A/N: Major spoilers for KOTOR, of course. While this will have similar story beats to the game, many events will be different. The main change will be that "brainwashed" Revan isn't a loyal soldier to the Republic (in fact, he's quite the opposite). How (and why) that came about will be explained. That means this will be slightly AU as the story goes along. There will also be a few original characters to spice things up. I have also cross-posted on AO3 (under the same name) if you prefer that site.

I have rated this M due to sex/violence/suicide mentions from chapter ~40 onward. I will try to mark chapters if that is something you do not intend to read! These early parts are very "Star Wars" teen-friendly though.

I started this story in 2013, however, my writing has significantly improved since and has gone through some rewrites. If you are new here, nothing should look out of the ordinary and you can skip the rest of my ramblings!

For those who are returning, you probably (or didn't) notice the name change. This was previously called "Strong Winds" before but after editing the 2013 version of the story, this new title fits better with the themes/character of Revan. I have revamped the Dantooine and Tatooine arcs (with minor fixes to Taris). Mostly, I added scenes and improved the original characters Verena and Liam.

Thank you so much to those who are still sticking with this story. It's definitely been a passion project of mine that I hope to see to completion!

"The Endar Spire? Stupid name."

A shove at my shoulder forced me forward.

"Keep moving."

The cold loading dock was filled with hundreds of Republic soldiers. Most of them went about their business to ships of unknown names, heading to unknown origins. Others followed our group at a careful pace. All of them gave the five Jedi and their prisoner curious stares.

That prisoner, of course, was me.

I wanted to wave a mock salute at them but the cuffs around my wrists turned it into a weak flail. The pushy dark-haired Jedi glared at me. Jedi Bitch. I'd asked for her name, of course, but she ignored me and instead shouted commands into my ear. I gave her a small smile over my shoulder as I increased my walking pace.

Even though I kept moving, Jedi Bitch shoved me again like I was a kath hound.

"I can walk you know," I muttered.

A few soldiers took off their red helmets and headed into the same transportation ship we were going to be shuttled into. The other four Jedi, besides Jedi Bitch, surrounded me like the dangerous smuggler I was. I'm sure they had their reasons, but the whole thing was rather over-dramatic. I was just some captured criminal being forced onto this job, after all.

One small victory.

If this even was one.

The inside of the transport smelled sterile—too clean. I was used to alcohol and smoke filtering through the air like in my old ship. Where I was the captain and in control. Where was I now? Captured and humiliated.

I was shoved by Jedi Bitch onto a steel bench beside some poor young-looking soul. One of the older Jedi in their pack undid my bindings with a quick flick of his wrist. I smiled as my bare skin was able to breathe again. I leaned back, resting my head against my crossed fingers. The young recruit shot me a nervous eye.

One small victory.

I was "free" to serve the Republic. Why had I agreed to this again?

Jedi Bitch faced an aged soldier. "The commander will be arriving shortly, captain. She's been delayed by the Council."

The captain sighed. "Well, the 'commander' better hurry up. We've been stalling here for an hour."

"We leave on Bastila Shan's command."

With a final "humph", the pilot left the entrance to the transporter for the cockpit while shaking his head. The five Jedi climbed into the transport and acted as if they hadn't dragged me across the docks. Probably hated that they were being ordered around by the Republic to take unwanted "prisoners."

A more experienced-looking man sat in the seat in front of me and had this ugly expression on his face. He looked like he'd seen action. Beside him was a man with dark hair who looked my age.

"Wait..." The veteran narrowed his eyes at his datapad. "You're the one who was added to the roster."

I released my head from my hands.

"What? I'm not a part of any roster."

He didn't look convinced and neither did his friend.

"You're Gale? Wesley Gale?" he asked.

I sneered. "I'm Wes. No one calls me Wesley."

"Then you're a part of the crew, Wes Gale."

The veteran shoved his datapad in front of my eyes. On it were rows of pictures and names with ranks listed beside them like little add-ons to weapons. My eyes squinted as I searched the dark-tinted names with unimportant ranks until I found the one on the bottom.

My picture was there—an old picture. They probably couldn't find any recent ones. It was a mugshot that was taken on Corellia years ago in my twenties during my first arrest. My past self smiled widely, and stupidly, at the holo-capture. My hair had been short and orderly back then and my complexion bright. Now it touched my shoulders in a tangled mess. Besides my old mugshot was my name. Wesley Gale, recruit. Below that were a few others with my assigned rank. But there weren't many.

