Revered and Reviled

Mandalore the Ultimate laughed. Without their leader, the Republic forces would fail. Malak was a good second, but he did not have the spark that made Revan so successful and feared. It wasn't even clear whether Malak was in charge of the forces arrayed against them, or whether the Mandalore's trap had caught them both on the fringes of the battle.
"Victory, at last!" he shouted, and his men cheered with him. They watched the fight, the Mandalorian wedge driving further into the position of the Republic fleet.
Suddenly, something rocked the ship, and klaxons sounded the alarm. The flagship had been boarded.
"What?" The Mandalore looked at the screens. A small, insignificant ship had snuck up to the side of the Mandalorian flagship and boarded them. "To arms! Repel boarders!"
The Mandalore activated an energy shield, and raced out to the hallway. Before he saw it, he heard the distinctive noise of lightsabers. "Jedi?" he stared in disbelief. "But, it can't be…"
The Mandalore led his men closer to the melee, his heart cold within him.
A small group of Republic soldiers were holding the door, preventing reinforcements from entering the room. They had locked down the airlocks and the communications grid.
In the center of the room, two Jedi were fighting back to back, alone except for a pile of Mandalorian corpses. One, taller and larger, wielding a sparkling blue lightsaber, longer and brighter than any normal Jedi saber. The other, smaller and slighter, a lightsaber in each hand, perfectly balanced blades, both glowing a brilliant violet unlike any other Jedi saber.
The Mandalore watched them fight for a few moments, stunned. They moved perfectly together, covering each other in a way that any Mandalorian would have envied. The smaller Jedi wore a mask – a Mandalorian mask, taken from the killing grounds of Cathar. "Revan," the Mandalore breathed, "how can this be?" He couldn't move, shocked, continued watching them fight. "Impossible." His eyes were telling him things that couldn't be. Revan couldn't be here. His trap had failed then, and Revan had taken advantage of it to come here, to attack the heart of the Mandalorian army. And yet, there was more. "A woman." Revan, the dauntless, tireless warrior who had brought Mandalore to its knees – a woman.
The Mandalore snarled with rage, and fired his blaster at her. Her lightsaber flashed like fire, deflected the bolt. The Mandalore took a deep breath, warred with himself. He fired again, more carefully this time. With a cry of rage, she moved, sparing the life of a young Mandalorian warrior to block the shot that the Mandalore had fired at Malak. The Mandalore smiled beneath his mask. "Lovers."
Malak glanced over his shoulder, saw the Mandalorians entering from the bridge. But only one mattered: the tall Taung in the gold Mandalorian mask and the red armor. "Revan, go, I can hold them here." Malak cut down more of the Mandalorians, and moved so that the strike team they had brought with them was covering his back.
Revan could have charged, or used her Jedi powers to close with Mandalore the Ultimate. Instead, she carved a path to him through the bodies of the Mandalorians, striking like lightning and sparing none.
The Mandalore snarled as he saw his warriors fall back before her ferocity. "Cowards," he hissed in his native tongue. "This is your only chance to die well, and you refuse it?"
His words stiffened the nerves of the young warriors, and they tried again, unwilling to shrink from combat under the eyes of the Mandalore himself. They died as did every Mandalorian that came within reach of her lightsabers. The last shots rang out, and finally they were face to face, the two leaders of the two opposing forces.
"Jedi General. Jedi Knight," said the Mandalore. He didn't know if she spoke Mandalorian, and didn't care. He considered Galactic Basic to be beneath him. "A traitor to your code. You have only won this battle by being more Mandalorian than the Mandalore himself."
Revan laughed. "Mandalore, your people are children compared to mine when it comes to the ways of war. I only grieve that you will never see the suffering I plan to inflict on the shattered clans." She spun her lightsabers, patiently waiting for the Mandalore to draw his weapon. "I will send your women to work as drudges, Mandalore, and their children to work in mines. Fathers will never see their children again, wives will be too ashamed to face their husbands, brothers and sisters will not even know each other. The language of Mandalore will become the language of mercenaries and slaves. Your culture will be a footnote in history, and your famous armors will be scrap metal, harvested by naked Mandalorian children for food."
