[Fic] Star Wars: The Gray Code: Beginnings

[True_Avery]

This is a Fan Fiction I’ve been trying to pull together for awhile now, but I think I have finally decided to sit down and write it out. This will also be the first Fanfiction I have ever sat down and wrote, so be gentle ^.^

Just as a warning, the word “Canon” means little to me in my own mind. “Canon” feels like an imaginary roadblock to me, so I build myself my own road and keep driving. I’m betting a few of you already know what I am going to say next…

Just to say upfront, my Revan is female. I know, it is not Canon but I love the idea of Revan being a strong woman than being a man. Through experience, I have found a lot of people dislike the idea of a female Revan a lot… oh well.

The Gray Code: Beginnings is the first of, hopefully, many future Fics based on Revan’s life from Youngling/Padawan training, the Mandalorian wars, Jedi Civil War, and beyond. I have a personal interest in taking already made stories and remaking them to my liking while still staying on a relatively familiar story. I have seen few Fics in my personal experience that go in dept into Revan’s Canon past, so I’m going to write my own version. Now, onto Chapter One!

 

 

Chapter One:

My Sweet Blessing

 

In a Galaxy, far far away…

A young girl no older than five, with jet black hair that ran down to her shoulders and eyes as blue as the shining seas of Manaan, a shine like lightning, sat on a Durasteel floor. She wore a small smile, clearly having fun with her favorite marbles as they floated in the air inches from her face. She did not know when or where she learned to do this, but one day when playing she found she could control things, mostly small toys, with just her thoughts, making them float around the room. At first this terrified her, but she remembered what mommy told her.

 

“Don‘t be afraid honey… there is nothing to be afraid of…” Said her mother in a soothing voice as she calmed her four year old daughter in her arms. Her mother was surprised when she heard her suddenly crying in her room, only to find her huddled in a corner whimpering. She was even more surprised to see her marble collection floating harmlessly in the air with no apparent force behind them. The moment she had calmed her down, the marbles fell to the ground and lay still. She soothed her daughter further, as the event had apparently terrified her out of her wits. When she finally calmed down and ask what happened, all that she could say was, “You are my special gift to the world. You are special in ways nobody but I can understand. The gods gave you to me, as you are blessed… and those truly blessed are given gifts to change the world.” She explained to her that her blessings would give her powers that were unexplainable, but that should never be feared. “Nothing in life or death is to be feared,“ She would say, “It is only to be understood.“ That’s what she liked about her mommy… she could always say something amazing that would bring hope and warmth to her. Ever since that fateful day, she has never again been afraid of what she could do and even practiced with her gifts daily, her ability always bringing a luminous smile onto her mother’s face.

 

She turned her head away from the floating marbles to look at her mother. Some people sitting on steel benches were staring, amazed, at the floating marbles, but she did not care. Ever since they had boarded this passenger ship her mother had been on edge, constantly watching her, but right now she was standing and arguing in a low voice with another woman. Her mother was thin, but quite tall for a girl, as she had noted when she first began to notice such things. Around six feet tall, her mother matched the height of most men and made other girls seem short, along with her jet black hair and lightning blue eyes making her look quite intimidating, especially when angry. But she knew. She knew her mommy was not a big bad person, but a very kind and gentle person who tried to love all life for what it was. She took her eyes off her mother and looked to the woman she was arguing with. She had met this woman a few times before and seemed to be traveling with them from place to place, even though it did not make her mother happy. She was much shorter than her mother, but almost a complete foot, and had a beautiful complexion that was only made prettier by her snow white hair, tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing very clean and neat brown robes that she had never seen before, making her and her mother’s older clothes look like rags. The two were always talking in low voices to each other in a language that she could not understand. Her mother never liked to keep secrets from her, but she said she would keep the grown up conversations out of her innocent mind for now. Her mother was talking in a low whisper, but you could tell by her hand motions that she was having a heated talk with the white haired woman about something, the white haired woman looking from her to her mother at times. It was obvious after the first few moments that they were always talking about her.

 

She did not remember exactly where she had met the white haired woman, but she knew that her mother felt uncomfortable with her around, but showed her the same respect she showed all people. The white haired woman would ask her questions sometimes about her gifts to which she was glad to answer, but after a few questions her mother would get nervous and stop the conversation. The woman would also tell her that she had gifts of her own, gifts she was trained in using. This greatly confused her, as she thought she was the only one to be special…

 

She looked back at her marbles, which were orbiting each other, and opened a small leather pouch. All the marbles instantly stopped, then dropped silently into the bag. She stood up and walked up to her mother, not sure if she should interrupt or not. She was about to turn around when a low rumble in her belly told her to continue. She gripped her mother’s shirt and tugged a few times. The two woman stopped and looked down at her.

