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.


Chapter 8: The Crystal Cave

A/N: In this story, I decided to partially explore the linguistic history in the Star Wars universe. It seems natural that earlier worlds colonized by humans—before hyperdrive technology was available—would have distinct but related languages. Unfortunately, my language construction skills are lacking, so I am opting to represent human languages with the Indo-European language family, similar to how Tolkien represented the languages of Dale and Rohan with Old Norse and Old English. The "modern" Galactic Basic is the main language and represented here by English. The other Core Worlds have their own old languages that have mostly been supplanted by Basic, which is based on the Coruscanti speech but significantly influenced by all the languages in the galaxy. Old Corellian is represented by French (I imagine as one of the most important Core Worlds, it would have massively influenced Basic like how French influenced English), and Old Talravin is represented by German.

I originally intended to use Old Norse for Old Talravin, but ultimately decided against it because I don't feel very confident with my ability to not completely butcher it, and most resources online are not amazing. German is probably easier for you all to read too since you get names like Erich as opposed to Eiríkr… Some of the depiction of Bastila's "native" culture will be influenced by Germanic Paganism though, which is historically most associated with the Norse. Don't expect the cultural stuff to show up too soon though.


The next day, on the west end of the Matale grounds, Revan and Bastila saw a band of Mandalorians threatening a farmer. Canderous stood next to the couple, watching.

"No! Please! Take my wife and children instead!" screamed the farmer.

"What a disgusting coward," commented the Sith apprentice as she shook her head. It seemed like the Mandalorians agreed with her, for moments later, they gunned down said coward.

"Well, what do we have here?" said the Mandalorian leader, seeing the three approach.

The man of Clan Ordo snorted, "I didn't think you'd fallen so low as to shame the name of Mandalore by becoming murdering and pillaging bandits. Since when do we prey on small game instead of fighting worthy battles, or take scraps when we should be taking worlds?"

The bandit leader shot back, "Canderous, supposedly the greatest warrior of Clan Ordo. The last time I heard about you, you were on Taris doing the same thing for Davik. At least I am not someone's pet kath hound."

Canderous snarled, "I did what I had to do to survive, but I left as soon as I was able. Unlike you, who seem to be enjoying this. I won't stand for this insult!" He raised his repeating blaster and started firing.

Mandalorians, Revan thought to his girlfriend with amusement. He concentrated for a moment, using the Force to freeze the two Mandalorians and their Duros allies. He jumped at them, impaling a Mandalorian and slicing down a Duros. His apprentice joined him, and soon the band of Mandalorians and Duros became a smouldering pile of flesh. The smell of burnt flesh proved unpleasant to Canderous, especially when a breeze blew it at him. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately, depending on one's point of view, repeated exposure had dulled the ability of the Sith couple to sense it.

Revan looked at their handiwork with disgust, and thought to Bastila, How uncivilized. Still, they deserved it.

Better than a vibroblade, she thought back, along with an image of deep, wide gashes and stab wounds created by vibrating swords, oozing out a disturbing amount of blood. While Canderous would be desensitized to such a sight long ago, it still felt rather unpleasant to her. At least lightsaber wounds are cauterized and don't bleed. She asked aloud, "Why didn't you just fry them with Force Lightning?"

"I don't know if the Jedi Council could feel the power at this distance. They are rather close by, after all," commented the Sith Lord dryly.

His apprentice facepalmed at this. "How could I forget?" she remarked, feeling rather silly.

"I didn't realize the Jedi were so picky about powers," the friendly Mandalorian warrior interjected. "The Jedi I fought during the wars certainly used Lightning to great effect."

"The Jedi you fought defied the Council to fight you," Revan explained. "The Council was clearly too picky to even fight," he couldn't help but add with disgust.

"Fools," Canderous agreed, echoing his feelings.


After dispatching another band of Mandalorian thugs, the party of three reached the Sandral estate. They were soon stopped by a droid, "This is private property! By what authority are you trespassing on this estate?"

Revan answered, "I must speak to Nurik Sandral. Casus Sandral is dead."

The droid immediately agreed to bring the party of three inside to see Nurik.

"You have news of my son?" asked Nurik, afraid that it wasn't good news. It seemed that the droid didn't break it to the old man.

"I regret to inform you that your son was killed in a kath hound attack while exploring," the secret Sith answered gravely.

"Kath hounds?" the patriarch said in surprise, then his voice broke, "I... I was so certain the Matale family was to blame..." Suddenly, he hardened his resolve, "But this changes nothing! My own son is dead—why should I shed one tear about the disappearance of my bitter enemy's son?"

No one said anything about the son of Matale… the Sith Lord thought to himself and his apprentice. He must have something to do with it.

After a moment, Nurik continued, softening his tone, "My son had a diary. Now that he's gone, I need something to remember him by. I'll give you a hundred credits for its return."

