Disclaimer: Lucasfilm, Bioware, Disney, et al. and whoever they sell the rights to next own Star Wars and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I write this for fun and not for any monetary gain.

A/N: The death penalty seems pretty widely accepted in the Star Wars universe, e.g. the guy having death sentences on 12 systems in the very first movie and Selkath ordering death sentences. This story is written in light of that.


Chapter 4: The Dark Path

The Jedi Code:

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

The Sith Code:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion I gain strength.
Through strength I gain power.
Through power I gain victory.
Through victory my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.


A few more hours into the journey, Bastila was sick of remembering the destruction of Taris. Instead, she turned her thoughts to Revan's demonstration of useful Force powers, powers that the Jedi Order forbade its members from using. However, their objection was moot now that she had renounced the Order and became a Sith apprentice. Soon, curiosity took hold and she approached her Master, asking if she could start learning some Dark Side powers.

In response, he gave her a serious lecture. "You must realize that the separation of light and dark, while seemingly natural, is more driven by our desire to neatly categorize things than any fundamental difference in the Force. They are, in essence, artificial constructs," he started. "Originally, the term Light Side referred to the positive emotions, like love and compassion, and Dark Side referred to negative emotions, like anger and hatred, as I discovered from ancient inscriptions of the early Jedi Order. However, at one point, the Jedi abandoned their ancient code of balance and changed the Code to say that there is no emotion, ignorance, passion, chaos, or death, instead of co-existing with their counterparts. As time went on, they started denouncing all that they disliked as the 'Dark Side,' even the things that were not originally dark. And thus, love became a part of the 'Dark Side,' even when it's caring and constructive. I think we both know how silly that is.

"It's funny how the Jedi fear the 'Dark Side' and hate it with passion, but have little idea of what it truly is. So much for denying ignorance in favour of knowledge. They suppress all their emotions, no matter how positive, out of fear. Yet, their dogma considers such fear and hate as part of the 'Dark Side' and proscribes such feelings. And yet, they are too attached to the doctrine that, for some unfathomable reason, also forbids attachment, to notice such a contradiction. How ironic." He shook his head in disapproval.

"The Jedi beliefs are flawed. And yet, it seemed that historically, the Sith only tried to do exactly the opposite. This is a logical fallacy, for reverse stupidity is not intelligence. I don't understand why almost everyone seems to see things as black and white. Perhaps because the Sith had always arisen from the ranks of the Jedi and they were all raised from childhood to view the world in such polar extremes. And when they found out that the Jedi were flawed, they instinctively turned to the only alternative they knew…

"In any case, you must realize that both of the so-called sides of the Force have their uses. Neither is stronger or better. In a combat situation, the ancient Dark Side is probably more useful in offence, seeing how you can use Force Lightning and Drain Life to breeze through a small army, while the original Light Side is more useful in defence and healing. Just remember, 'Light Side,' 'Dark Side,' however you define them, they are only tools. The artificial distinction of 'sides' of the Force and the ability to wield only one of them are false dichotomies imposed by our minds and teachings of the Jedi or the ancient Sith. We should break free of such chains, not letting it tie us down because we fear our true potential. The Force shall free us. There is absolutely no reason to use only one 'side' of the Force, especially when the distinction is so… arbitrary. It's like having a saberstaff and only ever using one end.

"By shunning what they call 'dark,' the Jedi reject practically all combat powers and also some of the most powerful non-combat powers. There is a reason that historically, an individual Sith always appeared more powerful than a Jedi, despite their Order starting fresh many times from within the ranks of the Jedi. Yet in the same vein, by shunning the 'light,' the ancient Sith denied themselves the ability to heal each other, and that was one of the reasons for their downfall.

"Finally, there are terrible rituals and powers that would no doubt be classified as 'Dark Side'—both the original and the Jedi versions. Some of these involve destruction on a planetary scale. Needless to say, these are horrible, horrible things and you should never use them, unless the alternative is somehow even worse."

The apprentice thought for a few moments and nodded, "I understand, Master."

"Good. Now I know you are dying to ask me how to channel the powers," the Sith Master easily deduced.

She nodded in response.

