Krayt Freedom, Chapter 8

"Stop playing with it!'

Keelan took his hand down from playing with his earring. "Sorry! It feels weird."

"The dude at the shop said it takes some getting used to! I'll be even weirder when you rip a hole through your ear."

Keelan looked up at Jestin. "Does it look as weird as it feels?"

"Nah, it looks good. Heh. Jaina might flip over it though."

Keelan laughed. "If she didn't flip when I told her I loved her, I don't think she'll flip over a little hole in my ear."

"Well, you never-"

"Keelan! You gotta see this!" Devan was running towards them, holding a veiwscreen.

"Alright! What is it?" He turned to see a very excited reporter in the middle of a newscast.

"-years after his victory at the Star Forge," the reporter was saying. "Along with him is Alysha Mires, long time friend and follower in the Mandalorian War. It is to her efforts that we give credit to saving Telos. Now, the two have worked together to defeat some unknown power they call the 'True Sith' beyond the Outer Rim. Now, they are back, and the Republic as a whole is celebrating. This is Drine Rianda, saying, 'Revan is Back!!'"

Keelan's jaw dropped.

Jestin looked from the viewscreen to Devan to Keelan. "Well?" he said after a long pause. "What are we waiting for? There's so such thing as a celebration without us! To Coruscant!"

---

Alysha found Jake in the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk. He seemed to be prepping for takeoff-- strange, considering they did not plan to leave for another two days."What are you doing?" she asked, hesitantly approaching him."Leaving," Jake answered bluntly, without turning his head from the screens in front of him."Well I can see that, so let me rephrase my previous query; where are you going?""Nar Shadaa." Jake's one word answers were beginning to grate."Explanation?""To find my son."Alysha's mind reeled with this sudden revelation. Since when does he have a son?! The image of Bastila as a mother was one her mind had difficulty envisioning."I... I had no idea you had a son."Jake finally turned to face her. "Indeed I do, here." he tossed a small holoprojector disk at her.Alysha shot her arm out to catch the small object. She clicked it on and carefully scrutinized the image that was now floating before her .The boy displayed on it had his father's sparkling blue eyes and his mother's mass of wavy brown hair. He was grinning impishly at the camera. "When was this taken?"He rose and walked over to her. "A very long time ago, it seems like a lifetime.""How old was he?""I believe he was thirteen. Now he must be, what? Eighteen? Nineteen? Force, he must be a man by now!" Alysha smiled. "If he has inherited any of his father's traits he must be charming one at that."Regret flashed across Jake's face. "I never should have left them. I should have stayed with them, I could have seen him grow and been the father I wanted to be, we would have been the family I wanted us to be!"Alysha hardened her expression. "Then you would all be corpses at the feet of the True Sith."Jake whirled around. "Well at least my own wife would not be among their ranks!"Her expression softened and she put her hand on his shoulder. "Rev-... Jake, perhaps it is time you moved on. You said it yourself there was nothing you could do to save her. And besides," she looked up into his face, her eyes pleading. "There are others that care for you."Jake roughly removed her hand from his shoulder. "And what would you have me do? Forget about the woman who brought life to my heart so that I may come and be with you?!""You know that is not what I-"He cut her off. " No I believe that is what you mean. Are you so callous as to believe I would simply toss Bastila's memory aside to pick up a new lover? I do not expect a General like you to understand--how much do you know of sacrifice? I suspect very little.""I know of sacrifice." she replied, her voice weak."How? Do you claim to understand because of the sacrifices you have asked of others or your loss of the Force because of those sacrifices you demanded? When your love dies by your own hand you may come speak to me of sacrifice, but until then do not even think you understand!" with that Jake turned back to the screens.Alysha turned her own back, not wanting him to see the tears that now streaked down her face. Every one of his words had cut bleeding wounds on her soul. He loved Bastila, not her; nothing she could say would change that, and she cursed herself as a fool to think otherwise."Now get off this ship, I am leaving for Nar Shadaa I five minutes," he told her, again not looking over shoulder."Why?" she whispered, not daring to speak any louder for fear of her voice being flooded by emotion."Because he is there."Alysha dried her eyes and turned to face him. "No. You are not going without me."  Jake turned around in his seat. "Why would you come?"Alysha looked at him with her firm 'General' face. "Because even a commander follows her commander. I am with you to the end; that is who I am."Silence. A long, uncomfortable silence.

A pained smile appeared on Jake's face, an attempt at an apology for his prevous outburst. "Then buckle your seatbelt, friend."

