Chapter 1: An Old Soul is Given a New Chance

As his soul wandered through the great abyss, the man felt at peace. Finally, he could rest. He may have been killed by assassins sent by the Emperor, but it was all for naught. Those assassins had been sent to kill him and take control of his station for the Empire, but he'd had the last victory. Before they had even arrived, he'd sent the order out for the Republic to evacuate the station and leave only a skeleton crew. With the evacuees he'd sent the entirety of the station's library, including the specs for creating an army to protect the Republic; construction of ships, weapons, armor, and other vital pieces of information such as previously unknown sources of desperately needed resources. While he had been unable to kill the Emperor, he would at least insure that the new generation would be able to kill that abomination and its council. With the Emperor and the council dead, the Empire would tear itself apart as the various factions fought for control. At the very least the Republic would get some reprieve from the nonstop onslaught that it was under. But that was yet to come. His final triumph was denying the Empire the Foundry. The battle had been fierce; It had been one man against the Emperor's eight elite assassins. He might have fallen, but not before he'd killed six of his attackers and grievously injuring the last two before succumbing to his wounds. But even then, he still had the last laugh.

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Flashback:

The assassin looked around himself wincing in pain. The room was littered with the dead bodies and dismembered body parts of six of his seven comrades. He winced at the sight of his last living comrade that was trying to stand up, finding the task to be all but impossible, before collapsing. The other living assassin had lost his right arm and had a horrendous cut across his face that had destroyed his left eye. In addition to that he had an enormous and very deep diagonal cut across his chest. If the man was extremely lucky, he would survive and that was if he received medical attention ASAP from the troops that were securing the station behind them, but even then it was highly unlikely that he would survive the next five minutes. Hopefully they would get here in time. He himself had lost his left hand, had a stab wound through the left side of his chest that had been aimed at his heart. It would have been fatal had he not been able to move away at the last second. His right leg had a severe cut on it from when he had been a hair too slow to counter a surprise strike. In addition to his major injuries, dozens upon dozens of minor injuries covered his body. The pain was excruciating; he could barely stand, let alone continue to fight. Their opponent was incredibly still alive in spite of all the wounds that had been inflicted on him. The man had been nothing short of awe inspiring. Dressed in his iconic armor, armor that had terrified foes and inspired allies throughout the man's life. His technique had been flawless, constantly changing fighting styles to throw them off balance, every strike the man had made was nothing less than a killing stroke and the assassin knew that had the man been completely recovered from his time spent in torture and imprisonment, there would have been absolutely no chance that they would have won, much less deal those injuries to him. Their opponent was sitting on the floor against the console where he'd collapsed. Dozens of cuts littered the man's armor, many of them bleeding freely. The man's mask; an icon of who he was, a symbol of all the man's accomplishments, and testament to his power had not survived completely unscathed; a large vertical cut ran down the left side where one of the assassins had managed to surprise him was visible in the bright lighting of the command room, in spite of the now tattered hood that normally cast the mask into half shadows. The only telling sign of their opponent's continued life force was the sound of labored breathing escaping from the damaged mask. The assassin started to stagger over to his opponent to deal the deathblow as a small group of imperial troops entered the room most going to check the bodies, a pair of troops started administering what medical aid they could to the dying assassin lying on the floor, the rest covering the door to prevent any Republic troops from sneaking up on them.

The mask looked up at the approaching assassin. "Computer…," the man said in labored breaths, the mask distorting his voice, "initiate… Command… 13… Last… Resort." Even through the voice distortion, the assassin could hear the smirk in the man's voice.

The computer terminal the man was leaning against beeped before a computerized female voice issued from it. "Acknowledged. Command 13 initiated. Self-destruct sequence activated. Evacuation signal has been sent to all personnel. Communications jamming signal activated. Locking all computer terminals. Foundry will self-destruct in 10 minutes." Sparks danced across the terminal as the voice continued, "Terminals locked down. Data wipe commencing… terminal self-destruct acti- *BZZT*" The computerized voice died as sparks exploded from the terminal's interface panels, showering the man that continued to lie against the terminal.

"What… did… you do?" The assassin demanded fearfully, his own voice coming out in pants, partly from exhaustion, partly from his injuries as the terrified imperial troops fled the room as fast as they could move, leaving the now dead assassin on the floor.

"I… will… never let… the empire… have this station." The man panted out. "I… would sooner… destroy it… than let… you have it." That damnable mask glared defiantly at the assassin. "It's too… late now!" The man's voice seemed to gain strength. "That self-destruct sequence… can't be stopped now. If… you run, you… might be able to escape. But I… doubt it." The man let out a few pained laughs. "You… failed!"

