A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. The latter part was really difficult to write just because it was tough to find the actual words for it. We should be good for a couple weeks, though, as long as I remember to update.
This and the next two chapters pull their titles from Anberlin's "A Whisper and a Clamor"
22: There's A Clamor in Your Whispering
Command was pleased with Carth's report about the Foundry operations and Revan's testing vids. The third day after landing on the Foundry, with lines A-C churning out medical and surveillance droids, Revan began to create her military models.
Near the end of the second week she found Carth in the Republic mess on the station's edge. Carth frowned as he studied her. She'd been harder to read since they'd gotten onto the Foundry, but the deep furrow in her brow and the grip her teeth had on her lower lip were rather clear.
"You all right?"
She frowned deeper, her gray eyes looking remarkably more stormy. "Can I borrow you, Admiral?"
He nodded and followed her through the station to the Foundry door. She shoved her hand into the lock and stepped through, motioning him after her. Once through, she glanced around furtively and closed the door.
"Now you're really acting strange."
Revan stared at her hands. "Shush," she mumbled. "Look, Carth, I've been digging around in the Foundry's systems, and I need you to override me."
"Oh, no. Go ahead."
"I, ah —" Revan sighed, running her hand through her hair. "There's not really a good way to say this. I found some code that the Rakata used in their droids. It's a programming subroutine that tracks concentrated genetic ancestry, similar to the one I have in HK's assassination protocols."
"What does that mean?"
"I suppose the Rakata used it to keep their slave races in line. You have a Twi'lek uprising, you get your droids to target Twi'leks, that sort of thing. It can be as narrow as a family lineage or as wide as an entire species. But …"
Carth's eyes narrowed. If he was right – Force, he hoped he wasn't. "But what."
"I could set it to anything. I could set it to engage everyone with Sith ancestry. It's completely automated." She looked away again, back into the Foundry. "We could end the war, the Emperor, everything, once and for all. The Empire would never recover."
"The Empire would never — what figures are we talking about, Anna?"
"That's the thing, Carth. I…"
She trailed off, and his eyes narrowed further. "Anna."
"T3 ran the numbers," she said. "It's 98.7 percent of the Imperial population. Nearly all of it."
"That's trillions of people! How the hell can you even consider it?"
"It's strategic!" she defended, beginning to pace. "It wins the war, soundly! It takes out the Sith and the Dark Council. Probably the Emperor too, if they can get close enough. It'd save another trillion lives in the Republic by ending the war. It'd be decisive. Quick. But—"
"Anna!" he interrupted, resting his hands on her shoulders. "If you commit genocide, how does that make you any better than they are?"
"War isn't about morality. You know that."
"No, it isn't. But there has to be a line somewhere. Genocide is definitely that line." She looked away, and he narrowed his eyes. "You did it once with the Mandalorians, and I know you regretted it." She nodded. "If you do it now, you'll regret it again. Listen to me, Anna. You told me to stop you before you reached this point. Please let me."
Revan sighed and scrubbed her eyes with her sleeve. "No, no, you're right."
"Delete that code."
"Yeah." She nodded. "Thanks, Carth."
He frowned. "Promise me you're going to delete it."
"I'll remove it from the Foundry's systems forthwith."
"Good." He thumbed circles onto her arms, concern etching his face. There were thick, dark circles under her eyes, like she hadn't slept in days again, and the lines at their corners somehow seemed deeper. "When was that last time you slept?"
"I've been coding. I don't know."
That explained why she'd been out of bed the past few nights. "Come on. You need sleep."
"I have work to do, Carth, I—"
"You think irrationally when you don't sleep."
"I'm perfectly rational. In a war like this, that is pragmatism. Not using it is mercy. Not being able to decide isn't being irrational."
Carth slid his hands up to her chin, leaned down, and gently pressed his lips to hers. She frowned, but didn't pull away. "Get some sleep."
"The Sith are going to find this place eventually. I need to —"
"You won't do anything if you work yourself to death."
