Revan's Shadow: Chapter One - En Route to Tatooine

Obtena looked around the main hold of the Ebon Hawk. The crew she had somehow collected together over the past month.

Carth had been the first. He and Obtena had taken the last escape pod before the Sith completely destroyed the Endar Spire as it was spiraling into the gravity of Taris. Carth was a Republic soldier and pilot with a paranoia complex; that hadn't stopped him from flirting with her, for some reason. He had nursed her back to health after the pod's crashing into Taris' Upper City, however, and his skills had come in handy plenty of times during their search for Bastila; so in the end Obtena was glad the Jedi council's request for him to remain with the group had been approved.

Together, they had met Mission and Zaalbar in a Lower City cantina. The young blue Twi'lek had been a wealth of local information, from the crime lord Davik (previous owner of the Ebon Hawk) to the swoop gangs that were currently turning the Lower City into a war zone. It wasn't until the three of them had rescued her Wookiee friend Zaalbar from Gamorrean slavers in the sewers beneath the Undercity that she had truly become part of the team; when the tall furball had pledged a lifedebt to Obtena for the rescue, Mission had declared that wherever 'big Z' went, she went. As for Zaalbar himself, he was the strong silent type and good in a fight; two characteristics Obtena was pleased with.

Which was twice as many good things he had going for him than Bastila did, and being the most important Jedi in the war against the Sith may not have been a plus. She certainly wasn't the silent type. From the moment Obtena had rescued her from the swoop gang that captured her, she had been... putting on airs, was it? Full of herself was probably more accurate. Well, full of something. Carth maintained that without Bastila's ability in Battle Meditation during several major encounters with the Sith, the Republic would have already been wiped from the face of the galaxy, so there was no doubt she was critical to the war effort. Obtena simply wished the young woman had the legendary humility of a Jedi.

The Mandalorian, Canderous, had been the key to the lot of them getting off Sith-occupied Taris and past the ships in orbit as they pulverised the entire surface of the planet into dust. He had found that being an employee of Davik had grown even more unappealing since the blockade, and had approached Obtena after she won the Taris swoop race season opener (for which Bastila had been the prize... not that the prize-giving had been a smooth affair, of course) with an offer to get them to Davik's ship. 'All' they'd needed to do was break into the Sith base to acquire codes that would get them past the Sith ships without being blasted out of the sky. In the end that particular adventure had proved... enlightening. The Mandalorian himself was much like Zaalbar, except for the bloodthirsty need for battle.

Last but not least, the Jedi Juhani. The first time Obtena had met the Cathar, they had fought nearly to the death. A student at the Jedi enclave on Dantooine, she had fallen to the dark side and corrupted the kath hounds, which were attacking local settlers with previously unknown ferocity. Obtena's final task before becoming a padawan had been to clean this taint. After nearly killing Juhani, she relented and persuaded her to turn from the dark path. As it turned out, her fall to the dark side had been a final lesson from the master who had been training her, to teach her the dangers of being ruled by the anger inherent in Juhani's species, before attaining the rank of Jedi Knight. Obtena didn't like it, especially when the dark side was supposed to be such a big deal, as Bastila kept whining about... but Juhani seemed okay with it, so she was too.

Now, they were looking to Obtena to tell them what was going on.

"Now that we're underway..." Obtena paused to clear her throat and tried again. "...it's time to bring the rest of you up to date on our new mission. As most of you already know, Bastila and I shared a vision of Revan and Malak in the ruins on Dantooine, and once my training was 'complete' we went to investigate." Obtena's opinion was that she had basically been given a crash course in how to consciously use the Force; the masters had marvelled at her progress, but she remained unsure as to whether they had been impressed or worried. "We learned that the Sith lords had been searching for something called the Star Forge."

"Star Forge? What's that?" Mission asked.

"We don't know for sure. Some sort of manufacturing plant is my guess. It would explain why the Sith managed to amass such a large fleet so quickly. There was an ancient starmap in the ruins that held clues to its location, but the information was incomplete. It did however point us to several other worlds."

"Revan and Malak may have found something on each of the other worlds that completed this map." Bastila continued. "Maybe if we find all the other pieces to this puzzle it will lead us to the Star Forge, and some way to destroy it."

"That sounds like quite a supposition." Carth muttered moodily. "What if you're wrong?"

"What if we're right?" Bastila countered. "We can't ignore this. Finding the Star Forge may very well be the key to defeating the Sith."

"But you're not telling us everything, are you?" Carth continued, anger creeping into his voice. He turned to Obtena. "I know the Jedi have a habit of keeping secrets, but when it comes to something this important, I don't like being left out of the loop."

