REVENGE OF THE SITH

Part V – Reunited

 

 

 

The light of morning drifted slowly into the room, lighting the area slightly in a yellow and orange glow. Revan had been awake for several of those minutes, as the sun rose in the sky, chasing the dark from the moon.

It couldn’t, however, chase the darkness that seemed to come over the former knight as he gazed at his lover. Memories of their first night together came back to him as he thought of the previous night, their first night together in five years.

She was pressed against him and he had been lightly tracing patterns on her shoulder with his fingertips. He had nearly forgotten how soft she was, how…right and perfect she was for him, how well they fit together.

She had looked so tempting when he awoke – spooned against him – the sight had his mind drifting and on several occasions he had to stop himself from waking her and continuing what they had started.

He watched her a few minutes more before leaving the confines of her bed. He located his pants and put them on, casting a backwards glance at her sleeping form before walking out in to the outer portion of the quarters.

He was quite surprised to see Carth already up, leaning back in his chair, sipping a cup of caffa, and still dressed in his night clothes. Revan felt a quick pang of jealousy wash over him and then Ellis’ words of implication seem to taunt his brain.

“Morning,” Carth greeted, nodding to the younger man as he walked over.

“Good morning,” Revan replied, noticing the data pad the admiral held in his hands and the two mugs that sat on his desk directly in front of him. “You’re up early.”

“Decided I’d learn more about your special guest,” he said, taking a sip from his mug. He gestured to the two cups. “I took the liberty of pulling out some mugs. I figured we have a lot to go over. The one on your left is Bastila’s.”

The sting was back with the familiarity of the admiral’s words. Revan tried to calm his anger; Carth was his friend and he would never do anything untoward to Bastila. But he remembered their reaction to his return…he had been gone for so long. What if…he shook his head, grabbing the mugs and walking to the replicator.

“You’re right. We do have a lot to discuss,” he murmured. “So what can you tell me about my lady friend?”

Carth regarded the younger man. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something definitely felt…off…about him. Looking over the pad he held, he took another sip of his caffa.

“Lynsel Belyn,” he read. “That’s her name. First off, she’s going to be okay. She hit her head pretty hard, but she should be fine. Chief said it’s probably a minor concussion.” He took another sip. “Says here she’s a part of Special Forces, intelligence. If she followed you on to the Hawk, my guess is she’d been following you for some time.”

“Great,” the former knight muttered, taking a seat on the edge of the desk. “Exactly how many more people are after me?”

“Depends,” the admiral replied. “How many people do you currently have after you?”

Revan glanced at the man. “That’s a good question,” he replied. “And where you and Bastila come in, friend.”

 

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It wasn’t the streaming light that caused Bastila to wake up that morning.

It was the emptiness of her bed.

She had the most glorious dream last night. Once again, Revan had returned to her and if she didn’t know any better, had been jealous of her rooming situation with Carth. They had argued for all of two minutes before she was in his arms, sobbing at the contact.

And then she had led him in here and…well…the events of last night put a blush on her cheeks. That was probably one of the more…vocal dreams she had.

She turned on her back to look at the ceiling. She really couldn’t go on like this. Dreaming and hoping and wishing Revan would return wouldn’t help. But it seemed so real…she shook her head.

All of her ‘Revan returns’ dreams seemed real, but they weren’t. She wasn’t sure when her dream world began making itself known in her reality, but she really had to get a grip. So focused on bringing herself into the real reality where Revan was not here, she choose to ignore the fact that she had gone to bed completely starkers.

While…disconcerting, she let it pass, picking up a black robe that had been Revan’s at one time. She wore it to remind herself she needed to give it back to him, which clung to her thoughts that he would come home to her. He would.

She ignored the way she had seemed to throw her clothes about last night…what exactly was wrong with her? she never just threw her clothes off and then around her room. And she certainly didn’t sleep naked unless she had the company of the handsome, irrepressible kind.

A folly of horrible things lurked in her mind. Had she been drinking? Not that she could recall. She had been in her own room since the ship had begun hovering over the planet of Ord Mantell. Had she been so exhausted and entranced with the prospect of Revan, she had just…lost it?

