The trap had sprung. In his long life, Revan had found himself in similar situations many times. Even a Force-sensitive could be caught off guard or lured into a trap. Especially if he himself was not averse to falling into one.
Yes, in the past, Revan often consciously took risks and in most cases emerged victorious, destroying the trap from within, or even turning the situation to his advantage. There were failures... the most serious of which could be considered Cassus Fett's ambush in the Jagi cluster, which forced the then-young general of the Republic army to remember that it was too early to relax after the successful liberation of Taris from the forces of Mandalore the Ultimate. And he would always remember Malak's betrayal, which almost cost Revan his life.
Fortunately, the trap on Korriban, into which he was lured with the help of his students, did not threaten to join the list of failures of the former Dark Lord. Although he was not the main target of the trap, his presence was clearly taken into account. But was it taken into account that he would not be alone? They shouldn't have tried to capture Revan when Bastila, HK, and Mitra stood behind him, even if the latter was not in top form.
Bastila, ready for battle, to his left shoulder, and the galaxy's best assassin droid a few steps behind to his right. Both had taken positions so as to simultaneously complement the defense of their formation and not interfere with each other. A long-practiced formation that had proven effective many times. It was with this composition that four thousand years ago Revan broke through the ambushes of the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine and stormed the Empire's base on Manaan.
What could two dozen combat droids and five Force-sensitives do against those who saved the Republic and overthrew the Dark Lord of the Sith with their actions?
"Tactical recommendation: It is necessary to break out of the encirclement and take a position behind the collapsed column closer to the exit," HK-47 said, ready to attack at any moment should the enemy appear.
And that moment was only a few seconds away. The droid's sensors registered two dozen of its brethren of unknown design, approaching from four sides, presumably through hidden passages.
HK discovered one of these previously unnoticed tunnels after the collapse caused by the Force's outburst due to the ritual. Despite the platform's damage, the assassin droid was preparing to sow chaos and death... protecting its Master, of course.
Revan was more worried about Mitra and Bastila than his own life. After all, he had found himself on the brink of life and death more than once, and even taken an awkward step forward, miraculously remaining with one foot in the world of the living. The trap did not evoke fear or surprise in him, which seemed to be what the one who set it had counted on. Revan felt only determination and, for the first time since awakening in his new body, unity with himself. His thoughts stopped flitting from one idea to another, sifting through his own failures and fears; the goal became much clearer and more understandable, as if dispelling the fog over the future and revealing an endless labyrinth of possibilities that could become a deadly trap for the doubting.
"HK is right, Revan," Kira's voice, immediately recognizable as Bastila's, came from the left.
"Revan..." a thought suddenly flashed through the former Jedi's mind.
That's right, he is Revan. And there is no more room for doubt in his heart. Only confidence in his actions and a bright future. The Force had given Revan a second chance at the life he deserved. He couldn't miss it. Which meant those standing behind him now would not be harmed. Revan would not allow it. He believed it, he believed in them... and he had finally managed to believe in his new self.
As if a warm wind had passed through the cold cave, dispelling anxieties and allowing the former Jedi's thoughts to move in the right direction. HK's idea was good, but Revan felt it couldn't be implemented now. Something was wrong with the approaching enemy. Not with the droids, but with the Force-sensitives, whose presence felt too... alien?
"If we stay in one spot, we'll be crushed. Five strong Force-users nearby. They are preparing to attack simultaneously with the droids. The exit is blocked by a barrier that appeared as soon as the trap was activated. The density of fire from at least twenty barrels won't let us even lift our heads. Not to mention that if the droids are even slightly prepared to counter Force-sensitives, grenades and flamethrowers will be used. We'll be crushed. We need to move," Revan said quickly, putting on his Mandalorian mask and formulating a defense plan in his head.
