"When Revan opened up to the Force as a whole to face the Sith Emperor, rather than unleash it, he channeled it. He foresaw many different futures, Scourge betraying them among them. Desperate, he uses the Force to try to spirit him and the Jedi Exile away. But, he did not know the Exile was a Wound in the Force. Her power disrupted him, and they are instead pulled through to a time far far away..."
A Wound in Time is a Star Wars fanfic by Wavesblade— Archive of Our Own summary.
(who also wrote Unite Descent: A Siri Tachi Tale) that crosses over characters from two distant time periods in the Star Wars universe, specifically those from the Star Wars Legends video game Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, and the prequel films.Beginning just before the battle against the Sith Emperor at the end of the novel Revan by Drew Karpyshyn, this Alternate Universe story diverges from that novel's canon ending by having Revan (the protagonist of Knights of the Old Republic) and Meetra Surik (The "Jedi Exile" from The Sith Lords) sent forward through time. They arrive on Tatooine just in time to intervene on a duel between a Jedi Master and a Zabrak Sith warrior. Joining up with the aforementioned Jedi Master, his Padawan, and an entourage of a runaway queen, her handmaidens, and a curious young ex-slave, Revan and Meetra find themselves in a galaxy that has drastically changed in their absence. Both for the better and for the worst.
Overall, A Wound in Time retells the events of the prequels, which are drastically changed as a result of the presence of the two KOTOR protagonists. The story is currently ongoing, and can be found on both Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net.
This Fan Fic provides examples of the following tropes, which may include unmarked spoilers:
- Action Girl: Meetra Surik, the Jedi Exile.
- Action Mom: Meetra trains Shmi in Echani to better defend herself.
- Adaptational Heroism: Somewhat. Darth Plagueis is still a Sith Lord aiming at galactic domination, but he is much more willing to ally with the Jedi and ensure their continued survival should they aid him in bringing down Palpatine.
- Adaptational Villainy: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both seem to be on their way to this, as the former allies with Darth Plagueis while the latter, bitter over Qui-Gon's treatment of him and Anakin, begins confiding heavily in Chancellor Palpatine...
- Ambiguously Evil: Kreia, as always.
- And I Must Scream: As revealed by Kreia, anyone who was ever bonded with Meetra or was killed by the Wound in the Force is unable to properly pass into the Force after death, forced to spend the rest of their existence as Force apparitions bound to Meetra so long as she is alive or the Wound remains open.
- Revan himself suffers from the Wound when his soul is unwillingly tied to it after his and Meetra's jump through time. As a result, his consciousness is bound to Meetra for five years until Anakin stabilizes the Wound.
- Ascended Extra: Sifo-diyas, who never appeared physically in the films and was killed before the events of the TV series, becomes a member of the Rule of Purpose.
- Kitster Banai, Anakin's best friend from Tatooine, is freed by Meetra and accompanies them in their travels.
- Scerra Horn, a character from Legends who was only ever mentioned and never made any physical appearances, is a mind healer that Meetra consults to help Anakin and his mother come to terms with their previous lives as slaves.
- Assassin Outclassin': After being foiled several times, the slavers hire Aurra Sing to kill Meetra and Anakin. She very nearly succeeds, until she unwittingly awakens the Wound in the Force...
- Asshole Victim: Darth Maul and the slavers on Tatooine, who are consumed by Meetra.
- Awful Truth: On top of the revelation that Chancellor Palpatine, who Dooku considered a close friend, is one of the Sith Lords actively going against the Jedi Order, Plagueis gleefully and cruelly reveals that the Republic is already en route to complete collapse due to extensive corruption in the Senate, which has also left the Jedi Order stagnant and fractured without them even realizing it. They are understandably devastated.
- Be Yourself: Meetra is trying to teach Anakin this, advising him to define himself as who he wants to be and not as the Jedi would want him to be.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Darth Plagueis is still alive after the events of The Phantom Menace due to the presence of Revan and the Exile. As a result, he and Sidious are working against both each other and the Jedi.
