A/N: in which cori is a Bad Jedi, davri vows revenge, and nox does not bind revan's ghost
mostly just mechanisms + poking at the plot to move it along. the next two chapters need a lot of work and I've been falling behind on editing bc of real life stuff, but hopefully it won't be more than a week or two before I get the next chapter up.
Cori.
She wasn't sure how many times she heard her name spoken, the familiar voice calling out and interrupting her nightmares. She heard it twice more — Lana's voice, she finally recognized — before Cori completely pulled herself from the murky dream.
Without otherwise moving, Cori reached for where Lana's hand rested on her arm. She stared straight ahead, breathing heavily and trying to calm herself.
"Are you alright?"
It was a few moments before Cori trusted herself to speak. "I'm… I'll be fine," she promised, pulling herself up so she was sitting. "Bad dream," she explained weakly. "They've gotten worse with… since I've been on Yavin 4." She couldn't even recall what the nightmare had entailed, now that she was awake, only that it left her chilled and frantic.
Keeping their hands joined — Cori held onto Lana's like a lifeline — Lana moved so she was sitting closer to Cori. "Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want to talk about it?"
"No." The nightmares had begun after her initial encounter with the emperor, and had worsened again after arriving on Yavin. She wasn't going to tell Lana about the months she'd spent under the influence of the emperor; she hadn't told anyone, not even her sister, and the only ones she felt comfortable discussing it with were Kira and Satele.
Besides, it wasn't as if there was much to actually talk about, anyway. As with most of the nightmares, this one had been less an actual dream and more a feeling, a lingering dread and terror that would shock her awake and leave her restless for the remainder of the night.
As Cori sat hunched over, rubbing tiredly at her eyes and still trying to slow her erratic breathing, Lana pressed a light kiss to her bare shoulder. "I understand."
For a moment, Cori debated telling her everything; as much as she still didn't entirely trust Lana, couldn't trust her after Rishi, she desperately wanted to. There were dozens of different warnings going off in her mind — she was Sith, she was a betrayer, she was drawing Cori away from the Jedi code, she was everything the Jedi warned against — but Cori ignored them all. Had been ignoring them, since Rishi.
It felt too right, being there with her.
"Lana, I—" Cori paused, fumbling over her words and not certain how to express exactly what she felt. She glanced down at their intertwined fingers, watched Lana's thumb glide thoughtlessly across the back of her own hand.
"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to," she assured her.
"Thank you." Cori allowed herself to remain there for a few minutes longer, simply sitting with Lana in a comfortable silence. But they had a mission to complete, and it was late enough that she saw no point in trying to get back to sleep. Lana, much to Cori's relief but not necessarily surprise, agreed, though she insisted on confirming again that Cori wasn't too affected by the nightmare. After a quick shower and breakfast — and the pleasant yet accidental discovery that Lana was quite ticklish — Cori led the way to the main camp, more than a little hopeful that their early start meant that they'd be among the first up that morning.
Of course, they weren't quite that lucky.
She took solace in the fact that, at least, Master Satele wasn't among the crowd at the conference table. It was mostly Imperials she didn't recognize, but there were enough familiar faces that Cori still felt her cheeks flush with heat. Lana, on the other hand, got straight to business, taking her place beside Darth Marr and glancing over the holodisplay.
Cori slid in between Kira and Theron, clasping her hands behind her back and very pointedly avoiding Zaara's knowing smirk. "I'm guessing this means we're ready to take care of the locking mechanisms?" she whispered, leaning in towards Kira.
"Yep. And I'm guessing that meant I should be glad I fell asleep watching a holovid with Ashara and Andronikos?"
"Just fill me in on the situation."
Kira handed over her datapad, but her whispered explanation was cut off as Darth Nox snapped at something Major Sohms had said. As Cori glanced over the information — mostly just a summary of the mechanisms, along with a few translations that didn't seem particularly relevant — the argument between the two grew until Zaara quieted them both.
"Darth Nox has a point," she insisted. "This isn't a matter of cooperation or secrets, she's just trying to do her job."
From beside Theron, Nox glared at Davri. "This has already been decided, Major. Havoc Squad will assist, but I am going to be the one to handle the locking mechanisms. Besides, your expertise has ruined enough already."
"Right," Davri scoffed. "Maybe because you sent a demolitions expert and a war droid to guard a structure that was already falling apart. That one's on you."
"Commanders like you are why the Republic military is such an embarrassment," Nox quipped in return, already stalking away from the table. As she left, Marr and Theron both sighed. Zaara still looked vaguely amused.
"We will continue as planned," Marr announced. "Major Sohms will assist Darth Nox, and Agent Shan will monitor the situation from here. Master Cori, the Grandmaster has asked that you accompany Agent Ven to beginning scouting the temple."
