“I told you Revan was alive!” one of the Drunk Side's non-Sith regulars told another. “No way Malak could've offed her that easily, even if he had help from the Jedi.”
“Oh yeah? That picture could be of just anyone,” the other regular scoffed.
“Malak himself placed a colossal bounty on her head,” the first regular insisted. “Who else would merit his attention?”
The two regulars continued their impassioned debate on whether Malak's attention would be merited by any powerful Jedi. Yuthura Ban hadn't heard of Malak placing a bounty on anyone's head personally before, so interest piqued, she took a look at this mark's picture as she walked past.
She choked on her drink. She knew that face.
With wobbling legs, she walked back to the bar. Revan herself had been to the Sith Academy! Revan herself had turned up under a false identity, claimed to be some random Jedi dropout, and undergone the trials all Sith hopefuls underwent. Though that would explain how she'd had the gravitas to place Yuthura in charge after killing Uthar Wynn...
She collapsed onto a barstool. “Bartender. Something strong.”
“May the Dark Side flow through you,” the bartender said as he poured her something.
It stung on the way down. It perhaps didn't help with feeling faint, but the bite gave her something to feel.
Now, the question was: what would she do about this? Revan had returned, too strong for Malak to defeat by himself. Revan had spared Yuthura, and in return Yuthura had pledged herself to her. But how could she best serve Revan?
The salty ocean scent struck Yuthura. After dry, red Korriban, the blue and shiny gray of the environment and the horizon that stretched on forever caused a jarring sense of dislocation. To make matters worse, the Selkath port authority was somehow stubborn enough to resist a Force Persuade suggestion of a discount on the docking fees. Talk about government drones incapable of independent thought.
Yuthura paid up and entered Ahto City proper. The complementary map was useless – Yuthura was glad she'd given in to the urge to download all the Sith Academy's archives on the planet from atmosphere to ocean floor. Manaan's Sith embassy was nearby; perhaps they would have heard more of Revan's movements than a days-old rumor and a faint whisper in the Force.
“Fine, I'll indulge you. Why should I let you in?” a male voice came from around the corner. Yuthura rounded it, and-
“I am Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith,” Revan snapped.
“Yeah, sure, and I'm a Selkath,” the embassy guard sneered. “Get lost before-”
“My lord!” Yuthura shouted and ran over to Revan. She dropped to her knees. “My lord, when I heard you were here, I knew I had to come. Please, let me accompany you to bring down Malak!”
Revan seemed taken aback. “Yuthura?”
“Suggestion: This meatbag could persuade the other meatbag to let us into the embassy so we can shoot things,” Revan's personal assassin droid remarked.
“Indeed.” Revan cocked her head. “Yuthura, if you could convince the gate guard to let us in?”
“Of course, my lord.” Yuthura scrambled to her feet and advanced on the guard.
He nervously glanced to the side. “Look, you're going to need some ID – or to call the Master in charge of the base-”
“Open the door,” Yuthura ordered. She reached out with the Force to wrap her grip around the guard's neck and lifted. His feet waved uselessly in the air.
“Declaration: The bloodthirstiness of our new ally fills my circuits with glee, master,” Revan's droid interjected.
The door hissed open. Yuthura dumped the gasping guard on the ground and followed Revan in.
The door closed with a finality and cut the small antechamber off from the light. “My lord, what is our goal?” Yuthura asked.
“A submersible,” Revan said. “I will tell you more on the way down. Come.”
The embassy with its polished gray halls was surprisingly labyrinthine and filled with pathetic mooks who underestimated Darth Revan's glory. They'd even recruited some of the local Selkath to mop the halls and have their blaster bolts reflected off Yuthura and Revan's lightsabers.
Revan kicked down a door. A Sith Master and two Selkath stood, stunned.
“How did you get in here?” the Sith Master asked. “Wait – I recognize you! Lord Malak was most displeased when he learned you had escaped Taris alive! He has promised a great reward to whoever destroys you.”
“Commentary: It is not possible to destroy the master. It is suggested you run while my blasters warm up, meatbags.”
Yuthura could see why Revan kept the droid around. She mopped up the apprentices while Revan neatly decapitated the master.
After a few minutes of gloating, the droid said, “Observation: There seems to be a submersible docked behind that door.”
“Thank you, HK-47. Let's go.”
They piled into the small submersible. A shiver ran down Yuthura's spine when they sank beneath the surface, the Force whispering at her. “My lord,” she began, suddenly unsure of what to do now that she'd achieved her goal of reaching Revan.
“You must have questions,” Revan said. Her fingers were curled on the edge of the control board, twitching.
“What ... happened?”
Revan snorted. “A Jedi assault team boarded my ship and Malak fired on it. The Jedi dragged my unconscious form to safety, but overwrote my memories with some fake bantha poodoo and tried to lead me on a quest to recover the coordinates of the Star Forge and share those with them.”
“But then you recovered your memories.”
“Indeed.” Revan smiled a bitter smile. “Though not the location of the Star Forge. I need one final map from the bottom of the ocean.”
Hence the submersible. “You will enact revenge on Malak?”
“Yes. And the padawan who overwrote my memories and was assigned to guard me.” Revan shrugged. “Perhaps the Jedi Council as well, though Malak bombed Dantooine to a crater. Let's see who survived.”
Yuthura spared a moment's thought for her old Jedi Master, then decided she didn't care about her fate. “Where does the map lead?”
