Chapter 2
Sleep was becoming something that was increasingly hard to find. Rolling over sluggishly onto her opposite side, Bastila took extra care to ensure that the arm draped across her side remained there. Sleep might have been elusive for her to find, but it was hardly the same case when it came to Revan. In that, she took comfort that at least one of them was able to rest comfortably.
Sighing, she cautiously reached out through their bond, just to ensure that the dream unfolding in his head wasn’t something that would be cause for concern. As far as either of them knew, hiding things from the bond simply wasn’t possible. It hardly helped that Force Bonds were hardly one of the more documented things within any archive. Even Master Dorak, in his wisdom, hadn’t much to offer when it had been brought to the Council’s attention. The Temple on Coruscant had been consulted as well, but there was hardly anything within the Archives that hadn’t already become known to all involved.
At times, Bastila wondered if that was for the best. Discovering any kind of benefits the bond between herself and Revan had once seemed to be a curse, but now, she considered it to be anything but. In too many ways, it had led to the two of them growing far closer than she could have ever imagined. When one felt worry or concern, it was easily identifiable through the bond, to the point where the accuracy was always pin-point.
Closing her eyes, she slowly let out a held breath, almost willing her body to relax within Revan’s grip. Minutes passed, although they felt far longer than what they truly were. When sleep finally came, its arrival had been far past any reasonable time. Around her, the Ebon Hawk faded into a background of a consistent hum.
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All around her, she could feel the Star Forge, as if the station itself had a pulse, a life to the combination of durasteel and glass that were thousands upon thousands of years old. Eyes closed, her form bent at the knee, Bastila kept her head bowed, mind opened to the station beneath her.
“Rise, my apprentice…” Malak said, his artificial voice sounding all too mechanical from behind the jaw-piece that encased his lower face. Raising her head, the apprentice could hardly stop a smile from faintly cracking over her lips.
“You are strong, child. Far stronger than any of the Council ever told you.” He continued, yellow eyes focused entirely on Bastila. So long had he hunted the galaxy for her, desperately seeking to turn her command of Battle Meditation over to his own side. And now, she was knelt before him, his apprentice, like Bandon before her.
“Thank you, Master.” Bastila’s answer was full of pride, as twisted as the sense truly was. Her own eyes, once a brilliant shade of silver, had now turned into the same sickly shade of yellow that all Sith shared amongst themselves.
“You are strong, but you lack focus. Still inside you feel...hesitation.” Malak continued, his eyes narrowing in the process. Instantly, the apprentice’s expression changed, furrowed brows easily showing her confusion.
“There is no hesitation, Master…”
“Do you possibly think you can lie to me so easily, Bastila? A master of deception, you are not. I can feel it inside you, blinding you, making you weaker. You fear confronting him, knowing exactly what kind of effect he has over you.”
“I do not fear him.” Bastila spat back, anger pouring into her words.
“Come now, dear child. You didn’t think you could hide behind a shroud forever, did you? Your love for him makes you weak, makes you hesitate. You cannot hope to defeat him, because of where you hold him inside you.”
“I do not love him!” On pure instinct alone, the apprentice reached for her saber, the weapon having already shed its yellow crystal, only to be replaced with a red one. Her fingers had just barely brushed the weapon before she felt what seemed like an infinite sea of electricity swarm over her body. The sturdiness of the floor disappearing from underneath her feet, she felt for a moment or so as if she were flying, but the harsh solidness of the wall brought her back to reality.
“Don’t you understand, Bastila? You can lie to others, but you cannot lie to yourself…”
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“Bastila?! Bastila!” Still gently shaking his companion awake, Revan’s heart was racing inside his chest, the sound of it pounding against his ears so loud so that he could barely hear anything above it. Still thrashing about underneath his touch, Bastila shot upwards suddenly, frantically looking around the room. Every movement of her eyes seemed as though she, for a brief flicker of a moment, had awoken to someplace that was hardly familiar to her. And then, familiarity flooded back into their color, the hairs on the back of her neck slowly settling back into place.