She let out a groan of frustration, heading out of the bedroom. “Even when that man is miles away, he can still drive me absolutely…”

She stopped her sentence when she walked into the room. Normally, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see Carth there, leaning back in his chair, sipping on some fresh brewed caffa. He always had her cup sitting out for her, a nod of his head to indicate a greeting.

But today, she didn’t see Carth. Well, she did, but it was the only other man in the room that caught her attention. He was sitting on the side of the desk, a cup in his hand and he looked like he had just woken up.

He was barefoot, with only a pair of black military pants covering his form. He wasn’t overtly muscular, probably in the same shape as Carth, but he had muscles in his chest and a firm stomach.

The beard she remembered him having last night was gone and replaced with a thin goatee, as if he had just grown the hair across his chin to fully combine his Fu Man Chu. He still had the short but full head of hair.

And he was smiling; the smile that had thrown her off guard when she had seen him on Taris; the smile that would evidently melt her heart and make her completely speechless when he was around; the one that made her want to be with him forever, made her want to bear his children.

“Speechless?” Revan said, grinning. “Out of control? Make you burn with desire?”

“Hey!” Carth protested. “I’m trying to have breakfast here!”

“Caffa isn’t breakfast,” the younger man admonished. “Is it, Bas?”

She couldn’t say anything. “Bas? You okay?”

“You’re…you’re really here.” she stammered.

“Yeah…” he said, slowly. “I’ve…I’ve been here since last night. Remember?”

“Well yes, but I…” she couldn’t believe it. She took a step, then a few more until she stood in front of him, unsure if this was really true. She touched his face and gave a startled sob. “I didn’t think you were real,” she said, before throwing her arms around his neck.

“I’m obviously losing my touch,” he joked.

“Oh shut up, you big, dumb…”

“Hairless wookiee,” Carth supplied, causing Bastila to laugh.

“Stop helping, Onasi,” came Revan’s jest. He pulled the young woman back to look at her. He wiped the tears from her eyes before kissing her full on the lips. “You’re adorable when you’re speechless.”

“And you are a sight for sore eyes,” she said, taking his face in her hands. “Just where exactly have you been this entire time?”

He took her hands and pulled her close. “I have a lot to explain,” he began, turning back to look at Carth. “To both of you. I found out some things…very bad things…I need to make sure this is between us for now.”

“There’s a small conference room just down the hall,” the admiral replied.”I know it’s secure. I made it that way. Whatever you have to say…”

The door to the room opened unexpectantly and they were greeted to the sight of the mysterious woman.”Adm. Onasi, I just wanted to…” Lynsel Belyn stopped mid sentence when she saw who else was in the room.

She knew it was slightly rude to walk in and not knock, but it was fairly early in the morning and the med officer said the admiral was usually awake at this time. Though upon seeing who also stood in his quarters, she immediately had her blaster in her hand and it was pointed at the two Jedi.

“Freeze, Revan!” she exclaimed.

“Aw man, not this again,” the former Jedi moaned.

“You just keep picking up minions, don’t you?” the officer asked, sarcastically. “First that other exile and now Bastila Shan. And here you are, standing in a Republic senior officer’s quarters, preparing to attack.”

“Oh you can’t be serious!?” Bastila exclaimed. “I’m standing in my robe! Revan is wearing only a pair of pants and drinking a cup of a caffa. Do you really expect us to be attacking Carth in our bed clothes?”

“Hey sister,” Lynsel replied. “I’m not all hung up on what you dark Jedi do for your sick kicks. So whatever you’re doing, you are to stop and desist.”

Revan turned to look at Carth, the admiral wearing an amused look on his features. “Hey man, I think she’s actually serious,” he stated. “Little help here, Admiral?”

“Put your weapon away, Lieutenant.”

“Admiral, I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir…”

“I said, put it away,” Carth commanded, sitting upright and glaring at the young woman. Lynsel quickly placed her weapon behind her back and stood at attention.

“At ease, soldier. As you can see, Revan, Bastila, and I are having a morning cup. And in about fifteen minutes, the three of us are going to be heading into the conference room.”