"You were born out of the loop." Obtena corrected him with a smirk.

"Cute. Any cuter and you'd pass for a Gamorrean's sister." Carth blasted back.

"Better than a Gamorrean's mother."

Carth shook his head with a frown on his face. "Look, I'm serious. None of you Jedi seem to want to tell us anything, and it's really starting to irritate me. For one thing, I want to know what the Jedi council said to you. They kept pulling you in there and refused tell me a thing about it!"

"That is none of your concern, Carth, " Bastila said before Obtena could respond, "And you would do well to leave the matter be."

"I respect you Bastila, but you've been as close-mouthed as the rest of the council. If you won't talk to me, then maybe somebody else will." Carth raised his eyebrows at Obtena.

"They thought it was more important that I help find these star maps than stay and continue my training." she answered slowly, well aware of how much Bastila was fuming on the inside, even if it was less evident from her features. She couldn't quite bring herself to look directly at her...

"And why is that?" Carth continued. "You were a great help on Taris, but why would they keep you with us? Don't they... don't they have to train you for years on end? I can't believe they'd leave that job to another padawan, even one as powerful as Bastila... unless they're worse off after the war with Exar Kun than they let on."

With a sigh, Obtena came clean. "They said there's a bond between Bastila and myself. It's been known to happen, apparently, usually between master and apprentice; they don't usually happen so... abruptly, so the council made a big deal out of it."

"A bond? What kind of bond? You mean to say that you're tied to Bastila in some way? I have trouble believing that." Obtena opened her mouth to assure him that it was real - she could feel Bastila's disapproval at her decision to disclose all right now - but Carth ploughed on. "You're a neophyte padawan who's been saddled with the responsibility of tracking down these starmaps. Why? That's not normal." Finally he paused long enough to notice both Obtena and Bastila frowning at him. "Look, I'm not trying to provoke you or imply that you're somehow responsible for the Jedi council but... give me a hand here, there has to be a reason!"

"Are you saying I'm not needed?" Obtena growled.

"No, I don't... I didn't mean that you weren't wanted or that I want to go, it's just... dammit! Well I'll tell you this much, I'm not gonna wait around until I'm betrayed again."

"I am not going to betray you, Carth! I'm not Saul!"

"We'll see about that won't we..." Carth muttered without thinking, then saw the reaction on Obtena's face and tried to backtrack. "Look, I didn't mean it that way, I want to get to Saul, not... no, no, forget it. It just seems that all I can do is insult you, isn't it? Just forget I said anything!"

As Carth stomped off to the cockpit and some of the others retreated to neutral corners, Canderous gave a short, sharp bark of a laugh, took a seat and poured himself a drink. "I've known him as long as the rest of you, save the Cathar, and I'm already fed up with him."

"Yes, well." Obtena replied with the same inflection Bastila used when she spoke the phrase, "If Mandalore had betrayed you and led the Republic in an assault that wiped out your clan's homeworld, you'd be upset too."

Canderous merely shrugged. "I've no doubt that he'll get his revenge on that Saul man. He's a capable warr... soldier, but he's Republic; killing him won't be the end of it like it would be for me."

Obtena slid into the opposite seat, grabbed another cup and helped herself to the Tarisian ale that was probably a whole lot more expensive now the planet had been all but annihilated. To Canderous' envy she knocked it back in one go, then poured them both another round. "Tell me another war story." she asked. Bastila's disapproval kicked up another notch in the back of her mind, but she grinned at the Mandalorian and ignored it.

Bastila herself remained concerned. Obtena had a way with people that rivaled Revan's; she was worried how much of the Sith lord could return. The Jedi council had said too much of Revan had been lost, that it was better to reconstruct her personality and memory from scratch and hope beyond hope that she may lead them to a way to defeat the Sith. At moments like this, the tiniest flicker of doubt would spark, and Bastila had to remind herself to trust in the will of the council. Still, such blatant displays of emotion... listening to the battle-hungry Mandalorian's horror stories... and drinking! How unbecoming of a Jedi.

As Bastila stalked off to ask Carth for their ETA at Tatooine, she wondered if she was being so disapproving to ensure Obtena could not pick up anything else via their connection... of everyone on board, she alone knew who Obtena used to be. She had to resist Obtena's charm, resist the urge to envy how easily she could simply jump in and get along with whomever happened to be around at the time. She musn't let Obtena's relaxed attitude and disdain for the Jedi way pull her to the dark side.