Force Blind

Section 2

The great doors opened. Visible in every direction was the space battle between the Republic and the Sith. Catwalks lead to odd tanks, each containing a person. In the center of the room stood Darth Malak, his black capes flowing by the power he held, arms crossed over his chest. Revan stepped forward, her lightsaber drawn but not lit. Carth came after her, head in hands.

Malak turned to her, and Revan could see that he was about to speak in his yellow eyes, but the words did not come. To her surprise and anger, Malak instead turned his attention to Carth.

"You play a dangerous game, Revan," Malak intoned, metallic voice echoing on the catwalks.

"I’m not here to play games, Malak. I’m here to take your cowardly existence, stamp it out," Revan replied.

"Indeed...then why bring such a dangerous toy? Do you think you can threaten me with such a thing?"

Not wishing to gape like a fish a second time in front of Malak, Revan said, "I will fight you with honor, which is more than you deserve."

Carth lowered his hands, which were now trembling. "Jedi Knight Senil," he said, voice soft.

Startled, Malak blinked and dropped his arms. "Where did you learn that name?"

"Once, uh, a long time ago. When you followed the Light, when you fought in the Mandalorian Wars," Carth answered.

"I don’t remember you."

"We, we, only met once. But I knew your name. W-w-will you, will you turn to the Light? It, uh, it might not...might not make a difference, but there’s always hope." Carth didn’t sound convinced.

Malak approached, and to Revan’s fury, he seemed more interested in speaking with Carth. "You are no servant of the Light, no Jedi. You don’t wield the Force, but it’s on you like a parasite. Those robes you wear, they bind it tighter against you. You know your destiny, don’t you." There was no question in Malak’s voice.

"I, uh, I have...I have an idea, yes. I don’t know how bad it will be. I know that it doesn’t have to end badly, Senil."

For a long moment, Malak seemed to consider this. "No, it does. It is too late. Even if I were to renounce the Dark Side right now, it would be too late. It was Revan that had to turn; she is the point upon which destiny waits. The Star Forge knows, but it gambles. Will the gamble pay off? Or will we all become lost like these Jedi the Star Forge has trapped?" Malak extended a hand, indicating the pods with men and women floating inside. "Not dead, but not alive either. Trapped in limbo, they will never join the Force; they will feed me." He looked sharply at Carth. "Or will they feed you, I wonder?"

"I, I don’t...no, I don’t think they will."

The Dark Lord nodded to Carth, then Malak turned to Revan. "Come, let us dance for the entertainment of the Force." He brought up his lightsaber and ignited it.

Revan crouched into a fighting stance, dropping the chain and lighting her ‘saber. "I am not here to entertain the Force! You should worry about your own destiny, Malak."

"Mine shall be yours and yours shall be mine, it seems. The Force has already decided how the story ends, so play your part!"

Carth sat down behind Revan, holding his head.

With a snarl, Revan pulled back her lightsaber to attack, Carth screamed, and Malak died.

Revan checked her swing, and silence ruled for a long while.

Then, Carth spoke. "It... it made a mistake, a terrible mistake."

Revan stepped back from the place Malak had fallen. Fallen as if he were never more than a marionette, strings cut, without one stroke of her lightsaber. "What are you babbling about?" she asked, turning her masked face back toward Carth. "What was he babbling about?"

"A mistake. A vast, vast mistake." Carth waggled his fingers, little sparks of what Revan easily identified as Force lightning jumping about and snaking up his arms. Blood poured from his nose, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Revan snapped off her red lightsaber and stormed over to where Carth was sitting. "I heard you the first time. Repeating yourself doesn’t answer my questions."

"It doesn’t matter, it thought it won, but it’s trapped now. Only, only, only, except there is Carth Onasi. There WILL be Carth Onasi, there’s not just this, not just this, this...." His tone carried a distinct note of hysteria, although otherwise he was calm, as if anything he was saying made the slightest bit of sense and having Force lightning flicker over his hands was an everyday occurrence. Revan narrowed her eyes. After everything and now he cracks completely.

"I have, uh, I have done no such thing," he said, and she recognized it was in answer to her thought. It wasn’t an answer that carried much conviction.

"What is it you have done, then?" she asked while examining him. There was Force lightning; she had used it often enough to know exactly what it looked like, but she could see no Force in Carth at all. Not even a flicker; nothing had changed about him since the last time she had looked. Anyone who was so strong in the Force that it bled out their fingers should have had a tornado of Force swirling about them. Anyone like that was locked up in a deep cavern and gassed to death; they were dangerous and the only safe way to destroy them was to be far away when they died. The released Force power often took the cavern with it, and obliterated the minds and souls of anyone in the vicinity.

"At least I know you won’t try to kill me then, will you?" He giggled a little, and Revan was certain he’d lost his mind. Carth didn’t giggle, not like that. "There is no Force; there is only Carth."

Revan stared at him for a moment. He was not amusing her any longer. "I can have you killed. Toss you out in some little bucket of bolts and have one of my ships destroy it. I suspect you’ll make a pretty little nova, if there’s as much Force hiding in you as I think."

"You’ll have to touch me first. Do you dare?"

Revan grunted. Crazy or not, he had a point. Force conduits, they were called, people or things so attuned to the Force that it flowed near unhindered through them. Nothing could touch them and expect to live long. That didn’t explain how Carth had become a Force conduit in such a short time, however. It might explain how he had used the chain, though.

"Never mind that. Look outside, look around you, look at your own hands, Dark Lord Revan."

She clenched her fists, unused to being commanded...and also unused to Carth addressing her that way. But she did as she was bid, first looking around at the Star Forge.

A strangled cry escaped her. What she saw was impossible. What she saw was nothing. The Elders had been right, the Star Forge was a living thing, breathing Dark Side power, feeding off of it, but now it was dead. No, worse than dead. It was just...metal. It was a vast...thing. "What happened to it? What happened to the Star Forge?" Revan could not keep the horror from her voice, although she tried. Nor the rage.

Carth shrugged. "Malak said it took a gamble; I guess it knew what I was before I did. I think Malak did, too, a little bit. I’m the Star Forge. Well, uh, whatever made it alive, anyway."

She whipped around and extended a fist toward Carth. Enraged, she planned to choke him, never mind that to kill a Force conduit was to flirt with abject, final destruction. Nothing happened.

"There is no Force; there is only Carth. Look outside."

"What in the darkest pits of hell does that mean? Other than you are completely, utterly insane?"

Although he could no longer look at her, he managed to pin her with a sightless gaze anyway. "Look outside. See the mistake, part of the mistake, foolish, foolish Force."

Revan growled, and again did as she was told. Oh no, Carth was definitely not amusing her now.

She stalked over to one of the huge view ports and saw thousands of ships, Sith and Republic, falling. Falling to gravity and inertia. Some crashed into one another, without even trying to avoid the collision. Others just kept on, but most had begun falling into the star below. "What is going on?" Revan demanded of the universe at large. Her fleet was nothing more than giant toys spread around, forgotten. Though it did please her to see the Republic fleet was just as useless. There were still armies of Sith out there, far from this dead Star Forge for her to control. The fight wasn’t over.

"You’re probably right, the war isn’t over," Carth said. "The entire Republic fleet wasn’t here either, although quite a lot of them were. But for you, it’s over. You aren’t even the Dark Lord of the Tachs, much less the Sith."

"What, precisely, does that mean?" Revan hissed.

"‘Peace is a lie; there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free.’ Do you feel particularly free? Powerful? Victorious? I’ll give you passionate, but you aren’t strong anymore. You aren’t a Sith, although you could always enlist as a soldier if I had any intention of letting you leave this system."

"You let me leave? My, haven’t we become arrogant. You forget, in your madness, whom you are speaking to."

"I haven’t forgotten, beautiful. I’m talking to someone who doesn’t know what the hell is going on. I’m talking to someone who hasn’t looked at her hands yet."

Against her will, Revan glanced at her hands. There was nothing special about them, nothing unusual. Nothing as world-shaking as an empty Star Forge and a dead fleet. She gritted her teeth and asked, "What about my hands?"

"Other than the lack of Force? They’re very nice hands, I always thought."

Lack of Force? She jerked her hands up, and with growing fear, looked at her arms, then down at her body. Carth was right; she saw no Force. She couldn’t feel it anymore. As a forgotten Jedi she let it move through her, as a Sith she harnessed it and used it like a tool. Now, there was nothing to harness, nothing to let move, and she felt the lack, keen as a blade. Force sensitivity was not a talent based in the Force; she didn’t need to contact it to know that it had vanished. She glared at Carth, wishing for a moment that she could kill him with a look. Around the Sith, that was something that happened now and again. Revan hated, loathed, despised not knowing what was going on, and that idiot, that madman Carth seemed to have all the answers.

"It’s not fun being on the short end, out of the loop, is it? But I guess you knew that already," Carth observed. "Take me down to the planet, where the Rakatans used to live."