“Are you sure that’s wise, sir?” the officer asked. “They are two dangerous Jedi. In fact, how do I even have a guarantee that you aren’t under a heavy Force-influenced persuade, sir?”

“Of all the ridiculous…”

Easy, pet, Revan replied, tapping into their bond. He was glad that, despite the distance and years apart, their bond was still intact and still as powerful as it had been before he left.

“Because Lieutenant…Belyn, was it?” he addressed her. “If I were using the Force, you’d know it. Trust me.”

“I can assure you, Lieutenant,” Carth spoke up. “I’m not under anything but a good dose of legal stimulants, i.e. the caffa, in case you were wondering.” The last part was due to the fleeting look that crossed the lieutenant’s face. “Now, if I’m not mistaken, you had come in here for something.”

“Yes sir,” she said. “I wanted to thank you for healing me and getting me the medical attention I needed.”

“Don’t thank me,” the admiral replied, leaning his chair back. “Thank Revan. He’s the one who healed you with the Force.”

Lynsel’s head snapped to the former knight, eyes wide in surprise. “You?”

“You say that like you don’t mean it,” Revan quipped, taking on a pained expression.

“Now you’ve gone and hurt his feelings,” joked Carth.

“Yes…well…” the officer stammered. “In any case, Admiral, thank you for the assist. I’ll…leave you to your business.” The Special Forces officer turned on her heel and left, leaving the original three occupants discussing her.

“What a delightful woman,” Bastila deadpanned.”Though I must admit, there is something about her…”

“You mean her sunny disposition?” joked Revan. “Or the friendly way she greeted us?”

“Don’t worry about her,” Carth replied, standing and stretching. “Besides, I doubt we’ll even see her again.”

“Ah Carth,” Revan cooed. “You sound so sad when you say that.”

“What?” The admiral chuckled.

“She is hot,” Revan said. Glancing at Bastila, he quickly added, “For a redhead! My type is strictly brunettes with wicked tongues.” He watched as her blue eyes quickly smoldered.

“Please stop.” Carth rolled his eyes, making a move to smack Revan on his way to his room.

“Why do you shy from our love, Carth?” the younger man shouted, as the admiral disappeared, apparently heading for the fresher. “Our love!”

Bastila rolled her eyes at him and took him by the hand. “I believe the man said we would have fifteen minutes, love.”

“Why Bastila,” Revan chuckled, coming up behind her and picking her up in his arms, causing her to giggle. “Aren’t you the little vixen?”

“It’s the accent,” she quipped.

Revan hummed.”It is indeed,” he said, leading them both into the fresher.

Carth had been dressed in regular clothing and had been waiting for nearly twenty minutes outside the door of his own quarters. He smiled at officers who passed by, even the female ones who giggled as soon as they thought they were out of earshot.

While he still thought Bastila had just been teasing him slightly, he was flattered whenever he caught one of his female junior officers staring at him. He had to admit it was…nice…to be looked at… by the opposite sex. And he had a feeling he would be finding more excuses to be away from Bastila and Revan.

As though thinking of their very names seemed to call them, the two mentioned lovebirds emerged from the suite, slightly flushed and surprised to see Carth standing outside waiting for them. “Sorry Carth,” Bastila offered, with an embarrassed grin.

The admiral shrugged his shoulders. “As long as you aren’t…desecrating my stuff, I don’t think I mind too much,” he said.

Revan snapped his fingers in defeat. “And I had plans for that desk.”

“Yeah?” Carth jibed. “Then find your own desk.” He gave a light punch at the younger man’s arm, barely missing as Revan jumped out of the way.

“Boys…” the young Jedi warned. “Please behave and play nicely. Besides, I believe we have a slight briefing to take care of.”

“Right.” Carth nodded. “Follow me.”

The admiral lead them through the hall until they reached a closed off section. There was only one door and that was to the right of them, which Carth opened using a security code.

The doors opened to reveal a small replica of a command center, with galactic maps covering the western wall; there were at least four or five computer consoles and Revan guessed that some of those were direct command consoles; a transmitter, much bigger than the one the Ebon Hawk possessed, sat center most next to a medium circular table.

