The man was completely alone in the empty blackness. Fragmented memories of the past ran through his mind and were the only pieces of his identity still left. An image of a young, beautiful woman with durasteel gray eyes shot through his head along with a name – Bastila. She seemed to be... someone that the man cared for. Another memory shot through his mind; a man with a terrifying mask but a pure heart – Revan. That was... that was him. "R-Revan?" the man said to himself. He nodded. "Revan. And I'm..."

The world around Revan erupted into being. He was standing on the bridge of a space ship with Bastila staring at him with a combination of horror, pity, and hatred. She was swinging a yellow lightsaber at Revan and saying something about his rule of darkness ending. "That doesn't... this doesn't sound right," Revan said to himself. He pulled his saber from his hip and ignited the red blade. The saber flashed white for a moment. "Something is... wrong."

He looked back at the woman with violet eyes and a silver lightsaber – "Wait... You're not Bastila..." Revan looked back down at his white lightsaber and felt a memory rush into his mind. He saw the same mask on a different man – somewhat taller and filled with a terrified confusion. A sense of self the same as he felt with the image of Revan ran through him. "I'm... Theron."

"You'll never win, Revan!" the woman shouted.

"No... Theron. And you're not Bastila. Don't act like her – you're..." the man bit his lip and shook his head. The woman seemed so... familiar. He knew that she should be easily recognizable, as if he was connected to her. The woman jumped at him suddenly and he barely blocked her silvery saber. "Wait, what's going on!?"

The ship beneath his feet rocked with an explosion as turbolaser fire ripped through the bridge of the ship. Theron felt a blinding heat run through his back and saw the vacuum tearing at the dead and weak in the bridge before containment protocols kicked in. He saw the red headed woman was gone, instead Bastila was crouching over the body of the prone... Revan. "What's going on?" Theron asked. He crouched down and examined the body. With a shaking hand he removed the mask and, with a start, saw his own face. His dark brown hair ran down to his shoulders and around his unblemished face; the other him was eyes open as his life bled away. The gray of his irises was distorted by the blood in his eyes – his corneas had become detached by the impulse of the explosions.

Theron backed away from his dying counterpart. "Where am I?"

He heard a terrible hissing and turned around. The ship around him disappeared and he was alone in the darkness again. "Revan," the hissing seemed to whisper. Theron turned quickly around and around, searching desperately for the terrifying source of the voice. "Revan..."

"Who is there!?" Theron screamed. "Are you... Dammit, I can't remember." He struggled and the image of a skull-like mask flashed through his mind alongside a memory of terrible hunger.

"You insult me, Revan," the hissing said from behind Theron. The voice sounded like a cross between dry bones rubbing together and the slithering of a snake. Theron turned around quickly, but the creature making the noise had already moved. "Was I not important enough to remember? I was not your fool apprentice Malak, or your schutta friend Meetra. Was I just... nothing, in the skies of Malachor V before you destroyed it?"

"There is no Malachor V!" Theron shouted back. He reached down to his hip to ignite his saber, and he held the white blade before him. "Are you going to keep hiding, coward!?"

"You abandoned me. I was loyal. I was strong, and you made me into this," the hissing monster roared. Theron waved his white saber in the direction of the sound's source and glimpsed the same mask he had seen in a vision moments earlier. "I feel so – so hungry. So hollow. You did this with your... weapon and your rage. You made me this!"

Theron felt a blast of wind against his back and was thrown across the infinite blackness. He felt the wind continue blowing him away and he deactivated his lightsaber, afraid he would accidentally cut himself to pieces as he tumbled. He eventually stopped rolling through the emptiness and found himself staring into the empty blackness again. "Come out and fight, you coward!" he screamed at the creature again.

"Say my name..." the creature roared. "You know me – you sent Meetra to kill me. You couldn't do it yourself. You are the coward!"

"Who the kark is Meetra!?" Theron screamed. He ignited his saber again and twirled it into a backhand defensive stance. Theron looked around and knew he was ready for the next attack by... he struggled to remember the monster's name, but still could not.

"You insult me," the monster screamed. With another gust of wind, Theron saw the skull mask rush towards his face. Blood red fire burned behind the holes of the eyes and they seemed to drain the will from Theron – not all of it, though. Theron let out a scream of aggression and slashed at the creature with his saber. The white rushed towards the red eyes. Theron grinned as the blade grew closer and closer to his nameless enemy, but his triumph quickly turned to surprise – the blade dissolved into white dust that flew away and the handle of the blade quickly followed suit.

