The True Sith-2

Title: The True Sith
Author: Heroes Die
Game: KotOR
characters: Revan, Carth, Canderous
Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to the all-awesome Bioware

Chapter 2

The cantina that Canderous frequented was called the Laigrek's Eye, and it was aptly named as every piece of furniture, the walls, and the floor was shaded every garish tint of black and red the owner could find: no skimping on the cheap stuff. Revan knew that the purpose to keeping the interior so dark was that whoever entered could be evaluated by everyone inside before the being who entered could see properly. Many sentient eyes had difficulty moving from bright to dim light and had to take a few seconds to adjust before they could see with clarity. It was a brilliantly subtle safety precaution, both for the patrons and the owner.

As she descended, the toxic-green coloured Barabel behind the counter turned to her from some typical down-on-his-luck bounty hunter to bare his teeth at HK.

"I don't like droidsss in my bar," he hissed.

HK hefted his gun meaningfully. "Query: May I blast the organism now, master? A new hole could be burnt through his head with no trouble on my part."

All Revan had to do was meet the Barabel straight in the eye and stare until he flinched to solve that issue. Not many could endure her penetrating gaze for long without having a sudden premonition of their doom form itself in whatever they used as a brain. She never used the Force to plant these thoughts though. So very curious...

Revan swept down the remaining steps and used the Force to enhance her eyesight. She could sense Canderous was actually inside (a stroke of luck…well, what Jedi liked to call 'Force luck'), and she felt her eyes drawn to a booth at the back end of the bar. Canderous was alone which wasn't surprising. He managed to project an aura of menace that radiated out from him like solar flares, and this usually deterred anyone that was sane from getting closer. She knew he'd noticed her enter so she approached his table without delay and slid into the seat across from him.

Canderous raised his eyes from his glass and tipped it to her. "Couldn't bear to go without me for a couple days? I figured you'd last longer than that."

Revan grinned. They'd usually ended up running into each other after they landed on Telos and so, not wanting to keep the coincidences coming, they had scheduled times and places where they could meet up and see what drudgery of regular life the other was dealing with. She'd told Carth about their meetings so he wouldn't become paranoid over her weekly disappearances, and he hadn't seemed to mind... too much.

Revan shrugged at his question. "I figured you might be getting tired of sitting in a dank bar and need something to brighten your day." Revan watched as Canderous took out his vibroblade and started aimlessly twirling it on the table. The tip was creating a small burrow in the stained wood and still he absently continued. It was a habit of his she figured out while tracing the holes in the Ebon Hawk.

Canderous leaned in, the tip of the knife gouging deeper. "What did you have in mind? You know I'd follow you to the dead end of the galaxy if you asked me to. Besides, I haven't seen any action for weeks and this sure isn't the way I envisioned spending my time. It reeks here of the old-and-dying."

Revan nodded. "I think I know how you feel. And," she said hesitantly, "I may need to take you up on that 'follow you to dead ends' thing." Revan paused to let Canderous soak that up, to give her mouth time enough to form the words. No turning back. "I need you to come with me part-way into the Unknown Regions."

His eyebrows crawled upwards, and the vibroblade stopped in mid twirl, but Candeorus looked more amused than surprised. He was taking this better than Carth, but that was understandable considering their different relationship. Canderous sheathed his knife and glared around the cantina before answering. Apparently, some of the patrons had become a little too interested in their conversation, turning their heads and appendages ever so slightly towards them. This was quickly rectified when they noticed they had Canderous's attention. Chatter swiftly resumed, and he brought his eyes back to Revan.

"Now," he said, pleased at that reaction, "why would we be making a trip into the Unknown Regions? I'm assuming 'we' means more than us two because the Admiral would never let you leave without tagging along. And you want to go to the Unknown Regions specifically because of…your dreams. Isn't it?" He said this with gradual realization. "You remembered something."

Visions of beings screaming as they writhed on her torture table butted in like a shadow planted over her eyes and Revan flinched. She quickly buried the rest of the reaction that threatened to show on her face.

It was an unconscious motion when her fingers went to her lightsaber, running them over the black embedded gems on the hilt. This wasn't the original lightsaber she'd held as Darth Revan but even though she had built it during her training on Dantooine it was exactly the same, down to the unique carving engraved on the surface. Even something as simple as constructing a lightsaber couldn't happen without the taint of her past infecting it. It was an object clinging to her old self, just as Canderous clung to her actions from the past. He saw her as the leader of the armies who'd pushed back a near-unbeatable force, who'd devastated the Mandalorians with admirably brutal determination, who'd killed Mandalore the Ultimate, the renowned leader of the Mandalorians. He respected her because of what she had been. He also respected her for who she was now, no matter if her path in the Force involved less fierceness than it once had.

Just when she thought of the droid she noticed HK shifting restlessly behind her, and it brought her back from her thoughts. He was probably getting tired of standing around, listening while she talked. Well, she wasn't done so maybe he would just have to learn patience.

