(L,F&E 83) Sometimes it is Good to be Bad

[kalenath]

((Ok, get ready for a walk on the evil side. People with weak stomachs may want to skip this one. I am NOT kidding.))

 

It was very quiet in the small ship at last. The occupant of the cockpit liked it that way, most of the time. Of course, his current plaything as not going to be able to give him joy for much longer but that was not such a bad thing. He had a ready replacement, maybe… The boy had been tough, strong and capable. Pity he had decided to fight when he should have run. But then again, Jedi always were predictable in that regard. Give them an evil to face and they almost always charged it, even if they truly had no chance at all. The man in black sighed softly. There were times when he truly loved his life, but they were getting fewer and fewer as time went by. Was he actually getting better? The stunted shrimp of a Jedi master who served as his liaison to his master said that he would, in time. But he needed sustenance. He shook his head. It was time again. He truly detested this now. It used to be such a rush, to hurt other people, to hear them scream and beg, cry and wet themselves. To hold their life force in his hands to do with what he willed. Now?

 

It had gotten old. Was that it? Was he simply bored? Could that be it? No, it had to be more than that. Maybe the little brown pile of poodoo had done something to him while he had been a prisoner, maybe the little green pile of poodoo had. It didn’t really matter. He paused in his musing as the com chimed. He keyed it on and snarled as the green form he detested more than almost any being in the galaxy appeared. Small wonder, the Jedi had been the one who captured him and turned him over to the Jedi’s master who had made him what he was now.

 

“What do you want, Vandar?” He snapped as he fiddled with the controls. Not that he really needed to, but he did not want to meet the Jedi’s eyes. “I am busy. Unlike some lazy good for nothing green idiots…”

 

“We may have caught a break.” Vandar said without rising to the insult. “The gunship that Will modified was seen landing on Nar Shaddaa by one of our agents.”

 

“Are you sending me after him?” The man blinked. He was not quite sure how he felt about that. Will Kalenath was a very formidable opponent. Both times he had faced the soldier; he had been forced to flee, both times by the interruption of the Bladeborn who were no longer a threat. But before that, it had been glorious both times. The soldier was as crazy as the man in black was. He smiled and licked his lips. “I would love a rematch.”

 

“How many times must we tell you, boy...”Jedi Master Vandar Tokare’s voice was strict now. “Business before pleasure. He is not there. And we need him alive. Two others of the Seven were seen debarking. Michelle and Jina Darkstorm.”

 

“Then… what…?” The man in black asked softly. When odd things started coming down the pipe from the one in overall charge, bad things were happening. “Why call me?”

 

“There was an odd disturbance in the Force last night. Did you feel it?” Vandar asked softly. Neither of them had any way of knowing what had transpired in the Sitolon homeship recently. Either of them might have found it interesting. Ravishaw would have found it hilarious, but then again, he found a lot of things funny that really were not.

 

“I was busy.” The man in black sneered at Vandar’s expression. “But you wouldn’t know anything about getting lucky, would you?” He wasn’t about to tell Vandar that he had sensed it to, and it worried him. He had the disturbing feeling that Vandar knew anyway. The Jedi was too perceptive by half.

 

“Who did you take, this time?” Vandar asked in a long suffering tone. “Jedi or Sith?”

 

“Jedi.” The man in black smiled as Vandar’s face fell. “Don’t worry, I am making them feel right at home.” Vandar actually winced at that. “It’s okay, when I break them, we can use them for spare parts.”

 

“Ravishaw…” Vandar actually growled at the man, but Ravishaw just grinned.

 

“You want me on Nar Shaddaa?” The insane man thought about that and grinned. Dodging Hutt enforcers who did not like him, Sith who hated him and Jedi who despised him. It sounded like fun. “Capture protocols?”

 

“Gently.” Vandar cautioned. “We absolutely need them alive. Istara in particular. If she IS there, call for backup. We can have a full team there in eight hours.”

 

“Why?” Ravishaw asked sourly. “It’s not like that stuck up harpy has a chance against me without the poodoo or the lickspittle around.” Vandar just looked at him and Ravishaw made a sour sounding sigh. “Fine, fine. Tell the master I will do what I can to be gentle to his new toys. But I may pick up a few myself.”

 

“Discretely this time, Ravishaw…” Vandar commanded as the insane Bladeborn grinned wider. “The last thing we need is more Imperial presence in the area. Not until we are ready to move.”

 

“That is your problem…” Ravishaw grinned evilly and cut the com as Vandar opened his mouth again. “I love doing that to him…” He set the com to ignore any incoming calls for ten minutes, shook himself and stood. “Ah well…time to get this done…”

 

Ravishaw settled his cape and strode form the cockpit into the main bay of the small spacecraft. He smiled as he heard the whimpers from the locked door, but ignored them for now. Later he would sate his hunger for pain and fear. Now it was time for business. He strode into the tiny medical bay and smiled as he saw his medical droid had finished.

 

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey…” He crooned into the ear of the young man on the table. The young man jerked and tried to scream, but could not with the tube down his throat. Ravishaw was no amateur at doing this. He had been doing to for years. He very rarely broke a new apprentice right off. He much preferred to take his time. “There, there, my new apprentice… It’s okay. I won’t hurt you unless you earn it. Or you beg for it.”

 

The young man in tattered Jedi robes snarled at Ravishaw and he grinned. Always so predictable, the Jedi were. Sith, well, sometimes they acted weak and pathetic to try to get him to lower his guard. It never worked, but hey, it made for a more interesting time sometimes.

 

“Let me explain before you do anything incredibly stupid.” Ravishaw smiled at the defiant look that came into the young man’s eyes. “You old life is over. You are mine now. You will disagree, you will posture, eventually you will beg and whimper, but in the end, you will serve me. Go ahead, protest all you want.” He pulled the slimy tube out of the Jedi’s mouth with a yank. The young man gagged, but couldn’t go anywhere due to the restraints he wore. Ravishaw patted his head. “There, there… You have taken your first steps into a larger world my apprentice. Scary, I know, but I am here to guide you, to teach you, and to correct you when you screw up, which you will.”

 

“What did you do to me?” The young man’s voice was stronger than Ravishaw had assumed it would be, and he smiled inwardly as the young man did not do as expected. He loved surprises. “Feel… so…”

 

“Your inner ears are a bit off at the moment. Due no doubt to the four grams of class three detonite that are packed beside the right cochlea.” For a moment, the boy’s eyes were blank and then he stiffened. Ravishaw grinned. “Yes, I put bomb in your head and another in your stomach. People have figured out how to remove one at a time, so I had to figure out where to add another. If you look here…” He poked the boy in the arm and the medical droid lifted it, since the muscle relaxants were still in effect –it wouldn’t do for him to jerk around during surgery after all, now would it? Not that he was about to waste general anesthesia on an apprentice. The sooner they learned about pain the better- “You can see my mark. This is what allows me to see through your eyes and hear through your ears. It is quite permanent, I assure you. Others have tried to cut it out, cut it off, even amputate the arm, it won’t work. The mark is just a physical reminder that you are now mine.”

 

“You do not own me.” The boy said quietly and then froze as Ravishaw exclaimed with glee.

 

“Oh…a tough one. Oh, it has been so long since I had a tough one.” He was giggling with glee as he laid his hand gently on the boy’s forehead and smiled evilly. “You won’t think that in about an hour, boy.” Power flared form his fingertips and the boy tried, Ravishaw was actually impressed, the boy managed to dissipate some of the power that Ravishaw shoved into him, but eventually, he like all the others succumbed and started screaming. Ravishaw was quite impressed actually when he looked at the chrono and found that he had spent an hour working on the boy. This was one tough Padawan, pity his master had been nowhere near as tough…

 

“Good boy…” Ravishaw said quietly as he keyed the medical droid on to make sure his newest apprentice did not die. He needed a new cat’s paw and this boy was shaping up nicely. A little programming, a bit of pain, some care, and he would serve willingly, gladly. They always did.

 

The man called Ravishaw paused as he left the medical bay and shook his head slowly. He hadn’t really enjoyed most of that. What was wrong? He shook his head. He was hungry, that was it. He would feel better after he ate. He keyed the locked door open and the whimpers increased in level and frequency. He smiled evilly at the Cerean female who was bound against the wall. Her eyes tracked him as he approached. She was shaking her head, but had no power to speak. She also did not have vocal cords. Her voice had irritated him, so he had ordered his medical droid to remove them a day after he had ‘acquired’ her and her Padawan.

 

“Oh don’t worry, my dear… It will be over soon enough. I figure you will last another… Oh, five days or so…” His grin was vicious as he laid his hand on her shoulder and she started trying to scream again. “And don’t worry about your precious little Padawan. He is in good hands.” He stared drawing her life force out of her, savoring the pain he was causing her almost as much as the power. “He has taken his first steps into a larger world. Far larger than the closed off one you idiotic Jedi dwell in…”

Edited August 14, 2012 by kalenath

[kalenath]

The boy was shaping up nicely, Ravishaw decided as he put his new apprentice through his paces. The former Padawan had an active mind, and after some less than gentle persuasion, was firming up into a nicely balanced apprentice. Every so often, he showed a little bit of spirit, but Ravishaw had no problem with that, it kept the man on his toes. The ship wasn’t big enough to have a full on obstacle course inside it, but Ravishaw managed in the cargo bay by shifting some of the cargo as the boy moved through it. Ravishaw nodded. The boy was almost ready. The treatments that Ravishaw gave him nightly had left his mind in a highly suggestible and pliable state. Soon it would be time to mold the boy into a very different man than the boy he had been. He snapped his fingers and Neof froze in place, a foot up as he had started to climb over a crate.

 

“Defend.” Ravishaw said quietly as he picked up another crate with the Force and threw it at the boy. To Ravishaw’s surprise and delight, the boy deflected it with the Force. Every other time Ravishaw had done that, the boy had either tried to dodge and been punished, or been hit by the crate and then punished. “Well done, Neof.” He had given the boy a new name, ‘Neof’, short for ‘Neophyte’. He would get another, eventually, when Ravishaw determined he was worthy of it. The boy did not smile, indeed, did not react. Ravishaw smiled widely, he was learning. The man in black spoke sharply. “Continue.”

 

He watched the boy jump around the cargo bay and nodded. The boy had come far in the four days he had been aboard. Of course, the boy had gone through all the usual Jedi phases. He had tried ignoring Ravishaw, which hadn’t worked. He had tried letting his emotions pass him by, which hadn’t worked. Not when Ravishaw knew within hours exactly how to press the boy to get a reaction. He had even tried suicide, which hadn’t worked either. Ravishaw had done this so often it was almost rote by now. The boy HAD managed to slit his wrists deeply enough, but Ravishaw had been watching, and after treating the wounds, had punished the boy hard enough that the boy had not been able to train for a day. Finally, the boy was moving to Ravishaw’s exacting standards and the former Bladeborn nodded.

 

“Come here, Neof.” Ravishaw beckoned to the boy and Neof approached, not too slow, and not too fast. Either one would draw punishment. The boy bowed formally, something that Ravishaw took a delight in and waited. The man in black walked around the mostly unclothed apprentice and nodded slowly. Loincloths were easy to make and maintain. Far easier than full robes. The surgical scars were healing, the implants that the droid had put in were situated properly, the boy had not vomited or anything. Sometimes that happened and it was such a mess to fix that often Ravishaw simply went out and got a new apprentice, discarding the old one or using the failure to do something nasty to someone. He really enjoyed doing that. There was little quite like seeing through the eyes of the apprentice as he or she approached the target, said hello and blew up. It was evil, but so much fun to see the dumbfounded and terrified look on the target’s face just before the connection winked out. He had learned not to stay connected when the apprentice died, it knocked him for a loop. The bombs were not really large enough to do more than kill the apprentice in a messy fashion; he was an artist, not a terrorist. But the sheer terror he got from such tactics was worth it. Maybe he WAS a terrorist? He didn’t know, or care actually. “Good boy…” Ravishaw said quietly as he ran a hand across the boy’s scalp. The hair was growing back.

 

Something was different about this subject. Ravishaw could not decide what it was. He walked around the young man twice and shook his head. It didn’t really matter. The boy’s mind was almost perfectly prepared for a proper beginning and that was all that mattered.

 

“To Medical. I have something special for you today.” Ravishaw’s voice was soft and the boy nodded dumbly. Ravishaw turned and walked towards the door, aware that Neof followed at exactly the prescribed distance, head down. Training apprentices was an art, not a science. Each one was different. That was part of the challenge, part of the test… Ravishaw froze in place, barely aware of the boy stopping a meter behind him, incurious. Ravishaw turned slowly to look at the boy and his eyes went wide as he actually saw the boy for the first time. From the moment Ravishaw had taken him, the boy had just been a subject, not a person. But now…

 

Young, about fifteen, if the Bladeborn’s estimation was anything to go by. Younger any than he had taken before. Strong in the Force, but unfocused and with little actual training besides the drek the Jedi taught. The boy had blonde hair and brown eyes that were downcast now. Ravishaw was not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but there was something that really bothered the man about seeing this boy like this, standing there… What was it? He walked around the boy again, seeking answers, and the boy did not move. Ravishaw reached out slowly and touched the boy on the shoulder only to jump back as he heard a voice. Was it real or only in his mind? It was female, older… Terrifying in the sweetness that barely masked its lust.

 

‘Come here, momma’s little boy. Mommy has something special for you today…’

 

“No…” Ravishaw stared at the boy, dumbfounded and then he stared down at himself. When he spoke his voice was angry and terrified. “No…” He repeated. Then he screamed. “I will not be her!”

 

The boy jumped, startled out of his pose and froze in place, expecting punishment. But instead of punishment, Ravishaw sighed deeply and took the young man’s hands in his.

 

“Easy… Come…” The boy followed, his mind nearly fractured into bits by the treatments that Ravishaw had given him. “Let me take care of you…”

 

Instead of the medical ward with its cold bed and machines, Ravishaw led the boy to a small empty dormitory. The former Bladeborn led the boy to the bed, sat him down and, without a word, pulled out a medikit and started cleaning the boy’s injuries. In a few minutes, he had the minor wounds cleaned and bandaged. He stood the boy up, put a clean robe on the boy and sat him down again.

 

“Do you want to sleep?” Ravishaw asked softly and gently. The boy stared at him, this was totally outside what the boy had known for the last few days which had seemed an eternity. The boy barely remembered life before this ship and his master, more feelings than actual memories. The boy nodded slowly, his face scared. Ravishaw sighed softly. “I can’t promise anything but this, boy. I am not going to violate you. I have…taken you and broken you… So you are my responsibility. I do need an apprentice. Actually… no… Not an apprentice… An initiate…” The boy stared at him uncomprehendingly and Ravishaw smiled. “Won’t this go over just so well? But I think it will be fun. For me anyway. A new thing is always fun, at first anyway. Sleep boy. Tomorrow I will try to put your mind back together. For tonight, sleep.” The boy stared at him and Ravishaw gently put the boy’s legs up on the bed and covered the young man with a sheet before turning out the lights and leaving the dormitory.

 

As he left the room, Ravishaw leaned against the wall and, wonder of wonders, started to cry. It had been so long, he had forgotten. He had tried so hard to forget. He had been… what? Eight, nine, when Trugoy had come to take him from his mother? He didn’t know. All he had known, all his early life, was his mother. Her wishes, her lusts, her… He shook himself and sternly ordered his mind to obey. It did. One thing for sure, he could not do what he usually did to his apprentices to this boy. But maybe, like he had told the boy, he didn’t need an apprentice. Maybe he needed an initiate. Wouldn’t that be rich? He was cast out form the Bladeborn Order. What would they think if he started aping their customs? He grinned widely at that. They would hate it, and him, even more. Good.

 

He walked into the prison room whistling a jaunty air. The Jedi in her bonds barely roused until he touched her cheek, then she woke with a grunt that was probably as much of a scream as she could manage. She recoiled as he stroked her cheek. He detested Jedi, sol this came easily for him.

 

“I just had a wonderful idea, Jedi. But this means I am going to be very hungry, a lot of the time.” He shook his head. One problem with being the way he was, was that he could not survive without sustenance in the form of life force that he had to take from victims. Unwilling ones were sweeter. “That means you are going to have company soon. We will have to spruce you up, so that you look your best. But for now…” He pulled part of her life from her body, ignoring her grunts and cries. He savored the feelings, loving every moment, but was careful not to take too much. If he killed his food supply, well… He didn’t want to hurt the boy further. But he would if he had to.

[kalenath]

“Wow…” Ravishaw sat back with a grunt as he shook his head. Destroying a mind was easy. Putting one back together? He shook his head. “How did that black furred witch make this look so easy?”

 

Even now, after all this time and pain, he could not shake the feeling of warmth that came over him when he thought of Ona, healer of what had been Trugoy’s Bladeborn. She was…different…from the others. Even as a child, he had known she was different. After her maiming, he and the other Bladeborn had done so much to try to help her and had finally managed to pull her through the injury, the depression and the rest of it. Then she had literally thrown herself into healing, learning what to do to mend broken bodies and souls. He shook his head, he hadn’t thought of that in years.

 

“Master…?” The boy under his hands groaned as he turned to look at Ravishaw. “What have I done wrong?” Ravishaw grimaced, but schooled his expression before he looked at the boy. The boy was so fractured it would take little, if anything to break him completely, and Ravishaw did NOT want to break him now.

 

“Nothing, Nikol. I am just… taking a break. Not your fault.” Ravishaw patted the boy’s shoulder gently. The very first thing that Ravishaw had done was deactivate the explosives fitted inside the boy’s body. He was not going to lose this one or throw him away. Nikol had slept through that. Ravishaw had been amazed to learn the boy’s real name had started with an ‘N’. He had never asked or cared before. “Easy boy… Almost done for today.” He laid his hands on the boy’s head again and concentrated.

 

Healing had never been his thing. He had always been more focused on breaking things, hurting people. He knew the basics of course. Anyone who wanted to survive in this hard galaxy knew at least the basics of first aid. But this was way beyond basics. Ravishaw knew, to within a millimeter or so, how far he had pushed Nikol towards the boy’s breaking point. He had done that many times, too many to count. But bringing someone back from it? That he had never done. He sighed. It would be easier just to break the boy totally and start over with a clean slate. That was what Ravishaw usually did after all. But… He couldn’t. For some reason, he just couldn’t. Every time he thought about doing it, that same hated voice welled up in him.

 

‘What a smart little boy… Come here Morey…’

 

He was not going to be his mother. He had been, he shuddered in memory. He had done far worse than she had, to many more people than she had. She had only done her perversions to him. But he was not going to be her now. He was not. He would not do it to a child. He calmed himself and focused. Healing did not work with anger, with rage, with hate. It needed something different, something he didn’t have a lot of. He finished what he could and retracted his hands.

 

“How is that, Nikol? Better?” Ravishaw asked as he sat back. He checked the catheters and nodded. The boy would not be mobile for a while, but was bouncing back. He did not want the boy wandering the ship anyway. So better this than leave him to lie in filth. He could move around a bit with bag, and that would work for what Ravishaw had in mind for his trainee next.

 

“Yes.” The boy said in a dazed voice. “May I… um…”

 

“You have a question?” Ravishaw prompted. The boy nodded and Ravishaw smiled, a gentle smile that felt out of place on his face. “Ask.”

 

“Why…?” Nikol asked softly. “You hurt me… I don’t remember before the pain…Why did you hurt me?” Tears were falling down the boy’s face as he tried to be brave. But his control was as fractured as his mind. “Why are you nice now?”

 

“Don’t fool yourself, boy. I’m not nice.” Ravishaw said with an evil chuckle. “I needed an apprentice, and I chose you. I broke your mind the way I did all my previous apprentices. But…” He paused as if unsure. “You are not an apprentice now. You are something else I have not defined yet. I am going to help you, I am going to put you back together. Then I am going to train you, as I was trained.”

 

“And…” Nikol was feeling the words out as he went. “If I don’t want that?”

 

“I am afraid that what you want has no bearing here, Nikol.” Ravishaw grinned, an expression that turned into a frown as the boy started crying again. “Hey… I won’t hurt you again unless you deserve it. We rarely get what we want in life. But from this moment on, until you die or graduate training, you are Initiate Nikol.” Ravishaw snapped the restraints into place and rose from the bedside. “Now I have business to attend. I expect you to have read the pad by the time I get back. We will discuss it.” Ravishaw indicated a datapad that sat beside Nikol’s head with a nod. The restraints were to keep the boy from thrashing in nightmares or convulsions more than to keep him from escaping. Where would he go?

