head. "I – yeah. Ha, right," he said as the blaster finally slid into its holster. The wookiee face erupted back into being around his face, the terrifying, hairy visage mostly a golden brown with deep black centered around the eyes. "Just... headache."

Ana looked at him worriedly from behind her mask. "Okay," she finally said. She walked over to one of the carts and put her hand on her communicator. "You okay, Van? We just finished with a firefight."

The communicator beeped. "Yeah, they must have come in from the back door. The radio chatter said that a small group may have gotten through the line. Female Devaronian?"

"Yep," Ana said with a glance at the dead smuggler.

"Good. The guards have dealt with most of the other attacking smugglers, so I'll head back to the speeder and we can hightail it back to the ship," he said. "See you there in five."

"Roger roger," Ana replied before shutting off the communicator and grabbing the cart. "Let's go."

Ana walked over to Revan so she could get him moving, but was stopped by Rhen. "Single file with the crazy one in the middle. Where he can do the least damage." the twi'lek commanded from behind a deep brown, almost black, wookiee head.

Ana sighed and nodded, knowing it was better to acquiesce than argue in their time sensitive situation. She took the lead as Rhen moved Revan behind her and pressed the stun-safety button on Revan's blaster. The human shoved the twi'lek off of his shoulder and began to walk of his own accord, his mind cleared once again from the effects of the drug or, perhaps, his own psychoses.

The group began down the hallway, pushing the questionably large amount of illicit drugs before them in carts. Revan stared at the floor in front of his cart, watching Ana's legs so he could see where he was going. The blood pounded in his ears, and he knew that the synapses in his brain were firing the "voice of Revan." The nape of his neck itched wildly behind the source of the holo-mask and a feeling of deadweight erupted in his gut.

"...atch... out..."

Revan's hand went for the blaster at his hip and he spun to fire a single bolt into the chest of a Corsec guard. A single fiery, red, deadly bolt that ripped through the chest of the cop. The entire group froze as the woman, who was standing with a blaster aimed at Ana and primed to fire a deadly bolt, fell clumsily to the ground. The hallway was deadly silent for a few moments as a wave of energy seemed to wash from the entire room. "Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have trusted you!" Rhen whispered. He lashed out with a wild punch at his former friend – almost brother – and the wookiee mask on Revan's face distored as the blue fist collided with his face.

Revan fell the the ground, his left eye already beginning to swell. However, he was completely silent. "N...No..." he muttered. Then the energy seemed to rush back with a wild intensity. "NO!"

The air around Revan began to shake wildly, electricity and wind whipping around him in a veritable maelstrom. The lights in Corsec began to flicker wildly and the walls shuddered from the sheer force of Revan's wild, uncontrolled power and will. Purple strands of Dark energy flowed outward from Revan, latching onto anything in their path. Lights shattered and walls disintegrated as the bonds between the atomic structures disappeared, the energy stolen. The air began to fill with the smell of death, and a miasma of famine surrounded the group. "NOOOoo!" Revan screamed up at the sky, pillars of Force Lightning channeling from his twisted, pained palms and through the ceiling with the sound of an explosion. The pure white lightning flew into the air and Ana was sure that the smell of burning ozone would be thick for miles in any direction.

"REVAN!" Ana screamed as she struggled against the maelstrom of wind and electricity. The holo-masks flickered out of existence as the energy was stolen by Revan's body. "REVAN! SNAP OUT OF IT!" She struggled to be heard over the sound of the wind. Revan did not seem to hear. "REVAN! PLEASE!"

Rhen passed her, pushing much more efficiently against the wall of wind. "STOP THIS NOW!" he screamed at Revan. Ana nearly fell backwards when she saw the blaster aimed at Revan. "OR I'LL HAVE TO K – KILL YOU!"

"NOOOOO! NO,NO,NO! NO..." Revan screamed at the sky, oblivious to the pleading of his crew.

Rhen's finger tightened around the blaster's trigger and a vlorp echoed over the wind. Rhen turned towards the source of the noise... Ana. Blue smoke rose from her blaster and the wind died down as Revan slipped into unconsciousness. "No..." he muttered, electricity jumping between his fingers. "No... Please, no..." Then his eyes slid closed and he knew nothing for hours.

SWSWSWSWSW

"This is all your karking fault!" Ana screamed, waking Revan from his sleep. His head was clearer than it had been in days, even with the pounding headache he felt. He easily recognized the splitting pain as the side effect of a stun-bolt. "You didn't just karking trust him, you... KARK!"

Revan pushed himself weakly to a sitting position and winced as the blood rushed from his pounding head. "Ow..." he groaned. He stumbled to his feet and swayed wildly in the halls of the ship. "Damn..."

He stumbled forward, still listening to the screams of Ana. "This is all on you!" she screamed again.

"Shut up! I had no reason to trust him, you... bitch. He's crazy and unreliable!" the twi'lek retorted. Revan shook his head as he stumbled forward, not entirely sure what the group was talking about. "You just can't see the truth from your kriffing pheremonal haze!"

"He killed that guard because you had to re-press his stun-safety. He had done it right, and you screwed it up," she hissed, sidestepping the taunt with the truth.