"DAMN YOU, YOU BASTARD!" The assassin shouted as he too fled the room, staggering as he ran, fear and adrenaline giving him the strength to run. The man's distorted, mocking laughter followed him as he ran.

The man's mocking laughter was cut off soon as a fit of coughs racked his body. The coughing fit lasted for several minutes until it finally subsided. A mechanical voice echoed in the room. "Self-destruct in T-minus 30 seconds."

A tear slid down the man's face, hidden by his mask. "And so… in the end… as the darkness… takes me, I am… nothing. Now I know… how you felt… old friend." With a final sigh, the man closed his eyes, a small regretful smile on his face as explosions tore through the Foundry, setting off several chain reactions of explosions until finally, the power core detonated in an enormous explosion that caused the Foundry to disappear in a massive fireball that vaporized not only the Foundry, but everything within a 20-kilometer radius, destroying the fleeing Imperial Fleet that had been sent to capture it as well as a significant portion of the asteroid field that the Foundry was hidden in.

Flashback End

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The man sighed to himself. So this was what awaited him now that his life was over; to wander endlessly within the void. Well, things could have been a lot worse than this, he had after all committed many crimes in his life. Even though his goals and intentions were to protect people, he still had the blood of countless innocents on his hands. The people of at least one planet were dead because he hadn't seen his best friend descending into madness and had ordered the planet destroyed. The man had ordered it captured, but his best friend had been so far gone that he'd changed the orders and wiped out the entire planet: all sentient life killed, the entire planet's ecosystems destroyed, the planet was entirely devoid of any kind of life, all because he hadn't seen what should have been unmistakably obvious to him of all people. Even though he had eventually killed his ex-friend, nothing could be done to erase the stain on his soul from that planet's blood. It would forever stay with him. At least now he could rest before carrying on with his burden.

"Maybe not." The man whirled around to see the source of the voice. A figure, shrouded in twilight stood behind him, its facial features indistinct from recognition. However, even though its face could not be seen, its figure was definitely feminine. Against the white abyss of their surroundings, the man could easily see his new companion due to its twilight coloring; a mixture of white and black blended together in a murky grey. "Hello, old friend." The figure said as its mouth lifted into a gentle smile, its voice pure and musical, yet rough and dark at the same time.

"Do I know you?" The man questioned, certain that he'd never met this particular individual in his life.

The figure laughed musically. "I should say so. After all," The figure again smiled at the man, "I have been your constant companion throughout your life."

The man was startled, until the pieces fell into place. As he opened his mouth to name the figure, it cut him off. "Yes, I am what you think I am. You and your teacher, before she descended into insanity, were right about my true nature. I am neither Light, nor Dark, but a murky Grey waiting to be heard. And you my dear friend heard me better than all."

The man felt weak. All he could do was stare at the figure until he found his voice. "My Lady." He said with a bow. "You honor me with your presence. Am I to assume that you are here to pass judgment upon me for my sins in life?"

The figure laughed again. "You need not bow to me old friend. Where most sought to subjugate me or use me as a scapegoat for their actions or lack thereof, you did not. You treated me as I desire: a companion to stand alongside of, a friend to ask questions of, and a fellow warrior to fight beside. You never once tried to subdue me or blame me for events that occurred beyond your control claiming that it was my will." She walked forward and placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "No, you always placed the blame upon yourself and on those where it belonged, even at times when you had no way to control events, you still did everything you could to insure the best outcome even when it was impossible. You took responsibility for the actions of others."

"Your words comfort me, milady." The man said. "But at the same time, I must say that I deserve to be blamed for what happened in all those instances."

"Oh?" The figure asked. "And why would that be?"

"Because I was in charge of those men." The man said. "When they committed crimes, I was and am responsible for them. My teachings were not enough to prevent them from committing those crimes." The man shook his head. "I should have done more."

"No, my friend." The figure shook its head. "You did everything you could have, but those men and women were responsible for the choices they made in life. You might have taught them, and taught them well you did, but ultimately it is a being's choice as to what actions they commit. You were only their guide; it was their choice to stray from the path. Take responsibility for your own actions, but do not attempt to shoulder the burdens of the entire galaxy. Each being must shoulder their own choices and actions."

The man sighed. "You are right as always milady." A smile finally graced, the man's face. "Thank you milady, but may I ask why you are here?"

The figure smiled again. "I am here to offer you a reward for all that you have done."

The man cocked his head slightly. "What kind of reward?" He asked wearily.

"Well it's more of a half reward, half a second chance." The figure amended.