"You? A Jedi? And you speak thusly to me?" said the Mandalore in disbelief.
"You are the only one here who understands me, Mandalore. I chose my companions well. They know I am taunting you, yes, but they do not know I already have Hutts waiting to buy the remains of your people."
The Mandalore growled, drew his blade. "You truly are a traitor to your code! I will not slay you, Revan. I will break you, and sample the pleasures that Malak has taken from your body. I will hand you over to every General at my table and let them fill every hole in your body with their seed. And then I shall hand you over to the women, and let them do what they will with your body."
Revan giggled before she could stop herself. "That was very impressive, considering that you didn't know I was a woman until a few minutes ago. Come, Mandalore the Ultimate. Come, fight, die, and be forgotten. Your children will not sing for you, your clan will never see your mask again, your bones will turn to dust between the stars. The only thing left to you is to die bravely." Revan laughed. "I stayed up late to come up with that one."
Enraged, the Mandalore struck out, and she parried him with ease. He tried again, testing her. Her speed was unbelievable; her sense of balance incredible. She did not need strength, not the way she fought. Her lightsabers were truly an extension of her body, and to her, combat was a joy. Under other circumstances, the Mandalore would have enjoyed the fight. She was truly a warrior. It was not just in her blood, but in every part of her being.
"You should have been a Mandalorian, Revan. You would have made a magnificent mate."
Revan laughed. "Not for you, Mandalore."
"Perhaps not," the Mandalore replied, "but certainly we would have found a more fitting father for your children than that coward, Malak."
"Malak is no coward!" Revan hissed.
The Mandalore smiled beneath his mask. "Perhaps not. He did offer himself up to torture to protect – but that wasn't you, was it?" He expected her to react, perhaps to be angry, show a crack in her impenetrable guard.
Revan killed him. Her lightsabers flashed faster than thought, fueled by her insane rage. She cut off one of the Mandalore's arms, then sliced through his neck, neatly severing his head from his body. The helmet fell, bounced and rolled to a stop at her feet. The body jerked once, then toppled over backwards. His sword arm went flying and slapped bloodily against the wall, leaving a peculiar stain. Revan fought down the wave of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her, then knelt to pick up the Mandalore's golden mask. Her hand was still shaking with rage.
The soldiers behind her were cheering, and the Mandalorians in the rooms beyond were fleeing. Malak gave orders, cleared the room, so that he was alone with her.
"Revan?"
"It is done, Malak. He is dead, and the Mandalorians are broken. Now we only need to root out the individual clans."
"What are you going to do with the mask?"
Revan smiled beneath her mask. "No one will ever know. No Mandalorian will ever wear this mask again. There will never be another Mandalore." She hid the mask inside her robe.
Malak wrapped his arms around her. "Take off the mask, Revan. Let me see your face."
Revan pulled off the mask, smiled weakly at him. "Do I look very strange, Malak?"
He bent his head to hers, kissed her, and kissed away tears that she hadn't realized were there. "I don't know what he was saying to you, my love. Do I need to?"
Revan shook her head, and rested her head on Malak's broad chest with a sigh of contentment, and felt her emotions balancing again.
"You are magnificent, Revan."
"Thank you, Malak." She looked up at him. "For everything."
Malak smiled warmly at her, bend his head to hers again, kissed her. She slid her hands along his arms, and dropped her mask so that she could hold him closer. The mask clattered to the floor, and they both ignored it in favor of a deeper embrace.
Someone laughed quietly behind them, then coughed to get their attention.
Revan pulled away reluctantly, and saw one of her pilots standing nervously just outside the room filled with dead Mandalorians, pretending that he hadn't seen the two Jedi locked in a kiss.
"Your pardon, General Revan, but there is a message from the main fleet for you."
"I'll be there in a moment," said Revan calmly. She looked at Malak again, her eyes soft. He smiled back at her, and handed her the mask. Revan smiled, and replaced the mask before walking out of the room to complete the destruction of the Mandalorians.