"Fine!" Revan wagged her finger at him. "But if this place falls apart, I won't be blamed for it."
Carth steered her back towards the Republic prefabs. "I'm sure we can take care of it while you take a nap."
Once back in the small room they were sharing, he nudged her towards the bed. Revan grumbled but dutifully started forward, shrugging out of her belts, tabard, and robe before settling down on the edge to toe off her boots.
"Are you joining me?"
"I'm technically on duty."
She frowned. "Can you stay until I'm asleep?"
"Fine." Revan tucked herself under the covers, and Carth slid in next to her. He opened his arms, and she nestled into his chest.
"I'm sorry," she finally mumbled.
"Hm?"
"About that. I'm supposed to be better than that, now. You probably— "
"I don't."
"Huh?" She raised her head.
"I said, I don't." Carth rested his head against the wall. "Look. I can forgive a lot of things, but I don't think I can that. But I know you. You would have done the right thing."
Revan frowned, but nestled her head back against his chest. "A lot of things have changed, Carth. I hope you're right."
He squeezed her arm. "I'm sure I am."
#
Revan ordered Carth to pull the Republic soldiers and scientists off the station at the end of the week.
She didn't expect the Jedi to cause problems. But she was about to walk a good thirty Jedi into a dark-oriented facility, most of whose only exposure to it had been "don't," and she didn't want to take that risk. So as they disembarked from the Valiant, she waited inside the Republic part of the station with a box. "Lightsabers in here, please."
Yondo had already walked off the ship with a displeased frown, and this made the corners of his mouth drop further. "Rev—"
Revan motioned with the box. "Mine are on that table, if you haven't noticed."
"You do not need a weapon to kill us."
She smirked. "While that's noted, I am trying to salvage this station. To do that, I need you. I am already prepared to keep my head in here — are you, considering the last time?"
Against the rules of humanoid anatomy, Yondo somehow managed to frown further. But he unclipped his weapon from his belt and set it on the table next to hers.
"I will inform the Grand Ma—"
"Fine, I don't care. Satele doesn't control me. In fact, she's my great-granddaughter, so if anyone's listening to anyone —" Yondo, unable to frown further, narrowed his eyes. She grinned. "What, you think me screwing Onasi and not Shan changed that? Head over to the door and wait."
There was only minor grumbling from the rest as they left their lightsabers either on the table or in the box, and joined Yondo by the doors. Yondo didn't like her — she wouldn't say hate, but it was certainly more than mild dislike — but she was sure he wouldn't risk his charges unnecessarily.
Besides, he'd seen the control room. One good Force-wave would take care of that problem.
Once all Jedi were accounted for, Revan followed them to the door. "I assume you've already terrorized them with nightmare stories about the dark side?" she asked. Yondo huffed.
"I have informed them of the dangers, yes."
"Cut those warnings in half and you'll be about right. Keep your center in the Force, and you'll be fine." She studied them for a moment. "The energy will cause anything from a mild headache to feeling sick. If you need to stop, let us know. If, and I mean if, you feel uncontrollable anger, fear, lust, or anything your Masters told you you're not supposed to —" She glanced at Yondo. "— say something. We'll walk you through dealing with it.
"The most important thing is to never forget your center. If you remain confident in your ability, you will be fine."
A few of the Jedi were already looking a little sick. She sighed. "Well, the sooner we get this over with. We're heading into the worst of it first. Hopefully we can clear the energy there and make this place more tolerable for everyone."
"We should meditate here to prepare ourselves," Yondo said. Revan sighed.
"Go ahead."
She walked a few steps away and settled down on a chair near the door as the Jedi took their places. They'd probably be at this for an hour, if Yondo was the sort of Jedi she suspected. Good time to take a nap.
#
She was off by about two hours, the latter of which she spent sending dirty messages to Carth's mail. Finally, Yondo stood.
"You lot ready?"
"Yes."