The Sith took the offered money and handed over the diary. The father then entered his private chambers, presumably to grieve. Soon, Rahasia Sandral showed up, and after an exchange of words, revealed that Shen Matale was kidnapped by her father in revenge for the disappearance of her brother. She was afraid that her father might kill Shen in his unstable mental state.

I thought this only happened in plays, not real life, Revan mentally commented, causing Bastila to hold back a chuckle. It would not be appropriate to laugh openly in such a serious situation.

After some further probing, the daughter revealed that she and Shen fell in love against the wishes of their parents, and she wanted the pair of "Jedi" to free him, afraid of her father's reaction should she do the deed herself.

Yes, definitely something out of a play. Still, Revan agreed, and took the backdoor key offered by the distraught woman.

Soon, the party of three entered the backdoor, mowed down a bunch of droids, and found Shen Matale, who refused to leave Rahasia to face the wrath of her father. How predictable. The Sith Master sighed, and went to talk to Rahasia, who promised to meet Shen outside. When he returned with this news, the Matale prisoner finally agreed to leave…

They met on the outside of the Sandral estate, where Rahasia thanked him profusely.

"You are welcome. Now, you two better leave soon, and best of luck," he suggested to the young couple. Turning to Bastila and Canderous, he continued, "We should return to Ahlan Matale to collect the bounty."

"What? How could you? You are just in this for the money?" Shen accused.

Bastila bristled at this accusation against her Master and wanted to snap at the ungrateful young couple. However, she sensed that he had some words for them and deferred to him instead.

The secret Sith Lord made a show of facepalming and shot back, "Spoken like a spoiled rich kid who never had to work for money in his entire life. Your father hired me as a private investigator after the Jedi Council refused to launch an official investigation! If I just wanted the money, I would have just told your father that Nurik Sandral kidnapped his son immediately after I found out, and he would have just come here to flatten the Sandral estate with his band of combat droids with your precious Rahasia inside. It would be less work for me for the same money. Should I have done that instead?"

Before Shen could deliver a response, both Matale and Sandral patriarchs showed up, each followed by a band of war droids. Soon, they started greeting each other, and Revan lost track of who was talking to whom amid cries of "Father!", "Mr. Matale!", "Nurik!", "Ahlan!" and "Mr. Sandral!"

To no one's surprise, Ahlan Matale started accusing Nurik Sandral, "I knew this was all your doing! I knew you had captured my son!"

The Sandral patriarch shot back, "You had taken my Casus from me long before that! You started it!"

The Dark Lord resisted the urge to facepalm at this completely predictable display, and shouted, "All of you just calm down." Soon all eyes turned to him, some filled with anger, but the rightful Dark Lord of the Sith had the gravitas to compel them all to listen. He continued, as if he was making a rallying speech before a battle, "Casus Sandral died in a kath hound attack. This is no accident, but the result of a willful decision by a third party. They caused the kath hounds to go insane and attack everyone on sight. Whether directly or indirectly, their actions harmed both the Sandral and Matale families, along with countless other settlers on Dantooine. It was neither of you who started this whole affair. You were all victims. What is the point of fighting each other and letting your common enemy get away with it? Together, you can bring down this enemy and avenge those who were lost!"

Nurik asked in outrage, "Who is this enemy? They shall pay for the death of my son."

"The Jedi Council," the Sith rightfully accused. "They thought it was perfectly fine to convince a Jedi Padawan that she accidentally killed her teacher, then let her run away in disgrace and shame. Knowing that in her grief, she was corrupting the kath hounds to be aggressive, they stood by and did nothing! They thought it was perfectly okay to use the whole situation as a test for another student! They just let the kath hounds attack anything that moved for months before I showed up and dealt with the corruption as part of their ridiculous test. They do not care at all about the dying people." Well, "months" might have been a slight exaggeration, but it had been close to two months.

"Aren't you and your female companion Jedi?" the Matale patriarch asked, confused.

"We are as disgusted by this behaviour as you are," Bastila answered with a sigh. "Unfortunately, most other Jedi believe the Council could do no wrong."

"The Jedi will pay for this outrage!" shouted Nurik, his bloodlust clear. "Except you two, of course," he added quickly.

"I agree for once with Nurik Sandral," Ahlan joined in. "This disgusting Jedi behaviour cannot be allowed to continue. Let us join forces and mow down the Jedi Enclave."

Revan quickly interrupted, not wanting this to blow up too quickly, "No, you two must calm down. Do you think your droids are a match for all the Jedi? No, they'll destroy you. Spread the word among the inhabitants of Dantooine. Let them know that the Jedi were responsible for the kath hound attacks. Let them know that the Jedi couldn't care less about Mandalorian raiders attacking all the settlers. Let the galaxy as a whole know the true nature of the Jedi. Then, you shall have enough support to drive the Jedi out."

