CHAPTER TEN: MAN, MYTH, MONSTER
~ "Revan was power. Staring into his eyes was like staring into the heart of the Force. Even then, you could see the Jedi he would slay etched on his soul." – Kreia/Darth Traya, describing her greatest pupil ~
Naught held greater sway over the galaxy than three things: a man, a myth, and a monster.
Darth Revan held the distinction of being all in one.
At the gateway to the Unknown Regions, he'd glimpsed a fourth possibility: miracle.
Those who know of the True Sith, and they are few, assume they're alive and mortal. I know better.
How to defend himself from the invisible? How to fight beings who had risen from the dead?
"Returned" is a better word. As I returned to annihilate the Jedi, so they've returned to annihilate everything.
Revan knew there were other ways to achieve this than through the hunger of the fool that Darth Traya had trained. One needed not consume life to end it. Sometimes its negation occurred through transformation. How had the ancient Sith Lords resurrected themselves and prepared once again for battle? How had they spurned the Force's will and made a mockery of it? Life, matter, and flesh were irrelevant to them. Tulak Hord, Ludo Kressh, Ulic Qel-Droma, Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, and their ancestors currently had no forms that anyone would recognize. They were not of this plane, but they yearned for revenge upon it.
The Dark Lord sensed this as he skimmed the borders of known space. He sensed it, and he feared it.
Why would the dead seek vengeance upon the living, if they themselves have conquered the grave?
Whichever role he personified, Revan knew he'd have to conquer them in order to save the galaxy.
Bastila Shan loved him as a man. From the start, she'd seen past both his Jedi and Sith masks, cementing the latter but keeping the former in mind. She had tried to turn him to the Light, that beacon of selflessness and serenity in which the weak basked. In ego's dissolution came evil's dissolution. So the Jedi promised, as had Bastila. However, he had proven this promise false. What did loving others mean if one had no self that was able to love them? What did serving the galaxy mean if one wasn't allowed to serve individuals? What did the common good mean if no one was common and no one was good? Lies, well-meaning lies. He had stripped Bastila of them, revealing the hidden truth of her power-seeking self to her conscious mind.
As a man, he ached to rejoin her. To live the rest of his days on Korriban, raise a family, and die content.
Living Sith revered him as a myth. They'd heard tales of his might, his brilliance and unparalleled strength of will. His name was spoken with reverence and invoked with awe. They aimed to match him, to one day surpass him. To that end, they spent years channeling the Force and sparring with full-force weapons. Killing each other. The Dark Lords had perished long ago - or so they thought - but Darth Revan still lived. A disadvantage in terms of his godlike status. Still, as earthly disciples followed teachings that he had largely shaped, he took pleasure in vicarious glory. Wittingly or unwittingly, the Sith would remain his champions.
As a myth, he wished to remain concealed. To let himself diminish and his legend wage war for him.
The Jedi Order and the rabble they protected loathed him as a monster. Jedi were not supposed to hate, but ordinary people weren't bound by their Code. They were free to spit and curse with impunity whenever he was mentioned (which they did). They were free to blame his past actions for their current problems (which they did). They were free to use him as a villain in their children's bedtime stories, as a bad example for their youth, and as the epitome of corruption in their adult loved ones (which they did). For them, to recognize him as a man would minimize his atrocities. To view him as a myth would downplay the threat that he and his teachings presented. Only a loathsome form of unspeakable horror would contain him.
The Jedi shared all of these sentiments but distanced themselves from the feelings they inspired. Revan was more than one of their own who had fallen to the Dark Side, even one who had become a Sith Lord. What separated Revan from his ilk was his cancerous mentality, spreading through the minds and hearts of those who followed him. Bastila Shan had contracted it. So had Vesi Svari, now an exile. Other Sith sought to kill the Jedi. Revan sought to convert them. Therein lay the vast and lethal difference. An assassin living by the sword died by it. A Force prophet who was assassinated became a martyr. This the Order wouldn't tolerate. This, they would do everything in their power to avoid – even at the cost of letting him live.
As a monster, Revan threw his head back and laughed. Of course they would. The Jedi were all dead.
In their absence, he had work to do.
He had a galaxy to prepare for the invasion of the True Sith, cloaked by more than stealth fields.
If he were to vanquish them, he'd have to do so in all three of his capacities.