Chapter Text
The blast doors to the bridge screeched open, sirens blaring in all the hallways throughout the ship, lights flashing or sputtering out, and the sounds of blaster fire were periodically joined by the whining of metal trying to stay attached to the ship. Bastila walked, head held high, a team of jedi knights trailing behind the padawan, towards the front of the bridge; there stood her target. Revan.
Revan didn’t turn to look. She was alone in the room besides the newly entered group. She merely watched the battle unfold through the windows where there was a clear view to her apprentice’s flagship.
Bastila swallowed the lump in her throat, it felt like an endless distance between herself and the imposing woman, who in all truthfulness was too short to be that imposing, and yet she felt like she was getting too close to Revan too fast. Here stood the conqueror of worlds, and she had to do what was necessary to neutralize her.
Bastila stopped at the bottom of the steps, her team stayed fast around her, one of the only hopes of the Republic. Revan looked small up close, hardly intimidating. She stood three inches shorter than Bastila, two inches with the shoes she was wearing that were planted firmly on the ground. Despite being three years older than Bastila, who was around 24, she had a smaller figure, but Bastila knew better than to underestimate her, she radiated power.
“You cannot win, Revan!” Bastila exclaimed firmly.
Revan didn’t move. For a few seconds she didn’t acknowledge Bastila, and she wondered if perhaps the battle outside had covered her words. Embarrassing.
Before she could speak again, Revan sighed and lowered her head. She raised it again and continued to stare ahead, facing away from Bastila.
“Awfully confident, padawan. Tell me, what gives you such conviction?”
Bastila gritted her teeth and hovered her hand above her lightsaber. “I am a jedi, I wield the light side of the force, I-”
“You think you’re their greatest strength,” Revan interrupted, as she began to turn around. Bastila was suddenly hauntingly aware of her team, now floating behind her, struggling to breathe. Revan was now facing her, her cold mandalorian mask hiding any human features. She held her hand out slightly, as if picking up a team of jedi knights by the throats was a simple act.
Revan slightly gestured with her hand, and all five knights that had stood behind her fell to the ground, necks snapped.
“I was their greatest strength, the pride of the Jedi.” Revan said, putting her hands behind her back.
Bastila tried not to let her fear be felt, but she couldn’t mask the beating of her heart, the widening of her eyes, the pain she felt as the force left the bodies of her companions.
“So much confidence, and yet so few words. I’m disappointed. What happened to all that fire you barged in here with? Did you have it placed in your protectors?”
Bastila seethed. “I don’t fear you.” She spat
Revan laughed, it sounded metallic coming from her mask. Metallic, and cruel; hardly human.
“You would be wise to better mask your feelings, padawan. I would hate to see an opponent take advantage of such a weakness.”
“I don’t need a lesson from you!”
“And I don’t need to teach you. Be grateful I’m feeling generous.”
“You won’t leave here, your terror ends now.”
“And you’re going to be the one to take me down? Child, you only stand because I will it.”
“I’m not a child.”
“My mistake.” Revan said, sarcastically.
Bastila drew her lightsaber and lit it, the single yellow blade springing to life. Revan tilted her head, unamused.
“What do they see in you? What makes you so special to them? Surely they didn’t send you here to die.”
“You’re about to find out.” Bastila said, tightening her grip and steeling herself.
“I’m sure.” Revan said, half amused. She slowly reached out and pulled her own two sabers into her hands with the force. She ignited them, two cruel red blades that she swung around a few times before holding them out defensively.
Bastila leaped, boosting herself with the force, above Revan. She landed behind her and immediately went for Revan’s head, but Revan had already turned around and easily beaten her saber back.
“You’re going to have to do better than that. Show me why the counsel has placed you at the forefront of their pathetic assault.”
Bastila half-expected that she was trying to get a rise out of her, and tried not to show that it was working.
She swung again, calling on the force to strengthen her blows. Revan dodged or blocked each one with little effort.
“So much passion,” Revan said, dodging out of the way and using the force to push the now off-balance Bastila down, “such little coordination.”
Bastila was quick to get back up, she brushed one of her fly-away bangs out of her face and continued her assault. She desperately battled the dark lord. Revan had yet to begin attacking, instead casually defending against everything she did.
Bastila stopped, catching her breath, drawing on the force to restore herself.
“So much fear. They sent you here to die.”
“Shut up!”
“You will serve them, and they will cast you aside.”
“You betrayed us!”
“And you’ll meet the same fate they laid for me.”
Bastila gritted her teeth. She raised her saber again in front of her.
Before she could react, Revan darted around, alarmed, to look out the window of the bridge. Before Bastilla could puzzle over her sudden redirection, blaster fire from Malak’s ship was sent hurtling towards Revan’s own ship. Within that split second before impact, Revan reached out and pushed Bastila through the air, back towards the blast doors, as she herself went flying forward over a railing towards the ground.
Bastila thumped to the ground, and hit her head hard on a computer terminal. She reached for her lightsaber that had fallen from her grasp, and pulled it back to her with the force. She examined it for a second, confused, before her muddled brain put together that it was basically destroyed. She tried to get up, but the ringing in her ears, and the world seemingly spinning around her caused her to fall back down to her hands and knees. She squeezed her eyes shut and used the force to try and calm her frantic mind. She was faintly aware of alarms going off through the bridge as the broken windows were covered by an emergency blast shield.
When she finally regained most of her bearings, she stood up unsteadily. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion around her. She looked towards the bodies of her companions, all buried under rubble. She looked up to where Revan had stood, at first she couldn’t make anything out.
Then she saw it.
A hand desperately clawing a crumpled body out of the rubble. Agonized breathing rasping out of the figure. Bastila’s feet seemed to have a mind of their own as she walked towards the incapacitated dark lord, ready to finish what she had come here for. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was struck with a thought. You saved me.
Bastila paused. The dark lord of the sith had saved her. She should have been stuck under the rubble along with Revan, gasping for her final breaths. Why?
Bastila continued up the stairs, she used the force to push the rubble off of Revan, and grabbed her arms, dragging her away from what was meant to be her grave. She fell backwards due to the weight of the sith lord, and her still unsteady balance.
Revan’s head now rested in her lap, laboring breaths forcing sound from her mask as she struggled to breathe. Bastila reached down and carefully pulled her mask off.
Revan’s eyes were wide, a fearful expression she no doubt had not shown in a while, her mouth was dripping blood, Bastila’s own eyes widened with the realization. She was choking on her own blood. She gripped Revan’s shoulders and closed her eyes, channeling all the calm healing energy she could into Revan’s body. She could feel Revan’s relief. Revan’s eyes closed, the sound of her breathing slowed along with her heart rate, no longer struggling to live.
What are you doing? Bastila felt her own energy leaving her already weak body. You’re here to end this! Bastila squeezed her eyes shut, focusing as hard as she could to channel everything into Revan.
She saved me. Bastila’s body started to droop, her grip on Revan’s shoulders weakening, her energy was saving Revan at the cost of her own. You won’t survive this.
Bastila reached into the depths of her power, Live! She implored Revan. Please! Revan remained unmoving, but Bastila could feel her consciousness grasping out to hers. It was as if they were interlocking their bodies together, holding each other fast, telling the other to survive. Bastila gasped, her grip loosened and she let go of Revan.
Bastila steeled herself before forcing herself up to her knees, and she interlocked her arms with Revan’s. She pulled the Sith Lord against her chest and used all of her strength to pull the both of them up. Revan was unconscious; Bastila stumbled backwards towards the exit, pulling Revan along. The Jedi Counsel will decide her fate.