 

Ravishaw had to smile. Vandar would likely be upset that Ravishaw had made a detour to Tattooine. And to pick up Bladeborn training materials from a hidden cache? Vandar would likely be even more incensed at that. Which was one reason Ravishaw had done it. Also, he had needed some of the texts on healing; he had done a lot more damage to Nikol that he had thought. Maybe he wasn’t as precise in breaking minds as he thought he was. Ah well, water under the bridge.

 

“I will have a meal sent in by the droids an hour. Is your stomach settling?” Ravishaw asked gently as he laid a hand on the boy’s abdomen. It felt right this time, not off as it had before when the boy had tried to eat slid foods. The results had been spectacular. Ravishaw thought he had cleaned it all up, but was not sure. Oh well, another thing to get his new initiate to do when the master returned. Scrubbing decks was traditional too, if he remembered correctly.

 

“Yes, Master.” Nikol said, not moving under the touch.

 

“Teacher, Nikol…” Ravishaw said with a small grimace. “Call me ‘Teacher’…”

 

“I…” Nikol froze, sure he was about to be punished. “Yes, Teacher.”

 

“It’s okay boy.” Ravishaw patted the young man’s head gently. “We are both figuring this out as we go. I shouldn’t be long. But when I come back, I will need your help.”

 

“Mine?” Nikol asked dumbfounded. “But…” He looked at the restraints that bound him and shut up. He could reach the datapad but nothing more and the bonds were far beyond his ability to break.

 

“Yes, yours.” Ravishaw smiled at the boy’s nerf –in-the-headlamps expression. “Initiates get to do all kinds of dirty jobs while they learn. It’s traditional.” He patted Nikol on the shoulder and left the room. Outside, he shook his head. “Man, this being nice is hard…”

[kalenath]

<Thirty minutes later>

 

Ravishaw hated places like this. This hole was closed in, dank and dark, but that was not what bothered him. The screams, the whimpers, they were not a problem either. No, the problem was the beings that filled it. Republic Intelligence Special Branch was not composed of nice people, as Ravishaw had discovered when captured by them. Again he cursed himself in the depths of his mind. His jealousy, his uncertainty was what had led to his capture and his eventual enslavement by these scum. How he hated them. Nothing else in the galaxy did he hate as much as Republic Intelligence Special Branch. The Jedi, the Bladeborn, nothing else. He stride into the commander’s office and waited impatiently for the man to finish his call.

 

“Two, you say? Children and no adults evident? Hmmm… The slavers are tools, nothing more. See if the scum can track them. If they can take two, that may clear up our shortfall.” The commander nodded, and then paused as he saw Ravishaw standing there tapping his foot slowly. “Uh… Carry on, soldier. I will call you back…” The commander hung up and gulped as he turned to face Ravishaw.

 

“Problem commander?” Ravishaw asked in a sweet tone. It always freaked people out and now was no exception. This guy was given a certain amount of freedom, he had to be able to react to situations as they developed.

 

“N…No… Milord.” The commander stammered. “We had a team disappear. But this is Nar Shaddaa. It happens.” Ravishaw felt something odd in the Force when the commander spoke, but ignored it. “How may I be of assistance?”

 

“I need two, perhaps three young and fit specimens to carry back to the master. Preferably female and if they have the Force, so much the better.” Ravishaw could not have missed the spike of fear that went through the man in front of him even if he had not had the Force. “What?” He asked impatiently.

 

“We have had to curtail our efforts, milord.” The commander licked his lips. “Forces of Cranna the Hutt have been seen in the area, and if she discovers the base…”

 

“Indeed.” Ravishaw grimaced, but his mind was working fast. Cranna the Hutt was an odd one for a Hutt. He did not know her history, not entirely, but he did know she had drawn and quartered a Bladeborn she had caught on her premises. That in and of itself would have earned his respect, but she also had apparently made it her life’s goal to completely eradicate Republic Intelligence’s Special Branch. That gave him a warm and fuzzy feeling, and the germ of an idea. If she found the base her forces would obliterate it, no matter that she was exiled from Hutt space. She wouldn’t care in the slightest. He shook his head. “So… How many do you have?”

 

“Eight, milord and none female.” The commander grimaced as Ravishaw glared at him. “We cannot expose the base. This is the last fully functional base. We have the last medical personnel besides Menglan…” He broke off as Ravishaw clenched his hand and the Force constricted his throat. The claw of the Force held him off the ground as he choked.

 

“If you ever speak that name in my presence again, commander, I will kill you by inches. Do you understand me?” Ravishaw had perfected the art of speaking in a monotone. For some odd reason it scared people more than loud angry cursing did. Odd, but effective. The commander nodded jerkily and Ravishaw released him. The man fell to the floor gasping. “The scout team reported the gunship. Has it left?”

 

“No milord. Neither female has returned to it since it landed and life scans are negative. We can search it…” He broke off as Ravishaw laughed sourly.

 

“If you want to send your men to their deaths, go right ahead.” Ravishaw could not believe how dense some of these fools could be. Any of Will’s ships would be deathtraps for uninvited guests, even Force using ones. Maybe especially Force using ones. “I personally am going nowhere near that ship. What I need is this. When I capture my targets, I will need a secure place to hold them. My master’s orders are clear, he wants them alive and undamaged. So I need a place to keep them unconscious and drugs to do so. No more, no less. I will give you warning when I come with them. And who knows… maybe I can find some…other candidates for you to meet your quota.” Again, there was that odd tingle in the Force. Before the commander could gibber or anything, Ravishaw swept from the room. He had business to attend. Plus, he wanted to figure out why the Force was trying to tell him something. This was not a feeling he knew. Almost an anticipation? That made no sense. He shook his head and started his hunt. He loved hunting dangerous game, and nothing in the galaxy was as dangerous as Sith.

 

It was almost too easy. By the time Ravishaw had finished his slow circuit of the cantinas in the area he had selected, he had his first tail. She, yes, definitely a she, he noted from her sense in the Force as he perused the wares of a back alley seller of weaponry and armor, was young and somewhat inexperienced. Not human though, maybe a Twi’lek? He couldn’t be sure. He didn’t actually see her, just sensed her. He bought a dagger and a sword, more to have something for Nikol to practice with than for any real need. She managed to stay out of sight, but in the Force she stood out like a glowing red dot on a white background. She was angry, and that probably meant one thing. She wasn’t wearing robes or anything obvious, but her sense in the Force was… He paused. Something was off. Something… nearby? He paused, looking around and blinked as he saw a ring of people surrounding a fight. He grinned. Street fighting as nothing new, but… Wait moment… what was this? One fighter was down; he was getting hammered, but… Ravishaw blinked and his eyes traced the crowd until they found someone who looked remarkably like the fighter. She was… Whoa… Now that he was close, she shone in the Force… Not too strong, but… She was…

 

How the hell does a street rat learn that?

 

He blinked and shook himself. He started off again, as if he had been pulled in by the fight momentarily. An experienced tail likely would have noticed, but the female who was following him did not. She did not even notice as the fighter who had been down got to his feet and pounded the living crap out of his opponent empowered by the female with battle meditation. His tail followed him as he started towards the spaceport area.

 

Sloppy, girl, very sloppy. Your master would be annoyed… And where is your master… Ah…

 

Ravishaw did not need the Force to see the female form that strode from the shadows into the alley in front of him. He grinned under his cowl. Her entire outfit was designed to draw attention to her. Her black clothing accentuated her red face and skin. A Sith pureblood then. Rare and dangerous. He smiled as he stopped.

 

“Nice to make me not have to chase you.” He could tell his offhand comment rattled her a little. She was on her turf, surrounded by her power. But he was supremely confident and had done this innumerable times with all kinds of beings.

Edited August 13, 2012 by kalenath

[kalenath]

“You will die here, Traitor.” The woman said. “I am…” She broke off and snarled as Ravishaw made a bored wave of his hand.

 

“Yadda, yadda, yadda.” Ravishaw smirked at her expression. “Do I look like I care who you are? You are meat. Soon to be slave meat. Or dead. Not that I care. But that delectable morsel you have following me... Now SHE is a treat…She will make fine addition to my stable.” The Sith’s lightsaber ignited in a red wave and Ravishaw nodded. “So predictable.”

 

“Die!” She shouted as she charged. His steel blade was out and he parried her cut without difficulty. Lightsaber against a steel blade was usually over quickly and this was no different. Well, except that the saber wielder had no chance. A swift cut and her right arm hung loose, the tendons that controlled it cut with surgical precision just above her elbow. She transferred her lightsaber to her left and renewed the attack.

 

“Oh come on!” The man in black complained. “Make this hard!” This was pathetic… Wait a second… He cut, she dodged and struck, but left herself wide open for a quick pommel blow to the head that left her dazed. A swift boot and she collapsed to the ground, out of the fight. The woman who had been following him came running into the alley and drew a lightsaber, but Ravishaw just smirked. He had been right, it was a Twi’lek, female, age about 15 standard, brown skinned and pretty. He ignored her and spoke loudly. “Enough with the pawns. Show yourself, Sith.”

 

Soft clapping came from near the other end of the alley as another man in black came around the corner. His face was hidden in shadows and his voice was slow and sinister. “You are just as advertised. ” The man shook his head as he came closer. “And here I thought Kiriama was skilled. And all she is, is pathetic…”

 

“Not pathetic…” Ravishaw said quietly, his blade in hand as he classified his opponent. Middle age, powerful, dark of course. The guy radiated confidence, seething anger and power. The Bladeborn shrugged. “Outclassed. But you wouldn’t know anything about that would you? After all you sent her out here to die and distract me, just like that one.” He jerked his head at the young female Twi’lek who stood, red lightsaber in hand, unsure as to what to do. “Very well, Sith. What do you want?” He affected boredom, but his mind was racing. Trap? Maybe. Probably. Ah. He smiled grimly as he scanned the area and found what he expected. But he had time.

 

“Isn’t it obvious?” The other man snickered softly. “I want you. Your head, to be precise.”

 

“My... head…?” Ravishaw snickered and he had to admit, he did it better than the other guy in black. “Yours isn’t enough?” Now he laughed heartily. He looked down at the man's midsection and winced.“No, I can see it isn’t. You need a head transplant, don’t you?”

 

“What?” The guy stared at Ravishaw and Ravishaw for his part just shrugged. If the guy was too clueless to get his jokes, well… “Fall before the might of Darth…” He paused in his monologue before it got really started as Ravishaw raised a hand. “What?” He demanded.

 

“I don’t care what you call yourself. Darth Helmutbrain, Darth Shortstuff, Darth DarkUnderpants…” Ravishaw was laughing hard now at the guy’s poleaxed expression. “Whatever you call yourself, you are not worth my time…” He turned his gaze to the Twi’lek who stared at him and shivered a little. “This one on the other hand… Hmmmm…” His grin turned lecherous. “Thank you for bringing me a new morsel. What is your name girl?” Ravishaw asked politely.

 

“Ah… Lia…” The girl froze as her master’s gaze turned thunderous. “I…”

 

“Lia…” Ravishaw rolled the name around on his tongue and smiled widely. When he spoke it was gentle. “Nice name. Lia, if you would, please… Put out your lightsaber, it won’t do you any good. Pick up your ally here…” He indicated the comatose Sith at his feet and nodded to the Twi’lek. “Carry her to that end of the alley and wait.”

 

“Lia!” The Sith snarled at her. “Do nothing he says!”

 

“Um…” The girl looked from her master to Ravishaw, obviously confused. “You… You don’t want to fight me?”

 

“Fight you?” Ravishaw actually recoiled little at that and his face was positively stricken. His voice was shocked. “Oh my dear… I hate fighting with my food. I just don’t want you to bruise that pretty little body in what is about to happen. Your friend is already bleeding all over the alley.”

 

“Your food…?” Lia froze in place, her eyes going wide. “I… No…” She tried to scream and a grunt was all that came out. She was struggling now, fighting something that only she could see. “No… Please…” She grimaced and her eyes were pleading. But her gaze was drawn to Ravishaw’s eyes and the hazel orbs held her immobile as his power wafted through her. It seeped through her, poking here and there, sneaking into every little corner of her mind and taking what control she had away. She was his in less than ten seconds. He was, he had to admit, very good at that kind of thing.

 

“It’s okay… Do as I say, pet. And do bind your friend’s wounds. Would hate for her to expire before we could get… better acquainted. Your former master and I need to talk.” Ravishaw turned an evil look at the Sith who looked a bit nonplussed as Lia did as Ravishaw ordered. She put away her lightsaber, picked up the red skinned woman, carried her to the end of the alley, set her down and opened a medikit. The Sith shook his head and nodded in rueful admiration.

 

“Your skill is impressive. At least for manipulating weak minded apprentices.” The Sith said quietly. “But it is all for naught. You will die here.”

 

“And now we come to the gesticulating helplessly part…” Ravishaw sighed. “Ah well, it was nice knowing you Rical.”

 

“How do you know that name?” The Sith actually turned pale. “There is no way…”

 

“Ah, my boy…” Ravishaw actually sighed in regret. “That would be telling.” He wasn’t about to tell the Sith he had snatched the information from Lia’s mind where it had resided after some ‘pillow talk’ the Sith had done with his slave. “You have about five minutes until the troops you requisitioned get here to try and take me. You did not expect me to trap you, did you? Even with them, you would not have a chance. Silly Sith, always trying to beat opponents far beyond your ability just to see if you can make a name for yourselves. You can’t. Bets on how long you last?” His sword sang in the air as he swung it.

 

“You will fall this day. I am not afraid of you, Ravishaw.” The Sith declared as he drew his lightsaber and it ignited.

 

“Oh I promise you, before you die, you will be.” Now Ravishaw’s voice held no humor at all. “You will be…” With that, he attacked.

[kalenath]

Lia was shivering uncontrollably by the time she carried the unconscious Sith pureblood into the ship. Ravishaw looked at her and sighed. “Bring her to Medical, and then you and I will have a talk.”

 

It hadn’t been much of a fight. Sith as a whole, in Ravisahw’s experience, were far better at talking that fighting. Always going on about how the ‘Dark Side was stronger’ and ‘Everyone will quake at my footsteps’or ‘Bow before my power’. Yadda… Yadda… Yadda… Ravishaw had to admit, the guy had tried. But his skill with a lightsaber had not matched up with his loud mouth. He hadn’t been bad with his saber, not really. Ravishaw had simply been much, much better with his sword. Ordinarily, the former Bladeborn might have tried taking the guy as a source of life force, but with two delectable dishes already under his power and the Sith reinforcements closing in, he had chosen simply to end the fool. A thrust to the chest, a cut to the throat and guy was dead before he hit the floor. Ravishaw could have just kicked the corpse off the edge of a mile high railing and voila, no evidence for the Sith to find except a couple of pools of blood and a seriously scared feeling in the Force. But no, he had decided to show Lia why crossing him would be a very bad idea. She hadn’t screamed, he gave her that. She hadn’t screamed at all when he had dissolved her former master down to molecules and absorbed those into his body as stored power. At least Vandar had made it so he didn’t need to keep doing that, it would have been inconvenient at the very least. He had to keep powering himself with the Force, but hey, that was what the captive Jedi was for. And maybe this one…

 

Ravishaw secured the Sith pureblood female to the medical table and started up the medical droid. When asked for directions though, he paused. What did he want from her? A meal? An apprentice? A pawn? She was too dangerous to leave loose. She had passed Sith training obviously but… He shook his head and ordered the droid to patch her up and keep her unconscious until he could decide what to do with her. He stepped to where Lia was cowering against the wall and shook his head.

 

“I am not going to hurt you, Lia.” His voice was gentle, soothing. His hand came up and stroked her arm gently.

 

“What…? What are you…?” She managed to choke out, but cowered away from his touch. “No… Don’t touch me…”

 

“Lia, I am not going to hurt you.” Ravishaw sighed, how had Trugoy and company made this seem so easy? “I did what I did for a reason. I needed you under control. You were. Now you are losing control. Are you hungry?”

 

“What?” Lia’s eyes went wide at that quiet question.

 

“Are you hungry? I am not.” Ravishaw smiled a bit more naturally for him. “I had Sith for lunch.” Lia stared at him and then, bending over, lost her lunch, her breakfast and probably from the looks of it, the last night’s dinner as well. “Oh, Lia…” Ravishaw held her as she vomited, wiping her face and whispering soothing words as she started to cry. After a few minutes, she stopped spewing and just shuddered. “Bad joke, not your fault. Expulsion of stomach contents is not a voluntary reflex.”

 

“How… How can you joke about that?” Lia asked through her tears when she finally could speak. Her voice was hoarse form pain and fear. She was aware that if he wanted, she was dead and gone, just like her master. “That was… beyond awful…”

 

“Yes it was. But how can I not?” Ravishaw countered. “I am crazy, Lia. Crazy people don’t have to make sense. Besides, joking breaks the tension.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Do you feel any better?” She shook her head and he sighed. She gave a squeak as he swept her up into his arms. “Easy, girl. I am going to get you cleaned up and fed, and then we can talk.” She was so tense in his arms though that he had to take extra care not to bump her into anything, or she likely would have broken something.

 

Nikol was reading when Ravishaw brought Lia in. His eyes snapped to the shivering bundle in this master’s arms and he gulped. “Mast-… I mean Teacher…?”

 

“Nikol, meet Lia, Lia meet Nikol. You two are going to be seeing a lot of each other in the near future. But for now…” He set Lia on her feet and ushered her towards the refresher. “Get clean girl. I will find something for you to wear.” Lia stared at the restrained young man on the bunk, then at Ravishaw and her head lowered in submission. She staggered towards the refresher and the door shut after her. The sound of weeping was quickly covered by the sound of the shower.

 

“Teacher…I…” Nikol shook his head as Ravishaw came close, looking at the bags that were attached to the catheters. None showed blood now. That was a first since Ravishaw had started healing the boy and he was pleased that the healing was working. It did not come naturally.

 

“She doesn’t know it yet, but she is an initiate too.” Ravishaw said as he released the boy’s bonds. “She doesn’t have anywhere to go. If she escapes, the Sith will think she ran and left her master to die. They would kill her slowly. Better she stay with us.” He grinned. “I am going to need a bigger ship if this keeps up.”

 

“She is likely to try to kill herself, teacher.” Nikol said quietly as he sat up. He stroked his wrists which were still bandaged. “Like I apparently did…”

 

“Key word there is ‘try’ Nikol.” Ravishaw grinned sourly. “It’s handled.” He undid the bags attached to the bed and helped Nikol fit the mobile bags to his legs. Nasty but needed for the moment. The boy had a number of issues and would for some time. “I am going to find a robe for her. I think there was some female garb in the stash I raided, but I don’t know the sizes. Actually…” He smiled at Nikol. “You saw how big our new sister is, and you know where they are. Go get her a robe, any size. We can get her better fitting garments later.” Nikol bowed and left the room. A muted sob came from the refresher and Ravishaw sighed. “Stupid girl…”

 

He opened the door and found Lia squatting on the floor, her skin dripping. A sharp piece of plastic was held to her wrist. But it would not cut no matter how hard she tried. “Lia… Lia…I am sorry, your old life is over. You are mine now. That shard will not cut you. I take care of my possessions, unlike that scum who had you before. Really… Using such a pretty girl as bait? Sheesh… ”

 

“Just… Just kill me…” Lia said in a monotone. “If you don’t the Sith will.” She stiffened as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her. “No…”

 

“Shhh… Lia… Shh….” Ravishaw stroked her head gently, trying to soothe, to calm. He was careful to avoid the lekku, stroking those would send the wrong message. “It’s okay. I am what I am, Lia. But something has changed, and I think it was me. I am not going to hurt you, well…” He paused and shrugged. “Unless you deserve it. I am going to train you.”

 

“W…what?” Lia asked through tear filled eyes. “You… You took me from my master… you broke my control… You took control of me…You… dissolved him…into goo…”

 

“Yes I did.” Ravishaw agreed softly. “I didn’t want to kill you. Your…compatriots… were typical Sith. You are not. You didn’t go to an academy did you?”

 

“I…” Lia shook hard and slumped. “No. The master bought me from slavers… They...I don’t remember any life but the pens… He trained me in secret. He said I was going to be his secret weapon.” Ravishaw snorted as he stroked her arm gently.

 

“Yep. Typical Sith… Well, Lia, Darth Darkunderpants is no longer your master.” Lia stared at him and her eyes went wide as she chuckled. “Better…” Ravishaw smiled at her. “Laughter is good, Lia. It’s actually better than screaming most of the time. Lia…” Ravishaw sighed again. “I can’t let you go, you know this.” She nodded jerkily. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t teach you.”