“Hey, hey…” His tone softening as he looked down at her, Revan’s hand quickly found its way down to hers, fingers entwining themselves just as frantically. Breaths emerging from her lips in quick, short pants, Bastila closed her eyes, cold sweat dotting her skin.
The nightmare wasn’t something new. Every night since that fateful battle on board the Star Forge had been filled with images of Malak, his voice still wrapped around her ear even once she’d returned to the land of the living. In too many ways, it was as if the darkness he’d tired so hard to capture her with still lingered around her, toying with her at every turn. Despite what Revan wanted her to feel like, the darkness hadn’t let her go just yet. If anything, it was fighting tooth and nail to try and keep her within its grasp.
“Gonna take it that was a bad dream…” Revan joked, although he regretted it even as the words were leaving the tip of his tongue. Looking up at him, tired expression hardly needing any kind of explanation, Bastila sighed deeply, before leaning a little further into him.
“That hardly deserves an answer…” She answered, tone showing just how much the nightmare had drained her. Her free hand came up, tucking some of her brown hair behind her ear. “…it was Malak.”
“I know…I could see it…” Revan answered, expression showing nothing but sympathy for her. “Through the bond.”
“I imagined that would be your answer.”
“Was there ever any doubt that it would be?” He offered in response, the joke sounding just as dry as his first had. In spite of what had just unfolded within both of their mind’s, Revan managed a smile, lightly pulling her to him as he rested his chin atop her head.
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Rain. In contrast to the sunny weather they’d all grown used to, the rain had quickly become a hindrance. Not only to the Republic still trying to sort out the chaos left after the destruction of the Star Forge, but also to anyone merely trying to move about planet-side. Cloak drawn around herself, the hood already somewhat drenched, Bastila kept her head low. Both from trying to keep the rain away from her face, and to avoid catching anyone’s gaze. Despite all that Revan and the others had done to try and reassure her, the guilt she felt over the suffering her Battle Meditation had caused was still far too great. Exactly when that feeling would cease, she had no idea. She could only hope that it would be soon.
Grass flattening beneath her boots, she turned her head slightly as a small bout of wind raced towards her, and then blew past further down along the cliffs. The Temple loomed ahead of her, small trails of smoke lingering around it, the rain not yet having extinguished their flames. A few Republican soldiers lingered around them, their attempts to stay warm somewhat successful. Moving past them, hood concealing her face, she heard their conversations pause for a brief moment or so, before they continued once more. Even in the midst of chaos, some things reminiscent of humanity still remained.
“Ma’am.” One of the guards at the entrance to the temple nodded in her direction. Returning the nod, Bastila moved inside, pushing back the hood of her cloak in the process. The interior of the temple was just as silent as the exterior had been. Its halls stretched in either direction, ancient stone barely absorbing the lights provided by the small lamps placed along their paths. Malak’s forces had placed them there upon their arrival, and here they remained, a remnant.
“Bastila.” Turning her head as she heard her name, she felt the beginnings of a smile begin to tug on the corners of her lips. Despite the events that had unfolded in the search for the Star Forge, Master Vandar had shown no signs of being angry with her whatsoever. Vrook, on the other hand, had done the opposite in the one encounter she’d had with him since the battle, albeit via hologram. What the rest of the Council had to say about all of this, she could only guess at. Given Vander’s reaction, though, she felt almost a hope that said reaction would be uniform amongst the others.
“Master Vandar…” Bastila answered, finally letting a smile take hold of her lips. Seeing the smile made one of Vandar’s own appear, however briefly it stayed in place. Behind him, voices continued to echo out ever slightly from behind a closed door. Exactly what was being discussed, she could only guess at. Given recent events, however, she could more or less theorize that it was indeed the Council on Coruscant that whoever was inside was in contact with.
“Your timing is great. We have been discussing Revan’s case with the Council on Coruscant.”
“Case?” Bastila asked, an eyebrow arching in the process.
“Indeed. The Council thinks it best that you and Revan both see them in person at the Temple there. There is much that needs to be discussed.”