"You don’t command me anything. I’ll leave you here. This, this thing is bound to fall into the star soon, and I’d rather be elsewhere when it happens. And then you can be a pretty little flare and I’ll be happily rid of you." Revan moved to leave the room, prepared to leave one crazy pilot and one dead apprentice-usurper behind.

"I didn’t ask you, I didn’t command you, I willed you. Sorry gorgeous, but the will of Carth rules here. You can’t leave me unless I let you, and if I let you, you die." His voice was calm, no threat, just truth.

Revan stopped. The certainty with which he spoke made chills run up her spine. He had been right about everything else; it frightened her that he might be right about this. With as little emotion as she could manage, she asked, "Will you please explain what you mean, Carth?"

"I told you already. There is no Force; there is only Carth. Here at least." He motioned with his shackled hands, indicating the area around them, including the star system. "I’m the Star Forge, Malak didn’t become one with the Force, he became one with me. So did all those Sith, the Jedi, the Republic fleet..." He paused for a moment, and Revan saw that he was on the edge of weeping. "Bastila, Jolee, Mission, Zaalbar, Canderous...they didn’t get away. Hell, the Dark Side in HK-47 is part of Carth now. Dodonna, Vandar, a hundred thousand men and women, the entire Rakatan race, every tree, every rock, every singly blasted gizka is one with Carth. The Force doesn’t move at the speed of light, especially when it wants to use someone as a sink."

Revan wasn’t prepared to believe any of that just on Carth’s say so, although she couldn’t deny the evidence of her eyes—the only thing displaying the slightest bit of Force power right now was Carth, and her entire fleet could not have all died at once, not by natural causes. And they were dead; that she knew, even if she couldn’t sense it. He was talking nonsense, but it was the only nonsense that made any sense. "A sink? And what does that have to do with me?"

Carth wiped the tears off his face, either not noticing or not caring about the Force lightning that flickered through his hair when he did so. "Now we’re getting to the huge mistake. You’ve heard of heatsinks? Nice things to have if you don’t want your electronics to melt. The Force was unbalanced, too Dark here. It willed a Force sink here, something it used to dump all the Dark into, oh, and the Light and everything in between, so it would be balanced again. The Force doesn’t care about Light or Dark, it likes balance, and most of the time little pockets of Dark balance with pockets of Light. It’ll send out Dark to places that are too Light, too, if it needs to. But the Star Forge and Rakata were just too much Dark all in one place for the rest of the system to dissipate it in the usual ways. Well, it would have been taken care of without a sink if you hadn’t gone Dark! Guess who is your lucky Force sink? Guess who your Force betrayed?"

"When did you become an expert on the will of the Force?" Revan asked, sneering.

"Since I found out I’m a Force sink. Do you listen when someone answers your questions? I’m a Force sink. Tend to learn stuff pretty damn fast that way, you know, having a star system’s worth of Force dumped into me all at once. You thought I’d turned into a conduit, but I’m not so lucky. You could have just offed a conduit. You can’t do a damn thing about a sink. The stupid Force willed that a sink find its way to the Star Forge. If you had taken the chance the Jedi gave you, turned to the Light, you could have saved both yourself and the galaxy from a deluded, lovesick, supposedly Force blind Republic pilot who just happens to be a damned Force sink."

Revan pondered this for a long while. She knew the essential definition of a sink: a natural or artificial means of absorbing or removing a substance or a form of energy from a system. Heatsinks played with physics in order to pull heat away from something and make it go elsewhere. Usually they relied on balance, equilibrium, to take away the heat. She looked around at the Star Forge, or what was left of it, and frowned. It had been a virulently Dark creature, so Dark that it destroyed, no, consumed the Rakatan Infinite Empire from parsecs away. If Carth was right, then no matter what had happened, the Star Forge was to be destroyed. But why in such a dangerous way? Why use a...sink? She’d never even heard of Force sinks before.

Given that Carth spoke the truth, the Force had used him to remove all of the Force from the Rakatan system. Made him such a powerful and effective sink that he had removed the Force from a star system just by being in it. No, not removed it—captured it, absorbed it. That would explain why he kept saying there was only Carth; if all the Force in the system were in him, of course it would be his will and not the Force’s. There was no Force here, only Carth.

"There’s something not right about your scenario. If you really are a Force sink, a veritable Force black hole if what you say is true, why are you still here? Why am I? If the Force were seeking balance by using a sink that absorbs Force, the logical response would be to destroy or disable the sink as soon as possible once the alignments were dissolved. I assume that’s why you say everything in the system is now ‘one with Carth’; balancing out the extreme Dark of the Star Forge with the Dark, Light, and mostly neutral life—"

"Don’t forget the rocks."

"—by putting it all in one place, pulling the extremes back to an equilibrium. Then it should dissipate back out again. The system would have as much Force as ever, but largely balanced. Why hasn’t that happened?"

Carth affected a very annoyed expression, which for some reason was not rendered a whit less effective by his lack of eyes. "Does being a persistently nosy woman exclude you from actually hearing the answers? And before you get your robes in a twist and try to Force choke me again, remember there’s only Carth, and while you might have done a bang up job of using me, you don’t know how to wield Carth. The Force made a mistake on an epic scale. It’s not a smart thing; it has no more sentience than a growing vine, but it is just as wily as any growing thing and it has the advantage of being, forgive the pun, a natural force. The Force had enough wile to artificially restrict a powerful Force sink the moment he became dangerous, but not the wits to leave that man enough Force sensitivity to be trained. If I hadn’t been Force blinded so completely, what you suggest is probably what would have happened. I’m pretty damn sure that’s what the Force wanted; I know for a fact it doesn’t like having a star system’s worth of Force trapped in a sink with no way out. That was the first mistake: a Jedi or even a Sith would have more practice allowing the Force to move through them than a Force blind. Frankly, I have no idea what to do to let this out; I wish I did, it’s agony, and it’s not fair. My friends shouldn’t be one with Carth. I’m no good as an afterlife for anyone. The Force trapped itself in its own tool.

"The second mistake it made was underestimating what a lovesick fool who had lost too much would do. You are alive right now only, solely, because I love you. Your Force was trapped just as fast as Malak’s, but a promise is a promise. All life isn’t the Force—it is not rational but sentients are. Carth keeps you alive somehow. Maybe the Force that once kept you alive has been replaced by Carth. I’m alive for the same reason, I think. I promised you I would protect you, and I am. If I die, you die. If there is no Carth, there is no Revan, so obviously, Carth better stick around. I can’t say I ever expected to protect you from the Force, though."

Revan snorted. "How disgustingly romantic."

"Isn’t it, though?" Carth answered, voice laced with biting sarcasm. "You used me, and I was a damned fool to fall in love with you. But surely you must appreciate the dark irony. You made your bed, now lie in it."

She growled low. He was right again. If she hadn’t decided to amuse herself trying to figure out how far a blinded, albeit quite handsome, brain-damaged bantha would fall for her, and later entertained the pleasant fantasy of having her own willing if deliciously conflicted love slave, she wouldn’t be in this mess. She should have listened to Canderous; he knew something was wrong and she hadn’t listened. This was a mess, in her opinion. Her Lordship of the Sith was probably now in the hands of an incompetent moron, her fleet was in shambles, her Star Forge was something that skirted the edges of undead, and she was trapped. Trapped in more ways than one. She couldn’t leave Carth to fry in the Rakatan sun, she couldn’t leave him at all, and given that he was well aware of his blindness on the subject of loving her (hadn’t she made that point as viciously as possible? Don’t think about the real reason...), now she had to find it in herself to keep his favor.

"Damnit all!" Revan shouted, stomping around the room. "Oh, how neatly the tables turn! I’m trapped with an idiot Republic flyboy that, dare I piss him off, I’ll die for it! If it weren’t happening to me, I’d revel in it!"

"I would never do that," Carth whispered, "despite everything."

The hair on the back of Revan’s neck rose and goosebumps prickled her arms. It hadn’t quite sunk in until now that he was dead serious when he said he loved her. She had thought it was something shallow, something she could comprehend and laugh at, but it was not. She would be dead now if it were. He had been serious when he said he wanted to get it right this time. He had every intention of doing everything in his now considerable power to keep her safe. It made her sick. She didn’t care that someone loved her, but she would have rather it been someone she hadn’t toyed with, an equal, someone as Dark as she was. Someone to rule a galaxy by her side, not...not...someone whom she owed her life. Not a hopelessly Light Sided Republic enemy, not someone who loved her near unconditionally. It was an affront to everything she stood for. Love wasn’t a weakness if power could be gained from it, but unconditional, revolting ‘I’d die for you’ love certainly was. And there wasn’t a damned thing she could do about it. Even if she wanted to cut Carth open with her lightsaber, she was certain he wouldn’t allow it.

"That’s true. Carth won’t let you. I don’t know how, or why, and I’m not likely to find out. But you can’t hurt me, well, not physically anyway. I think now would be a good time to leave. Go to the Rakatan homeworld. Take me there."