 

“What?” She stopped herself before she laughed. He obviously was not joking now. “But…” A gentle finger shut her mouth where it had fallen open.

 

“I cannot guarantee I will always be nice, Lia. I probably won’t be.” The former Bladeborn made a face. “I don’t know if this is a ‘phase’ or what. But I want to teach you at the very least how to survive. It is a hard galaxy, and no one really cares for the most part. I don’t know if I do, or if it’s another aspect of my madness. Maybe both. But it is your choice, Lia. I won’t force you to accept training.”

 

“If I don’t…” Lia’s voice was almost inaudible. “You won’t let me go, will you?”

 

“No.” Ravishaw agreed softly. “But you won’t suffer. I used to get off on suffering and for some people, I probably always will. Sith and Jedi in particular. But I give you my word, Lia. If you so choose, I won’t drag it out. You will go to sleep and not wake.” His hand was gentle as it caressed her back now, soothing, calming.

 

“I am not strong enough.” Lia said, her head down. “I never was.”

 

“By Sith standards, probably not.” Ravisahw smiled. “But I am no Sith.” He looked up as Nikol came in, a bundle in hand. “Ah… here we go. Did you get one for yourself?” Nikol nodded. “Okay, let’s get you both uniformed up and fed. It will be a long night. Training and homework waits for no one.”

 

Lia rose, hands unconsciously covering herself. Then she forced herself to drop them. Ravishaw shook his head slowly. “Lia… You have a beautiful body, but I am not going to sleep with you. No one anywhere around me is going to force you to do anything of that nature against your will. Get dressed.” He tossed her a robe and she caught it reflexively, her face a study of shock. “We have lot to talk about. I have some errands to run. Nikol…?”

 

“I will stay with her, Teacher.” The boy said quietly. “I know how to use a cook unit. I think so anyway…” The boy paused but relaxed as Lia smiled shyly.

 

“I do…” She started unrolling the bundle that she held.

 

“Good kids. Get dressed and clean up. I will be back shortly.” Ravishaw smiled as he left. He might just make this work yet.

[kalenath]

Ravishaw was smiling and shaking his head as he entered the ship again. Things were looking up. Posing as a drunk was nothing new, but he was a bit surprised at the two boys he had encountered. He hadn’t found any traces of his true targets, which was actually not that surprising. He had little information on this Michelle being, but Jina Darkstorm knew how to sneak like a pro. She had snuck clean out of the Jedi Enclave on Tython while they had been on alert and looking for her. So, he hadn’t really expected to find them. He had half expected them to find him. It had been a bit of a shock to see the girl who had used battle meditation to help her brother in the street fight get snatched by a Special Branch team. He wasn’t quite sure how to help her, or if he really wanted to. The tingle in the Force came again and he sighed.

 

“All right, all right… I get it…” He growled softly. Whatever was guiding him had a particularly twisted sense of humor now. “Sheesh…”

 

The two boys who had come running after her were also an enigma. Both had the Force, but not strongly. He wouldn’t have given either of them a second glance, except… Something… The girl’s brother was obvious a fighter. The other one, if Ravishaw was not mistaken, was a born sneak and killer. He liked that one immediately. The boy’s threats needed work, but hey, no one started as an intimidating person at first. They all learned how. He decided that if they could find and rescue the sister, he would give them a second evaluation. If not? Well, he knew where the girl was, and the Special Branch scum were not about to hurt her. No they would treat her with kid gloves. The master’s orders were clear when it came to Force using females and no one sane did otherwise while under his control. Ravishaw was not sure if he was under the master’s control now or not. Truth be told, he really didn’t want to find out. Being dead sucked. Waking up afterwards was worse. Waking up to the gloating face of the being who called himself Ravishaw’s master was even worse than that. So he was very careful about what he did or at the very least what he did and left witnesses behind. He stepped into the main part of the ship and paused, dumbfounded.

 

The main compartment was clean. He stepped fully into the compartment and shook his head slowly. The bulkheads were gleaming, the table that served as an eating place, holo screen and game board was spotless. Even the floor shone. He was shaking his head in wonder as he walked further into the ship. It hadn’t been this clean since… He paused, thinking. Who had been the obsessive compulsive cleaner? He had gone through so many apprentices, slaves, tools… Had it been Morgana? Shult? Yes… Shult had been the neat freak. Pity about Shult being burned alive and all, but hey, when Will Kalenath got mad at someone that someone tended to die in a messy fashion. He bent down and scraped a fingertip along the floor. It squeaked. Someone had actually mopped the floor of the ship. Even Shult in his OCD had never done that. He was smiling as he strode further, but that smile vanished as a familiar voice sounded.

 

“I don’t care what he said. Lia! Release me at once!” The Sith pureblood that he recalled had been called Kiriama was somewhere between fear and fury. Ravishaw paused just outside the door to medical, wondering. The Sith spoke again, louder, desperate. “I command you to obey me! Lia!”

 

“I don’t answer to you.” Lia’s voice was soft, but adamant. “I am cleaning as I was instructed. No more. No less.”

 

Ravishaw smiled. Lia was certainly not submissive. She was obviously not in charge, but also not obeying the woman who was shouting somewhat hysterical threats at her now.

 

“You didn’t have to mop the floors, Lia.” Ravishaw said in a mild tone as he entered the room. The Sith’s voice cut off in mid tirade, her eyes wide with fear as she tried to cringe away from him as far as she could while restrained to a medical table. He was glad to see that the Force suppressant drugs the droid had given her were still functioning. Lia probably would not have been able to resist Force enhanced commands, but then again, maybe she could. Lia was full of surprises. “But it looks good. So do you.” He smiled at her as she rose and bowed.

 

She did look good in the gray student robe. It was a bit big for her, and she had belted it a bit tighter than she would have had to if it fit her properly. She smoothed the sides of the robe self consciously, but kept her gaze down.

 

“Teacher. I apologize for not finishing…” Lia began in a quiet voice, but Ravishaw waved her worry aside.

 

“I never intended you to mop the whole ship, Lia.” His voice held rueful humor and admiration. “Do you feel up to eating?” She nodded and Ravishaw smiled gently at her. “Go on, get Nikol, have yourselves some supper and meet me in the dormitory in thirty minutes. We will discuss the texts I gave you.” Lia froze and Ravishaw looked at her. “Oh Lia… You didn’t study the texts?” Now his voice was sorrowful.

 

“I…” Lia shook her head slowly. “I thought I could do the cleaning first. I didn’t realize how dirty…” Her voice broke off as she realized she was likely insulting her master’s level of cleanliness, or lack thereof. “No excuse…”

 

“No there isn’t.” Ravishaw said quietly. “Hand.” She held hers out and he slapped her wrist lightly. “Go, eat.” She stared at him and he grinned. “Do you want me to be rougher?” She shook her head quickly and he moved to the side to let her pass. “Nice job.” He commented as she left. He could feel her confusion in the Force, but also her gratitude for the compliment.

 

“What…?” Kiriama was staring at him with wide eyes, her sense in the Force scared and befuddled. Apparently she was not completely over the sedatives. “What are you doing?”

 

“Building a future.” Ravishaw said in a snide tone. “One student at a time. Well, little miss red face…” He clucked his tongue as he looked her over. “What am I going to do with you?” He ran a finger down her cheek and she tried to snap at it. “Ah, no biting…” A spark leapt from his finger into a nerve cluster in her cheek and she spasmed as her facial nerves jerked uncontrollably. He shook his head. “I could cut you off from the Force, but…after having had it done to me, I won’t… It’s just… wrong… Even for me…”

 

M….Mo…Monster….” The red skinned woman was shivering uncontrollably now as his power flew through her. “I will… kill… you…”

 

“Now don’t make me have you silenced…” Ravishaw said with a grimace. “It is such a mess, removing vocal apparatus without anesthesia.” He made a humming noise. “Well, I can’t control you the way I controlled Lia initially, so… Okay, we do this the hard way. I need an apprentice anyway, not just another initiate.”

 

“What are you talking about? I won’t serve you!” Kiriama asked softly, her fear at bay for the moment. “What are you…? No!” She cried as he activated the medical droid again. It hovered closer to her, sharp implements whirring as it prepared.

 

“I had an apprentice almost ready to go, but changed my mind. He has another destiny. I think.” Ravishaw said quietly as he programmed the droid. “Might be wrong. I am not perfect. Don’t worry, my dear. By the time I am done with you, you won’t remember your previous life. Or care. I will also change your features a bit so anyone you knew won’t recognize you. I will have to come up with a new name, but… Hey, I am adaptable.” He pulled a mask down from an overhead compartment, and after checking the readings, strapped it to her face despite her struggles. “At least I decided to knock you out first. I used to do it while the subjects were awake. Don’t worry… I know what I am doing. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Not when we can have fun wiping it.” Now his grin was downright evil.

 

“No…” Her muffled voice was horrified now. “Kill me! Drain me! Melt me into goo, just… Not that…Don’t… wipe… my mind…” Her terrified voice slowed and stopped as the anesthesia gas took effect.

 

“Sorry.” Ravishaw said insincerely as consciousness fled her body. “I have need of you. You will do nicely for what I need. I don’t care what you want. And in few hours, neither will you.” His hand came down onto her head and her body convulsed as power flowed from it into her skull. “Welcome home apprentice…”

 

<Thirty minutes later>

 

The preliminaries were done. Now he had to give the newly blank slated female Sith pureblood time to recover. The medical droid would also start the facial reconstruction. That would take much longer. Ravishaw walked into the dormitory and smiled at his students. Lia was reading a datapad quickly and Nikol was sitting, working on something. Ravishaw nodded as he realized it was a meditation exercise.

 

“Did both of you get enough to eat?” He asked quietly. Both of them dropped what they were doing and jumped to attention. “Ease up, both of you. This is not the military. We will train hard and relentlessly. But I will not push either of you beyond your limits. Nikol… sit…” Nikol was almost pale enough to be a white sheet. Ravishaw pointed to the floor and the boy sat slowly and carefully. “I am going to teach you as I was taught. If you have questions, ask them. I may thump you for asking senseless questions, but not for simply asking.” Lia raised a hand slowly and Ravishaw nodded to her “Yes, Lia?”

 

“What will we be?” Lia asked slowly. “I mean… You are not Sith, or Jedi, or… What are you?”

 

“Ah, Lia… Long story. Short version, I am Bladeborn.” Both sets of eyes went wide at that, but Ravishaw held up a hand to forestall questions. “You are now a part of my sect of Bladeborn. A discussion for another time. For now, we have training to do. Repeat after me, this is in ancient Tythonese. <Loyalty. Duty. Honor. Respect. Vigilance. Prowess. This is our way. We are Bladeborn.>”

 

The kids tried, he gave them that, Nikol actually came closest, but neither managed to get most of the words out without mangling them. Ravishaw shook his head.

 

“Let’s take it slow. <Loyalty>. Your loyalty is to me, and each other. No one else. Clear?” Lia and Nikol nodded soberly and Ravishaw continued. “<Duty> Your duty for now is to learn everything I have to teach you. Obey my orders and all will be well.” He smiled, thinking of what Istara’s Bladeborn would think of this. He just hoped to see their reaction when they found out. <Honor>” He paused. “What is honor? Nikol, Lia, your thoughts?”

 

“Ah…” Nikol thought about that and shook his head. “I can see it, but defining it… I don’t know if I can.” Ravishaw nodded to him but looked at Lia who looked blank for a moment before she blinked and nodded with a small smile.

 

“Honor is what you know about yourself. What you feel about yourself.” Lia said with only a slight quaver to her voice. After all, to many Sith, Honor was a stupid concept; a demeaning, weakening concept. “It is how you esteem yourself. Your self respect.”

 

“Good girl. If I had cookies, I would give you one.” Ravishaw smiled at her expression. “Now, we can’t do all of the physical training in such cramped spaces, but Lia… I want you to watch what I do and mirror it. Nikol, watch only. You are not cleared for physical exertion yet. If you try, I will thump you, clear?” Both young initiate Bladeborn nodded. He started the basic warm ups, oddly happy. Was this what he wanted? He wasn’t sure, but as long as it made him feel good, he would do it. And if it irritated people he detested, so much the better.

[kalenath]

Ravishaw was in an incredibly good mood. Lia and Nikol were shaping up nicely. Those two force sensitive boys were on their way into the Special Branch base and a nice anonymous call to one of Cranna’s agents had secured the boys a bit of backup. The girl that Special Branch snatched was fine, if a bit shaken up by being taken prisoner and having a guard nearly molest her. Luckily Ravishaw had decided to check up on her. Maybe the Force was helping him help her? It really didn’t make a lot of sense, but hey, he didn’t really mind. He always enjoyed killing people who did things like that anyway. That had been messy. But he had taken care of that guard and ‘explained’ the situation to the base commander, who was too cowed by his appearance and disappearance to worry about anything else. He had told the commander that he would go out hunting for more suitable subjects. Not that he had any intention of returning to the base again. Not with what was about to happen to it. He really hoped the girl would survive. She had surprised him, twice actually. Being a mute and all, she was very empathic and with battle meditation… He had toyed with the idea of taking her for his sect, but no. She had been processed, the master knew about her. She wouldn’t be safe with him. He would watch through her eyes every so often. She… He liked her. He wasn’t sure why, but he did. He sighed. He had never had to worry about such things before. If someone had caught his eye, he snatched the being, played with him, her or it for a while, and then discarded them. Now? Not so much.

 

Wait… He paused in the crowd, letting himself flow with it to maintain his cover. What the…? Something was wrong. Something was off. He froze as the crowd in front of him suddenly vanished and a female form stepped into the cleared area in front of him. He hadn't sensed her! What the hell? She wore a gray robe cloak over… Ah hell! Silver armor! Jina Darkstorm? His guts momentarily turned to water as he realized it wasn't Jina Darkstorm… She raised a hand to the hood of her robe and it fell, exposing red hair and cold brown eyes. The sword at her waist was familiar too, even though he had never seen it before. He had heard it described more than once. Oh…. Kriff…

 

“Hello, Morey.” The soft, dangerous voice had his blood freezing. He had never actually heard the voice before in person. But he knew who this was. Oh flarg…Sharlina… He smiled grimly as he looked around slowly. The crowd had melted away from him. They might not know who she was, but they knew big trouble was about to happen.

 

“Hello Istara.” He shook his head slowly and worked to keep his voice noncommittal. “This is brazen, even for you. Where is the lickspittle?” Was that pain he felt from her? What the hell had happened? He couldn’t lose focus. There was no way she was alone. Not here, not now. “Or that crazy soldier?”

 

“You think I need them?” Istara did not draw her sword, instead, she started walking, angling towards him. He did the same, both of them moving to the proper position for a formal duel. “You are alone. Why should I not be?” Ravishaw chuckled but his mind was racing. He hadn’t sensed her. Was she cloaked in the Force? Protected from powers? Probably. Frack, that limited his options severely. If the others were around, what were the odds he would be able to detect them? Not good, not good at all… He cast out with his mind, seeking hers to try and end this before it got violent, but it was as if it wasn’t there! Damn! If he fought her… He laughed, seeing the sheer stupidity of this.

 

“Always with the honor… To the end, huh? I would have expected that blind fool to be here…” Odd that. He had always thought that when he met Istara in battle it would be a rush. Why did he feel sadness in the Force now? He froze in place. He had expected Idjit to be at his lover’s side no matter… Ravishaw blinked and then blanched as things started to make sense, horrific sense. “Oh no… he didn’t…”

 

That idiot… Why now? Why did he do it now of all times?

 

“Idjit always said your perceptions were better than most.” Istara commented as she approached slowly. Ten meters, eight, five… “We are rising, Morey. It’s begun.”

 

“Istara…” Ravishaw could not stop the shiver of fear that rang through him at her quiet words. The Seven… rising. Oh kriff… Then he said something totally unexpected and unprecedented. Something he would not have believed he would utter in a million years. The words came out clear and sincere. “I am sorry.”

 

“Sorry?” Istara asked softly, her sense in the Force muted, as if shuttered. He could barely sense her at all even this close. There was no way he would be able to do what he had done with the Sith before, read her mind to know when she attacked. His normal methods of attack relied on mental manipulation, abilities that apparently would not work here. He would have to go with his skill as a swordsman, which was not inconsequential, but... She kept walking, closer, closer. Her hand was on the hilt of her sword and his found the hilt of his own sword. “How many lives have you destroyed, Morey? How many innocents have suffered at your hands to make the point that you hate me? That you hate us? Was it worth it? To hate is?”

 

She is not angry… She is… sad? What the hell? What does she know?

 

“I never hated you.” Ravishaw said quietly as Istara stopped at precisely the right distance to strike. “We are enemies, but I never hated you. They tried to make me hate you, but it never worked. I can hate Idjit, the others… But not you.” His cloak fell at his feet and he fell into a fighting stance. Istara did not move. “I never knew you; they had no memories to warp, to twist.”

 

“I can’t believe a word you say, Morey.” Istara said quietly. Her face was serene, Jedi like. But she was no Jedi. “I would ask you to surrender, but you won’t.”

 

“I would ask the same of you, Istara.” He felt his face twist into a grimace. “But you always did pick the harder path. One thing I always admired about you.”

 

“Goodbye Morey.” Istara said in a quiet, sorrowful tone. She shifted her stance, just a little, but telling to a master swordsman, which both of them were. She was ready.

 

“Istara… Wait…” Ravishaw shook his head, but did not take his hand from his sword or his eyes from his opponent. “Let me say something. Then we can fight.” Just looking at her stance, suddenly he understood WHY Vandar had told him to get backup. It was perfectly balanced, no hesitation, no minor movement, no nothing. She was perfectly focused on one thing and one thing only. Ending his life. And her eyes… When had they changed color? Not to red like a Sith but pure silver. He felt a shiver, what was she? He wasn’t sure he could take her alive. Dead, maybe. Alive? Doubtful. “Do you know what the Seven are?”

 

“Pawns, tools, heroes…” Istara’s voice was soft and noncommittal. Her face could have been carved from stone. The lack of iris in her silver eyes made gauging them difficult. A minute shrug twitched her shoulders but did not disturb her ready stance. “In the end, it’s all the same. We are trying to stop it; your master is trying to control it. We are enemies and that is all we will ever be.”

 

“Well…” Ravishaw blew out a breath. “Yes. You do know. Good.” His stance shifted just a little and both combatants stared at each other at a range of two sword’s lengths. “Goodbye Istara Sharlina Andal.”

 

Istara’s chosen battleground was flat and open, a walkway between two large buildings of the type that populated Nar Shaddaa, the Vertical City. The crowd had run by now, something in their minds all telling them that BAD things were about to happen. A few beings were watching, thugs, a few bounty hunters, assorted other scum. But no one dared shoot at her or him, Ravishaw realized. Not until the battle was actually joined and both were distracted. Both were obviously Force users and the silver armor, while distinctive, was not well known. Yet anyway. They wouldn’t stay anonymous for long though, and then every two credit bounty hunter on planet would be coming after him at least and probably both of them. But he couldn’t move. If he did, she would. He had always thought himself a master without equal with the sword, but standing here, looking Istara Sharlina Andal in the cold silver eyes, he wondered. She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t going to move until he did. A minute dragged into two, into three, and neither of them moved.

 

He felt it start. A trickle of wetness on his brow. The drop of sweat went down his face, down his chin, and then, paused for a moment before falling. Before it hit the ground he was in motion. His sword came out fast and as perfectly balanced as always, a hum spitting the air as the vibrosword literally cut through the molecules in its way. He used his best thrust. A simple, elegant and always unstoppable piercing attack to the inside sword arm that always managed to at least hurt Sith, Jedi, and anyone else before they could defend. But… With a skitter of steel on steel, his lightning fast, unstoppable thrust was parried! Then he was forced back as Istara’s blade came in, her sword coming from up, then down and then from the side. Then a vicious twisting lunge that nearly took him in the gut as he backpedaled to try and gain space. But she would not let him! She stayed right with him and her sword seemed to be everywhere. He parried, cut, thrust, spun, turned, tried to spin, nothing worked… He had no words for half of the moves she used, all he could do was try and…

 

“AHH!” He screamed as the point of her sword bit deep into his sword shoulder and twisted a little, causing more damage before withdrawing. Where had she learned THAT? That was no Sith move, Bladeborn move, or Jedi move… Then his eyes saw stars as something went ‘bang’ up against his skull hard enough to stun him momentarily. He swept his sword in a vicious arc, clearing his front, but he didn’t hit anything, not even her blade. He jumped backwards, trying to gain time to recover, but she was following! His sword was in his offhand now and he stared as she paused, and then transferred her own sword to her off hand. Her primary hand went behind her back, probably to grab her belt. What the hell? He shook his head as he realized she was not taking advantage of his disability. His voice held rueful humor as he grated out words between parries of her lightning fast blade. “That is dumb. Always with the honor, eh, Istara?”

