Niki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
niki_chidon) wrote2009-04-18 08:22 pm
niki_chidon) wrote2009-04-18 08:22 pm
Fic: Nights of the Old Republic 20/? (KotOR, femRevan/Carth)
Title: Nights of the Old Republic (20/?): On the Nature of Love pt. 2
Author: Niki
Fandom: SW: KotOR
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Notes: I take some liberties with the dialogue and story lines... even some characters. This is called ’creative licence’ aka ’so I didn’t remember the exact wording of that line’ aka ’but it made no SENSE in the game’.
Previous parts: Prologue, Chapter 1, Interlude, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17 and Chapter 18
Chapter 19: On the Nature of Love pt. 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Terentatek. Two terentatek. Figures.
But she was prepared for their unique effect on the Force now, and the onslaught on her senses wasn’t that bad.
Uthar and Yuthura had left her at the door, telling her she was to retrieve a lightsaber from the tomb. Peace of cake? Hardly. She had fought hulak wraids – the kind they’d seen on Tatooine – and solved weird puzzles to get forward. She had found a blade in a statue, and because of its Force signature she suspected that it was poisoned.
And now she was facing two of the creatures that she would have been happy to never see and feel again in her life. With no Carth and HK to save her ass this time.
She ran back to the door, the narrow passage meant only one creature could reach her at a time.
She traded one of her sabers to the poisoned blade, to test her theory. It seemed to work, not that being poisoned slowed the monster considerably.
Soon she was too drained to even heal herself, and it felt that for an eternity now she’d been alternating between getting a hit through and injecting some emergency kolto into her system. Double strike, dodge, step back, kolto, strike one-two, step back, kolto, double strike…
It took her a while to realise the beasts were down. The fight was over. She’d made it! The instant she knew she was safe for the moment her legs gave out and she slumped down on the floor in a very unJedi-like fashion. She couldn’t stop shaking and all she could do was to wait for her strength to return, staring at the dead terentatek.
Slowly she opened her perception to the Force, now that the darkness of the creatures wasn’t attacking her senses.
The chamber was filled with strong emotions – fear, anger, pain… Many Sith had died here, and… a Jedi?
She couldn’t say how long she’d been in there, first fighting, then recovering, but she didn’t want to hurry. After all, it wasn’t over yet. She’d still have to face the Sith Master and his apprentice, and she had no illusions that she could walk out of there without a fight. And before that, whatever the tomb still had in store for her.
She sat for a while longer, calling on the Force to heal her until she got up and searched through all the remains in the room – she could really use some extra medpacks…
Finally she reached the corner where the Force sang loudest.
She was not really surprised when she discovered the remains of Shaela Nuur there. She had also kept a journal. Shin didn’t really need to read the datapad, Shaela’s final feelings were still echoing around the chamber.
Her lover’s death had driven the woman over the edge. Her sadness and pain at his death had led her to anger, and the anger to the final wish to avenge his death.
Had she really expected to live through it?
Shin closed her eyes and rode the waves of pain and rage in the air. Could that happen to her? She had thought she could use her love to her advantage – Carth was her meditation. But what if he was to die? Did it make a difference that they were not together, that he didn’t love her?
Would the grief drive her mad? Even without the darkness, the selfishness of Shaela’s actions was unsuitable for a Jedi. She had longed for death. Revenge, yes, but she must have known she couldn’t survive it. She shouldn’t have wasted her life; she should have gone on fighting for the light.
Yet a part of Shin couldn’t blame her.
She spent a moment, trying to communicate with the spirit of the dead woman. “I got the beasts for you. For both of you,” she whispered. “I hope you can rest in peace, now.”
She left the room without a backwards glance.
- - -
There was no way she would use the red lightsaber she had been sent to find. It vibrated with the dark side and she felt uncomfortable just carrying it.
That is why she had been so happy to get rid of Ajunta Pall’s blade earlier even though Carth had questioned the wisdom of giving it to Master Uthar. She hadn’t wanted it close and had known she’d never use it. And who else was there? Juhani? She shuddered just thinking about it.
The Star Map was in the same room. She was again lost in how beautiful the thing was. It would have been easy to stay and stare at it for hours. She couldn’t, of course, and made her copy, then turned back.
Now there was only the two Sith to confront. She wanted to tell them both to piss off but knew she couldn’t take them both at the same time, not after the fight with the terentatek. So she sided with Yuthura to defeat her old master.
It wasn’t an easy fight, but they won. Uthar Wynn refused to yield, so the battle ended with him dead.
It didn’t surprise Shin that Yuthura then turned on her. Treachery from a Sith, who could have seen than coming, huh?
She had been holding back during the fight against the headmaster, relying on Yuthura’s help. Now she unleashed her full powers against her, trying to guard against frustration and other negative emotions, trying not to get frustrated and command the Force – instead she called it to her aid, like she had been instructed to.