"Oh?" The man asked.

"I am offering you a chance to live again." The figure held up its hands to stop any questions. "But, you will not be born again in this dimension. And you will not take to body of an infant and be forced to deal with growing up again. Instead what I will do, should you accept is this; I will place your soul into the body of a young man who has developed two souls."

"What? How is that possible?" The man asked in shock.

"The young man, like you, fought against amazing odds with seven comrades against a being, referred to as a 'God', that was trying to wipe out the entire planets' population and had done so before." The figure explained. "The young man, was critically injured in their final battle six of his comrades managed to get him away while the seventh stayed behind giving his friend time to escape, but at the eternal cost of his sanity. The young man's six remaining comrades successfully escaped with his body to a forest. There one comrade sacrificed herself to place the young man in a healing coma that would last a thousand years. Another comrade chose to stop her clock as the Time Witch, and live on frozen in time so that she would be able to finish the job that the eight had started and left to wander the world. Another one also left to wander the world, her faith in humanity all but gone. The other three went their separate ways and settled down in different places, but four of the survivors vowed that their successors, or in the case of the one that froze her time, she herself, would be there to aid the young man in killing the so called 'God' when the young man woke up." The figure ended her tale.

"Very interesting." The man commented. "But what does that have to do with the young man having two souls?"

"The injury that the man sustained was due to a concentrated attack laced with the corruption of the planets emotions." The figure explained. "In other words, all of the negative emotions felt by the planets' inhabitants were absorbed by the so called 'God' and used as a weapon. The young man's original soul was damaged very severely and because of this, one of his comrades, who was both healer and fighter, sacrificed her soul to purify his. It worked, but not in the way she expected. Her sacrifice allowed a new, younger soul to be formed, one that was untouched by the corruption of 'God', but with the same powers as the original soul."

"I see." The man said slowly. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"What I propose to do is this." The figure explained. "I will fuse your soul with that of the newly formed one as it has not yet truly taken shape yet, nor anything else aside from its powers at this point in time. Your soul will absorb the new soul's personality and powers and merge them with your own. You will then be free to act as you see fit. You will however take on the identity of the new soul and not your old one. All I ask is that when the time comes, and come it will, that you destroy the corruption of the 'God'." The figure said. "Two parts have broken off and formed personalities and souls of their own. One is innocent in nature and managed to escape, but the other was not so lucky, it was recaptured and corrupted, but not absorbed as it needs the other to complete itself. It is currently cut off from the planet, which the innocent one managed to escape to, but eventually the barrier between it and the planet will be destroyed. When that time comes you must be prepared to fight. But do not make the mistake of blaming the two newborn souls for the actions of the one they were born from." The figure seemed to glare at the man.

"I won't make that mistake." The man promised. "But I must ask why you haven't done anything before now? Surely there must be some people who can hear your call."

The figure smiled sadly. "Unfortunately, there are only six people on that planet at any time that can wield my power naturally aside from the 'God'. Five have crystalized portions of my power within them, each granting the wielder the power to use different elements both in and outside of battle. One is power over Water, one is Wind, one is Fire, one is Earth, and the fifth is Time. Each wielder of those powers is female and thus are called Witches and their powers Magic and Song." The figure explained.

"And the sixth one?" The man asked.

The figure smiled gently. "The sixth one is a control unit if you will. It allows the wielder to purify the others and insure that corruption cannot overtake them. It also allows the other five to unleash their true power. Its wielder is male and will be you for it is held within your new body."

The man turned away from his companion and thought about the offer, weighing the pros and cons of the two choices. He could on one hand decline the offer and remain here. The man inferred based upon his companion's actions that should he decline, he would remain here for eternity as penitence for the blood on his hands. On the other hand, he was being offered a new chance at life in a new place where he would have a fresh new start and all that would be required of him would be to destroy a corrupted being when it attacked the planet. From the description, this planet had no space technology and would most likely be rather primitive compared to what he was used to. But was that truly that bad? The man wondered, to not have to worry about an entire galaxy and instead be concerned with only one planet? To have a chance to live a new life free of his old one? No, it wouldn't really be so bad, the man concluded. Turning back to his companion, the man spoke. "I have decided to accept your offer milady."

The figure smiled in joy. "Wonderful! I'm so glad you did!" Light began gathering in the figure's hands. "Now just close your eyes and when you wake up your new life shall begin."

The man nodded and closed his eyes as the figure placed its hands on his forehead and on his chest over his heart. As his consciousness faded, he heard the figure speak again. "Good luck my old friend. Good luck… Revan."

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