Yay! I finally got the second chapter up. Many apologies to everyone for taking so long. I have been very, very busy as of late. :)

If you're confused, the italicised part at the beginning of this chapter is a flashback.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I or II. This is simply a story that takes place in that universe.

Carth sat at his desk and took a sip of his caffa. He was definitely going to need it that night. The Republic was holding an appreciation banquet for the crew of the Ebon Hawk and other people who were involved in the destruction of the Star Forge. They were all at a hotel on Coruscant getting ready for the banquet. He had finished getting ready fifteen minutes ago, and was starting to get impatient while he was waiting on the ladies to finish.

It had been a month after the destruction of the Star Forge when the Republic finally started to have their appreciation banquet. They had decided to delay it since a few of the members of the crew of the Ebon Hawk had been injured during the battle. Juhani had been inflicted with a minor wound at the shoulder, Bastila had a sprained ankle, but Revan had been injured to worst. Malak had not spared any mercy on her during their fight. She had been pierced at her side and at her shoulder, and for a while her condition wasn't very good at all. Revan was a fighter, though, and recovered quickly.

Finally, after a couple more minutes after he finished reminescing, he went over to Bastila and Revan's room and started to bang on the door.

“Are you two ready yet?” he shouted through the door.

“Just a minute!” Bastila's voice answered back. After a minute Carth heard the locks unlock and Bastila opened the door. She wore a sleeveless beige dress that was very simple, but it looked nice on her. It was just the kind of dress that he would have thought that she would pick out for herself.

“Sorry we took so long,” she said, “We were having some difficulties getting ready.”

Carth fought the urge to roll his eyes and nodded as he remembered how long Morganna used to take getting ready for things. She got distracted often when which would delay her when she did so.

“Is Revan almost ready?” Carth said, trying to hide his impatience from becoming evident in his voice.

“Almost,” Bastila answered. “I believe that her hair was being uncooperative with how she wanted to fix it. She was still in the room fighting it when I came out here.”

Carth smiled. “I see.” From the looks of how long things were taking now, it was looking like they were all going to be late for the banquet. They still had to find and meet up with Juhani and Mission before they left. Since arriving at the banquet on time appeared to be pretty bleak, he let it go.

“I'm coming, I'm coming!” Revan shouted from her room. She quickly strode out to the door.

The sight of Revan took Carth's breath away. She wore a lavender gown that had a white sash around her waist. She also wore a shawl that was wrapped around her arms that was the same color as the sash. The sleeves of the gown clung to the side of her shoulders which curved to form a neckline. Above it hung a silver necklace from which a pendant hung which contained a purple gemstone. Her hair was piled on the back of her hair into a neat bun. She must have beat it into place.

“You look beautiful, Revan.” She smiled and her gray eyes seemed to start to glow.

“Thanks, Carth. You don't look that bad yourself.” He smiled again.

Bastila started to walk toward the staircase that was at the end of the hallway. When she was out of sight Carth leaned down toward Revan and...

“So what do you think, Carth?”

It took Carth a moment regain his composure as he jerked himself back to reality. Ever since Vatani returned, he had been having more flashbacks to Revan, and he was having trouble keeping his thoughts off of her. He looked around him and saw a group of jedi that were crowded around the table in a briefing room in the jedi enclave. Two days had passed since Carth had his discussion with the Exile, and they had come to make plans for Revan's rescue before they departed. Visas, Atton, Juhani, Bastila, and Vatani stared at him as they waited for his answer.

“I'm sorry Vatani, can you show me the plans again?” She sighed but nodded and showed him a map of an interdictor ship that they had gotten their hands on.

The Exile showed him pivotal points on the map and explained the little plan that she had thought up. It was very simple and Carth picked out several flaws, but he listened to her anyway.

“That's it. What did you think?” Vatani asked when she finished.

