"Where… Where am I?" Revan asked, peering into a dark wilderness. The scene of Conquest in the city hadn't disappeared so much as it had evaporated, fading from reality along with any of the mortal wounds Revan incurred. It was as if the car had never struck him in the first place, he thought to himself as he ran his hands along his torso and thighs.
One second, his entire body had been a tumorous mass of insufferable pain; the next, he was seemingly cured of his many ailments. The pain he'd felt had been real, he was sure of that, but it was almost like the Recruiter had pulled away the veil of reality.
"Here, you'll want to put this on," the Recruiter said, holding something out to him. It was difficult to make it out in the darkness. Revan squinted his eyes, observing the offering's shape, then several ornate details etched along its surface.
It was a mask, he realized—not the sort of childish plaything made from rubber and plastic, but an ancient, handcrafted relic. It had an aura which permeated the space it inhabited, which bled into the space between Revan and the Recruiter. Along its onyx facade were symmetrical swirls of gold—patterns chiseled that expressed emotion.
The artifact seemed to be living. Its golden features were not contained to any given space, but rather shifted along the mask as it beckoned to Revan, tugging at his soul to accept the gift. As he examined it, there were moments where it seemed like the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid eyes on, contrasted by split seconds of terrifying clarity. Though its eyes were hollow so its wearer could see, the mask resembled the face of a prowling panther, its gaze locked on some unsuspecting prey in the distance.
"You keep doing that," Revan said, making no move to accept the gift. "Every time I ask a question, you ignore it by changing the subject. I want to know where we are, Recruiter… And now I want to know what that mask is, too!"
"You're in a land of nightmares, Revan darling," she replied. As odd as it seemed, the woman looked even more beautiful now that she was silhouetted in darkness. The obsidian tattoos that covered her naked flesh were tantalizing to look at. Her pale face called to him like a lighthouse to a sailor lost at sea.
"It's sometimes easier to let things play out instead of answering your questions. After all these years, I don't quite know how to describe what a 'land of nightmares' is to someone who's dreamed peacefully all their life."
Revan looked around at the tall meadow surrounding them. The lush grass extended to his hips, a gentle breeze making the blades whistle and dance. The forest on the horizon seemed sinister, but in Revan's mind, everything looked more evil in the dark. But that didn't mean it was, so he was quite unsure what made this place worthy of being called the land of nightmares.
"This mask will serve as your training wheels," the Recruiter explained, still holding it out for his inspection. "The things you'll endure in this realm will test you. Like you've pointed out, you're an incredibly unremarkable specimen. You aren't athletic, and your competition will surely be bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter than you."
"Is that supposed to make me feel good?" Revan asked, unable to withdraw his gaze from the mask's exterior. Though he couldn't understand the reasoning behind it, the relic called to him. It felt as though he knew exactly what it was, and even stranger, that it knew exactly who he was.
"No, it's not," the Recruiter laughed. "I won't lie to you, Revan… Once you put this mask on, there will be no taking it off. It will fuse with your central nervous system, with your soul itself, and it will hold the darkness at bay. It will be your only anchor, tethering your conscience outside the Void once nightmares consume your body."
Revan took a step backwards, the gravity of the moment finally setting in. Until now, all of this had seemed like some distorted, inexplicable dream. Even though the Recruiter had rewinded time and teleported him through reality itself, none of it had felt like it could be real. With his own eyes, Revan had seen the world end and a celestial horseman eradicate an entire city with a single arrow, yet his decision to become the Fifth Horseman had only seemed arbitrary until now.
But now, the gravity of the situation finally set in. Now, he realized he'd made a deal—not with the Devil, but with some entity that didn't adhere to the world as he knew it. The Void, his Recruiter had called it… From the things she'd said out of context, it was some deity that favored chaos, a god that didn't play by the rules and wanted to defy the Rapture for reasons yet to be revealed.
"Tethering my conscience? Nightmares consuming my body?" Revan repeated, fear setting in as he saw the burden he was meant to bear. "What exactly is it that I've signed up for, Recruiter?"
"Like I said," she whispered, any sense of humor gone from her voice. Like the midnight forest lurking behind her, the woman seemed sinister as shadows danced along her face. "You will become the Fifth Horseman, Revan. You met the First, Conquest, but much worse follows in his wake. The Second is War, the Third is Famine, and the Fourth is Death… But by the time the Void is done with you, you will become the Fifth… You will become Defiance."