“To what Malak stole from me: the Star Forge.”
“That's where you got your fleet,” Yuthura realized.
“Indeed.”
The submersible's engines changed pitch. “Observation: I believe we are at the ocean floor now, master.”
“Where is the Star Map?” Yuthura asked.
Revan closed her eyes and sank into a light trance. Meditating on a memory, perhaps, or tracking a faint Force signature. “Near a rift.”
So this was why Yuthura had felt the urge to bring with her everything the Sith Academy knew of Manaan. “I have maps of the ocean floor with me.” She dug out her datapad and offered it to Revan.
“There's a rift near Ahto City...” Revan's eyes went out of focus for a moment. “There. That is our destination.”
Yuthura turned on the sonar and peered out into the dark. Hrakert Rift was almost directly beneath Ahto City, and they'd drifted in the right direction during their descent. The Force tugged at her. The Star Map, perhaps.
A shark collided with the submersible nose. “Ah!” Yuthura jumped half out of her seat.
“Oh kriff,” Revan swore, fighting the controls to get the submersible level again.
“Observation: The small sonar shadows are probably caused by firaxan sharks,” HK-47 said. “Enthusiastic suggestion: We could rig the submersible to emit sonic blasts that would kill the firaxans.”
“Sounds good. Go ahead and kill things, HK.”
“Statement: Your attitude warms my circuits, master.”
Yuthura relinquished her seat for the droid and paced the tiny back of the submersible. Revan was intently piloting the submersible, HK-47 was tinkering with the wiring, and something was tugging at Yuthura.
Revan needed to get out of the submersible to look at the Star Map, didn't she? They'd entered through an airlock of sorts, but to survive out there, she'd need a pressure suit.
While the droid finished his work and started blasting at the wildlife, Yuthura went through the lockers. Maintenance equipment, a radio beacon, emergency food and water. In the next locker, more of the same. In the third-
“There's a pressure suit here,” Yuthura said. “Only one, though.”
“Good.” Revan paused for a long moment during which Yuthura's heart hammered in her chest, an unknown anticipation creeping up her spine, then declared, “We've arrived.”
Yuthura turned. A black encasement stood at the end of a bridge over a rift. A colossal shark prowled the depths as if unable to rise above the rift's walls. In the submersible, Revan stood with her back to the window.
“Soon you shall have your revenge,” Yuthura said.
Revan smiled, eyes agleam like a predator's. “Soon,” she whispered. She brushed her hand over Yuthura's lekku before descending on the pressure suit.
Yuthura helped her with suiting up and then stood aside. She had more sense than to stand in the way of a Sith Lord's quest for vengeance. The pressure doors cycled, leaving Yuthura and HK-47 in the submersible to make sure no firaxans would come eat Revan while she was looking at the Star Map.
Yuthura went to sit at the window and watched Revan's slow progress towards the object. It was a bit larger than Revan – smaller than Yuthura had assumed with the lack of scale. The firaxans seemed mostly active on the other side of the rift, but HK-47 still had to blast a few stragglers. The corpses settled in the muck at some distance.
Then Revan reached the black encasement, and Yuthura suddenly understood why it was called a Star Map: it blossomed open, revealing a swirling blue map of the galaxy between its petals. She couldn't make out any markings or stars at the distance, but Revan must know the key.
“How many of these Star Maps has she visited?”
“Answer: I believe this to be the fifth,” HK-47 answered. “Though I was not there for the first one.”
Yuthura settled into her seat and watched Revan start the trek back. Five maps, all of which contained part of the puzzle. With this one, she would know where to find her revenge. Yuthura fully intended to be there for it.
Long moments of staring into the murk later, the airlock started cycling. Yuthura rose to her feet and stood before the door even if it'd be long moments yet before Revan emerged.
HK-47 fired on a firaxan. Yuthura felt an echo of Revan's touch and shivered.
Finally, Revan emerged, pressure suit now damp. Yuthura helped her take it off.
“The Star Forge orbits Lehon in the Tempered Wastes of the Unknown Regions,” Revan said when she'd shed the last piece of pressure suit.
Revan didn't move, though, still standing in front of Yuthura and staring into her eyes. They were of a height, Yuthura absently noted. She didn't know if she had been expecting Darth Revan to be shorter or taller. “Do you have a ship?” she asked.
“I do, though it's filled with ... people I found when I was still brainwashed. Some deserve death.” She raised a hand to Yuthura's cheek and stroked it. “I assume you have one?”
“I will take you wherever you wish, my lord.”
“Good,” Revan whispered, stroking Yuthura's cheek. It was as if she were staring right through Yuthura. Her eyes glowed yellow in the dim light.
Yuthura swallowed, unable to tear her gaze away. “My lord.”
Revan snapped her attention back to Yuthura. “I will show you the seat of my power.” She lifted another had to cradle Yuthura's face. “I will show you the reach of my might.”
“Please,” Yuthura croaked. A shiver ran down her spine at having the full attention of the Dark Lord of the Sith.
Another moment of contemplation “Bring us up, HK-47,” Revan ordered. Then she leaned in and kissed Yuthura.
The droid might've said something in reply; Yuthura couldn't have made it out. Revan's lips were warm and passionate, and Yuthura felt her knees go weak. She grabbed at Revan's robes and surrendered to Revan's might in full.