"Where am I?" asked the man who had once been Shinji Ikari. No answers came because Pen-Pen, while very smart for a penguin, couldn't talk.
Pen-Pen kept staring at the tall man in white robes, obviously confused. His senses told him that the strange man who came out of the television set was his buddy Shinji and yet... Not. He had obviously changed. Lacking a human set of values, he couldn't tell if it was a good or bad development.
Right now, 'Revan' was wondering what just happened and where in the name of the Force he was.
Gathering his thoughts, the redeemed Jedi Knight went back over the events of the past few weeks...
*****
It all began when Shinji Ikari woke up on the Endar Spire, a Republic vessel under attack, with huge blanks in his memories. He was uncermoniously dragged from an adventure into another, managing to be trained as a Jedi along the way.
It was the start of an epic quest to save the Republic from the Sith. The current dark lord, Darth Malak, had eliminated his master, Darth Revan, and had launched a vast compaign of conquests and destruction on the Galaxy. It was later discovered that the key to his power was an unknown artifact called the Star Forge.
He also remembered his companions: Carth Onasi, Republic war hero. Mission Vao, the spunky teenage Twi'lek thief. Zaalbar, the Wookie warrior who had swore a life-debt to him. T3-M4, astromech droid extraordinaire. Canderous Ordo, the hardened Mandalorian mercenary. Juhani, the Cathar Jedi he had turned back from the Dark Side. HK-47, a protocol droid who doubled as 'meatbag exterminator' (his words, not Revan's). Jolee Bindo, an old, cranky and cryptic Jedi who liked to give unorthodox advice to him...
And the 'Jedi princess', Bastila Shan. The woman he was mentally linked to, thanks to the will of the Force. The woman he had fallen in love with, despite the rules that forbade Jedi to pursue such attachments.
And then came shocking revelation aboard the Leviathan, courtesy of Darth Malak himself: that Shinji Ikari, scout of the Republic Exploration Corps turned Jedi Knight, was in fact an amnesiac Darth Revan, the Sith Lord responsible for the current war.
Then Bastila sacrificed herself to let them get away. After their escape, Shinji had had to tell the whole group the truth. His comrades surprised him then, by accepting him nonetheless since in the end, he wasn't Darth Revan anymore. That's when they all became more than allies to him, now they were his friends.
Later, they had found the last Star Map on Korriban. At last, they had the location of the Star Forge! The Ebon Hawk rushed there, only to be shot down. The ship crashed on Rakata and the crew had to fight through feuding alien tribes and Sith forces to find a way to repair it.
And at the top of the temple of the Ancients came the confrontation with his True Love, turned to the Dark Side of the Force thanks to Darth Malak. Her plea for him to assume the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith again, with her at his side. THAT had been the hardest decision of his new life when he refused her.
Then came the time for the Final Battle. The fleet of the Republic attacked the Star Forge and Revan's group infiltrated it along with the Jedis. Revan had faced Bastila in combat again and, thanks to their love and the Force, changed sides and finally admitted her feelings for him. Finally, the final duel with his former friend and apprentice, Darth Malak.
Revan had defeated Malak once and for all in the heart of the Star Forge. Shortly thereafter, it was destroyed by a daring Republic assault. In the end, the Jedi Order and the Republic had, against all odds, prevailed against the Sith. There was no doubt on anyone's mind that their victory was due to Revan's redemption.
Revan and his friends were all made heroes of the Republic. Master Vandar had then begun a speech about his tale becoming legend and suddenly... Nothingness.
*****
A quick survey of the apartment and a peek outside showed Revan that he certainly wasn't on Rakata anymore. His best guess was that he had ended up on some kind of unknown, low-tech planet.
Revan checked himself up and reviewed his possessions. He was back in his Star Forge robes and had on himself all the gear he used during the final battle (and then some). His hand brushed fleetingly on his customized double lightsaber and he took some reassurance from its presence.
*Odd...*, he thought. He clearly remembered wearing his scout uniform, back at the ceremony. Something strange was going on.
The former Dark Lord of the Sith closed his eyes and reached for the Force. It responded, as quickly and powerfully as ever. He couldn't help but notice that whatever city he was in, it had been built atop a massive disturbance in the Force. It wasn't Light or Dark in nature but... Alien, for lack of a better term. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to ponder the problem further.
As the Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic credits came to an end, the 'GAME OVER' message appeared on the TV screen. Suddenly, Revan keeled over. Startled by the sudden move, Pen-Pen yelped in fright and ran to safety in Misato's fridge. It proved to be a smart move because Revan was now lashing out with the Force. Objects were picked up and violently thrown across the appartment, machines were fried by power surges and glass shattered in a whirlwind of power, centered on the suffering Jedi.
Shinji Ikari the EVA pilot was back in business and Shinji/Revan was feeling untold pain as he tried to reconcile his two lives, the 'real' one and the 'imaginary' one. Too many memories rushing back at once were taking their toll on him.
But the worst thing at the moment was the sensation of emptiness in Revan's... no, Shinji's soul. His link with Bastila had been brutally severed.
Bastila Shan, his ally, his friend, his comrade, his love. To his horror, he realized she was nothing more than a fictional character, a figment of some writer's imagination, a bunch of lines of code in a game for people's entertainment. To say that he was hurt beyond anything he had ever experienced before (inside and outside the game) was an understatement.
For a fleeting moment, it got so bad that he was close to falling to the Dark Side all over again.
Fortunately for the world, Shinji caught himself before it was too late. Slowly, he began reciting the Jedi Code aloud like a mantra, hoping it would alleviate his suffering and clear his mind:
"There is no emotion... There is peace.
There is no ignorance... There is knowledge.
There is no passion... There is serenity.
There is no chaos... There is harmony.
There is no death... There is the force."
It took him a few minutes to deal with the loss of the link and the conflicting memories. He grimaced, remembering the old wizard at Spells'R'Us. Apparently, magic was real and so was the Force now. He had promised him he would change him for the better but he certainly hadn't expected this!
Shinji wasn't the old Shinji Ikari anymore. He was also Revan, Jedi knight. He was both and neither, thanks to his stint inside the SRU wizard's little enchanted videogame. His body had become his character's: He had aged at least a decade, had longer hair tied in a ponytail (Kaji style) and a body most males would want to have.
The physical changes were taken more or less in stride by the former wimp. That's what he had wanted after all, right? He could only blame himself for not taking the wizard seriously in the first place.
The mental changes, however, were the most disturbing consequence of this little fiasco.
Shinji now had Revan's memories, training and powers. That included advanced knowledge of Star Wars technology (Revan had built HK-47 on his own from scratch), knowledge of several alien languages, mad swoop racing skillz as well as the strategic and tactical savvy of a man who had almost conquered the Galaxy.
And last but not least, the Force was with him. The devastated apartment bore witness to this. Shinji sweatdropped at the sight of the carnage. "Misato and Asuka are going to kill me for this..."
How was he going to explain what happened? He knew nobody would ever believe him. He would end up in an asylum at best or in prison at worst "Sithspit, this stinks..."
Feeling more confused than ever and uncertain about his options, Shinji decided to...
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(Posted Sun, 06 Nov 2005 19:54)
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