- Broken Pedestal: Anakin gets a very in-depth description on what being a Jedi entails from Meetra, including being forced to abandon all emotions, including love, effectively severing any relationship he was with his mother. Beyond that, it would prevent him from ending slavery on Tatooine like he had always wanted. This effectively shatters Anakin's faith in the Jedi Order, prompting him to train under Meetra outside of their jurisdiction.
- He also becomes disenchanted with Padme after she lashes out at Meetra for her actions in the Mandalorian Wars without even bothering to look at her side of the story.
- As per canon, Obi-Wan doesn't take Qui-Gon's immediate willingness to turn him aside in favor of Anakin well. The fact that he is also quick to turn Anakin over to Meetra without a second thought doesn't help improve Obi-Wan's opinion, and Qui-Gon's unwillingness to admit to his faults pushes Obi-Wan away... right into the arms of Darth Sidious.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Qui-Gon and Dooku versus Darth Plagueis, who wipes the floor with the two Jedi without even going all out. And that's before he breaks out his Midichlorian Manipulation technique.Darth Plagueis: Now, as I was saying before you two so rudely attacked me...
- Corrupt Politician: Palpatine as always. Thankfully, Anakin is pulled away from his corrupting influence by Meetra, who has experienced enough political and corporate corruption in her life to know that Palpatine is dangerous without even realizing that he's a Sith Lord.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Anyone who is drained by Meetra's Wound in the Force suffer this. It is especially horrific once Kreia explains what happens to a person's soul after it happens.
- Dark Action Girl: Aurra Sing, Asajj Ventress, and Komari Vosa, with the latter two becoming full blown Sith Lords.
- Death by Adaptation: Darth Maul is killed by Meetra on Naboo, getting the life sucked out of him by the Wound in the Force.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Darth Vitiate actually died several times in The Old Republic due to transferring his spirit into several host bodies, before ultimately being exorcised from existence by Revan, Meetra, and various Jedi and Sith that he terrorized over the years. In this story, the modern Jedi Council explains that Vitiate, severely weakened by the anomaly that transported Revan and Meetra to the future, was killed by a Jedi strike team a few years into the Galactic War.
- Darth Maul is consumed by Meetra's Wound in the Force on Naboo during the Trade Federation occupation. In canon, he died decades later at the hands of Obi-Wan on Tatooine.
- Disappointed in You: This is Plagueis' reaction after foiling Sidious' plan to send the Jedi Council after him, claiming that they could have ruled the Galaxy together. It's followed by the two of them exchanging insults and formally becoming enemies.
- The Dreaded: Darth Plagueis explains that Meetra is infamous in Sith culture as one of the greatest enemies that their order ever faced, as she thwarted them from completely wiping the Jedi out during her time and single-handedly eliminated Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion (arguably two of the deadliest Sith Lords that ever existed) as well as countless of their apprentices and followers. Indeed, if you look back at her Legends history, she has arguably killed more dark Force users in a short timeframe than any other Jedi.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: From the moment he meets Meetra, Anakin suffers recurring nightmares of her succumbing to the Wound in the Force and becoming a new Darth Nihilus. He becomes driven to stop this from happening.
- This is Sifo-diyas' whole purpose as a Sith Lord. His greatest gift is foresight, which he is charged with scrying constantly so that the Sith are aware of any and every possible outcome in the future.
- Eldritch Abomination: Meetra is in danger of becoming this, as her loss of the Force connections she established in The Sith Lords has caused the Wound in the Force within her to fester and grow, slowly changing her into a Force vampire similar to Darth Nihilus. Luckily, Anakin seems to have stabilized the Wound by transferring a portion of his own Force signature to her, albeit at the potential cost of his own connection.
- Kreia, as someone who despises the Force and all that it represents, considers Anakin, who was spawned by the Force itself, to be this.
- Enemy Mine: Plagueis knows that he'll never be able to beat Sidious by playing his game, so he begins to willingly work alongside the Jedi to attain his goals. Likewise, Dooku and Qui-Gon begrudgingly join forces with him to save the Jedi and the Republic from destruction.