What was the Republic doing? I thought that they were sending me to the Endar Spire to clean the decks and repair droids or...other menial tasks. Wesley Gale, janitor was what I was expecting. The veteran saw my confused look and grabbed the datapad from his friend.

"I doubt you went through basic training based on the way you just addressed me. Is there a reason why you were sent here in cuffs?" he asked, flicking the screen and pressing a button.

I sat back again with a sigh. "Do I need a reason?"

"We thought you were a prisoner being transported or something," the dark-haired man said, "but then the Jedi released you—"

"Is that a problem?"

Both the veteran and his friend frowned and they both returned their attention to their datapads. I'd thought that would have been the end of the questions, but the young soldier beside me spoke.

"You're that smuggler the pilot was whispering about."

I gave the quivering one a curious eye. This new recruit looked scared out of his wits, yes, but he was the most observant of these numskulls. The two in front of me narrowed their eyes and before they could say or do anything offensive, a train of Jedi and soldiers entered from the back of the hanger. The Republic soldiers were called to order and they straightened into a salute as a beautiful Jedi marched towards us with a serious look on her face.

The soldiers in the transport began to mutter among themselves. Bastila Shan this. The Jedi are scary that. However, most were muttering their praises to the Jedi commander. Without her, and only her, the war would have already been won by the Sith.

I rolled my eyes.

The Jedi guarding the commander entered the transport. I sat low in my seat in order to avoid most of the robed Jedi's intense gazes. When commander Bastila arrived, all of the soldiers sat up with respect. Except for me. The scuffed metal floor and my worn boots were more entertaining.

The commander might not have been paying very much attention either. Something hard connected with my foot. When I looked up, the commander stumbled but didn't fall after tripping over my extended leg. The train of Jedi stopped with concern.

This was the Battle Meditator, Bastila Shan?

I...had expected her to be a bit more graceful.

The tripped Jedi turned and gave me the fiercest look that I returned with a shrug. Then, her face turned into paralyzed stone as if a blaster bolt had tripped her instead of my foot. A smile froze on my lips. Before I could ask if she sprained her ankle or something, she twisted around then acted as if I hadn't existed.

Okay...

"All of you onboard are here to fulfill the Council's mission." Bastila spoke to the crew with a silky Talravin accent. "Hopefully, we will arrive without incident. Commander Carth Onasi has been kind enough to lend me his ship."

She arrived at the front of the transport before the cabin then gave each of us a look as if we were little bugs to be squashed. I knew that look well enough from most of the Jedi that had pushed me around before I came onto this ship. Eventually, the commander turned to address the pilot who nodded. Through the comm, he went through the standard procedures of securing one's self into the transport. I pulled the latch that appeared above my head down onto my armpits. The new recruit beside me along with many others followed the instructions slowly along with the voice of the pilot.

The commander found a seat at the front of the transport and buckled up between her Jedi friends. I wondered why such an important figure was arriving on this unimportant soldier's transport ship. I thought the Jedi were too pompous for this sort of thing.

I forgot that line of thought when the transport lifted and the familiar tingle of low gravity filled my stomach. We were in space before I could count to ten and the feeling of the gravity wells hit my legs as we glided out of the atmosphere.

The Endar Spire along with her fleet sat above Coruscant like glorified taxi speeders. The new recruit grinned with excitement while the dark-haired man and the veteran glowered at me. Outside the small glass windows, the Republic fleet encircled the important Inner Rim planet like ants to unwanted sweets.

The veteran coughed. "Smuggler?"

I turned my attention away from the window with a grin. The transport was silent except for our voices.

"Smuggler, trafficker, Hutt spawn...etcetera, etcetera."

"Why have you been recruited?" he asked. "The Republic isn't that desperate for soldiers."

"Maybe they're desperate for people to do their dirty work." I glanced over towards the commander and then at the other Jedi. "Though honestly? I agreed to a few years of mildly dangerous community service. It was either that or prison. And I'm not going back to prison."

Despite this being a less overt one.

The two closed their mouths when I gave them that answer. For some reason, my gaze was drawn towards the brunette hair and stony eyes of Bastila Shan. The Jedi was staring straight ahead at the wall as if pondering the meaning of life and all of its evils. Dark side, light side, emotion...pacifist mumbo jumbo.

"What's with the Jedi?" I asked, pointing with a free hand. "What's the mission?"

The dark-haired one answered. "We thought you would know. They were the ones who brought you here."