Ideally, they needed to break out of this hall, back to the ships. But the exit was blocked by a Force barrier, whose murky haze clearly manifested in the opening as soon as the symbols on the ritual hall stones lit up. It was possible to break through such a barrier, but it would take time. Moreover, there was no guarantee that even without the barrier, Mitra could leave the hall until the trap itself, which held the ghost in a semi-material form, preventing her from simply disappearing and moving elsewhere, was destroyed. The stones, on which Sith symbols burned, were surrounded by the Force, forming a kind of protective cocoon. It was unlikely they could simply be cut or split with a blow. If only someone would give them time to think everything through...
"HK, shoot that stone," Revan ordered, pointing the droid to one of the glowing patterns.
The assassin obeyed almost instantly, firing three blaster bolts directly into the center of the indicated stone. All three shots disappeared in the rippling air, not reaching the target by about an inch.
"So, an absorption barrier. Such a thing can only be overloaded or made to burn itself out by isolating it from the Force's sustenance. Which will take time... which we don't have," Revan thought grimly, assessing the result.
His "past life" memory provided the necessary knowledge, which had once been discovered in the Trayus Academy, and then in the head of the Emperor who had played too much. A self-sustaining Force barrier in such a Dark Side-infused place could remain active for years. Energy weapon shots only fed it, as if the inanimate object were under tutaminis technique. Kinetic impact is much better, but due to the surrounding Force, even if the cave collapsed, the barrier would burn out for several days. It would be easier to destabilize the containment field with a directed and concentrated Force discharge... Or simply to "find its key." This trap was designed and activated in the first place. There must be a way to intercept control or a loophole from the creators in case of unforeseen complications.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about ricochets," the former Sith chuckled.
There was no time to figure it out further. Several passages opened almost at the ceiling. Droids, which Revan had never encountered before, began to arrive in the hall with surprising agility. Anthropomorphic construction, but without a clearly defined head or at least optics, which would indicate any vulnerable point. The personal energy shield that flashed for a moment made Revan wince. Rapid-fire blaster carbines posed no particular threat individually, but with concentrated fire, deflecting all shots would be problematic. He didn't want to be surrounded by such enemies.
Even before the first machine touched the floor, Revan's hand had already shot a Force lightning at it, but, to the former Sith's surprise, the droid, like a couple of its brethren hit by the strike, only malfunctioned for a few moments and lost its energy shield, after which they raised their weapons. The mechanical soldiers did not have time to open fire. Master's work was completed by HK, who shot through the shieldless bodies of the droids in several places. Apparently, the forty-seventh's shots damaged something important, as one of the attackers immediately dropped its weapon from its manipulators and slumped to the ground. The second, although it remained on its feet, froze motionless. For reliability, HK threw a thermal-filled grenade at the disabled droids. Weaker than a thermal detonator, but it should have been enough for the bodies of the defeated enemies. But these were only two enemies... The rest were not going to slow down.
"Forward!" Revan commanded, and the four fighters, including Mitra, who had momentarily forgotten her incorporeal state, rushed into the attack.
A hurricane of glowing blades descended upon the droids, leaving them no chance to regain initiative. Lightsabers deflected blaster charges, using the enemy's weapons against them, electrical discharges and Force lightning crackled everywhere, overloading the attackers' shields and short-circuiting the mechanical soldiers. Revan, Bastila, and HK acted like a single, well-oiled mechanism. Here, a black blade severed the head of one droid and, in passing, disabled another's weapon. Revan, slightly lowering his body, spun in place, gaining momentum for a sweeping strike with his second saber. At the same moment, Bastila appeared behind him, intercepting a stray bolt fired by a quick-thinking enemy droid. Revan didn't even react to this threat, confident that Shan would cover him.
A moment before the silver blade touched the body of one of the attackers, the droid was hit by several ion blaster charges, which HK had brought precisely in case of encountering brethren... much less developed than himself, of course. The shieldless opponent, still in flight from the Force-infused strike, disintegrated into several asymmetrical parts. Such a division was not provided for by the design, but the lightsaber didn't care about this nuance. The golden blade, like a berserk grinder, spun in the hands of the blue-skinned Mandalorian, not falling behind Revan's black and silver pair.
