Taint (The Redemption Saga - Part II)

The Redemption Saga, part II

Taint

Bastila was on the Revelation, studying star charts of the Ebon Hawk's last known position, when she felt a chill ripple through her being. She staggered down to the chair, her color leaving her face as if being drained. Her throat felt tight, and she began to breathe in short gasps. Mission reached to steady her. 'What is wrong Bastila? Are you alright?'

The Jedi felt a familiar taint deep inside flare, like an old injury that had been irritated. She shook her head with uncertainty. 'I don't know what just happened. But I feel something awful is going on. It's like evil has been...' Despite her Jedi training, her shoulders began to heave as tears well up in her eyes.

The young Twi'lek tried to comfort her as she looked up at Jolee. 'What's going on?'

Jolee shook his head sadly. 'I fear that she may be seeing the future. It may be the last thing she wants to see right now.' The wise old man held his tongue further, as he also felt torn inside, fear of the past revived clouding his mind.

Bastila's thoughts raced wildly. What was happening to him? She was sure this was from their bond. It remained strained, but the anguish she felt as she first sensed the tremor spoke to something deep within her. Something she had buried deep. She knew she would never be without that scar. It was part of her now. A part she wised she had never had experienced, but there was no denying it was there. Now it was her burden, the fact that she had crossed over into the Dark Side. It was something she could not be fully cleansed from, but she determined she would never again let it rise from its isolation within her.

She flashed back to her time with Malak. She had been strong under the torture, at least strong for a while. She was strong until her fear overwhelmed her Jedi defenses. She never realized how alone she had felt, being taken from her family, living a nomadic life with the Jedi. She was even isolated from her peers, as her Battle Meditation had set her apart, unfairly perhaps, as she was still so young and raw.

When she fought on the strike team against Revan, she had wanted to see if there was any way he could be redeemed. She thought she may be naïve, but there was something that she sensed as the strike team had approached. There was something she could sense in the Sith Lord, something that spoke of a good ideal that had been perverted through dark emotions. When she caught his essence from oblivion in the aftermath of Malak's double cross on his master, she didn't know if there was anything left to redeem. Revan should have died then. But when the Council was through with him, it seemed as Revan was dead; only Jairon Tyndale remained. She didn't realize the bond they shared at that point, not until the fateful attack on the Endar Spire and the travails on Taris.

Being thrust together with Jairon, again seemingly by the will of the Force, she was unsure what to make of this twist of fate. But as Jairon progressed in the Force, returning to a walk in the Light, she came to depend on him more than she had ever relied on anyone. When she threw herself at Malak on the Leviathan to give Jairon and their friends time to escape, it had been a visceral reaction; to give their mission, their calling, as it seemed, a chance to succeed. Even more, she realized she couldn't bear the thought, however quickly it flashed in her mind, of losing him.

It was then, under Malak's demented will, that her fear cracked her resolve. She had been abandoned again, by all who she held dear. The Council had used her, he said. She had no worth, except what she was able to contribute. No worth intrinsically. Not for who she was. Jairon had seemed to accept her as she was, with no baggage. But he was gone. And she stood strong for a week under unimaginable agony. Then she gave in to her new master. Malak may have been the physical master, but her fear was her new ruler.

Fear is what called to her now. Jairon had come to her at the Rakatan temple, and on the Star Forge. He showed her fear no longer had to rule over her. He brought her back, and exemplified security and faithfulness to her. Now, she knew that something was trying to take him away from her. Something was tearing at him, and it crossed over to her. Her old nemesis tried to use this against her. How would she respond?

Her body stopped quivering, and she looked up to see the crew around her. Mission's eyes were huge with concern. Jolee showed the wisdom of someone who'd been there before. HK-47 just had the sense, or proper programming, to mind to his own violent thoughts.

'I'm... I'm alright,' she whispered. 'I think I had a glimpse of what Jairon is up against. We must hurry and find him.'

With that, the crew returned to their stations, determination renewed as they hurtled toward the Hawk's last known coordinates.

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From the shadows, a swath of black flowing robes appeared. The figure approached, and a hood lifted to look at him. The man who was once known as Revan looked into this hood and saw an image, an image of a mask, his mask, of when he was Revan. Jairon felt a degree of pure horror deep within, as he tried to comprehend what he was actually seeing.

He was still frozen, his hands bound somehow. The hooded figure moved with deliberate pauses around the Jedi. After circling Jairon, a glove covered hand made an insignificant flick. Jairon stumbled back, as if dropped from being held by a enormous hand. He moved back into a defensive crouch, extremely wary of what this masked figure was doing. He sensed the dark power emanating from the robes, although there was an odd flux to it. It wasn't normal Force sensations; it was more like echoes of the Force.

