KOTOR III: The Stand of the Sith

[ForceFightWMe12]

"Tysy?" the Mandalore asked as he approached her. He could almost sense her surprise reverberating in the air. "What is it?"

[Tysyacha]

"Darth Traya!" The Exile couldn't believe it. "She's on the list! As is--oh, no.

No. It can't be. He's dead. She's dead. They're all dead. Revan wouldn't--"

 

She whirled around quickly to face Canderous. "Have you ever heard of a

woman named Bastila Shan? According to this list, her 'termination' hasn't

happened, and Revan was supposed to be the one to--carry it out himself!"

[ForceFightWMe12]

"Bastila Shan??" he asked in surprise, "But they're--"

The image of them talking in hushed tones, quite close together years ago on the Ebon Hawk, Revan, unabashed, taking her hand.

"They're involved..." Canderous muttered, "Why would she be on the 'to-do' list?"

[steven]

Jack just stood behind the group. Not making any comment. His mind was being plauged by good memories of his training and in less than a day,how it was all taken away from him. Jack took a deep breath and asked "Can I see that list of Jedi killed? Perhabs there's someone I know on it."

[Jason Skywalker]

Suddenly, a crimson droid carrying a blaster rifle appeared behind him.

 

"Threat: Put your hands up and turn around before your bodies turn into ashes, meatbags!" He shouted.

 

It was HK-47, the assassin droid conceived by the Dark Lord Revan himself, his body a little rusted, his photoreceptors with a golden murderous light. He stood in an action pose, aiming his rifle at them.

[steven]

Jack put his hands on his heads and turned to face the droid. While he was doing this he sent a message to Tysy I reckon we could take this droid. I'll use a distraction while you make the kill move?

[Jason Skywalker]

"Acnowledgement: You all seem familiar to me. Query: Anyone of you ever met a Revan?" HK asked, still aiming his blaster. He noticed Jack eyeing Tysy, he knew they were talking through the Force, Jedi are like that.

[JasraLantill]

"Familar to you? Me?" Aerl said to the droid while slowly raising his hands. "Hey, I just got here. I'm not 'familiar' with anything, living or...." He eyed HK up and down. "...o-or droid on this dusty old planet. Especially you." There was a slight hint of fear in his voice, but it wasn't the droid he was afraid of. "And I've never even heard of this Revan person until...erm, now," he added emphatically.

[steven]

Well here goes nothing Jack thought it himself

"We're not hostile threats. We here to speak with this Revan about something. We have intell that will be of great use to him on his quest. We request that you bring us to him."

[Jason Skywalker]

"Statement: I also don't recognize you meatbag. I was talking about the armoured Mandalorian and the girl." HK said to Aerl before turning to Jack.

 

"Query: My master is alive?" HK asked, amazed. "Threat: Tell me where he is now if you don't want to be a corpse, meatbag."

[steven]

"You've seem to miscalcuate droid. There are more of us than they're are of you. Two of us are Jedi's, leader of the mandalorians and a...." Jack paused for a second "Wait, you just said you don't know where you master is? Then how did you get here?" Jack question, lowering his hand.

[Jason Skywalker]

"Exclaration: I don't know, i simply woke up in here, pehraps my Master left me here to kill or something," HK said, "I seem to recognize the female Jedi and the Mandalorian. "

 

"Statement: He is the Mandalore, Canderous Ordo if i'm not mistaken. And she is...no, it can't be, Mistress!" HK shouted.

[JasraLantill]

Aerl raised a single eyebrow at the droid, then looked at Tysy askance. "Mistress?"

[Jason Skywalker]

"Statement: Yes, Mistress," HK said, looking at Tysy, "She is the Exiled One, she rebuilt me some years ago and we traveled on the Ebon Hawk with that wretched witch, Darth Traya."

 

"Query: Also, i once had a smaller, utility droid counterpart, has anyone seen it? He goes by the name of T3-M4." HK asked.

[Tysyacha]

Tysy nodded her head at HK-47. "T3 is aboard the Hawk, HK. As your

Mistress, both former and present until Revan's found, I command you to lower

your weapon. These are my companions, and they are no mere 'meatbags',"

she said. Then she smiled. "Welcome back into active service, HK-47."

 

She quickly turned and pressed Option 1 on the ancient console to re-

display the list of all the Jedi that had been "terminated" since Revan

had last accessed it. "Here you go, Jack. I honestly hope you don't

see anyone you know. Knew." She caught herself and spoke to Canderous.

 

"As for why Bastila is on the 'to-do' list--at that time, she was a Jedi.

I assume she still is, after turning back to the Light Side aboard the

Star Forge. The Sith would have wanted her dead anew, her Battle

Meditation notwithstanding. I guess this console, and the Sith,

assumed that Revan would try to reclaim his title as Dark Lord.

Unfortunately for them, they all miscalculated." Tysy sighed.

 

"There's something odd, though. Not about Revan, but Bastila.

Canderous?" she asked. "HK? What do you know or remember,

if anything, about this legendary Jedi who had the power to

turn the tide of any battle she was in? I only know her through

hearsay. Jedi teachings, and the example of her rise and fall."

[Jason Skywalker]

HK lowered his rifle and then answered his Mistress, Tysy.

 

"Thought: I think i have heard of her, i might have worked with her..." HK said. "Statement: Now i remember! She did always wanted to press her slimy mucus-covered lips with my Master's ones in the Cargo Hold, but, strangely, that is all i remember, my circuits are failing unfortunately."

[ForceFightWMe12]

"She was a brat." Mandalore answered before elaborating, "Always Dark Side this and fear that. Watch your actions or, Force forbid, you might take a turn to the dark side. And if she wasn't preaching, she was whinning, or barking orders like there was no tomorrow. We didn't get along well."