Mitra Surik, meanwhile, encountered an unexpected problem. An attempt to summon the hilt of the defeated Risa Farr's saber into her hand resulted in the saber's hilt simply passing through the trapped ghost's palm. Fortunately, the Force still obeyed the former Exile of the Order. Lightning, static discharges, stone fragments, and bare Force strikes rained down on the enemy droids, sowing chaos in the mechanical soldiers' actions, which Revan, Bastila, and HK skillfully exploited. A charge fired in response by one of the droids passed through Surik's torso without causing any harm, causing the former Exile to grin in anticipation.
At one point, Mitra remembered her last battle with Darth Traya on Malachor and, telekinetically grabbing Farr's lightsaber, tried to copy the actions of the fallen Master Kreia, attacking remotely with the blade suspended in the air. Such a maneuver required extreme concentration from Surik and made her once again feel respect for the old woman who had once taught Revan and herself. Even controlling one blade was difficult, and Kreia managed three at once with apparent ease. She also managed to give lectures on the nature of the Force and its detrimental effect on the development of civilizations in the galaxy...
The "hovering sword" quickly proved its effectiveness. After being hit by stones and lightning, the unknown droids still managed to get to their feet, but the Force-infused blade quickly put an end to these attempts.
Before the ghost could rejoice in her success, she suddenly felt something sharply tug and pull her back. Turning around, Mitra saw a hand reaching out to her from a figure in a black robe. The stranger, without fear, froze in the middle of the battlefield and was clearly trying to do something with Surik, who was stuck in a semi-material state. The Force suddenly felt like distant echoes, instead of the storm raging around, and her consciousness swam, her vision closing with a whitish fog. Mitra felt a growing panic. These sensations were too similar to what she had experienced when she received a treacherous blow from Scourge. Except this time, Surik was somehow sure that she would not be able to hold on to the world of the living in the form of a ghost... and the Force had long been cut off from her and would not accept her, allowing her to dissolve into the serene ocean of energy that permeated all existence.
Mitra never found out how it could have ended for her. The sudden clang of lightsabers seemed to pull the former Jedi woman's consciousness out of its trance, returning the sensation of her surroundings and the flow of the Force.
Surik looked around, trying to understand what had happened. The situation around had changed. Almost all the droids, except for the four who were now in an unequal (for them) battle with HK, had been defeated. However, the defenders were not at ease. Far from it. Revan and Bastila were now fighting with lightsabers against five robed Force-sensitives. And among the attackers was the one who had tried to do something with Mitra. It was Revan's intervention, who had rushed at the stranger like a whirlwind, that saved Surik from... something... but whatever the attacker had tried to do, Mitra felt, would have been her absolute end, without reservation. Now she saw that it was indeed a "stranger." A male Bith with a scarred head, from which the hood had been cut. Judging by the number of implants Mitra managed to notice, including a respirator and an optical prosthesis, the stranger was already more of a cyborg... which did not prevent him from avoiding the attacks of one of the Old Republic's best swordsmen with extraordinary speed and agility.
While the ghost was trying to recover, Revan and Bastila were fiercely fighting against surprisingly strong Force-sensitives. Their speed and agility were astonishing... as was their ability to ignore wounds and pain. The former Jedi was convinced of this when he wounded the side of the Bith who was trying to do something to Mitra. The attacker didn't even notice the wound, as if a plasma arc hadn't passed through his ribs and left lung, burning the tissues. At first, Revan thought the opponent was using the crucitorn technique, which allowed him to endure torture far beyond the natural pain threshold. But there were no surges or any other traces in the Force that the attacker was calling upon it for help.
Five against two. Revan and Bastila, who had taken over Kira's body, fought back to back, constantly exchanging opponents, moving and spinning in sync, like a single multi-armed organism that broke the attackers' combat rhythm and allowed the pair of Jedi to confidently repel attacks from several directions at once. However, Revan understood that this could not continue for long. The slightest mistake would cost them their lives. The opponents felt no pain or fatigue, literally burning with energy in the Force. Shan and Revan kept pace, fueling and accelerating themselves with the Force. But everything has its limits... at least for the living.