"You cannot defeat me here, you arrogant fool!" the creature hissed. Theron felt a gloved claw clutch at his throat and lift him into the air. "I rule supreme in my Hunger!"

Theron gurgled and felt himself slipping away. Then he narrowed his eyes and sent waves of Force lightning into the mask. The white shattered and Theron fell to his knees. He looked up with a cocky grin at his injured enemy, but the grin morphed into a surprised look of fear when the mask regenerated to its complete form. "I forgot your arrogance is warranted, Revan," the voice hissed. "But your companions... they don't have that same strength. But combined with mine, your death will be swift."

The white mask disappeared and Theron was stranded in the empty darkness. "Kark!" he screamed while he fell to his knees. He reached upward and screamed. "I have to get to Ana!"

He froze. The image of the angry looking woman with violet eyes ran through his mind again. "Ana... she is... someone I know. A friend, I think," he said. He looked at his hands and nodded. Another image of a blue twi'lek and a cocky human, both males, ran through his mind again. "Yeah. They're all friends – Ana... R – Rhen... and... and Van. Yeah... Kark. I still don't know how to find them..."

"Want some help?" Theron heard. He looked up to see a man with shoulder length brown and gray hair that partially covered his brown eyes. The man was in black and bronze robes with the hood laying against his shoulders. "Force knows you could use it."

"Y-you're... Revan?" Theron said. He pushed himself to his feet and stared the slightly shorter man in the eye. "He knows you... the... monster."

Revan nodded. "Yes. There was a man, once, who I led into battle. A Jedi Knight, who had a rare, but dangerous, ability. Without knowing it, he fed on the excess life energy of a battle. The adrenaline of those around him, it made him strong. He was a threat to life because of this. I thought that I made sure he would die – though, it appears he was stronger and darker than I thought."

"Who was he?" Theron asked. He looked around the empty nothingness and the name came to him. "Nihl? Darth Nihl?"

"Close," Revan said. He pulled up his hood and put on his mask. "His name was – is – Darth Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger. Though, from what I've seen, the Hunger lords over him."

"Indeed," a monotonous female voice said. From the darkness appeared a woman dressed in crimson and a black a shade lighter than the nothingness surrounding them. "But it still makes him strong, and he will destroy your friends before long."

"Okay, so what am I supposed to do?" Theron asked the woman. He knew he should be unnerved that people kept appearing out of nowhere, but he, somehow, had been expecting it.

The woman sighed and looked at Revan. "Visas – don't."

She shook her head. "I must, for the sake of all life in the galaxy. I must, for him to defeat my old Master."

"You going to cut me into the conversation, or just talk like the cryptic Force ghosts you are?" Theron interjected.

"Oh, so you admit I'm real, now?" Revan asked jokingly. His stance became durasteel serious. "She's... going to destroy the energy of her soul. To send you into your friends' cages, she's sacrificing her very existence."

Theron looked at the woman – Visas – and shook his head. "I can't ask you to do that!"

"You do not need to," the woman said. She cocked her head to one side. "You remind me of... my closest friend. Do not lose that about yourself." The woman smiled sadly and rippled. Her face contorted with pure agony for a brief moment before her entire being disappeared, and in her place were three weapons. There was a lightsaber hilt that was fused with a blaster at the pommel, a doublesaber hilt, and a standard issue blaster.

"I can't believe she did that," Theron said. He crouched to the weapons and picked them up. "I -"

"Just make sure it wasn't in vain, kay, kid?" Revan ordered. He looked into the empty distance. "I can distract Nihilus for a short while. Save your friends, then kill Nihilus."

"I'll try," Theron promised.

"Do or do not," Revan said.

Theron nodded gravely and pulled the doublesaber from his hip. He traced his thumb around the yellow lines that overlayed the purple handle and traced around the three buttons. The hilt was like a sine curve, made for powerful, spinning strikes that would create walls of plasma. Rhen had indeed made a work of art in his trials. "Okay, Yoda... How do I -" His thumb hit the middle activation switch and the darkness around him morphed into a lush plain of rolling, beautiful hills. "Oh, that's how."

He looked back to his hand and noted – with less surprise than mild amusement – that the saber had disappeared when he had arrived in this new subsection of Nihilus' subconscious. "This should be where Rhen is... but I don't recognize anything here."