 

“Mommy, I’m hungry!” She said in a pleading voice.

 

Her mother thought for half a second, dropping the language she was using to whisper with and returning to Galactic Basic “Oh… oh my, I forgot! I’m sorry honey, but…” her mother bit her lower lip nervously. “I… don’t have any food… I forgot to buy some on the way -,” but she stopped talking to her as the white haired woman had reached into the pack at her feet and pulled out something wrapped and a flask. The woman unwrapped what looked to be bread, split it into three pieces between them and offered the flask to her mother.

 

“Here, its mineral water. I am sure after all this talking you would be parched.” The woman said calmly, a flickering smile on her face.

 

Her mother seemed hesitant at first, rather surprised that the same woman she kept arguing with was offering her and her daughter further aid, but sighed and took the flask, taking a small sip, then squatted down to her daughter’s height and handed her the drink. “I know its not much, but we should be at the next port soon and I’ll get us a nice meal to share as a reward for how good you have been so far.”

 

“Promise?” She said, gulping down the piece of bread she had been chewing.

 

“Promise!” her mother said back, poking her lightly on the nose and laughing.

 

She looked up at the white haired woman, who sat down on the nearest wall bench and watched the two. From the expression on her face, she could tell she was in deep thought behind the calm, happy demeanor. She lifted the flask and gulped down the water. The bread had been stale, but the water was cool and very refreshing, a welcome change to old sink water the ship was offering. Her mother then leaned forward and whispered for her to do something. She walked up to the woman and offered the flask back to her, leaving her mother a few feet behind. “Thankies for the water, Miss Kae.” She hoped she got the name right, as Kae seemed right. She mostly just thought of her as the White Haired Woman, but knew well enough that such a name would not sound right in conversation.

 

“You’re welcome.” Kae took the flask and set it beside her on the bench, tapping the spot to her right as a signal to join her. “Would you like to sit down with me, I’m sure your mother wont mind.” She said sweetly, giving a half glance to her mother. She hopped onto the bench, letting her feet hang from the bench as she swung them back and forth, trying to expend pent up energy that sitting on the ship could not expel. Her mother than sat to her right, joining in on a conversation that had she had just started about why the ship made a constant humming noise.

 

Many hours later, she woke up on the bench from her slumber. Kae and her mother had slept on the floor with small pillows, but were now awake. Her mother was shaking her calmly, each movement bringing her further and further into consciousness. At first her vision was blurred, but then she saw a small red light glowing about a foot from her face. She reached out to grab it and succeeded, feeling a the cold of metal and gem. Her vision completely cleared and found she was gripping her mother’s necklace, the face smiling down at her. “We’re here, time to get off the ship,” her mother said, a mix of anxiety and happiness in her voice. She sat up on the bench and rubbed her eyes. The passengers, about fifty of them, were lined up and slowly walking out of the ship through the lowered docking bay. She hopped off the bench, her mother quickly running her hand through her hair to remove the bad bed head, then stood up and gripped her bag in one hand and her daughter’s in the other. Kae was standing right behind them, also having a similar anxious and meaningful face, not looking at anybody in particular as she stared at the docking bay. Minutes later they were out of the ship and in a massive metal box shaped room, a large metal door at one end and a complete lack of wall at another for docking ships to enter. People from the passenger freighter were walking around, talking with each other as small droids zoomed around the Durasteel floor, picking things up, welding places here and there, and generally doing what they were programmed to do. She had noticed her mother had stopped, turned around, and was looking at Kae with a very serious expression on her face, Kae matching it with her own. She did not know what as going up and waited for one of them to speak.

 

After a moment, Kae spoke up. “My ship is right there,” she pointed to her left at a small, silver star freighter that was shaped like the end of a three prong fork, except the middle “prong” was higher than the other two… and the other two had blaster cannons attached to them. “and I know why you came with your daughter, but by all means you should have-”

 

“I told you before and I’ll tell you now, I am going with her whether you like it or not!” Her mother’s voice had risen to a tone of anger and annoyance, a feature that made her already strong form seem stronger. She gripped her mother tightly, beginning to feel afraid. Her mother responded by wrapping a hand around her.

