Prologue
How far we have fallen.
Revan stared out of the viewport at the endless, unchanging starfield. It almost seemed to mock her.
We used to be heroes. We saved the galaxy. We've gone from heroes to the very evil we were fighting to destroy.
The stars stared back, distant, unchanging observers.
What are we doing now? The dark side… It destroyed us.
No one else on the bridge noticed the dark lord's sudden introspection.
The Sith destroy their souls by committing terrible atrocities; the Jedi destroy their souls by removing everything that makes a person alive. Emotion, imagination, individuality, love, all gone. They are dead, empty shells.
"My lord? We are receiving a transmission from the Leviathan for you."
I will never go back to the Jedi. The order is flawed, and will fall, one way another. But I will not use the dark side like this anymore. I will use it in balance with the light side, but no more. I have to be careful though. I can't let Malak or the others sense the truth.
"My lord?"
Oh that's right. Business. "Yes," Revan replied. "I heard you, captain. Send it through to my quarters."
Revan left the bridge, considering her next course of action. After I destroy the Jedi order, I will make peace with the republic, and allow our governments to coexist peacefully. Then I will disband the sith order, and allow all force users to choose their own path, without either of our self-destroying doctrines. For a moment, she wondered what her life would have been like if she'd had that freedom, idly fingering the mandalorian necklace she always wore. How might the galaxy have been different?
Four days later, the sith fleet was in orbit around the outer rim world of Deralia, having just finished crushing the republic's weak defenses. Revan stood on the bridge, staring at the wreckage of the enemy vessels with mixed feelings and a sense of foreboding. A sense in the Force… There. More republic ships coming out of hyperspace while the sith fleet was too spread out from chasing down enemy ships to mount an effective defense. And most of them were coming straight for her flagship. Great. A trap. I thought all those ships spreading across the system like that was suspicious...
"It's a trap!" the captain screamed.
"No kidding!" Revan laughed. Wait, WHAT! Did I just say that? I haven't acted like that since… since the mandalorian war. Did falling to the dark side really make me that grumpy?
The captain stared at her curiously. "Uh… My lord?"
"We don't have time for all that 'My lord' stuff now, captain," she snapped, all business once again. "Bring the rest of the fleet back over and have them prepare to encircle the republic ships."
"At once, my l— At once, sir?"
"That's better."
"Thank you, sir."
Revan watched as the republic ships approached, almost in firing range now. She could clearly sense Bastila Shan, the Jedi order's newest wonder child, on the lead ship. Her and her dammed Battle Meditation. Fortunately, we have a way around that. An exploding ship does wonders for concentration. "Captain! Target all our weapons on the lead ship!" she ordered.
Malak stared out at the battle raging between the two fleets. A battle the Leviathan was rapidly approaching. His master's flagship, the Devastator, was clearly taking the brunt of the attack, but it was doing surprisingly well compared to the other ships reinforcing it. Malak frowned thoughtfully. Something was wrong with Darth Revan. He had sensed it three days ago when they had met to plan their latest move against the republic. The light side, surrounding her, but hidden. Enough to hide it from the weak dark Jedi that served them, but not from him. If Revan is slipping back, or is an imposter, or worse, a jedi spy, I will use the distraction of this battle to destroy her. The Sith cannot afford to have a weak leader. "Target the enemy ships at random," he snarled at the bridge crew. "And prepare to execute any… unusual… orders I give immediately, and without complaint."
"What are you planning, my lord?" Admiral Karath asked softly.
"It is of no concern to you." Malak growled. "Just do as I command." Insolent fool.
"Sir! Three of the republic dropships got through and landed in the main hanger! The troops and the jedi accompanying them are moving towards the bridge!"
Revan acknowledged the captain with a nod, not really paying attention. In spite of her earlier moment of irrational happiness, she felt empty and saddened. "Why do I have to destroy them?" she whispered to herself. "All I have ever done is destroy. Why can't the jedi order be restored to what it used to be?"
She could hear the captain barking orders to the guards, no doubt ordering them to prepare for and attack and summoning extra guards to defend the bridge. Leaving her hood up, Revan reached up and removed her identity-concealing mask, something she never did around other people. Looking into its reflective surface, she saw that, instead of the evil, poisonous yellow she had gotten used to over the past few years, her eyes were their natural shade of dark blue-green again, and her skin, while naturally pale, was no longer white and dead-looking. The dark side's corruption is… gone already? I thought it would take longer… Now I have to be even more careful.