Revan got to her feet and motioned towards the door. The Jedi lined up silently behind her, and she pressed the lock in. Her thoughts drifted unwillingly to a different time she'd stood in front of a door like this, Malak behind her, at another concentration of dark energy. Long before the Emperor, long before they'd fully fallen. She pushed it aside.
"Follow me."
As Revan stepped through the door, she raised her commlink. A few of the Jedi behind her gasped as they followed her into the corridor, and Yondo's disapproval continued to radiate off him.
"M-ma'am?" one of the Jedi stuttered. "Was the Star Forge like this?"
She glanced back. "Architecturally, this is like a freighter to the Forge's dreadnought. Energy-wise … the Star Forge was worse."
The Jedi drew a sharp breath, and they pressed on. She opened her line to Carth.
"We're heading in."
Revan kept a close eye on the Jedi as they drew closer to the command center, and where she planned to focus their efforts. Hopefully the entire Foundry could be cleared from here, and she could send Yondo off on his merry way and be free of him once and for all.
She looked back over as they reached the control center door. Several of the Jedi were pale, the color drained completely from their faces. A few were shaking.
"Everyone still thinking happy thoughts?"
Yondo huffed. Revan shrugged and pushed open the door, heading towards the lazily drifting, doomed asteroids. A few of the Jedi gasped at the vastness of the command center, even as they followed her closer to the center of the dark energy. As she passed, HK's head gently swiveled from the side of the ramp. Ready as always.
She brushed aside the last time she'd taken a group of Jedi into a place this dark.
"Circle up in the center of the platform," Revan directed. The central control had an odd sound quality — her voice bounced off nothing, just the protective shield that blocked the platform from the vacuum. T3 turned his top and released a quiet, echoing dwoo. Normally she didn't notice the echo. Now, all her senses were primed, ready, on edge.
She knew this tension, and she didn't like it. She suspected the energy made it worse.
Yondo nodded when a few of the Jedi looked to him, and they slowly took their places.
"Meditate however is best for you," she said. "You'll need to firmly seat yourself in the Force. Don't half-ass it. When you can actually see the energy around you, you'll be deep enough." Revan glanced at one of the Miraluka Jedi, standing to Yondo's left. "You guys are exempt from that, but you have a better handle on this sort of thing."
As the Jedi began to settle down, Yondo turned to her. "Will you be assisting us?"
"What type of Force-user do you take me for? Of course I will be."
"Will you be of use clearing dark energy?"
"Look, I don't know what Kaedan's been saying about me, and I'm pretty sure Satele sent you to annoy me. But I have reached a state of equilibrium in the Force, therefore, I will be of use. If you'd pull your lekku out of your cloaca, you'd know that."
Yondo frowned, but settled on the floor. Revan tugged a bundle of strung, clay beads out of a pocket, rolling her thumb over them. She usually practiced footwork, or lightsaber drills, when she needed to deeply meditate. But here it would be impractical, so this would have to do.
"When you've achieved that depth, maintain it. I'll give further instructions once the majority of us are there."
A few of the Jedi looked to Yondo again, and he nodded. As she felt them reach deeply for the Force, Revan hesitated.
She had not tried this since getting out of stasis — now she would need to go even deeper than her spying trips on Vitiate's station. Her connection to him sat heavy and fractured at the back of her mind, a reminder that he could come through at any time. She knew that drowning herself with the Force would make it much easier for him to reach her, or vice-versa, and she did not want to know how doing so in the middle of a heavily negative space station might empower him.
But Revan drew a deep breath, closed her eyes, and dove.
The Force burst around her. She could see everything, the bright slashes of the Jedi around her to the few lifeforms clinging to the Foundry's surface, the life sparking in the Republic warships around them. Carth's anxiety thrummed through their bond, from his position up on the Valiant's bridge. And further, much further away, was the dark sucking hole of the Emperor.