 

“She needs to be trained in an area away from distractions, such as-” But Kae was cut off.

 

“Such as me? Why am I a distraction! If anything, you are the distraction to her! I am happy, she is happy, and she is far more special than any other being alive! She is a blessing, and I swear as her mother that I will never let her go! I will never let anybody, especially someone like you, tell me that I am a distraction to my own damn daughter!” Her mother was outright yelling at Kae now. She could hear her daughter whimpering and held her closer, glaring at the unmoving woman before her. When she spoke next however, it was in a whisper, but still held the same bitterness, “I know you want to train her, I know you want to see the best in her, but unless you take me with you, I’ll… I’ll… make sure you never lay eyes upon my daughter again. The training cannot be that difficult that I will ruin it, because as you have seen…” She ran her hand through her daughter’s jet black hair, “she has trained herself just fine without you or anybody else.”

 

Kae let the moment pass, let the eyes of others move away from the scene that was being made, and then spoke again, calm but with a hint of defeat, “Fine… I will take you with me. The other masters can explain to you the importance of our training…” She paused again, but it was a pause that said she had something to say and needed to think on it before speaking, “But… I am only doing this because I think you are right. If I had it my way, Jedi would always have at least loose ties with their parents… but it is not my choice, as you will see when we get to the Temple on Coruscant.”

 

There was that word again. Jedi. The apparent word for people who could do what she did, other special people that could do amazing things. When she had first heard about this it seemed that all her dreams were crushed. It meant she was not special… that she was not unique but just another person, which went against everything that her mother had ever told her. However, when she told Kae this, Kae said she was still incredibly unique and special even for a Jedi, and she would explain why when she was older. This cheered her up some, but right now she was still afraid of her mother’s outburst.

 

Then, all of a sudden and without warning, a horrible feeling swept over her entire mind and body. She could not explain it, but it had happened before… and whenever It happened, bad things were soon to follow. Uncontrollable images flashed through her mind quickly of a group of people, both human and alien, carrying blaster rifles and blades. She grabbed her mother’s shirt and tugged as hard as she could on it. “Mommy! Mommy!” The images were getting worse, as she could make out images of flashing light and… blood. She began to cry, her mother crouching down and grabbing her, trying to ask what was wrong, Kae knelt down next to her and looking worried, but with a strange form of interest on her face.

 

“What’s wrong? Was it… was it my yelling? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Her mother pleaded, trying to discover the reason behind her daughter’s distress.

 

The images began to slow down, allowing enough use of her mind to get words out. “The n-nightmare’s are b-back… b-bad p-p-people…” She broke down completely, gripping her mother’s chest for comfort. Her mother embraced her, slowing shooshing her to calm her down.

 

Kae, who was watching carefully, said slowly, “She is having a nightmare in the middle of the day?”

 

“No… she sometimes has these… visions of things. I can’t explain it, but it is another one of her gifts… she knows when things happen before they do, but the problem is they-”

 

“-Always end up being bad, and very soon after.” Kae finished. Kae got to her feet and looked at the blast door at one end of the bay. There was a small ‘click’ of metal as something unsnapped from inside her robe. She extended her hand and suddenly what looked like a nine inch metal pipe flew out of her robe into her hand. The cylindrical object looked like a tool of some kind, having a couple knobs and buttons on it’s surface. “The Jedi call it Precognition. In this instance, Battle Precognition.”

 

She pulled her head out of her mother’s embrace long enough to look at the metal object, but was soon overcome by more random flashes of explosions and cries of pain. Shuddering violently in her mother’s arms, her mother looked up at Kae who gave her a quick glance that said one thing: Run like hell.

 

Suddenly an explosions from the blast door jolted everybody in the docking bay to their senses. Everybody, about a hundred people, looked at the smoking remains of the door in fear. Her mother looked from the door, to her daughter, then to Kae. “What’s going on! Who is attacking us!”

 

“This docking bay is in the refugee section of this city, which is poorly secured, if even at all. These docking bays are one of the only ways in and out of the city because the expenses of using an upper dock cost more than the entire crew on that refugee freighter. Due to the low security, many of the docks are attacked at random… sometimes violently and sometimes just to take everybody’s credits and run. From the introduction, its pretty obvious that a peaceful negotiation is not going to come out of this.” Kae explained quickly in a low tone, nearly all her focus on the smoking corridor to which the door used to belong.