---

As the Blazing Dragon lifted out of the atmosphere, a ship came out of hyperspace. The Dragon's pilot wrenched up on the controls to avoid it tossing the crew to the ground in the maneuver.

The other ship, a small freighter, swerved away from the Dragon. Then it circled around and hovered next to it. The communications console blipped.

"Sorry about that, my good man. I'll pay for any damage done you your ship."

Krayt Freedom stumbled into the cockpit. "What was that?" Jestin asked.

Keelan looked out the window at the freighter. "Is that the Ebon Hawk?" 

The voice came through again. "Yea. You've been watching the holonet lately then?"

"Dad?" Keelan asked.

---

Jake's heart skipped a beat when he heard the voice. It was deeper and more mature sounding, but behind it was the familiarity of the boy he loved.

"Keelan? Is it really you?"

"Yeah," came the reply. "It's me. The rest of the guys are here too."

"Hi!" deeper versions of Jestin, Vigro, and Devan's voices called out.

"What are you doing here?" Keelan asked.

"Looking for you," Jake answered.

"Huh. I didn't know you actually cared."

"Keelan, what are you talking about?"

"Well, you didn't care five years ago."

"What? Of course I did!"

"Well, maybe if you had given me an explanation of why you were leaving your son and wife to fight the bad guys, or even a goodbye, things might be different."

"I couldn't tell you, I had to protect you. And I knew you would try to stop me from leaving."

"Not if you had told me! If you had told me, I would have understood. But no, you left without even a 'Bye, son, I hope your mother doesn't turn to the dark side because of me and leave you as an orphan!"

"You know that wasn't my intention. Your mother wasn't strong."

"Because you were her strength! You took it away!"

"The Republic was in danger!"

"Your family was in danger. You weren't there when Mom cried for you every night. You weren't there when she left to find you! You weren't there to save her from the dark side! And you certainly weren't there for me!"

"I tried to be there for the two of you, but it's hard when you're a Jedi!

"Be there for me? The last words you said to me were, 'You're grounded!' I'll never forget that!"

"Like I said, I didn't know exactly when I was going to leave! It's difficult to follow your duties to your family and the Jedi!

"Then you should have followed the rules! Then you and Mom wouldn't be in love, and the galaxy wouldn't be in the mess you created! In fact... what happened to Mom? If you were fighting the last of the Sith, you had to have run into her on the way!"

"Keelan..."

"You killed her, didn't you?"

"Keelan, I had to!"

"I get it. You didn't care about anything but yourself and your stupid mission! You didn't even care about your lover!"

"You have to understand!"

"Oh, I understand! You're a selfish, pathetic, murderer. And I don't want anything to do with you."

"Keelan!"

"Cut the transmission, pilot."

"Keelan? Keelan!!"

Keelan's ship zoomed into hyperspace.

"Keelan," Jake whispered.

Alysha put a hand on his shoulder. "He's just angry. Give him some time. This whole thing is really sudden."

Jake shook his head. "Everything he said... It could be true. It could have been the situation, but I didn't see it."

Alysha grabbed his shoulders and turned him round to face her. "Look at me, Jake! You are not  the man he said you were. You're a caring, loving, compassionate being. Your son just has a hard time seeing it through his feelings. I see it, Bastila saw it. You need to see it too."

Jake smiled at her. "Alysha... You've been a great friend throughout everything. I haven't really appreciated that. Thank you." What happened next sent butterflies into Alysha's stomach. Jake stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back. "Thank you," he whispered into her ear.

"You're welcome," she whispered back.

---

A few days later, Krayt Freedom was once again performing in front of a large crowd, this time on Coruscant. Keelan waited for the crowd to settle down before addressing them.

"You all probably think of Revan as the savior of the galaxy. The hero of the Republic, right?"

The crowd cheered in affirmation.

"Well, you'd be amazed at the things someone will do to be a hero. In Revan's case, he let his wife fall to the dark side, then he slaughtered her. He left his son at the age of thirteen to fend for himself for the rest of his life. Luckily that boy had good friends to pull him through. But without those friends, he would have gotten hooked on deathstix and crime. I would be a lowly criminal. The thing is, I tried so hard to be what my father wanted, but in the end, it didn't matter."

With that he stepped back, and Devan started playing. Keelan leaned in towards the microphone.

 I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

'And it's all Dad's fault!' Keelan added in his head.

---

'In the End' by Linkin Park

>Note: Thank you, Triple E, for beta-ing.