"From now on, I shall use Light and Dark to refer to the original meanings, since that's a far more useful distinction to make when teaching. So, the Jedi are sort of right about one thing: most Dark powers benefit greatly from negative emotions—anger, hate, fear, jealousy, and such. The more powerful the emotions, the more powerful the result. What does this tell you about channelling the powers?" Revan asked. He always liked letting Bastila figure things out for herself after some brief introduction. It was the way he tutored her decades ago, when they were mere children. She always got a much deeper understanding from the exercise than if he had simply lectured and expected her to remember his words.

"That it requires a certain headspace?" the apprentice guessed, referring to the mental state required for their power exchange roleplay. "It's like what we found with certain Jedi powers, right? That the healing powers work better in the headspace of peace, serenity, and love? The Dark Side works the same way, just with different emotions? I mean, it makes a lot of sense that positive emotions boost powers normally used for friends and negative ones boost those used against foes."

"Yes, that's exactly it. Now a word of caution," Revan said seriously. "The headspace for the Dark Side should be treated like roleplay—you have to realize it's not real in some sense and be able to let go when needed. It's like, when you are in that headspace where you are a slave on your knees and you must obey my every whim, you still know on some level that you are Bastila Shan, a free woman who chooses to submit, and I am your best friend who would never hurt you."

"Except when I enter subspace and completely lose myself to the fantasy," the submissive girl noted. "It happened that one time, when I allowed myself to forget the truth and believe my name is just 'slave' and my purpose in life is to just make you happy. And it felt really good… No responsibilities, no worries, no concerns for the future, just pure bliss."

"You know that as a dom, I can't do that? If I actually lose control over myself in the headspace for a dom, it stops being roleplay and it starts being abuse," he observed. "And even as a sub, you can't trap yourself inside subspace forever. Otherwise, you can't get any work done and it's not safe. In a similar vein, you must be able to let go of your negative emotions. You can sink deeply into the Dark Side headspace in battle, but you must be able to eventually let go of it, lest your negative emotions consume you and you lose yourself, destroying worlds in your madness."

"It's what happened to Malak, isn't it, Master?" she deduced. "He lost himself in the headspace and became what he is now?"

"I can't possibly know exactly what goes on in his mind, but it is what I suspect," he answered. "It's an awful thing, losing yourself in the darkness."

"Master?" the apprentice asked with concern. The way he said the last part… disturbed her. "Did you have… personal experience… with that?"

"Yes," he admitted. "It's not a good experience."

"Would you… share it with me, Master?" Bastila requested. "I promise… I won't judge you for it," she added after realizing the probable reason for his hesitation.

"I think some background is in order," Revan noted. In a lecture tone, he continued, "The single most available source of negative emotions, and also the most dangerous, is the hate of one's own self. In combat, this is a huge advantage: when you are angry and disappointed in yourself for losing a fight, you are exactly in the right headspace for the Dark Side to yield more power and eventually allow you to triumph. But desperation also has a tendency to make you cling to it… too hard. I suspect most Jedi that discovered the Dark Side on their own did it through this path, losing themselves in the process. The Dark Side itself is not evil per se, but with these individuals acting as its only face… it's easy to see why it has a certain reputation."

"Yes, I can see why," she agreed. "Did you discover it that way too?"

"Not quite. At first, I started by rejecting the Jedi dogma and allowing myself to feel anger at the foul deeds of the Mandalorians. I didn't know it at the time, but it helped me fight to some extent, though I never quite considered it to be 'using the Dark Side.' But there was one battle in the Mandalorian wars that I almost lost. One of their elite detachments somehow bypassed the frontline and ended up at my command centre and I had to fight for my own survival. There were just so many of them and I was losing. Everyone else on my side was dead and I was surrounded by twenty Mandalorian warriors. I knew I was going to die and I promised you that I would return alive. I hated myself for my weakness and for lying to you. It really was a horrible feeling, but somehow despite my injuries, I was able to hit harder and faster. Eventually, I defeated them all and was left as the only one standing.