Cori gave a dutiful bob of her head, already dreading the inevitable interrogation at the hands of her sister. But as the group began to disperse, a young Jedi approached her and explained that Satele wanted a word with her before she left; grateful for the momentary distraction, Cori made her way through the camp to where the Grandmaster was waiting, steeling herself before announcing her presence. "You wished to speak with me, Master Satele?"
"I did, yes." She paused, waiting so long before speaking again that Cori almost spoke up. "Darth Nox has made it clear from the moment she arrived that she intended to investigate Revan's presence here. Since discovering the nearby temple, she's treated our main mission as a secondary objective. This has troubled Master Neiri since our arrival, but I didn't initially share her concerns."
"Something's changed," Cori guessed.
"Darth Nox recovered a Sith holocron from the ruins yesterday," Satele confirmed. "She claims it didn't belong to Revan, but even if she's telling the truth, we cannot rely on the Sith to share whatever knowledge lies in that holocron." She placed her hands behind her back, expression hardening. "For three hundred years, the Sith have tried to bury the truth about Revan. This may be our best chance to discover what really happened. I know Lord Scourge has kept to himself, but perhaps he could tell us more about this temple and how Revan is connected to it."
She nodded. "Of course. Marr asked me to help Zaara, but I can—"
"No," Satele interrupted lightly, shaking her head. "Stopping Revan is still our first priority. We can't risk failure — we need you out there. I'd prefer to send Kira with Scourge."
Cori almost protested, for the simple fact that Kira was going to hate being asked to spend time trying to needle the truth from Scourge. But she was trustworthy, and Satele was right — as important as preserving any information about Revan was, stopping her impostor was even more important.
"Sit still or I'm just going to leave you here."
Vik simply grinned back at Davri. "You couldn't bear to leave me."
She rolled her eyes as she reached for another kolto patch, suppressing a groan at her dwindling supplies. "Is now really the best time to test that theory?" Despite how bad it looked, the wound wasn't all that concerning. A lucky swing of a Revanite's lightsaber had left a short, clean gash on Vik's side; a bit of kolto and a quick scan for internal damage and Davri was finished.
"How's it looking out there, Captain?" Davri stood, tossing a bottle of water to Vik and motioning for him to stay put. They'd taken cover in one of the more intact ruins, a decent distance from the ruins but still close enough that Davri had Aric keep watch. Earlier that morning they'd met with Darth Nox, keeping the area cleared as she'd messed with one of the locking mechanisms. Between the Massassi and the occasional Revanite patrol, there hadn't been any way the three of them could hold the position after Nox had left.
"Clear. The Wrath just came through here — looked like she was headed for the medical camp." He glanced back at Davri as she approached. "Which makes it the perfect time to head back to the outpost, assuming the lieutenant is capable of walking."
"The lieutenant," Vik shot back, "would like to be carried. Maybe fanned. A massage wouldn't hurt either."
"Bridal style, all the way back to camp," Davri promised, sarcasm coloring her voice. "C'mon, Vik, get your ass over here. We're—" She cut off as her comm link beeped.
"Are you still out near the ruins?" It was Theron, sounding more than a bit agitated.
"We were just about to head back to the outpost," she reported. "I'm with Jorgan and Vik, the rest of Havoc split a couple hours ago to take care of the northern mechanism for Darth Nox."
"Good. I'm sending you the coordinates for the second set of locking mechanisms."
"Why?"
It was a few moments before he answered. "We lost contact. Both Nox and Andronikos — their comm line went dead and they aren't answering their holocomms. It's been almost an hour since anyone's heard from either of them." Theron paused again, and Davri could just make out a frustrated sigh. "You're the only ones in the area."
From his tone, it was obvious that Havoc had been his absolute last choice. Jaw clenching, Davri glanced over to Aric for an opinion; he didn't seem particularly glad about the development, but gave a little shrug as if to say we don't have much of a choice.
"We need to start planning the final attack as soon as Zaara and Cori report back in," Theron pointed out, presumably either in response to Davri's silence or in expectation that she would refuse. "Those mechanisms have to be taken care of before then."
"Yeah, we're on it."
It wasn't far to the cave where the coordinates were located, and they found both Nox and Andronikos as expected. Andronikos seemed fine, and Nox looked a bit lost, but otherwise no worse for wear. "Guess what, Theron?" Davri sighed, not bothering to hide her irritation.
Nox raised a hand, giving Davri a little wave to get her attention. "Comms don't work in here. The mechanisms, they interfere," she explained, making vague motions towards the assortment of crystals standing within the cave. Some seemed to be crackling with energy, while others were entirely dormant.
"Great. Well, we'd better get back outside and let him know that we're all alive and accounted for."
"Hey — Major." Andronikos motioned for her to wait. "The translations weren't all accurate. One of the crystals went haywire, zapped her pretty good."