Revan's mind instantly cleared as adrenaline and rage pulsed through his every fiber. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he screamed as he charged into the main room of the Eagle. He tackled Rhen to the ground and his fists began to pound into the twi'lek's face. Blood began to leak from the wounds that Revan was inflicting before the Jedi deflected the next punches so that Revan's fists collided full force with the durasteel floor. "KARK!" Revan's fingers shattered at the blow, but that did not stop him. He slammed his forehead down onto Rhen's and the twi'lek gasped in pain as Reven continued to attack him. Ana and Van could barely pull him off of the bleeding Jedi.

"KRIFF!" Rhen shouted as he struggled to his feet. He stumbled and steadied himself of the table before staring Revan in the wild eyes. He jabbed one finger at the Gray Jedi and said, "You are karking done. Give him his kriffing meds – maybe they'll make him more docile." The Jedi turned – slowly – and went off to inject bacta into his system.

"KARK YOU!" Revan screamed after him, earning an agreement from Ana.

Van, however, sighed. "Dammit, this is a kriffing shitstorm," he groaned. He shoved Revan into the couch and pulled his blaster from its holster. "Calm down unless you want another stun-bolt trip to the medcenter."

Revan glared at the weapon in his crewmate's hands and leaned into the couch. "Fine," Revan said.

Van nodded. "Ana, I don't care what the kark Rhen says. Don't give Revan his meds – we'll have to talk with the Triumvirate about where to go with those, from now on. Bacta, though. His hands need to be set and fixed – You stay here and I'll get the bacta. I can't have either of you around Rhen, right now." The pilot stood up and looked over at Ana. "Can you help me set his hands if I get the medtape?"

Ana nodded, and the pilot sighed. "Good," he said, then walked off to collect the bacta and medical tape.

Ana stared at Revan, who began to calm down and feel the consequences of his actions once again. "No, don't freak out again. It wasn't your fault," she said, her hands on Revan's shaking shoulders. "Everything that happened – that's on Rhen."

Revan looked up into Ana's eyes, which were filled with concern and... The two leaned forward until their lips touched, passion immediately erupting in their chests. Ana's hands lid up to Revan's neck and cheeks as his broken hands slid to the middle of her back. The embrace lasted for what, to them, seemed to be forever. Suddenly: "Ahem. Can you two please stop, at least until I leave the room?" Van asked. The two jumped apart from each other, semi-embarrassed. Revan grunted and hissed in pain as his hands collided painfully with Ana's back. "Well, I'd say finally... but Rhen'll be even more insufferable now." The pilot walked over and began to wrap medical tape around Revan's hands as he handed another roll to Ana.

"At the same time, though... Finally. The sexual tension was thick enough to kriffing cut with a lightsaber."

SWSWSWSWSW

Gann and Horn stared down at the gaping crater that was once Corsec. Horn noticed what her closest friend could not – the dark, hollow miasma still hovered around the building. Ironically both Dark Jedi and criminals would congregate around the law enforcement center for decades to come. "This was a bad idea," Gann said from the viewing window of the speeder limo. "This was a terrible idea."

"What specifically?" the Grandmaster inquired. "Are you referring to leaving that boy for dead for all these years? Or sending him out to fight the Sith? Convincing him he's insane? Or maybe that we killed his parents?"

Gann glared at the woman. "I suppose we can take our pick, then," the Jedi noted. She turned from Gann and back towards the destruction. "All those deaths are on us, Thornish."

"Indeed. Do we chalk this up to collateral damage as well?" he asked. His eyes glazed over with sympathetic pain. "How many died in the energy dispersal effects? Hundreds? Thousands?"

"Twenty-eight thousand five-hundred sixty-seven," Horn said. "Two-thousand eighty-nine children."

"Well, and I thought I was the guilt ridden one," Gann smirked. Then he sighed again and felt his knees shake. He kept upright, however. "How long until this pays off? How long until we can finally say that all the bad things that we've done have been worth it? Destabilizing the Ascendancy, assassinating the Fels for their... dealings? When will these ends finally justify the means, Sylven?"

The Jedi was silent for some time. "We won't get a chance to see that, Thorn," she said, using the nickname from their youth. It evoked a simpler time, one filled with more youthful exuberance, naivete, and hope. Not too long before, really.

"You haven't called me that in a long time," Gann noted. "Not since -"

"Yes... I remember the day, Thornish," she said, her youthful memories gone. "Not since you gave the girl over to that woman."

"We both know that had to happen, Syl," Thornish said. "Our... relationship was dangerous. And it was a drunken mistake. The gene therapy and adoption were necessary to hide our daughter from... anyone."

Sylven narrowed her eyes. "We swore never to talk of this again," she said, a harsh yet melancholy note to her voice.

"And we also swore to defend the Triumvirate and its people. Look where that got the Fels," Gann said. He clenched his fists tightly enough to draw blood. "And look where it's pushed the Galaxy."

The two stood quietly, surveying the destruction. "She can never know."

"I know."

They stood silently next to each other, a quiet appreciation of their age old bond comforting them alongside the knowledge that, for whatever evils they did, it was for the best.