Chapter 4

(Kashyyk, Wookiee Village)

Carth leaned against the wall of the hut they had been put in while they waited for the return of Bastila and Jaks. Canderous was over by the small window keeping an eye out. Mission was seated of the side looking pretty miserable as Zaalbar had been kept in the chief's hut with his brother. Then again it was the first time since Taris they had been separated except when Zaalbar had been briefly captured. The two seemed almost like siblings even if they were from two different species.

"I don't like this," Mission said finally as she jumped to her feet and moved towards the door. "I don't like the looks of Zaalbar's brother, I'm worried for big Z," she admitted as she tentatively tried the door only to find it locked.

"That Wookiee is no chief," Canderous spat. "I can see it a mile away, he is a craven coward and would run from a fight if push came to shove," he told them. "Had Jaks and his little Jedi princess friend let me I would have ripped his head off," he added with relish and a gleam in his eye.

"Only problem then would be we'd have to go through the rest of the Wookiees then," Carth said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. "That kinda goes against us keeping a low profile now, doesn't it?" he added.

Canderous didn't reply, just shook his head knowing the long time Republic soldier would never truly understand the Mandalorian mindset. He didn't like the looks of Chuundar; any deal struck with him was bound to go unfulfilled. He could see it in the Wookiee's eyes, considering the presence of Czerka guards keeping Chuundar safe it was safe to say the Wookiee couldn't be trusted if he could sell out his own people. Slavery went against Mandalorian honor, at least where true Mandalorians stood. Those like Cassus Fett were betrayers to the code of honor most Mandalorians followed. The most clearly stated fact to support this was the Cathar massacre. A dark day in Mandalorian history, it had united the Republic even more against them, and worse it had been the event that had allowed Revan and his Jedi followers into the war. Revan had been the one man who had changed the war in the Republic's favor, using the massacre as a rallying cry to renew the confidence of those fighting against the invading Mandalorians. Mandalore himself was cut down by Revan along with his entire crew during the final battle over Malachor V, that battle had been the death nail for the united clans as they scattered to the winds. Those of his people who followed the true path of honor revered Revan as a tactical genius. The fact he took Mandalore's mask when he defeated him showed he was smart in the ways of war as he knew it would prevent a new leader from rising.

"Believe me Carth before we leave this village I promise you we will have to kill Chuundar because he won't let us leave any other way," Canderous finally said, shaking of his memories of the past which to him were best left forgotten.

Mission and Carth both looked at their companion with some unease because they could hear the belief in his tone. Mission became even more worried for Zaalbar. What was he doing or saying to her friend? She wasn't foolish enough to miss the anger in Zaalbar directed at his brother. Whatever their story was, it couldn't be good for her friend to be left alone with Chuundar.

+TR+

(Kashyyk, Shadowlands)

Revan lashed out with his lightsaber at the rather large Terentatek that had come out of nowhere. The beast was a result of dark side experiments made long ago. He hadn't believed to find one on Kashyyk of all places. It hadn't been here when he had first visited with Malak. Unless it had been in hibernation, if dark side energies were low the beasts would go dormant as they fed of those energies. The creature roared in pain, but didn't fall. Their skin was thick Revan knew, from behind it Bastila and Jolee attacked with their own lightsabers. The creature tried to squash Bastila with its huge claw, but she used the force to jump out of its reach and right over its head. She landed beside him with ease. He tried to use the force to lift it up, thus making it easier to attack, but the thing seemed to be immune, much to his frustration. They both heard Jolee cry out as he was caught by the things arm and sent stumbling backwards, the force of the blow was enough to send him to his knees.

"Damn, now I remember why I quit," Jolee muttered with a shake of his head to clear his vision. "Bloody beast, die already," he cursed as he got back to his feet slowly and jumped back into the fight.