And somehow, every time she was in a difficult match, she seemed to find more strength from somewhere, more permutations of the way Force could come to her aid. There seemed to be no limit to what she could do when pressed.
It didn’t take long to drive Yuthura to her knees, waiting for the final blow. But instead of delivering it Shin lowered her weapons and talked to the woman. Yuthura had told her some of her past – a slave who became a Jedi who became a Sith. She now asked the questions she had wanted to, earlier, but couldn’t because she still needed her help.
“If you only joined the Sith to help the slaves, and now you are waiting to get rid of your feelings… Why would you still want to help when you are done?”
They talked for what felt like hours but the mercy Shin had shown had forced the Twi’lek to listen, to believe, to open up to new – old – possibilities. In the end she had agreed to go back to the Jedi, to try that path again. She did not like the person she had been turning into, plotting against her master, heading the Academy… Maybe she could finally find peace with the Jedi.
- - -
The Academy in chaos without its leaders, and Shin wasn’t overtly surprised that she had to fight her way through students to get to where she had left her companions. She tried to avoid killing anyone but needed to move fast, knowing her strength was fading fast.
She followed the sounds of blasters to one of the main halls where she discovered Carth and HK.
“You okay?” Carth yelled over the sounds of the battle.
“Fine! Got the Star Map, killed some terentatek, killed the Master. The usual.”
She didn’t hear his response but the grin he threw at her spoke loudly enough.
They fought their way towards the entrance, the through the doors, then… nothing. No one was pursuing them beyond the walls of the Academy.
“Okay, that was… weird,” Shin said, lowering her sabers.
“Well, let’s not question our luck,” Carth said, turning to look at her.
“Take me out of here,” she whispered, powering down her weapons.
“Can you walk?” Carth asked, reaching for her shivering form.
“Yeah, gimme a sec.”
- - -
She did walk on her own but was leaning heavily on Carth by the time they reached the Hawk. She had healed most of her injuries but that hadn’t helped with the exhaustion.
“Shin!” Mission yelled when she saw them.
Seemed like all of the rest were talking at the same time and Shin let Carth do the talking. All she wanted to do was to crash and sleep for days.
“Set a course for Kashyyyk,” she instructed Carth, ignoring the others. Then thought and clarified, “No, let someone else do that. Take me to bed.”
She didn’t care what that sounded like, and not even Canderous seemed to think anything about it when Carth picked her up and carried her to her bed.
The fact that she was practically snoring even before they reached her cabin might have had something to do with that.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Continued in Chapter 20.
Author: Niki
Fandom: SW: KotOR
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Notes: I take some liberties with the dialogue and story lines... even some characters. This is called ’creative licence’ aka ’so I didn’t remember the exact wording of that line’ aka ’but it made no SENSE in the game’.
Previous parts: Prologue, Chapter 1, Interlude, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17 and Chapter 18
Chapter 19: On the Nature of Love pt. 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Terentatek. Two terentatek. Figures.
But she was prepared for their unique effect on the Force now, and the onslaught on her senses wasn’t that bad.
Uthar and Yuthura had left her at the door, telling her she was to retrieve a lightsaber from the tomb. Peace of cake? Hardly. She had fought hulak wraids – the kind they’d seen on Tatooine – and solved weird puzzles to get forward. She had found a blade in a statue, and because of its Force signature she suspected that it was poisoned.
And now she was facing two of the creatures that she would have been happy to never see and feel again in her life. With no Carth and HK to save her ass this time.
She ran back to the door, the narrow passage meant only one creature could reach her at a time.
She traded one of her sabers to the poisoned blade, to test her theory. It seemed to work, not that being poisoned slowed the monster considerably.
Soon she was too drained to even heal herself, and it felt that for an eternity now she’d been alternating between getting a hit through and injecting some emergency kolto into her system. Double strike, dodge, step back, kolto, strike one-two, step back, kolto, double strike…
It took her a while to realise the beasts were down. The fight was over. She’d made it! The instant she knew she was safe for the moment her legs gave out and she slumped down on the floor in a very unJedi-like fashion. She couldn’t stop shaking and all she could do was to wait for her strength to return, staring at the dead terentatek.
Slowly she opened her perception to the Force, now that the darkness of the creatures wasn’t attacking her senses.
The chamber was filled with strong emotions – fear, anger, pain… Many Sith had died here, and… a Jedi?
She couldn’t say how long she’d been in there, first fighting, then recovering, but she didn’t want to hurry. After all, it wasn’t over yet. She’d still have to face the Sith Master and his apprentice, and she had no illusions that she could walk out of there without a fight. And before that, whatever the tomb still had in store for her.
She sat for a while longer, calling on the Force to heal her until she got up and searched through all the remains in the room – she could really use some extra medpacks…
Finally she reached the corner where the Force sang loudest.
