-1Chapter 10: Walking on Water
Wiping his eyes dry, Revan saw a treasure of plunders, both sithly and mere treasure-hunter style. Jeweled diadems, impressive scepters and gleaming crystals were all present and accounted for.
"Eheu fugaces anni." Came a sad soft voice. The voice was gentle, soft and deep.
Revan turned with boyish joy to see his mother. She stood only but a few feet from him, her hair now wet from their swim. Her face seemed a well of memories. The slight wrinkles that defined her beautiful face were mystical charms that made her face a darker crackling pool of power. Her black slanted eyes and her black long hair painted her into such a Mephistophelean witch. She was smiling, but in a way, that it was sad and painful to see. She opened up her arms and Revan ran to her. She wrapped her arms around her as if he were still only a child.
She grasped him by the shoulder and pulled him away from the puddle at the cave entrance. She sat him on a warm decorative Manxive Guunan dynasty rug. It gave off a pleasing perfuming heat.
She sat in front of him. Her eyes quickly dove into his soul, analyzed every thought he had ever had and snapped back in time to smile.
"You haven't forgotten me completely, have you?" She asked. The words seemed to tumble and echo in the cave. Revan shook his head.
"Of all I had lost…I remembered you, if only slightly." Her eyes flared in triumph. "But so much else…" Revan's words trailed off as his head dropped.
He saw Phragmoghra VI. There was a blonde-headed boy, nothing older than four years. A more beautiful and younger Yelena was behind him in a bright robe. She had hold of his right hand which had hold of an ignited blue lightsaber. She brought his hand up and twisted left and the both of them made a downward stroke against a boulder. The intense blade carved into the rock a deep gouging stroke. The two then disengaged and made an upward draw shot that cut an "X" into the stone. Years flew by. The rock was worn by wind and storms of decades until the deep cuts were no more than slight burns.
Revan looked up into her eyes. "I am told to distrust you." She smiled innocently.
"You obviously remember my teachings. You can trust only one thing."
Revan's eyes cut to the size of dire darts.
"I've learned to trust in balance. Balance."
Yelena sighed and shrugged.
"Kreia had always other motives and they were not always balanced. But I am satisfied with balance." Her eyes sparkled. "I only wanted to see it happen and know that I facilitated it."
Revan nodded, somewhat sulkily.
"Yes, I have been taught about your experiment, scientist Lady Yelena." Yelena shivered at the remark and glanced at Revan, warningly.
"I abdicated the use of that title long ago and I never wanted it to begin with. But as you say, I am a scientist."
Revan laughed, darkly.
"I've become something of scientist, myself." He said.
Yelena reached out her small clawed hands and plucked something off the floor next to them. Revan stared at it as if it were a deadly serpent. It was his old Sith Lord mask. The smooth curve of the cold metal and the bleak knife like eyes. Down also on the floor was his old cloak. His hand felt over the mask in a longing caress.
"I've kept them for you. When I had heard that the Endar Spire had been destroyed near Taris and that escape pods had made it to the surface, I went to the ruins of Taris and scoured the planet for it, not you." She smiled at his surprise. "The Jedi had spread their propaganda that Revan had been destroyed. But, oh, I knew what had really happened. You did what I knew you could; what I made you to do."
Revan's hand retracted from the mask and he looked up at her. A warm gratified smile was there on her face, behind it was pride.
"The ability to control the force." He said slowly.
Her eyes widened in approval.
"Yes. To actually control it. To balance it or tip it however you desire. Not just a command of the force but ultimate indifferent control." She stuffed the mask and robe into drawstring pouch. "Your fool of a father had not the slightest clue as to how powerful the gift was. But I knew." She pointed back down at the pouch. "Do you remember how you received this mask, my son?"
Revan's hand went to his head.
"My mind was damaged by my apprentice."
Revan recoiled in shock of himself. He had called Malak his apprentice.