“Are you thinking of banishing the both of us?”
“Banishing? Is there something that would give you the idea that we intend to do that, Bastila? Because I can assure you, we do not.”
“What else would the Council have to discuss with the two of us? Surely there is nothing good that can come of it.”
“It is not for me to say, Bastila. Surely, you can see that the Council would not want to speak with you and Revan if it were not of an important matter. Malak may have been killed, but there is still much left to be done. Even in peace, the effects of war can easily linger not only through the galaxy, but through the Force as well.”
“I hope you are right…” Almost meaning for the sentence to be spoken more-so to herself than to the Jedi Master, Bastila looked past him. The Temple itself held too many bad memories, so much that even being here caused a shiver to ripple up and down her spine. Feeling Revan reaching out through their bond, she tried her best to push the darker memories back, knowing that, with some hope, he wouldn’t manage to know all of them. After the nightmare she’d awoken to, there was no need to bring any more bad memories out into the open. Not now at least.
“You seemed troubled. Bad memories, perhaps? When we heard that Malak had captured you, we feared you were lost.”
“I was taken here, Master Vandar. This place…it brings back too many memories.”
“Understandable. I do not even want to begin to think about what it was you went through in his capture. Please, let us go outside. It will be easier on both of us, I think. And the Rakata Elders have offered the use of their Enclave to us, until we can move our wounded off planet.”
“Very well.” Nodding, Bastila moved to pull the hood of her cloak back up, the door behind her opening as the older Jedi moved towards it. Outside, the small band of soldiers huddled around the fire had grown somewhat in size, although they continued to pay no mind to the two Jedi emerging from the Temple. The war for them was likely over now, their thoughts having already turned back to the lives they had left behind in order to fight for the Republic. They’d already seen far more fighting than anyone their age should have seen. Everyone who had shed blood in this war had done the same.
“Not sleeping well?” Vandar asked, although the question momentarily went over Bastila’s head, as lost in her own thoughts as she was. Blinking once or twice, she quickly nodded, before muttering a small ‘yes’. The rain had begun to pick up ever slightly, as evident by the heavier feeling of the drops on her cloak.
“Nightmares.”
“Ah. A dangerous thing they can be.” Nodding, his own cloak pulled around his smaller frame, Vandar walked at a consistent pace beside her, eyes looking forward along the path towards the Rakata enclave. The path to said enclave was still covered in wreckage that appeared to be decades old at this point. Whomever had discovered the planet had obviously fallen victim to the same force field that had befallen the Ebon Hawk, according to what Carth had told her. For now, the field remained shut down, likely for the remainder of the planet’s days. Exactly what was to come of the newly ‘discovered’ system was anyone’s guess.
“They’re not so much dreams, Master, as they are…memories.”
“Just the same, both can be equally as dangerous. Not only to a Jedi, but to anyone.”
“Is there anyway…to see meaning in them?” Bastila asked, flinching a bit as one rain drop landed firmly against her nose, even despite her cloak. She’d heard things in her time within the Order, about how dreams could sometimes be necessarily more than what they appeared. The first experience she and Revan had had with their bond had been a perfect example of that. It still remained to be seen if her recent nightmares had been something similar or not.
“There are always ways to see things. What you think to be a mere nightmare could easily be something else. Something within the Force.”
“Do you believe it is a vision?”
“Perhaps, and perhaps not. It is always difficult to tell exactly what it is that we see within our dreams. Sometimes, there is truth to them. Others, it is merely what we want to see, rather than the true reality.”
“And it is difficult to tell which the truth is.” Bastila replied, words having a hint of experience behind them. She couldn’t even begin to count the amount of times she’d dreamed of things during the search for the Star Forge, only to have them come true at a later time. Looking up at her, Master Vandar’s gaze held something akin to sympathy in them, although it remained absent in his voice somewhat.
“As with anything, it is difficult, if one do not know where to begin.”
