Chapter Thirty

Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR2.

When the Ebon Hawk docked back with Citadel Station, the crew was met by Carth, Revan, Bastila, as well as three people most of them had never met before. There was an old, black human man wearing Jedi Robes, a peppy blue Twi'lek, and a Wookie.

Mira came out first. "Hanhaar? But I killed you."

"My name isn't Hanhaar, human, it's Zaalbar. I find the fact that you would just assume that any Wookie you see must be this 'Hanhaar' – particularly since he is apparently dead – racist," Zaalbar growled.

"At least I can understand you," Mira pointed out.

"True," Zaalbar agreed, glancing Carth's way.

Carth sighed. "Let me guess: I'm racist. Again."

"I think the proper term is 'still'," the Twi'lek said brightly. "But hey, at least you're self-aware."

"It's hard not to be after all this time, Mission," Carth said dryly.

The other people on the ship started to file out as well at this point.

"I'm going to hit the Cantina," Mira announced. "That journey was boring. Who want to see if they can drink me under the table?"

"I'm there," Canderous said immediately.

"Won't you have to remove your helmet?" the Exile asked curiously.

Canderous nodded. "Probably. Even if I did know how to drink without removing it, sooner or later I'd get to drunk to bother."

"I'm there," Atton and Bao-Dur said simultaneously.

Mira linked her arm through Visas'. "You should come, too. Live a little."

"I…don't understand," Visas admitted.

"Which is why you need to go," Mira urged.

"Very well," Visas agreed.

"I've never actually gotten drunk," Brianna admitted. "It was against the Echani Code."

Atton groaned in sympathy. "Everything is against the Echani Code! But you sort of killed everyone else so I think you're good for some alcohol."

"Okay," Brianna said uncertainly.

"This is going to be very interesting," Canderous said, cackling.

Revan winced. "T3, go with them and make sure they get back safely, will you?"

T3 beeped his confirmation and rolled off after the departing party.

"SO who are these people?" the Exile asked curiously.

Mission opened her mouth.

"And yes, I do remember that his name is Zaalbar," the Exile hastened to add, nodding towards Zaalbar. "And I think he said your name was Mission but that's really not what I meant."

"Yes, I'm Mission Vao," Mission introduced. She peered closely at her. "Out of curiosity, do you speak the Wookie language?"

"Of course I do. I'm a Jedi," the Exile said, practically bursting with pride.

"The three of us," Zaalbar said, gesturing to himself, Mission, and the man in the Jedi robes, "also travelled with Revan during the war and Mission wanted to visit him. I'm the Chieftain of my village right now so I shouldn't stay away for very long but I'm sure that they can get by without me for a little while."

"I'm here because I heard that you lot were planning on rebuilding the Jedi Order," the man explained.

"How did you even hear about that?" Revan demanded. "We didn't make an announcement." He eyed them all suspiciously. "Did we?"

"I didn't," the Exile told him. "I don't even know this person."

"I didn't either, Revan," Bastila promised him.

"Carth?" Revan asked pointedly.

Carth held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I try to stay out of Jedi matters."

"It was the will of the Force that I know," the man said cryptically.

"Oh, don't you start, Jolee," Revan said crossly. "We just got rid of Kreia!"

"What happened with that?" Carth asked, concerned. "Are we going to have another Sith Lord on our hands? Or even a redeemed or in the process of finding redemption Sith Lord?"

The Exile closed her eyes briefly in remembrance of her fallen mentor. "No. I tried to save her but she seemed quite willing to go. She tried to explain her plan to me but it was all 'the Force is controlling our lives' and 'I want to murder it and to use you to murder it' and I just don't get it."

"Maybe she was high at the time," Mission suggested. "I've seen druggies come up with some pretty interesting ideas."

The Exile shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't know. I wouldn't be able to recognize someone drugged if I saw them."

"So I guess we'll never know why she did all of this," Bastila said sadly.