Revan lowered her voice. "It'll be just you, Carth, and the droids. No one else." She took a deep breath before continuing. "There are some things I have to do before I get to the heart of the problem, and I need you there for one of them. If you choose not to come I won't blame you, but if you do…I can guarantee you won't be disappointed." She stopped to let Canderous think about it in silence. She already knew what he would say, but she wanted to give him a chance to say no.

Canderous relaxed back into the bench and shrugged. "You know I'm in, ad'ika. You didn't even have to ask."

"I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to give you a chance before you got sucked into my untidy world again. You didn't have a choice when we met on Taris." But Revan's mind was circling around the term ad'ika. It meant child or daughter in Mandalorian. It was a term of affection, and Mandalorians never used it with outsiders or those other than family. It was an honour to hear it from Canderous. She grinned, and it went all the way up to her eyes for the first time in a long while. "You sure you're not getting soft on me, Canderous? I thought that term was only used for family."

He gave a low chuckle. "You know, I've always thought you had a bit of Mandalorian blood in you: you're far too clever and fierce for a normal human female, and you know far more Mando'a than any outsider should. So I figure you're one of us." He shook his head mock-sadly. "You're just in denial."

HK had increased his noisome movements during the conversation, shifting his blaster from one hand to the other, shuffling his feet. Revan had been dutifully ignoring him. But it seemed he was going to take his excommunication no longer.

"Statement: Master, we could sit here and talk about Mandalorian grammar the whole day, but I believe we have missions to accomplish. My servomotors are starting to freeze up."
The knife was still twirling in Canderous's fingers when HK started talking. Revan and Canderous exchanged a glance across the table, and just as HK finished, Canderous chucked his blade as hard and fast as he could at the droid's head. With blinding speed, HK caught the vibroblade on its handle centimeters from his rust-coloured plating.

"Looks like your servomotors are working just fine," Canderous said.

Revan tried unsuccessfully to hold back a laugh as HK stared at the offensive blade in his grip. The poor droid managed to look vexed and brought the vibroblade into Revan's outstretched palm. "Statement: I don't see how you find this amusing, master. Please, stop laughing."

Revan returned the blade to Canderous, still chuckling, and stood up from the stained bench. "I'll see you at the Hawk then. 1800 hours, tonight. And try not to rub on Carth too much, alright? You always purposefully bring up things you know bother him."
Canderous wove his arms behind his head and gave her an innocent face, an interesting look for the scarred Mandalorian. "Oh, I promise."

Well, at least she'd asked. Revan strode out of the cantina into brighter light and decided to take a slow walk around the wan corridors of Telos rather than head back to her barren apartment. The thought of having Carth and Canderous in the Hawk again made her cringe. The fact that Canderous was Mandalorian was all it took to make Carth rankle: she hadn't realized how much he despised every aspect of their culture. It was hard for her to adapt to as she often spoke in Mandalorian out of habit. It had been a part of her life before, during, and after the war. Revan had to learn to speak Mando'a to identify with her enemies, to understand them, and ultimately, to overcome them. She was careful to switch to Basic when he was around. The one time she'd said a word in Mando'a he'd looked at her as if he was staring at a vision of a T-slit visor.

Carth in himself was another problem she needed to address. A problem of the heart as strange as it was to admit.

Carth needed to understand he had to stay in the Core systems and focus on rebuilding the Republic, with or without her. The Republic needed a hero to lead them through the destruction and back into reconstruction of worlds and economies, make the galaxy strong again if…or maybe when, the threat in the Unknown Regions decided to strike. This was far more important than fulfilling her desire to remain with Carth, no matter how tempting it was to finally settle down and relax, to forgo a life of running from one crisis to the next. Revan loved him, but it was either love—an ever-selfish emotion—or risk the galaxy. If she could somehow make him understand that, it would be easier for him and for her.

During her time commanding armies, she'd been able to distance herself from people in order to see them more as pieces in her strategy than people in the midst of their lives. Perhaps this was a circumstance where she could put that to use.

She clenched her jaw as she walked down the grey corridors. She shouldn't have to choose like this, she shouldn't have to live running from task to task, shunning relationships. She shouldn't have to be the only one to face an evil so dark it twisted your thoughts against yourself so you barely knew who you were anymore…

But who else would do it?  Who else knew them well enough to ignore their words, traps designed to weaken the strongest of minds?

Revan stopped in step, HK halting behind her, and folded herself on a bench near a large plate of transparisteel glass, offering a vista of speeders passing back and forth in front of the grey blocks of buildings. When it came down to it, it seemed the Force wanted to put her in the face of every vilest pressure it could. Giving her an extraordinary gift in the Force then setting her loose in the galaxy, watching how she would handle the war, starting the effort to fight the Mandalorians, falling to the Dark Side, taking the war under her own direction, journeying to the Star Forge, and now the True Sith.  Like it was seeing how far she could go before she broke.

Well, she directed towards the black space outside the glass, this is one human that won't break that easily. Keep throwing these tests at me and I'll keep throwing you back the solutions.

The Light Side wasn't the quick and easy path for a reason.