Another massive tremor shook the landing bay of the Star Forge. Sheltering beneath the nose of the tramp freighter Ebon Hawk, Carth shifted his stance again to balance himself against the jolt, barely managing to maintain his footing.
A few meters away, clutching to a support strut of the boarding ramp as though she didn't have the physical strength to stand on her own, Bastila seemed to pay no mind to the immediate jeopardy she and the ship were in. Instead, her eyes were focused solely on the door out of the bay, waiting with stilled breath.
"What's taking him so long?" Carth muttered to himself, then glanced toward Bastila. He recognized that look in her eyes; he'd seen it many times before, and even had worn it once himself, long ago. It was longing. The absence, and unknown situation of the former dark Jedi Revan was like a gaping wound in her soul, a wound far more life-threatening than the lightsaber burn she had endured in their duel.
"He's been gone too long!" Carth called out to her. "We can't stay here much longer!"
"He's not dead," Bastila breathed, her muted words barely carrying to the Republic pilot on a space-bound breeze. "I know he's not…"
Almost as if in response to her words, the door of the landing bay slid open, admitting a battle-hardened figure to stride into the sight of his comrades. As soon as they saw him, both Carth and Bastila were in motion, moving toward the returning Jedi. Carth moved more slowly, wary of another sudden tremor that may knock him off his feet, but Bastila was running toward the Jedi as fast as her legs could carry her.
"What happened?" Carth asked as he approached.
Kagi continued to stride forward, his motion becoming more certain and sure now that he was back in the presence of his friends. He started to reply to Carth, but was interrupted by Bastila literally throwing herself into his arms. Only a quick movement of his right leg directly behind him to support the weight shift kept them relatively upright.
As his arms closed around her waist to hold her to him, Kagi's expression turned smug. "I take it you missed me, then?"
For just a moment, she narrowed her eyes at him in the most spiteful glare she had ever mustered and hissed, "Shut up." Then she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, closing her eyes and locking her arms around his neck.
Kagi had known she was going to do that. Even without the benefit of their Force bond. He returned her kiss with passion fueled by the weeks he had spent without her, by the fear that he had forever lost her to the dark side and his cursed former apprentice.
After a moment, the pair withdrew from each other. Bastila's mouth hung slightly agape for an instant before she recovered herself and grinned at the Jedi. "So who missed who?"
"I think it was a mutual longing," he replied.
"I think so, too."
"Uhh, guys?" Carth interjected, maintaining a respectable distance from the pair. "As touching as this is, this station is coming down on our ears. I don't think anybody would mind if you continued, so long as we're all on the Ebon Hawk and getting well away from here."
Reluctantly, the two Jedi released one another and turned to Carth. Kagi nodded. "Malak is dead. I have his lightsaber, to return to the Jedi Council, and he will no longer be a problem."
Carth nodded as well. "I'll transmit the good news to the fleet. You two hurry up and get on board." With that, the pilot disappeared up the boarding ramp.
Without a word, Bastila reached into Kagi's tunic and withdrew Malak's lightsaber, turning it over in the palm of her hand. Her expression grew troubled. "Even though we do not kill our enemies," she said quietly, "I am pleased that you killed him. Not because of the threat that he posed to the galaxy, but because he turned me against you. Because he almost destroyed us."
Kagi reached out his right hand and laid it over the lightsaber, covering hers in the process. "He almost destroyed us, Bastila. But we are stronger than him. Our love could not be destroyed by a servant of darkness."
Bastila smiled up at Kagi and released the lightsaber, allowing him to return it to his tunic. "Come. We need to get off this station."
Dropping her Sith lightsaber to the deck, Bastila took his left hand in her right, and started toward the ship. Kagi paused only long enough to give the severed lightsaber a nudge with the Force, off the side of the landing platform, before he followed.
---
"Admiral Dodonna," called the naval officer on sensors. "We've hit the Forge's orbital stabilizer."
Forn Dodonna was a woman who had served the Republic through many battlefronts. In her years, she had seen and done much. But as that one single report came to her, a smile appeared on her weathered visage. "Pull back the fleet; I don't want to lose any ships when that thing goes down."
She turned her attention to the small, green Jedi Master standing beside her, intently studying the battle before him. "We've done it, Master Vandar. The Sith have been routed, and the back of their fleet production has been broken."
"But at what cost, Admiral?" the little alien replied, his green eyes flashing over the docking bays of the Star Forge. "Where is the Ebon Hawk and her crew?"
---
The capital ships of the Republic fleet led the retreat from the doomed Star Forge, gunnery mounts falling silent as the last of the Sith ships still operating under their own power fled into hyperspace.
As the snubfighters twisted and spiraled around their mother ships, the Forge's orbital position rapidly destabilized, the gravity well of the sun it had been stationed over reaching up and drawing the orbital factory down into its crushing depths.
A capital ship-sized explosion blossomed up from one of the lower spires of the Forge as a fuel container succumbed to the crushing pressure of the system's star. Higher up, one of the upper spires shattered as an explosion in the manufacturing lines blew out entire sectors of the factory to the void of space.
