Revan sensed that the statement was honest, maybe she really did believe it. That would imply a curious history.

"In that case, running the test and getting my predicted outcome should serve as strong evidence of my knowledge and perception. I implore you to run it if you find yourselves doubting me."

"Yes, my work. I suspect there are powers operating in this galaxy that are more insidious than any tyrannical empire that rises and falls from time to time. My work for the last many years has been seeking the knowledge which might confirm my suspicions, and if so allow me to take necessary actions to ensure the flourishing of the galaxy. It is slow work with many steps." This was more than he'd like to say freely, but he wagered he needed to say at least this much.

"I come seeking your help." Revan looked squarely at Luke. "Though it will take time before I can trust you and you can trust me. And simply time before you are ready and able to hear what I already know."

"That is why I'm willing to help you. It will help us build the requisite trust, though I suspect your cause is indeed just and it pleases me to help for that reason too." Just, but also insignificant at the moral scale Revan typically operated at.

Luke's pretty sure the guy's being truthful, though he's still not mentioning some pretty big stuff.

He glances at Leia, raising an eyebrow - he doesn't think letting this guy help will damage their operations, but...

"I can get you the history you've missed, then. More... I'll wait and see."

"Thank you." Revan inclined his head slightly and executed the closest approximation he had to a meek smile. His roles as revered military leader, feared Dark Lord of the Sith, and lone seeker of knowledge on abandoned worlds had not given him much practice in this kind of social approach. The years spent wearing a literal mask probably didn't help either.

Leia nods, and retrieves a data pad loaded with texts on recent history. And, of course, some slightly less recent history - she's not bothering to separate out specific chapters.

"Unfortunately, a lot of the last twenty years of history texts are either Imperial propaganda or oral history. These texts should be mostly trustworthy, they're as neutral as Imperial law allows, but you'll want to talk through history - probably with me - to actually get a full picture."

Revan was excited and fearful– what had the centuries or millennia (he was about to find out which) since his own time brought? He'd made endless predictions before making the jump– one does not often get an opportunity to so thoroughly and quickly test their models of the world.

As he confidently predicted, datapads were still a dominant way to consume information. This is one of the great mysteries Revan was determined to solve: why across tens of thousands of years and millions of worlds, was technological development in the galaxy so uniform? Or more accurately, so uniformly capped? Species could rise up from mindless animals, develop fire, electricity, computers, droids, shields, ships, near-miraculous healing substances (kolto in his era, now bacta was in fashion). But that was kind of it.

Revan had scoured the history available to him in his own era, and this picture just held up. Only the Rakatans seemed to have done better, and only briefly before they'd been destroyed by their creation. Revan had posited this fate happened to other species, but 1) there was no evidence of this, 2) across thousands of worlds, at least some should have survived with their more advanced tech, 3) most species already possessed the ability to destroy themselves, and by and large they didn't.

It didn't make sense– a straightforward extrapolation said that more should be possible. There was no reason for technology to cap at this level. Yet it did. 

Much the same mystery held for intelligence. Insects and animals were less intelligent than "sentients" along a continuum of cognitive ability, but while sentients varied a little among themselves in their ability to think, species across the galaxy were remarkably uniform. Perhaps some showed more aptitude in different tasks, but there were no strict superiorities of mental prowess (barring, again, maybe the Rakatans). Why did the ability to think cap out at point?

And if you wanted to combine the above two mysteries...well, droids.

"Find what you're looking for?"

Revan paused his reading, disengaging his use of force speed– a rudimentary ability that for some perplexing reason most force-users thought was only good for combat.

It hadn't taken him long to link the current calendar system back to the system he was used to. It was going to him a lot longer to absorb the result. 3,900 years. Thirty-nine hundred years. THIRTY-NINE HUNDRED YEARS. It wasn't a surprise, not given his careful estimations of where he might end up, but it was still an adjustment even for him to find himself suddenly that far from home.

--

"Find what you're looking for?" Revan marveled at the terseness, almost brusqueness, of the young rebels' interactions. It was either a bold or foolish way to interact with an unknown entity of indeterminate power who was currently offering assistance. He a grew a little tired of it. He was trying to help them. He was trying to help everyone.

He stood from where he had been sitting to read, and began "idly" levitating the datapad, spinning it gently about its center as it hovered above his hand. He pulsed the rotational velocity rhythmically: a little bit faster, a little bit slower. Exceptionally precise movements.

"Yes. A clear and tragic story. The Republic had a great many flaws, but even at it's worst the system did not have a fraction of the wanton contempt and disregard for its citizens as the new Empire evidently does. I am glad I arrived before it got any worse." He genuinely meant that.  "You've answered my most pressing questions, thank you. I place myself at your disposal. Use me as you see fit."

The datapad floated a just little bit more forcefully as eccentricities were added to its cycle.

Her expression doesn't change, but it's clear she's alert to his movements, a bit wary of him.

"We'll need more information on your abilities, to figure out where you're best used."

Luke stirs, a bit. "Going directly after Vader, maybe - "

"Risky, at this point. Just because she didn't kill you last time..." She trails off, trading a look laden with meaning with Luke.