A grim, but no less shocking, realization struck Revan when, after a successful series of lunges that should have turned the opponent's internal organs into burnt stew, the opponent continued to swing his sword as if nothing had happened. This led to a very disturbing thought, supported by the fact that the attackers had not yet used a single Force technique against Revan or Bastila.
Well, these few minutes allowed them to gather enough information about the attackers' skills and abilities, and it was time for decisive action before these strange Force-sensitives exhausted the defenders.
Beginning to concentrate the Force, Revan drew his companion's attention with a light touch on her shoulder.
"Up!" he said a single word, but Shan understood his intention without difficulty.
They had performed this combination several times in the past, often combining forces with Juhani or old Jolli. Therefore, the following actions were executed with filigree precision.
Revan deflected another attacker's strike, kicked away another's blade, then abruptly dropped to his knees, spinning and making a circular sweep with both sabers.
A moment before that, Shan had jumped up and, pushing off Revan's back, soared above the surrounding opponents, transforming in flight into a deadly ball of branching lightning and shining ribbons from a staff charged with Force lightning, which she had spun in her hands. Just a moment... and the head of one of the attackers, along with the hood, separated from the body.
Bastila was still in the air when Revan straightened up and unleashed a circular Force blast, throwing the opponents away from him. The closest one was doubly unlucky, as the black blade had managed to sever his legs and practically cut him in half. Only one opponent remained on his feet - the very Bith who had attacked Mitra. A brief exchange of blows ended in a clinch, during which Revan tried to probe the enemy with the Force and understand what was wrong with him.
"What the Hutt!?" Bastila's surprised exclamation made Revan divert his attention from examining the stranger and break the distance.
He didn't need to turn his head towards Shan to understand the reason for her surprise.
The decapitated opponent was already getting to his feet, despite the fact that he couldn't have remained alive even if he wanted to. He wasn't Darth Sion, who could rise from the dead again and again! Even he wouldn't have gotten up with his head cut off... not immediately at least... although Revan himself hadn't tested the limits of his former temporary ally's immortality.
The solution to the opponents' strength, speed, and fearlessness turned out to be simple... they were already dead. How this was possible, the former Jedi did not understand. There were ways to preserve life even with the most severe injuries, staying on the brink. But ways to raise a dead man to his feet? And make him fight at the level of the strongest?
Involuntarily, Revan shivered, dispelling a chill that ran down his spine from the sudden thought of his own similarity to these... resurrected dead. But his heart, unlike theirs, beats! He lives, not imitates life. And yet, the similarity is undeniable. Perhaps earlier experiments by the same one who brought him back into this world?
There was no time to ponder this thought. The opponents were already almost on their feet and preparing to attack again. But no one was going to give them any more chances. Brushing aside the Bith's attack, Revan jumped back and, with a couple of quick movements, deprived one of the opponents, who had just gotten to his feet, of all four limbs and his head. As the former Jedi had noted during the fight, these living dead could not grow new limbs or regenerate damage in any other way, and their manipulation of the Force was limited to fueling themselves... or perhaps it wasn't them fueling themselves, but they were simply pumped full of Force energy so that the body would move even with critical damage, ignoring the laws of nature! However, what was important now was only that the opponents, deprived of limbs and unable to attack with the Force, no longer posed a real threat.
HK joined the fray, having dealt with his distant relatives from the mechanical assassin line. The droid only had one blaster left, but even without it, the galaxy's best assassin was capable of much.
"Aim for the limbs!" Revan shouted, giving advice to his comrades.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Bastila... or was it Tia? Even the feeling of her in the Force brought doubts about who was controlling one body for two. The blue-skinned Mandalorian, after deflecting several lightsaber attacks, switched to hand-to-hand combat. From somewhere, a blaster appeared in her hand, probably hidden under her armor, after which the girl, with a well-practiced series of blows and precise shots, forced her opponent to lose his weapon and fall to the ground, where she finished the job with a lightsaber. At that moment, Revan was ready to swear that Tia was indeed Tia. Bastila had not trained in the Mandalorian fighting style and did not know such combinations... nor did she like using a blaster.