"All of a sudden, I found I was basically invincible. The power that ran through me felt so much better than the feeling of dread, of knowing I would not survive the day. So I held onto those strong emotions. I did some terrible things to captured Mandalorian war criminals: I unleashed the emotions onto them and tortured them to death with Force Lightning. I hated myself for essentially sinking to their level of pointless violence, instead of handing over to the tribunal to expose their crimes to the galaxy. On some level, I hated what I had become, yet that very hatred boosted my powers. I became more and more powerful, more and more feared by my foes."

Despite the violence, Bastila found that she was not disturbed by his confession. She was not exactly pleased: she would prefer having the Mandalorians tried and executed legally, of course. Crimes were, by definition, acts that offend the people as a whole, so in theory, the entire population was wronged and deserve justice. A representative of the people, the prosecutor, was supposed to bring the case to court where the facts were decided by the jury, also chosen from the people, even though in practice only the élite was represented in the Republic. This was unlike a civil wrong, where only the victim deserved justice and someone who was not affected had no standing to even bring the case to court. Given all this, depriving everyone in the galaxy of their chance to exact justice was unideal. However, a vindictive part of her did not mind at all. In fact, that part of her felt that death would be too good for these criminals, if their crimes were anything like Cassus Fett and his followers. "Did you ever hurt anyone innocent?" she asked. "Like, I can understand torturing war criminals, but did you hurt anyone else?"

"No, I could read their minds with the Force and I only tortured the worst of them, unleashing onto them what they had unleashed onto others. But eventually I would have, if there wasn't something, or rather someone, that held me back," Revan answered, the pain clear in his voice.

"Should I be jealous?" his lover asked with a somewhat teasing tone, hoping to lighten the mood somewhat. If someone could hold him back from self-destruction, then she would very much like to thank whoever it was.

"No, Bastila. It was you, or rather, a memory of you. Your love, your trust, your willingness to fully submit to me, to allow me to control you, were very precious to me. I realized that if I went too far, you wouldn't trust me anymore. That kind of trust, once lost, can never be truly regained." He sighed. "Back then, I already started wearing my armour with the mask that covered my entire face. One day, I saw myself without the mask in the mirror and it truly horrified me.

"In a moment of clarity, I finally realized the connection between the Dark Side and headspaces. If it had been roleplay, then what I was doing would have been like being your Master, only that I forgot about the reality—that you were my best friend and it was just roleplay—and instead, I treated you like an actual slave. I knew then that if I continued on that path, you would be afraid of me and you wouldn't... want to submit to me anymore." Revan's voice choked at mentioning his worst fear. Taking a deep breath, he continued, "Once I realized the truth, I let go of the self-hate and became myself once again. I still tap into all those emotions in battles, but I never again allowed myself to be lost completely in the headspace.

"And that was the experience," he finished. "Are you… afraid of submitting to me now?"

"No, Master," Bastila reassured him, pulling him into a hug. "Even deep in that headspace, you still knew on some level that you should not hurt me. I have nothing to fear. I only wish… I could have been there for you."

He hugged her back. "I promise I will never leave you again, my love. It was a mistake to make you stay with the Jedi for your safety and we both suffered dearly for it. For that, I am sorry."

"I don't blame you for doing what you thought was best, even though it ended poorly," she said as she relaxed into his arms. They sat together on their bed in comfortable silence for the next few minutes.

"Master, do you think the Jedi also lost themselves in the Light Side headspace?" Bastila asked as the thought entered her mind. "It would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it?"

"Now that you mention it, that sounds exactly like what happened to them," her Master agreed. "Funny how you summarized all the problems with the Jedi in one sentence. Who would have thought that BDSM helps you so much with understanding the Force?"

"I know, right," the submissive concurred. "Can we continue our lesson now, Master?"

Letting go of her, Revan continued, "I think we covered the basic idea of the Dark Side. Some practical demonstration is in order, I guess. I think you should start with Lightning."

"Why Lightning? It looks fairly advanced, Master," the apprentice observed.

"Generating a massive storm is a fairly advanced technique, but one bolt is actually pretty easy," the Sith Master explained. "In fact, it's one of the first powers a Jedi typically discovers on their own when they give into their emotions. Well, a basic Force choke usually comes first, but that hardly counts because it's just telekinesis, only slightly more difficult than a push or pull."

"I see," she nodded. "Go on, Master."

