Star Wars_ The Old Republic_ Revan - Drew Karpyshyn [122]
Scourge got to his feet and walked back to the section of the cave he had been sitting in earlier. He briefly considered talking to Meetra, then realized that would be a waste of time. She would only echo what Revan had said.
The Sith sat down and crossed his legs again, closing his eyes. But he wasn’t able to clear his mind this time. Instead, he kept running over Revan’s words, playing them against the enduring images of his vision, trying to understand what it all meant.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
AS PLANNED, Revan, Meetra, Scourge, and T3-M4 left the cave at dawn, though dawn on Dromund Kaas was a term with little meaning. The black storm clouds completely blocked out the sun, and the sky was only marginally lighter than it had been during the night.
A steady drizzle fell on them as they climbed into the speeder. They rode in silence, all of them preparing in their own way for what they knew lay ahead. Meetra had gone into what Revan called her warrior’s trance; she sat still and straight, her eyes focused on nothing as she stared straight ahead.
He had seen it many times during the war against the Mandalorians. Before each major battle she would try to center her emotions, cleansing herself of all fear and hatred lest the imminent violence draw her toward the dark side. She believed she could transform herself into a perfect conduit for the Force, an incorruptible weapon of light.
Revan was no longer sure such a thing was possible, but he didn’t say anything to Meetra for fear of disrupting her routine.
With his memories restored, Revan recalled that he, too, had once clung to a set of rituals before each battle. He would stare at his reflection in the mirror, his face covered by his mask as he recited the Jedi Code over and over until the words seemed to blend together, their meaning lost in the rhythmic repetition of a mantra.
In those days, he had believed this would protect him from the dark side, but he no longer had any such illusions. He was older and wiser. He understood that the two sides of the Force were more closely intertwined with each other than either the Jedi or the Sith would ever admit. He had learned to balance on the knife-edge between them, drawing on both the light and dark sides for strength.
As much as things had changed, however, he still felt the old stirrings of glory as they set off—a faint echo from the impetuousness of youth that had caused him to defy the Council and lead his fellow Jedi into war so many years before.
Even T3 was strangely subdued, the gravity of their situation weighing as heavily on the astromech as it did on his organic companions.
Revan knew he didn’t have to worry about Meetra or the faithful droid. Scourge was another matter, however. The conversation they’d had during the night left little doubt that the Sith was troubled.
Unlike the Jedi, he had not spent a lifetime preparing for this. The concept of self-sacrifice came easily to those who walked the path of the light. Even though he occasionally strayed into the dark side, Revan still embraced the nobility of the idea.
For the Sith, however, there was no such thing as a noble death. Scourge understood the concept of sacrifice, but only when it came to sacrificing others. He had been taught to value survival above all else. Even his willingness to join with Revan and Meetra was driven by his desire for self-preservation; ultimately he wanted victory only for his sake, and not for the sake of others.
Perhaps there was no greater illustration of the difference between the light side and the dark, and Revan knew it would make their mission more difficult for Scourge. He had tried to make him understand during their brief conversation, but it was hard to undo years of teaching in a single night.
Still, the Sith seemed to be holding himself together well enough this morning.
“I can’t bring the speeder in too close,” Scourge said now, taking them in for a landing on the farthest outskirts of Kaas City. “They might have set up ion cannons to shoot down any unauthorized vehicles.”
They continued on foot,