Carth hesitated for a moment as he looked at the map in front of him. “First of all, the ship is probably not in the same place where it was when you escaped. Second, we have to be extremely stealthy if we want to board it in the way you are proposing. Third, five jedi can be easily overwhelmed if there are many sith on the ship. I'm afraid that this plan that you have made, Vatani, will be very hard to execute if it is not entirely impossible.”

Vatani scowled. She was never really a good strategist, but Carth's criticism still did disappoint her.

“Then what do you propose, Carth?”

The Admiral smiled at her when he heard the irritation in Vatani's voice. He leaned over the table and took a good look at the map, looking for entrances and exits on the ship and such.

“What I'd suggest, Vatani,” he started, “would be to follow the ship and see if it lands on any planets. We might be able to make our attack if they do so.”

“But that means that we may have to wait a long time to attack. The longer we take to make our move, the longer the sith have to torture Revan.” The Exile looked toward the other jedi in the room to see if any of them agreed with her.

“That is very true, Vatani,” Juhani piped in when she saw the Exile's eyes continued to scan the jedi, “but what help are we to Revan if we are captured or killed? If we are captured, then there is little hope that we all would be able to escape, and if we're dead, well, the answer is obvious.”

Vatani nodded sadly. Carth felt sorry for her, he truly did. He absolutely hated the fact that they would have to leave Revan on that ship with the ship to be tortured, but there was nothing else that they could do. He didn't think that she would want them to go on a suicide mission just to attempt to gain her freedom.

“What if the ship doesn't land for very long time?” The Exile asked.

“Then we can try to see if we can storm the ship and rescue Revan.” Bastila said. “That will be our last resort.”

“Interdictor ships go through gas like candy, though.” Carth added. “Unless they have fuel on hand on the ship, they'll have to stop to refill their tanks.”

That fact seemed to comfort Vatani a little. “That's good to hear, then.”

“So,” Visas started, changing the subject, “Is it just us who is going after Revan?”

The Exile nodded. “I asked Canderous and Jolee if they wished to come, and they both were unable to, and Mira and Mical are staying back to keep an eye on the enclave and the progression of the students.”

“So it's just the six of us? What if we are overwhelmed?"

“You underestimate the power of jedi.” Juhani smiled at her. “I remember that it was just me, Jolee, and Revan who went and took on all the dark jedi at the Star Forge. There were many waves of them. It's a wonder we all survived.”

Visas nodded.

“So when are we wishing to leave?” Bastila asked.

“I'm ready to leave as soon as possible.” The rest of them agreed with Vatani.

“Let's leave tomorrow, then,” Atton decided. They all nodded in agreement. With that their little meeting was finished, and they all went to go pack and prepare themselves for the trip before them.

Carth was unable to sleep that night. He didn't know if it was the excitement, fear, and anticipation for the trip that he and his comrades were to depart on the next morning, but he knew that those emotions weren't helping. No matter how hard he fought to keep his eyes closed, sleep would not come. Finally he contented himself with looking out his window at the stars and he started to think.

He was afraid for Revan. If they had to wait in order to make their move upon the sith and rescue her, then there was more of a chance that they might turn Revan to the dark side. There was also other things that could happen as a result of the torture. Her mind was very strong, but even the strongest minds could snap like a twig while they were under all the pressure of torture. Carth had seen that happen too many times for his liking. There was also always the possiblity that the sith could get tired of trying to convert her and kill her, but that seemed to be rather unlikely. And what if she was permanently stripped of the force? There were too many bad outcomes that he could think of that could conclude their mission.

Carth resolved right there that he had to trust that Revan would wait for them and that she would hold strong. He knew that Revan wouldn't want him worrying and fretting about something that may never happen. He closed his eyes again and sleep finally came to claim him

I'll stay strong for you, Revan, he mentally spoke, not caring whether she could hear him or not. Please, stay strong for me.

I know that this chapter wasn't very exciting, but I felt that this was necessary before everyone left to rescue Revan. As always, any thoughts on the story would be greatly appreciated!