 

“But-”

 

Kae looked down at her in surprise. “Run. RUN YOU IDIOT.” She waved her hand and she felt her and her mother raise off the ground by some known force to their feet and a push to get them going. She did not need telling twice. In a sudden, unprovoked flash of sound and light the attack began, bolts of energy flying everywhere as men and aliens alike ran into the docking bay and fired at anything that moved. Holding onto her mothers hand for dear life as her mother ran as fast as she could towards Kae’s ship, she looked back at Kae for a split second to see a blur of blue light somehow deflect the bolts from the blaster rifles away and even back at their makers. Screams echoed all around the hanger , explosions rang out, and then her mother stopped, pushing her back as a group cornered them. From that moment on, her memory would be blank of the events of the next few moments and even some of the moments of the past few weeks for years to come. All that she ever remembered were the final moments.

 

In a corner of the boxed room, she and her mother lay. Her mother was laying against her with her back, almost completely on top of her. A smell that she could not identify was filling her nostrils and making her more nauseas by the second. She could hear the voices and laughs of men close by, but they were not on her mind. She attempted to push her mother’s much larger body off of her, saying in a soft voice, “Mommy, get off me. Your hurting me mommy, get up. Please mommy!” She continued to beg for a moment, finally managing to slip out almost completely. Her mother’s head lay limply against her. She looked down at her mother, a person who had done nothing but tell her she was her gift from the gods her entire life. A person who had loved her and all others with all her heart. A person that had, minutes before, told Kae she would never be separated from her daughter. In a moment that would change her life forever, change everything she knew and believed forever, she looked down upon the blood-soaked body of her mother, a huge rip in her chest that was letting blood flow freely everywhere. Her eyes, her brilliantly lightning blue eyes were staring blankly at nothing, a faint expression of surprise etched on her face along with a single tear that had ran all the way down her cheek. The men were talking, the voices close, but she did not care. She had to wake her mother up. They had to get away on the ship.

 

She grabbed her mother’ chest and shook her. Nothing.

 

She shook harder. Nothing.

 

She began to shake uncontrollably herself, gripping the destroyed remains of her mother’s shirt and shaking harder. She barely even noticed that she had began screaming. “Wake up mommy! Wake up! Wake up! The bad men are coming! Wake up!”

 

What happened then was a blur. A blue beam of light spun in all directions suddenly right In front of her. She could not see well through her swollen, bloodshot eyes, but she could see the shapes of the men fall one by one. In a split second she saw a large axe covered in blood in one of the men’s hands fall to the ground, followed quickly by the destroyed body of its owner. Kae knelt down beside her and grabbed her shoulder. She jerked her shoulder away and went back to shaking her mom. “Mommy, the bad men are gone, you can get up now! Please… please get up! Get up!” But nothing she said or did made her mother get up. Nothing she could ever do would bring back her mother’s smile… nothing… but she did not want to believe it. She refused to believe it. She shook more violently, yelling louder.

 

A hand grabbed her shoulder and began to push her away from her mother. She tried to shrug it off, but it merely gripped harder. She could no longer control her crying. She collapsed on her mother’s body, crying like she had never cried before. Words could not express anything she felt anymore. She wanted to be there forever. She wanted to die right then and there.

 

The voice of Kae somehow made it into her consciousness, long and distant away…

 

“Revan, we need to go… come on… let go of her. There is nothing you can do for her anymore.”

 

But Revan did not want to let go. She never wanted to move or see or even breath another breath ever again. She was covered head to foot in her mother’s blood, crying on her mother’s corpse with a woman she barely knew wanting to take her away. She did not know how much timed passed, but she felt Kae’s arms wrap around her and pull her away from her mother’s body. She remembered screaming for dear life as she slowly watched her mother’s body become smaller and smaller as she was dragged away. She did not know when she was dragged into Kae’s freighter as she watched the docking door lift slowly up and eventually close, Revan getting one last look at the most important person in her entire life before it locked shut. As she felt the ship rise and begin to fly off, all she could do was stare at the docking bay door for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually however, she found the state of mind to move her body again as Kae walked up to her, the ship on auto pilot.

 

“Where are you taking me…” Revan asked in a low and unfamiliar voice.