Bastila attacked again, swinging her doubled bladed lightsaber straight into a hard trust, but again did little damage. Revan began to grow angry and felt the all too familiar surge in the force as the dark side beckoned. He had to be careful here. Bastila was watching for any hint of his words from before being false. Something like force lightening would cement in her mind the fact he was still a Sith, which was far from the truth. Jumping over another wild attack from the beast he slashed his blade sideways, he was rewarded as the blade singed and cut the beast's right eye. Before his feet touch the ground he was struck in the back by the creatures massive clawed hand and he was sent flying into a nearby tree. His head connected with the trunk and he saw stars. The Terentatek advanced on him, but Jolee and Bastila quickly moved to slow it down as Revan tried to recover.

Climbing to his feet he flung his lightsaber out and watched it finally imbed itself in a wound Bastila had opened. The creatures roared as Jolee struck at the same spot with Bastila following. The Terentatek fell backwards as its insides were torn up by the blades. Revan ran and jumped up onto the creature's chest and removed his blade and quickly stabbed it into the beast's brains. The monster struggled for a few seconds before going still. Revan turned his weapon off and stumbled off the beast to the forest floor.

"Revan, are you okay?" Bastila asked as she rushed to his side and checked his head wound which was bleeding slightly.

"Just a little off balance," Revan answered as he took a few deep breaths. "Did I mention I hate Terentateks?" he asked with a wince as Bastila dabbed a cloth from her pack over the wound.

"Who doesn't kid?" Jolee muttered as he considered the pair. Having heard what the girl had called the male, he had to admit he was surprised. Revan was supposed to be dead. He heard the tale from the spacers who visited Kashyyk, which he always asked for the most recent news. "I thought you were dead?" he finally couldn't help but ask.

Bastila cursed as she realized her slip up, she had called him Revan in her sudden worry for Revan when he stumbled off the dead Terentatek. "Almost, Bastila here saved me," Revan answered after taking the measure of the older man. "The Jedi tried to kill me a second time by trying to erase my mind, but the force protected me," he explained and was surprised by the feeling of disgust he felt from Bastila over the bond. Clearly his tale of what her beloved Masters had tried to do to him had affected her view of them. He was pleased by this, but did his best to keep that from showing through the bond.

"Don't talk to me about the council kid. Those old fools lost my respect the day they ignored a danger rising in their own mists," Jolee spat in no little anger, surprising both Revan and Bastila. "A feat they repeated with you I hear, to busy clinging to age old rules and beliefs and not seeing the reality of the galaxy we really live in," he grumbled, looking away briefly. "I take it the council doesn't know you are still alive?" he questioned.

"No, they don't and I would appreciate it if they stayed ignorant," Revan responded as Bastila finished tending to his wound and helped him up. "I have to much to do without their interference," he told him.

"I'll say you do kid, it's written in the very being of your aura for the entire galaxy to see," Jolee replied. "I'll stay quiet," he promised. "Got to ask, what did you do to get your friend her to agree?" he wondered.

"We made a deal, I help her stop Malak and keep her out of his hands and she keeps my survival a secret," Revan answered with a smile at Bastila, still amazed she had actually agreed. "And her name is Bastila," he added.

"This gets stranger and stranger. Isn't she the girl who was supposed to have killed you?" Jolee inquired as they walked on, only to come to a halt as Bastila saw something near the corpse of the Terentatek and bent down to check it out.

"I didn't kill him and I had no plans to kill Revan," Bastila responded with a slight huff. "My mission was to capture him, although I thought our chances were slim," she told Jolee. "None of us expected Malak to do what he did and when I saw Revan on the floor bleeding to death I felt the force surround me in a way I have never felt before," she explained as she stood up and they both noted the sword handle in her hands. It looked old but was missing the blade, looking like it had snapped off. "The force didn't want Revan to die, so I did everything I could to save him and in doing so created a force bond between us, so we can trust one another a little better than we would have done without it," she finished.