A moment of surprise almost cost the former Jedi his head. The Bit suddenly began to move differently, more purposefully and clearly, compared to the undoubtedly fast and precise, but overly mechanical attacks.
"Don't... distract... yourself..." the wounded opponent rasped through his mask.
"You can talk too?" Revan snorted contemptuously, trying to provoke the opponent into an emotional outburst and understand if there was anything left of their personality in these dead shells.
"I... I..." as if momentarily confused, the Bit shook his head.
The former Sith did not intend to miss such a chance and attacked. The silver blade met an unexpected obstacle. The stranger deflected the blade aside with his hand, demonstrating excellent execution of the tutaminis technique. And in the next moment, Revan had to block a counter-attack and dodge the attacks of the opponent, who had suddenly begun to use the Force.
"Rrrraaa!" the Bit roared angrily and, raising both hands towards Revan, directed a stream of air of monstrous force that swept everything in its path.
Out of the corner of his ear, the former Jedi heard the clatter of an HK unit flying into the cave wall somewhere behind him, and a few moments later, Bastila screamed. Shan was fine; her presence and condition were clearly felt in the Force, but judging by her stance, she couldn't stand on her feet.
Revan covered himself with his crossed swords, infusing them with the Force and forming an impenetrable barrier against the Bit's attack. Following the time-stretched Force push, a stream of lightning struck the former Jedi. Remembering his sad experience fighting the Emperor, Revan did not dare to take the blow and try to absorb the technique of a living dead man, who suddenly began to resemble a perfectly alive and very strong Force-sensitive. The attack was redirected and instead of its original target, it struck the Bit's previously defeated allies, including the weakly twitching wretch, who was methodically being shot by the HK unit stuck with one hand in a crack in the wall.
"Not bad for a puppet," Revan praised the opponent mockingly, casually tossing the handle of his deactivated lightsaber.
The black blade, barely visible in the dark cave, shimmered behind the former Jedi. The lightsaber, held in an reverse grip, was ready to attack or defend its owner at any second.
"I am not... a puppet!" the Bit rasped with difficulty in Galactic Basic.
The choice of "Galactic Basic" instead of the Bit language proved that the opponent was not acting instinctively; otherwise, the fragments of consciousness would have chosen the easier communication method. For the Bit speech apparatus, their native language of the planet Klak'dor VII was much more familiar and did not require extra effort. And the concentration needed to use the Force... It seemed the puppet had suddenly broken free and was trying to become alive again...
"And who are you?" Revan asked, subtly lifting several large stones into the air behind the Bit.
"My name..." the opponent hesitated again.
Revan once again took advantage of the moment and struck the Bit with a hail of blows, simultaneously launching a pile of stones at the opponent from several directions. One had to give credit to the alien; he sensed the approach of the stones and even managed to dodge some of them. But the sword thrown in an arc, ricocheting off one of the boulders and plunging into his back, was a surprise. His comrade, squeezed in Revan's hands, entered the Bit's chest, having previously deprived him of both hands.
It was difficult to read any emotions from the alien's black eyes and face. Due to their evolutionary characteristics, Bits were generally poorly adapted to expressing emotions... nor did they experience them as vividly as other races in the galaxy. But in the Force, Revan clearly felt the surprise, and then the hatred of the defeated enemy.
"My... name..." the Bit croaked.
Revan jerked the lightsaber higher, intending to end the opponent's suffering, but felt something hindering him. It was as if the Bit's body had become stronger, and the air around it denser, which slowed down all the weapon's movements. The Force around them went into a frenzy, concentrating around the dying... or was he already dead?
"My name... Darth Venamis!" the Bit shouted, much more confidently and loudly than expected from an alien with a pierced chest.
The cave walls trembled, and a few small stones fell from the ceiling. Revan suddenly understood what this mortal was about to do. He could no longer hope for victory, which the Bit also understood. So he decided to take everyone in the cave with him, burying them under tons of rock.
"I am a student and heir of my Master - the Dark Lord Tenebrus! And I will not allow anyone..."