 

“To… Coruscant. To the Jedi Temple where you will be trained as a Jedi. A defender of peace and justice throughout the galaxy.” She said. Her voice still had its noble tone, but it was fairly shaky and scared, as if what se had just seen shook her to the core. Kae looked down at the small girl, still staring at the bay door. What… do I say? What am I supposed to do for someone who just lost everything to them? No matter how much you trained, no matter how much you wish for it, it was hard… even for a Jedi Master like herself… to comfort someone who has lost a loved one when you are taught that love leads to the Dark Side, that love is something you should not feel. A dead silence filled the ship, broken only by the hum of the engine. Slowly, and for reasons she did not understand, she sat down next to Revan and wrapped an arm around her. The ship smelled strongly of blood, a scent that even to Jedi like herself was unfamiliar. Revan seemed to accept the gesture, leaning her weight into Kae, but still refusing to take her eyes off the door. Kae looked the blood-soaked girl over and then noticed something gripped strongly in her hand.

 

“What is that in you hand?” Kae asked. It looked like a piece of string or rope.

 

Revan broke her eyes from the door and looked to her hand. Slowly she opened it. In the palm of her blood covered hand lay the necklace of her mother, the rope broken by the impact. A small metal serpent wrapped around a red gem, a faint red light emanating from its core.

 

One of the last things she would ever have to remember her mother by.

 

-=~End Chapter One~=-

 

I know I have let out quite a bit of info, but I did it on purpose due to more being filled in later and this chapter holding a great significance later.

 

What I'm hoping for in all this is to get more experience with Dialog, my worst subject as far as writing goes. Well, nobody starts a genius so I guess I'll give it a try.

[Diego Varen]

I don't mind a female Revan, but on Fan.Fiction.Net, nearly every Fan Fic involving Revan has a female version. Anyway, nice start and it looks very interesting. I once tried something similiar with the Jedi Exile, but it never got anywhere. Nicely detailed and very very good. Looking foward to more and welcome to the Forums.

[Sabretooth]

Wow, this looks fresh. I like your writing style and the clear, yet rich way you put things across. The whole concept of the fic looks promising, too.

 

And BTW, that photoshop (or whatever) work is very good, especially the siggy.

[Bee Hoon]

It's "prong", not "tong", but other than that, it's a great start! And don't worry bout Revan being female, some of the best fanfics I have ever read had a female Revan. So no worries! Keep it up!

[True_Avery]

Thanks for the comments ^.^

 

Chapter 2:

What Lies Ahead

 

What is my name? Oh yes… Arren Kae. So much happening at once… I almost forgot my own name. Wait… how old am I? Twenty-Three? Twenty-Five? I think its Twenty-Four… yes, Twenty-Four…

 

Arren was sitting down next to Revan on the Durasteel floor of the docking bay inside of her Republic Military Class M-Wing Freighter. Well, it wasn’t hers… more of the Jedi Temple’s… but she had “borrowed” it to go chase a feeling. Even when she thought about it now, the idea that she went traveling deep into space, nearly outside the Outer Rim, on a feeling that there was something to be found was completely ridiculous. She would not have even considered going if it had not been for the fact she knew the Force had it’s way of doing things that really did seem silly at times. Maybe insane would be a better word. She had seen the Force do wondrous things, but she always had her doubts about it’s ways. How can something that exists in near everything be trusted like the Jedi trust it? A question that she often thought of, but never openly. Such thinking could get her ripped of her title of Master by her more irrational acquaintances.

 

In all the chaos and pure destruction of the universe, how could something linked to all of it be considered sane or rational at all. Many, including Revan’s late Mother, believed the Force to be a gift from the Gods or religious entities of universe, some kind of being looking down with a smile upon everybody. In her own way, she distrusted the Force in the same way she distrusted a crime lord behind an energy field. The crime lord used rational thought to reach it’s goals, manipulated all others for it’s bidding, and was almost never seen or touched and so it had nothing to fear. The Force sensitive could see the crime lord, could manipulate it to do their bidding… or was it the crime lord just making them believe they had power. She, as a Jedi (and a good one, she thought), could see this crime lord, but the lord was behind a barrier she could not get through. The barrier of the universe, of reality, keeping her from reaching the lord and cutting it down, ending it’s control over all people so all could be free… but if all were free, would the lack of control simply end the universe…

 

Arren shook her head, pushing the thoughts out of her mind. It was a constant problem of hers. Whenever she was faced with moments like this, with problems or strange situations, her consciousness would always float to that darker part of her mind. One day, she thought, I should really go soul searching. A Jedi who hates the Force cannot be a sign of anything good. But right now she was to focus on the now, and right now she was still holding Revan in her arms and staring at the door with her. She wanted to say something, do something, but she found herself just as numb as Revan. To be honest, she had gained a respect for Revan’s mother. She had no connection to the Force at all, yet she still had an aura of strength, wisdom, love, and… power that she rarely saw in women in the present day… not even in herself.