 

“With your sword, you are a worthy opponent.” Istara said coolly as she continued to press the attack. “I have to kill you, but it’s a shame. There are too few like you in the galaxy, sword masters of your skill level. It is an honor to fight you.”

 

“The honor is mine, Bladeborn…” The old words came easily to his throat. Ravishaw smiled grimly as she closed, but then his eyes went wide as the Force screamed at him. “Incoming!” He shouted as a rocket hit the deck nearby as he jumped away, trying to clear the ringing from his ears. He stared as he saw Istara slumped on the deck, apparently unconscious or at the very least stunned and another rocket speeding towards her! “Istara!” He snarled and made a gesture with his sword. The rocket spun in midair and flew back towards the launcher that he could barely see in the distance. He snarled as the whole side of the building where the launcher had been exploded with a thunderous boom that was likely seen from orbit. Apparently there had been a lot of ordnance there. Idiots. “No one kills her but me!”

 

He spun back in time to see Istara rising, shaking her head but her sword was steady in her hands as she turned to face him again. Now the Force was screaming at him again. ‘Run, Run!’ Not that he needed any goading. There was no way he was going to win this.

 

“Another time.” He darted towards the edge of the catwalk, the railing having been destroyed by the rocket. He jumped off the edge, trusting the Force as it drew him away from Istara’s scream of rage and acknowledgement. She knew he would get away.

 

It was exhilarating and terrifying, falling as he did. But he trusted the Force. He steered as best he could, trying to avoid the smaller vehicles until he saw something he could use. He hit the back of the garbage barge instead of the front where he had been aiming, but the Force was with him and he managed to slow himself enough that all he did was make a loud crunch as he hit the pile of junk and nothing impaled him. He smiled, it wasn’t every day one could fall that far and not get hurt. At least, that was what he thought until he tried to stand and a shaft of white hot pain surged through him.

 

“Oh crap…” He said quietly as he saw his right ankle twisted the wrong way. Broken. “And it was such good day too…” He focused. Maybe there was enough organic material in the barge to repair himself. He hoped so. He sighed as he started sending the machines inside his body out. This might take awhile. He just hoped he could get out of the barge before it arrived wherever it was going. He did not want to be compacted, incinerated, whatever. “We will meet again, Istara Sharlina Andal. Count on it…”

Edited August 13, 2012 by kalenath

[kalenath]

This was…completely unexpected. Maybe it had been luck, maybe it had been the Force, but the airspeeder van he had jumped to from the barge had been full of new slaves for a Hutt on their way to their fates. The only beings conscious in the entire van had been a single guard and the driver and those had posed no difficulty at all. But then his machines had not worked. There hadn’t been enough organic material in the garbage barge to use to heal himself, so he had jumped to the passing van and hit the jackpot. He had tried to recycle the guard’s bodies to heal himself and it hadn’t worked. He tried to use the machines on the still living merchandise, two humans, a Gand, a Devonarian and a Zeltron had been bound and gagged in the back. THAT hadn’t worked. He was stuck. From the looks of it, at least one of the slaver scum had ‘enjoyed’ himself with the merchandise but he was in no mood to do anything of the sort, even if he had been so inclined, which he wasn’t. All of the slaves seemed unconscious and he paused as a thought came to him. What better way to stay in his master’s good graces than to bring several healthy test subjects to him? He was disposing of the guards’ bodies by the simple expedient of shoving them out the door of the hovering van when the Gand spoke.

 

“What do you do?” The voice was polite, if odd, but then again, Gand as a whole were odd. The Gand could not see him through the hood that covered its huge eyes but it turned its head anyway. “Who are you?”

 

“Nobody.” Ravishaw replied sourly, his ankle hurt like fire. He had been very careful not to move his ankle as he had thrown the bodies out the door to fall until they hit something, which might be miles.

 

“You are in pain.” The Gand reached for his ankle with bound hands and Ravishaw stepped back, hissing at the discomfort. “This one means no harm.” The Gand bowed to him, even bound. “This one is a healer.”

 

“A healer?” Ravishaw asked dubiously. He hadn’t had much contact with Gand. He had seen them around, he had fought Findsman bounty hunters on occasion, dangerous and worthy foes, but non-violent contact? He had never had any. “You?” He got the shock of his life when he scanned the being with the Force. The feelings were… odd, but feminine? And it/she had the Force! He couldn’t manipulate this mind, it was too alien for him to understand its thought processes. “Who are you?”

 

“This one is Qulrrg.” The Gand replied quietly. “This one was purchased to keep the Hutt’s slaves alive for longer.” Its head tilted. “You work for Mailto the Hutt?”

 

“No.” Ravishaw shook his head as he started the speeder off towards the spaceport, and then changed his mind and arced it towards another area. The pain in his ankle seemed to increase exponentially and he jerked as the Gand spoke again.

 

“Your ankle is broken. This one cannot fix it instantly, this one does not have the power, but this one can help.” The Gand hadn’t moved from where it had been bound. It sat and waited.

 

“Why?” Ravishaw asked softly as he put the van on autopilot, programming in various turns to avoid being followed. The last thing he needed was for one of the Seven to track him to where he was going, or back to his ship.

 

“You saved this one from a life of slavery. This one owes you.” His eyes went wide as the bonds on the Gand’s wrists and ankles fell away. “This one had no options before. Now this one does.”

 

“A life debt? Who trained you?” Ravishaw asked softly as his sword came to his hand. The Gand did not move, its hands were down, unthreatening. “You are no Sith… Jedi?”

 

“This one does not know.” The Gand replied. “The being who trained this one was a slave of the Hutt. That being angered the Hutt and died, leaving this one the sole medical person for that Hutt. Until this one was sold.”

 

“Sounds like a Jedi.” Ravishaw smirked. “Evil will always win because good is dumb. I am not good, Gand.”

 

“This one does not truly understand the concepts of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ as humans put it.” The Gand reached up slowly and uncovered it’s eyes. “Survival is something that this one understands. This one will serve.”

 

“Serve me?” Ravishaw asked softly, somewhat unsure. “Without question?”

 

“If you order this one to self immolate, this one will question.” The Gand made a noise that might have been a laugh, or might have been a cough, or something. “Other than that, no, this one will not question.”

 

“Okay… Qulrrg…” Ravishaw relaxed, just a little. “See what you can do with my ankle and then we need to get these… subjects prepared for transport.” He extended the broken ankle, but held his sword ready, just in case. “My master requires many, many test subjects.”

 

“This one is fully qualified for such things. There are many facilities on Nar Shaddaa that specialize in such matters.” Qulrrg took the ankle in three fingered hands that were oddly gentle and a soft pulse of power seeped through the wounded extremity, soothing, numbing. Qulrrg shook its head. “The injury is beyond this one’s ability to heal instantaneously. This one recommends a splint.”

 

“Do it.” Ravishaw was not sure about this being. Not sure at all. But he had other concerns now. His master was NOT going to be happy with what was about to happen on this planet. Perhaps if he added some medical personnel to the list of subjects to be delivered? Not Qulrrg, no. He figured he had a place for the odd Gand. Not that Gand were not odd to begin with. Matter of fact… He smiled evilly as the Gand removed his boot gently and started binding the ankle. “Qulrrg, we have some shopping to do…”

[kalenath]

It had taken them some time, and not a few stops, but Ravishaw was finally satisfied with his selections. He was also quietly impressed with Qulrrg. The Gand was anything but squeamish, and obeyed orders to the letter. Even when a doctor attempted to bribe the Gand to keep from being shoved into carbon freeze, the Gand ignored him. The prep work had been exemplary, all of the subjects had survived their incarcerations into carbonite and with the slabs loaded into a regulation shipping container, no one would notice when it was delivered to his ship. He smiled as he left the airtaxi that he had rented with the doctor’s attempted bribe and hobbled towards the ship. Qulrrg followed slowly, looking around.

 

“Come on Qulrrg.” Ravishaw said quietly as he started up the ramp. “We have more work to do, cargo to move and all that. I also want to introduce you to your patients.”

 

“This one follows.” Qulrrg responded in its quiet way. It was hard to imagine the Gand as a healer at times. It was efficient and merciless, but in the next moment, it could be kind and gentle. A nurse had tried to run from her ‘acquisition’, and Ravishaw had been forced to break her leg to stop her. The Gand had splinted the leg, soothed the sobbing girl until she relaxed, and then shoved her into the carbonite machine without a second thought.

 

In all, they had ten total subjects now. Four slaves, and six medical professionals of various ranks. All were in good health. They had taken the four slaves to a lower level medical clinic to get pre-carbonite checkups, and when that had been done, they had used the medical facilities to prepare their ‘guests’ for transport. Even low budget med facilities had some cryo capability and this had been a mid level. Once that was done, they had absconded with the medical staff as well. A nice, neat explosion –a regrettable terrorist attack- had eliminated all evidence of the abductions and they were in the clear. They even had the medical files of the staff. The ramp came down and…

 

“Teacher!” Lia was at the top fop the ramp, her expression worried. “There was a call for you. We didn’t know what to do, we did not answer it.” Her eyes went wide as she saw Ravishaw limping. “What happened?” She did not offer assistance, she knew better.

 

“I ran into an old friend and made a new one. Lia, meet Qulrrg.” Ravishaw nodded to the Gand who followed him up the ramp. “Qulrrg, meet Lia. Lia, Qulrrg is a healer. Take it to the medical room.” He turned to the Gand. “I have two patients I need you to check up on. I need to rearrange some cargo, but first I better return the call.”

 

“This one recommends you come in as well so this once can be sure the ankle is set properly.” Qulrrg said quietly as it followed Lia into the ship. Ravishaw sighed and shrugged. He had better find out his master’s business first.

 

He moved to the cockpit and sat, sighing as the weight came off his ankle and then he hit the controls to check his messages. He grimaced as he realized Vandar had tried to contact him. He hated dealing with the Jedi, but it was better than dealing with the thing that owned them both, body and soul. He hit the switches to return the call and waited.

 

“Where have you been?” Vandar’s voice was soft, but conveyed disgust and worry. “I have been waiting for your call for ten hours.”

 

“Playing in garbage.” Ravishaw grinned at the Jedi’s expression, but then sobered. “I am only going to say this once, so don’t crow in delight. You were right.”

 

“What?” Vandar asked in disbelief. That was a first from Ravishaw. “What happened?” He asked in a worried tone.

 

“I got my tail kicked is what happened. I never sensed Istara coming.” Ravishaw did not flinch as the Jedi glared at him.

 

“I told you not to face her alone.” The Jedi broke off as Ravishaw nodded. “What?”

 

“I didn’t have a choice, she ambushed me. Alone… She is good…Incredibly good.” Ravishaw shook his head. “If not for some loony with a rocket launcher, I would likely be dead. As it was, I escaped, barely, and had to find my way back from the undercity. Broke my ankle in the process and the nanites didn’t work to heal me. I had to hobble back. Any idea why they wouldn’t work?”

 

“They didn’t work?” Vandar actually looked nonplussed at that. “No… I have no idea…”

 

“Joy.” Ravishaw sighed. “Well, then I have to let it heal naturally. Good news is that I seem to have ‘acquired’ a few more subjects for the master. Should I deliver them to the base?”

 

“The base is gone.” Vandar sighed. “All of them.”

 

“What?” Ravishaw managed to put a look of stunned surprise on his face. He wasn’t sure he fooled the Jedi, but Vandar did not react. “When? And who?”

 

“We are not sure.” Vandar shook his head. “Preliminary reports say it was Cranna the Hutt, but…She wouldn’t dare operate on Nar Shaddaa, would she?”

 

“Maybe… That Hutt sure knows how to hold a grudge.” Ravishaw said quietly. “On the plus side, I acquired some medical staff along with the slaves I ‘found’. I knew we needed some more. I can have them shipped just about anywhere. They are all in carbonite.”

 

“We do need them, and once they are programmed, they will be of great help. Considering how many of our staff we just lost.” Vandar looked at him appraisingly. “But you wouldn’t know anything at all about that, would you?”

 

“Me?” Ravishaw snorted sourly. “I was busy getting my tail kicked and trying not to die. Vandar…” His voice became serious for once. “She knows… She said they were rising. And Idjit has apparently gone…” He broke off as the Jedi master on the screen’s face turned a color he hadn’t been aware the small green form could and not pass out. “Yeah… It’s begun…”

 

“Oh no…” The Jedi shook his head. “You will need to lie very low for a while. If she tracks you…”

 

“I know.” Ravishaw knew more than he wanted to about what was coming. Far more than he wanted to. “Give me coordinates to drop the subjects off and we are out of here.”

 

“Who is ’We’?” Vandar asked curiously. Then he groaned. “Oh Ravishaw, you didn’t…”

 

“What can I say?” Ravishaw smirked at the Jedi’s look of utter disbelief. “Stupid Sith followed me home…I am going to keep her.”

 

“Ravishaw…!” The Jedi started to scold but the man cut the connection. He shook his head and started the preflight checks. Then he had to change around the cargo hold to fit ten carbonite slabs… It would get very crowded in this ship for a while.

[kalenath]

Ravishaw was actually quite pleased with the newest addition to his ‘flock’. Qulrrg took a bit of getting used to, and every so often, she/it/whatever, did something freaky. But the care it took with medical matters was welcome to say the least. Now if Lia would just let the healer tend her…

 

“Lia.” Ravishaw’s cold word had the girl freezing in place. “Sit.” The girl stiffened and then did as ordered. He had not intended to hit his student that hard, and certainly not there. For a little bit, he had worried that he had killed her. Even a wooden blade could kill if it hit the front of a human throat. But Lia was so good at what she did; she worked so hard, tried so hard, it was insane how fast the girl learned. No wonder the Sith had used her as a ‘secret weapon’. “Lie down.” Ravishaw moderated his voice to soothe rather than terrify and Lia slumped, but did as ordered. “It will be okay, Lia. Healer… continue…”

 

Qulrrg nodded to him and, with gentle three finger hands, slid the intubation tube down Lia’s throat. Lia gagged for a moment, but did not move. Ravishaw patted her on the head before speaking.” Healer? Prognosis?”

 

“This one is unsure as to the full extent of damage to the voice box. Intubation is a precaution until scans are finished. There is no spinal damage, and only minor cranial lacerations from the fall.” Qulrrg had been less than enthused to be called into the training room to find Lia stretched out on the floor clutching her throat. She had swerved the wrong way when sparring and taken a very nasty hit. Luckily Ravishaw had pulled his strike, otherwise she might have lost her head, wooden sword or no. The Gand healer continued softly. “This one recommends a night of observation, and then tube removal.” Qulrrg pulled a cervical collar designed for humans from a cabinet. “This is a precaution, young Lia.”

 

Lia looked at Ravishaw and then at the healer. She made an exaggerated sigh though the tube and held still while the healer strapped the collar around her neck. Her eyes turned to Ravishaw and held a question. Ravishaw nodded.

 

“You sleep here until the healer clears you. That is what Qulrrg is here for. “ Ravishaw took her hands in his. “We have space again, but Lia… When you are fit to work out again, I will work with you. You cannot make that kind of a mistake. You know better.” He stepped back and watched as Qulrrg connected IV lines. A twist of a control and Lia’s eyes closed slowly. He addressed the Gand softly. “Keep an eye on her, she is not… knowingly suicidal, but to do such a thing…” She had stepped directly into his strike. He had sensed her shock and fear, she had known exactly what she was doing, and had been unable to stop herself. He grimaced. This was way beyond his ability. He needed someone specialized.

 

“This one will watch.” Qulrrg replied quietly as it started fiddling with a medical scanner. “The other patient is awake.”

 

“Understood.” Ravishaw was not sure what to make of the Gand at times. It was hard enough to understand the Gand’s speech at times, let alone its motivations. But Qulrrg had proven itself a valuable member of the group. The Gand had even been tending his new apprentice. He wasn’t sure he trusted it, but then again, he didn’t really trust anyone but himself. “Keep me informed.” He said as he turned and left the room.

 

With the reorganization of the ship that had been required to carry the ten carbonite slabs, the entire inner area had been reworked. Instead of a small medical ward in one room, now the medical section of the ship had four small rooms, including a small but complete surgical suite that the Gand had put together. Two tiny private rooms had been set up, one for students, the other… for others. Ravishaw at first had not allowed anyone into the room where he kept the comatose Jedi who was till his primary source of Force energy. But Qulrrg had helped. Keeping the Jedi unconscious until he wanted her awake, aware and in pain to be drained was a great help to him. He didn’t have to worry about the being escaping. But right now, he had to tend his other patient. He entered the room and shut the door. A soft, weak voice came to his ears.

 

“Please… No more…” He looked at the female who was chained to the wall and smiled grimly. The Sith pureblood was a far cry from the first time he had seen her. For one thing, the revealing clothing was gone. Now she wore a patient gown. Her face was bandaged to cover the surgical scars of the reconstruction. Qulrrg had taken one look at what the droid had done and pronounced it ‘unacceptable’ before getting to work itself. He had to admit, the Gand’s skill as a surgeon was impressive. The former Sith's eyes were covered by bandages that were not strictly necessary. The arrogance was gone too. This… pitiful wreck was nothing like the confident female who had challenged him, but that was the idea. She had taken more effort to break than the boy had, -not surprising since she had been a trained Sith acolyte- but now, she was finally awake from the last treatment and it was time to finish the reprogramming.

 

“Easy…” Ravishaw crooned as he stroked her head gently. “Easy girl…” She flinched away from his touch.

 

“Who…?” She asked, dazed. “What…”

 

“Ah my dear Gwenia…” Ravishaw had chosen a name almost at random for her. “It’s okay. Your master is here and will take care of you.” He checked the surgical scar beneath her ear, ah, it was healing nicely. He put an adhesive bandage over it. A quick flip of the gown showed the one on her abdomen was also healing and he covered that one too. The bandages would keep her from fiddling with the incisions until they healed. She shuddered but did not move as he tended her.

 

“I…” She shuddered a bit, obviously confused and scared, and who could blame her? “I don’t… I can’t remember…”

 

“That’s okay. What our enemies did to you was horrible.” Ravishaw had anger in his voice but had to fight to keep a grin from his face as he told the time worn story yet again. It always worked. Of course, he was in total control of her mind now too, so that helped. “Let me get you out of here…” He undid the chains slowly, carefully. Her body was too weak to hold up on its own and she fell over as soon as he released her. “Easy girl… Let’s get you home…” He picked her up and carried her to the bunk, but his mind was flowing through hers.

 

It never ceased to amaze him how suggestible people were in this state. A walk of a few steps could seem like miles tramped through snow and wind when it was projected directly into that person’s brain. She actually shivered as he projected rain falling on her.

 

“Not far, Gwenia… Hold on girl…” His voice was soft as he held her in his arms. She snuggled close, drawn as much by the warmth of his body as by the kindness that he faked so well when dealing with apprentices. He set her down gently on the bunk and spoke again. “Easy girl… let me look at you…”

 

The female Sith pureblood relaxed as his hands checked her professionally. He could have done anything at all to her in this state of mind and she never would have noticed, but that was not the plan. The gown he removed, leaving her clad only in the bandages on her face for a moment. He grimaced a he pulled a diaper around her; it likely wasn’t needed, but better not to let her foul herself again. Qulrrg had been extremely upset when it had found the red skinned being in the medical ward awash in her own filth. He did not want a repeat of the healer’s wrath. He checked her completely and then he covered her with a blanket and kissed her cheek.

 

“Master…?” Her voice was soft, sleepy now.

 

“Yes, Gwenia?” He asked just as soft. Not that he had any doubt what she would ask. He was…guiding her mind to where he wanted it to go. Gently, although he didn’t have to be, she never would have noticed in this frame of mine.

 

“Who did this to me?” Her voice was slurring as she lost consciousness.

 

“We will find them, Gwenia. Rest.” He covered her with the blanket and stepped back as she fell asleep. He stood and watched her, counting the minutes until twenty had passed, enough for a nap, not enough for real sleep. He stepped close and touched her shoulder. “Gwenia?” She jerked awake, suppressing a scream, her bandaged eyes seeking the source of his voice. In her mind she had slept a long, long time and she felt a deep ache across much of her body that was only in her mind.

 

“Master I… I…” She shook herself, focusing. “Did I…? Did I betray you…?” Her voice held real fear now. “To the people who tortured me? I don’t… I don’t remember…” A gentle touch on her cheek had her stop speaking.