He didn't seem to be on Dromund Kaas. In fact, he wasn't even as present as usual. Odd. What was —
She jerked her attention back to the Foundry, keeping a watchful mind on his position. If he stirred even once she was ready to pull herself out, but his current business was none of hers. Yet.
The blackness of the nexus was immediately visible, choking in its entirety. Slowly, one-by-one, the meditating Jedi appeared through it, bright specks of light against the darkness.
"Are we all here?" This deep in the Force it was more of a thought than words, but affirmations quietly flooded back to her. She ran the clay beads between her thumb and forefinger and cleared her throat. "Focus on light, whether that's literal or figurative. Purification, nullification, the opposite of what you feel now. Focus and hold to that. If you do it right, the energy should disperse."
From far above her, like it came from the surface of the ocean, T3 released a quiet dwoo. The energy around them stirred, swirling around them, the air crackling against her skin.
"It may fight. Ignore it."
As the blazing light from the Jedi began to force the shadow into retreat, a presence began to envelop her. Revan scowled, but held her ground. This one was familiar, not the darkness of the Emperor, but the brightness of something else. Normally, she would have run from it. Her experiences with Force entities made her leery of interacting with them at all, regardless of apparent alignment. This was far from the first time she'd met this one, and the grating, vaguely disturbing female voice was not a surprise.
Child, this one breathed and, for the first time, Revan regretted bringing others on board for this.
I'm a little busy, thanks.
A long time we waited. We worry.
Don't.
An odd breeze rustled her hair. We will. For you we waited. For us you live.
I live for myself.
There is much you know not. You still must learn. Even you, who has learned so much, must never stop.
I'm in the middle of something, if you don't mind.
To her surprise, there was a quiet laugh. You are many things to many things. The wall, and the gate. The hypergiant star to the supermassive black hole.
She was sure her unease flickered in the Force. You speak of the Emperor.
The Emperor? He, too, has been many things to many things. There is more of him that you see not, but you must. You must.
What?
The presence faded around her, a last lingering thought in the ever-flowing currents of the Force. You will … you will.
Revan looked up again, back to the nexus. The negative black cloud was whirling now, a tornado within the circled Jedi. She stepped forward, more into the circle, and reached for it. As her fingers touched it, electric sparked from the cloud to her, and she sank her arm in it to the elbow. This was the easy part.
A life long lost, loyalties long past their prime, a love that had surpassed even time itself. She wrapped herself in it and sent it deep into the heart of the Foundry with as much of her power, and the power of those around her, as she could muster.
The immediate change was nearly blinding. Light flooded into the vortex, permeating it like a star's rays through a cloud. For a moment it overwhelmed even her, and she threw her arm up over her eyes. It burst through the Force like a beacon, quivering the web that extended far past the Foundry and the ships to Tython, and Coruscant, and even toward that sucking black mass far, far distant. She lowered her arm.
The nexus had exploded back to its usual size, a large, nebulous cloud strongest at the core of the Foundry's command center. Revan lowered her hand. No sign of the dark, oppressive negative energy remained. Now it was just a gray tracing of light on the netting of the Force, a comfortable blankness that was perfect, if a little cool, on her skin.
"It's done," she said. "Go ahead and pull yourselves out."
From her left, Yondo's disapproving voice cut through the Force. "It is not done."
"The nexus is reset. That was the goal."
"The nexus is blank."
"No, it's neutralized. That is better for the long-term running of this factory." Revan drew herself back out of the Force, returning solidly to the command platform of the Foundry. "T3, are we online?"
T3 chirped and rocked on his struts. Yondo was the next to emerge, and the other Jedi began to stir around them. Revan paced to the console, looking over the Foundry's systems as the factory hummed back to life.
"Something was said to you."
She cleared her throat. "The Foundry is operating much better than anticipated, with the nexus neutral. I suspect it would see similar outputs if we took it to the oth—"
"The Force spoke to you."