"Statement: Perhaps not but I got to kill a lot of things so I don't care," HK informed them.

Bastila rolled her eyes. "Well of course you don't."

"Maybe she was going senile like Vrook," Revan suggested. He looked suddenly worried. "I hope he's alright going to Nar Shaddaa all by himself. I mean, I know he has a lightsaber and a lot of Force powers but he hasn't been showing the best judgment as of late."

Carth coughed conspicuously.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Yes, Carth?" Mission asked.

"Actually…" Carth began awkwardly. "I'm pretty sure that I know exactly why Kreia did what she did. Or, well, at least part. I suppose she could have always had some other motivation."

"Why am I not surprised that you stalked her?" Zaalbar muttered.

"Exile, could you please translate that?" Carth asked before Mission could 'translate.'

The Exile nodded. "Certainly, Carth. Zaalbar said 'Why am I not surprised that you stalked her?'"

Carth flushed. "I am not stalking her!"

"Clearly not because she's dead," Mission said reasonably. "That's why Zaalbar said 'stalked' as in past-tense."

"Look, just because I ran a thorough background on everyone who travelled with you doesn't mean that I'm a stalker!" Carth said heatedly.

"I think it kind of does, actually," Revan disagreed. "But hey, tell them the good news about Goto."

"Well, I'm not sure it's 'good news', exactly," Bastila said slowly.

"G0-T0 has turned out to be our missing droid after all so with a memory wipe and some reprogramming – as well as much closer supervision – we have put him back to work restoring Telos," Carth said happily.

"Horrified exclamation: Master, that's dreadful! You are such a wonderful Master," HK praised.

"If he were anyone else I'd think he was just sucking up to try and avoid that kind of a fate but no, it's just HK and he has not changed a bit," Mission noted.

Revan beamed. "I know. I'm so lucky."

Mission snorted. "That's one word for it…"

"What did you find in the background check?" Bastila prompted.

Carth started. "Oh, right. I found her medical records and it turned out that about a month before Peragus blew up, Kreia was diagnosed with a terminal disease. If she hadn't been killed at Malachor she'd only have a few more weeks left anyway."

"So she's dying and she figures she might as well wreak havoc upon the galaxy before she goes?" Revan asked, unimpressed. "Maybe take the Force and all life down with her? Thank you so much for that, Kreia."

"Sincere echo: Thank you so much for that, meatbag," HK said gratefully.

"Poor Kreia," the Exile said softly.

Revan couldn't believe it. "Poor Kreia? Poor Kreia? All of this was her fault in the first place! People have died because she couldn't just die naturally or find an easier way to commit suicide! Not to mention that I had to actually do things!"

"Somehow, I thought that might be your primary concern," Bastila said dryly.

"At least she's in a better place now," the Exile said, trying to smile.

"Oh, she had better not be," Revan muttered darkly.

"I'm Jolee Bindo, by the way," Jolee introduced once everyone had fallen silent. "I'm a sort of Jedi. The Council never kicked me out even though they totally should have and actually kept trying to promote me with such tenacity that I ran away to live on Kashyyyk for twenty years to avoid having to serve on the Council."

The Exile frowned, trying to understand. "But if you went to such extreme measures to avoid being on the Council before then why in the world would you want to be on it now? Or do you want to help rebuild the Jedi without serving on the Council?"

"I am most definitely going to be on the Council," Jolee said firmly. "I'm too damn old to do anything else. And the difference is that that was someone else's Jedi Order with a bunch of stupid rules. This will be our Jedi Council."

The Exile bit her lip. "I was thinking about that, actually. What kind of changes are we planning on making? The old Council was very wise, you know."

Revan rolled his eyes. "We know that you think so, at any rate."

"Nothing extreme," Bastila promised her. "It's just that the old Council – the old Order – was founded quite some time ago and during the War with Exar Kun a half a century ago many changes were made. These changes were too reactionary and will not lead us down a good path. It needs to be changed, to go back to the glory days of our Order."