"Yes. I know." She said soothingly, caressing his cheek. "The fool." Her smile was so sad. "This was the battle mask of the feudal lord of Falleen." Revan nodded. He had been right. "When your father, who thought he was charging to the galaxy's salvation, stormed the palace, he beheaded the lord only minutes before he, himself, was gunned down from behind by the palace guards. When the Sith took the palace, I was there and I pried the mask from your father's grip and the lord's head." Her smile left and her eyes became serious and severe. "I thought it a fitting reminder of foolhardiness. When I returned to Korriban I left it in Ragnos' tomb, knowing full well you would be the one to find it and claim it."
Her hand caressed Revan's face in adoration.
"My masterpiece. You will need these icons again. I have also your old lightsaber crystals, your old lightsabers were too damaged."
"Lightsabers?" He asked, repeating the plural.
She smiled sadly and shook her head.
"My poor puppet, they took so much from you. Set you so far back. You were an indomitable master of the Jar'Kai coupled with Soresu style with leaning in Sokan and when you wore that mask you employed Dun Möch. Your masters said you were also competent in Ataru. So you see, you had twin lightsabers."
"I laugh when I think of the things you will do." She said.
She walked gracefully, almost dance-like to one of the treasure-laden shelves. She brought back six crystals, three in each hand. One was a teal green and was in the shape of interconnected bubbles, one was an obelisk of a chalky red mineral with a diamond star in it's center, one was an interlaced lattice affair comprised of transparent chartreuse rods and yet another was what looked like a piece of clear glassy pumice. Of the remaining two, they were dark red crystals. She laid all of them in the pouch and tightened the string. Taking the pouch she secured it around his waist.
After starring at her for a time, Revan spoke.
"I only want four of those crystals." He said. She looked hurt and worried.
"Yet, you will need all six." She insisted. "Just as you will take this mask and this cloak." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "You are afraid of an aspect that never had a hold over you. The borderline between dogmas is an illusion to you. I thought Kreia had made that clear; otherwise, I would never have let her train you."
Revan shook his head, barely recalling the name 'Kreia'. Yelena reached into her robe and pulled out two sabers. One was made of a black ionized metal in the shaped of a claw, the other was a crystal and ivory ordeal in the shape of a feathered wing. "These were made by a Master Siosk apprentice, the best sabersmith that ever existed."
Revan grabbed the black saber. He stared in awe as his hand wrapped around it. It felt as if the hilt was grabbing his hand and was such a perfected grip. He grasped the other to find the same reaction. He latched them both to his belt.
Revan looked up to thank her, but Yelena was already standing and another lightsaber was in her hands and she was smiling gently. The saber ignited a deadly green. Revan stumbled backward until he fell on his back.
"Stand, please." Her eyes widened and her smile was eerily perky. "I have at least one more test before I will be satisfied. It's not a test that could be passed by anyone less than the Sith'ari."
Revan started shaking his head. Noting the gesture, she gave the saber a threatening wave.
"If you are concerned for me then you are an arrogant fool who knows nothing of the force, nor of me and I have failed. In which case, I would kill you." She began to circle him. Her face changed. Revan had been fooled. She hadn't cared at all for him. She was witch. "Then again if I kill you, then that would make me the true Sith'ari." She laughed a deep evil laugh. Revan felt sick, literally physically ill. She was insane.
Revan pushed himself up from the floor. Not waiting for a response, he palmed his saber and slashed a deep "X" in the roof of the grotto, beginning a cave-in. Glancing back before leaping into the water, he saw his mother standing calmly, as if waiting.
Hitting the cold water, he shook off his shock. Dodging Firaxian Sharks, he surfaced on a rock pillar just beyond the city walls. As he climbed the rock to the top, he heard klaxons wail and loudspeakers blare. Looking behind him he saw the entire Ahto City guard scrambling from every corner of the city. He was about to catch his breath when he heard a lightsaber ignite, the green glow reflected in his eyes. Looking like a drowned rat, he tiredly glanced up to see Yelena. There was a single beat, or one melodic pause, before time resumed, before the army behind him opened fire, before Yelena attacked. And in a flash, it was gone and Revan was spinning in the air deflecting shots and parrying attacks. He did not have ample time to ready the other two sabers. It was his single blue saber.
