DXUN, 40 YEARS ABE:
The small glowrods hanging on Leia and Han's belts had barely been adequate to illuminate the confines of their rudimentary sanctuary before; now that Revan was here they seemed to have dimmed even further, as thought the Dark Lord's presence was enough to leech the very light from the air.
"Not very delicate excavators, are you? I hardly think the Coruscant Archeological Society would approve of your technique."
Revan sounded as casual as if they were meeting in a planetary marketplace or tapcaf, the rough mechanical edge of their helmet's vocabulator smoothed by the way the words echoed off the ancient stone that surrounded them all.
Leia slowly lowered one hand from its outstretched reach towards the shattered ceiling. Around them, stone grated and crunched as the blocks she had been levitating settled into place precariously. She kept her other hand raised, knowing that their current cairn was not stable enough for her to fully relax her mental grip, even now. If she did, it would all come tumbling down upon them.
"Emperor Revan, I presume," Leia said, wrinkling her nose in disdain. Her free hand crept towards her belt at a nearly glacial pace. "Or whoever you really are beneath that ridiculous mask."
Revan laughed, the sound bouncing discordantly off the raw tumbled stones.
"'Ridiculous,' indeed… And what were you grubbing for here in this musty old place if you have such disdain for relics, hmm?" Revan glanced around the cramped confines of the sanctuary Leia had snatched from the temple's collapse. The faint glimmer of Han and Leia's glowrods flickered across the Dark Lord's ancient visor like dying fyrefliis. When the cold gaze within settled back on Leia, it carried a weight that Revan's casual mien had been lacking before. "Of all the tombs and temples you could raid, why this one?" they asked in a sepulchral hiss.
"The hospitality," Han deadpanned. "We heard it was to die for, so…" He gestured politely, as though escorting Revan to a table at an expensive Coruscanti restaurant. "After you."
The short, surprised bark of laughter that escaped Revan seemed to startle the Dark Lord as much as anyone. They glanced at Han and looked him over as though noticing his presence for the first time.
"What a kind offer. I think, however, I shall decline."
"Shame." Han shrugged, then drew his blaster almost faster than the eye could follow and fired four shots in quick succession.
Revan raised a hand in time to catch the laser blasts, their searing heat dissipating along sleek armored gauntlets without leaving more than a wisp of smoke behind.
Han grimaced. He hadn't really expected it to work, but the only way to get lucky was to try.
"Brave," Revan said approvingly, striding forward at a casual amble. The stones behind them-the ones they had shifted to breach Leia's sanctuary-rolled and tumbled heavily before settling back into a semi-stable pile. "And foolish, of course," Revan continued. "But does it really count as bravery if it is not at least a little foolish?"
Without waiting for an answer-providing either Organa-Solo had deigned to offer one-Revan flapped a hand and tore Han's blaster free of his grip with a quick Force-tug. The old DL-44 slammed into the tumbled stone that now formed one of the walls of their protective cage and cracked like the comlink before it.
"Sithspit," Han cursed. His eyes darted back and forth between his broken blaster, the oncoming Dark Lord, and the strained face of his wife.
"Not quite," Revan said, apparently amused. "Although I understand your confusion. The nuances of the Force are often oblique even to practitioners; to the Force-blind, I understand they are practically unfathomable."
"Oh yeah?" Han retorted. "I don't know, pal, I can fathom quite a lot."
"I'm sure you can," Revan replied indulgently. "But you're irrelevant and we don't need the distraction right now."
Another flap of that merciless gloved hand sent Han flying across the tunnel in the wake of his broken blaster. The thud of his body against the hard stone was loud and hollow. He hit the edge of the altar, flopped across it for a moment, then slid free and tumbled to the floor. He landed ragdoll-limp across the cracked shell of his trusty DL-44.
"Han!" Leia shouted, her voice raw and desperate. She started forward, but the shattered ceiling overhead creaked ominously and she froze, staring up at the stones above until their trembling finally ceased beneath her renewed concentration.
Han groaned and Leia heaved a heavy breath of relief at the faint signs of life as he stirred.
Her eyes fastened back on Revan, and their brown depths were cold.
"You should have stayed in the Remnant," she snapped. "Or the grave. Suppose that's all the same though these days, isn't it?"
"A dying Empire resurrected by a dead legend?" Revan countered. "Yes, I think that does have a nice ring to it."
As though to underscore the words, Revan drew a lightsaber and snapped it into life. Blood-red light blazed, bathing the dark hollow with its glow.
Leia's fingers closed around her own lightsaber and she raised it in counterpoint, its blue blade shining like a beacon against the dust and shadows.
"Tell me, Leia Organa, what do you fear?" Revan asked.
"Not you," retorted Leia.
Revan stepped forward. Leia, her empty hand still stretched high towards the heavy stone overhead, raised her lightsaber but did not move. She couldn't; if she did, the rest of the ruin would collapse upon them all, adding three move lives to those it held entombed.
If Revan was concerned about the possibility of being crushed to death by centuries-old stone, there was no sign of that worry in the mirror-blank visor of the ancient helmet that had carried their name out of legendary wars and into the present battle: only the gleaming reflection of the two lightsabers swinging together in a sudden crash.