 

She had spent nearly a month with Revan and her mother, traveling and living with them and trying all the way to convince her to give Revan up to the order. A sudden pang of guilt hit her as she thought of it. The thought that her mother didn’t give her up at first made no sense at all to her, as many parents of Force-Sensitive were happy to let their children become something larger than life, something larger than what they could ever offer. But she refused to give Revan up, refused to believe that cutting her off from her loved ones would help at all. She had actually sat Arren down and had her explain the beliefs of the Jedi, then in a strange turn of events she explained what was wrong with the beliefs of the Jedi in her opinion. She remembered the talk as though she was watching it unfold before her…

 

“The Jedi believe love should be shared equally with all beings, not focused on family or loved ones. Such feelings bring passion and jealousy into the mind which lead to corruption and anger. The Dark Side consumes those who fall in love, as it begins a fall into darkness.” Arren explained quietly, saying the words as though she were reading them from a Datapad and not from her mind.

 

“Do you honestly believe that? Do you truly believe that blocking out love actually helps you see and hear your ‘Force’ better?”

 

“I… don’t know.” She replied quietly, “I’ve seen it as a double sided blade, but more often I’ve seen it hurt and destroy.”

 

“And I take it that is a bad thing?” She let out of small sigh, thinking for a moment on what to say, then ,looking Arren in the eyes, she let her mind free. “Pain, rejection, death… this is how everything we know is absorbed and learned. By blocking out things that cause pain, cause your ‘Dark Side’, all you are doing is denying yourself the ability to learn from your mistakes, learn from the pain of the world so you can make sure not to repeat it. You can know everything in the universe, but if you are not learned and intelligent it means nothing.” Arren listened and absorbed everything she said. Rarely, if ever, had she had the chance to actually be lectured by a non-Force Sensitive. As she listened she actually felt guilty and regretful for not having this chance before… guilty that she had underestimated the minds of normal people, something she knew that many other Masters also were guilty of.

 

“It is true,” She continued, “that love can and will bring pain sometimes, but completely rejecting a field of flowers because of a weed is the choice of an unbelievably ignorant fool. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched but are felt in the heart, in the soul. We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. By rejecting those feelings you are closing your mind and eyes to the world around you until all that remains is logic.” She paused to take a look at a door, to which Revan was behind and probably playing with her marble collection, “I love my daughter for reasons that I could never explain with logic, reasons that can only make me believe that she is perfect. She is a perfect gift to this world, a gift that people will love and exploit…” Her eyes turned back to Arren with a slight air of disgust around her, “If I wanted a daughter who didn’t feel love, who thought logically and followed beliefs without question I would have bought a Protocol Droid.”

 

That conversation forever etched itself into her mind. Ever since then she had been rethinking everything that she had told her and reflected it against her Jedi teachings. It had only been a week and already she believed there was something seriously wrong with the Jedi Order. All these memories flooded back to her as she kept staring at the door with Revan. The woman who had changed her life forever had died beyond it minutes before. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t right that such an incredibly powerful woman had to be slaughtered while criminals, murderers, rapists, sadists all could walk the streets untouched, living to their ripe old age and dieing in their sleep. It wasn’t right that this little girl no longer had a mother to hug and cry with, to learn from, to look up to.

 

A mother…

 

Arren looked down at Revan, taking her eyes off the door. She had stopped crying and was now being very still and silent. A strong smell of blood still emanated off her wet clothes, the scent slowly filling the entire ship. She began to stand, lifting the small girl up with her.

 

“Come on, lets get you changed out of those clothes.” Revan stood up so silently that if you weren’t watching her you would swear nobody had moved. She slowly walked away from Arren, not even looking at her as she started for the crew quarters. What do I do? Do I follow her? Somehow sitting her down and saying everything was going to be ok did not seem like a good idea at the moment. In the end, Arren followed her and helped Revan change into some extra clothes. They were too big for her, but it was better than the blood covered rags she was wearing previously. In a sight that brought a chill to her spine, she saw the skin under Revan’s clothes was stained light pinkish/red and would require water, soap, and time to disappear. She herself knew that this would still continue to affect her until her dieing day. When they were done changing, Arren noticing she needed to change as well because holding Revan had caused her own robes to stain, Arren began to clear off one of the beds.