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The rain still had yet to stop, as evident by how soaked her cloak had quickly become over the last hour or so. The fires close to the Temple had finally been extinguished, the heavier drops not being challenged in their reign of supremacy. The sooner she could get back to the Ebon Hawk, the better. Staying out here in the rain wasn’t her idea of fun by any stretch of the word.
The beach had been cleaned up as well, although patches of darkened blood still remained in certain spots, a reminder of the fact the sands had once held the victims of the war. Even the rain could just barely erase those remnants. Coming to a stop in front of the Hawk, Bastila reached into her cloak, fingers wrapping around the small comlink of her belt, and lifting it to her lips.
“T3, lower the loading ramp.” Looking up towards the cockpit, she smiled a little, hearing an affirmative beep from the utility droid. A few moments passed before the ramp of the Hawk began its slow descent, eventually coming to rest in the sands beneath it. Quickly, she moved up it, the sound of the rain on the top of the ship echoing down into the hull. Pulling back her hood, she quickly shrugged the cloak off, draping it over her arm as she moved towards the cockpit. For the most part, the Hawk was eerily quiet, as if the planet itself had forced its mood onto the ship as well.
“Revan?” She called out, footsteps echoing behind her. The ship itself was somewhat cold, more than likely a product of the rain outside as well.
“What, again?” Mission’s voice came back to greet her, accompanied by the unique sound of cards being dropped onto the deck. Making her way into the main hold, Bastila came to a stop just in time to watch the Twi’lek groan in frustration. “That’s the fifth time in a row. You have to be cheating! There’s no way anybody has that lucky of a hand so many times.”
“Me? Cheating? No way.” Smirking a little as he spoke, Revan leaned back into his chair, gaze looking up to see Bastila. “Couldn’t be me, right?”
“Oh, come on. You’re telling me you haven’t ever cheated at Pazaak? Not once? That’s a lie and a half.” Rolling her eyes, Mission pushed her deck away from her, before swinging her legs out of the booth seat. Spying Bastila near the door, she growled a little before gathering up her cards from the table.
“Just so you know, don’t ever play cards with this guy. He’ll clean you out of everything you’ve have.”
“Is that right?” Unable to hide her amusement, Bastila leaned against the doorway, arms crossing themselves over her chest. Still gathering her deck, Mission nodded, before shoving said cards into the pocket of her vest.
“Damn right it is. No wonder he won the tournament on Manaan. Probably half the people there thought he was cheating too.”
“I swear I wasn’t cheating, Mission. It was just simple luck.”
“Uh-huh, yeah right. Thought there wasn’t any luck, just the Force.”
“That too.”
“Whatever. Just so you know, you’re gonna have to find someone else to con out of their credits from now on. Cause I ain’t buying.”
“Alright, whatever you say.” Chuckling a little bit under his breath, Revan rose from his seat, shuffling a few scattered cards a little closer to his own deck. Venturing further into the main hold, Bastila carefully set her soaked cloak down onto the seat, hand coming up to brush a few wet strands of hair behind her ear. Master Vandar’s words were still running through her mind, and as much as she would have liked to keep them elsewhere, she couldn’t stop them from filtering into the bond she shared with Revan. Looking up, his brows instantly furrowed in concern.
“Something’s bothering you…” He said, as if he had no clue even remotely what the ‘something’ was.
“Perhaps something is. It’s nothing you should concern yourself with at the moment.” Shaking her head, Bastila sighed a little, hand rubbing at her eyes. “Master Vandar says the Council wishes to speak with us on Coruscant.”
“Did he say why?”
“Only that they wish to discuss things between the two of us. He claims they do not wish to banish us, although I’m sure the thought crossed some of their minds.”
“It’ll be fine, Bastila.” Moving behind the other Jedi, Revan rested his hands on her shoulders, fingers lightly making their presence known. “I promise.”
Turning to look at him, she smiled ever so slightly, although it did little to offset the worry that had settled firmly into her expression.
“I hope you’re right…”
I stand at 19 and they somehow pull out a twenty with no cards in hand. 