"Take yourself. You’re perfectly capable of walking," she spit out, furious to the point of seeing red over the corner she’d been painted into. She hated everything right now, more than she had ever hated in her life. The Force, Carth, herself, everything.

"Oh, I know, but how does a blind man find his way through a maze like this? Even if I’m not Force blind anymore, that hardly helps any, does it?" He giggled again, that just shy of insane giggle that made Revan’s skin crawl. Still, he had a point. She would have to lead him out, in reality this time. Damn Canderous for seeing what was staring her in the face. She wondered briefly how long she had to lead Carth before, wondered when he had gained Force sight.

"A while...I couldn’t see the Star Forge, or anything else except in flashes until the Forge made these robes." He ran a hand down the plain fabric. "That wasn’t very smart of the Forge, but the Force willed it. These helped it chip the last bits of Force blindness, uh, Force resistance, away. I couldn’t stand it, it hurt so much."

Ignoring Carth for a moment, she tentatively picked up the very end of the chain attached to the shackles on Carth’s wrists. What she had so gleefully used to humiliate him, use him, and amuse herself now took on the loathsome feel of a physical symbol. Worse that this chain had choked a Sith and disabled more than a few droids. ‘Through victory my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free.’ She shuddered, feeling as though she wanted to wipe imaginary filth from her hands, gloved though they were.

A half-smile graced Carth’s face as he stood. "Sith code, Jedi code, the Force just uses them. They aren’t entirely wrong, I don’t think, but just enough for the Force’s purposes. Although I’ll admit, my view is a little skewed, not having ever been a Jedi Master or Sith Lord."

"Uuagh," Revan muttered. "Why can’t you follow me? You can sense me, read my mind obviously. Then I wouldn’t have to touch this thing."

Carth shrugged. "I could, I suppose, but you’re the only thing I can, uh, see. I don’t trust that little bit to keep me from falling over a railing. You could just, ah, take my hand."

Revan shuddered again, wishing with all her might that she could pour every iota of hate into the chain, melting it and frying Carth to ash. With a disgusted snort, she dropped the chain and unshackled him. She grabbed one hand with a good bit more force than necessary and started dragging Carth toward the exit. She hadn’t hesitated to touch him; she wasn’t stupid. It was she who had assumed it would be dangerous and he hadn’t denied it, that was all. A minor omission, although it was quite true that anyone else who touched him would be lucky to survive the encounter, assuming they could get near him.

To the best of her ability, she ignored the pleasant tingle of the Force lightning trailing up her arm. She snorted again. Carth lightning. Most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Not by a long shot, but she didn’t feel like thinking about the rest. The rest was too big, too hateful, too real; she wanted to ignore it for now, so she settled for grumbling about small, stupid things.

Picking her way past all of the dead Sith on the Star Forge wasn’t terribly difficult for Revan, even with Carth in tow. Seeing their bodies was a surprising relief to her; she hadn’t realized how eerie Malak’s death had made her feel until now. His death...she wasn’t even sure she could call it a proper death. A bastardized version, some strange facsimile, but not a real death. She glanced back at Carth, realizing suddenly that while the Sith bodies showed all the proper marks of a real death, they too must have been denied an honest Sith eternity the same way Jolee had been denied his Jedi return to the Force. ‘There is no death; there is the Force’. Except now, here, there was no Force, only Carth. Revan found the idea disturbing in the extreme.

"What is it like?" she asked, avoiding another sundered Dark Jedi body.

"It’s, uhm, not very pleasant. I mean, for me. I feel all of them inside, but I don’t think, uh, think they’re really aware of what happened. Except for the people who died before...Jolee is confused, he keeps bouncing off walls he knows shouldn’t be there. He had enough, enough time to get a sense of what being one with the Force was like, and he knows something’s different. The Sith are worse, they’re c-clawing at me. It hurts. I don’t know if it hurts them, but I feel their frustration. It’s pretty unfocused. The rest, uh, they, they didn’t know what to expect, so a limited space doesn’t disturb them. The wind and the rocks, heh, they don’t know any different, part of Carth, part of the Force, it’s all the same. Vandar is a bit confused, too, but he’s not trying to ram his way out." His grip on Revan’s hand tightened, nearly crushing it. She didn’t need any unusual perception to know he was angry. "I’d let them out, I would, I just don’t know how! I don’t know how! And, and, even if I did...I don’t know if I could, if I could give the Force the satisfaction."

"What do you mean? And would you mind not pulverizing my hand?"

"Sorry. I’m just so angry." Carth loosened his grip enough to let the blood flow back through Revan’s fingers. "I mean, the Force, it did more than use me, it tricked me. It’s supposed to use people, things, that’s just how things are, but it actively tricked me. Didn’t handle it very well. It betrayed me. Lied to me, as much as an insentient thing can...let me live for nearly forty years Force blind, then, surprise! It’s time to pull out the heavy artillery! Never mind what that sort of thing can do to a person, let’s just use him and drop him. Damn stupid mistake. Even if I had some clue as to what to do to be an efficient sink, I don’t know that I could, that I would. I’m not a tool, I’m not something to be used and tossed aside at a whim. I had no choice in this, none at all, and I don’t take that lightly. I’m not going to let it win...there is identity! There is more than the Force! I can’t let it take that from me, from you. If it had...if it had just given me a clue, left some of this, this Force sensitivity intact, maybe things would have been different. Maybe...never mind. It doesn’t matter now. It betrayed me, and it betrayed itself. I won’t forgive it for what it did to me and my friends."

"I’ve heard that before," Revan observed. "Planning a little vengeance, are you?" The idea seemed rather agreeable to her; a hyperspace jump straight to Coruscant with Carth would devastate the Republic. Then she might almost be happy to come back here and rot in whatever strange prison the Force had fumbled on her. She might not like it, but she couldn’t deny the attraction of having a weapon like Carth to use. If she couldn’t conquer the galaxy, perhaps she would take as many down with her into hell as she could.

Carth shook his head. "Wherever I go, everything will die. I’m not going to do that. I don’t see a very bright future for myself now...just as I was thinking there might be some kind of future for me at all...but I’m not going to go off and take away the futures of anyone else. I don’t know how much Force I can absorb, but I think it’s a lot." He shook his head again. "I can’t think straight, I can’t do this."

"But what about my future?" Revan snapped.

"Your future is with me, for better or worse. Better get used to it. I’m not letting you leave the system. I don’t know how I can stop you, just that I can and I will. I won’t let you use me either."

Revan seethed all over again at how tight the Force chains wrapped around her. She heard the unspoken ‘If you had done what I asked, you would have a choice in the matter’ and she hated it.

It didn’t take long for the two to reach the first of the many dead that had not died by blade or blaster. Darth Stilita, merely Bastila now, was the first, slumped over sideways from her meditation position. She appeared to have simply fallen asleep. Canderous seemed to sleep against a wall, Mandalore no more. Revan nudged her apprentice’s body with her toe. Stilita slid farther to the side until she lay on the floor. It wasn’t right. Revan had killed with the Force before, but it was a very different thing. This was something more akin to the ‘deaths’ the Jedi Malak had trapped in the Star Forge to feed him, never to know true life or death again, just limbo. Malak had not had a chance to subject any Jedi to that fate, but Revan couldn’t help but wonder if the Force had inflicted it upon them anyway. There was no way to know, other than Carth’s explanation, what it was like to be trapped in a Force sink. He didn’t seem to know much about it himself.

"Revolting," she muttered.

"I don’t think it’s like that...they are with the Force, it’s just limited to me. I think, maybe, it’s bigger on the inside than on the outside. But I can’t really disagree with you, it isn’t a fair way to die."

Revan shook her head, ire rising still, as she stepped over Bastila and led Carth around her. She wanted to lash out, to crush, rend, destroy, but with no Force to guide through her passion and hate, she was reduced to nothing. She wondered if all Force blinds felt as impotent as she did right now.

"We use it for other purposes," she heard Carth whisper behind her.

I suppose I’ll have to learn those other uses now, she thought, anger and hate bleeding out of her with each step she took, replaced by resignation, for now.

The Ebon Hawk’s gangplank was still down, and T3-M4 was beeping and whistling a frantic melody. The Star Forge was falling. The sky was falling.

"We’re coming T3," Revan shouted to the little utility droid. Still beeping wildly, T3 rolled up the plank and waited.

At the top, HK-47 seemed to blink in confusion. "Query: Why is the Star Forge no longer working? The Republic fleet didn’t get near it, master."

"It doesn’t matter, HK," she said as she rushed up the plank, not caring that Carth tripped over the end of it and had to crawl the rest of the way. "We need to get out of here fast, HK. Get us out of here."

"Statement: Yes master." There was some surprise in its voice; it clearly had expected Canderous and Stilita to come back to pilot if they needed to leave. HK stalked off toward the cockpit, and T3 followed to help.

