DXUN, 40 YEARS ABE:
Blue and red light flared in sweeping arcs that sent shadows flaring across the ragged boundaries of the collapsed tunnel. The crash of lightsaber blades was explosively loud in the confined space but Leia barely heard them; she was too focused on the red blade itself, and on the enemy wielding it.
Revan was a mere five centimeters taller than her, making the Dark Lord one of the shortest opponents with whom the former Alderaanian princess had ever tangled. It almost made the fight harder; Leia was so used to compensating to battle enemies who towered over her that crossing blades with someone of her own stature was unfamiliar enough to be unsettling.
Revan didn't seem to find it difficult to face a matched opponent, but the fact that Leia was all but rooted in place by her efforts to keep thousands of tons of stone from collapsing on all of them doubtless helped tilt the scales in their favor. The Dark Lord was free to circle around and attack from any angle, forcing Leia to continually pivot beneath the weight she held in place overhead while splitting her focus between their red blade and the creaking tons of stones ready to crush them all the moment her concentration wavered..
"Tell me," Revan said, spinning their lightsaber idly in one hand like a child's toy, "why are you here on Dxun? I would have expected to find you on Coruscant, raising a rebellion against me - or perhaps sneaking around my ship, trying to slip your wayward daughter free of my claws before she succumbs to the allure of the Dark Side."
"It'll take more than some jumped-up pretender of an emperor to make Breha flinch," Leia said flatly. She turned to face Revan as they stalked around her, the weight of the temple above pressing down so that she felt as though she were moving against liquid permacrete rather than dusty air. "I'm not worried about her."
Revan laughed, a low and unpleasant chuckle that made Leia's dusty skin crawl. "Liar," they sneered and lashed-out with their saber, red blade sparking as it met and bounced off Leia's blue with a shriek of protesting light.
Leia's frown deepened into a scowl as she shifted her blade back up in preparation to block the next blow.
Revan did not renew the attack immediately but instead continued smugly, "I can feel your concern for her, for your son, for your funny fool of a husband." Leia's eyes flicked towards where Han lay immobile in the shadows of the wall and her stoic features crumpled in a grimace of dismay. She thrust the jagged emotion away, mastering her expression again, but it didn't matter; it wasn't her face that the Dark Lord was reading. "You're filled with fear, little Jedi Princess," Revan teased her. "Fear for the whole galaxy...fear of what will become of it now that it is in my grasp."
"It's senator, actually, not princess. Not for years. And you're getting ahead of yourself." Leia feinted sideways with her 'saber but Revan hopped backwards, not even bothering to raise their blade to defend against hers. "You haven't got the galaxy yet."
"And when I do?" Revan asked the question with a light curiosity that did more to convey their confidence than any maniacal rant or passionate speech could have done. Revan asked the question as though the hypothetical on which it was predicated was an inevitability. "What will you do then, senator? "
"If it comes to that - " Leia's voice was heavy with irony on the conditional " - then I'll fight until I've deposed you, just like we've done with every despot who came before you."
"Admirable!" Revan laughed gaily and delivered three more light, glancing blows. Sweat trickled down Leia's temple, carving a winding line in the dust that caked her pale face, but she managed to deflect all three without moving from her post. "Unimpeachably admirable. But tiring, don't you think?"
"I could do this all day," Leia demurred. "Why? Want to take a break?"
"When I take breaks, they tend to last for centuries," Revan answered smoothly. "And I don't think you have that sort of time to spare. No, I meant because you've got to be getting bored with your 'plucky freedom fighter' routine by now, haven't you?" The Dark Lord punctuated their words with lightsaber swings, aiming first low and then high and then low again. Leia had to lift her foot to keep her ankle from being severed by the third attack, but she managed to deflect the rest readily enough and while Revan was aiming for her feet, she landed a glancing blow across the black shoulder of their armor.
Revan moved with the hit, robbing it of most of its power. When they stopped half a meter away and faced her again Leia could see a smoking scorch mark on the sleek black hide, but if she'd cut deep enough to reach flesh or draw blood she could not tell in the dim light of their tenuous tunnel. She took advantage of Revan's momentary discomfiture to glance at Han again, but he was still motionless and she could not spare enough attention from the battle in front of her to reach for him through the Force.
She tried not to think about how her arm had trembled when her balance shifted; tried not to think about the trickle of dust that had come down from the broken ceiling to shroud her hair.
"You seem bored," Revan observed. "I think it's time for you to put your talents to better use."
"At your disposal?" Leia's eyebrows arched towards her hairline, a pointed study in skepticism.
"Why not?" Revan shrugged. If the shoulder that Leia had struck hurt, they didn't show it. "Surely serving me will be less tedious than serving your silly Senate or your doomed Jedi Council."
"Sorry," Leia deadpanned, "I'll be busy washing my hair." She gave a little shake, letting some of the dust it had accumulated tumble free as though it were evidence to underscore her sarcasm. "Why don't you try that line on someone who hasn't heard it a dozen times before?"
"I'm not interested in them," Revan said dismissively. "There is no Jedi yet living in this dwindling age who could ever be a threat to me, but you - you remind me of someone I knew a long, long time ago." Revan's free hand lifted ominously towards Leia but the gesture ended in a retreating flutter of fingers rather than a savage grab or a shove from the Force. "You, my Jedi Princess, you could begin to be something useful. You could begin to be something... more."
"I'm flattered. Why don't you tell me more about what it is you're trying to recruit me to do? Maybe I'll be so fascinated I won't be able to resist," Leia suggested drily.
Revan chuckled. "As a potential turncoat, you're not very convincing."
"I'm hardly trying," Leia retorted. "What's the point, when we both know I'm never going to join you?"
Revan's light tone briefly hardened, their words solid as durasteel. "I came here especially for you, Leia Organa."
"Organa-Solo, if you please. Senator Organa-Solo."
"As you wish...senator." The title came out cloaked in amusement rather than respect, but Leia hadn't been expecting anything better. No one in the Empire - from lowliest stormtrooper to highest Grand Admiral - was capable of remembering her change in rank. Why should an ersatz emperor be any different? Still, there was something about Revan's presence - the darkness of it, the size of it - that made Leia shiver as they said bluntly, "You are the only thing on this dead world of any value. Why not live up to your potential for once in your life? Join me. Learn the true nature and breadth of the Force...and so much more."
"Tempting," Leia lied, making no effort to hide her disinterest, "but I thought we were fighting." She raised her lightsaber. "Unless you're ready to give up?"
It was impossible to see whether or not Revan smiled through that thin, sharp mask but amusement dripped from every word as they said, "Oh my dear girl. There are few things I have not done over the course of four thousand years of life and death, but give up? That, I fear, is one skill that has always eluded me."
Leia beckoned with her saber and smiled coolly. "How nice that I can teach you something new, then."
Red light moved to answer blue as Revan laughed.