The Exile's eyes lit up. "Oh, I like that. Going back to before the Sith came and caused things to get so complicated and maybe make a few missteps."

"The very first thing that I insist upon is that we stop this nonsense about Jedi not being allowed to fall in love or get married," Jolee declared grandly. "Love itself will save you, not condemn you."

Carth rolled his eyes. "I've heard that one before."

"Yeah, stop quoting yourself," Mission ordered.

Jolee crossed his arms defiantly. "I will when I find someone else who says things that are quote-worthy or when I stop saying things that beg to be quoted practically before I say them."

"That will be never then," Zaalbar remarked.

"Besides, the Jedi Code never actually said anything about meaningless sex and I really don't think that that is more good and Jedi-like than love," Jolee added. "And don't think that those hormonal Jedi teenagers and twenty-year-olds – and older! – weren't fully aware of this loophole."

Revan threw his hands up in the air. "I have studied the Jedi Code extensively – all five lines of it – and looked at it from every possible interpretation! I have even resorted to asking random passerbys what they think and there is no way that 'There is no emotion there is peace, there is no ignorance there is knowledge, there is no passion there is serenity, there is no chaos there is harmony, there is no death there is the Force' could possibly mean don't fall in love or get married."

Bastila groaned. "Oh not this again! We're building our own Order, Revan, it doesn't even matter anymore!"

But Revan was, for once, unmoved. "Do you admit that I was right then?"

"Fine, whatever," Bastila said, annoyed.

"Success!" Revan cheered.

"Okay so Jedi are allowed to fall in love and get married, that's good," the Exile said, nodding. "What else?"

"Speaking as the parent of a Force-sensitive son, I think that you should really stop with the kidnapping of children and never letting them see their parents," Carth opined.

"It's not kidnap, Carth," the Exile corrected, her eyes wide. "We ask permission."

"Yeah but even so, it's pretty skeevy," Carth insisted. "What do you think, Bastila?"

Bastila hesitated. "I have enjoyed the chance to reconnect with my mother even if I don't think we'll ever get along and I was sorry to have never gotten the chance to see my father again. And I suppose that if we are going to allow for marriages then family connections should be acceptable as well."

"I'm so glad you think so," Revan told her. "Because this saves me the effort of having to use Force Persuade to convince people to let us keep any children that we might have because you just know that they will be Force sensitive and I will never believe anything else is possible."

Bastila raised an eyebrow. "Might?"

"It's always best to plan for all eventualities," Revan said serenely. "Incidentally, this also gets rid of the rule forcing Jedi to give up their children."

"Jedi had to give up their children?" Zaalbar couldn't believe it. "Why would anybody want to be a Jedi?"

"They usually don't have much of a choice. They're so young when their parents make the decision and the parents just want them to have a better life," Bastila explained quietly.

"That's another thing that strikes me," Mission spoke up.

"What's that?" Carth asks.

"What is the maximum cut-off age for Jedi training?" Mission asked.

Bastila frowned. "I'm not sure if there is really a maximum age. They liked to get the younglings as soon as possible-"

"Also, why can't the Jedi just call them 'children' like normal people?" Zaalbar wondered.

"I don't know," Bastila conceded. "The Council liked to get the children as soon as they were identified and I don't think I ever saw or heard of someone being accepted who was over seven. Why?"

"I think that's a stupid policy in general because it only means that you're wasting a lot of potentially powerful Force users. It also means that if you want to be a Jedi and you're eight that you have to wait until you grow up, join the Sith, and then 'redeem' yourself after they train you," Mission complained. "And you can't afford it now even more than ever considering that the entire Jedi Order consists of our friends."

"Dustil might be interested, too," Carth offered. "Especially since you're getting rid of the reasons he never went to the Jedi after leaving Korriban."

