Chapter Text
"Bastila."
She shifted in her sleep, the voice penetrating into her thoughts. It repeated again, more insistent, and she jerked upright.
"Bastila."
Bastila squinted against the harsh overhead lights. "What do you want..." The name she was about to speak died on her lips as she saw the embers glowing in the silhouette's eyes. She stretched out with the Force to pull her lightsaber to her, but it only clattered to the ground.
"Revan," the figure said, crouching to pick up the weapon. "Revan is the name you're looking for." Bastila made to lunge from her bed, but a hammer blow crushed her back down onto the mattress. She struggled to rise against it, but the pressure steadily increased, compressing her lungs. Her vision tunneled, and her struggles subsided.
"That's better," Revan said at last, pulling up a chair. Bastila found herself drawn to the leering, burning eyes. "You tried," Revan said at length, "to tame me."
"Revan, listen to me," she gasped. "Malak's attack left you for dead. I sought to save your life, and to give you a second chance at living. Without the corruption of the Dark Side."
"Quite generous of you. Quite...arrogant." Revan toyed with the lightsaber. "Did it never occur to you that my actions, my choices were my own to make? That what you called corruption was in fact self-determination?"
"No individual in their right mind would undertake your course," Bastila replied lowly. "You lost yourself. To battle, to rage. Whatever you call it. You used to be a great Jedi, Revan, now you are merely slave to your passions."
Revan chuckled. "Prophetic words. You see, the Jedi Order is just that: orderly, dogmatic, regimented. The Light Side of the Force draws its power from having everything in its place. You yourself..." Revan put the lightsaber on the bed, and let it roll down against Bastila's side, "...were emboldened by having the Council's support behind you. By knowing that in your manipulations you were following orders."
"You had to be stopped. Your war tore the Republic asunder."
"If the Republic could be torn asunder, then it deserved to be." Revan hissed. "But where you are strengthened by your precious Order, I am strengthened by something different. The Dark Side rewards those who dare to act and feel. I pity the Republic, for being so weak. I am disappointed in Malak, for failing to even kill me properly. But you," Revan's gloved hand encircled Bastila's throat, not choking but a firm symbol, "I hate you. You stripped away everything that made me myself; my passion, my ambition, my will."
"I gave you a second chance!" Bastila shouted back, struggling against the invisible restraint across her torso. "The Council wanted you dead, but I felt that a Jedi as great as you had been deserved another opportunity at life, free of the taint of the Dark Side!"
"The small delighting in bringing down the mighty. You left me a mewing Republic lackey. When I pieced together the meaning of our visions and the inconsistencies in your interpretations of events my rage was unimaginable. Then, of course...there was this." Bastila's heart froze as Revan reached under her bed, and held up a long mask of ebon and crimson. "A trophy, of your conquest?"
"No," Bastila shook her head. "I had thought-"
"Lie to me no longer," Revan snapped, fixing the mask in place. "My hatred for you makes me strong. With it I will sweep Malak aside and bring the Republic to heel." The Sith Lord leaned in, the mask weakly reflecting Bastila's struggles. "But I feel that I owe you a certain measure. You forced me to see the weakness of the Jedi dogma like never before. I will force you to see the power of the Dark Side like you have never conceived." A gloved hand slipped into her bedclothes, and Bastila gasped as it wedged between her legs.
"I will..." Bastila struggled "you know that I will never submit to you."
"I know. I know." Revan released Bastila's neck, choosing instead to stroke the sweat from her forehead. "You've already proven the fallacy of trying to completely rewrite a personality. I'm not going to burn you out." Tapping her forehead: "You'll stay right there. Trapped in the back of your own mind." Bastila screamed as azure Force lightening arced between Revan's fingers. The Sith Lord shifted over her, attention fully focusing on rending and re-weaving.
"Stop! Stop! Carth!"
"They're all involved in their own horrors." Bastila seized under the assault. "You'll take care of them later."
Screams echoed throughout the cabin, starting long and drawn-out before breaking into wracking gasps. Revan fought to keep Bastila's writhing body in place, but her quaking became too violent and she threw the Sith Lord back, tumbling off the bed and convulsing on the floor.
Revan stood over her, allowing minute arcs of Dark Side energy to discharge into the deck and bulkhead. Bastila doubled over, gasping for breath before subsiding. She became aware of the shadow over her, and wiping the blood-tears from her eyes, she struggled to her knees.
"What..." she asked, raising her arms and lacing her fingers behind her head, "what would you ask of me?"
Behind the ebon mask, Revan smiled. "Carth. Mission. Jolee and Zaalbar. Bring me their heads." Bastila bowed her forehead to the deckplate and rose, reaching for her lightsaber on the mattress. "No. Leave that with me. You'll earn the privilege to use that again."
Understanding shone in Bastila's eyes, and she bowed deeply. "Yes, my master."