It was more or less a regular day. Sure people were turning up pink, but the inevitable chaos that seemed to rule these types of places dictated that was part of a regular day. And Meetra wasn’t pink, so she took it as a good sign and carried on.
She’d been feeding her new companion (still nameless despite the fact Spike was a heavy contender alongside the variety of names the younglings had offered) when she felt it. One moment things were as quiet as ever and the next...well it was like something had snapped into place. She’d looked up, frowning and was aware she’d startled the little bird at her feet, but everything was a bit distant. Because it didn’t matter how long she’d not felt it, she would know the Force Bond no matter what.
It took her a few moments to parse through it, because it felt different. Like a mirror, but not. But it was still the same. It couldn’t be anyone but Revan. She blinked and carefully, hopefully subtly enough, she put her walls up. Revan wouldn’t know what the Wound actually did, and so it wouldn’t be fair until Meetra had explained it. And there were things she had to separate.
She looked down at her cybernetic hand and stretched her fingers. Her companion, seemingly tying that gesture together with food, came and investigated before settling for scratches. It gave her the moment to settle herself before she rose to where she’d put the mask. She got it out from it’s hiding spot and turned it. If Revan didn’t know who they were, this would spark it. She took her ‘sabers too, just in case, before rising and moving out. Even tampered down, following the Bond was easy.
When she spotted Revan she paused. She wasn’t sure how to go about this. Revan was the most important person in her history, and the one person who’d understand her sense of humor was limited at best. But Meetra didn’t know if Revan would even remember their easy camaraderie. So she settled for; ”Hello.”
---
To find an old friend in a brand new place, moments from having seen her last yet looking like she had not set eyes on you for many years was disconcerting, to say the least. Revan had been trying to assert herself in this new reality, altogether a different galaxy from the one she had just been trying to save yet again, and yet brimming with the Force; here, there, everywhere someone strong in the Force. Albeit in disparate forms.
Meetra, for one, seemed different.
“Hello you
rself.” Revan’s eyes darted from side to side. “So, here we are. Wherever here is. I hope you know more about this than I do. I don’t like to know as little as I do now.”
---
Meetra took comfort in two things. One being Revan did not seem to not know, and the second that she recognized her. Meetra had dealt with different realities before, and sometimes it was different. But whoever Revan had known, must have been similar enough. Still, to Meetra it was the same. Revan knew, and remembered. It was enough.
“Have you ever?” There was a shadow of a smile before Meetra stepped forward and offered the mask. It wasn’t necessary, but it wasn’t Meetra’s either. “I’m glad I found you. Just took me a little.” There was a hint of apology in her tone. She hadn’t meant to take the long way around.
“This is a place between places. Not part of anything, but part of everything. We’re brought here with no seeming reason. Might be the will of the Force, might not be.” Years and years later, it was still so easy to fall into the habit of reporting to her superior. How often had she given status reports like these? “Things can be different. People from the past can show up, or the future.” She tilted her head, then extended the cybernetic hand. “Or things like this might happen. Still, what’s your last recollection of me? To me I’ve just left Coruscant.”
---
Revan returned the smile with a slight tilt of her head to show Meetra she was right. She looked down at her mask being offered and blinked, brow furrowing in confusion when she looked up at Meetra again. She took the mask in one hand hesitantly. This had happened to her before. The memories she now possessed had come flooding back then, it was unlikely there would be more this time. “You found me, that’s what matters.”
The Force was usually involved in things like this, but somehow Revan couldn’t feel its “hand” in this particular state of being. Might or might not, as usual. A testament to how everyone who interpreted it inflexibly was wrong. “Oh? Time-meddling. That is… fun.”
Her eyes widened at Meetra’s mechanical hand. That had not been there last time they had seen each other. Revan frowned. “Well, we’re going to have to talk about this at some point but- you had just found and rescued me from Nyriss, like I knew you would. You teamed up with a Sith to do it, but I’m not one to condemn resourcefulness.”
Revan smirked, but her eyes turned sad then. “You returned my mask to me, I got my memories back, killed Nyriss and we left. We had been watching the message Bastila sent me about our son. We decided to kill the Emperor shortly after.”
--
She had promised she would, and really it was only a matter of repaying old debts. Revan had been the only one who’d ever really believed, who’d gotten her her Knighthood. And if the price of it would be her own life, well what was one Wound against someone who was a cornerstone of the galaxy as a whole? But she wouldn’t say this. It didn’t really matter. “Promised to.”
She listened and nodded. “Sith aren’t bad. On their own.” Visas had been one. Technically. And by all rights Kreia was one, but there were plenty of those who called themselves ‘Sith’ who weren’t like the ones who’d been trying to kill her. And if she’d needed the help of one, she’d been in a place where she couldn’t afford not to take whatever hand was given to her.