Jairon reached for his lightsaber, but his belt was empty. A deep, mocking laugh came from behind the mask of his assailant. His main offensive weapon missing, he then looked to defensive positions for any fight. Scanning all around, there seemed to be nothing but the darkness around him. His confusion increased, wondering how he ended up in this place, wherever it was.

His foe reached his hand toward him, and broke Jairon's thoughts by sending him flying backwards. Again he laughed at the beleaguered Jedi as he scrambled to get up and respond. Jairon tried to reach out with the Force himself to counter, but nothing happened. His power was simply absorbed into the blackness around him.

Lacking any means of forceful interaction with his assailant, he finally just spoke. 'Who are you, and why am I here?' His voice was firm and even. He was horribly disoriented, but his renewed Jedi discipline was serving him well. He didn't like this situation, but patience would be his ally.

'You know me, even if you don't remember.' The voice behind the mask, although muted, was equally firm.

Jairon marveled at the way this person was trying to be Revan. He finally remembered Zeire, the Sith who had captured him right before he ended up, well, wherever this was. Zeire didn't seem like he would be able to impersonate his former self, but he couldn't fathom another answer.

As if reading his mind, the dark warrior drew up towards Jairon. 'Who else could so utterly leave you helpless? Why do you doubt what is plain before you? Have you really forgotten who you once were?' The contempt grew with every word.

Jairon shook his head. 'No, you can't be Revan. You can't be me. Revan died on the Defiance when Malak attacked it. There wasn't anything left for the Council to restore, they had to make Jairon to take his place. And I am not Revan. I do not choose that path, I will not go there again!' His voice raised as his control started to crack with his sickening realization that something was very, very wrong.

'You are mistaken. Revan did not die. Revan was buried by injury and the meddling of the Jedi Council. Who you were was lost, but not gone. You knew the taint was there. You knew there was darkness in you, but you chose to ignore it. You chose to live as a powerless whelp to their will, denying the power you had.'

'I don't know how this is happening,' Jairon whispered. 'But I have a chance to make a change, to atone for what you...what I did before. I will not go back.'

Revan stepped closer. 'You can't help but go back. How can you, with all the things you've done? The lives, lost at your hand. The destruction of worlds. How can there be redemption for such evil? You can think that now... your memories of being me are gone.' His very words cut into Jairon like icy darts. 'I thought about going back. But with these memories, with this blood guilt, with the rush of power, if you had these, do you really think you could go back? DO YOU?!'

Revan moved closer to him. Jairon tried to dodge, but he stumbled on something in this blasted darkness. A gloved hand reached out from under the robes, and grabbed onto Jairon's temples. His eyes rolled back in his head, as memories came flooding back...

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The Revelation and its dual fighter escort came out of hyperspace. The system was less than a parsec away from a minor trade route, but there was nothing on the planet that would draw settlement. An asteroid field was beyond the orbit of the rural planet, discouraging space travel in the system. The pilots of the convoy were some of the Republic's best however, so the debris could be easily navigated.

Bastila was belted into the seat behind the freighter's pilots, reaching out with the Force. She had plotted the Ebon Hawk to this system, and she knew their friends were here. If Jairon was on the surface, she was still too far away to fully feel their bond. But she should be able to at least sense him. There was some muddled disturbance in the Force, but that was about all. Except...

'Fighters! A dozen or more, at zero-point-three-two.' The pilots' recognition of the new signals came just as Bastila sensed the enemy fliers. An ambush from the asteroid field. That would explain why such a pilot as Carth could be taken down in a place like this.

The lead pilot was trying to coordinate his fighter escort against this onslaught. 'TK-421, cover me as we head to mark-four-six. We've got to shake them off us a bit, if we've got any chance here," he shouted as the freighter made a hard bank to try and dissuade their pursuers.

The pilot was unaware of the petite Jedi meditating behind him. As he frantically adjusted controls and barked out orders to his wingmen, Bastila calmly focused with the Force. She could sense the ripples each pilot, Sith and Republic alike, made in the Force. Despite the banking and turning the Revelationwas doing in order to try and avoid the onslaught, she entered her Battle Meditation state. By her will, she used the Force to encourage the Republic pilots, and sharpen their own combat skills. At the same time, she was sapping the will and concentration of the Sith.

