Star Wars_ The Old Republic_ Revan - Drew Karpyshyn [121]
“But she started looking for you long before we had our conversation,” Scourge protested.
“It’s complicated,” Revan answered with a cryptic smile. “Jedi scholars have devoted centuries to understanding the ways of the Force, and we have only scratched the surface.”
Scourge silently tried to digest what he was being told. At the same time, he tried to form the questions that would give him the answers he wanted without revealing what he had seen.
“Once you had the vision of Meetra, were you certain she was coming? Did you know for sure that she would help free you?”
Revan shook his head. “We can never be certain about anything. The future is always in motion, and a vision shows you only one of many possible outcomes.”
“Then what purpose do visions serve?”
“They guide us,” Revan explained. “They give us focus. They show us a goal to strive for, or something we can work to prevent.”
“So the visions are not absolute?”
“As I said, the future is always in motion.”
There was another long period of silence before Scourge asked another question. “Have you had any visions of what will happen when we face the Emperor?”
“No,” Revan said. “The dark side obscures my sight. We are walking into a time and place of shadows, and I cannot promise you that we will ever come out.”
“Doesn’t that terrify you?”
“Fear is only an emotion; a trick the mind plays on us. You must learn to set your fear aside.”
“We Sith are taught to embrace our fear,” Scourge told him. “We transform it into anger and use it to fuel the power of the dark side.”
“But then your actions will always be driven by that fear,” Revan said.
“And what are your actions driven by?” Scourge asked. “Logic? Reason?”
“No,” Revan admitted. “If I were reasonable, I would never have left my family behind to face the Emperor.”
“Then why did you do it?”
Revan nodded in the direction of the holoprojection. “For them. I want my son to live a long and healthy life. I want him to know peace, not war. I’ve come to stop the Emperor for him.”
“And what if we don’t stop him?” Scourge said, treading perilously close to the heart of what he really wanted to say. “What if he’s too strong?”
“That is a possibility,” Revan admitted. “But even if we fail to defeat the Emperor, there is still hope. My return will give him pause. He will wonder how I threw off the chains of his will. He will wonder why I have returned, and how much the Republic now knows of his plan. He will even wonder about Malak. For all the Emperor knows, Malak is still out there, plotting to take the Emperor down if I fail.”
“You’re just trying to buy time,” Scourge gasped. “You don’t care if the Emperor kills us all—you just want to delay him!”
“No,” Revan said. “I want to live. Even more, I want to purge the galaxy of his evil once and for all. But I understand that there can be victory even in defeat. Even if we fall, we will buy time. Maybe a few years. More likely a few decades.”
“Time for your son to become a man,” Scourge noted bitterly. “Are you hoping he will finish what you might not?”
“Him or someone else,” Revan admitted. “The Force always strives for balance. The Emperor is an agent of darkness and destruction. It is inevitable that a champion of the light will one day rise to oppose him. I may be that champion.” He spoke with no hint of hubris. “I’ve played the role before. At the very least, I will make the Emperor step back and reconsider his plan. If that is my fate—if my role is to sacrifice myself for the one who will come next—then I embrace it.”
Scourge shook his head. “I’m beginning to think you are as mad as the Emperor. I have no intention of dying tomorrow.”
“Neither do I. But if death comes, I will face it without fear. You will find our task easier if you can convince yourself to do the same,” he said, before turning his attention back to the holoprojection.
“Start over from the beginning,” Revan told T3, and the astromech obediently restarted the recording.