She was not really surprised when she discovered the remains of Shaela Nuur there. She had also kept a journal. Shin didn’t really need to read the datapad, Shaela’s final feelings were still echoing around the chamber.
Her lover’s death had driven the woman over the edge. Her sadness and pain at his death had led her to anger, and the anger to the final wish to avenge his death.
Had she really expected to live through it?
Shin closed her eyes and rode the waves of pain and rage in the air. Could that happen to her? She had thought she could use her love to her advantage – Carth was her meditation. But what if he was to die? Did it make a difference that they were not together, that he didn’t love her?
Would the grief drive her mad? Even without the darkness, the selfishness of Shaela’s actions was unsuitable for a Jedi. She had longed for death. Revenge, yes, but she must have known she couldn’t survive it. She shouldn’t have wasted her life; she should have gone on fighting for the light.
Yet a part of Shin couldn’t blame her.
She spent a moment, trying to communicate with the spirit of the dead woman. “I got the beasts for you. For both of you,” she whispered. “I hope you can rest in peace, now.”
She left the room without a backwards glance.
- - -
There was no way she would use the red lightsaber she had been sent to find. It vibrated with the dark side and she felt uncomfortable just carrying it.
That is why she had been so happy to get rid of Ajunta Pall’s blade earlier even though Carth had questioned the wisdom of giving it to Master Uthar. She hadn’t wanted it close and had known she’d never use it. And who else was there? Juhani? She shuddered just thinking about it.
The Star Map was in the same room. She was again lost in how beautiful the thing was. It would have been easy to stay and stare at it for hours. She couldn’t, of course, and made her copy, then turned back.
Now there was only the two Sith to confront. She wanted to tell them both to piss off but knew she couldn’t take them both at the same time, not after the fight with the terentatek. So she sided with Yuthura to defeat her old master.
It wasn’t an easy fight, but they won. Uthar Wynn refused to yield, so the battle ended with him dead.
It didn’t surprise Shin that Yuthura then turned on her. Treachery from a Sith, who could have seen than coming, huh?
She had been holding back during the fight against the headmaster, relying on Yuthura’s help. Now she unleashed her full powers against her, trying to guard against frustration and other negative emotions, trying not to get frustrated and command the Force – instead she called it to her aid, like she had been instructed to.
And somehow, every time she was in a difficult match, she seemed to find more strength from somewhere, more permutations of the way Force could come to her aid. There seemed to be no limit to what she could do when pressed.
It didn’t take long to drive Yuthura to her knees, waiting for the final blow. But instead of delivering it Shin lowered her weapons and talked to the woman. Yuthura had told her some of her past – a slave who became a Jedi who became a Sith. She now asked the questions she had wanted to, earlier, but couldn’t because she still needed her help.
“If you only joined the Sith to help the slaves, and now you are waiting to get rid of your feelings… Why would you still want to help when you are done?”
They talked for what felt like hours but the mercy Shin had shown had forced the Twi’lek to listen, to believe, to open up to new – old – possibilities. In the end she had agreed to go back to the Jedi, to try that path again. She did not like the person she had been turning into, plotting against her master, heading the Academy… Maybe she could finally find peace with the Jedi.
- - -
The Academy in chaos without its leaders, and Shin wasn’t overtly surprised that she had to fight her way through students to get to where she had left her companions. She tried to avoid killing anyone but needed to move fast, knowing her strength was fading fast.
She followed the sounds of blasters to one of the main halls where she discovered Carth and HK.
“You okay?” Carth yelled over the sounds of the battle.
“Fine! Got the Star Map, killed some terentatek, killed the Master. The usual.”
She didn’t hear his response but the grin he threw at her spoke loudly enough.
They fought their way towards the entrance, the through the doors, then… nothing. No one was pursuing them beyond the walls of the Academy.
“Okay, that was… weird,” Shin said, lowering her sabers.
“Well, let’s not question our luck,” Carth said, turning to look at her.
“Take me out of here,” she whispered, powering down her weapons.
“Can you walk?” Carth asked, reaching for her shivering form.
“Yeah, gimme a sec.”
- - -
She did walk on her own but was leaning heavily on Carth by the time they reached the Hawk. She had healed most of her injuries but that hadn’t helped with the exhaustion.
“Shin!” Mission yelled when she saw them.
Seemed like all of the rest were talking at the same time and Shin let Carth do the talking. All she wanted to do was to crash and sleep for days.
“Set a course for Kashyyyk,” she instructed Carth, ignoring the others. Then thought and clarified, “No, let someone else do that. Take me to bed.”
She didn’t care what that sounded like, and not even Canderous seemed to think anything about it when Carth picked her up and carried her to her bed.
The fact that she was practically snoring even before they reached her cabin might have had something to do with that.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Continued in Chapter 20.