- Evil vs. Evil: Plagueis claims that the coming Clone Wars are going to be this. The Light has already lost, it's a war between two kinds of Darknesses now.
- Fantastic Racism: While her time fighting alongside Canderous in The Sith Lords has made her a little better, it's clear that Meetra is still bitter towards the Mandalorians after her experiences in the Mandalorian Wars.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Naturally, Meetra Surik. One revelation that hits her really hard (because of how absurd she finds it) is that Mandalorians are a bunch of pacifists now.
- Hated by All: Darth Nihilus is reviled by many as one of the greatest galactic threats to have ever existed. Even other Sith regard him as an abomination that needed to be destroyed.
- Humanoid Abomination: A Wound in the Force is, at its basic definition, a tear in the very fabric of the Force itself that will instinctively try to repair itself by drawing in Force energies to fill the void. Usually at the expense of other Force-sensitives within the vicinity. When a Wound is centered around a location, this is not terribly bad as its reach is limited. But when its centered around a person, then the siphoning power of the Wound is significantly more damaging as it is carried by its host to various locations. Both Meetra and Darth Nihilus before her defy the natural laws of the Force in a way no modern Jedi or Sith are familiar with.
- I Did What I Had to Do: While she is in no way proud of it, Meetra tries to convince herself that her activation of the Mass Shadow Generator stopped the Mandalorians from continuing their crusade against the galaxy, thereby sparing many more innocent lives. Sadly, a number of characters, including Queen Amidala and Satine Kryze, repeatedly call her out on this.
- Just Toying with Them: Plagueis could have ended the duel between himself and Qui-Gon and Dooku at any time with his midichlorian manipulation, but chose to carry on with the fight as a show of power.
- Meaningful Rename: Dooku and Sifo-diyas are rechristened as Darth Tyranus and Darth Sibyl, respectively, after joining Darth Plagueis's new order. Presumably, Komari and Asajj also have new Sith titles of their own, but they have yet to be revealed.
- Morality Chain: Anakin is this to Meetra.
- Qui-Gon is also this to Dooku, keeping him from going completely dark like he does in canon.
- Punny Name: After joining the Sith, Sifo-diyas is renamed Darth Sibyl. Sibyl is another word for oracle, someone who can predict the future, which is one of Sifo-diyas' greatest abilities.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Aurra bails on her contract against Meetra and Anakin when she sees the power of Meetra's Wound in the Force.
- Spared By Adaptation: Revan and the Exile's arrival inadvertently spares Darth Plagueis when Sidious plans to kill him and becomes a prominent character in the story.
- Revan and Meetra jumping forward through time prevents either from suffering the grim fates they did in the original storyline.
- Qui-Gon never faces Darth Maul on Naboo, and thus survives past the events of Phantom Menace.
- Sifo-diyas and Komari Vosa survive Palpatine's attempts on their life and are recruited into Plagueis' new Sith order.
- Take That!: The author states that the fic is largely this to both the Revan novel and The Old Republic MMORPG, percieving both as having brought a rather anticlimactic end to both Revan and the Exile. The author particular shows contempt for the novel for disregarding much of the second game's content and nerfing Meetra, who was built up in the games as being one of the most powerful Force users ever because of her Wound in the Force.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While they greatly respect each other, dialogue here makes it abundantly clear that Meetra and Revan are not friends. Revan is more or less responsible for Meetra's transformation into a Wound in the Force, and every single neuroses that has befallen her and everyone she has ever bonded with afterward. And she is not at all happy about it.
- Time Travel: This is the whole premise of the fic, with Revan and Meetra traveling almost four-thousand years into the future.
- Underestimating Badassery: Sidious continually dismisses Revan and Meetra as a weak disgraced Sith and a broken Jedi, respectively, that he could easily deal with. He does, however, suggest that they would be good apprentices. Plagueis, who understands them on a better level, completely balks at this.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Darth Vitiate and Lord Scourge, the antagonists of the Revan novel and major characters in The Old Republic, only appear for the first few paragraphs of story and are only mentioned afterwards a few times in passing.