Revan took the blade from her and ran his finger over the broken bit of blade sticking out of the handle. He winced as it cut his finger. "It is still sharp. I suggest we keep it as it may belong to one of the Wookiees or their families," he suggested as he put it into Bastila's pack.

Jolee continued to watch the two with surprise, the ease and familiarity between the two wasn't something he expected to see between two former enemies. The fact they shared a force bond could explain some of it, but he got the feeling there might be something else. Either way he suspected this journey was going to be eye opening, and even now he could feel the currents of the force swirling around them, pushing them onto their destines. He had sworn off adventures, but now he felt he had to go and help them. He had one last chance to affect the wider galaxy and make up for his previous failures and he was going to take it, no matter what happened.

+TR+

(Jedi Temple Coruscant)

Jedi Master Atris sat meditating in the large and silent Dome of Tranquility. She had been summoned from her Telos Enclave to the main temple by her fellow council members themselves. She didn't know why they wanted to see her, but she guessed it might have something to do with Revan, even reprogrammed as he had been she knew he was dangerous. She hadn't been in favor of keeping the man alive. In her eyes he had done far too much damage to the Republic and more importantly the Jedi Order. Thousands had died due to his and Malak's betrayal, they had also helped corrupt a third of the Order's active Jedi. One of those Jedi was Meetra Surik, she had been in her eyes a promising student and one she took great interest in during her training.

But Surik had followed Revan and Malak to war, from what she had heard she had become Revan's most loyal friend and follower besides Malak. The very thought sickened her. How such a promising young woman could make such a terrible choice as to befriend first a rebel and then a monster, was behind her. Surik had been the only Jedi to return to face the Council's judgment. She had been the first to judge her guilty and voted for exile. The very fact that Surik had been cut off from the force during the battle of Malachor V had made an exile the best option. The woman who returned from the war felt wrong an almost blank and absent in the force. It had been a truly disturbing thing for her and her fellow Council members to feel. She had become an open wound in the force and she had to be exiled for the good of the Order. Sighing she opened her eyes and gave up on meditating, her memories refused to stay away.

Surik had refused to be cowed by the Council's judgment. She had called them weak and fools for forcing Revan, Malak and herself to take the steps they had to defend the Republic. That it was their fault that the war had dragged on as long as it had, that they were in the end responsible for the changes Revan and the others had endured during the war. At the end of her speech, she had thrust her double bladed lightsaber into the Centre stone in the middle of the Council chamber. She had given them one last look of contempt before turning and leaving, she had not been seen since.

When Revan was captured, she had almost been certain it would draw Surik back, but she hadn't shown, much to her relief as they didn't need another Dark Jedi running lose.

"Atris, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting," her fellow council member Vima Sunrider, daughter of the famed Nomi Sunrider, said as she entered the dome. "We have been consulting with the Chancellor all day, things have taken a turn for the worse I'm afraid," she admitted with a tired sigh. "We thought capturing Revan would help us at least turn the tide of the war in our favor, or at least make the Sith back off and give us time to reorganize," she continued as she sat down. "It hasn't done either. Malak is relentless and without Revan's more controlled advance he is striking in multiple places drawing our forces into battles where they are hopelessly outnumbered," she explained.

Atris could see the tiredness in her fellow Jedi's eyes and it worried her. "Worse, unlike Revan who captured planets almost undamaged and kept their infrastructure intact, Malak is raising whole planets into cinder uncaring of their military importance," she finished.

Atris frowned at the news, knowing it wasn't good either for the Jedi or the Republic. Clearly while not as effective as Revan in military terms Malak was just as destructive if not more so. Without Revan in command there was no one to stop Malak's lust for death and destruction, perhaps capturing Revan alone had not been a wise choice after all. They should have sent a larger team with a few Masters to help. They should have aimed at capturing both Sith Lords. Perhaps then the war would either be already over, or more in the Republic's favor.

"We have to kill Malak," Atris finally said and was unsurprised by the shocked reaction Vima gave her.