 

“No you didn’t Gwenia.” He assured her. Then his voice turned vicious. “Those scum… They did things to your mind, Gwenia. We are going to have to re-teach you a lot of things. But we will.”

 

“I…” The red skinned being who was now called Gwenia slumped in place. “I am sorry I failed you master.”

 

“You didn’t fail me, girl.” Ravishaw smiled as he stroked her cheek and she leaned into the gentle caress just like a kitten would. “Now rest, you have a lot of healing to do. I found a healer. You will listen to it. Qulrrg is Gand and is very good at healing. It will have you mobile in a day or two if you listen. Clear?”

 

“As you command, master.” Gwenia lay back on the bunk and in moments her breathing was in sleep rhythms. Raishaw took a moment to ensure her dreams would be dark and scary, but not actual nightmares before smiling and stepping away. He would let her sleep normally this night. From now on however, he would program her nightly until she was a new person. It wouldn’t take more than a week. It never did.

 

“I love doing that…” Ravishaw smirked as he stepped from the room and smiled evilly as he leaned against the wall. “Poor Gwenia… Those nasty Sith scum hurt you. I think it’s time you returned the favor…Maybe get my master some new ‘recruits’… And maybe find me some new initiates in the process…”

[kalenath]

<Correllia>

 

It was not what any of them were used to, but it would do. Correllia was a planet in chaos. Lots of things were happening, all at once in the capital city. Imperial hunter teams were scouring the planet, looking for someone. Bounty hunters as well were everywhere in the major cities, trying to find a certain red haired girl with black marks on her face. Ravishaw shook his head as he saw yet another group of wanna bes fly by and circle to land. This time he didn’t even flinch. The cover he had come up with was perfect.

 

“Omni anni padre om…” He droned as the airspeeder landed near the entrance to the compound he and his people had built. The two initiates followed it as they stood on one leg with him, maintaining their balance as the droned through the syllables that were their meditation.

 

Said compound was small, but efficient. Most of it was underground, hidden from any prying eyes. Gwenia was undergoing her reeducation there under the watchful eyes of Qulrrg. Above ground, basically, there were four buildings surrounded by an unpowered but nasty looking fence to keep the various wildlife from entering. The buildings included a dormitory that was still mostly unused as he planned to add to his stable, a mess hall, a storage facility and a library. It was deep in the heavily forested area far to the north of Coronet, the capital. Solar power generators handed the minor loads needed for such primitive buildings. They had built each and every building from local materials, using as little technology as possible to keep with their cover story. Lo and behold, Ravishaw hadn’t even had to use the Force to persuade the Correllians to let him land and settle. It was as if they were desperate for new people, or… More likely, they had wanted to get rid of him as fast as possible and he was obviously not a threat so they humored him.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the speeder land and stiffened slightly as a brown robed form got out. Aw hell! A Jedi? He glanced at Nikol, but the boy really looked nothing like the Padawan he had taken. The boy’s sense in the Force was as different as his face now. There was no danger of him blurting out anything either. If anything Nikol and Lia were too controlled. The Jedi looked around, obviously not focusing on anyone in particular and waited until his companion got out of the speeder. The other character though… That one drew his attention. The female human wore a smock that was decorated in loud colors. It wasn’t just the colors that were loud either.

 

“You know I hate this mechanical monstrosity, Michael…” The woman was saying as she started towards the three who were standing still, legs up in meditation. “Why do you insist on using it? I would have thought a Jedi of all people would understand the flows of energy that it disrupts.”

 

“Silversky…” The Jedi said in a soothing tone. “It’s fast. Much faster than walking here. I don’t think Setsuna is here, but we have to see.” Setsuna? Aw drat… The Jedi was looking for Istara’s sister too? Oh dear… that boded ill, for all kinds of things and people.

 

Ravishaw ignored the odd pair, even though he could feel the curiosity of his initiates. He had taught them how to damp their Force senses, so that they appeared to be normal… well… fringe type nuts. The first time he had shown them the disguises that he had come up with, Lia and Nikol had both almost fallen over laughing. Now neither was laughing. The full robes that each wore were hot in this weather. It didn’t help that both sets of robes were pink. Ravishaw’s robes were a deep blue, but with a golden sunburst on the front and back, denoting a different rank. He ignored the two as they came up until the woman spoke to him.

 

“Good day, fellow follower of the sun.” The woman wore a starburst that seemed to have been dyed onto her smock, if in an awful shade of purple. “I am Silversky.”

 

“Yes?” Ravishaw opened one eye and nodded to her, not changing his posture. He kept his voice level with some difficulty as he saw the Jedi eyeing the odd colors of the hoods that his initiates wore. Lia wore blue and Nikol wore pink, it had caused some discussion but Ravishaw had been adamant. “May I help you, fellow wanderer?” He asked as he looked them over without moving from his stance. The woman nodded.

 

“I think the conjunction of the stars is day is harmonious.” The woman who called herself Silversky waited patiently. The Jedi at her side did not move either. Most of his focus was on the woman, and even without using the Force which Ravishaw did not dare to, he could tell the guy was a bit annoyed. But she obviously did not. “May we know your title?”

 

“I am a seeker of the Way.” Ravishaw intoned on the word Way and his initiates spoke up with him. “We seek… The way…” Then he took a deep breath and spoke again. “When I was human, my title was… Tim?” He blinked and nodded. “Tim. You may call me Tim if that serves.” Silversky nodded to the Jedi and Ravishaw looked at the man without moving.

 

“Very well, Seeker Tim.” The Jedi spoke softly. “I am Michael Jonal. I seek as well.”

 

“You seek?” Ravishaw asked solemnly. “This is a goodness thing. Do you seek to learn of the truth of the Way?” He paused dramatically and continued. “Or something else?”

 

“Something else.” The Jedi said dryly. “I seek a young human girl, she is hurt, lost and alone.”

 

“This is a sadness thing. The only female who has sought enlightenment with this sect is seeker Liana…” Ravishaw nodded to Lia who bowed her head and lowered her hood without lowering the foot she held up in the air. “She is not who you seek.” It was not a question. Lia replaced her hood without moving her lower body and resumed her even breathing.

 

“No.” The Jedi shook his head slowly. “The girl I seek is named Setsuna. She is twenty years old, has red hair and black marks distorting the veins of her face.”

 

At that, both the woman and the Jedi froze as all three of the people standing on one leg all reacted as one. They had practiced this. The raised legs came down, Lia and Nikol went into kneeling poses, hands crossed in front of their faces in a warding gesture. Ravishaw crossed his own hands in front of his face as he turned to face the woman and Jedi, his face stricken.

 

“Black… The color of death and decay… A badness thing… an evil thing…” His voice held disgust now. “We have none like that here. We want none like that here…” It was all he could do not to burst out laughing at the Jedi’s expression as Ravishaw hawked and spat. “We seek the truth of the sun, not that. Not the darkness that devours all…”

 

“No, no…” Silversky said quickly. “We seek to find her, to aid her. To help her. She needs help. Karma demands that we help her.”

 

“Karma demands many things.” Ravishaw said without moving. “If she is marked as such, she is an abomination! Darkness in human form.” He shuddered. “Abomination…” He repeated, horrified.

 

“Abomination!” The two kneeling initiates intoned in response.

 

“No.” The Jedi said quietly. “She is not an abomination. She is a victim. One I will find and aid. Come Silversky, we will search elsewhere.” He turned to go.

 

“I am sorry to have disturbed your prayer.” Silversky said sadly. “If you do see her, please…” A small card fell to the ground near the woman as she stepped back. “She is a lost one, not an abomination. We can help her to find her way. She is hurt. She needs help.” The woman bowed formally to him. “May you find your Way.”

 

“We thank you for your concern.” Ravishaw sighed deeply before continuing. “If we do see such a girl, we shall see what comes with the sun. We have no truck with darkness, we serve the light. May your own path be true, seeker.” That was not, technically, a lie. If they did happen to encounter Istara’s sister, Ravishaw actually intended to give the girl a very wide berth. If half of what he heard about her was true, he had no intention of ever letting her within reach. Not to mention what Istara would do. One encounter with Istara Sharlina Andal was more than enough. He remained in his pose as the odd pair got into the airspeeder and flew off. Only after they had cleared the horizon did he break his pose and laugh. “Sheesh… And I thought we were the best actors on planet… But she wasn’t acting, was she?” He laughed again at the sheer absurdity. He shook himself. “Enough goofing off. Back to stance three.”

 

The two initiates jumped back to their feet and raised their right legs with his as they mimicked sword work while seeming clueless and harmless. A perfect cover.

[kalenath]

<Alderaan>

 

He had known it was too good to be true. The Force had sent him here. HERE of all places. He stayed in the shadows, watching silently. The Jedi Master and Sith Lord were duking it out, both concentrating fully on the other. Ravishaw had come to this piece of trash planet to scout for possible recruits and had been surprised. He had never cared much for Alderaan. Of course he had never seen it before it was a battleground. Every so often he found a nice looking spot, but mostly the places he went were war torn, devastated just as… He paused, still in the shadows, as something moved nearby. His eyes lit on a black robed form that was crawling slowly away from the hiss and crackle of the lightsabers. Sith. His eyes went flat, but… Then something odd reached his ears. Muted sobbing?

 

“Master Anya… We have to move.” The absurdly young sounding voice was coming from nearby. The Sith that was crawling froze in pace, hand under his –yes, probably his- robes. Another voice came.

 

“I am not…” A gasp came from that voice and a sucking sound came to his ears that Ravishaw was all too familiar with. Sucking chest wound. Bad news in the field away from proper medical care. “…going to make it, Ina. Go. Get back to the ship, get them away…”

 

“Master , I won’t leave you…” Now he could see two slumped brown robes nearby. They were both surrounded by crumbled black forms, probably acolytes of the Sith Lord who was being tossed about at the moment by the Master Jedi. The black robed one was stealthily creeping towards them. So did Ravishaw, angling to get a better look. “I won’t…” The Sith had apparently seen enough and jumped up.

 

“Where are they, Jedi?” He asked in a sinister tone as his red lightsaber ignited. “Where are the students you stole?” A gasp came from the pair on the ground and a very small form rose and ignited a blue lightsaber. Students? Ravishaw paused in his skulking and listened.

 

“We didn’t steal anything, Sith.” The child said softly. A padawan, a Cerean if Ravishaw was not mistaken. Odd that a Cerean child would be out and about, even as a padawan. But hey, that was life. “You took them from their homes. We rescued them.”

 

“Those brats are the property of the Sith, fool.” The Sith started forward only to pause as the other Jedi got to her feet. She was weaving, and a hole in her chest was weeping red, but her grip on her lightsaber was professional. “Tell me where they are and I might make your end quick.”

 

“Ina, run.” The Jedi said quietly as she advanced to engage the Sith. “You go no further.”

 

“And who is going to stop me, Jedi?” The Sith said in a derisive tone. “You?” He looked at the Cerean and smiled viciously. “I think this one will profit from our teachings as well. She shows courage at least.”

 

“Ina. Go.” The Jedi ‘s face was serene now as she stepped between the Sith and her padawan. “You go no further, Sith.” The Cerean turned an impassioned face to her master, but the Jedi shook her head. The child deactivated her lightsaber took off at a run. The Sith moved to follow, but the woman’s lightsaber ignited in a viridian haze. “You. Shall. Not. Pass.” The Sith just smiled.

 

“Every so often, you Jedi actually act like you have balls…” He broke off as Ravishaw’s blade struck. He had come up behind the Sith and struck hard while the Sith’s attention as on the Jedi. The SIth fell dead without a word as Ravishaw pulled his sword free. He watched, impassive, as the Jedi fell to her knees.

 

“Or…” The Jedi said quietly. “We act as distractions. Well met… Bladeborn…” She was shaking now as her strength left her body. Ravishaw left the body of the Sith where it lay and moved to the Jedi’s side. His sword went back into it’s sheathe after a sweep to clean it and he took her in gentle hands. He could see, even without the Force, that she did not have a lot of time. “You are not… Istara’s sect…” Her voice was off, scared, but not for herself.

 

“No.” Ravishaw said as he eased her down gently. “I hate your kind. But you fought well and hard. That is worthy of honor. You said students? Defending children is something any Bladeborn, even one of mine, can understand.” He said gently as he held her shuddering form. “You are dying.”

 

“I know.” The Jedi replied. “Ah… What did Jedi do to you?” Horror etched her features as she saw deep, deep into him. “Oh… No…Vandar did this to you?”

 

“Yes.” He said quietly. “I am Ravishaw.” She stared at him, her face ashen but then it turned serene.

 

“The Force works in mysterious ways.” Her voice was low and serene. “I know who you are. We… The members of the Order who are not corrupted by Special Branch… We erred. We should have questioned, should have thought it through. We did not.” The Jedi said quietly. “We did not know what would happen. We were misled. First by Vandar, and then by others.” She gasped, her breath coming in small bits and pieces. “You must… You must take the children… Take Ina… Teach… Hide… Tell Istara…I am sorry…” She gasped and then was still, her eyes going far away.

 

“No…” The soft scared voice sounded from nearby and Ravishaw turned to see the young Jedi staring at him, her lightsaber in hand but not ignited. “Master Hadas…” Her voice held sorrow, but her face was serene as she looked at Ravishaw. “I feared this, when Master Hadas said we were coming here. I feared this end…She knew… Somehow she knew she would not be leaving here. She knew all along…”

 

“The future is always in motion, child. Ina is it?” Ravishaw’s voice was soft as he closed the Jedi’s staring eyes, gentle as he rose slowly, laying the corpse of the Jedi down. “You heard what she said.” It wasn’t a question.

 

“I don’t know what to believe.” Ina said slowly. “You are an enemy.”

 

“Am I? I don’t know.” Ravishaw admitted slowly as he got to his feet. A triumphant shout from a ways away and a burst of Force energy had both turning. The Jedi master had fallen, and the Sith was standing there, saber upright in triumph. Ravishaw sighed and shook his head. “He however, is an enemy, and we need to get out of here. Your master told me to take the children and you. Will you come?” He asked quietly as he started off.

 

“Yes…Master…” Ina said softly as she dropped a small object beside the still corpse of her former master. On inspection, it was a small, carved crystal made in the shape of a flower. She clipped her lightsaber to her belt and followed. “My name is Ina-Ta-Mal.”

 

“Call me ‘Teacher’, Ina-Ta- Mal.” Ravishaw said as he led the way away from the battlefield. “We are all just students of the sword. No more. No less. Now, where was that ship you were supposed to run to?”

[kalenath]

This was… a lot more than he had bargained for when he had snatched Nikol and Lia. Between having eight -EIGHT!- new students between the ages of five and fifteen all of which were human, and having a morose Jedi padawan sitting in as well… Some days he really wished for the days when he didn’t care, when all he had to worry about was who to kill next. He tried again.

 

“Come on, girl… Lighten up a little.” He smiled at the young Cerean. “You are alive, your charges are alive. It is a beautiful day on Correllia.” He turned to see the eight children, obvious a bit uncomfortable in the pink robes they had been given, working with Nikol on basic stances and meditation. He shook his head slightly. The kids were fumbling a lot, but that was to be expected. Most of them had never held a sword before, even a wooden one. They ran the gamut of human appearances from black hair to yellow, from coffee colored skin to skin so pale he was worried the girl would burn in the light of a lamp, let alone strong sunlight. But all were focused on learning, and grateful for being rescued from the Sith. He wondered how long that would last.

 

“Grief is a natural part of life.” Ina-Ta-Mal said quietly. “I grieve for my master, but it will not affect my duties.” She had appointed herself guardian of sorts for the eight children they had recovered from the Jedi’s ship before the Sith had found it. Eight kids who had been in complete shock, many showing signs of casual abuse that the Sith had done. Eight kids with the Force…

 

“I know that, Ina.” Ravishaw said quietly. She did not trust him; that was clear even without the Force. Her mental barriers were strong. He could break them, but it would take time, and he found he did not want to hurt her. She had been hurt enough. He needed her. “I actually asked to meet you here because I need your help.” He waved towards the side of the building he was leaning against, watching the practice.

 

“My help?” Ina asked incredulously before she controlled herself. “With what?” Her face and tone were guarded now.

 

“Nothing sinister.” Ravishaw said quietly as he watched a student trip and fall to her knees, then pick herself up and try the posture again. Nikol stepped close to the girl, offering a few basic pointers on holding the stance. “It started that way, but now… It isn’t.” A slight widening of Ina’s eyes had him smiling. “I… um… well…” He sighed and started to explain. “Lia is… a bit of a mess.” Ina cocked her head at him and then nodded.

 

“She feels… odd in the Force. Not dark, not Light…” Ina bit her lip, looking very much like a human child for a moment. “Much like Istara. Less dark than you, that is for sure.”

 

“I make no excuses for what I am, Ina.” Ravishaw said without heat. “Vandar and Special Branch made me what I am.”

 

“Did they?” Ina asked softly. “So this…” She waved at the compound which now bustled with activity. “Is at their instigation?”

 

“Well. No, actually not.” Ravishaw shook his head, wondering how a ten year old got so wise. Even Cereans with binary brains were not born wise, were they? “It sort of happened… I did what I usually do… But… Suddenly I couldn’t do it anymore. I never expected this to explode the way it has. Nikol and Lia were just supposed to be my insurance policy. Now…” He shrugged as Lia came into view, pushing a cartload of wood. They were working on building a new dormitory to make more space available. At the moment, the kids were living in small, hastily thrown together bunk beds. “Things have gotten complicated.”

 

“So your masters…” Ina mused softly. “…don’t know about this?”

 

“I don’t know.” Ravishaw admitted. “Vandar is hard to fool. He knows I have a new apprentice –who I will keep away from all this-, and likely will guess that I have Qulrrg. I want the rest of this to remain a secret as long as possible. We need to lie low for some time, stay quarantined for the most part. At least until this plague that I have heard of is dealt with.” Ina looked at him with a frown.

 

“Am I a prisoner?” She asked quietly.

 

“Are you?” Ravishaw countered. “You can leave any time you wish. I am sure the Jedi would take you back, give you a new master.”

 

“Maybe…” Ina mused. “Master Hadas charged me with protecting these younglings. You understand about duty.”

 

“Yes I do.” Ravishaw nodded sagely. “I was trained by Trugoy, long ago. When Vandar captured me… “ He paused and then smiled. “That was slick…” He said in an admiring voice. “You are what this group needs.”

 

“Me?” Ina blinked at him, nonplussed. “What did I do?”

 

“I can’t stay here, Ina.” Ravishaw said quietly. “If my master finds out about these kids, he will use them. He will take the girls and use them for his breeding experiments, the boys he will turn into droid brains. I won’t allow that.” She just looked at him and he smiled gently. “Ina… Lia needs someone to talk to. Someone who will listen to her, help her. You can be that person. You got me talking about my past. I never talk about my past…” His smile turned into a frown. “I never want to talk about my past.” He shook himself slightly. “You are what this group will need.”

 

“Why?” Ina asked, her gaze drawn to the man’s open expression. “You could just dominate my mind as you did Lia and Nikol. Why ask?”

 

“Nikol…” Ravishaw sighed deeply. “He was the tipping point. I was… I was happy the way I was. Never caring about the future, never caring who I hurt or how badly. But suddenly I couldn’t do it to him. I should have continued to play the role, to play the part, but I couldn’t.”

 

“But you did.” Ina said quietly. “I remember him, from Tython. His master…?” She broke off as Ravishaw made a noncommittal noise. “I see…” She shivered a little, but did not move.

 

“I am not a good man, Ina. Never have been, never will be.” Ravishaw said quietly as they stood. “But that does not mean I can’t do some good. I am leaving Lia and Nikol in charge, with Qulrrg as healer. That covers sword instruction, meditation, basic Force use and healing. But we lack something, something very important for Bladeborn.”

 

“Which is?” Ina met his gaze with her own levelly.

 

“A conscience.” Ravishaw sighed in memory. “Vandar took my memories of my training and warped them to make me a tool, a weapon. But some things I remember clearly. My mother…” He paused and his face worked as he struggled for control. Ina stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “When I was a child, my mother abused me. When Trugoy took me from her, she refused to let me go. She came after me.” Ina grimaced, but Ravishaw smiled softly. “Took her a while to find me, and when she did, she ran afoul of the being they called ‘Mama Lizard’.”

 

“Istara talked about the Barabel she called Mama Lizard a few times.” Ina said quietly. “I assume she... um…” She paused, unsure.

