After the Fall Chapter 48 - Ghosts

Ghosts

Carth

Canderous sat beside me looking as close to death as I felt.

Revan leaned against the doorway. Her face was pale and deep shadows lined her eyes. She and Juhani were propping each other up. Jolee shuffled along behind them. "The Republic finally got off their asses and sent some reinforcements. There are scattered Sith, but they've been routed." She limped forward.

"Excellent," Bastila said.

I wanted to get up, to run to Revan and take her in my arms. But my arms wouldn't work, and neither would my legs. Canderous pulled a medpac from a utility pocket on his belt.

"Not so much," Revan said. She came forward and I saw that Zaalbar stood behind her, a blue and gray bundle in his arms. "Mission is stable, but weak. We--" here, she looked away--"we can't find her."

"That's my fault, isn't it?" Dustil said. "This is what you meant, isn't it Master?" He rose and strode over to the Wookiee.

Zaalbar snarled at him and held Mission away from him. [Traitor! We saw him free the Sith prisoners from the Republic base! Mission followed him and I found her in the jungle with his cloak!]

Dustil nodded and hung his head. "It's true."

Sick shock shot through me. I remembered my fear on Rakata, the fear that Revan would fall to the Dark Side and there would be nothing I could do to save her. That fear returned, this time for my son.

Revan flew forward and grabbed him by the neck. "You caused this? You freed them? After all the trouble we went through to extract your sorry little ass from the Sith academy, you ran right back to them?"

"Squeeze harder," Canderous said. "He's not a bright enough shade of purple."

I glared at him. I didn't have the strength for much else. "I hope someday you have children, Mandalorian. Then you'll know how it feels."

He shot me a strange look and tore the medpac open.

"I--had--my--orders," Dustil gasped out.

"Revan, please," I said. She turned towards me and I saw the exhaustion in her eyes.

She released him and Dustil dropped. "Your orders? You mindless little--"

"Your words flow from the dark side, young one."

"Who you calling young?" Revan shot back. "Only Jolee gets that privilege."

Bastila cleared her throat. "Dustil hosts the spirit of a Jedi Master several centuries old."

"Really." Revan's flat tone reminded me of Manaan, and her courtroom questioning of the Rodian the Sith paid to plant evidence against Jolee's friend. Right before she went in for the kill. "Then maybe the Master can put in a good word for a quick and merciful death."

"I cannot believe the Masters trained one such as yourself in the ways of the Force."

She smiled, humorless and feral. "They did. Twice, in fact. And I've got to warn you, Manipulative Jedi Masters aren't real high on my list of heroes right now, so let the kid explain his own actions."

Dustil looked up at Revan. "You really would've killed me on Korriban if I disobeyed my father, wouldn't you?" he asked. At her grim nod, he nodded too.

"I can respect that," he said. "But my orders were from Republic Intelligence. Before the Star Forge was destroyed, there were Sith movements in this sector, but no reason for them. The sector's a backwater, of no interest to anyone--"

"Except the Jedi," Jolee finished for him. "Exar Kun's last stand was here. The Jedi had to blast a crater that nearly knocked the planet out of orbit to finally take him down."

"And yet they still failed in their prime objective," Dustil's master said.

Jolee narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying that Exar Kun lives still?"

"Not exactly. He and his master both perished in their final duel."

"But a true Sith never dies," Revan said. "And Jedi become one with the Force."

"The apprentice was sent to determine the nature of Sith interest in this sector."

"Hearing you refer to yourself in the third person, and in a voice that isn't yours, bothers the hell out of me. Just so you know," Revan said.

"Deal with it," Dustil said, in his own voice, and with no incriminating pronouns.

Revan folded her arms. The tension drained out of her, and I felt my own sore muscles relax.

"That still doesn't explain what he did to Mission," Canderous said.

"Supplication: Please let me blast the schitzophrenic young meatbag, Master." The red protocol-assassin droid came around the corner, his servo-driven arms laden with backpacks full of equipment.

"HK, shut up!" I hoped there were more medpacs in there. I had a feeling we were all due for a long stay in a top-flight medical facility, and maybe one with psychiatric wards as well. Good. I could really use the rest.

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