Theron looked around the calm, happy place and walked to the top of the hill he was on. He looked into the distance and saw that the plains seemed to go on forever in every direction. Theron bit the inside of his cheek and looked around in every direction until he saw a small cabin in the distance. "Some 'cage...' Well, if Rhen's anywhere..." Theron mumbled to himself. He walked calmly towards the cabin, but it seemed to not grow any closer despite how long and how quickly he moved towards it. Theron would reach the top of the next hill and the house would be the same distance away that it had appeared to be on the summit of the previous hill.

After approaching the summit of the fourth hill, Theron shouted at the sky and sat down on the apex of the hill. "This is so stupid!" he shouted. "Kark!" He stared at the cabin in the distance and and growled angrily.

Theron let himself fall to his back and stare at the calm, bright sky. "Why the kark can't I get there?"

"You!" a gravelly, sadistic voice screeched. Theron felt the hair on the back of his neck rise and he barely rolled across the ground in time to avoid a crimson lightsaber blade. He turned his sideways roll down the hill into a roll to his feet and drew his saber in a single, fluid movement. Theron set his feet about halfway down the hill and stared at the apex with grim anticipation. "You dare come here?"

Theron grinned like a scruffy nerf herder behind his mask as he waited for his assailant to show his face. "Oh, I dare a lot of things. Pissing off Sith is definitely one of them." Theron stated with a cocky grin. He had settled in to a makashi defensive stance, prepared to cross blades with the Sith stalking him. A one-time meal of Nihilus' perhaps?

Theron was very surprised when he saw the Sith, though. He let his stance drop and chuckled. "Rhen what's –?" Theron gasped and ducked beneath the spinning doublesaber that flew from its master's hand and towards Theron's head. The induced magnetic field holding the red plasma in shape pulled at Theron's skin and filled his body with a minor charge that caused his hair to stand on end again beneath his mask. Theron rolled out of the way of his friend's sithsaber and returned to his makashi defense so he could block and study his friend.

The sight he had not noticed at first glance was somewhat terrifying. Rhen was advancing slowly towards Theron with a crimson doublesaber in a robotic claw. Theron saw that the enhancements continued all the way across the twi'lek's body – cybernetics were clearly visible on the blue sapient's shoulders and neck. With the abundance of leather armor crisscrossing the man's torso, it made the man look like a twi'lek Vader, and it was horrifying. Most horrifying, beyond those simple augmentations and sith-colored doublesaber, was Rhen's lekku. Theron made a noise half-way between groan and gasp. "R-Rhen, what happened?" he asked.

The headtails of the twi'lek – an integral part of the sapient's culture that contained key portions of their brains – were destroyed. Uncovered cybernetics extended from half way down on the left lekku and about a third down the other to create the standard shape and look of the lekku. Such destruction of the lekku was extremely damaging to the personality and mental faculties of a twi'lek; in prior cases one-time Jedi fell competely to the Dark Side and impressive minds were lost to the degradation. But Rhen did not have the emptiness of a lobotomy patient in his now Sith red eyes – Theron reasoned that the cybernetics kept his friend up to speed and sane. The Sith twi'lek unleashed a barrage of lightning at Theron, who knocked it away with a sweep of his saber. Theron mumbled under his breath, "Well, I guess that sane might not be the best descriptor."

"The great Revan returns to kill his friend!" Rhen shouted. He sent another shockwave of lightning towards Theron, who deflected the voltage with a sweep of his white saber. Rhen's red eyes lit up bright red and he Force jumped through the air, his unusual saber spinning faster than even Theron's eyes could keep track of.

"What the kriff are you talking about!?" Theron screamed while he struggled to prevent his death at the hands of his best friend. He barely deflected each impossibly fast spin of the doublesaber. Theron gritted his teeth and began to back up. He knew that if he backed up far enough he's go up hill in that infinite plain. "Answer me, Rhen!"

"Do not dare to call me that, fool!" the twi'lek screamed. The spinning, artistically brutal attacks came faster and harder until Theron felt every scrape against his saber reverberate through his body. "You took that name from me! You took my soul, and made me something else!"

Theron felt one of his eyebrows raise inquisitively. "Wh – What do you mean, ol' buddy ol' pal?"