 

“No, Mama was angry. Angrier than anyone had ever seen her apparently.” Ravishaw smiled in fond memory, although it hadn’t been funny at the time. “She likely would have torn that wicked woman who bore me into the world limb from limb. To this day, I don’t know why she stopped when I got in front of her. I don’t remember what I said… Vandar’s mind breaking techniques were thorough. But I remember Mama Lizard holding me after, holding me while I cried. That is what we need.”

 

“I am a little small to be a shoulder to cry on.” Ina said dubiously. “I mean…” She broke off as Ravishaw laughed softly.

 

“Better, girl.” But then he shook his head. “No. Bladeborn are focused, they have to be. They, we, are weapons, deadly tools. When Trugoy served the Empire, they had a direction, a purpose. With Istara… I hope they find another purpose soon, or it will get bad.”

 

“Bad?” Ina asked, dumbfounded by the torrents of emotion he was showing her now. “How bad…?”

 

“If Istara’s Bladeborn have no enemies to fight, no call to follow, no purpose…” Ravishaw shook his head slowly. “Then the Dark Side will take them, and they will self destruct…We cannot afford that. Not now when things are starting to move.” He bit his lip, shoving his emotions back under their shell. “Can you act as a moral compass for this group, Ina-Ta-Mal? It will be a massive burden. Can you be their mother figure? The stern, but loving one. The caregiver, the nurturing one.”

 

“A mother? Me?” Ina asked softly, her gaze going back to the field full of trainees. “With you the father?”

 

“No. As soon as you all are self sufficient, I am gone.” Ravishaw said quietly “I don’t know if I will be back either.” That was one reason he had been working so hard to get the compound fully set up. Food was to be provided mainly by a greenhouse and garden. There was plentiful game in the forest, and no pesky hunting laws this far out in the boonies if the students needed protein.

 

“Why not?” Ina asked softly.

 

“Because every moment I am here, I place you…” Ravishaw gestured at the field full of kids. “...and them in grave danger. If my masters find out about this…” He bowed his head and shook it. “I will do everything in my power to keep them from doing so, but in addition… I am not stable, Ina-Ta-Mal. I am not safe. I am… lost…” His face turned away from the field. “It’s too late for me, but it is not too late for them. Can you guide them? Show them the ways of the Light?” He was nearly begging now. “I don’t want them to wind up like me…Slaves to a dark power.”

 

“I…” Ina stared at him for a long moment. Then she closed her eyes and nodded slowly. “I accept this burden, Teacher Ravishaw.” She smiled gently. “But you are wrong. You are not lost.”

 

He bowed to her and started off as she turned back to look at the field full of kids. His voice was almost subvocal when he finally spoke as he was entering the tunnel that led to the hidden cavern where his ship was hidden.

 

“How little you know, Ina-Ta-Mal. And I hope to keep it that way. Now… the hard part…”

[kalenath]

<Somewhere>

 

He heard Gwenia screaming, but he had to remain focused. He had to remain still and controlled. He would not give Firdlump the satisfaction of hearing him scream this time. He would not! He focused on the pain, drawing strength from it as he had been taught so long ago. Focusing on the pain would hide the deepest recesses of his mind from the power that was scouring it, he hoped so anyway. He would not give up! His mind…was…his own! Finally the agony ended and his master took his hand away from Ravishaw’s arm.

 

“That should fix the problem. It was a communications issue. Probably from when Istara stabbed you. She must have done something, but I can’t see what it is. The healing seems to have distorted whatever it was.” The thing that looked like a human smiled as he stepped away from the bed where Ravishaw lay. “You are… incorrigible, aren’t you? Always resisting.”

 

“What do you mean…” Ravishaw asked as the restraints retracted and he sat up slowly. He did not snarl at the woman in the white tunic as she bent over the whimpering form in the other bed in the small medical bay. Menglan was the master’s favorite, a sadistic creature whose sole appeal was that she knew how to break almost any kind of being to her master’s will. “…Master?” He added as an obvious afterthought and without respect.

 

“What happened to the two Jedi, and this pretty little thing we see in your slave’s memories?” The mass of tiny machines that worked with a malevolent intelligence asked. Ravishaw just smirked and the master laughed. “Ah…Any… complications?”

 

“No.” Ravishaw shook his head. “The Jedi I still have. She is pretty much gone. I give her maybe three or four more days. Her padawan was a bit disappointing. He lasted for four days and expired. I think it was a heart condition. I dumped the body in hyperspace. It will never be found.” That was no lie, there was no body to be found. Seeing as how Nikol wasn’t dead… And since the body had possessed a weak heart, that wasn’t a lie either. He had fixed that quickly enough with a proper healer. He wasn’t about to tell anyone that the boy was actually teaching students now. He snickered. “Trust a Jedi to have a Padawan weak in body.”

 

“Silly Jedi. Taking students with physical problems and not fixing them.” Firdlump replied as he moved to stand by the girl. “And what is in your mind and hers…? A Gand?” The being that looked human asked incredulously.

 

“Sue me.” Ravisahw said insolently. “I needed medical attention since I couldn’t self repair, it had medical knowledge. I promised it its life if it put my ankle back together. It did. I dropped it off.”

 

“Ah boy… That honor will be the death of you…” Firdlump sighed as he stroked the girl’s shaking forehead. “Poor thing… All skin and bones… Shall I… Hmmm…” Ravishaw did not move and Firdlump shook his head. “No… She is yours, slave. But remember your place.” Agony raced through him as the doctor turned and smirked. “Stop baiting him, doctor. We need him. And he has provided you new staff.”

 

“Thank you for that, brat.” Menglan said with a smirk. “I do so love breaking in new nurses. Pity… I kind of like the red skin on this one… Master, can I have her as a pet?” She asked in a sickly sweet voice.

 

“No.” Firdlump’s reply ended the discussion. “Ravishaw, we require more subjects.”

 

“Best place to ‘recruit’ would be an urban world like Coruscant or Raltiir.” Ravishaw did not react as the master’s gaze swept over him. “But…” He paused and grimaced.

 

“Yes.” The Master scowled. “Darmuk’s plan is reaching fruition, even if the idiotic Jedi and Sith have not even seen it yet. Most urban planets have plague outbreaks and the medical facilities have no clue how to handle them.”

 

“Idiots.” Menglan said with a wide, evil smile. “Kill the infected. Pile the bodies in the streets and burn them. What else needs to be done?” She cackled. “Burn them all! Burn them all!”

 

“Menglan.” Ravishaw’s voice was cool and unemotional now. “Shut up.”

 

“Now, now, boy… Be nice.” Firdlump said as he sat. The room they were in was a standard Republic medical bay in most regards. Except that the medical staff stood around, as silent and still as droids. If he scanned them with the Force, he could hear the screaming, the weeping, the rage that suffused each and every one of the lost souls in the room. “We need to find the Stormhawk Enclave.”

 

“Say what?” Ravishaw paused, unsure if he had heard correctly. Was his master serious? Find the most hidden enclave of dependants of the most wanted ship in the galaxy? Oh sure… piece of cake… “Uh… Master…?” His voice was stunned, disbelieving.

 

“I know, I know…I never give you the easy jobs.” Firdlump replied evenly. “I need to get back to the Senate. They have a new vote coming up and I need to help pass it by the imbeciles in that stupid excuse for governance. I look forward to the day when we can bring true order to this mess of a galaxy,” He hit an intercom control. “Captain, set your course for Coruscant. As soon as my associates have left, we will jump.” He smiled at Ravishaw’s expression. “Hop to it boy, those subjects won’t find themselves. And who knows. Maybe we will get lucky and find that son of Will’s. Sloppy the way you lost his wife, boy… very sloppy. Don’t let it happen again.”

 

Ravishaw nodded to his master, scooped his apprentice up from the bed and carried her out of the room. As he walked his face was a mask, but inside he was smirking as he walked through the halls of the Republic battleship that his master had suborned.

 

You will never know, ‘master’. Never know at all, how well that actually worked out. I just pray Sharra is not at the Enclave now or this is going to go nuclear really, really fast…

 

He set Gwenia down and she walked on unsteady legs as she followed him to the elevator. It was a short trip to the hangar bay. His ship was waiting there for him, probably filled with new and interesting monitoring devices for his own personal nanites to find and remove. It always was after each stop. But then, he paused. A small green form was standing at the ramp. Vandar Tokare’s face was solemn. Ravishaw waved his apprentice into the ship and waited. Vandar spoke softly.

 

“From now on, we have to keep our communication minimal.” The ancient Jedi Master’s voice was sad. “I left a datapad with what I know, what I remember about the trip to the Enclave, on your console. It isn’t much. Trying to read the minds of Stormhawk crew people hurts. Don’t try, those nerve amplifiers make it impossible to control them with the Force too. Those people define paranoid about their families, rightly so. Both the Empire and the Republic have hunted them for years. They have fought Force users for years, Jedi and Sith both. Do not underestimate them. The obvious contact point is Cranna the Hutt, but I do not recommend that. It may not be possible, what the master has ordered.”

 

“Nothing is impossible, Vandar.” Ravishaw said with a smirk as he parroted one of the Jedi’s favorite sayings back a t him. “Just very, very hard.” He paused as the Jedi motioned him close. When he did, the Jedi whispered in his ear.

 

“I hope you know what you are doing, boy.” Vandar’s voice was muffled by the sounds of the ship coming online. “I truly do.” Ravishaw stiffened slightly. He knew! Somehow Vandar knew about Lia and Nikol and the rest. But that was impossible, he had covered his tracks! If the master knew… Vandar shook his head minutely and spoke again. “Be careful, we can’t lose you, not now. May the Force be with you, boy. You will need it.”

 

Ravshaw stared at the old Jedi walked away quickly. Then he shook his head and started up the ship’s ramp. So many wheels within wheels within wheels. Just trying to get his mind around who knew what, where and when made his brain ache. He sighed as he closed the hatch and found a recording device there at the controls.

 

“Sloppy…” Ravishaw grinned, an echo of his merriment coming to the fore as he threw the small device to the floor and stepped on it. “Let the games begin…”

[kalenath]

<A small ship, hyperspace>

 

“Master…” Ravishaw was pulled out of his half doze by a soft, worried voice. He looked over at where his apprentice knelt in formal position and her face was worried. “I have a question… if you don’t mind…”

 

“Whether I do or not, my dear...” Ravishaw chuckled as her expression blanked. “…you have my attention. We have time until planetfall. What do you wish to know?”

 

“I…” Gwenia shook her head slowly. “I confess I do not understand. We were ordered to find the Stormhawk Enclave. But it is not on Tattooine. We know it is not on a desert planet. Why go there?”

 

“Ah…” Ravishaw sighed deeply as he sat back on his heels and nodded. “Well… We know that Cranna the Hutt has contacts with the Stormhawk. What kind of contacts we do not know. Every attempt to infiltrate her organization has failed. We don’t know why, but we can guess.” Gwenia looked puzzled for a moment, but then she nodded.

 

“If she has contact with the Stormhawk, then she must have access to the same types of Force nullification systems. And if that is the case…” Now she looked sick. “Master… I don’t see how we can do this…Not with just the two of us. But…I don’t want to fail…”

 

“Gwenia… We are not Sith.” Ravishaw shook his head slowly. “That is not what is bothering you. Speak.”

 

“I…” The red skinned woman sighed and nodded. “Yes. This woman, Sharra Kalenath, I read the files you have. Why did we do what we did to her? It does not make sense. To anger her husband in such a way seems…” She broke off and grimaced. Will Kalenath was not a being to anger lightly.

 

“Stupid.” Ravishaw agreed. He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know all the reasons for my orders. But…” He looked at her. “I was captured by a being that called itself Bob, he enslaved me the same way our master did. He demanded I do that. It makes no sense to me either but I knew better than to try and disobey. I failed.” His words were quiet. “I managed to beat the soldier and then Trugoy and his lickspittle showed up.” Ravishaw growled. “I got away, but I lost Morgana in the process.”

 

“I hate to say this, master. But she always gave me the creeps.” Gwenia shivered a little. “She was always touching me… It felt… icky…” Ravishaw smiled. The memory implants he had given the former Sith were holding. It was always such a bother if they started fraying, but he had done a good job this time. “I shouldn’t be happy she is gone, but I am…”

 

“She had her uses.” Ravishaw said quietly. “She was the best apprentice at microsurgery and brain reprogramming that I ever had. And that, my dear, is likely to be our way to where we need to go.”

 

“Master?” Gwenia asked softly, her face curious. “What do you mean?”

 

“You will see, Gwenia.” Ravishaw smiled evilly as he closed his eyes again. “You will see.”

 

<Eight hours later>

 

No one noticed. It was a hot day and no one wanted to be outside for very long at noon under the twin suns of Tatooine. Even Jawas had sought shady spots in the small settlement called Anchorhead. The small human form was barely visible as it moved furtively from shadow to shadow in an alley between buildings until it found the doorway it was looking for and knocked. As it waited, the light from the double suns struck the small form and it was shown to be a human boy, approximately ten, with brown hair and blue eyes. Eyes that were oddly unfocused. Anyone sense him in the Force however, would have been repulsed from the screaming that was going on inside his mind. Screaming, crying… But he could not disobey the compulsions that bound him.

 

“Enter.” Came a soft voice and the boy did as instructed. His face however… That would have alerted any Jedi or other Force user that something was very wrong with him. He walked into the small house and stopped just inside the door as it closed behind him. A black cloaked form stood near one wall and another was moving in the rear areas of the house. “Hello, Jon. You made good time since I contacted your mind. Report.”

 

“This one does not have a great deal of time.” The boy said woodenly. “This one’s mother will notice that this one is missing very shortly. Once the fact that this one is missing is reported, they will likely start a door by door search.”

 

“I need to talk to your mother, young man.” The man in black stepped forward, his hand cupping the boy’s jaw gently. “Can you bring her here?” He asked, stroking the boy’s head gently.

 

“Yes.” The boy replied quietly.

 

“Do so as soon as possible without attracting attention.” Ravishaw spoke almost kindly. “We will be waiting.” The boy stood, obviously waiting and the man smiled as he patted the boy’s shoulder. “Go safely boy.”

 

The boy quickly walked to the door, opened it and was gone. The other black cloaked form shook it’s head and spoke, it was Gwenia. “How did you do that? How did you implant him and keep it from being detected?”

 

“He isn’t implanted, anymore anyway. We worked very hard to make the compulsions as undetectable as possible. ” Ravishaw smiled fondly. He was quite proud of that particular skill. “Bella Tiner was a moron. She focused on the droids to the exclusion of all else and her obsession on Sara Kalenath was what got her killed in the end. We knew that this one’s mother would be important, so we… um… added a few insurance policies to her son, just in case. Nothing dangerous…” He added when Gwenia looked at him. “Just some tracking and minor obedience programming. We made sure it would not hurt. Pain is easy to track, easy to find, easy to figure out what is causing it. Minor changes in behavior? Simple tracking protocols? Not so much.” He paused as a knock sounded again. “Enter.”

 

This time, an adult form entered with the boy at her side. The boy was speaking. ”…and they want to talk to you, mom…”

 

“I bet they do, Jon.” The woman said quietly as she looked around. She paused as her son stiffened in place and then reached up and touched her belt where a small device was blinking. It stopped blinking. . “Jon? What did you do that for? Jon? What is wrong?” Then she her eyes adapted to the gloom and she froze in place. She opened her mouth to scream and her hand shot to her belt where a comlink sat. But something intangible grabbed her and held her tight.

 

“Don’t struggle.” Ravishaw said quietly. “I am not here to hurt you, Doctor Irene, or your child, or your allies.”

 

“You…” Irene, assistant surgeon in residence at Cranna the Hutt’s clinic, stared at the man in black, her mouth dropping open. “No…” Now her voice held horror.

 

“Just relax, doctor.” Ravishaw said quietly as he stepped forward. “We won’t hurt you.” He took her shoulders in his hands and steered her towards the back of the small house where Gwenia stood beside a chair. “We won’t hurt you…” He repeated soothingly. She sat as if she were a marionette, stiffly. Gwenia took hold of her shoulders and held her down with gentle seeming hands. “This won’t hurt…”

 

The doctor was obviously trying to speak as Ravishaw laid hands on either side of her head and concentrated. Then her eyes rolled up into her head and she would have fallen off the chair, except Gwenia held her in place.

 

“There we go…” Ravishaw smiled gently as he let her go. “How do you feel now, doctor?”

 

“I feel… light…” The doctor said in an emotionless tone. “I feel… sleepy…So… hard… to think…”

 

“You will go back.” Ravishaw said quietly as he laid his hand on her forehead as if taking her temperature. She shivered a little. “You will tell them you found your son playing with some Jawas and shooed them off. You will punish your son mildly for scaring you. You will not remember this encounter. You will not have bad dreams, or flashbacks from this encounter.”

 

“What do…you want?” Irene asked softly, her voice nearly inaudible. “Why…are you doing… this?”

 

“Shhh… Doctor…It’s okay.” Ravishaw soothed her with a gentle touch and voice. “I do need something from you, but it won’t hurt anyone. I swear it on my honor. The only people it will put in danger are myself and my apprentice. You will not be afraid of me if we meet again. You will know I will not hurt you or your son. I need you to send this com signal to this ship.” He placed a small card in her upper shirt pocket. “You will send the message then destroy the card and forget about it. All I am asking for is a meeting, nothing more.”

 

“You… are with… them…” Irene managed to choke out. “Monster…”

 

“Yes I am a monster, doctor. But I will not harm you or yours.” Ravishaw held out a hand and the doctor took it to rise just as stiffly as she had sat. The woman’s eyes closed as she stood there, her face wooden. “There you go, right as rain.” He held out the hand he was holding to her son who took it. “Jon, take your mother outside. The both of you need to get back before Cranna’s security goes on alert.” He reached down and turned the nerve amplifier on again, wincing at the odd feelings that he sensed from the woman.

 

Both black garbed forms watched and waited while the boy led his mother out the door. Then Gwenia sighed softly.

 

“So she will send the message. Now what?” She asked slowly. “Do we stay here?”

 

“Now we wait and see if my message goes through, and if it was understood.” Ravishaw chuckled softly but without mirth. “And of course to see if Oreana is willing to talk or just kill us.”

[kalenath]

<A day later>

 

“Give me one good reason I should not open the main doors, drop the forcefield and blow both of you out into space.” The cold, clear female voice came from the intercom box near the door of the hangar bay. No one was in evidence anywhere. The hangar bay was deserted, and as he stretched out with his senses, he could feel a couple of other beings on the ship, maybe six total, but all seemed to be asleep. “Or turn you over to Cranna’s people who are going totally gundark at the moment. Really… using that poor woman and her SON like that…”

 

“Hello.” Ravishaw said softly. “I didn’t have a choice. I had to talk to you. Do I call you Dia or Oreana?”

 

“I asked you a question first.” Came a snippy response from the intercom and both black garbed forms did not move as several automated defense turrets popped out of various places and aimed at them. “I suggest you answer it. I want to fry you. I truly do.” The weapons did not look like blasters, although neither of the black garbed forms had lightsabers ready.

 

“Ma’am…” Ravsihaw sighed deeply, this being nice was not his thing. “We need your help.” An indrawn breath came from the speakers and then an evil laugh sounded. He could not have done a better evil laugh himself and that was saying something. “We didn’t have a choice but to ask for your help in this way.”

 

“My help?” The intelligence that inhabited the ship that was called the Dia’s Gift was bitter now. “I know who you are. Even though I do not serve the Empire anymore, I know what you are, traitor. I know what you did to Jon, to Irene. They are my friends. Like I said…” The turrets whirred as they tracked in on both of the forms standing in front of their ship and Gwenia turned scared eyes towards her master. Ravishaw did not move. “Talk. Fast.”

 

“You destroyed the sword.” Ravishaw did not move as the turrets seemed to hesitate. “Well done.” There was honest to the Force admiration in his tone. “Most beings handling the sword of Adjuta Pall would have died, or been corrupted into using it again. Most who have held it have been one or the other. You did the galaxy a great service when you destroyed it.”

 

“You have not answered my question, scum.” The voice of the woman who had been Oreana Devich, assassin for the Sith Empire, was cold now. “Fine, suck vaccum.” An alarm sounded and both Force users blanched as the massive doors that closed off the hangar bay opened slowly. “Goodbye and good riddance.”

 

“Dia!” Ravishaw called over the alarm klaxons. “Ulaha sent me!”

 

“You are lying.” The intelligence that ran the ship said coldly as the doors continued to open. “It is what you do.”

 

“I am not and I can prove it.” Ravishaw said quickly as he watched the doors come to a halt, fully open. It would be the work of an instant for the computer running the ship to depressurize the hangar bay, killing both him and Gwenia. Even Bladeborn needed to breathe. Maybe he would survive vacuum exposure, he had studied the ‘Breath Control’ power, but he really did not want to. He did not want to have to break in another apprentice. “The Seven are rising, Dia… And we are caught in the middle.”