"Master, we must hurry!" Bastila exclaimed as the Jedi master she was addressing began to cut through the bridge doors. "Every moment I am not able to use my battle meditation—"
"The Sith will be gaining ground, yes," Master Arden-Rae replied coolly. "But that is not our objective. We are after Revan, remember. The battle is a diversion."
"Doesn't mean we have to lose it," she grumbled.
The Jedi master shifted his lightsaber again. "Oh, I agree. But, we have to keep our priorities in line," he replied. "Ah, there we go."
The doors hissed open with a spray of sparks as Master Rae withdrew his lightsaber and the Jedi and republic soldiers proceeded into the bridge. Blaster bolts came at them from seemingly every direction; most were simply deflected back to their source, although some of the republic soldiers didn't make it through the brief firefight. Within minutes, all the Sith soldiers and officers and dark Jedi on the bridge were dead. Except for one. Darth Revan. But from what Bastila could see, the Dark Lord of the Sith hadn't moved from the forward viewport at all, nor had a single blaster bolt or lightsaber touched her. Even as the Jedi marched towards her, she still kept her back to them, staring out the viewport ant the rapidly escalating battle.
A republic officer stepped forward. "Darth Revan," he officiously proclaimed, "You are hereby placed under arrest for no less than two thousand, three-hundred-and-twenty-seven violations of numerous treaties and laws, inclu—"
"Oh, shut up," Revan snapped, turning to face them. "I've heard heard enough of republic officiousness for a lifetime. As has the rest of the galaxy." Bastila noticed Revan was holding her mask in her hands, and even stranger, her face showed no signs of the dark side's telltale corruption.
"Stop hiding behind that pretty illusion, traitor!" another Jedi master shouted. "Show us your real face! Show us how you have been corrupted!"
"How do you know this isn't my real face?" Revan asked. "What do you know about the dark side?"
The Jedi master looked briefly confused, but then composed himself, straightening up to face the dark lord. "No matter, then. You will surrender and come with us to await trial for your crimes."
"What makes you think that?" Revan angrily demanded. "You can't force me to do anything. The Jedi have no power over me. Not now, not ever. You will not turn me into another one of your empty drones for the council to do with as they please."
Master Rae sighed. "Only the Jedi council has the authority and wisdom to oversee correct use of the Force," he recited in a bored way, like he was sick of saying it. "They know what we must—"
"And that's the problem with the Jedi," Revan replied sadly, cutting him off mid-sentence. "You think you always have to be right about everything. So arrogant. So delusional. So wrong. And then, you take away everything that makes a person alive. You can't just shut down emotion. It doesn't work like that. The Sith are not much better, but at least they let people be more true to who they are. They let them live—and die, I suppose—as people. You just let people… exist. As empty shells. You can't have compassion if you don't have a heart. Your order used to be so much more. How did it come to this?"
Revan said all this in a sad, disappointed tone that was not at all what Bastila had expected from a Sith lord. It didn't make sense.
"But," she said sadly, "You aren't just going to let me walk away from this fight, are you? No? I thought not. Typical Jedi arrogance. So be it."
With that, Revan dropped her mask to the deck with a loud clang as she ignited her lightsaber and charged at the Jedi.
Now. Do it. Take what is rightfully yours…
Malak's eyes snapped open. "Target all weapons on the Devastator's bridge! Now!"
Admiral Karath looked shocked. "But, Lord Malak, Revan is our best commander by far! If you kill her now—"
"We are close enough to victory anyway!" Malak crowed victoriously. "FIRE!"
Revan cut down two of the Jedi with ease and then turned to face Bastila and Master Rae. Strangely, Bastila couldn't sense her drawing on the dark side at all. Unexpectedly, fire from the Leviathan slammed into the Devastator. Revan and Master Rae took the full force of an explosion and were thrown across the room. Bastila and the republic officer fell to the deck, unharmed for the moment.
"Are they dead?" the officer asked, glaring at Revan. Bastila made her way over to the Sith lord as more explosions rocked the ship.
"No, they're both alive, but unconscious. And unharmed. We have to get them off this ship as soon as possible."
The republic officer grabbed a blaster rifle. "Why not just finish the job?"
"Revan has key information about the Sith's plans. We need her alive so we can interrogate her," Bastila replied.
"All right, fine." The officer grumbled. "Let's get them back to the ship. Don't expect her to give you anything, though."
They made their way back to the hanger bay, Bastila carrying Revan, the officer carrying Master Rae.