"You aren't really a Jedi, aren't you?" Nurik observed.

"I am someone who cares about the people, not the opinions of a few deluded Jedi Councillors who lost touch with reality long ago," the Sith Lord explained, before adding, "I am leaving the Jedi in a few days. Don't do anything to expose me."

"Of course, we shall ensure the Jedi get their just deserts," said the Matale family head. His Sandral counterpart nodded in support.

"And here's your 1000 credits, as promised." Ahlan handed over the credits.

Revan suggested an alternative, "You can keep the credits. It would be worth it if you use it to deal with the Jedi."

"Whatever you end up doing, it probably won't be good for the Jedi. Given your powers, you can probably do much worse than I could to them. You keep it. Use it to give the Jedi what they deserve," the patriarch proposed instead.

The Sith agreed. They all shook hands, satisfied with the arrangement.


Soon the trio of Sith and Mandalorian headed towards the crystal cave.

"I never thought I'd see the feud end, and I never even dreamed it was possible that it would end with them being united in revenge," stated Bastila. "You are really good at this."

"Well, I suppose I am rather appropriately named," quipped her boyfriend.

"Is Revan or Erich Bond supposed to mean something?" asked Canderous.

"Well, I don't think my parents meant anything in particular by it… but rather coincidentally, in Old Corellian, the word revanche means revenge. Actually, the Basic word revenge is a corruption of the Old Corellian word. If Basic hadn't borrowed that word, revenge would have been instead called wrack, like Old Talravin Rache. But I digress… Still, my name seems rather appropriate, with the whole business of getting revenge against the Jedi, the Republic, and Malak, not just for myself, but for all the people they wronged as well. Interestingly, Erich Bond is rather meaningful too, but I will let Bastila explain since she came up with it. The Force works in strange ways indeed…"

The Mandalorian immediately turned to look at her.

"Well, the Jedi asked me to name his fake personality, thinking it was appropriate as I would be monitoring him," she explained with fake nonchalance. "So I picked a given name that I always liked, Erich. It's an Old Talravin name meaning something like 'ever-ruler' or 'one-ruler' depending on whom you ask. I didn't mean much when I picked it, but it turned out to be rather appropriate for the Dark Lord of the Sith, didn't it?" She neglected to mention that she had actually intended it to mean that he would always be the only one to rule over her, as her Master, and that was why she used the ancient language of her homeworld. She further neglected to explain the surname choice, not wanting to explain it as a reference to one of her favourite activities. At least she had the foresight to use something plausibly deniable—after all, she doubted "Bondage" would have been as well-received as a surname.

A few minutes later, they entered the crystal cave. It was dark, save for some very dim lights in the distance. Having just been around the sunshine outside, the trio found it hard to see anything. Revan ignited his lightsaber and floated it ahead of them to serve as illumination. This was a situation in which a green lightsaber would have shined, for human eyes were most sensitive to the colour, but Revan's current blue lightsaber didn't fare too badly either. A red blade would have fared a lot worse when their eyes were unused to the dark, but a Sith could get by with the Force alone. Without further ado, the trio advanced into the corridor.

Soon, in the shadows, they sensed movement. Reaching out with the Force, it was clear that a few kinrath were approaching. The Dark Lord of the Sith simply rotated the blue blade floating in front of him and stabbed an approaching kinrath with it, instantly killing it. However, he only seemed to have enraged the others. He almost reached out with the Force to crush the kinrath's exoskeleton on instinct before he remembered how close the Jedi Council were. With a sigh, he turned the blade around to stab the other kinrath, with Bastila joining in. On his part, Canderous shot at the kinrath with his repeating blaster. As they slew the kinrath, they advanced down deeper into the cave. After a few minutes, all the kinrath were slain and the trio found themselves in front of some glowing crystal formations.

The Mandalorian wandered around before he found the body of one of his kind on the ground in full armour. He flipped it over with his foot.

"I suppose that must be one of the raiders outside who got too curious," Bastila observed.

"No doubt," he agreed. He looked around and asked, "These strange glowing crystals are the ones powering your lightsabers?"

"Well, only if it's the right kind," the Sith Lord explained vaguely. "You can feel it with the Force…" Standing in front of a small formation, he closed his eyes and reached out, removing a green crystal and floating it towards himself. Not having a good use for a green crystal, he shook his head and pocketed it. He repeated his actions and found a blue crystal, pocketing it once more.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Canderous asked. "What's wrong with those crystals?"

"The colour," the slayer of Mandalore stated simply. "I know it sounds a bit silly, but it basically conveys who you are, in a sense."

"What do the colours mean exactly?"

"Blue, green, and yellow are Jedi colours," the Sith explained. "Blue for the guardians, the lightsaber combat class; green for the consulars, the Force-heavy class; and yellow for sentinels, the balanced class."