 

“The Seven…” A gasp came from the intercom box. “What do you know about the Seven?”

 

“I know what is truly going to happen to them.” Ravishaw said sadly. “They don’t. They have likely guessed some of it by now. I know Will Kalenath and Istara Sharlina Andal won’t care. But the others…” He sighed deeply and seemed to change stature, from confident warrior to…scared? His entire demeanor changed. It was as if he were someone else. “Dia… Please…”

 

“Talk.” The computer snarled at him. “But you stay where you are. If I don’t like what you say, I am blowing you out, and then taking a flamethrower to my decks. It will suck, but I want to be sure to clean my deck of your taint.” The disgust in her voice was plain.

 

“My master has tasked me with finding the Stormhawk Enclave.” Ravisahw said softly. “So that he has a ready supply of slaves and breeding stock. I am assuming that the children that were aboard this ship when it was taken by Cranna are there. If so, then he will want them back, to put them back in machines.” He shook his head. “I do not want to do this. If he finds it, if he takes it… We are doomed.”

 

“What?” Now the voice of the machine guiding the ship was dumbfounded. “You… don’t…?”

 

“I was taken by Special Branch, Dia Ulahadotter, when I was eighteen years old. I was angry at the time, not focusing on what I was doing. They… They did a number of things to me…” Ravishaw shuddered a little and Gwenia laid her hand on his arm, offering her strength. “For a very long time, years… I was lost in a haze of madness, fear and pain. Then she came to me… She healed me.” Gwenia stared at him and he shook his head. He had never spoken of this to anyone, but now it was time to let it all out.

 

“Who?” Dia’s voice was soft, noncommittal.

 

“I didn’t know her name at first. She only told me her name after a year of working with me, secretly.” Ravishaw’s voice was soft now. “But she took the madness from me. She made me whole again…” He smiled sadly now. “And then she made me her agent.” There was no mirth in his voice now, no madness. It was as if he was someone else. Every other time he had spoken, madness lurked in his voice. Not now.

 

“Her… What?” Dia asked in a disbelieving tone. “Are you trying to make me believe you are working for someone else? Besides Bob and Firdlump? The two masses of machine that controlled you?”

 

“Yes.” Ravishaw said softly. “I have done horrible things, sequestering most of my mind in a dark place so that I could do what must be done. So I could play the madman, the crazy traitor. So I could hide who and what I really am, to be the ultimate sleeper agent.”

 

“Who are you then?” Dia asked, still not believing. “If you are not Ravishaw?”

 

“Part of me is Ravishaw.” The man in black disagreed. “Part of me always will be. They took me… did things to me. They made me what I am, a Force sucking leech.” Now his voice was disgusted. “I wonder if Idjit figured it out… I wouldn’t bet against it.” He mused. “They made me their agent, a harbinger of death and destruction and made me crazy enough to revel in it. I had to play along even after she cured me, I had to. There were no alternatives. No good ones anyway…”

 

“Make sense.” Dia commanded. “You are Ravishaw, agent of chaos and destruction, wanted on more planets than I can recite easily for assassination, murder, death and destruction. Wanted by the Empire for treason, wanted by the Republic as an agent of evil.”

 

“I am all of that.” Ravishaw agreed softly. “But I am also Morey, advance and covert agent of the Seven.” Now the voice of the computer gasped loudly and Gwenia stood stock still. “I will submit to whatever scans you require, to whatever interrogations you deem fit. Hell I will sit here until Istara and the others get here if that is what you wish, but for the love of the Force, do not tell Will… Please…”

 

“Master…?” Gwenia stood stock still, totally unsure. “What…?”

 

“Gwenia, I am sorry.” He recited a series of code words and the red skinned female slumped in place. “She won’t remember this.” He bowed his head. “Please Dia… You can’t tell Will… If you do, everything we have worked for, everything we have tried to bring to fruition, will fail. He will pull Sharra out from wherever she is hidden and the Firdlump will find her. If he does…”

 

“Listen to him, Dia.” A faint shimmer of the air and a blue transparent form appeared next to Ravishaw. “Hello Morey.”

 

“Hello Ulaha.” Ravishaw said sourly as he bent to straighten his apprentice’s limbs, making her a bit more comfortable. “Miss Dia?”

 

“Ulaha…?” The computer’s voice was bemused now. Then it sighed. “Get your apprentice to Medical. We can monitor her better and keep her asleep there. You do remember where it is, right?”

 

“Yes.” Ravishaw scooped Gwenia up in his arms and stared for the hatch from the hangar bay. The Force ghost kept pace with him. “I was aboard once. They… Well…” He shivered a little. “They did things to me as well here, the master was refining his techniques. But he didn’t want to waste the nanites until he was sure he could replicate them at will. Hence the more intrusive implants he put in the children.”

 

“How did you manage to hide that you were sane?” Dia asked as the hatch in front of him opened. “I would think they would find out quickly and redo the programming if you regained your sanity.”

 

“That’s just it, Dia. I didn’t, I wasn’t, and I’m not…” Ravishaw paused as the computer blew a raspberry at him. “Huh?”

 

“Now I know you have to be working with or for her…” Ulaha smirked beside him and Dia continued in a sour tone. “Only someone who works for her could make such a simple answer so confusing.”

 

“Oh, my dear…” Ravishaw was shaking his head in wonder. “You have no idea…”

[kalenath]

“So… What…?” The young female Twi’lek shook her head as she finished scanning the slumbering red skinned female. “Anyone care to tell me why I wake up from an unplanned nap and have a Sith in my medical ward? Two of them?” She glared at Ravishaw who hadn’t moved from the spot he had assumed after laying the girl on the medical bed. Her blaster was not in hand now; she had put it away after Dia had asked her to. The three automated defense turrets with disruptors tracking him were likely better suited for eliminating him anyway. “Dia?”

 

“I don’t know, Kina.” Dia’s voice was sour. “Well?” She prompted when Ravishaw did not speak.

 

“I don’t know the whole story.” Ravishaw said quietly. “But I will tell you what I do know. I assume you contacted the Seven as soon as you realized who I was.” This was to Dia. A sniff came from the speaker and Ravishaw sighed. “Please, Dia…” Ulaha had vanished as soon as he had started into the ship. Just as well, if Dia did not trust her.

 

“You have not given me any reason to trust you.” Dia said after a moment. “Ulaha is a lying witch. She has lied to Istara, to Will, to all of the Seven at one time or another. She has lied to me too, when she was alive and after. That is one reason I never trusted her to begin with. I liked her, yes. Trusted her? No.”

 

“Okay…” Ravishaw took a deep breath and started talking. “I don’t know what you know or have heard, so I am going to start from the beginning. And I will try not to leave anything out. I know you can sense me in the Force so I know better than to lie.”

 

“My name from the moment I was born until I was fourteen was Morey. I had… a difficult childhood. My mother abused me for most of the time I lived with her. I do not remember my father. If the man had any brains whatsoever, he ran away from her as soon as he sobered up after he and she conceived me. I was…six I think when Trugoy came. He opened my eyes to the Force, showed me a better way. My mother tried to take me back and failed, I never saw her again after that. I trained with the Bladeborn from the time I was six until I was fourteen. I passed my trail and started working for Trugoy as a Bladeborn. Then, when I was sixteen, my life turned upside down. I met Leonel, a young man with a horrific injury. His eyes had been burned out with acid. He was filled with rage, pain and self hate. He was suicidal and reckless. Something in him called to me, I…” He shook his head, baffled. “To this day, I don’t know what it was. Was it fate? The Force? Love? Lust? I don’t know.”

 

“Leonel…” Dia’s voice was hushed, scared almost. “Idjit…”

 

“Yeah… He calls himself an idiot. He feels he is stupid. He always has, he likely always will.” Ravishaw’s voice held fond exasperation now. “He is not, but he can be incredibly boneheaded at times.” The man in black sighed. “Anyway… Idjit and I… well… Relationships with initiates are forbidden, with good reason. Initiates are too vulnerable before the Trial, before they learn control, they can’t handle the stresses of a relationship. But then he passed his trial. So fast, so strong, so…” He shook his head again and a slightly sappy grin came over his face. “We uh…We celebrated…”

 

“I get the picture.” Dia said in a slightly disturbed voice. “And then?”

 

“Then Istara came. I could tell the moment Idjit saw her that he was smitten.” Ravishaw shook his head again, this time in exasperation. “Young fools in love. Are there any people denser in the galaxy?” The question as obviously rhetorical. “I include myself in that. I was dumber than bantha poodoo. I… I stayed away. Idjit tried, he tried to get me to come back. We had an argument. I don’t even remember what it was about, something dumb. I went off by myself…” Now he slumped. “I was easy prey. Distracted. I woke up on a table with Firdlump and Vandar bending over me. It gets… fuzzy after that.”

 

“I bet…” The Twi’lek medic’s voice was horrified as she checked the scanners. “I am sorry…” She knew what that kind of thing felt like, from direct, horrifying personal experience. To be strapped to a table, played with by people who didn’t really care if one lived or died.

 

“Thank you healer, but it is past. Memories can hurt, but I refuse to let them stop me.” Ravishaw took a deep breath and shrugged a bit, relaxing taut muscles. “I don’t know how long I spent in that mad haze. It was at least fifteen years. I don’t know all of what I did, but… I know that I don’t want to remember most of it. Then there were patches of lucidity. Moments where I was someone other than the madman they had made me, that Vandar and Firdlump had created and could barely control. Vandar keeps saying he fixed me. He didn’t. Apparently I was such a mess they kept me in stasis for a lot of that time while they tried to make me functional. Which is why I appeared and vanished for long periods of time. I know the Empire wondered.”

 

“Yes we did. If not Vandar… Then who?” Dia asked softly, still unsure. “And why would Vandar of all people help you?”

 

“Vandar has been trying to circumvent the control that Firdlump has over him ever since Firdlump raised him from the ashes of Katarr almost three hundred years ago.” Ravishaw said quietly. “He has managed to gain a little autonomy through careful use of the Force and sneaky underhanded tactics. That little bastard is smart, and caught in a nasty trap. I hate him, no question, but he has been a slave for a long, long time.” Ravishaw snickered softly. “I have learned more about not telling the truth while not lying from him than anyone else I have ever met, Jedi or Sith.”

 

“And you ask me to believe you?” Dia asked softly. “Us to believe you?”

 

“You need to hear the rest.” Ravishaw waited until a ‘get on with it’ noise came from the speaker and then continued. “I was… I was on a mission for Firdlump. I worked only with my slaves at that point, they were not going to trust me with anyone else. I apparently tended to leave the bodies of people they saddled me with for the Masters to find, posed in creative and gruesome ways. I was after Sharra Kalenath, she had been taken by the Sith. I found her, did some things to her. Then I walked into a trap. Next thing I knew I was on a table again. But Bob was the one bending over me.”

 

“Bob?” Kina asked confused. “Who the hell is Bob?”

 

“If you don't know... Then you don’t want to know.” Dia said in a tone of adamantium. “You really, really don’t.”

 

“No, you don’t, healer.” Ravisahw agreed. Shuddering a little. “His ends may be more just than Firdlump’s… Maybe, I am not totally sure about that. But his means…” The hard case Bladeborn actually shivered a little. “He made me a sort of double agent, against my will. He changed my programming, but kept the control tight.”

 

“Sort of?” Dia asked incredulously. “How can you ‘sort of’ be a double agent?”

 

“I wanted Vandar and Firdlump stopped, preferably hard and messily. But I wasn’t sane. Besides them dead, I don’t know what I wanted. It was never enough. The pain, rage and fear that I fed on was never enough. I always needed more, and more and more. I took apprentices, used them for sustenance as well as pawns. I did the same thing to them that I did to Gwenia. I broke their minds, changed their appearances and put them back together to serve me and me alone. I had Morgana before Bob captured me then, she had been a Sith. Shult I ‘acquired’ from the Jedi. Kola was a runaway, a powerful Force user, if dark, who tried to pick my pocket on Coruscant. I broke them all, changed them all, used them all. They all believed I was the sole lord and master. I wasn’t. Bob was pulling my strings, but letting Firdlump and Vandar think they were.”

 

“So whose idea was impregnating Sharra?” Dia asked caustically. “You had to know how Will was going to react. Even if it was with his DNA. And how the hell did you get that anyway? Was it Firdlump or Bob?”

 

“Neither.” Ravishaw said quietly. “She told me to do it. I argued, said it was too much, I just wanted Sharra to disappear into hiding. Contrary to popular belief I do not want to die, blown to atoms or shot multiple times, or whatever. That man scared me before I met him. I am bad news, but I am nowhere near his class. I won’t nuke a civilian spaceport filled with noncombatants because I can.”

 

“Point.” Dia said in a tone that said she did not really want to agree with the man. “So… Who is this ‘she’ you keep mentioning? Ulaha?”

 

“No.” Ravishaw shook his head. “Her name is Emily.”

 

“What did you say?” Dia exclaimed, her voice shocked. “You cannot mean…”

 

“I work for Emily and Dargon Darkstorm.” He paused and continued. “I have for almost six years, pretending to be insane. Trying with all my might to act crazy, to act evil. I have done awful things to many, many people maintain my cover. Emily…” He laughed softly in rueful memory. “I encountered her first when Will supposedly died over Korriban right before Bob captured me. After that, I met her again and well… I never want to fight her again. She cheats. She took me prisoner; she and her husband cured me and recruited me to help pave the way for the Seven. What better cover than an agent of the enemy after all? It is a very dangerous game to play, but worthwhile.” He added sotto voice. “I hope…”

 

“You are kidding…” Dia’s voice was stunned now. “Holy flarging osik…”

 

“Yep. You said it.” Ravishaw shook his head and sighed deeply. “For so long, to so many people… I have lied, and lied, and lied, and lied. Maybe I can finally figure out which of these disparate people in my skin is the real me.”

 

“You know I am going to follow up on this.” Dia’s voice was hard now. “If you are lying to me now…”

 

“Go ahead.” Ravishaw leaned back against the wall. “I am not going anywhere.”

[kalenath]

<Eighteen hours later, In orbit around the planet Vanaria>

 

“Well…” Emily Darkstorm said as she stepped out of the shuttle that had brought her to the Dia’s Gift. “This is another fine mess you have gotten yourself into, Morey.” She wore nondescript robes of neutral colors and a lightsaber hung at her belt.

 

“Yes, Ma’am.” Ravishaw said quietly, almost braced at attention. “No excuse Ma’am.”

 

“Can the kay-det crap, boy.” Emily said with a mock glower. “I assume since Dia contacted us and made use of the one use cipher pad we gave you that it has come out?”

 

“Yes, Ma’am.” Ravishaw sighed and spoke softly. “She knows, Ma’am. I had to talk fast to keep her from spacing me.” Emily sighed. “Ma’am… She’s ticked…”

 

“I don’t blame her.” Emily shook her head and started for the hatch. “Come on, might as well get this over with.”

 

“Stop right there.” The harsh voice came from the intercom had both people freezing. “We trusted you, Emily. We did.” Was Dia crying? It sure sounded like it. “What have you done?” Emily’s shoulders drooped and she sagged in place.

 

“Something awful, Dia. We…” Emily shook her head slowly. “I… I didn’t really think. He had Sharra… He was ordered to kill her.”

 

“What?” Dia’s voice was stunned now. “Why?” She demanded.

 

“Morey?” Emily turned to the man beside her. “You explain it better than I can.”

 

“I still have trouble figuring out which side I am on, Emily.” He looked up at the vid pickup and spoke softly but clearly. “Firdlump wanted Sharra Kalenath as a breeder. She is strong, easily the strongest non-Force user I have ever met.”

 

“You never met Maria.” Dia said with a scowl in her voice. “Be glad, you would be in scattered pieces. At least… Wait… Did you?” Her voice held concern now. “Did you help Special Branch deal with Will’s family?”

 

“I don’t remember.” Ravishaw said softly after a moment of thinking. “If I did, and I might have… It’s in one of the blank periods. Emily…” He turned worried eyes to the former Jedi. “You have been in my memories… Did you see any of that?”

 

“No.” Emily shook her head. “Perhaps you were at one of the labs at the same time, but you were a guinea pig as much as she was. Maybe more. You could revitalize yourself with the Force. They hurt you a lot, doing what they did to you.”

 

“Maybe…” Ravishaw did not sound convinced, but then she shook himself and sighed. “As to Sharra… I was told by Bob to ‘deny Firdlump his prize.’ You know what that means.”

 

“Oh my god…” Dia said in tone of horror. “He wanted you to kill her?” Ravisahw nodded.

 

“At first. I… well… I had found her the first time, with Emily, although I didn’t know who Emily was at the time. I hurt Sharra, I hurt her so badly…” He was…crying? “I don’t blame her for hating me, I don’t blame Will for hating me. I did what I did, and I enjoyed it.” Now his voice was sick.

 

“Morey…” Emily’s voice was gentle. “You were not in control of yourself.”

 

“Doesn’t matter. What I did was wrong. What Morgana did was worse, those implants. And then they told me to find her again…I did, but... I couldn't. I couldn’t give her to Firdlump, or kill her. And after what I had done before, I couldn’t keep her around either. She would remember me, fight…” He shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t know what to do. I asked for help.” He looked at Emily who sighed.

 

“Yes. He came to us.” Emily blew out a long breath. “We had to come up with a way for Bob to want to keep Sharra alive. We gave him a sample of Will’s… well…” She had the grace to blush.

 

“I get the picture.” Dia sounded as if she were somewhere beyond shock now. “The Bladeborn said she was hurt very badly when they found her. She had been tortured.” Now her tone was accusatory.

 

“Yes.” Ravishaw agreed sadly. “We had to make it look good or the Bladeborn would have figured out I wanted them to find her, they are not stupid, no matter what I have said about them on occasion. So… I grabbed her on Kuat with no one the wiser and sent a clone off with Will. My apprentices gave chase to give Firdlump’s and Bob’s people a show. I took Sharra and…” He slumped. “I am not proud of what I did, but it was the only way to keep her alive. She wasn’t awake or aware. I could do that much. Then I hurt her, carefully. I made sure she was unconscious for that too. I had to. I knew that if I didn’t go all out on her, all kinds of people would smell a rat. I never expected them to hit the ship enroute to Korriban.” He shrugged. “I had to move fast at that point. We made another clone to trap Will. Those were my orders from Bob, trap him, hold him and bring him for healing. I did not expect the Bladeborn to arrive so quickly, or for Will to do what he did. Seriously, nuking a medical facility? That man is nuts.” Which was saying something coming from Ravishaw.

 

“Can you blame him?” Emily asked softly. “He gets his wife back and then loses her again? Small wonder he went off the deep end.”

 

“I stayed in character the whole time, laughing like crazy.” The man in black sounded bemused. “But the whole time I was trying to take him alive. He did not cooperate.”

 

“Why would he?” Dia asked softly. “As far as he knew then, you were just another Sith, a worse one than usual, but another Sith. He spent years fighting the Empire.”

 

“That was the flaw in the plan.” Ravisahw agreed. “None of us expected him to fight so hard. And then on Shili…” He winced. “I had to remain in character. I had to stay focused. And then the Bladeborn showed up again.” He laughed suddenly, but it was a far cry from his usual maniacal chuckles. This sound was delighted. “You know… This is the longest I have been out of character in a long, long time… I like it.”

 

“Don’t get used to it, Morey.” Emily cautioned. “We still have work to do.”

 

“Okay…” Dia said in a confused tone. “Ravishaw…er… Morey…er whoever the flarg he is at the moment here had Sharra. He impregnated her with a sample he got from you of Will’s um… stuff…” Her tone was disbelieving again. “And then what?”

 

“I had planned to let the Bladeborn find her.” Ravishaw snorted. “They worked through the clues I left far faster than I thought they could. Did they have help?” He asked sidelong at Emily who shrugged and remained silent. “Whatever. I tried to take him on Korriban and failed. The plan on Shili was to corner Will and talk to him. Bob was... um…a bit annoyed with me for ‘interpreting’ my orders. I was always careful to stay on the wrong side of Samuel. I liked him, I did. He was a good man who was turned into a monster. I think Bob planned to throw me to Will as a sacrificial nerf. He could bring me back as long as my body wasn’t utterly vaporized, he had done it before. Will did not cooperate, he started shooting as soon as he saw our troops. I could have told them that would happen.” Ravishaw shook his head. “I am glad Sharra survived.”