"You think we’ll be OK with them piloting?" Carth asked.

"Does it matter? There’s no one to stop us...we just need to get out of here."

"Yeah, I guess." Carth didn’t bother getting up. "I’m tired. I’m going to tired for a long time, I think."

The Ebon Hawk’s thrusters started up, and soon they felt the ship lift off, away from the Star Forge. The intercom crackled. "Query: Where are we going, master? Are we going to meet up with the rest of your fleet?"

Revan laughed, her voice cracking. "No, HK. We’re going to Rakata. Take us to Rakata."

"Astonishment: But why master? You are their leader. You must go to them or some unworthy meatbag will try to take your place!"

"It doesn’t matter, HK. Something happened on the Star Forge, and now Carth won’t let us leave."

The ‘com was silent for a moment. "Query: Master, if I kill the meatbag pilot, will we be able to leave the system?"

"HK, if you kill him, if you can kill him...I don’t know. You and T3 might be able to leave. But if you mean me, no, I’ll die if he does."

More silence. "Statement: I cannot act in a way that would directly lead to your destruction. Observation: However, I can still act in ways that may indirectly lead to it. Are you certain that if the meatbag pilot were killed that you would die as well? Query: This isn’t a display of revolting organic sentimentality, is it, master? Please say it isn’t so; it would pain me to think you would stoop so low."

T3 beeped, causing Revan to shout, "Just because I kissed him doesn’t mean I like him!"

For some reason that escaped Revan, Carth thought that was funny. "She liked the kiss, though. I could tell."

"Exclamation: Master! How could you?" HK sounded thoroughly scandalized, and Revan imagined its elaborate shudder. T3 made a sound that bore an uncanny resemblance to a tuk’ata-whistle. The droid had clearly spent too much time with Mission. Even Carth was laughing at her.

Revan gaped, and silent gibbering words failed to escape her throat. She wouldn’t be surprised if she were blushing as well; she was grateful for the bloodstone mask she still wore, although she would have liked to still have Force powers. Destroy Droid and Force choke, that would be nice... "Forget all that!" she squeaked. "Just take us to Rakata! No more questions about why!" She slapped the intercom off, just shy of using enough force to break the thing.

Then she glared at Carth, although she realized the action would be lost on him since her mask was on and there was no Force to use to intimidate him. "What exactly was that all about?"

He took a moment to wipe the blood off his face, although his nose still bled. He was smiling, a real smile. It was the first time Revan had seen Carth smile like that, and she wondered for a moment what it would have looked like to see it in his eyes. When he finished wiping his face, he said, "My wife used to say that she would laugh not to cry. I’d forgotten that...I never did that after Telos was destroyed."

Revan said nothing. She had never seen him cry, either. As for her, she felt no use for either. No real laughter and no real tears. For the first time in her remembered life she wondered if she were missing something.

"I’ll laugh for you, and cry for you, as long as I can," Carth said softly.

"I don’t want that," she replied. Then she made her way to the cockpit.

As soon as she got there, she said, "Change course, HK. Take us to Coruscant by the fastest route possible."

HK tapped in the new coordinates. "Confirmation: I have input the shortest route to Coruscant. We will have to make two stops along the way to refuel."

"Good, good," Revan said, slipping into the pilot’s seat.

"Query: Why were you so insistent that we return to Rakata?"

"Carth thinks he can stop us from leaving. I don’t quite believe him, but I wasn’t going to tell him that." She took a moment to examine HK, then shook her head. Damnable crazy pilots being right all the time. Her assassin droid was as Force neutral as T3. Before, it had radiated a pleasant Darkness, a result of its construction by the Star Forge. At least its personality was still intact.

"Query: Were you misleading him regarding your own mortality as well, master?"

Revan snarled. "No, that, unfortunately, is true. But we can make the best of a bad situation. Once we drop out of hyperspace near Coruscant, everything alive there will be instantly snuffed out. We can stop by a few more Core Worlds, then inform the remainder of my fleet to take over. The Republic will be devastated. I only wish I could lead the occupation myself; I suppose I’ll just have to satisfy myself with the knowledge that a new era will dawn."

HK’s eyes gleamed. "Statement: The imagery alone makes my servos tingle. But how will you manage such widespread destruction?"

Smiling behind her mask, Revan answered, "Did you notice what happened to the Sith and Republic fleets? Somehow, Carth did that...but he doesn’t know how and he can’t stop himself. He’s a Force sink. All we have to do is drop into orbit, and the Force for an entire system will be removed."

"Exclamation: What a wonderful weapon you have discovered master! Statement: I did not know there was such a thing as a Force sink, but I can see how effective one is. A pity, however, that it is such a bloodless weapon. Still, so much death on such a grand scale...." HK trailed off, its voice blissful.

"Well, take us there."

"Statement: Certainly master." HK activated the hyperdrive. The Ebon Hawk didn’t move. It didn’t even sputter or stall.

"What’s wrong?" Revan demanded.

"Confusion: I do not know, master. All systems report as functioning normally."

"T3, talk to her."

T3 beeped and started communications with the Hawk. After a moment, it whistled in confusion.

"What do you mean everything is working fine? It can’t be working fine, we aren’t going anywhere!" Revan started the hyperdrive sequence herself, with the same results. "Damnit!" She stormed out of the cockpit and toward the hyperdrive. She examined it; she was no engineer, but the smuggler’s identity the Jedi had given her had extensive knowledge of ship repairs. There was nothing that she could find wrong with the hyperdrive, nor any of the other flight systems. The Hawk should have had no trouble flying at all.

Angry, she hunted down Carth. He was easy enough to find; he hadn’t moved from where he lay before. "What are you doing to my ship!" she demanded.

He turned his head up, seeming to look at her. "As far as I know, nothing."

"Then why won’t it move?"

For a moment, Carth thought about that. He wiped his nose; Revan noticed for the first time how much blood was on his sleeve and the front of his robes. After another wipe, he asked, "Were you trying to leave? I told you I wouldn’t let you leave, I told you to go to Rakata." He tilted his head up at her again. "That’s what you were doing. Sorry, beautiful, I can’t let you leave. I don’t know how far you can get from me without, without dying...definitely not outside the system, but I think it’s much shorter. If you want to die...I, I...I’ll let you...if, if that’s what you really want...but you have to take me to Rakata first."

Revan clenched her fists. "Does it please you to play god with my life?"

"That’s not what I’m doing," Carth answered, laying his head back down on his arm. "Somehow I saved your life. That’s all. I know I said I wouldn’t let you leave, that you can’t leave. That’s not quite true...you can leave, it’s me that can’t leave. But if you leave, you’ll die, just like Bastila and Canderous died. I’m guessing I know you well enough that you don’t want to die like that. I don’t want you to die like that."

"There’s no way out, is there? Now way out."

Carth shook his head in negation, but said nothing. Revan stared at him, then returned to the cockpit, where she set course for Rakata over the protests of HK-47. This time, the ship moved.

The second time the Ebon Hawk landed on the Rakatan beachfront, it did so with a good deal more grace. Revan powered down the engines and looked out the view ports. The entire planet was dead in that strange, wrong way that Malak, Stilita, and Canderous were. The palms stood still, the grass did not rustle in any wind. She sighed and walked to the Hawk’s exit, dropping off her mask in the common room on her way. There wasn’t much use for it now.

Just above the plank, Carth was sleeping. Peaceful, this time, it seemed, although he was snuffling through blood. His nose had stopped bleeding; judging by how much had pooled on the decking and stained his robes, he would likely be rather faint. Revan sighed. She was too tired to find the idea or the sight even mildly entertaining. Lightly, she kicked him.

"Hey!" Carth snapped, startled fully awake. "What the hell was that for?"

"We’re on Rakata. Thought you might want to get off the ship. Just in case I decide to take her to the other side of the planet."

Muttering under his breath, Carth got up. "Didn’t need to kick me." He ran a hand through his hair then pulled it away it away with a yelp. "What’s in my hair?"

"Blood," Revan answered, voice flat.

"I’ve been lying here bleeding and you couldn’t spare a medpack? What happened? I didn’t feel anything."

"Nothing happened. You got that nosebleed on the Star Forge."

"Oh, huh...didn’t realize it was that bad." He shuffled a few steps to the right, hands out, feeling the deck plates with his feet. Orienting himself didn’t take long. "I’ll get off the ship after I clean up." Trailing bloody fingers along one wall, Carth walked toward what used to be the men’s bunkroom. "Be careful plotting how far you go," he said as he walked. "Ah...unless you, you want to."

Revan just watched him walk. It didn’t surprise her that he was so certain of his destination; she was sure she could walk through the Hawk blindfolded herself after spending so much time aboard her. She noted with detached interest that HK would probably enjoy the trail of blood Carth was leaving on the bulkhead.