Davri gritted her teeth; every instinct was screaming to leave, to let the Sith succumb to whatever horrible fate awaited her. It was the logical choice. It was what an Imperial soldier would've done to a Jedi, and Davri hadn't ever been a believer in being the bigger person — she would gladly stoop to whatever level the enemy did.
But they had more important things to worry about, blah blah blah something about cooperation. She hated their current alliance.
"Captain, go update Theron." She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, waiting until Aric's footsteps were no longer audible before looking back at the Sith. "We're short on supplies," Davri offered tersely, "but I'll do a scan for internal damage. That's the best I can offer."
Andronikos shrugged, easily meeting Davri's glare. "Fine."
"I'm not dying," Nox scoffed. "I've got enough experience with that to be fairly certain I know when it's happening."
Stifling a sigh, Davri pulled out her med scanner and ran a quick check, glancing through the results with a frown; she didn't actually know anything about Rattataki physiology. Everything looked normal, but Davri's confidence level was low enough that if Nox had been a Republic soldier, she would've recommended she stop by one of the outposts.
But she couldn't exactly say she had a vested interest in healing Imperials.
"She's right," Davri confirmed, tucking away the med scanner. "She's not dying."
"Try not to sound so disappointed."
She ignored Nox's words, already headed back outside to check in with Theron. Vik gave her a wide grin as they exited the cave, jerking a thumb back over his shoulder to point towards Nox. "We could've taken 'em."
"One day, Vik," she sighed. "One day we will."
"If I'd known saving the galaxy was this easy, I would've suggested that we tried it years ago."
"It's not easy," Rei countered, watching the crystal mechanism warily for a few moments after she finished tampering with it. "It just seems like it, because now we have people to do all the difficult work for us."
Beside her, Andronikos shrugged. "I don't know, we're still spending all our time in creepy Sith caves and tombs. Doesn't seem like all that much has changed."
"It's not Sith, and it's not a tomb."
"Whatever."
Rei finally tore her eyes from the mechanism, glancing up at Andronikos with a sigh. "I suppose we should let everyone else know we're finished."
A quiet, sing-song voice called out from behind them. "Wrong. Hate to break it to you, but you're far from finished."
"What a coincidence," Rei sighed, rolling her eyes as she turned to face Layla. "Let me guess — you knew all about this whole system, but couldn't be bothered to tell anyone? Didn't want to get involved?"
"I did not, in fact, know about it," she countered, reaching up to tuck her unruly curls behind her ear. "The kid with my mask plans to bring the emperor back, right? So do you want to hear what I have to say about the subject, or no?"
"I wanted to know yesterday, when I spent all day at your temple."
Layla made a face, eyebrows knitting together and lips moving silently as she searched for words. "My..? You don't mean— You're talking about those ruins?"
"Doesn't really matter whose it is," Andronikos pointed out. "Let's just go, Rei."
She grabbed his arm as he turned to leave. "I want to know whose it is." She hadn't really expected it to belong to Revan; Rei had only been referring to it as Revan's temple because it was the first place she'd encountered the spirit, and there were enough ruins on the moon that she needed to be able to specify.
"When have we ever had luck with ghosts?"
"I'm not planning to bind her, now am I?"
"I wouldn't put it past you."
Before Rei could respond — appealing as the idea of binding Darth Revan's spirit might have been, she agreed that it wasn't worth the trouble — Layla spoke up. "First off, that isn't even necessary because I'm willing to cooperate. Second, try to bind me and I will find a way to kill you. Now," she sighed, "if that's clear, the temple belonged to the woman who killed me — it's not important."
"What about the emperor?" Rei prompted, unfazed by the threat.
"This… ritual. I don't know the specifics, but I don't think it'll work." Layla frowned, hesitating. "Not entirely, at least. This moon just isn't populated enough to bring the emperor back into a complete physical form."
"It has to help, though," Andronikos guessed. "That energy has to go somewhere."
"Not the point. True, but not the point. Even if it was enough, you can't kill him. No one can," she stressed. "Not the kid with my mask, not you, not the combined Jedi and Sith forces gathered here." She hesitated again before revealing, "I've seen him struck down twice, and both times he recovered."
Rei began to pace, chewing at her lip as she processed Layla's words. Reassuring though it might have been to learn the false Revan wouldn't be able to bring back the Emperor, that didn't mean they could simply sit back and allow him to try. "So what can we do? About the emperor?"
Layla shrugged. "If I knew, I'd tell you. Step one is to stop this ritual from happening, I guess."
"It is true what they say," Rei muttered, rolling her eyes, "about Darth Revan being a strategic genius."
"Of the three of us, who's got the terrifying legacy that shaped the galaxy?"
"Point. Taken."