Interesting. Revan would enquire in a moment what that was about.

"To answer your question, if you'll forgive the lack of humility, I'm an extremely powerful force-user with the typical implications that has: combat prowess, stealth abilities, starpiloting skill, and even some wisdom." He paused, lips twitching slightly with his self-amusement at the last item on that list.

"I have been a military commander and strategist." They would assume he fought in the Clone Wars, which was fine. "I am highly proficient workings with droids and computer systems."

The woman clearly wanted him to be forthright, so he hoped that would help.

"Useful."

"Do you know who Darth Vader is?"

"The name suggests she is a Sith Lord, but no, she was not mentioned in the histories on the datapad you gave me. Empires typically involve the Sith, so I am not surprised that you have such an enemy." Honestly, he would know.

"Luke thinks you'd be best directed against her, or at least her wider efforts - and I'm inclined to agree with the general idea. She's currently the most dangerous to our forces, directly or through those she commands, second only to the Emperor."

"She's supposed to be the Emperor's right hand, who helped him carry out the Purges of the Jedi. She's known to be powerful, intelligent, temperamental, and cruel."

Luke glances at Leia again, and then ignores how she sighs. "I think she can be turned, though. There's good in her."

There's good in her. If that were true, this Vader had formidable spirit. The dark side offered great power, yet it turned a person into a hollow shell; a mockery of everything they once stood for and valued; nothing but a husk hungering solely for destruction and pain. Only one with a mighty spirit could be a dark lord and still harbor any goodness. Here too, he would know. He survived, Malak did not. His once dearest friend had already been eaten away by the time Revan slew his body.

"To be taken by the dark side is a terrible fate for both the one taken and those they hurt. I am pessimistic, as one should be here, but I am willing to help you try to save your Vader from the dark side."

"There's always a path back. I think - I can't be a Jedi and not help people, and she needs help."

The Jedi penchant for trying to redeem people at times felt insufferable to Revan. How many countless souls had died because the Jedi had refused to destroy bloodthirsty monsters when they had the chance? On the other hand, Revan's own continued existence was only due to Jedi mercy, and he still hoped to prove his redemption worth it.

"I once turned someone back from the dark side. I estimate that I succeeded because I loved them and they loved me, but I assume that dynamic is unlikely to play out here. In any case, the advised approach is the same as it is with almost all things – understand, and the correction actions will become apparent."

"What do you know about Vader? How and why did she turn to the dark side?"

Awkward look with Leia.

"...Uh, the Emperor is also a Sith Lord, and he manipulated her into the Dark. She hates him. I've been trying to figure out what happened - I have a name, but not much else to go on. She was a hero in the Clone Wars and was generally assumed dead in the Jedi Purges. She was known to be kind of mercurial. She supposedly used battle meditation in the Clone Wars, but no one's seen her use it as Vader."

Staring contest with Leia involving several expressions, which Luke apparently wins.

"She's also my mom, and last time we met she offered to help us overthrow the Emperor and put Leia in his place if we'd side with her. She's very conspicuously refused to kill us."

"I think she'd turn to save our lives, but Leia thinks intentionally setting that up would be really stupid. Leia generally thinks we should just kill her, though..."

Huh. Huh indeed.

"I think this is something we can work with."

"However I'm confused. Why would she want to place Leia at her side and not you, her son?" Revan gave in to the temptation to inquire about this curious point again, though it was legitimately relevant.

"Luke's not interested in leading," she says, "And the conversation with me was earlier than the one with Luke - she offered to turn on the Emperor on terms unfavorable to the Alliance, I counter offered, she turned me down and and then refused to negotiate further. She didn't try to claim I was her daughter, but I wouldn't have accepted that as a reason to listen to her."

"It makes sense to me now."
Revan resists the temptation to smirk openly and does so only internally. They in fact held the sibling-hypothesis, but he couldn't fault them for being cagey about it given its significance.

"Regarding the bigger picture: people aren't just 'manipulated into the dark side' – they are manipulated in the dark side along their fault lines: lust of power, greed, fear, shame, and so on. Reality is detailed, and the details matter. Jedi training emphasises the connectedness and oneness of things, and there's truth to that, but it misses that distinctions matter. Details matter."

"If we are to bring Vader back, we must know the path she took to arrive where she is. We must collect what information we can. You have a name, that is a start. Do you know anyone who knew your mother before she was Vader?"

"Separately, the Jedi would have kept records on her, and notwithstanding the purges, I would be very impressed with any empire that would both successfully destroy all external copies of the archives and also be foolish enough to not retain their own copies."

"The Emperor still has archives, yes, though they're harder to access."

"I know she was intensely sad, around the time we were born. Given the Republic fell then, we suspect she turned to the Dark Side around that time. She was still coordinating with at least one Jedi as of our birth - I was sent to be raised on Alderaan, by someone she'd worked alongside when she was fighting with the Senate, and Luke was sent to Tatooine and watched over by a Jedi Master in hiding. Both my parents and Luke's Master are dead, though."

The first pieces of the story were being laid down. Revan muses that it might even be entertaining – there was intrigue any time a Jedi was impregnated, let alone carried a child to term.

"What of Luke's father?"