 

“Sorry about the mess, I was the only one sleeping in here for awhile.”

 

Silence.

 

“Would you like an extra pillow or blanket? We have loads extra and it gets cold in here in open space sometimes.”

 

Silence.

 

Arren stood up, the bed cleared off, and looked at the girl. Revan was standing still, an emotionless look on her face as she stared at the bed. The necklace was still clutched tightly in her hand, the only spot on her body that still had quite a bit of blood. Arren tried to clean her hand while wiping her down, but Revan refused to open her hand at all and didn’t want to force the subject. There was an awkward silence between them for a long moment, broken again by Arren. “Revan…”

 

The little girl didn’t respond, but moved past Arren and moved onto the bed, turning her back to her. She hugged her hand in which the necklace was held. The sight was so disturbing and pitiful that Arren had to quickly to turn away and fight back tears. “I-I’ll check on the sh-ship. S-set the Hyperdrive…” and with that she started out of the room. Why… why did she have to drag this girl into this… why did she drag that peaceful family out of their happiness into this world of cruelty and death…

 

Then the thought hit her. She had done all this for a reason, and the reason was sitting on this ship.

 

Arren turned around and walked to a Work Bench/ Lab Station in the corner of the room and opened one of the droors. Inside was a syringe. She picked it up and walked up to Revan’s bed and looked down at her, not sure if she should or not.

 

“That’s for that test you told me about…” Revan said with a creepy monotone voice.

 

She wasn’t exactly surprised that Revan knew what she was planning to do without paying any attention. This girl was damn gifted, she just needed to know the extent of how unique she was. “Yes, I need to take some blood for a midi-chlorian test. May I?”

 

There was a pause, then Revan spoke up again, “What is a Midi-Chlorian?”

 

“Oh,” She remembered that her mother had cut her off until she got to fully explaining. “Midi-Chlorians are microscopic life forms that exist in the cells in all living things. They allow people connection to the Force, and when people have a large amount of them they can become Force-Sensitive. In essence, Midi-Chlorians are the connection between a being’s mind and the Force. I am guessing you have a large amount of them and I would like to test to see just how unique you truly are.”

 

“Fine.”

 

She felt guilty that she had to cause this girl further pain, even if only a small prick, as she bent down and checked Revan’s arm, pressing the syringe against a vein. A small and quick sucking sound was heard for a moment as the cylinder filled with her blood. She pulled it back and rubbed a salve on the wound before leaving Revan to sleep or think, giving her one last look as she made her way up to the cockpit.

 

Sitting in the cockpit chair, Arren took a few drops of Revan’s blood and dripped it into a small machine connected to her Datapad. A “Processing” message appeared, so she laid the device on the dash, turned the chair 180 degrees, and looked at the Navicomputer’s calculations. They were out of range of the planet’s Mass Shadow, so she pressed a few buttons on the screen and told the ship to calculate a course for Coruscant. The trip would probably take the night at this distance, but she could use some sleep anyway. She sat back in the large chair, waiting for one of her two working computers to give her an answer.

 

Five minutes passed uneventfully. Her Datapad was the first to go off. Not surprising, she thought, out here a direct course to Coruscant must be hard to find. Damn Mass Shadow. She turned her chair back around and picked up the Datapad. It displayed a number, but she merely sighed and pressed “reset” to do the test again. I thought I told them to give me a working model. She took the syringe, cleaned out the machine of the previous sample, and placed a few more drops in. Five minutes later the Datapad ringed again and she looked once again at the number. Damn machine, I told them to clean it completely before giving it to me.

 

Arren opened up the machine and did some quick cleaning of the mechanisms of any dust, grime, or old blood. Oddly enough, the small machine looked completely clean and possibly even new. Odd. So she put it back together and did another test.

 

…

 

And another test.

 

…

 

And another test.

 

…

 

On the final test she was shaking as she placed the last drops of blood in. What in the hell was going on. “This… this isn’t right… work you damn piece of junk!” She yelled at the machine while pressing ‘Start’.

 

The Datapad rang once again. She picked it up shakily, then, shaking worse than ever now, threw it as hard as she could against the Durasteel plated wall. It shattered and broke with an electrical crackling sound.

