THE PATH OF REVAN
Part IV: Theron
3,636 years before the Battle of Yavin
Theron Shan realized that he was standing in a room with two of the most befuddling women he had ever met.
The one standing next to him, the Sith Lord Lana Beniko, was perhaps the most confounding of the two. Were it not for her black garbs and her yellow eyes that were a trademark of dark side-using folks, he never would have pegged her as a Sith. She was more polite than some Jedi he had worked with and she treated everyone, even the lowest of Republic or Imperial worker, with some degree of respect. Sometimes he wondered if it was all some elaborate act just to lure everyone into a false sense of security… but after everything they had been through together, he started to see less of a rational reason for her to do so.
And then, like some sort of twisted reflection, there was Larisa Soral.
Where Lana was blonde, Larisa had raven-black hair that cascaded around her face, framing her dark eyes. Unlike most Jedi, her attire was nearly as dark as Lana’s and did not have any of the formality that most Jedi robes had. As with Lana, he never would have figured she was a Jedi unless he had already been told so. She was also a lot more cold than the typical Jedi; even Lana could carry a friendly conversation and yet she was the Sith Lord in the room. At present, she was staring at a viewscreen that displayed reports of mysterious raids that had been occurring on Republic and Imperial worlds alike, with Korriban being the most recent to fall victim to these attacks. No one had been able to determine the identity of these raiders; it was simply another headache in addition to the ones posed by the Revanite crisis less than a year ago. Her brooding gaze had an intensity to it that always stood out in Theron’s mind; more than anything he had ever seen in a woman.
Theron quickly shook his head to clear it of these thoughts. The past few years had dramatically altered his perception of the galaxy and how it worked. Throughout his career as an SIS agent, everything had been laid out to him in basic black-and-white terms: Jedi were good, Sith were bad. Republic good, Empire bad. Anything else that was in between would be dealt with appropriately (that is: however his superiors wanted him to handle it). So resolute was he in is beliefs and loyalty to the Republic that not even a member of the Dark Council could convince him to defect to the Empire, even when his life was on the line.
But ever since the Sith Emperor’s defeat (at Larisa’s hands no less), he had started to wonder what exactly was it that made anyone good or bad. If every Sith was like Lana, would they have ever been at war? If every Jedi was like Larisa, would the Republic even be working with them?
His loyalty to the Republic now was unwavering, that much was certain. But if the Republic were to become as bad as the Empire, or worse… then what would that loyalty even mean?
Larisa’s cool yet gentle voice broke Theron out of his thoughts, snapping him back to reality.
“Darth Marr has asked me to meet with him.”
This seemed to catch even the ever-calm and serene Lana off-guard. “Has he?” the young Sith Lord asked.
“He says that he’s found a lead on the Emperor’s location. He’s already assembled a task force comprised of Imperial and Republic soldiers to join him on his expedition.”
“That’s… unexpected,” Theron remarked. “Guess you impressed him back on Yavin when we dealt with Revan and his followers.”
Larisa did not respond to this. Turning away from the viewscreen, she spared a moment to look at her two allies, her gaze lingering on Theron for an extra few seconds (or was he just imagining things?).
“My Padawan has already prepared my ship. I will leave you two to try and figure these attacks out while I’m gone. Hopefully we can find a resolution to both this and the Emperor’s whereabouts before long.”
“Who knows,” Theron said. “Maybe the two are connected.”
“I haven’t ruled out that possibility either.”
With that, the Jedi Knight strode out of the room, leaving Theron alone with Lana and the large screen behind them. Theron huffed in exasperation as he crossed his arms.
“Not much for goodbyes, is she?”
“She’s not like most Jedi I’ve met, I will admit,” Lana replied. “Still, I’m sure she has lots on her mind. I can’t blame her, honestly. Between the Emperor’s return and now this, none of us have gotten a chance to rest after solving the Revanite crisis.”
“The galaxy just loves throwing us one hurdle after the other.” Turning around, Theron approached the screen that Larisa had been studying. “So, any theories on who could be behind these attacks?”
Lana took a moment to reply, and when she did, it was not in response to his question. “Theron,” she said quietly. “How much do you know about your family’s history?”
Theron frowned in confusion as he turned around to look at her. “Come again?”
“We both know that Revan was your ancestor—”
“Yeah, and all I got from him was my good looks. Look, we’ve been over this before: I’m not bothered by it. I don’t have the Force, so there’s no worry about me becoming another Dark Lord of the Sith or whatever. My mother may have had to worry about that, but I don’t. I’m just a normal guy, for lack of a better term.”
Lana shook her head. “That wasn’t where I was going with this. You see, during the Revanite crisis, I did some research into Revan’s history and that of his descendants. Most of the information I found was not particularly relevant to the situation at hand, but some of it I found… interesting, to say the least.”
Theron narrowed his eyes at her as he leaned back against the computer console, folding his arms. “Like what?”
“Shortly after Darth Malak’s death, Revan took part in a campaign against the remnants of his own Sith Empire. He returned to Korriban with a Jedi strike force and drove off the Sith warlords that had risen to try and take Malak’s place.” Lana gave a meaningful pause to her speech before finishing with: “One of these Sith was a man named Kalon Soral.”
At this, Theron’s eyebrows shot up in intrigue. “An ancestor of Larisa’s, I take it?”
Lana nodded. “Almost undoubtedly, for there was another Sith at the time was a Sephi woman named Nova Larisa. Both she and Kalon had been Jedi who had joined Revan in his crusade against the Mandalorians and were, according to the reports I found, nearly inseparable. She stood by Kalon’s side when he clashed with Revan on Korriban and Revan was forced to kill her during that fight.”
Theron rubbed his chin. “What happened to their child then?”
“That, I am unsure of. Admittedly, I couldn’t find evidence that they even had a child. Likewise, I couldn’t find anything on our Larisa’s own family. She told me herself that was she rescued from pirates at an early age and had virtually no memory of her parents.”
The way Lana finished her sentence prompted Theron to shift his feet. “You don’t think… I mean, that stuff all happened three hundred years ago, right? There’s no way Larisa could be their child and not just a descendant, right?”
Lana shrugged. “Sephi are known to live for an exceptionally long time. Assuming that Larisa has Sephi blood in her veins, its within the realm of possibility.”
“Did she ever say when the Jedi found her?”
“I don’t believe she has, no.”
Theron sighed as he shook his head. “That woman is a mystery, I tell you.”
“You seem to like her all the same.”
His eyes snapped to meet hers and he detected the ghost of a smile playing on her lips. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing,” Lana said lightly. “Just making an observation.”
“Well, stop observing me.” He turned back to the viewscreen. “Let’s observe these mystery attacks instead and find out who’s responsible.”
“She does like you, you know. She may not show it, but I’m almost positive that she—”
“Lana. Stop. Please.”
Although he could not see her, he could already imagine the wicked grin playing on the Sith Lord’s face.
“As you wish.”
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