I frowned. That was half-true. The cell the Republic kept me in had been dark. An IV and kolto station situated beside my bed, haunting my nightmares. My torso was still sore from the wounds I sustained and I had random headaches if I tried to turn my head too sharply. I stayed there for many sleepless days...months even. They gave me food and water and I thought that the dark, empty prison was going to be my last home.

That is until they came.

The Jedi.

"I don't know. I hadn't expected a Jedi welcome party either. They came into my cell this morning after I agreed to serve and started making demands. They told me it was by the Republic's orders that I was to be stationed on the Spire. I was then shoved here like compactor waste."

The two left it at that and were silent again to my relief. I leaned back in exhaustion after their interrogations. Then, I felt as if I was being watched. My gaze flicked towards the two soldiers, but they were watching the ground in disbelief. I turned towards the Jedi. Bastila Shan's tight face watched me with intensity. When our eyes met, she turned to stare at the wall.

A smirk curved my lips. I only had to trip a woman in order for her to get smitten with me. Guess I still had that touch.

Commander Carth Onasi acted as I expected a Republic soldier to act. Shoulders squared, expression serious, and gaze intense while wearing a decorated coat over a bright orange jacket. His face reddened with rapid discontent as we all piled out into the Endar Spire's main hanger. He hadn't expected us at all.

Bastila finally marched down the ramp with her posse of Jedi trailing behind her. The commander stepped forward with a frown that could have fallen to the metal floors.

"What is the meaning of this, Captain Shan—"

"Commander Shan. Admiral Dodonna has granted me permission to use your ship and fleet for this mission."

The Jedi walked by us soldiers like we were specks of machine dust and surrounded Bastila. I sighed for the hundredth time today. I was thirsty. I was starving. Could we just skip these unneeded pleasantries?

Onasi looked as if his ego had been shattered by a wild blaster bolt. "What are you talking about? Why wasn't I informed? And what mission?"

"We need to get going, Commander Onasi. We have a long journey ahead of us and I would like to get there before Malak discovers that we have left Republic space."

Onasi's mouth flapped up and down like a Manaan fish out of water before he waved at us. "And who are all these people? Besides the Jedi you've forced onto me."

The silky-voiced Jedi sighed. "Just some recruits the Admiral wanted us to take along."

"Okay..." Onasi crossed his arms. "And where are we going, exactly?"

I was curious about this. Apparently, so were a few others, but Bastila shook her head.

"I will explain everything after we've put in hyperspace coordinates."

She stormed off and was followed by the many robed Jedi, leaving us plebs behind. Onasi, the ex-commander of the Endar Spire, looked so awestruck that I actually felt sorry for the man. I mean, none of us asked to be led around by Jedi. Well, at least I sure didn't.

Onasi sighed before addressing us poor souls. "Someone have the roster?"

The veteran I talked to before handed him the datapad. Onasi nodded his head at the ranks and began dividing us into shifts and places within the ship. I wasn't surprised when I was last to stand there. Sweat built on my forehead as the Republic soldier read over what was possibly a record of my past exploits. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was all just some mistake.

Instead, Onasi raised his eyebrows. "Says here you'll be assigned to communications. You understand multiple languages?"

I smirked, relieved that he hadn't come across something worse. "Born and raised in the Outer Rim. You live long enough out there, you just learn."

"But long enough to know...all this? Your records say that you know over hundreds of languages even Shyriiwook—"

"As I said, Outer Rim."

I don't think the soldier believed me because his gaze left the datapad and stayed on me for longer than necessary. Eventually, he went over my other "skills."

"Repair? What type of repairs?"

"Droids. Most droids. I'm not a vehicle repairman if that was what you were looking for."

Onasi nodded a few times though I could tell he was still angry over the Jedi deciding to take over his ship. He checked my record over again—rather excessive—before he narrowed his eyes.

"Odd. Your record was added yesterday."

I wasn't sure if that comment was just to himself. Either way, he finished reviewing my record and gave me a datapad from a steel table being led by a T3 unit. Since I never had a government-issued datapad, I had to fiddle around with the screen before I left. The ex-commander of the ship ordered me to head to the communications wing of the ship to go over my duties.

As I marched through the sterile hallways, I began to wonder why I had been recruited as a soldier. The Republic might need more people with language proficiency, but could they even trust me with something like that? I mean, I didn't even trust me.

At the bottom of my heart, I knew that there was something else going on here.

I just wasn't quite sure what that was yet.