The table is where Carth sat and Revan couldn’t help but bristle over the fact that Bastila sat down quite…easily next to him. Both looked at him, as he was the only one who stood.

“Well, Rev?” the admiral asked. “It’s your show now. Mind explaining to us where you’ve been this entire time?”

The former knight nodded, slowly, then began to pace. “I told you, Carth, that I was getting visions of my past life,” he began. “What I didn’t tell you is that…” He glanced at Bastila. This would be news to her as well.

“Maybe I should start from the beginning…”

And he did. He began with his visions, visions he hadn’t told anyone about, between his former master and himself. He could tell Bastila was slightly hurt that he hadn’t confided in her, but he could feel her understanding.

If she had known, she would’ve followed him. He told them how he had gone to the planet of his birth and had found the graves of his parents, not to mention hostile residents who blamed them for his birth as much as they blamed him for the destruction he brought.

“I’m sure they were good people, Rev,” Carth said.”No one knows what the future holds, especially not a parent. they’d be proud of you, you know that.”

While he didn’t think that true, Revan didn’t contradict his friend’s helpful advice. He continued with how he had gone to all of the planets where the Star Maps were housed and how he had destroyed all of them.

“I couldn’t let someone else stumbled upon them,” he whispered. “Especially not when I could find them so easily three times in a row.”

He spoke of how after the destruction of the maps, he had returned to Malachor V, where his former master had first instructed him to go and where she had awaited him.

“Malachor V?” asked Bastila.

“As in the planet where the final battle of the Mandalorian War took place?” Carth questioned. He looked at Revan, who nodded. “I thought that place was a virtual ship graveyard. I didn’t think anyone willingly went out there.”

“Yeah, well…” Revan said, sarcastically. “I hadn’t realized it until after…just after…that Malachor V was a stronghold as well. A very large one, in fact.” He turned away from them, as they searched his face in confusion and curiosity.

“Malachor V is home to a Sith Academy,” he said. “One that I built, I guess, though I’m starting to wonder if maybe I just didn’t find a shell of a building and renovated it.”

“Revan,” Carth began. “You haven’t exactly told us who this mysterious master is. I mean, you had a master on Dantooine. That Twi’lek…Zhar, wasn’t it?”

The former Jedi master nodded. “Zhar was my very first master, yes,” he confirmed. “He trained me when I was younger and after I was reintroduced to the Force, but he wasn’t my only master. I had several. The one I speak of was named Kreia.”

“Kreia?” It was Bastila’s turn to ask. “As in Kreia Sovin? Wasn’t she exiled during the Mandalorian War?”

Revan gave a short nod of his head. “As was an…unexpected current problem,” he muttered. He turned to Carth, saying, “Kreia was exiled from the Order when it was discovered that many of her former students and those that sometimes sought her council had come with Malak and I to aid the Republic. It was also discovered that I was her apprentice, of sorts.”

The two looked at him. “When I was a student within the Jedi,” he continued. “Kreia was the chronicler of the Jedi history. She was also…outspoken on many topics, including the Mandalorian War. When my visions began, she came to me. She…she helped me, in some ways. Helped me remember what I had been before.”

“What happened then?” Carth asked.

“A lot of things, apparently,” Revan chuckled, bitterly. “While I was on Malachor, I made the decision to destroy those old outposts of mine, not thinking the Academy was one. I knew that going to find these places would be dangerous and I also knew that if I continued having the droids with me…”

“They would know where you had traveled,” Carth finished. “That’s why T3 said he couldn’t remember where you three had gone.”

Revan nodded. “When I left, the droids had no idea where we’d be traveling until we got there,” he said. “And when I decided on finding my old haunts, I knew that they would hold within their processors where we had been, so I took the time to relieve them of that. I rewired T3 so he couldn’t remember what planets we had been on, but I programmed him to watch over the nav-computer, which I had voice locked.

“I then removed several parts from HK.” He began to pace. “I brought them before Kreia and she destroyed them. I then left the Ebon Hawk in her care, with instructions…” he trailed off and looked at them. “I’m getting ahead of myself…”

He then told them how he went to those planets that he was aware that held his outposts and that he had destoryed them all.

