REVENGE OF THE SITH
Visions
Visions are a tricky thing.
For those highly skilled in the Force, a vision is a blessing. And a horrible curse. There had been many visions from the Jedi Masters; most were relatively innocent – something about a student or a friend – but some were absolutely and downright terrifying.
Vandar Tokare was of a mysterious alien race who easily took to learning the ways of the Force. The small-statured alien species had at least one member on the Jedi Council from the very beginnings of the Jedi Order and as it was with those before him, Vandar had a great command of the Force and was respected by all those who knew him. And like those masters before him, the small alien was prone to have visions from time to time.
It was a cool night when he first had the horrible vision that would change the course of Jedi history. He saw a great battle in which many soldiers and civilians were slain brutally; his vision was clouded in the color of blood red as he watched these people be slaughtered and then, darkness.
Nothing but the dark of space. Those planets that hovered in his mind’s eye exploded, one by one by one, leaving tattered pieces of their surface, of their people, scattered in the night sky.
Then he saw the face of evil; or rather, he saw the outline of evil. The face was smeared, fuzzy, but what he could make out was the level of malice that rose from the individual’s body. The images were enough to scare anyone, but the feeling he got, the overwhelming sense of hate and dark overpowered him and he struggled to awaken.
He would go on to have these same visions nightly for another two days before he approached the other members of the Council about them. At the time, the race known as the Mandalorians had made skirmishes on Outer Rim planets, but they were slowly but surely making their way into Republic space.
The Council discussed at length what should be done and they all agreed that patience was the key here. Vandar’s vision was a dark one and the Mandalorians’ conquests didn’t seem to match what he had seen. So they waited.
And made the first of many mistakes.
Vandar wasn’t the only one who had visions within the Jedi Order. Another Jedi Master – Kreia Sovin – also had the gift of sight. And she too had seen the future and like Vandar, it unnerved her.
She too saw a great battle, one that would rival the battles Exar Kun brought to the Order and to the Republic. She saw the deaths of her students – two of her prize students – one falling in battle against a vicious opponent and the other fall at the hands of his apprentice and friend.
Most importantly, she saw her role in a battle to come, one that she would help to start.
The last of these to have visions was a talented Jedi Master named Revan. It was only after his fall to the dark side and subsequent rise to the prodigal knight that this young man too began having visions. Few were happy in their scenes; he had a recurring one with his wife and children.
But most – all but the one of his future – were horrible. He saw the pain and suffering he had inflicted on people when he was the Dark Lord; the things he had done to his former friends, what he had turned them into.
He had several of a young Republic pilot who had the Force within him and Revan had used this knowledge to turn the young man into an assassin; he had a few where he had met with an admiral of the Republic Fleet – now loyal to him – and his apprentice, a man who had been his best friend at one time.
He saw his lightsaber bear down upon the apprentice, its energy blade cutting from just under his left ear and across to cut the tip of his right. The end result left the apprentice’s jaw lying on the ground, the apprentice himself screaming in pain and horror.
He had two about a tall, white haired man who had confronted him on an Outer Rim planet. The two had fought, but Revan had won, his lightsaber plunging into the man’s heart. The scene wasn’t too terrible, but he always woke up with the feeling of deep sadness; as though he knew the man and had respected him.
When Revan had left Republic space for a second time, his visions became less about his past and more of his future. He still had the dream of his future family, the only thing now that linked him to his beloved Bastila.
But he also continued to have horrible visions of the future. There was one where he fought within a room that had timed force fields. He could see a dark Jedi before him and his heart would always clinch in hatred and pain when he would look at him.
When the fields dropped, he would charge at the dark Jedi, striking and stabbing every chance he got. Just as he drove his saber into the man’s gut, the face would change and morph into people he knew.
He saw his best friend – the pilot from his ship, the blue Twi’lek who was like a sister to him… then it would morph into a man he hadn’t seen in nearly ten years. He was young, with a shaved head that once held short red locks, and he had a bit of stubble on his chin.
“Revan?” he would gurgle. “Help… help me…”
The more times the former master had these visions, the longer they would stay on the young man. The young man would look pained and shocked before he would morph back into the dark Jedi again and Revan would wake, always disoriented, always confused, always fearful that he had delved too far into himself and his former life was slowly taking over.
He would have a few more visions – visions of death, whether it was his or his friends; visions of what could come. His mind, though broken by the betrayal of his former friend and apprentice, still clung to the one piece of the puzzle that was paramount for the galaxy.
Long ago, his mind discovered a place or a planet or… something, and that something had helped him down the dark path.
As the young knight gathered his belongings to head back into Republic space, he now carried the knowledge of what he had learned while researching the Mandalorians and what he had witnessed within the temple on Yavin 4.
Something awaited the Republic and they were slowly gathering more troops and that alone put worry and fear into him. But more than that, was the sense that there was still a piece missing.
His mind tried to give clues, tried to communicate that there was a much deeper meaning to everything – to the Mandalorian War, to his fall, to his current adventure, to his friend’s own dark path, to the battle and war that loomed ahead of him.
Even as he entered Republic space for the first time in five years, the former Jedi known as Revan was truly fearful. Though some things were known, many were not.
And if the visions of the past and the future merged here, it painted a very grim picture indeed.