What exactly he would not allow would forever remain a mystery, because the former Sith did not intend to wait for the ceiling to collapse on his head. The lightning bolt, fired through the lightsabers, deprived the opponent of concentration and allowed Revan to literally mince such a dangerous opponent.
The trembling around them subsided, plunging the cave into deafening silence. Only the heavy breathing of Bastila, who had approached, Revan's measured breaths, and the quiet creak of the assassin droid trying to free itself from the "natural trap" were heard in the cave where a battle had raged moments before.
To Revan's surprise, the other living dead also stopped trying to move, as if someone had cut the strings of the puppets.
"Is it over?" Shan asked, surveying the battlefield.
"Not quite..." the former Jedi said, sensing the return of the one who had set this trap.
Turning sharply, Revan saw a tall figure hidden by a hood. A projection of the same stranger who had prepared the ritual that was supposed to capture the Force ghost. Before him, with a face contorted in agony, hung the unnaturally pale figure of Meetra Surik in the air.
"Mitra!" Bastila shouted and rushed forward.
Revan began to act almost before Shan. The mere sight of suffering on the face of his old friend was enough for a stream of Force to surge towards the enemy.
However, upon trying to break the connection with the projection again, Revan felt a new barrier that appeared directly in front of him, surrounding the center of the hall with a new dome of protection, into which Bastila flew. The golden blade struck the transparent film of the barrier with a screech, causing no damage.
"You're too late, knight-redeemer. The ritual has entered its second phase, and until its completion, no one can stop me," the stranger declared smugly.
Revan did not answer. He only intensified his pressure, concentrating more and more Force into one point, causing the barrier to flicker.
"You're wasting your effort. In a few moments, Mitra Surik's spirit will belong to me. And when I subdue and absorb her, all the power that was previously available only to a 'living wound in the Force', but which she herself could not use, will become mine!" the stranger said.
Revan did not miss the notes of anxiety in the opponent's voice. Undoubtedly, they were caused by the fact that his boasted "impenetrable" barrier began to flicker more and more intensely, and directly opposite Revan, it noticeably sagged. Snarling under his mask, the former Jedi only increased the pressure.
"Too late! You can't do anything now!" the cloaked figure shouted with a distinct hint of fear.
The stranger turned, intending to begin the ritual... but he did not expect something.
"What the Hutt?!" he exclaimed, not finding the most important element of his plan, namely Mitra's ghost.
The next moment, the symbols drawn on the stones went out, the barrier collapsed, and all the Force power gathered by Revan rushed towards the projection, not just breaking the connection, but also inflicting a mass of unpleasant sensations on the unknown on the other end, up to physical damage.
Why the barrier collapsed was unclear. Perhaps the ritual was completed? But then why was the stranger surprised? Or did Mitra's disappearance interrupt the ritual? Revan was not ready to analyze the reasons for the situation now. He was more interested in the question - where was Surik?
"Mitra!" he called, running to the place where he had last seen the ghost.
Concentrating on breaking through the barrier and the stranger, Revan did not notice the moment when Surik's figure disappeared. Shan also could not say exactly what happened. Her attention at that moment was occupied by searching for a way out of the trap.
"Mitra!" Revan called again, but his friend did not answer.
Her presence was still felt in the Force, but very weakly... on the verge of sensitivity. This was seriously frightening, but the former Sith, better than anyone, knew how to control fear, not allowing it to cloud his mind.
Concentrating on that faint echo of Mitra's presence, Revan followed the response, bypassing the pile of stones formed during the fight with the animated dead.
And then his gaze caught a movement in the shadow of the stones. A silver blade lit up, dispelling the darkness and allowing the former Jedi to examine his find.
"Water... does anyone have any?" Risa Farr's parched lips croaked, clutching a wound on her chest with both hands.
Revan didn't understand how Farr could speak... He himself had seen how Shan's blade in Tia's hands had passed through Risa's chest, burning her heart. He had seen her corpse. He had felt her death. But how...
"Four thousand years and not a drop of water in my mouth," the defeated Mandalorian said with a hoarse chuckle.
"Mitra?!" Revan exclaimed, sensing where Surik's echo of presence was coming from.
"We'll... fight again..."