After a moment, Revan disembarked, a bit surprised that T3 insisted on going with her. The little droid had sneaked up on her and nudged her leg with one of its folding appendages. "Sure, come with me. I’m not going far, though. Maybe later we can go to the Elder’s encampment or the temple. I’d like to see if the computers still work."

T3 beeped, surprised, when it got a good look at the trees.

Walking across the white sand, Revan said, "Yeah, the trees died fast, and they didn’t die of natural causes."

A confused beep was her reply. The two set out for the temple, passing by mock-sleeping rancors and gizkas frozen in time. The grass sometimes crumpled beneath their tread and sometimes kept its shape. After a good hike, the two reached the plateau where the Rakata temple stood. Revan looked toward the wide entrance. There was no Rakatan field; she had dropped it before. The Force field was also gone, another obvious symptom of the Force void that Carth had caused. "Well, there’s no reason the computer wouldn’t work, is there?" Revan asked herself. "Even if their self-repair and maintenance was by Dark energy, the computers themselves should still work."

T3 made an agreeable sound.

"That’s true, you and HK are still working. I guess artificial constructs aren’t affected by a lack of Force."

If T3 could shrug, it would have. Beep whistle zzt beep boop.

"I’m sure the computer will know. It was quite well informed."

The two entered the temple and quickly made their way to the Rakatan computer. When she approached the computer, it spoke in Rakatan. The computer’s voice was calm and serene. /Greetings Revan. My sensory input systems indicate that your physiology has again changed since I last spoke with you. I have noted and recorded these changes in my database. May I make an inquiry?/

/Go ahead./

/Is it normal for humans to change so rapidly?/

/No, it’s not normal. But you could say I have lived a rather abnormal life./

/I see./

Before the computer or Revan could continue, T3 poked Revan’s leg. Bzzop zzeet woop.

"Well, connect yourself to the computer then. It will teach you Rakatan. And while you’re at it, teach it Basic. Rakatan is a pain on the vocal cords."

T3 beeped agreement, and after Revan confirmed with the computer that it was safe to do so, T3 attached its appendage to the computer. A few moments later, T3 withdrew, and made a low series of sounds.

"It gave you a headache," Revan stated, a bit incredulous.

Bwwwoop.

"Sometimes droids are weird, you know that?"

T3 gave Revan a half-hearted poke in the leg. Boop beep zzep beep bop.

"All right, I’ll see you later." Revan watched T3 head back to the Ebon Hawk, then turned back to the computer. "I want to ask you some questions."

/Certainly Revan. What do you wish to ask?/

Revan was pleased to find the computer understood Basic now; she had no idea why she would not have taught it Basic before. "I’m curious about the changes you say your sensors have detected in me."

/My data indicates that the energy which flows through all life is no longer present in your system. You are not alive by the strictest physical definitions, yet you, by all appearances, are indeed alive. Another form of energy has connected the neurological patterns that make up your mind to your body. Your body, however, is in an unusual stasis. You are not static, but most physiological processes have ceased. It is quite interesting./

Revan rubbed her forehead. "You’re saying I’m dead?"

/No, not at all, Revan. I said you were not alive by the strictest definitions for physical life. You do not respire, you have no metabolism. As I said, all of your physiological processes are in stasis, except for your cardio-pulminary system. I suspect that you only breathe and have a heart beat because it is habitual for you and you would not feel correct without them./

"I guess that’s interesting...if a bit confusing. How does that work?"

/I cannot say with certainty. The unidentified energy tying your mind to your body is, from what I can detect, manipulating your body through energy fields directly under command of your mind./

"Can this link between my body and mind be broken?"

/I believe so. The energy source providing the link is not strong and does not appear to be stable, although I will know more if I am able to identify the source. However, I would not suggest breaking the link, as it would ‘kill’ you, after a manner of speaking./

Revan gritted her teeth. "What about the unidentified energy? Can that be removed?"

/I cannot say./

Her foot tapped on the rough floor. "Do you know what would happen to my mind if the link were broken?"

/I cannot say./

Frowning, Revan said, "I’ll be back. I know the source of the energy, I’ll bring him here and see if you can figure a way for me to get out of this situation."

/I will do my utmost to help you as I am able, Revan./

Revan nodded and walked out of the temple, heading back to the Ebon Hawk. Her travel was interrupted by T3-M4 doing its best to lead Carth up the path. She had to smile at the sight—Carth was stumbling around as if he were drunk and T3 circled around him in a dizzy display of speed, poking and prodding his legs in an attempt to keep him from falling over the short escarpment.

"T3, poking me isn’t helping!" Carth told the droid, but that didn’t stop it.

Brrzzzt! T3 declared, and poked Carth again, making him stumble a bit to the left, farther away from the edge of the path.

"It looks like T3 is helping," Revan said.

"Hmph. He’s just having fun playing nerf herder, I think." Carth didn’t seem surprised at all hearing her.

Revan snickered. "So, you’re a nerf now? I’ll add that to the list."

Carth stopped and wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "That’s not what I meant." He was back in that battered leather jacket he seemed to like so much, and he was clean. If his hair was a bit more disheveled than usual, Revan couldn’t blame him. To be honest, she thought it looked better a bit less severe.

"Well, it’s what you said..."

"No, I said T3 was...never mind." After a tiny poke in the calf by T3, Carth said, "Fine, yes, I’m moving!"

Beep. T3 circled around front and tried to move a few rocks out of the way. Zrrrbat, bing... it beeped in frustration.

It took a while to return to the plateau. Revan refused to help Cath, and T3 was getting increasingly frustrated. When the three finally reached level ground, T3 jabbed Carth’s leg with one of its electrical appendages, giving him a thorough and painful zap.

"What was that for?" he shouted, "It’s not my fault! Look at her, not me!" He waved a hand in Revan’s general direction.

Zzzzraaappppt. T3 moved away in a huff.

"You were the one that dragged me off the Hawk T3, so really, you got what you were asking for. Damnit, where is he, I want to kick him!"

T3 made a remarkably rude sound. Revan shrugged and said, "He’s right there." She motioned toward T3 with her hand as vaguely as possible, unable to stop her smile when Carth’s annoyed expression turned aggravated.

"Maybe I’ll just kick you and tell you to give my respects to T3 for me," he grumbled.

"I don’t think so," Revan replied. She grabbed Carth’s hand and started dragging him toward the Rakatan temple.

"Where are we going?" he asked while trying his best not to trip on anything.

"You’ll see," Revan tittered.

"You’re just a regular comedian, aren’t you," Carth snarled.

"Even Dark Lords need a sense of humor."

Carth muttered under his breath words that were, like as not, something quite foul in one of the Telosian creoles he sometimes used when frustrated.

/Welcome back, Revan,/ the Rakatan computer said when she and Carth reached it.

"Hello again," Revan replied. "I brought what I think is the unidentified energy source." She pushed Carth in front of the computer terminal.

Carth hissed another obscure creole word; Revan had an idea he had resorted to a creole because there was no way for her to know exactly what it was he was saying. She knew an almost obscene number of tongues, but unless she was Telosian, there was no reason and no way for her to know any of the creoles. She only knew of them, and that because this wasn’t the first time Carth had muttered under his breath in one. Now, because of Malak, it was unlikely that there were many people at all who knew them and even fewer who needed them.

"You’re doing that on purpose," Revan grumped.

"I’m not allowed to curse in a language you don’t know, Miss Ex-Sith Lord shi’ losi reallin phe?"

"No," Revan stated, crossing her arms and frowning. It bugged her that she half-recognized the words, just enough to know that it was a mild but derogatory description of a powerless something or other.

In response Carth spat out a long string of words that Revan didn’t understand. His expression was clear enough; ‘yeah, and what are you going to do about it?’

Revan just ignored it. If Carth wanted to talk in some hodge-podge semi-language no one left in the galaxy except perhaps Dustil understood, it was no matter to her. It was just irritating, which may very well have been the point. She turned her attention back to the computer. "Well, here he is."

/Indeed. I am most curious about his language./

"Forget the language! I want to know about the energy source!"

/As you wish, Revan. Scanning will take me a moment, stand by./

"Does this thing speak Basic?"

"Probably, it understands Basic. Do you speak Basic?"

Carth snorted a small laugh. "You’re reaching sister. You used to be better at insulting me."

"Forgive me, life has been a little rough lately."

Revan received no reply to that, just a dark, unhappy expression. She smiled.

The computer reentered the conversation. /I have finished my scan Revan. You are correct, this one is the source of the unidentified energy. I believe I have the answers to some of your previous questions, Revan. Do you wish to hear them?/

"Yes, tell me what you know," she answered.

"What is it saying?" Carth asked, perturbed. He knew the computer was talking about him in some form.

/Revan, do you wish me to communicate in a language you will both understand?/

She glanced at Carth, then said, "No, please continue."

Carth looked suspicious, then stood very still, as if he might learn Rakatan just by listening to the computer.