The Sith screamed in rage and amplified the sonic vibrations with the Dark Side of the Force. Theron grunted in pain as his body was sent flying through a hill and he collided with the next one. He watched – partially in wonderment – as Rhen walked through the destroyed hill and it reconstituted itself. "Rhen, none of this is real! This is just... a nightmare! Everything you are feeling and hearing – a nightmare! It's Nihilus, he's doing this to us!" Theron shouted. He pushed himself to his feet and steadied his feet in preparation for the next onslaught of rage-empowered attacks.

"We defeated Nihilus years ago!" Rhen screamed. He unleashed another blast of electricity at Theron, who barely managed to deflect the energy with his saber. He clutched tightly at the hilt of the lightsaber, but the pure force of the electricity on his blade forced it flying away from his hand. He looked back at Rhen who was grinning with evil that echoed throughout his every movement.

"Rhen, don't do this! You're being tricked!" Theron shouted. Rhen's pale, Dark Side mirror image ignored Theron and let loose a continuous barrage of lightning. Theron screamed while almost an Ampere of current flooded through his body. A lesser human – even a lesser Force Sensitive – would have died immediately, Theron, though, held on even to consciousness. He forced his head down from staring at the blue sky and slowly began to raise his hands. It took tremendous effort to even move his body into that position, and the pain almost made him pass out. Still, Theron was able to get his hands stretched out in front of him.

Then came the hard part.

Theron grimaced behind his mask and struggled to channel the Force through his outstretched fingers. He felt a few sparks run through him for a moment as the darkness began to close in on his vision. Eventually, all he could see was the dull purple glow of the lightning. "No..." he groaned. He furrowed his brow. His voice became steeled and cold. "No." He felt the Force rush through his fingers and white lightning rushed from his fingers and collided with Rhen's. Theron felt the Force inhabiting his very being, and the nexus of Force energy between Theron and Rhen exploded. The two lost their concentration and each staggered back a step.

Rhen was the first one to recover, as he had been channeling less energy. He sneered and unleashed another blast of Force lightning. Theron turned just in time to see it coming and grinned. He jumped forward and rolled beneath the energy. Apparently the cybernetics don't make him as smart as he could be, Theron thought to himself as he rolled to his feet. He grabbed Rhen's cyborg arm and forced the saber out of it before firmly grasping the twi'lek's throat with his right hand. Theron lifted his friend into the air and changed his grip to one born of the Force.

"Rhen, you are going to listen to me," Theron said. He unleashed a momentary trickle of electricity from his fingers and Rhen seized in midair. "And you are going to listen well. This is all a dream. None of this is happening, so fight through it. Open your karking eyes, and see that this is all fake!"

The twi'lek glared at Theron with pure hatred and spit down on his friend's head. Theron caught the saliva with the Force and flicked it back into Rhen's face. He stared into the twi'lek's eyes and narrowed his own eyes to slits. With a gentle mental nudge, Theron said again, "Open your eyes, Rhen. This is not real."

The twi'lek's eyes glazed over and the air around him shimmered. The cybernetics disappeared from his body and his Sith-styled robes melted into the customary drabness of the Jedi order. "W-what?" Rhen asked while Theron lowered him to the ground. "Whe – where am I?"

Theron helped his friend up. "Nihilus' mind. He... screwed with your perception of reality. Mine too."

"A Sith Lord's mind? I could've sworn this was the retreat home grandfather would always take me to on Dantooine..." Rhen said while he stared at the simple cabin in the distance. A shiver of recognition ran through Theron's spine. Something about this place – despite Theron never having been there before – suddenly seemed to be quite familiar. But at the same time, he was sure it was not. Yet.

Rhen looked around. "Where are Ana and the schutta pilot?" he asked.

Theron reached down to his hip and grabbed Ana's blaster-saber. "We're about to find out," he said. With a grin, Theron clamped down on the trigger of the blaster end and the world around the two old friends melted away and spun around them in vibrant, painful images of past and future. Theron saw images of gray monsters with horizontal eyestalks who commanded legions of slaves and droids. A space station above an alien world spinning with the power of a star at its heart. The same gray beings next stood in the ruins of a great city with countless members of countless fallen species at their feet; the creatures were feasting on the flesh of the fallen warriors.

"By the Force," Theron whimpered as the visions disappeared. He rubbed his eyes and struggled to get a terrifying idea out of his head – was that the past... or the future?