[JasraLantill]

"Really?" Aerl said with incredulous sarcasm. He just couldn't seem to help himself, even though he knew he was going to gain a reprisal from Mandalore. "Sounds to me like you and this Bastila were...close. Maybe not close enough to swap spit like the droid said she and Revan did, but... they do say 'opposites attract.'"

[ForceFightWMe12]

The Mandalorian growled and his fist shot out, his armored fingers finding their way around his neck.

"Listen to me you little--"

"Canderous..."

He glared hard at Aerl for several moments before loosening his grip and backing away. Why did Tysy have to...

[JasraLantill]

Aerl shrugged and straightened his shirt. "Hit a nerve, did I?" he asked the Mandalorian, although he didn't expect an answer. Well, not a verbal answer anyway. A grunt perhaps. Or maybe a... Ooh, he thought, better apologize.

 

"Look, I'm, erm... sorry," he said, albeit sounding a bit insincere. "But if this Bastila person isn't on that computer Jedi M.I.A. list, then I suppose we'd better go and find her. If she and Revan had a 'thing' goin', as much as I find that a bit hard to imagine between two 'Jedi', then she might be with him. Or him her. Or... you know what I mean." He looked around. "This place is big. Really big. We could start to explore those corridors. Even if we don't find Revan, we may find a clue as to where he, she, or they might be."

[ForceFightWMe12]

Alright...maybe he's not a total meathead...

Canderous turned to Tysy.

"Well? Your call, Tysy."

[Tysyacha]

Tysy nodded. "We must be careful, though. I know we already have been,

but this is a dark planet. There's no telling what manner of creatures we

might encounter that could be--worse--than whatever you two found."

She motioned to both Aerl and Canderous, and then to HK-47. "Please

come with us, HK. We're going to need your help if we're all going to

survive Ziost." Deferring to Mandalore to lead, Tysy and the troupe

continued through the darknened labyrinth. What was wrong here?

 

Besides the fact that this was a homeworld of the Sith, of course.

 

Just then, as if the Force willed it, a barely audible-voice pierced the silence.

 

"Hypersuffusion," it said. "Via the Force. An end to the whole mess..."

 

The voice was female. Young. Crisp and clear, with a trace of an accent.

Very refined, as if the speaker had been an aristocrat once. Or a politician.

 

Or, perhaps, a Jedi.

 

"Statement: Those are the vocal patterns of one Bastila Shan," intoned HK.

 

This revelation made Tysy Dvukh's blood run ice-cold, though Ziost burned.

[ForceFightWMe12]

"I know that voice...it has to be her." Mandalore confirmed, pausing a moment. Glancing at his blaster rifle, he fixed a few things before proceeding forward again.

"C'mon, we'll do nothing sitting around here. Watch your step, I dunno if I like the sound of her voice right now..."

[Tysyacha]

Something was pulling her. Pulling them toward it. The Exile

remembered how Master Kavar and the others had warned her

against becoming twisted by the Dark Side, but could it possibly

be that someone could become just as twisted by doing what

they believed was the right thing to do? It seemed to

Jack, Aerl, Canderous, and Tysy that they were all about to

find out. What truths were of the Light, and which were Dark?

 

A door, a room, a holocron. One Sith Holocron, black as pitch.

So simple, and yet so complex. So fatal. Tysy approached it.

 

An image of Bastila Shan softly whirred into projected life. Strange

that this powerful icon of Jedi history did not appear to be physically

tainted by the Dark Side. However, her words left no doubt in Tysy's

mind as to where her allegiances truly lay. Despite self-deception.

 

"An end," said Bastila, her voice at once sorrowful and hollow. "An

end to the wars, to the bloodshed, to the eternal battle between

the Jedi and the Sith. Thousands upon hundreds of thousands are

caught in the crossfire, and it never stops. It never ceases, and it

never will cease until the Force sees fit to reform this galaxy anew.

How humbling it is, then, that it has chosen me as its instrument...

 

"My Battle Meditation, I now realize, was only a crude stepping stone

to a greater and purer power. Through the power of the Force, and

my own meditations, I can channel it so that those I encounter may

be filled with it. Sometimes, even overfilled, especially if they are evil.

 

Am I evil? Sometimes I believe so, but would an evil being seek eternal

peace and the rebirth of the galaxy? Or endless war, endless conflict,

and unmended wounds in the Force, wicked echoes that plague us

due to the machinations of the Sith Lords? Who is evil? They or I?

 

"I thought that hundreds might be spared--dozens--nay, even one!

Then I realized the full truth of what the Jedi Masters had taught

me so many years ago. The Dark Side is within all of us, and we are

all tainted. There is not one of us immune to its lure, or the depraved

actions we may commit if we follow our base passions, our base lusts.

We are all infected with this virus, and that is why I am willing to

sacrifice myself to hypersuffusion as well. I, too, must die with all.

 

"It is the final objective of an evil being to preserve himself at the cost

of the entire galaxy, and the final objective of a good one to sacrifice

himself for the galaxy's good. That is why some may see the ultimate

act of destruction and Sithhood in what I wish to do, but if I truly were

a Sith, I would be the only one left to reshape the galaxy. And Revan.

 

"Instead, we will both become one with the Force, and all of life along

with it. Only then can the Force have a clean slate in the void of space

we call home to create and sustain life. Pure life, with no trace of darkness..."

 

The Exile let out a choked "uh-ih-ee!" sound and slumped against the holocron.

[ForceFightWMe12]

"Tysy!" Mandalore exclaimed as he dropped to his knees beside her, his blaster forgotten as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Tysy...are you alright?"