/As you wish. This energy source is, as I surmised, unstable, but not in a way that would be threatening for its continued existence for some time. It is an energy very similar to what you call the Force, but essentially trapped. This gives it unusual properties; unlike the Force, which flows through all life, this person, as a receptacle, controls the energy to a very fine degree. It flows only where he wishes it to. I sense no conscious understanding on his part of how to control this transfer, as evidenced by the discharge from his hands. As I scan, the repository of energy is steadily, although minutely at this point, growing.

/To answer your question as to what would happen if you were to break your mind/body link—it would only be possible if you were to remove the energy. While the link is unstable, it appears to be strengthened by proximity. To destabilize the link to the point at which it would be most likely broken, you would be required to distance yourself from the source. As for what would happen to your mind at such a point, I cannot say. I speculate it would either revert to what you call Force, or, lacking the energy that has replaced the Force, your mind would lose cohesion and become nothing./

"What! Are you saying that if I get too far away from Carth I might not even die, I might just disappear? Like I never existed?"

/Yes, that is a distinct possibility. To avoid it, I speculate that you would have to find a rich source of Force so that it might replace the energy that now composes you. Your best chance to ‘survive’ such an action would be to find the Force that already contains an imprint of your mind./

Revan jabbed a finger in Carth’s face. "It’s in him! He’s a Force-damned Force sink!"

Carth absently shoved Revan’s finger away from him; he was still in an attitude of careful listening.

/Then your best chance at preserving your mind in the event of a removal of the energy linking it to your body would to become part of the Force sink./ The computer either had no trouble extrapolating what a Force sink was or it had heard of them before under a different name.

Rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands, Revan hissed, "There is no Force, only Carth."

/That would be a simplified way of stating the matter, yes./

"So I’m stuck. Completely stuck. Even more stuck than before."

/I am uncertain what you mean by ‘stuck’, but your current condition regarding the filtered energy as opposed to the Force likely has not changed significantly since it began./

"But I didn’t know about it before!" Revan shouted.

If self-aware computers could shrug, there was a chance this one would have. /I see that you are distressed by this./

"You’re damned right I’m distressed! I don’t suppose you would have any idea what it’s like to be a mobile being, used to traveling the stars, doing and going anywhere she pleased, would you."

/No, I do not, Revan. My purpose does not require such mobility. Is there anything else that you require of me?/

"No, not now."

"I’d like to ask something, if I could?" Carth said.

/I will answer to the best of my abilities, Carth./

Revan looked sharply at Carth. "You can’t understand it, what would be the point?"

"It understands Basic, and if it’s willing to talk to me, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t speak it, is there?"

/While it is true that I understand your Basic, I will not speak it unless Revan asks it of me. I prefer not to use the languages of slaves and lesser beings. I only allow Revan to address me in Basic because she has proven herself to be more than a base creature by her understanding of Rakatan and her desire for the knowledge of the ancients./

Carth paused for a moment, as if listening again. "Do...do you mean that, I, uh...need to learn Rakatan to talk to you?" He sounded uncertain of his statement.

/Yes./

Revan’s jaw dropped. Anger flashed in her yellow eyes. "How did you know what it said?"

"I can...hear it...it’s really hard, but I can hear what it means, kind of. I think I’m picking it up from you." He shrugged.

"You’re reading my mind." This wasn’t a new thing, but it bothered her still.

"I guess that must be it...more like, um, listening in, eavesdropping. It’s hard to hear, though, what the computer is saying. You’re fluent, so I only catch some of the meaning, not the actual words. Would you ask it to speak Basic?"

"Why don’t you just steal the knowledge out of my mind? I’m sure you can do that, Captain There is no Force only Carth." Revan thought it was possible, but the idea made her skin crawl.

Carth didn’t look as if he liked the idea any better than she did. "I don’t know if I can, Revan. I don’t think I’d want to even if I could."

"Why not? You don’t seem to care if you read my mind, why would you care if you snatched Rakatan out of it?"

"Because it’s all been passive so far," Carth snapped. "Like I said, I don’t even know if I can. I would care about not doing it because I don’t like the idea of mucking around inside your head. It’s repulsive."

"You’re such a charmer when you want to be, you know that?"

"That’s not what I meant! Although I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s true. It’s the idea that’s repulsive, since I have to spell everything out for you lately."

Revan just snorted. "Good luck learning Rakatan then."

"I suppose the Elder’s computer might be willing to teach me."

"And how are you going to get there? Hope you fall off the right cliff?"

"You’d like that, wouldn’t you?" Carth said, but his tone was distant, as if he had switched gears. When he next spoke, it was to the Temple computer. "You were curious about my language?"

/Yes. I can extrapolate from the ancient slave languages what they could potentially become, but none of my extrapolations lead to any quite like the language you were speaking. There were familiar forms within it, but as a whole, it was unique to me./

Revan crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. She didn’t think she wanted to sit here and play translator for Carth, but she couldn’t deny her curiosity; she wanted to know why he wanted to talk to the computer. After a moment, Carth said, "Do you want to learn it? Would that be worth answering a few questions in Basic?"

The computer was quiet, thinking. /There has not been anything worth recording until the very recent destruction of the Star Forge and the final end of the Rakatan people. As a footnote to the history of the Infinite Empire, it would be of some minor historical value to record the language of the one who destroyed the Star Forge. For that I will answer one question in Basic./

It took Carth a few minutes to answer, as he was trying to tease out the best understanding of the computer’s answer as he could from eavesdropping. When he did answer, it was in the language he had been speaking earlier. Then the computer started speaking in the same tongue. They continued the exchange, and Revan, growing frustrated and angry, decided to leave.

She wandered around outside the Temple, wondering why the computer was willing to speak in Telosian if it balked at Basic. She guessed it was probably just confirming that it was learning the language and wouldn’t say anything of substance in it. While she wandered she came across a preserved gizka and kicked it, turning it to dust. Walking didn’t relieve her frustration at all, however, neither did kicking dead gizkas. She felt so completely trapped, so powerless, even more than before, and she loathed it.

Every several minutes Revan would wander back to the Temple and far enough inside to hear what was being said. Several times she just heard the gibberish Carth called a language. Then finally she heard Basic and walked back down into the Temple computer’s room.

The computer was speaking, and Revan was certain she had missed a good chunk of the answer it had deigned to provide in Basic. "It is much the same with you. However, because of both the strength of the altered energy source and some damage I would classify as Force-inflicted, the bond between your body and your mind is much weaker than Revan’s. You do have this advantage in that regard—because this bond is dependant on the energy source, you are in no danger of breaking it via distance. It is stable, but the inherent weakness of the bond will be overpowered by the alternate energy. It is my estimation, that at the rate of power growth currently detected, the power output used to control your body will be overwhelmed in approximately five days."

Carth’s clenched his fists so hard his arms shook. "I couldn’t change that even if I did know how to control the power I have."

Reverting to Rakatan, the computer said, /Unlikely. The Force damage is the main cause of the weakness of the bond, and putting more power into it might break it. I could not predict what would happen if that should occur. I can say with certainty the alternate energy source would be severed from any connection to the body containing it./

Bowing his head, Carth took a few steps away from the computer. Revan just caught him saying to himself, "Damned Force. It’s gong to make sure. It already did...just time, then nothing."

Revan glanced at the Rakatan computer, then at Carth, who had moved away. It was obvious that he was troubled by what the computer had revealed. Not for the first time, she wished she could sense him and his emotions. Without the Force, it was even more difficult. Whatever he was feeling now, it would certainly be something she would enjoy.

Then an idea struck her, and a slow, feral smile spread across her ashen face. He might even be willing, and she would prove she was not entirely powerless while enjoying herself. She unlatched her gauntlets and pulled her gloves off, carefully setting them across the edge of the computer console. Stepping lightly, she walked over to Carth and stood in front of him. She wondered for a moment how much of her expression he could ‘see’. If it were much like Force sight, not much, although Force sight was more a sensing of intentions and emotions than it was actual seeing.

Her grin broadened when he just looked confused. Perhaps too distracted by his own thoughts? No matter, he could think whatever he liked as long as she got what she wanted. Quick as a snake, she grabbed him, pulling him down, and kissed him.

She laughed to herself at his reaction; he hadn’t caught even a hint of her intentions, and just like on the beach, he was caught so completely off guard that after his initial shock, he returned the kiss with surprising fervor.

Revan took full advantage of Carth’s disorientation to back him into a wall. She had just started unhooking the clasps on his jacket before Carth managed to regain control of himself enough to push her away. "No, stop it. I, I, I’m not doing this. Get away from me!"

"Ah, my mistake, Carth," Revan said, smiling. "For someone who wasn’t kissing me, you were certainly doing a fine job of it."

He ducked away from her, but moved in the wrong direction. Now she had him cornered. She started on his jacket again, standing on her toes so she could continue kissing him. This time, he didn’t push her away, he shoved her hard enough that she almost lost her footing.

Revan laughed. "You can’t tell me you don’t want me. It’s perfectly obvious."

