Dustil gave another restless sigh behind her.

"We've waited this long. What's a few more minutes?" she murmured to him.

"Minutes that feel like hours," he muttered. She felt his gaze on her back, and she inhaled deeply.

Concentrate on the sky, the rising buildings. Anything but the man heading down the corridor in your direction.

Telos stretched before her, half alive and half dead. She had once thought of herself the same way; half alive, the person she stubbornly convinced herself she was, and half dead; the person she kept trying to tell herself did not exist anymore.

But the two people were the same; and they were her.

Would they be the same person he loved?

"You're nervous?" he said incredulously. She closed her eyes, trying to breathe in evenly and deeply.

"A Jedi is never nervous." Dustil's hand touched hers where they were clasped in death grips on one another behind her back. She felt how violently they were shuddering and glanced at Dustil's smirk for a moment.

You have brought back the most important thing. Don't forget that. A Jedi does not desire love, a Jedi does not desire desire. A Jedi does not long for his kiss, his embrace.

It was as if she could feel every step Carth might have been taking near the room they waited in with every beat of her heart. She felt his presence closer and closer.

Dustil's nervous energy helped to cancel out hers. She placed her hand on his shoulder for a moment. He inhaled suddenly, and she opened her eyes.

Carth was here.

The reflection in the glass stared back at her, her own astonished features and those that she hadn't seen properly for months. He looked floored, as much surprise on his face as she could make out in the glassy reflection in front of her. He walked slowly to the middle of the room, the only noticeable difference a slight limp. Dustil slipped out from under her grip, walking towards him. She returned her hand resolutely to its brother behind her back.

"Father…" Dustil began. He didn't seem to know how to go any further.

Carth's smile began slowly and spread to his cheeks, and she saw the many little wrinkles that appeared near his eyes when he was happy.

"Dustil, I can't believe it…I didn't believe it when they told me, but now…" She could see in the glass that they had finally reached each other, each man's hand extended in an awkward attempt to have a greeting that didn't make the other uncomfortable.

"A Jedi. I…I can't tell you how proud I am." She watched her Padawan hesitate for only a moment.

Then she smiled to herself as she watched him embrace his father. Carth seemed stiff at first, unused to an embrace from a son he had only seen as a child and a resentful Sith apprentice. His arms slowly returned the hug.

She felt no more resentment from her Padawan. And that was a reward in itself.

"I, uh," Carth said, clearing his throat and his voice taking on a different tone entirely. "I suppose I should probably meet your Master."

A Jedi isn't afraid to turn around. A Jedi isn't hoping she can just stay here, watching everything through the glass.

She turned around, unclasping her hands and forcing them to stay still at her sides. She walked forward to join them in the center of the room, Dustil stepping back respectfully.

His beard was thicker. She wondered if it was to hide the scars. Hers were still plain across her forehead, pale and irreversible.

He looked as nervous as she felt, as if he wanted to pull her into his arms as easily as he had in the past but instead stood shuffling his feet, not needing to be a Jedi to know that something had changed.

In the end, he was still the Carth she remembered, and very little had changed.

He reached out suddenly, sweeping her around in a circle, a broad smile on his face. His smile now looked more pained, but she sensed nothing but happiness. His injuries had even altered him physically.

"I thought I might deck Jolee if he told me you were out finding your destiny one more time."

"For a pilot, you're a pretty good leader," she answered, gesturing vaguely to the windows behind her. He shrugged.

"It wasn't exactly…pretty when I woke up. We had to do something."

"We Admirals are multitalented like that, gorgeous," he added, somewhat experimentally to see how she would take it.

She was still nervous, still unable to answer him with the quick tongue she had used to. Carth nodded to himself, rubbing his neck with a moment's grimace.

"The Outer Rim can change things, I guess." She shot him a look that said that particular thing had definitely not changed, and finally found her voice again.

"Not everything."

Carth smiled, glancing up at Dustil.

"I…I guess we've got a lot to talk about, Katrina."

She almost couldn't believe that she was back on Telos, and Carth Onasi was standing in front of her. It seemed so ludicrous after everything that had happened that she could be at rest, that there was nothing lurking in the shadows behind her.

The shadows would always be there, she knew, but they would not always be for her.

She reached out and took his hand, feeling the callouses on his palms, the smooth part of his index finger where it had gripped the trigger of a blaster a thousand times over.

There was much to talk about, much to tell him. Much to remind him of and hope that he would understand.

He squeezed her hand back. He would understand.

This was her life: A man that loved her, a Padawan that had triumphed over his anger and the death of Master, a brother who had betrayed her and taught her that betrayal did not mean there was no return. A Jedi with a green lightsaber who had fallen and emerged from the depths of hell again.

She smiled softly at him.

"Call me Revan."

FIN