Revan was tearing himself apart by using both Soresu and Ataru with the same saber at the same time. It was a technique he had learned by himself apparently, the use of a Soresu parry as an Ataru attack and an Ataru attack that easily disengages into a Soresu parry. The result looked like a whirling dervish tornado of light. A supinated pivot and his Soresu parry of eight turned into an inverted Ataru Fazah draw shot that made Yelena relinquish the high ground.
Taking the high ground, he kept the blaster shots at bay with a Soresu shield spin technique and used the inertia from the spin to make a high slash at Yelena that she dodged. She made an attack, to which, he quickly parried and was about to repost when another lightsaber ignited and caught his own in mid-attack. It's glow was deadly red and it's hideous possessor was grinning with it's mangled teeth.
Revan surrendered to the force and unleashed an unending series of parries, attacks and deflects all in a desperate attempt to hold the high ground, but after a blaster shot dislodged the rock he was standing on, he tumbled down the far side of the pillar. He found that on the far side of the pillar he escaped the blaster fire but gained the full attention of his other pursuers. Using one parry to parry two attacks and attack as well, was becoming tactically impossible. He was now hanging on the edge of the rock when he overstepped and was sent flailing to the sea.
His mind froze time and space as he saw the fire reopening on him and the two saber-wielding enemies descend with attacks. His mind flipped through hours of lessons taught by masters across remembered time and throughout the galaxy. None of them would help him now. If he was to survive, he would have to create a few lessons of his own.
His mind stretched to the frothy body of water behind him. He could feel it's physical significance on the subatomic level. He could feel the surge of midichlorians that ebbed and flowed along in it's pendulous motions. He felt them group and emanate upon his command, he felt them obey.
Revan fell to the sea and landed on it on his feet. He spun his saber like a copter above his head. He felt both assailants pass through, losing pieces and chunks of precious flesh. The pilgrim hit the water and sank as if it had no breath to give it buoyancy. Yelena hit the water and made for the rock edge.
Revan made confident, smooth, skating-like strides over the water's surface while blocking the blaster fire with ease. Reaching down, he heaved his mother from the sea and slammed her into the rock side. Her left hand and leg were gone and floating in the waves. Her eyes were red and bloodshot.
"You're a god!" She cried through grunts of pain.
"Are you satisfied?" Revan yelled over the noise of a thousand blasters.
She took her own lightsaber and held it in front of her.
"For you!"
Her eyes met his own and for a moment, she smiled as she brought the lightsaber around and removed her own head. It bounced and rolled into the sea as her body collapsed. Revan watched indifferently and in disbelief. He heard the splash the head made over the blasters.
Not wanting to mourn at the exact moment, Revan skated across the lake surface deflecting bolts. He sent his signal through the remains of his link with Bastila; she would land by the time he fought his way to the hangar.
Through a single thought, he turned a mere wave into a tsunami that stormed over the city walls and washed the guards from their various posts. Revan quickly took advantage of the hiatus in the assault to gain as much ground as possible. He made it past the city walls and onto solid concrete when the fire returned, only to be batted aside.
Revan flew through their ranks and they were just barely able to see him and totally unable to hit him. Any shots they did manage were merely reflected. Revan saw the Hawk descend just as he made the corridor. But in entering the corridor he found that it was stocked with armed Selkath that immediately opened fire. The first wave consisted of exactly forty-five bolts, as Revan counted. He held his lightsaber in front of him and drew the bolts to it through the force. The bolts converged on a single point on Revan's saber. They hit it like a club and refracted into the side of the corridor, blasting a hole.
As soon as he saw the loading ramp lower, Revan bolted through the hole and into the Hawk. As the ramp raised and the ship took off, he reflected the few stray shots that came his way.
When the ramp latched shut he nearly collapsed. He felt, on his side, the pouch carrying the mask and all the other possessions.
"Bring us into orbit!" Revan shouted exhaustedly.