He quickly explained the mechanics behind Force Lightning. "Now put yourself into the headspace and shoot a bolt at me," he ordered.

Bastila was taken aback by the request, "But Master, I could never hate you! Or even be angry at you, for that matter."

Again, he decided to guide her to the answer. "It was very difficult to really hate a nameless bike gang member in the Taris Undercity or one of Davik's men that I have never seen before. Yet I seemed to use Lightning fine. Now, consider what happens if someone, not the intended target, steps into the path of Force Lightning."

The intelligent apprentice got it immediately. "I see, the emotions need not be towards the target. And perhaps, not knowing this, the Jedi believe Dark Side powers can never be used for good."

"Very good," Revan congratulated her. "I suppose the concept of 'know thy enemy' is lost upon the Jedi. But I digress. Just remember that the negative emotions are used as a trick to boost your power. It's part of a role you play. They are a powerful tool, but make sure they serve you, not the other way around."

Bastila concentrated for a moment, recalling what happened to Revan. She remembered her beloved telling her he had a good reason for everything he did and the hope rising in her heart, turned into horror as Malak fired upon the ship, intent on killing them both. She then recalled the Jedi Council trying to remove her best friend from existence, against her desperate pleas, dismissing her in that patronizing tone. The feeling of loss, of never knowing why her kind and caring Master became the most feared person in Republic propaganda, combined with the betrayal she felt as the Jedi Council threw their vaunted Jedi Code—a code she tried so hard to follow and was constantly reprimanded for not following—out of the window when it was convenient, filled her entire being. She hated Malak and the Jedi Council.

Her face twisted in anger. Unseen by her, her eyes glowed yellow. She channelled the power she had never felt before, unleashed its fury, and willed a bolt of Force Lightning into existence and hurled it at Revan, who effortlessly caught it in his hand. She then took a deep, calming breath and let go of the headspace. Her eyes faded back to her natural grey.

Bastila noted that when channelling the power, she felt exhilaration and a sense of achievement—and of course anger and hate at her chosen targets—but absolutely no temptation to hurt innocents or loved ones, despite what the Jedi claimed. She could, however, imagine Malak's insanity to be a state of mind suited for channelling the power. She realized that, at its core, the original Dark Side was simply power derived from negative emotions, and corruption was a sufficient condition for the Dark Side, but not a necessary one. Revan was right and the Jedi were either wrong or telling her lies.

"Good job, Bastila." Revan always made sure to compliment her whenever she learned something, back in their days on Dantooine. As usual, she felt a surge of pride and an encouragement to do even better. The Jedi Masters, however, shunned positive enforcement, claiming that it made learners arrogant. How could she feel arrogant when her Master could easily shoot a storm of Lightning? She knew that right now, he could easily snuff out her life in an instant with a mere thought like he had with those enemies on Taris—not that he ever would, of course—and yet, that fact alone was enough to make her feel insignificant and drive her to do better.

"You should practice a bit more," he continued, "and try to shoot more than one bolt at a time."

An hour later, Bastila seemed to have gotten the technique down. She was able to materialize torrents of Force Lightning without much difficulty, although it was a far cry from the storms that her Master could conjure up with at will. But she would never forget Revan's words at the end of the lesson.

"Having seen first hand how much more powerful the Dark Side powers are, you might be tempted to imagine all the Jedi as weak. This is a fallacy that has led to the downfall of so many promising Sith apprentices. More correctly said, the Dark Side is more efficient than the Light Side at combat—and only that. Using the same amount of raw power in battle, the Dark Side yields better results, but it can't trump knowledge or raw power. A Jedi Master may be massively inefficient and no match for a Sith Master with equal raw strength in the Force, but find weaker or less knowledgeable Sith easy prey. You are making good progress, but you shouldn't be overconfident," he had said. It was a sobering reminder, even though she was far from arrogant.

"Remember the first rule of being a good fighter: know thyself and know thy foe," her Master had summarized. "Know your power and your limitations, Bastila, and never bite off more than you can chew."

"Yes, Master," the apprentice affirmed.


After the lesson, the couple decided to check out their newly acquired ship. They found some interesting things, including a fully stocked medbay and what appeared to be Davik's swoop bike. Walking past Mission's room, they saw through the open door, finding her looking rather distant. Deciding to be friendly, Revan asked her if anything was wrong.