 

“No… no no no… that can’t be right… its… its too high… its not possible… ” She stared at the Datapad lying in ruins on the ground. It was new, she knew it. The machine was working perfectly fine, there could be no doubt… no doubt at all…

 

She had never believed the stories at all, seeing them as simply child’s tales for young Padawans. Stories you read in a Library to make you smile, a legend that makes the word seem a little brighter. But… what if the stories weren’t fiction. She had thought everything she knew about Revan up to now was simply coincidence after coincidence, refusing to acknowledge that these events were slowly forming into something bigger than a random Force-Sensitive child. Was she finally going insane? Was it finally the Dark side catching up to all her beliefs, slowly melting away her mind?

 

“M-miss Kae, is there something wrong?”

 

Arren jumped, her heart skipping a beat. She turned her head quickly to the down ramp. Revan was standing a few feet away from her, looking wary. She had apparently been making more noise than she expected. But she could not answer. She did not know if something was right or wrong. She could not think of anything but that number that had been displayed over and over again.

 

“Miss Kae?”

 

She finally gained the will to speak. “Y-yes… I’m fine… I think… I don’t know anymore, I don’t know anything anymore…” Her body continued to shake slightly, her mind and body unable to comprehend this. Her perception of reality was waning, but she was sudden aware of something touching her. She blinked a few times and looked down. Revan was on her lap, hugging her tightly. She didn’t know what to do, so she did the first thing that came to her mind…

 

She hugged her back.

 

That moment was surreal and strange, between dream and life. The Force truly did work in insane ways, and at this very moment she was glad it had brought her to this girl. Her mother was right… She was a perfect gift to the galaxy, a blessing, and nothing would ever change that…

 

The Navicomputer beeped as it found a clear course to Coruscant.

 

Whatever lies ahead… whatever happens… I am going to protect this girl. I am going to love her. That I swear to the mother of this girl… that I swear to you, True Avery.

[Bee Hoon]

Nice chapter! I liked the bit where Arren Kae struggled with her opinion about the Force, and Revan's mother's words. I think she rather overreacted with the test results though. Is there a reason for the blood being so...dye-like? I'm looking forward to coming installments!

[True_Avery]

Ah yes, the overreation. I agree I overdid it just a little, so I've edited it a bit. Thanks for pointing it out. The destroying of the Datapad will make more sense later... I think.

 

Dye-like? I assume Blood is terribly hard to get out of just about anything, even skin. You let it sit for a bit and your skin turns a pinkish tint until you can wash it out. Least thats what I've seen... hmmm. If I'm wrong, please tell me and I'll edit it out.

 

EDIT: I see. I put "Red" instead of "Pinkish". I can see why that would make it seem Dye-like. Yay for editing spree.

[Lord Spitfire]

Now, I'm one of those people who don't really like the female Revan idea. But you have an interesting fic going on here.

 

First of all, I love your writing style. It's able to grip the reader, and your sentances and ideas flow amazingly. I enjoyed reading this. And I especially lliked the Gray Code and Kae's thoughts. Overall, great fic; looking forward to more!

 

Just one thing; it is moving a little slow - if you want to get it all the way past the Jedi Civil War, you night have to skip a bit between chapters, but . . . Bah! What the hell, it's a good fic.

 

My rating: 8.9 - Great!

[The_Catto]

This story is flowing very nicely. A like the style of your writing and how you put ideas across. I have no problem with the Female Revan idea. Male, Female . . . Bah! It's not the most important aspect of the story.

 

I do agree however that the story does seem to be moving a little slowly, but that's good ... More information on the current scene, characters and what-nots!

Good job!

[True_Avery]

For anybody that cares, I'm dropping this fanfiction for now. Well, not dropping, but rethinking it over and talking to a few people about story ideas. The story is still in an infant stage and I honestly want to put as much thought into this as possible.

 

I've recieved a recent, and huge, spark of inspiration and am going to put a lot more thought and time into any future things I try and release. I also think I have a beta reader

 

Dunno why I needed to share that, but yeah

[Lord Spitfire]

No!

 

I was waiting for the next post. . Anyways, try to plan soon. We're waiting.

 

And one thing; there needs to be a huge gap between the past chapter and the next one, in my opinion. Perhaps when Revan is a teenager and she's training? Oh well, it's your story, just my opinion.

[Davinq]

I like this. A lot. And your comment at the beginning on your weakness in dialogue? I fail to find one. It's just fine.

 

My personal compliment to your writing though is that it reveals one fact at a time, without trying to describe too much. I love it when this happens, because it keeps you reading until you get all the facts... typically at the end of the story. Keep it up!