“Except one,” Carth finished. “Which one didn’t you destroy?”

“Let me tell you a story, Carth,” Revan began. “Years ago, Master Vandar – you remember him? – he had a vision, right before the Mandalorians began to conquer those Outer Rim planets.”

“I knew that,” the admiral replied. “I think everyone knows it.”

“What you don’t know is I too had a vision,” he said. “Or at least, I think I did.”

He rubbed his forehead. “The bottom line is…I think I had known that something else drove the Mandalorians to attack. They aren’t vicious beasts that prey on the weak. You remember how Canderous used to talk of the honor of battle and even in defeat, it was the strong opponent that held the greatest challenge.

“The worlds they attacked were…were virtually helpless. And that’s not their style. So I think, I think I may have found what drove them to do what they did, but…”

“It’s locked away with everything else, isn’t it?” Carth spat. “The Jedi Council screwed us pretty good and I certainly am not enjoying it.” Bastila gave him a look.

Revan was silent for a bit. “The details are locked away, yes,” he whispered. “But I know what it was I found out.”

“What?” asked Bastila.

“How much do you remember your Jedi history?”

The young woman looked at him. “I remember as much as one can when they don’t normally recite it for entertainment purposes.”

“Humor me,” he sighed. “Start at the beginning of the Great Schism.”

“Revan, that’s a bit long!”

“Does this have anything to do with this?” Carth asked, impatiently.

“I’ll summarize it for you then, Carth.” Revan replied. “Centuries ago, after the Jedi Order had first been established, a few of the members of the Order began delving in the darker side of the Force, thus rebelling against their masters once they were found out.

“These Jedi were exiled and chased until they came about a small, barren world by the name of Korriban. There were already people there, a species known as the Sith, who were so taken with these exiled Jedi, they proceeded to show them how to truly use the dark side of the Force.

“Anyway, you don’t spend years on a planet and not merge with the locals, so these exiled Jedi mated with the Sith, causing Sith descendants.” He looked at the two of them to see their reactions and was slightly pleased how rapt their attention was.

“Marka Ragnos and Naga Sadow were said to be the last of the True Sith,” he continued. “After the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith were said to have either died out or ran into the deepest parts of the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions.”

“Revan, why are you telling us this?” Carth asked, more suspicion and anxiety in his voice than impatience.

“I think…” the young man began. “I think that somehow I may have…found a few remaining members of the True Sith species.”

“Revan, that’s impossible!” Bastila exclaimed. “The True Sith died out after the first war between them. There were only a few stragglers left after that, if any.”

Revan shook his head. “They live, Bastila.” he whispered. “They live because I have seen them.” The two looked at him in shock. “That last stronghold, the one I hadn’t destroyed when I first discovered it? It was on Yavin 4, built within one of the temples of Exar Kun.” He closed his eyes, as though he was reliving the experience.

“That planet is so heavy within the dark, it was nearly overwhelming…”

“Revan…” Bastila choked, as she felt his emotions spike and she could feel the dark swirl that still lay within his soul.

The former knight snapped out of his thoughts, wincing as he saw his lover. He pushed away the thoughts and the feelings he associated with the planet. “This…” He sighed. “This is why I couldn’t take you with me. Yavin 4 was…was like a playground just waiting for me. But when I got into one of the temples, I saw two people there. At first, I thought maybe they were praying for something and then I realized they weren’t natives. There are no natives on Yavin 4.

“I think…I think they were members of the True Sith and they nearly killed me.” He took a deep breath, calming himself, and felt a wave of calm from Bastila as well. “I think I may have researched the True Sith and I think I may have found something damaging, like the fact that they may not have died out like we thought and they were just waiting to strike. I believe this was the vision Vandar saw.”

“But Revan,” Bastila protested. “If that’s true…”

“I know,” he said, closing his eyes. “And it only gets worse.”

“How could this get any worse than it already is?” Exclaimed Carth.

“I think…there’s going to be a new Sith Lord.”

 

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