"I certainly can say so!" Carth snapped. His hands were shaking, but Revan couldn’t tell if it were because he was angry or because of his physical desire.

"Don’t lie, Carth, you’re no good at it." Revan stepped forward, standing about as close as she could to Carth without touching him. She took his hands; it surprised her how nice the lightning felt on her bare arms. "Why not? You want it, I want it, so what’s the problem?"

"There would be the part where I don’t even want to touch you. You’re an unrepentant monster."

Revan didn’t even flinch. "An unrepentant monster that you love."

Carth growled at that. "You destroyed my home world, you killed my wife."

"Wasn’t me," she said, "and you said you couldn’t hate me for that, anyway." Revan started kissing him again, and Carth had a bit of trouble getting away from her...and it wasn’t just because he was cornered; he was fighting himself, too.

He hit his head on the wall pulling away from her. "I, I said that before, when I was fool enough to think there was more to you than just this ugly thing. Get away from me." His anger at her was mounting.

Revan was starting to get angry as well. "Well, master of mixed signals, don’t tell me you aren’t strong enough to make me stop. Make me stop if that’s what you want. Might be your last chance to do anything."

Carth snatched one hand back and grabbed a fistful of Revan’s hair, pulling her away. Physical state notwithstanding, he was glaring at her. She was right, he did want her, he had for a while. He did love her. And he was lying when he had called her nothing more than an ugly thing. He knew there was more to her than that, despite how she seemed to be going out of her way to prove otherwise. But then she had destroyed everything that meant anything to him; it didn’t matter if it was Malak and Saul that had pulled the trigger on everything he cared about, she was responsible because she was their leader. She was the Dark Lord of the Sith. He was furious with himself for loving her in spite of all that.

He was furious with himself for liking the feel of her lips on his.

"You don’t want me, you don’t want to do anything even so meaningless as just having sex, you want to use me." Perhaps most of all, in that moment, he hated himself for considering giving her what she wanted; he knew the computer was right, he could feel it. In a few days, he was as good as dead to the physical world. If he gave her what she wanted, he would be no better than every damn thing that had used him because he would be using her, too.

"What do you expect?" Revan growled. "The Force broke my toy, of course I want to use it before it falls apart."

It was unlikely that Revan could have said anything at that moment that would have made Carth any angrier than that. "I don’t think so, sister. You be careful what you wish for." He kissed her hard, catching her off guard this time.

But only for a moment; after that Revan was quite pleased with herself. Carth was incredibly angry, and she couldn’t have been happier.

That was until Carth sneaked in one very well timed sucker punch. Revan gasped for breath and doubled over, cursing, unprepared for the hard kick that sent her sprawling. She lacked her Force reflexes, but she was still a trained scout and smuggler, so it didn’t take her long to get back up.

"What in the hell was that!" she shouted, just dodging a right hook that looked like it might have knocked her out. She didn’t wait for an answer before she took her advantage and threw Carth on his back.

His recovery was a lot more graceful, simply because he had expected a fight. "Apparently, that’s the only ‘no’ a Dark Lord takes for an answer," Carth spat back, rounding on Revan.

"Dark Lords don’t take refusal at all!" she yelled, furious to the point of shaking. Revan had every intention of beating Carth to within an inch of his life for that stunt, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew that the only advantage she had in this was that she could see the walls. No extra speed, no Force-honed reflexes...and no way to know for certain that Carth wouldn’t suddenly figure out how, in his anger, to throw that lightning.

Revan moved first, hoping that however it was that Carth could see her was not very accurate. Unfortunately, it seemed it was and he blocked her easily, knocking her down a second time. She was quicker to get up this time, and determined not to be laid out a third time.

Until the end, Revan managed to stay on her feet, but it was difficult. She was frustrated and angry, but so was Carth, and neither one held back. Neither one had an advantage—Revan could see the layout and that caused Carth problems, but Carth knew what Revan’s next move was almost before she did, and he seemed to get better at it the longer they traded blows. It was a long fight, and an exhausting one.

The final hits to land just underlined how evenly matched they were; energy flagging, Carth hadn’t been able to dodge a knee to the groin, but he had managed to hit Revan’s head so hard she fleetingly lost consciousness. They both went down, and didn’t move for a long time.

"Think...call it...draw," Carth managed to gasp out. Revan did not kid around when she went for the kill.

Dizzy, Revan slurred, "Uh, yessh...’k." She didn’t bother getting up, and she was too worn out to feel angry anymore.

It seemed Carth didn’t feel very angry either. "That hurt."

"Woulda been more fun my way." Revan was nearly asleep now.

"No...just would have gotten inna fight anyway." Carth sounded sleepy too. /Have honor, won’t be used./

Revan was asleep before it registered that Carth had said that last in perfect Rakatan.

The next morning was rather painful. "Ow...," Revan muttered as she roused herself and stood from the stone floor. She looked at her bare hands; she was not at all surprised to find bruises. She hadn’t pulled her punches. She’d hate to see the rest of her. She had taken a few strikes to the face...probably looked like it, too. Her bloodstone gauntlets weren’t shiny enough to use for mirrors; she put them back on so she wouldn’t have to see the ugly marks on her hands.

The only nice thing she could think of was that Carth probably looked just as bad—they had certainly beaten each other senseless. Seemed to have burned off some frustration, though.

Revan didn’t see Carth in the room, so she walked out of the Temple, looking for him. It didn’t take her long to find him; he was sitting in the dead grass very near the steps up to the Temple, his arms folded over his knees and his back to her. She made a face; no bruises on his hands at least. That wasn’t fair. She hoped that at least he was hurting.

"Oh, I am, no doubt about that, beautiful. Sorry you don’t think it’s fair though. No blood, no bruises. Pretty sure I bled out on the Hawk. Hell of a nosebleed." He didn’t turn.

Revan huffed. It was also not fair that she couldn’t sneak up on him either. She went and stood next to him. A quick examination of his face turned up no bruises there, either, despite the fact that she knew she’d nailed him in the face more than once. Strange...there were tear trails. He’d been crying very recently.

Carth turned away from her and wiped at his face. He said nothing, and Revan stood there for a while, becoming increasingly curious about not only why he was crying but why he wasn’t saying anything. She knew full well that he could tell she wanted to ask about it.

"If you wanted to ask, you would."

"Now you’re selectively answering my thoughts?"

Carth ran a hand through his hair, settling it more than disheveling. "What am I supposed to say? What do you want? I know you don’t really care, you’re just curious. Maybe I don’t want to talk about it."

Before Revan could answer, HK-47 tromped up the hill and called out to her. "Statement: Master, sensors picked up two Sith Interdictor ships and one Republic ship enter the system." When HK got closer, he said, "Query: What happened? Did this meatbag somehow manage to hurt you? Shall I dispatch him for such blatant disregard for the sanctity of your Lordship?"

"I look that bad, HK?" Revan hissed.

"Appeasement: You look fine, master," HK was quick to respond. "There is no shame in appearing as if you have been in a fight."

"Well, I was, and no, you can’t shoot anyone for it." HK somehow managed to look upset about that. "About the ships. Tell me about the ships."

"Statement: Certainly master. The ships entered the system, but there do not seem to be any meatbags aboard. They have not entered any sort of entry flight path, nor do they seem to have changed direction at all. Prediction: The ships will leave the system without stopping."

Revan turned to Carth. "Is that what happened? The ships? The crews?"

Carth just nodded.

"It upsets you? It hurts?"

He nodded again. "Both."

"HK, let’s see if we can find out the exact boundaries of the system, find out where this, this...event horizon is." Revan waved her hands, then strode down toward the path to the beach. She added, "Just to keep the Sith out, you know. Even if I can’t lead them, I don’t want them getting killed trying to get here."

HK nodded. "Statement: Of course, master." He followed her off the plateau and down to the beach.

When they were gone, Carth said, "I saw you again yesterday, Revan. I didn’t mean to, but I did." He snorted a bitter laugh. "Learned Rakatan a shade too late, too, but now I guess something will remember Teleiotjs forever."

It took several hours for Revan, HK-47, and T3-M4 to calculate the boundaries of the Rakatan system. Or rather, the boundaries of the Force sink. They used the Ebon Hawk to fly to several points using the Rakatan Temple as the center point, and every time Revan started feeling dizzy and weak, T3 would record the point and set out a warning beacon. They didn’t require many points of reference, only enough to rough out a somewhat spherical shape that ended up encircling Rakata, its two moons, and the star. While they were seeking out the boundary, Revan took the opportunity to clean herself up a bit. She found that her bruises had faded very quickly, and she wondered why. She supposed she had subconsciously willed it—the computer had said her body was entirely under her mental control, so that made some sense.

As soon as the first boundary was established, Revan returned to the beach and instructed HK and T3 to send out more beacons along the outer edges of the boundary they had found so it would take in the entire orbit of Rakata.