She couldn’t really understand the sadness. She’d left behind Atton, but he’d always wanted to be left behind. It wasn’t a wife or son. She could sympathize though. “I’ve met them. He’s a lovely boy. They might show up. Happens sometimes, so keep hope.” Revan had shown, after all this time. So she hoped for her sake they’d find Bastila and their son too.
She smiled then, “good to see you. I can help get you settled, and we can talk. Learned a bit more about what I am now. How bad it can get.”
---
“I’m of the mind it’s a lot of peer pressure and competitiveness that makes one particularly… you know. Of a certain disposition. But it depends on the person.” Of course Revan was also talking about herself here; she’d turned as much by her own hand as by the influence of the Emperor and Malak’s progress right alongside her.
Revan lowered her gaze and she sighed longingly despite herself. She knew Meetra had met them, she’d been told this before, but it was always something that brought her some sadness. Because she had barely known the boy before she had left, willing to die for his future, in the process abdicating her own future with him. When Meetra mentioned that they might show up, she raised her head again, expression hardening. “No, I won’t hold out hope. That’s poison.”
She had made peace with never seeing them again. Here or there, it wouldn’t make a difference. In another instant Revan’s smile was back and she put a gentle hand on Meetra’s back. The other, still held the mask.
“I’d like that. I feel like I will need a lot of guidance, this isn’t even our galaxy at all, is it?” She glanced worryingly over her old friend. “How bad it can get... sounds concerning. Maybe I can help.”
--
Revan would know more than Meetra did, so she nodded. She’d never fallen, not in those big turns. She’d made plenty of choices that would have made those on the Council frown, but if becoming a Sith was tied to the opinions of the Council, half the Jedi would be classified as such. Especially during the war.
She took note of the expression and because Revan was her friend, her oldest one at that, and she owed her, Meetra nodded and set it aside. She had no right in telling Revan anything else, and Force knew that trying to convince her of a different opinion might lead to an argument that would be too long, and would take too much.
“Not to my knowledge. They say it’s a place called Earth, but there’s chatter of different dimensions.” She frowned then and nodded. “You can. Few things first. I’m blocking because I leech. Can’t use the Force anymore, not on my own. I use those I’ve Bonded with. So I want to ask first, because I’d use your connection. Secondly, the more I’m around death, the stronger I get. Thirdly, if I ever Fall, I want you to end it. Permanently.” She turned, so she looked Revan straight in the eyes. “I’m not you. I’ve seen the thing I’d become if I fall, and I’d kill worlds just to sate the emptiness inside me. I wouldn’t be me anymore, so all you’d be stopping is something wearing my face.” She never wanted to become Nihilus, or anything like it. She was terrified of it, and trusted Revan with this burden. “I know it’s a lot to ask. But I trust you. And you’ll be able to tell if I go over a cliff I don’t know about. It’s not a problem I foresee me having, but saying the chance to fall doesn’t exist would be stupid.”
---
Revan frowned just as Meetra did as she explained their situation. And the frown only deepened the more she went on about her own predicament. Of course Revan’s first reaction was to consent to being leeched off by the one true friend she still held, especially after all that had happened, and she could do nothing but acquiesce to Meetra’s wishes regardless of personal pain. She nodded slowly, exhaling.
“You have my word, Meetra. I owe you that much.” And she owed everyone else. If Meetra truly became what she feared, no one would be safe. “And my Force is yours, so to speak.”
--
The tension in her shoulders relaxed. For as long as she’d been here, and her previous place, she’d been worried. She knew it sounded vain, and prideful, but she worried the others might not be as willing. Mostly it was because she didn’t know them, and how tight they held to the Jedi ideals of to spare even to the detriment of others.
Revan, she knew, could see beyond it. “Thank you,” she meant that. “There were two Wounds, you see. They called themselves Nihilus. And it was earned.” With a smile she reached up to set her hand over Revan’s. “And thank you, again. It’s been quiet, and I can’t go around making Bonds without explaining the situation.” Gently she removed the blocks she’d had in place, and took a breath. A Bond was always a weird thing. “Come on. Oh, found your droid by the way.” there was a hint of a smirk there, “Observation: you just had to make him sassy didn’t you.” HK hadn’t been the worst, not really. Just following his programming, really.
---
“Nihilus?” Revan couldn’t help a derisive chuckle. “And here I thought naming myself Revan after the Revanchist ideology might’ve been silly.”
At once Revan felt Meetra’s walls disappear and her friend’s mind and essence entwine with her own. She smiled; at least Meetra did not have to feel alone anymore. And this bond, well, it wasn’t mired in ulterior motives like her last one. Not that it mattered, she had ended up marrying the one she’d bonded with under those circumstances after all. Revan manifested warmth towards Meetra through their bond, winking. Another chuckle came when reminded of HK, the murderous droid she had programmed ‘in darker times’.
“Of course I did. He called Malak a meatbag once and we became soulmates.” She quipped, happily following her friend along.