"It wasn't the Force. It was a Force entity that likes to bother me if I go that deeply into it, there's a difference." She glanced at him. "The Force isn't alive. It doesn't speak, not like that."
"So quickly your forget your—"
"The lessons of a group of fuddies who haven't left a Temple in years?" Yondo's mouth drew into a thin line. "My understanding of the Force is practical, not theoretical. The Force has never itself spoken, not to me nor any other. And, if the Force did have a will, then we should all be afraid."
"It is not—"
"Hell, take me for example. My entire life has been a series of mishaps, mistakes, bad ideas, and pain. I can either blame the Force, if I believe the Force has a will, or I can take responsibility for myself. I've watched Jedi Councils and Masters refuse to take action because they waited for some miraculous guidance from the Force — in fact, my own prominence is due to it. The Force has no will, and the Force cannot act. It can be acted upon. That is all."
"You pretend to know so much. Your ego is matched only by your ignorance. And where have you learned these lessons? At the foot of the Sith Emperor. Y—"
Revan took a few seconds to count backwards from fifteen. "Vitiate taught me nothing but pain and anger. I learned the nature of the Force standing in the midst of the Mandalorian genocide of Cathar, on the glass fields of Serocco, within the fires on Telos. They taught me clearly that the Force cannot have a will — and that if it does, it is not on our side." Yondo opened his mouth, and she turned back to the console. "Or, did the atrocities that the Republic and the Empire have committed during this war not teach you the same thing?"
Yondo closed his mouth. "Then we have learned differently from our experiences."
"We have."
"It is something to consider."
"I spent three hundred years considering it." Revan's comm chirped, and she tugged it off her belt. "Revan."
:: Hey. :: It was almost as if Carth could sense the brewing tension in the Foundry's control chamber. :: How's it going? ::
"We're done."
There was a quiet pause. :: I thought as much. We felt a pulse about a minute ago, I thought that might be it. Do you want — ::
"Yes. Go ahead and re-dock. I suspect some of the older Jedi need to rest."
Yondo began to protest. :: Understood. We'll be re-docking in ten. ::
"Understood." Revan clipped her commlink back to her belt and returned her attention to the console. "Thank you for your service, Yondo. I need to oversee the Foundry restarting, TS will return you and yours to the station entrance."
"TS—" Yondo looked back at the ramp, where the testing room's controller stood waiting with datapad in hand.
"Yes," TS said. "Follow me, please."
Yondo looked between Revan and the droid.
"You heard the lady," she said pointedly.
She waited until they had disappeared into the Foundry proper, following TS and followed at a distance by HK. Once they were clear, she turned away and sank down against the console, resting her head in her hands.
Revan had encountered that entity a few times before. The first time she had fully immersed herself in the Force as an Initiate in the Temple, it had buffeted her curiously with a language she didn't know. It was only several encounters in that the entity used a language she spoke, and even then it had been the same cryptic nonsense. When she was a Padawan she'd asked Kae about it, only for the woman to ask more questions than Revan felt able to answer.
The only positive encounters had been the few when she was in stasis, when Vitiate's attention was turned elsewhere, and it was a rare, welcome respite from his intrusions. Even then it had been cryptic — but welcome. It never seemed to realize when it was distracting her, though.
T3 chirped comfortingly and reached out with his manipulator arm, petting hers. She smiled and rubbed at his top, and rested her head back against the console.
At least the station finally felt palpable.
Eventually there were steps on the ramp leading down to the control center platform. She looked up as Carth sank down to one knee ahead of her.
"You alright?"
"I'm fine."
"You sure? Yondo said you-"
"I don't care what Yondo said."
Carth sat down next to her. "What happened?"
"Ugh. Nothing, Carth." He opened his mouth and she sighed. "Sorry. Yondo stresses me out."
"I know. So. Did it work?"
"How does it feel?"
He closed his eyes. "No headache."
"Nope."
"Yep. It worked." Revan leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "One clean facility ready for the Republic, Admiral."
"We'll make the most of it while we can."