Prologue

Boarding Revan's flagship had been a challenge; we had fought our way through Sith soliders, Dark Jedi and various minions the Dark Lord had thrown at us. I was a part of a small strike force, it was simple, bold, and daring. Revan didn't believe or didn't think that the Jedi or the Republic would dare strike with a small commando style attack with a few minor Republic soldiers and three Jedi. I believe the only reason why Revan attacked our group, taking the bait as it were, was because of me. Revan was keenly aware of my talents in the Force. I was the only Jedi, since Nomi Sundrider that had the use of battle meditation. Revan wanted me for my talents as much as the Jedi wanted him. The mission unquestionably was a suicide mission.

The Republic and the Jedi Order purposely leaked information of my whereabouts so Revan would come after me and attack. Our hopes relied on the fact that perhaps Revan would take the bait as a small Republic military Force, a prized padawan such as me, and very little resources to protect me or the fleet would be too tempting a prize to the Dark Lord of the Sith. We were trussed up like a fat Marrovian pig and Revan would strike even on the off chance that it was a trap. The attack caught the Dark Lord off guard as the Republic Elite Force struck back much harder than he expected.

The Elite Force was a group of specially trained Republic Military commandos that went on the motto make do with less and fight back like a rancor. The Military group was much more proactive than most and the commandos of the group were willing to die simply to protect the Republic. Revan was considered a high priority target so the Republic Fleet went all out with this Elite group. Revan simply didn't realize that the Jedi were desperate even desperate enough to risk such a feint against the Sith, with an Elite group of Military and a small showing of Jedi. Yet, here we were, and here I was, the one that the Jedi had pinned all their hopes and dare I say desires on. Desire was close to passion and passion was something of the Dark Side, yet, all the masters and even I knew our peril was great but our cause was just. Perhaps that is what caught Revan off guard.

As we fought closer and closer to the bridge where Revan could be found, the ship shook with heavy weapons fire. Kara, a fellow Padawan stated, "By the Force….I told the captain not to fire on us till we came back with Revan or we died trying."

I turned to Kara, That is not the Republic firing on us, Kara."

Kara frowned, "Then who Bastila?"

I sighed, "Do you not wonder why, it seemed so easy for us to board Revan's ship in the first place?"

Kara wasn't accustomed to such missions as I was, this was her first assignment as a padawan, and I was placed in charge as the experienced padawan. The Order had so few knights that missions that were normally given to knights were now assigned to padawan. This of course, had to deal with Revan's campaign against the Jedi and the Republic. However, this was like having a doubled edged vibroblade against us. Padawan could be easily broken to Revan and Sith conversion techniques. Knights could be broken as well but not as easily. If knights or padawans did not break, we were killed. This sad fact of genocide and conversion was going all over the war front, and the reason as to why the Republic called the war, The Jedi Civil War.

Kara stared at me alarmed, "Easy! We had to fight our way through all those troops that Revan threw at us, and then we had to fight through all those ships that were sent after our strike team ships. I….well I assumed you were using your battle meditation."

I shook my head, "I was using my battle meditation earlier, but right now I haven't had a chance to concentrate on the battle all that much and I had to break the meditation as soon as we boarded. I've been focusing more on us and using my Force meditations to aid us in our combat. It is obvious Kara…." I paused and then said solemnly, "Betrayal is a trait of the Sith."

Kara looked incredulously at me, "You mean, Malak would fire on his own master?!"

Talon, the other Jedi under my lead said calmly, "Master Zhar has told me, there are no loyalties with the Dark side. The Dark side is so apparently fickle that apprentices would destroy their own masters."

I nodded, "Indeed so, Talon. It makes little sense to me but apparently, Malak feels that Revan has taught him all that he need know. But come along you two, enough talk we are here to try to bring Revan to justice not to discuss the finer points of Sith philosophy.

Both of the Padawans nodded at me and we continued through the ship as it shook from bombardment. Alarms blared and it seemed that the Sith were suddenly more concerned keeping the ship together than facing off against three Jedi padawan. We encountered a few troops the nearer we got to the bridge and we quickly dispatched them. Feelings of darkest dread filled me as we approached the bridge, the Dark side permeated thickly through this whole segment of the ship. I felt as though a dark wet blanket threatened to overwhelm me. This was it, Revan undoubtedly lay beyond this door. I looked at Kara and Talon and we all mustered whatever strength we had and I plunged my lightsaber into the lock of the bridge and forced the door open.

The three of us stared upon the scene, Dark Jedi and a person in dark robes and a mask whose presence chilled me to my very core.

