Star Wars_ The Old Republic_ Revan - Drew Karpyshyn [129]
“Why didn’t you mention this when you told me about Nyriss’s betrayal?”
“I didn’t know,” Scourge lied. “I only found out after the Guard razed her stronghold. The Jedi sought me out. They knew I worked for Nyriss; they never suspected that I was the one who had betrayed her.”
“So you led them to me.”
“I knew they could never defeat you,” Scourge said. “So I played along, waiting for my chance to turn on them and prove my loyalty to you once more.”
“If this is true,” the Emperor said. “Then you must finish it.”
Scourge nodded, and rose to his feet. He walked over to Revan, bent down, and ripped off his helmet. The Jedi’s face was badly burned, the outline of his mask indelibly seared into his cheeks and forehead. He was still unconscious, his body in shock from his wounds; without medical attention he would die soon anyway.
The Sith Lord raised his lightsaber to deliver the coup de grâce. He brought his arm down, but it suddenly stopped as if an invisible and impossibly strong hand had seized his wrist. He glanced back at the Emperor in surprise.
“Put away your blade. You have passed the test,” the Emperor said. “But Revan can still be of use to me.”
Despite his curiosity, Scourge knew better than to ask how. He couldn’t risk anything that might make it appear he was concerned about the Jedi’s fate. To sell his lie, he had to make it seem as if everything he had done had been for the most obvious and selfish of reasons.
“Twice I have stopped those who sought to defeat you,” he said, extinguishing his blade and bowing before the Emperor. “I trust you will remember this when you select the members of the new Dark Council.”
The Emperor smiled, and Scourge’s entire body went cold.
“I promise you will be given your just reward.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“THE RITUAL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN,” the Emperor intoned.
Scourge nodded, though even if he had wanted to refuse it was far too late now.
He was standing in the center of a cylindrical metal platform roughly two meters across. Dozens of wires and IV tubes had been hooked to his body. The wires were connected to several generators arranged in a circle around the platform, the IV tubes ran to clear vats filled with a strange green bubbling liquid.
They were still inside the citadel, but this private chamber was much smaller than the throne room. It was unfurnished and, apart from the Emperor, Scourge, and the infernal machinery he was hooked up to, completely empty.
In the wake of Revan’s defeat, the Emperor hadn’t made him a member of the Dark Council after all. Instead, he had created a new position for Scourge: the Emperor’s Wrath.
The Emperor had believed his explanation about Revan. As a reward Scourge was to become his personal enforcer and executioner, taking his orders directly from the Emperor and answering to no one but him.
That wasn’t the full extent of his reward, however. For his role in exposing Xedrix, Nyriss, and Revan, the Emperor had promised to grant Scourge the gift of eternal life. He would forever serve at the Emperor’s side, an honor far greater than even that of being selected for the Dark Council.
Scourge had eagerly accepted, knowing his new position would give him both time and opportunity to find another way to stop the Emperor before his madness and hunger consumed the galaxy.
“Open yourself to the dark side,” the Emperor said, and Scourge felt the air around him begin to swirl with power.
Betraying his allies had not altered the inevitable outcome; the Emperor would have won regardless. At least this way Scourge was still alive to carry on their cause.
Revan was still alive, too, but he was as good as dead to Scourge. The Emperor was holding him prisoner in a secret facility, and Scourge knew he could never risk trying to find its location. He couldn’t do anything that might suggest an ongoing connection between him and Revan. Doing so would expose the truth to the Emperor, making his sacrifice of the Jedi pointless.
“Let the spark of eternal life ignite