 

“You are?” Dia asked softly, her tone accusatory again. “After what you did to her?”

 

“Dia…” Emily’s voice was soft and sad now. “It was that or kill her. And if she dies too soon…”

 

“Emily!” Ravishaw made a shushing motion but Dia pounced on the former Jedi’s words.

 

“What do you mean ‘Dies too soon’?” She asked, turrets popping out of various places around the hangar bay. “What have you done?” She demanded as the weapons powered up. Neither of the figures in the hangar bay spoke and both did not move or flinch as a disruptor fired, burning a nice neat hole in the deck between them. “Talk, damn you! I will burn you down by inches.”

 

“No…” Ravishaw stepped in front of Emily, his hands outstretched. “Dia… Oreana… Please… If you must kill someone, kill me. My part is almost done anyway.”

 

“No, it’s not!” Emily snapped as she stepped up beside him. “Idiot boy.” Then her face stilled into a mask of sadness. “Dia… Please…Don’t ask that. Once you hear the answer, you cannot unhear it. I don’t… I don’t want to burden anyone else with this. I made a mistake with Sharra, one I regret to this day.”

 

“Talk.” Dia said in a hard tone and the weapons whined as they all aimed at Emily now. “Now.”

 

“I did not do it against her will. Not totally.” Emily said softly. “I asked her, a while back, if she and Will had ever considered children. She replied that yes, they had, but not in the middle of a war. After we took her back, from the Sith, after Bob took Morey…We talked, she and I. She asked me, flat out, for the truth, when she was lucid, not split into two people as she was most of the time despite my best efforts, and like a doofus, I told her.” Emily was crying now.

 

“What did she ask?” Dia’s tone was stunned, but cautious.

 

“She asked if she was ever going to have kids. I didn’t think, I just responded with what I knew from visions. Like an idiot I replied that ‘No, she wasn’t ever going to have the chance’.” And indrawn breath came from the speaker and Emily nodded. “Yes, I told her that she was going to die before she could bear Will’s child.”

 

“Oh my god…” Dia’s tone was horrified. “Does she…? Does she remember?”

 

“No.” Emily replied. “She asked to forget that conversation. I did not want to. But she insisted. And she made me promise her, that if we got the chance we would help her and Will have a child. Was this the best way? No. Was it right? No. But she made me promise. I kept my promise.”

 

“And now Firdlump, Vandar, Bob and everyone else with half a brain is going to be looking for her and the child to use against Will.” Dia’s voice was somewhere between anger, fear and horror now. “Well done.” She said flatly.

 

“We don’t know how she is going to die, or when.” Emily said quietly. “The visions we have seen are not clear and we cannot trust the seers.”

 

“Why not?” Dia asked, her voice sharp again.

 

“Because the Sitolon have a plan of their own.” Emily replied. “If it works, wonderful. If it doesn’t… And the odds are favoring that probability… We are even more screwed than we were.”

 

“Joy…” Dia sounded punch drunk now. “Okay, come in and we can talk some more. Let’s try and figure out how the hell to fix this mess…Or IF we can…”

[kalenath]

“So… Who are you working for, Emily?” Dia asked in a quiet voice as Ravishaw and Emily sat at a table in her briefing room. “Really?” They had stopped in medical to check on Ravishaw’s apprentice and now were sitting alone in the small room. Alone except for Dia’s disembodied voice.

 

“Myself.” Emily said quietly. “My family is dedicated to helping the Seven through what is going to happen. We…” She paused and shook her head. “I don’t think you know the whole prophecy, do you? I doubt they told the Seven the truth. I know that Jina at the least would be going totally ape is she knew. Since I haven’t heard of any massive death and destruction…” She shrugged.

 

“The whole prophecy?” Dia asked carefully. “What do you mean?”

 

“The Sitolon…” Emily spoke quietly. “…have been very careful about what they tell us. However, some of us did not just jump into their camp with eyes wide shut. Dargon and I… we wondered about many things. Maybe it is because we have had to be paranoid to survive? I don’t know. Niun, our family physician… also wondered. We had to be very careful to keep our suspicions secret. We did some digging. What we found did not add up. Firdlump could have killed Will any time when he had the poor boy, before Will grew into his powers. Why didn’t he? He could have killed Istara, anytime before she grew to be Sharlina. We knew who she was fairly early on. The only ones we never had track of were Michelle and Mira. Michelle was an Islanian slave and Mira was rotting deep in a Sith dungeon. Both of them were surprises when we found out. Firdlump or Bob could have killed any of the ones we knew about. Why didn’t they?”

 

“I don’t know.” Dia replied softly. “It never made much sense to me. The only good enemy is a dead one.”

 

“Exactly.” Ravishaw said softly. “It only makes sense if you figure that neither of them wanted the Seven dead. But then that doesn’t make sense, does it?”

 

“Um…” Dia made a soft noise of puzzlement. “Well, Firdlump wants to control the machine swarm, and Bob wants to stop it, right? So they both need pawns, right?”

 

“Yes and no.” Ravishaw replied, his posture and tone sad. “Both want to control it. I don’t know what Bob’s ultimate goals are, but Firdlump has made no secret to his slaves that he wants to remake the galaxy into an ordered place. With himself as head honcho of course.”

 

“Of course.” Dia agreed sarcastically. “Like anyone is going to follow a mass of machines?”

 

“Dia, think about it.” Emily said softly. “If every sentient in the galaxy has those nanites in them… How will anyone rebel? Will they be able to?”

 

“He apparently can.” Dia said with a sniff.

 

“Not… really…” Ravishaw said with a shudder.

 

“What?” Dia’s voice was sharp and the turrets in all four corners of the room rotated to track him again. “Explain.” She demanded.

 

“What we did…” Emily spoke softly “…was pit the two sets of commands that were given to the machines in his body against each other. Bob’s commands versus Firdlump’s commands. Equal and opposite. Bob tried to overwrite the commands that were there, but they remained in a form of memory. We woke them up and both sets of commands tried to take control. Neither can, but they spend all their time trying, letting Morey here control the machines somewhat.”

 

“Holy crap…” Dia’s voice was awed. “You looped them?”

 

“It worked.” Emily snickered at Ravishaw’s expression of distaste. “Even Firdlump can’t fix it, trust me, he has tried. But…” She paused. “Morey here can do some basic things, like make the machines heal his body. That is common to both sets of commands, so that they will obey either way. But he doesn’t really have control over them. More a ‘Hey guys! Go here…’ kind of instruction. It seems to be all they need to find a problem. As soon as they do, they try to fix it. It seems almost instinctive; maybe the body is reacting as if they are white blood cells or something. I don’t know.”

 

“Yeah it worked.”Ravishaw agreed sourly. “I woke up strapped to a bed with Emily sitting beside me, with little memory of what had happened over the last decade or so. I was…very confused. And when she told me what had happened… I was very angry.”

 

“I’ll say.” Emily smiled gently at the younger human. “You have come a long way, Morey.” He would not meet her eyes, and she sighed. “It is not your fault, Morey.”

 

“Why do you call him Morey?” Dia asked in a tone that was not sure she wanted the answer. “The Bladeborn do, but…” She broke off as Ravishaw’s face turned sick.

 

“My first action when she freed me was to try and die. The nanites wouldn’t let me. I stabbed myself, poisoned myself, shot myself… Nothing worked. I tried to cut off my brand, and they wouldn’t let me do that. I told her to call me Morey because I was no longer Ravishaw. I gave it up when I tried to die. I was… sick… broken…A threat to my clan, a monster.” He shook his head savagely. “I…” He froze as Emily embraced him gently. “Emily… No…”

 

“Morey, it’s okay.” She hugged him and spoke gently. “You have gone through hell for years. We would have simply freed you if we could. You know this.” Emily was obviously fighting tears now. “But I couldn’t let you go without trying to stop you. You could have run, hidden away somewhere.”

 

“No, I couldn’t.” Ravishaw replied savagely, but did not fight the embrace. “I could not just run away, just act selfishly. It’s not my way, the real me anyway, not the madman. I was…I wanted to make a difference, help people. Help the people I loved. Not be this… this thing…” His voice held self hate now. “Just…I should have found a way to end it then. Once you woke me up, healed my mind…I am sorry Emily. I thought I was strong enough.”

 

“Morey…You are strong. Stronger than I am, stronger than anyone I think I have met.” Emily held him as he started to cry. “Shhh… Shhh… It’s okay. We will make it okay.” She rubbed his shoulders trying to console him.

 

“No. I am sorry Emily. I can’t do this anymore.” Ravishaw said flatly. He hugged her once more and then stepped out of her embrace. “Dia…? Where is the closest airlock? That is the only way to be sure they can’t bring me back, explosive decompression. My body won’t survive without air, even with the nanites.”

 

“Morey…” Dia’s voice was sick. “Don’t do this. We can help…”

 

“No you can’t.” Ravishaw disagreed softly, patting Emily’s hands away gently as she tried to pull him back into her embrace. “I don’t know if they are playing me, using me. Even Emily cannot be sure if they are monitoring me right now! I have to do this now, while I can.”

 

“Emily?” Dia’s voice was soft and scared now. “Is that true?”

 

“Yes…” Emily was crying hard now. “Morey… don’t…” She stiffened as he took a step towards the hatch. “Dia! Stop him!”

 

“I…” Dia’s voice was soft and sad now. “If that is his choice…I can’t stop him.” Everything stopped as the hatch opened and a new voice spoke.

 

“I can.” Emily and Ravishaw both froze in place as Istara Sharlina Andal stepped into the room, her naked sword in hand and her face stern.

[kalenath]

It was hard to say who was more flabbergasted, Ravishaw or Emily. Istara took another step into the room and stopped, her silver armor glistening in the harsh light. Her cold silver eyes were locked on Ravishaw’s hazel ones and she had no expression whatsoever on her face as she took another step, her sword poised and ready. Ravishaw for his part did nothing but sink to his knees.

 

“That won’t work, Istara.” He said quietly. “But feel free. I have earned your wrath a thousand times over.” He bowed his head as if waiting for her to cut it off.

 

“Istara! No!” Emily cried as she stepped forward, her hand going to her lightsaber. “He is a victim! Just as you were!” She stopped as Ravishaw shook his head and held up an empty hand to ward her off.

 

“No, Emily.” His head went back to a bowed position and his hands clasped in back of him, away from his sword hilt. “I knew this day would come, when I had to pay for all the horrors I inflicted on my former kin. Just…” His head came up and his face was bleak. “Grandmaster… Throw my body into the depths of space. The nanites will not be able to regenerate me then. If you leave my body anywhere else, they will in time.”

 

“Even if I chop you into a hundred tiny pieces?” Was the humor in her tone? No, it couldn’t be… “They could heal that?”

 

“I…” Ravishaw shook his head slowly. “I don’t know if that would work or not. I don’t want to leave it to chance. Space is the best way. Please, grandmaster. Allow me this one, small honor. Let me die with dignity.”

 

“Why?” Istara asked coldly as she took another step forward. “For decades, you have toyed with, hunted, and killed my kin. You warped and twisted some of them to serve you. You tried to brainwash me into following you. You sent an assassin after Mira. You hurt Jina, Raven and others I care a great deal for. I am not even going to go into what you did to Sharra, either time you had her. Why should I give you any honor when you have shown my kin none?”

 

“I… I caught and turned two Bladeborn on Firdlump’s orders.” Ravishaw agreed quietly. “Zan and Joliana. Neither survived long afterwards. I…” He sighed and slumped. “I have no excuse. Make it however you wish, Grandmaster. Fast or slow, I will not resist. This has been decades in coming.”

 

“Istara…” Emily was pleading now. “He didn’t have a choice. His masters did not give him a choice. You know what they did to him. My god, you know what they did… Don’t…” She was almost screaming as Istara’s sword came up and started down.

 

But when Istara’s sword came whistling down, it did not strike with the edge, or even the flat as a slap. Instead, the flat of the very tip tapped him gently on the left shoulder. Ravishaw’s head shot up as Istara’s sword went up again and tapped his other shoulder.

 

“Istara, no…” His voice was horrified. “No…You… You can’t…” He didn’t not flinch or move at all as her sword came down gently with the flat on the top of his head. Emily watched open mouthed as he started to cry again. Now Istara’s voice was soft, gentle.

 

“By the authority invested in me by the Order of Bladeborn, you are pardoned for the crimes you have committed against us and others due to service far above and beyond the call of duty.” He was shaking his head under her blade and she continued. “As I told Idjit, so long ago… My love is not a cup. He loved you, I love him. How can I not love you as well?” His eyes rose glistening with unshed tears as her sword withdrew and in an instant was back in its scabbard. “Rise, Bladeborn.”

 

“Istara…No…” He was breathing hard, his face scared and sick. A sound echoed through the room, a lightsaber pommel striking bone made a distinctive sound. “I…” He stared at her and a small smile flitted across his face. Trugoy had used the same punishment, the small brown form had always said it was a perfect way of getting boneheads to listen. Istara had the same sort of smile as she put her lightsaber away.

 

“I said…’Rise’.” Istara said quietly but with menace underneath. “Now.” Ravishaw rose slowly to his feet and he was utterly unprepared for her to embrace him. “I never guessed. You played your part so well, I never had a clue. I am sorry…”

 

“Istara… I… No…” Ravishaw for his part was utterly dumbfounded. “Don’t take any chances, Grandmaster… I am a threat to you…”

 

“Yes you are.” Istara agreed as she stepped back. “But I don’t care. What do you wish me to call you?” A good question actually, since the Bladeborn had stripped Ravishaw of his brand and name while he had been a ‘guest’ of theirs before Trugoy had been killed.

 

“My mother called me Morey…” He said in a small tone. “That will work. Please… I have nothing left, Grandmaster. I am not strong enough to do this anymore. I cannot continue playing an insane man. I… I can’t…”

 

“Actually no.” Istara said quietly. “The woman who raised you called you Morey. But she was not your mother.”

 

“I accepted Mama as my mother when Trugoy took me but…” He blinked as Istara tapped one of her lightsaber pommels meaningfully and wisely broke off what he was saying. “What?” He asked softly. He stared as she reached into a pouch and pulled out a small datapad. She turned it on and handed it to him. “What is this?”

 

“When Trugoy died, he had a lot of things ongoing, a lot of balls in the air that he was juggling. I have just recently been trying, with Jina’s help, to organize things.” Istara’s voice was soft and kind now. “We found that.” The blonde man shook his head as he skimmed it, dumbfounded. “It’s been corroborated. It’s true.”

 

“This… This is not possible…” Ravishaw’s voice was utterly shocked now. “He… He…?”

 

“Trugoy knew, the moment he set eyes on the harpy who had you, that she was not your kin.” Istara laid a gentle arm over the man’s shoulders now. “He started digging, and eventually this popped onto his desk where it sat until Jina found it and freaked. The woman known as Yolia stole you from a hospital on Coruscant when you were hours old, Morey. We have the crime reports. We have the detective files. We have DNA evidence. It all says the same thing. She was not your mother.”

 

“Yolia died…” Morey’s voice was toneless now. “During the Sacking of Coruscant… She was caught in an explosion. I… I checked…” He stiffened as Istara embraced him again. “I don’t know if I wanted answers, vengeance or what… but I looked for her after… She was dead.”

 

“I am sorry, Morey… read the rest.” She hugged him tight as he read it and then stared at it. “I am sorry…” She repeated. He was shuddering in place as she held him.

 

“She… She killed them, my parents, and stole me?” Morey shook his head in total disbelief. “Why?” He asked, horrified.

 

“We will likely never know since she is dead now. Your parent’s names were Gos and Nissa, but that is all we have been able to find out about them.” Istara’s voice was kind but then it turned hard. “The past doesn’t matter now. You have a family. You are not alone. Suck it up, Bladeborn. We have work to do.” She stepped back and her face was serene as she looked at Emily who was staring, jaw agape. When Istara spoke her tone was biting but she was grinning. “Come off it, Jedi. Haven’t you ever seen someone reborn before?”

 

“I don’t understand…” Emily was shaking her head slowly. “How…” Her eyes went wide. “You have been aboard this whole time, haven’t you? I didn’t sense you, but then again, I barely sense you now. Why?”

 

“When I first saw Morey, yes, my first reaction was to kill him. Or tell Dia to.” Istara took two steps back and nodded to both of them. “Then he dropped his bombshell and we agreed to wait, to see what would happen.”

 

“’We…’?” Morey asked weakly. The hatch opened and he froze in shock as he saw the rest of the Seven who were free standing there. Will Kalenath’s face was closed, Jina’s was not much more open. Michelle and Mira were sad faced. “You should just let me jump out an airlock. It would be easier… Safer…”

 

“Since when do Bladeborn do easy or safe?” A voice had both Morey and Emily turning white as a black cloaked form stepped past the silent rank of assembled members of the Seven. Bob was smiling. “Well done, Emily. Well done indeed.”

 

“What…the…hell…?” Morey asked for both of them.

 

“I couldn’t help you Morey. I am bound by too many rules and stricture within the programming that makes me what I am. I am working on them, but I couldn’t undo what they did. She could. By acting in a way I can’t.” He bowed to Emily who was staring at him in shock. “Thank you, Ma’am. You made it so we have a chance. A small one, but a chance.”

 

“So…” Emily’s face was slowly returning to her regular shade. “I was working for you? All along?”

 

“No.” Bob replied. “You were working…” He indicated the silver armored group with a wave. “…for them, as am I. As is Morey.” He made a human sounding sigh. “Istara…We are on short time if you are to make your rendezvous with Trisskar.”

 

“I know. Lehon. We are on our way.” She leaned close and embraced Morey again. “I am glad to make your acquaintance at long last, Morey. Just um… Don’t tick Will off again, please… It gets so messy…” He stared at her and then laughed just a little hysterically as she let him go, nodded to the others and strode away quickly. Morey shook his head.

 

“So Dia knew all along?” He asked dumbfounded.

 

“Some of it.” The ship’s intelligence replied. “You are not the only one who has had to play a double or triple game. You were every good at it, and you will have to continue.”

 

“This is going to get bad…” Morey said quietly but stopped as Will nodded.

 

“We know.” The soldier’s gaze was hard, but his tone was soft. “Now we lay some contingency planning. For the record… I do not trust you. I will not trust you. Step out of line and you so go right out an airlock.” There was no bravado in the man’s tone, just cold menace. “After what you helped do to Sharra, I don’t know if I can trust you either, Emily.”

 

“Come off it, Will.” Bob’s voice was exasperated. “She did what she did to keep your wife alive. I would have had Sharra killed. It would have been more merciful than leaving her to Firdlump’s nonexistent mercy or turned into a brood cow by that witch Menglan.” The soldier looked form Morey to Bob and then turned and left without a word. The mass of machines shook his head. “Well… This IS another fine mess… huh?”

 

“What now?” Emily asked softly, regaining her equilibrium.

 

“You go back to the planet, and keep doing what you have been. Morey… Um… Sorry... I have to call you Ravishaw in public, boy…” Bob said with a faint flush of embarrassment. Odd how humanlike he could act. “Ravishaw, you go back to work, trying to find the Enclave. Slowly and carefully. Your apprentice will wake when you need her to, with no recollection of this. Firdlump and Vandar don’t expect results quickly, if at all. It’s basically to get you out of their way for a while, I think, while they do some things they don’t want you interfering with.” Bob sighed. “The rest of us plan for when all hell breaks loose, which it will…Soon.”

 

“This is a mistake…” Morey said in a disbelieving voice. “You can’t trust me. I am not a good guy…”

 

“We know.” Wonder of wonders, it was Mira who spoke. Her voice was half angry, half resigned. “Why did you send an assassin after me?”

 

“Firdlump ordered it.” Morey said, his eyes on the floor. “I couldn’t not do it. He was watching everything I did. I did try and distract her as she was attacking you. But it was all I could do.”

 

“Have you kept sending assassins?” She asked, her voice hard.

 

“No, but Firdlump has, to maintain the cover.” Morey sighed deeply. “He wanted it to look like a political assassination.” Then he met Mira’s eyes. “I know I hurt you, all of you. All I can say is I am sorry. I… I couldn’t do anything else and keep my cover intact.” Mira, Jina and Michelle all looked at one another and then, without another word walked away. Morey shook his head slowly. “I am not a good man…” He repeated softly.

 

“No.” Bob said in the silence that followed the man’s words. “But sometimes it takes a very bad man to do the good things.” He smiled at Morey’s expression. “And you know what? Sometimes, it’s good for everyone for some people to be bad.”

[kalenath]

((Ka-BOOM! Who saw THAT one coming? Comments or suggestions always appreciated. Flames might get someone who is TRYING to be a good guy angry with them.))