It was beautiful.

The planet teemed with life and youth, things she hadn't seen in a long time. Katrina walked among the flowers and the trees, marveling at probably one of the few places left in the civilized technological universe where there was lush green as far as the eye could see, and everything was coaxed into life rather than manufactured. Children ran around her, laughing and finding her no impediment to their play.

She turned her head back to face the man in front of her. He too was vividly alive. His arms flew in wild motions around his horribly red face. He seemed to be angry, excited, and in the depths of despair all at the same time. For a moment she was angry too that his demeanor and harsh shouts at her was interrupting her enjoyment of the beauty around her. He seemed to be scolding her- no, not scolding. He was critical and yet he was asking something of her. Pleading and begging for something she didn't know she had to give.

She felt that icy smirk come over her face. He had done something to deserve his current state of affairs. She didn't realize what, but it had to be something very wrong for her to be keeping calm as he yelled and fumed to the skies over her.

The man was suddenly quiet. His face went from a blazing red to a dull, sickly gray. She felt the smirk on her face grow larger. That's right. Back down. You cannot defeat me. No one can.

She watched her hands raise as if in friendship. The man regarded them warily for a moment.

She watched as huge bolts of icy blue lightning shot out from the air around her fingertips. She watched as they weaved their way through the air to connect with the man's chest. He was frozen in an odd expression of curiosity and astonishment as they jolted his body up off of the platform and down to the ground.

Fear me. Should you dare the mistake again, this will be the result. There was no sound on this world; she could not hear the words come out of her mouth. But their effect was plain on the faces of the others standing around, silent and still, not daring to blink an eyelid.

But their eyes had shifted to somewhere behind her. Katrina turned to see what could be more fear-instilling than her own power.

A fleet of armed troops stood over the singed and smoking bodies of the children. Their masked faces looked towards her.

The first and only sound she had heard on this planet escaped, crackling like the lightning that had killed him from the lips of the dying man on the ground: "Curse you, Lord Revan..."

She was plunged into darkness. Only after hearing the sound of her own frantic breathing and the hum of the ship around her did she realize she was awake.

A dream. It had only been a dream.

At least, that's what you tell yourself at night so you can attempt to go back to sleep.

Katrina held her hands together, trying unsuccessfully with one to keep the other from shaking.

Such dreams plagued her hours of rest. They came to her at night when she was alone, and sometimes even when she wasn't. The former were the worst of them; and she would always awaken screaming, clutching blindly for reassurance that they were only nightmares. She pushed herself up in bed, her eyes already resigned to seeing in the dark.

This would forever be her nightly ritual. She hadn't slept, truly slept, since before the Star Forge. Since before she had discovered that her name hadn't always been her name. Since before any of it.

Even though since Carth, not sleeping hasn't been entirely bad, she thought to herself with a shaky smile, trying to discard the last of the nightmare. He would be in the cockpit right now, probably fighting slumber himself and losing the battle. Her dreams sometimes frightened him more than they did her, despite the fact that he couldn't imagine what they contained.

They had taken turns keeping watch on their trip back. Constant messages from either the Council or Republic military officials had awoken them the first few nights and it finally became clear that someone would have to belay the constant inquiries if either of them were to get any sleep at all.

She never got any sleep anyway, but Carth didn't need to know that.

I'll go relieve him. She wandered down the corridors of the ship, nearly tripping over scattered tools and supplies in her bare feet.

The ship was new, brand new. The Ebon Hawk had been given to Mission and Zaalbar, who seemed to be the ones who would at least appreciate it the most, if not use it for the noblest motives. It was probably befitting the ship anyways; it had no reputation for noble missions. And she didn't expect the rest of them to follow Carth and her around until time came to get them all home. They were besieged with meetings, ceremonies, and the odd adventure.