"Jedi don't kill. I expect to hear something like that from Padawans and maybe a knight or two, but not from a Master," Vima shot back. "What is wrong with you Atris? You've not been yourself since the exile of Meetra Surik," she stated as she stood up and paced a little.

"I'm sorry Vima. I'm stressed far more now than ever before," Atris said quickly, knowing she had overstepped her bounds.

Worse, she had probably made Vima question her mindset. She had to be more careful or her emotions would be her downfall. She was supposed to be a Jedi Master, but more and more of late she had begun to lose her control and her emotions were coming out more and more. The exile of Surik had been the hardest test of her emotional control. She needed to get a better grip on herself or she might find herself being judged by the council herself.

"After talking to the Chancellor and his council it has been decided to withdraw from some of the battles we are currently fighting, and regroup our forces into a more able attack force," Vima told her with a slight frown at her colleagues odd behavior, but for now she put it aside as they had more important things to deal with.

"That could work against us if Malak decides to attack through one of our weakened sectors," Atris pointed out, not liking what she was hearing.

"That was taken into account Atris, but we feel we have no choice," Vima countered with a shake of her head. "If we keep going the way we are, we will have no forces left to fight Malak with," she stated in a despondent tone.

"And what about Revan and his small group of followers? He has Bastila Shan with him whose Battle Meditation has kept the Sith at bay," Atris couldn't help but ask.

"Revan no longer exists, his previous personality was wiped clean by the council, remember?" Vima responded with an aggrieved sigh, knowing Atris wouldn't give up about this particular subject.

"Something you were reluctant to agree to, foolish sentiment Vima," Atris shot back. "We should have removed him permanently and ensured there was no way for him to come back," she argued. "You all forgot that if Revan did somehow come back he would have Bastila in his grasp," she pointed out while Vima did her best to keep her temper.

"Forget this argument Atris. Bastila has the reprogrammed Revan well in hand," Vima told her with some effort to keep her temper under control for the first time in years. "There is no way back for Revan, not now and you should accept that," she added. "Now the reason you were called here is so that we can begin to prepare for the worst case scenario. We wish to move some of our most sacred Holocrons to your enclave, hidden as it is," she said, swiftly moving the topic of conversation away from Revan.

Atris almost smiled at this news, but managed to stop it from forming. She forgot all about Revan and Meetra and even the war itself. All that filled her mind was having the most sacred Holocrons of the Order in her care, more than likely there would be a few of the captured Sith Holocrons as well. All that information at her fingertips, perhaps there was an answer to the Sith problem in those Holocrons, one no Jedi had seen in many years. She tried to shake the idea from her mind, but it refused to leave her, still she kept any such thoughts from showing on her face or she really would be in trouble with Vima and the council.

Vima left after an hour of discussing moving the Holocrons to her enclave on Telos, inside she felt the council was making a mistake trusting Atris. Something was wrong with the woman. She was someone she had never truly been comfortable around anyway. She remembered the way Atris had acted when Meetra Surik had returned to face judgment, she had seen real anger and even some hatred in the white haired woman, but the council had ignored it in favor of focusing their disfavor on Surik. Entering her room she moved to the window and stared out into the dark Coruscant sky. Her fingers grasped the medallion Ulric had given her just before he had died. Atris had been correct in one thing, she had not agreed with the council's choice to wipe Revan's mind. Revan had been an informal student of hers. He had come to her many times to discuss the history of the Jedi and the interpretation of the code. She had found him to have a unique view on the force and the Jedi as a whole. The council's inaction however during the Mandalorian invasion had made him view them as old and ineffectual.

'What had Revan seen that had made him walk the path of the Sith?' she asked herself for the hundredth time. She prayed it was impossible for Revan to return somehow, because if he did his thirst for revenge for what the council had done to him would be unstoppable. Letting out a sigh she turned and headed for her bed, it had been a long day and she had a feeling tomorrow wasn't going to be any different.