"I suppose you are a guardian and Bastila a sentinel?" the Ordo clan member wondered. "Or you were, I suppose, since you are now Sith."

"Yes," Revan confirmed. "Neither of us really let our class restrict what we learn, so I suppose it's really just a label given to us as children."

"Honestly, I just like the colour," Bastila admitted as she approached them, having found herself another yellow crystal. "It's not a popular choice, but I like being a bit different than everyone else."

"And of course, the Sith generally use red crystals," he continued to explain.

"Why is that, Master?" she inquired. "I know it's traditional, but no one ever explained why."

"As far as I can tell, the colours originally were just personal preference. When the Jedi rejected the Dark Side, those that continued to practice it fled and formed the Sith Order. The Jedi controlled all known deposits back then, so the Sith were forced to create synthetic crystals. With red being the easiest colour to create, that's what they went with. You can imagine what happened later when every Sith had a red crystal."

"The Jedi just stopped using red to differentiate themselves?" Bastila guessed.

"Precisely," he agreed. Having finished his explanation, he reached out to another crystal formation. This time, the crystal he sensed refused to come out. Using his lightsaber, he sliced some useless crystals off the formation, freeing another crystal. It was not a plain old colour crystal, but a power crystal, meant to be used alongside a colour crystal to augment it. Specifically, it was a Bondar crystal, capable of making the lightsaber beam slightly volatile and delivering a mild shock when it contacted an opponent.

He felt around for another crystal, but found it even more trapped—the formation that it was in was trapped in a stalagmite. Fortunately, limestone wasn't so resistant to lightsabers, and with a few strikes of the blue Jedi blade, he was able to free another power crystal, this time a Rubat. "I suppose these are better than nothing, though hardly impressive," he remarked.

"I guess they can make our blade slightly stronger," she agreed, finding another Rubat crystal after destroying another stalagmite. "There has to be better ones… We definitely found better ones when we were younger…"

"Maybe the Jedi took all the good ones where it's easy to reach," Canderous proposed. "I wonder if there are any across the river…"

The Sith Lord floated his lightsaber on top of the river and looked across. The cave definitely continued on the other side and there were some crystal formations that he could see, but unfortunately the water was pretty fast flowing and the other side was also blocked by some large stone pillars, leaving no gap big enough for a human to fit through.

"I suppose we can't get to them," the Mandalorian noted. "Unless, of course, there's a way to do it with the Force?"

"Let's see how we might do this without alerting the Jedi Council…" the Sith mumbled, thinking. After a moment, he launched the blue blade with the Force at the top of the pillars, severing them from the ceiling. Pulling the blade back into his hand, he threw it at the bottom, causing them to fall over.

Sensing his intent, Bastila reached out with the Force to hold the pillars in place. Together, the couple lowered them across the river, serving as a makeshift bridge. He carefully stepped onto it, using the Force to guide himself across safely. Bastila followed him across. Being lighter, she had no trouble. Canderous wisely stayed on his side of the river.

The couple walked around the cave for a few minutes, feeling around with the Force for any better crystals. Suddenly, Revan sensed something above in a stalactite. He motioned for Bastila to stay away from it while he cut it loose with a well-aimed saber throw. The dripstone shattered on impact with the bedrock, leaving a pair of crystals—one light yellow, one dark blue, but otherwise mirror images of each other.

"What are these?" Bastila asked, not recognizing them.

"I know these are power crystals, not colour ones, but I haven't seen this kind before, although something about them calls out to me," the Dark Lord explained. "Whatever these are, they each feel about as powerful as the Upari crystal I once had that the Jedi so senselessly destroyed…" He shook his head, remembering the crystal he found on Kashyyyk when he last went there searching for the Star Map. It had served him well.

Bastila reached out with the Force to feel those two crystals. The light yellow one simply felt right to her. "Master?" she asked. "May I have the yellow crystal?"

"Of course," he agreed, handing it over after seeing it resonate with her. "I suppose I am meant to keep the blue one then. We'll get these into our lightsabers once we get back to the Ebon Hawk."

With that, they crossed back the makeshift bridge, with the apprentice going across first. The moment the Sith Lord stepped off the bridge, it collapsed.

"I am so glad I didn't try to cross," the Mandalorian observed. "I have no desire to be stuck on the other side…"

"Well, I suppose there might be another exit," Revan suggested. "The water has to flow out somewhere…"

"What about red colour crystals?" his girlfriend wondered, interrupting their speculation. "Wouldn't it help us look the part of the Sith?"

"Good idea," he agreed. He searched around with the Force before smashing open some kinrath eggs with his lightsaber, finding some red colour crystals within. "Four is probably enough for now," he decided. With that, they left the cave.


A/N: Special thanks to Tracyn on AO3 for proofreading and inspiring the whole crystal cave sequence.

Coming up next time: the Star Map…