Aside from the never-ending nightmares, the constant guilt pressing down on her like a Huttese torture device, the dark Lord Revan also plagued her with hypocrisy. Every time she stood in front of the Council, listening to them remind her about redemption and the power of the light side of the Force; Every time a grateful creature praised her kindness and called her Master Jedi, she was reminded that it was a lie. And she was perpetuating the lie.

She found her hatred for the Jedi Council growing daily, as much from their constant lectures and use of her as their personal delegate as from the fact that they had lied to her and used her for their own gain. The hatred scared her into submission; accepting and agreeing to anything they asked of her. She feared nothing more than bringing that creature who had slaughtered the village in her dreams back into reality.

Their new ship had no name yet, but recently Carth had been dryly referring to her as the Jedi Chaser.

She saw the odd angle of his head first, almost at a forty-five degree tilt from his neck and farther down in the chair than it would have been if he was awake. His dark, greasy hair fluttered under the slight breeze coming from an exhaust in the ceiling. She heard the steady, dependable sound of his breathing and felt that nothing in the world could harm her as long as that was there, that broad inhale and smooth exhale keeping the universe in order.

Katrina came up behind him, softly moving her hands down his shoulders. He bristled and yawned, opening his weary eyes to smile at her reflection in the panel in front of him.

"I knew you'd fall asleep," she teased.

"What else am I supposed to do unless you're around, beautiful?"

She slid her arms further down him and smiled into his warm neck, letting his perpetually unshaven stubble scratch her cheeks. "Anyone call?"

"Just Mission with another question about the Ebon Hawk. She still won't admit she's asking me for advice."

"She'd rather cut one of her head-tails off than admit you're older and smarter than her."

Carth's hand reached up lazily to tickle her neck.

"Neither will you on certain occasions." He was nothing but laughter and flirtation now that they were on their way back to Telos with nothing else to hinder them and no threats of unfinished business hanging over their heads. The angry, revenge-seeking brooder had faded, hopefully banished forever.

For once Katrina enjoyed the silence, the fact that they were alone and there was nothing to see but endless stars. She felt Carth sink back into the chair once more, his eyes undoubtedly sinking into sleep.

Parts of her simply marveled at the beauty of the innumerable twinking dots before her. Other parts of her wondered how she had ever been part of an ideal that wanted to destroy them. These parts gnawed at her, taunting and laughing when she woke up, breathless and feverish in the night. These parts called to her by name, a name she couldn't remember having but knew belonged to her: Revan.

How could whoever had chosen that name have known that it would one day denote a person that could have mangled the noblest ideals of the galaxy into such instruments of evil?

A bright glow from amid the stars broke her thoughts. It was pulsating, shades of red and orange and gold, a streak of color amid a black and white sky. It seemed far off and yet was almost drawing her in, growing larger by the minute.

She admired it for a moment; then curiosity overtook her. Was it an exploding star? Couldn't be. The Jedi Chaser would have surely been screaming louder than a Coruscant cantina if there was anything with that much power nearby. It certainly wasn't blaster fire- she'd seen that enough to have no doubts as to what it looked like.

"Carth," she murmured in his ear. He was a pilot- no, not only a pilot, but the best pilot. He'd probably have seen whatever it was before.

Carth stirred underneath her hands.

"Hmm?"

"What is that?" His eyes fluttered open with a soft smile, as if she was a child asking why a Wookiee was hairy. She waited as his eyes finally located the said anomaly, and he leaned forward in the chair as if getting physically closer would help him identify it.

The glow was all-encompassing now, filling the cockpit with an ethereal light. Katrina had imagined the light of the Force in her darkest dreams as a haven; if she could will it into existence, this was surely what it would be.

Carth stood for a moment, bathed in the light, a black shadow up against a wall of white.

It was only a second more before she registered the way his breathing had suddenly stopped and the regular rhythm was interrupted by a sharp inhale.

"Get down!" he roared, and he was suddenly a terrifying black shadow tackling her to the deck.

There was heat; searing, tearing, screaming heat, and a shrill, piercing cry that she recognized as her own scream. And then there was nothing.