There were no words as suddenly the Dark Jedi charged upon me and the others. Their aggression was fierce as we countered their blades. The ship listed as Malak fired yet again. Revan snarled and I could hear the snarl coming from the Dark Lord's lips. Suddenly, Kara moaned as the Dark Jedi's blade met its mark and her features paled as she sunk to the ground mortally wounded. "Kara!" I wanted to run to her side and help her but I could not. Talon and I fought the rest of the Dark Jedi and as I killed the one who barred the way to Revan, Talon suddenly fell to the ground along with his opponent both dead.

Revan ignited his lightsaber and stood to face me.

"You cannot win Revan!"

I flung my lightsaber with the Force towards Revan, ready to at least give him one firm strike with my blade. I tried to sound braver than my words, but I was afraid. Revan was tried and tested in combat as well as a master at war and tactics. He had fought against the Mandalorians, he even had fought a duel with Mandalore, himself as a way to end the war. Revan had slain the man. I had wondered if that act alone had caused the once noble knight to fall or if it was something else. I wished I could see the man behind the mask, what sort of man would slay people and do it so willingly? Was Revan's soul really as dark and lost to the Dark side as the Jedi claimed? The Jedi wanted Revan alive. Perhaps there was hope that Revan's soul could be redeemed. War had made the former Jedi dark and black as night. The Council and even I agreed that we needed to remove Revan from this environment of war and bring him to a place of peace, and then perhaps there would be hope for his redemption. My heart ached with hope that maybe I would get lucky and my Force flung blade would meet its mark and disable the Sith Lord.

The Dark Lord was about to block my lightsaber blow with his own blade, when suddenly the bridge lit up and blinded me. Malak had fired a direct turbo laser hit upon the bridge of Revan's flagship. The attack caused me to fall over, and I felt dazed. It felt like a lifetime before I could move and my head was spinning. I looked around me trying to get my bearings straight. As I looked around me, on the floor beside me was the Dark Lord. His Life was slowly oozing away, and it seemed like such an ignoble end for someone who was once such a great hero to the Republic. I felt a great deal of sadness and remorse. Who was Revan? I knew so little about Revan aside from the stories on his tactics and his battles against the Mandalorians. He was a great leader of men and now I stood before him.

I stood there and my resolve suddenly grew. I decided right on the spot, that I could not let this great hero of the Republic die. My heart and my conscience couldn't let this man die such a horrible death. So very quietly I lifted the mask that covered Revan's face, a face that I doubted had seen any sort of light since the Mandalorian wars.

Much to my shock and perhaps even to my horror I saw the pale and sickly face of a woman underneath that ominous mask. I gasped in surprise; here was a woman who looked only about five to ten years older than me. Impossible! All the intelligence I had on Revan painted the leader of the Mandalorian wars as a man. I stood dumbstruck staring at this unknown figure, apparently a woman with short clipped black hair and a massive head wound on the side of her head. How could the Jedi not know of this? Yet, maybe the masters did, they spoke of Revan as if he...umm… she was another person entirely.

Slowly it began to dawn on me, due to the personage before me, I really knew very little about Revan. There was Revan the legend, the myth, and….obviously Revan, the true person. I stood staring at the true Dark Lord of the Sith and seemed amazed and questions filled my head. Who was she truly? Why did she go off to war? Why did she turn? Finally, the last question I had was why the massive deception? Female Jedi weren't unheard of, obviously, as I was one. Yet, somehow this woman had gone out of her way to paint herself as a man, a Sith Lord. Perhaps it was the title "Lord" that made Revan go out of her way to paint herself in such an extreme manner. Dark Lords were common, Dark Ladies? Well not so much. Yet the last Sith Lord was Exar Kun so perhaps, Revan was trying to fashion herself after Exar in such a way that even her very identity ended up muddled and obscured.

I sighed and bent down and cradled her head in my hands, she moaned, her voice very human and very much weakened. "Please…." her voice cracked in pain, "Don't let…..Malak…..must keep….the order of the galaxy intact."

I frowned, that didn't seem like a Sith to me, it seemed almost Jedi-like in nature. I shushed her words, "Revan you're dying!"

Her lips cracked out a laugh, "Obviously. Are you here to celebrate my death and defeat? Like the hypocrite of a Jedi you are! Maybe you should thank my apprentice, Malak for that. Your wonderful pseudo pacifistic Order can give him an award for my death!"

I shook my head in the negative. I was shocked to hear such an acerbic tone from the Dark Lord. I stroked her hair, trying to bring a measure of peace to the dying Sith Lord, "By the Force, no. I came to..." I paused in thought, what was my mission to begin with? Oh yes, to bring Revan to justice. However, I wasn't so sure anymore. The Force trembled within me and I echoed and listened to the words that the Force gave me to speak. The Force guided me at this moment and the words suddenly came out of my mouth filled with one desire. "I am here to save you."

Revan sighed, "Save me? You can't even save yourself little Jedi. My ship is doomed, I am doomed. My death….my men….they….will surrender…and follow Malak….and...then you will die." She suddenly coughed and blood came pouring from her lips.