Finally, the chain reaction of explosions reached the core of the Forge itself. A massive explosion blinded the rear scopes of the fleeing Republic ships as the Star Forge destroyed itself, hurling asteroid-sized chunks of itself in all directions.
Aboard the bridge of the Republic's flagship, the crew waited breathlessly, all eyes on their rear scopes, waiting for a single blip to return to their sensors.
---
Like a bar of soap squirting out from under a foot, the Ebon Hawk shot out of the gravity well of the star, riding an azure trail of fire. As soon as it was free of the gravitational field, the little freighter executed a barrel roll in open space, orienting on the Republic fleet and putting all discretional speed to catch up to their ships.
"Carth, you made it!" Admiral Dodonna's voice called over the ship's speakers.
The entire crew of the Hawk had been crammed into the small cockpit of the freighter, watching the ships of the Republic fleet grow in their forward viewport. In the pilot's seat, Carth reached forward to tap the communications panel.
"We couldn't let you start the victory party without us, Admiral," he said, grinning from ear to ear.
Ahead of them, an entire squadron of the Republic's hook-winged fighters broke from the main fleet, roaring past the stock freighter before reversing course and coming up alongside the ship, acting almost as a set of mobile shields.
"I've sent an honor guard to escort you in," Dodonna said, pleasure evident in her voice despite the static from the nearby star. "You'll be getting a hero's welcome when we get home."
---
They didn't wait to return to Coruscant.
The crews of the victorious Republic fleet gathered on the grounds of the ancient Rakatan temple on the nearby planet, cheering as the crew of the Ebon Hawk emerged from the temple gates, having landed the small freighter on the landing pad above.
All ten of them stood there, arrayed on the ramp up to the temple: the assassin droid HK-47; the astromech T3-M4; the Cathar Jedi Knight Juhani, fully recovered from the wound Bastila had dealt her; the retired Jedi Jolee Bindo; the Twi'lek code-slicer Mission Vao; the Wookie warrior Zaalbar; the proud Mandalorian warrior Canderous Ordo; the Republic soldier and war hero Carth Onasi; the Jedi Knight and instrumental figure Bastila Shan. And standing in between Carth and Bastila, with Bastila on his right, the former Dark Lord of the Sith, redeemed Jedi warrior, and savior of the galaxy, Kagi Vayun.
In unison, all ten of them turned away from the crowd to face Admiral Dodonna, who stood before Kagi. "You have defeated Malak," she said, her voice artificially amplified for the entire gathering, which included several of the Elder Rakata tribe near the back, to hear. "You have destroyed the Star Forge, and broken the spirit of the Sith. For this, I am proud to present each of you with the Cross of Glory, the highest honor the Republic can bestow."
As she spoke, nine other commanders of the Republic fleet stepped up in line with her, each standing before one of the heroic crew of the Ebon Hawk. Each of them held one of the medal, which consisted of a sword crossed over a shield, upon which the insignia of the Republic was emblazoned.
As befit tradition, Admiral Dodonna stepped forward first, pinning the first of the medals to Kagi's tunic as the Sith Lord-turned soldier-turned Jedi stood at perfect military attention. At a nod from the admiral, the other officers also stepped forward, pinning or magnetically-attaching the honors to their recipients, as befit the case.
Once all the officers had stepped back, the medals firmly fastened to their recipients, Admiral Dodonna raised her voice again, looking out over the gathered crowd. "From Coruscant to the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim, you will all be known as the saviors of the Republic!"
As the crowd cheered their heroes, Admiral Dodonna stepped back, allowing Vandar to step forward out of the gathered quartet of Jedi Masters, the other three having accompanied the Republic battle fleet all the way from Coruscant.
"On behalf of the Jedi Council," Vandar said, using the Force to project his voice as he swept his arm toward the three other Masters, "defenders of the galaxy and sworn protectors of the Republic, I, too, would like to honor you for your actions."
As the diminutive Jedi Master paused, Kagi spared a glance to Bastila, now standing on his left. She caught his look, gave him a smile, then turned her attention back to Master Vandar. Kagi followed suit.
"We Jedi now have another tale to weave into the grand history of our eternal Order."
Kagi could feel the eyes of all his comrades, as well as that of the crowd, on him.
"The Redemption," Vandar continued, staring proudly at him, "of Revan, the Prodigal Knight."
On some unspoken cue, the ten heroes turned once again to face the crowd, with Vandar's voice rising from behind them. "Wherever you go, you will be recognized as saviors of the galaxy. The heroes of our age. But you must remain ever vigilant, for one day, you may be called upon again, to defend the glory of the Republic against the tyranny of the dark side."
The roar of the crowd rose again as the heroes looked out over the gathered assembly, proudly displaying the accolades of the Republic they had earned. In the skies above, ten Republic starfighters roared over the assembly. As they passed over, the starfighters broke and roared in different directions, except for the last two, which shot directly through the middle of the breaking formation.
The smoke trails left in their wake were like the beams of a rising sun, each trail symbolic of one of the ten new heroes, of a bright new hope for the Republic. And of the two that shot straight through the middle…
Kagi smiled and looked over to Bastila. She was also looking at him, also smiling. She had thought of the same thing. Those last two fighters were meant to symbolize them.
"For this," Vandar concluded, "is the destiny of the Jedi."