The Exile snapped her fingers. "That reminds me! One of the reasons it took us so long to get back was because Bao-Dur felt that blowing up Malachor V did a lot to remove evil from this galaxy but not enough and so we also blew up Korriban."

"You blew up two planets?" Bastila asked, aghast.

"They were evil planets," the Exile explained.

"Proud declaration: It was my idea to blow up Korriban and to say it was because they were evil!" HK enthused.

"We might want to keep an eye on this 'Bao-Dur'," Carth said, a bit disturbed.

"Hey, who will be on the Council?" the Exile inquired.

"I'll do it," Revan volunteered immediately. "In fact, I think that I should be the Jedi Grand Master."

Everyone stared at him.

"What?" he asked. "Like Jolee said, when you're on the Council you never actually have to do anything. Plus this way I can make sure that the Council doesn't do stupid things like ignore huge threats to the Republic."

"But the Grand Master?" Bastila asked uncertainly. "That sounds like a lot of responsibility, Revan."

"Sure it sounds like it is," Revan agreed. "But it's not, really."

"Really?" Bastila repeated skeptically.

"It's called 'delegating', Bastila," Revan informed her. "I learned all about it during the war. You'll love it one day, too, I'm sure. And the more important your position is the more you can delegate."

"Jolee already said he was going to be on the Council and I think that you should be on it as well, Bastila," the Exile said seriously. "You three were Jedi before any of this started and so have the experience to run things in the early years."

"What bout you?" Mission asked curiously. "Don't you want to be on the Council?"

Revan glared at her but she ignored him.

The Exile smiled her way. "That's very sweet of you to ask but honestly I wouldn't feel comfortable due to my exile."

"You don't see Jolee running away or Revan and Bastila both turning evil stop them," Mission pointed out.

"I don't think you're helping," Zaalbar spoke up.

"No, probably not," Mission agreed, unconcerned.

"And even if it weren't for that I've always been much happier helping people directly than helping to regulate things and watching others help people," the Exile admitted. "So thank you but no thanks."

"If that's your decision," Bastila said, secretly relieved. "And what about the other people you've trained?"

"Honestly, Bastila, I don't think any of them are quite Council material," Revan told her. "Bao-Dur apparently blows up planets now, Brianna committed multiple sororicide, Visas is still too codependent, Mira doesn't even bother to pretend to care about being a Jedi, and Atton hates Jedi."

"He does?" the Exile asked, shocked.

"I mean 'wouldn't want to be on the Council so that he may travel around the galaxy doing good with the Exile'," Revan corrected, hoping to avoid the Exile being troublesome and causing a scene.

The Exile grinned delightedly. "Really? That's so sweet! He's wonderful."

"He's got the patience of a saint, that's for sure," Revan agreed.

"So is that everything then?" Carth asked. "You're going to create a new Jedi Order that has virtually nothing in common with the old one?"

"Ours will be better," Revan said, shrugging. "It's kind of hard not to be."

"Or at the very least we'll like it better," Bastila tempered. "I do feel kind of guilty about Juhani and Mical, though. They'll probably meet their death out their searching for the 'True Sith' when they don't even exist."

"What?" Revan asked, surprised. "They're absolutely real. Malak and I met the Emperor right before he decided to conquer the galaxy. The Empire has been building up their forces ever since they were wiped off of Korriban and I don't even want to think about how they'll react to the planet being destroyed. We should really work to try and prepare the Republic for the eventual invasion."

Once again, everyone turned to stare at him in shock and horror.

"What?" he asked again. "Look, just because I couldn't be bothered to go out there and do something about it doesn't mean it's not a thing. Did I seriously not mention that?"

"No," Bastila said once she had finally found her voice, trying and failing to keep calm. "You did not."

Revan merely shrugged. "Oops."

Note: I should probably mention that the Exile and Revan won't be going to the unknown regions in my version of events. She doesn't really know what's even going on and does that really sound like something Revan would do?

It's the end so Review Please!