The two Republic fighters made a shrewd cross and spin maneuver to keep the laser fire off them. Two Sith ships, in trying to follow, actually slammed into each other, causing an ion explosion as the vessels ignited in the collision. Another Sith fired wildly at the freighter, hitting a wingman with his off-target sprays. The wounded ship spun out of control away into space.

The pilot felt his confidence surging, and had an inspiration. 'No, I'm not kidding. Let's go through the edge of the asteroid field! I know this will work; trust me!' he shouted at his co-pilot as the ship veered up to where the fighters sprang their surprise attack. Flying like he never had before, he dodged chunks of rock that hurled toward him at all angles. He didn't realize the Force flowing through him, giving him the reflexes of a Jedi. Bastila continued to influence the battle from her seat behind him.

The Republic fighters had managed to get behind half of the Sith contingent, and their targeting of the enemy was never more precise. One by one the Sith exploded into bright balls of energy as they fell more and more disorganized. The pilots trying to track the Revelation through the asteroid field were not having any better luck. It almost seemed as they flew into the asteroids instead of trying to avoid them.

Then as quickly as the battle had commenced, it was over. Bastila's pilot shook his head. 'I can't believe we even survived that ambush, much less taking so little damage,' he said as he scanned readouts on the consoles around him. 'We hardly took fire.'

Bastila smiled briefly. One challenge had been answered. Their purpose still eluded them, and she was feeling a strengthening dark presence on the planet they approached. A presence that was eerily familiar to her.

'Hurry captain, bring us down. I've got a bad feeling about this. We are running out of time I fear,' she whispered, as she continued to reach out with the Force.

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The winds swirled around Jairon. Slowly, he raised his battered and weary body up off of the dirt. He looked around, as his eyes came into focus. There was something very familiar about this place. But still, he couldn't quite place it. His head felt like it had been in orbit without his body for a few days. He slumped back to the reddish dust for a minute.

He froze with the sounds of boots approaching in the dried dirt. He was in the open, with no cover to roll to, even if he could get his body to cooperate. As he looked up, he gasped. The hooded figure -- Darth Revan, his old self, approached. Jairon tried to scramble somewhere, anywhere, to get himself in a better position. He suddenly realized that he was in the middle of the Valley of the Dark Lords. How did I get here? he thought.

Darth Revan strode purposefully, right on by the fallen Jedi. Jairon was horribly confused about being ignored. What was going on? He realized that behind Revan were two other people. One was a shriveled old figure in tattered dark robes, and the other...was his old apprentice, Malak. He wondered how this could be. He had vanquished Malak on the Star Forge, and had been there for his last breath. But there he was, step for step with himself... or his former self... whatever was going on. They strode to one of the tombs, and with the Force, they opened the large stone slab openings and disappeared into the dark, dank depths.

He tried to pull himself up out of the dust, in order to figure out what was happening to him. Before he got halfway up though, darkness swirled around him, and he lost contact with his surroundings. He didn't feel like he was losing consciousness, but he wasn't where he had been anymore. As soon as it started, the darkness faded. Except it was quite dark wherever he was. His eyes slowly acclimated to the dim atmosphere. He glanced around, and recognized the tomb of Naga Sadow. Silhouettes moved in the far side of the chamber, until a bluish light illuminated the room. The Star Map flashed from the projector, shining light on Darth Revan, Malak, and their guide.

Jairon felt a oddly familiar sensation. He didn't remember this event from his days as Revan. He recognized the surroundings when retracing his steps when searching for the Star Forge under the auspices of the Council. But he didn't remember accessing the Star Map before that. However, he felt the feelings coming from the hooded figure. He sensed the growing arrogance and thirst for power in him. The feelings spoke to something deep inside, into his soul. He shuddered, trying to shrug off the pleasure they evoked in him.

The tattered man started jabbering to the duo in front of Jairon. Impatience grew in Darth Revan; the man must not have realized what a treasure he had led them to, and was arguing for a greater commission. Finally he pulled at Revan's robe. His hands latched on to the cloak, but immediately reached for his neck. His mouth opened wide, and he tried to gasp for air, but none could pass through his compressed throat. Jairon winced at the anger and cold disregard that his former self seethed as the man slowly expired. The body slumped to the ground, as the masked voice instructed Malak to make good use of the acid pool they had crossed. Malak, with a disdain apparent in his manner, picked up the body and moved off.

Jairon shook with the realization that it was he that had murdered that pitiful being for such a petty action. How could I have become like that? Before he could wonder any longer, the darkness again danced around him, and in a daze he collapsed to the ground.

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