"Huh? Oh… sorry. I was thinking about Taris. I still can't believe it's gone! I mean, I grew up there and now it's… it's just gone!" she said miserably.

"Malak will pay for what he did, Mission," stated Revan with absolute conviction.

"Yeah… I know. The Jedi got rid of Revan," said Mission while the couple tried to hide a wince, "so I figure Malak's days are numbered, too. But that doesn't make the pain go away, you know?"

"I know…" Bastila agreed sympathetically.

"I knew the Sith were evil and all that, but seeing it firsthand really gets the point across. But I suppose that's why we need to stop Malak. The more time I spend dwelling on Taris, the more the chance some other planet gets destroyed. So don't worry too much about me; I'll be okay. And if you need my help against Malak or the Sith, I'll be there for you!" declared Mission.

"I appreciate your support. But if you need help, we are all here for you," Revan offered.

"And sorry about last night… I was in shock and I wasn't thinking. I am sorry if I interrupted anything…" said Mission apologetically. "Although, isn't it against the Jedi Code, Bastila?"

She blushed. "Well, yes. But they don't have to know," she added conspiratorially.

"Well, we are friends, right?" asked Mission.

"Friends," the secret Sith apprentice agreed.

"Still, you might want to be careful… you won't be able to hide a baby," the Twi'lek teen suggested teasingly.

"Yes, we are very careful," Bastila told her, her face turning red in the process. She remembered the day she snuck out the Jedi enclave with Revan, under the guise of running an errand for one of the Jedi Masters training him, to visit a gynecologist… She had no reason to worry about accidental pregnancies. Back in the day, before the Mandalorian wars, such things were available for free. She'd never thought to question why that was the case, but would later learn that those aligned with the Populare faction funded those clinics, at least until the faction was destroyed as a side effect of the war.

Of course, no Jedi was supposed to know that such options even existed. They were taught to simply never have sex—or even kiss, for that matter—by Jedi Masters who showed them horrifying pictures of certain diseases. They were also told that if they felt any urges, they should just meditate until it went away. She shook her head. Love, marriage, and reproduction were some of the most important parts of life for most sentients, yet the Jedi denied them, decrying them as somehow unnatural. She truly wondered if they even listened to the words coming out of their mouths, for nothing could be more natural than reproduction. Fortunately for her, Revan had methods of obtaining information from outside the Jedi Order.


Later that day, after they had finished dinner, the Ebon Hawk reached Dantooine. After Bastila pointed out the open docking area in the Jedi Enclave, Carth landed the ship.

"Now I better go meet with the Jedi Council and report on the recent developments…" she sighed as they landed.


A/N: In this story, the Jedi and the ancient Sith worshipped the Force, and this devotion to it fostered the necessary headspace to use the Light and Dark Sides of the Force respectively. It was a sufficient condition to use the Force, though hardly necessary. However, since it worked and they didn't know any better, they thought it necessary, and thus became zealots who were willing to sacrifice their own soul and millions of others in the name of the Force. Revan, on the other hand, realized the true nature of the Force, and to his enlightened Sith, the Force was a mere tool in their arsenal. None of them would lose touch over reality as the Jedi and the ancient Sith had.

Here, what the Jedi see as the "will of the Force" and the non-Revanite Sith saw as necessary on their path to power are imagined and reinforced amongst themselves through confirmation bias. I would compare this to the "discovery" of N-rays, in which a bunch of scientists were convinced that said N-rays exist after it was "discovered" and that they could "see" it, until another scientist surreptitiously removed a prism that was supposed to be essential to seeing N-rays and found that the aforementioned scientists could still "see" it, proving once and for all it was an illusion all along. The Emperor's New Clothes would be a less scientific—but no less valid—example. If scientists—who are supposed to be aware of confirmation bias and avoid it—can fall victim to it, then so can the Jedi and ancient Sith. After many generations, who would even question the conventional wisdom? Not impressionable young recruits desperate to prove themselves and have little knowledge, that's for sure. Nor is it likely for adult Force users who would have to throw out their entire worldview.