She did not specify to whom the warning would get sent, so T3 encoded both a general warning about the dangers of approaching the system and a specific one that transmitted directly to Coruscant. The droid thought it best to make sure the Republic found out as soon as possible so that the dissemination of the information would be very quick.

"No, no...no, why...? Why did it have to happen this way? There is life and death and love and hate and identity, but...but all, all that’s left is identity and that will be gone soon, too! It’s not right, I can’t do this..."

Revan settled back against the rock on the Rakata beach, near Carth. She supposed that the four Sith ships that had entered the system while she and the droids had been scouting were responsible for Carth being so upset and she was concerned despite herself. If there were to be any of those things Carth wanted so badly, those things the Force tried to render meaningless, she would have to try and make them. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t maintain any real hate for him for what happened. It wasn’t his fault, not entirely, just as it was not quite her fault. It was just such a tangled mass of mistakes. She didn’t think she wanted the things Carth wanted just for him, though. She at least wanted identity, life, and death. Hate would be a nice benefit, but she could do without love. It was confusing her. Maybe it was because there was no Force, only Carth...maybe she had a Carth infection.

She sighed and said, "Carth, no, there’s no life and death here, you’re right about that, but maybe there can be something else. I wonder if, if I hadn’t gotten so upset that you saw a Force vision of another Revan, if I hadn’t taken those lovely eyes yours, if this wouldn’t have happened...maybe the Force wouldn’t have been able to break you."

He shook his head. "It had already started, Revan. Hurting me a little more didn’t change that. You must not be feeling well to think it would make a difference...but then I guess you thought it would before... I did see a Force vision of another you...not so different, really, but just enough. I don’t know how, or why, but that’s what I saw. Maybe the Force put a glamour over you...you fooled more than just me into thinking you were something other than completely Dark. I’m sorry, I am, it’s that Revan I love. So there’s no love or hate."

"Maybe...but you wouldn’t have been able to see a Revan that was impossible to be. She was a potential, and potentials have to be rooted in reality." Revan snorted. "This is so stupid. Why am I even having this conversation with you? Why do I even care?"

Carth shrugged. "Survival instinct? I’m sorry, I wish it didn’t have to be this way."

"So, would you let it go now, if you could?"

"I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m really selfish when you get down to it. And stubborn. I made a promise, I won’t forget that. I won’t fail this time."

"Would you still be willing to murder your son to stop this?"

"NO! No, no, I...I don’t know why, why I thought that would be, uh, something I could do." Carth twisted his fingers in his hands, lightning sparking off. "I was out of my mind."

"I think you still are," Revan said.

Carth just nodded. It was a jerky nod, and for a long moment after, Carth didn’t move.

"It’s not done, is it?"

"No, it’s done. It’s just taking a little while for the damage to show up."

Revan frowned. "The Force royally screwed with us."

"Oh yes."

"If you hated me, what would have happened?"

Carth thought about that for a long time. "I...think...that I would fallen alone into the star along with the Forge. I would have still been there, with no way out...I would have still fought the Force, just wouldn’t have had as long to do it. We’re a little bit immortal, you know. Death is a matter of the Force, and it’s gone now. Only Carth left."

"But I thought that was one of the things you wanted? Death?"

"Yes...but, uh, I want it because I knew the Force would take it all away. I want things to be normal again. I, uh, I didn’t know...what it was going to do...just that, when it did it, it would take everything away. I don’t want death for myself anymore, but I didn’t want...this." He spread his hands, taking in a gizka that looked serene in its stationary existence, about to hop, but static in a strange un-death. The trees faded to the color of ash with no wind to break their fragile, lifeless leaves. The ocean that still crashed ashore, but in an eerie powerless way, one that would never erode rock. "This isn’t death, this is...I don’t know what this is."

"It’s an abomination," Revan answered. "I want to smash them, cut them, make them bleed, fry them, just so I can pretend they died honestly."

"Carth can’t give that to them. Carth is barely a man, Carth can’t be the wind or the tides."

Revan snorted. "But Carth can keep me alive."

"Only a little. Remember what the computer said? Your mind is alive, Revan, and Carth can make it so your body obeys your mind’s commands, but...I don’t know what kind of life that is. The Force made sure Carth couldn’t do that for me. Is it a tolerable life, Revan? Is it all right for you?"

"Yeah, it’s all right. I can’t really tell the difference, except for the lack of Force. I feel that very keenly."

They sat quietly for a while. Revan occupied herself thinking of nothing in particular, letting her mind wander. There weren’t even any clouds to watch. Leaving was out of the question; life here might be disturbing and boring, but she wouldn’t even contemplate succumbing to the mock-death that surrounded her. She tapped her lips. "Here’s a tricky question. Why do you think I had a ‘glamour’ over me? Why would it matter?"

"Huh? Oh, uh...it would have been dangerous to the Force’s grand plan if anyone really believed you were who you are, probably. I mean, believed it deep down, that you were a real threat because you were a real Sith. There would have been assassins coming out of the woodwork. They would have found out. I probably would have killed you before they had a chance, or died trying."

"Oh really. I thought you loved me."

"We’re talking hypothetically here, you without the glamour. I’m too much of a paranoid jerk to have bought what you were selling without it. One of the only nice things Canderous ever said to me was that I had good instincts for scenting out bantha crap. But you were full of it and I couldn’t see it. I know Bastila couldn’t either, and if anyone should have known better, it was her. You’re a lying, manipulative schutta. You really think I was honestly that stupid?"

"You sweet talker, you," Revan growled, holding up a fist. She lowered it with much silent cursing.

"Are you trying to tell me you helped me convince Dustil to leave Korriban out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Fine, I’m a lying, manipulative schutta. And yes, I do think you are honestly that stupid. Force, it was funny!"

Carth frowned and did his best to glare at Revan. All things considered, he did a good job of it. "Stupid or not, I had plenty of hate left over to share some with you. There’s a damn good chance I would have tried to kill you at the first opportunity, since killing Saul wasn’t enough. Don’t think I didn’t want to as it was."

"You wouldn’t—," Revan protested.

"You don’t think so?" Carth yelled, moving so he was right in her face. "Did you know I held a blaster to your head on Korriban while you slept?" He mimicked the motion with his hand, pointing his finger at Revan’s temple. "The only thing that stopped me from putting a blaster bolt through your skull was remembering what you did for Dustil just a month before, before we went to Manaan to find the Star Map." He dropped his hand, and Revan exhaled hard, not realizing she had been holding her breath. This was a dangerous conversation, and to her horror she discovered she was afraid. "That and no matter how hard I tried to hate you, I couldn’t. I know all about hate. The only thing that kept me moving for four years was hate of every kind."

He sat back, giving Revan some room to breathe. "You’d think with all that, so much hate and anger, on Korriban of all places, I should have been able to find a way to hate you, but I couldn’t. I still can’t. The glamour is gone, and I still love you so much it hurts." His voice lowered to a near-inaudible whisper. Revan didn’t notice that his voice had been falling quieter all along. "Maybe that’s why. Too many people I loved are dead or lost to me, I couldn’t kill you, too."

Revan took a moment to calm herself. What Carth had just told her was a revelation. She had no idea that her life was in danger from him on Korriban, such a short time ago; the last Star Map they found was Korriban’s. She had badly misjudged him...both then and now. If he wanted to, he probably could find a way to kill her and she was helpless to defend herself...just as helpless as she had apparently been on Korriban. All she had was his word that he wouldn’t. It was a sobering thought.

That explanation for why everyone seemed to be completely blind to her real intentions made sense, though. The Force was hedging its bets. It couldn’t make her lead Carth on, and it couldn’t make him fall in love with her, but it could certainly will the right conditions together to make it easier. At the least, it had blinded everyone enough to guarantee she would get to the Star Forge with the least amount of suspicion with its weapon present. Even if she hadn’t dragged Carth all through the Forge, the Force still could have used him.

The only thing that would have stopped the Force from using its sink was if she killed it first. But she had been far too arrogant and pleased with herself to do that, she thought everything was under control. "I should have listened to Canderous," she muttered.

"Probably...but that might not have helped anything. The Force planned this pretty well, you don’t suppose there was a second contingency plan in place?"

"Ugh. I hadn’t thought of that. There’s no way to know now, is there."

Carth shook his head ‘no’. You don’t stay afraid long.

Startled, Revan jumped to her feet. "What was that?"

"Easier." It’s getting hard to talk. You don’t have to be afraid. Might not hurt to remember why you’re afraid, though...a little humility never hurt anyone.

Revan pulled her hood up and sat back down. "It’s not the way of the Sith. And kindly remove your voice from my head."

"I will as long as I can," Carth answered, his voice much weaker than it had been, but Revan thought it likely she only noticed it because he had brought her attention to it. Thinking back over their recent conversation, she did see that he was having some trouble with his voice.

They sat in silence a long time after that. Revan stayed and slept on the beach; she didn’t feel like bothering to board the Hawk.

Go on to Section 3