I stroked her black hair back so I could examine her head wound, "I thought…."

"You thought what…." The Dark Lord said. I didn't answer as I tore a piece of my Jedi robe and bound up her wounded head, "Oh….." she responded, "That I was a man." She laughed, "All part of my mystique, dear little Jedi. We all wear….masks….even you, I imagine. Your mask, such calm, such resolve, yet I can tell that is a lie. You are conflicted, you crave conflict, and you managed to convince your masters that you could go after me." She laughed a dark throaty laugh. However the laugh was interrupted with a cough, and with that cough, more blood came pouring out of her lips. She finally sighed, "Who I was, who I am… that was...yet….another mask I wore."

I shook my head as I scanned her over with the Force, there were several internal injuries that would need tending to on the main Republic ship, assuming I made it back in one piece.

Revan's eyes slowly began to roll back into her skull. Her will was strong but she was fading. I gritted my teeth together, "Oh no you don't!" My body began to glow with the Force; I refused to let her die and my will, my very essence suddenly poured into her. My body felt hot and glowing and I felt her and me. Her will and my will fought hard. She wanted to die, I wanted her to live. Suddenly, both our wills combined together and she suddenly submitted to mine as she was slowly too weak to fight back against my will.

I blinked, the bridge consumed itself in flames and I must have been so completely absorbed in the Force and saving Revan I had completely ignored my current environment. I looked at Revan, she was alive, but apparently comatose. I scanned her once more just to make sure, yes, she was alive but I couldn't do anymore for her, and I felt drained. Of my own strength and life, I had given it as freely as a gift, and to her it was just barely enough to keep her alive.

I looked around and tried to scan with what little Force I had left to me. The ship seemed abandoned but what was I going to tell the Republic captain or the others? I had spared Revan, well that was what Jedi did, but I suddenly feared, that if I brought a half dead Sith Lord with me, they might decide that a near dead Sith Lord was better off dead, and then my desire to keep Revan alive would all be in vain. Revan would be afforded leniency by the Jedi, but she was still a Republic criminal. If I couldn't bring Revan back alive and I brought a comatose and near death Sith Lord to them, they might decide to kill her to save time on the trial. The Republic and Jedi Order's relationship was a bit strained at this time. It all seemed so very complicated. Jedi try not to do galactic politics but, the Republic wanted Revan dead and the Jedi wanted Revan alive. The Republic didn't think the order could bring back Revan alive and so allowed the Order to go after the Sith Lord. I smiled a grim smile, I had proved the Republic wrong, I had Revan, as half dead as she was, alive.

Although the Republic task force was under my command, I was too tired to tell them not to finish the job Malak had done to Revan. I went over to Kara, her body still lay on the floor. "Forgive me Sister Jedi." as I quietly un-robed the dead Padawan. I then quietly stripped Revan of her dark robes and dressed her in Kara's robes. I managed to quietly braid what was left of Revan's hair into a Padawan's braid and I looked over my work. Revan looked like, well she looked like a half-dead Padawan and that was the image I wanted, it would have to do till I got Revan back to Dantooine to a real proper healer.

Hopefully, the Republic would assume that Revan was Kara. It was a long shot but, if I had thought Revan was a man, then perhaps so would the small Republic task force I was with.

I quietly picked up Revan and hoisted her upon my back and picked up Revan's mask and carried it with me. I almost forgot, I needed my lightsaber, if I went back to the Jedi without my lightsaber I would never hear the end of it from the masters. I had constantly gotten the lecture about, a lightsaber being your life and to be separated from it could mean the difference between life and death. I sighed, my load was heavy as it was, but I did not wish to be scolded for not having my lightsaber. I cringed as I saw it, apparently in the blast of Malak's explosion it was torn into shreds. So much for having a lightsaber, I would have to construct another. Although I could take any of the lightsabers from Kara, Talon, or even the Dark Jedi, a Jedi is only complete with their own constructed lightsaber. Any other lightsaber, would not feel right.

The lightsaber was more than just the crystal and the focusing lens; it also contained a small bit of your own Force energy. It made the blade unique to its user and I could not take the lightsabers from Kara or Talon and definitely not from the Dark Jedi. I suppose I would still get the lecture about having no lightsaber on me. I sighed, but then again I had succeeded in my mission and maybe I would be spared that lecture.

I stumbled through the burning wreckage of Revan's warship with Revan on my back. I finally got back to my shuttle and laid Revan down into a bunk in the back. I wasn't much of a pilot, because Talon was more into piloting than I was, but with Talon dead, it was up to me to get back to the Republic fleet. No sooner had I left, Revan's ship exploded into a fiery fireball.

I commed the Republic fleet, "This is Bastila Shan of the Jedi Order. Mission complete, Revan is dead. Repeat Revan is dead, and I have one wounded Jedi with me."