Chapter 38: Betrayal and Sorrow
Just like the nightmare from before, Keira sprung up from her bet and hyperventilated from the nightmare she had just had. She awoke more confused, angrier, and more afraid than the last one. Thoughts of darkness were constantly racing through her head so much, it was as if she had turned into a different person overnight. She felt immensely troubled by the fact that she was lied to, constantly tortured in her dreams, and somewhat placed as an afterthought in this entire quest to defeat the Empire; at least that is what she formulated in her mind. She pulled the green eco needle that was in her arm, and walked into the bathroom, where she would shower to try and clear her head.
The sun would begin to rise over the lifeless desert landscape of Korriban. Rays of sunlight would beam through the front windshield of The Renegade, cracking open the eyes of Ratchet and Ahsoka, who both of them were slumped on each other while sitting in separate chairs of the cockpit. Once they both yawned and awakened, they took a quick look at each other, yelped, and fell off of their respective chairs. They slowly both got up back on their chairs, scratching and shaking their heads in the process.
"Yikes." Ratchet nervously chuckled.
"Sorry." Ahsoka blushed.
"No, you're fine!" Ratchet replied, "We got pretty deep into our talk last night. I forgot we fell asleep!"
"Yeah," Ahsoka agreed, "It was actually kind of fun!"
"Where did we even leave off at?" Ratchet pondered.
"How things are going to change, for all of us." Ahsoka began to think as well, "In fact, I don't even know what I am anymore."
"How do you mean?" Ratchet brought himself to ask.
"I can't be a Jedi," Ahsoka began, "but I don't believe in violence, or domination, like the Sith do. However, I do believe in revenge, only in just situations. You said that The Dark side took something from all of us, and they took my way of life. Suddenly what I was taught was wrong and what I originally believed was right. Suddenly, things my master taught me were not adding up with what the other Jedi believed, and I would be punished for being me, for standing up for myself. Confusion caused me to leave."
"Did you suspect that The Republic was under so much corruption while you were in the Order?" Ratchet asked once more.
"No," Ahsoka sighed, "No one did. If I did, no one probably would've believed me. I've heard rumblings of it, but I denied all of them to be true because I didn't think it could happen to a Republic we believed to be so pure."
"I know what you mean." Ratchet grumbled.
Then, Ahsoka turned it to Ratchet, "Hey, I meant to ask you; how have you come to trust Jak, Daxter, Keira and all them so much with your life?"
"Long story…" Ratchet began, "As you may or may not have heard, that Commander Creed and I ran into each other in the middle of this reconnaissance mission that my girlfriend Talwyn and I were on. She and I were both galactic rangers just exploring on unchartered territories of The Galaxy, worlds we never encountered before. It was a peaceful mission. It felt like it was us two together alone, but we did bring some troops in a small fleet along with us, and we just happened to be above Jak's home planet. Creed was just a small-time patrol officer for The Republic at the time. He brought in a small squadron of space cops (I guess) and he told us to leave because we were trespassing Republic Property. I told him that we came here out of no harm and transmitted him legitimate authorization codes that The Republic loaned to us."
"I took it he refused?" Ahsoka stated the answer.
"You're damn right he did," Ratchet continued, "And even worse, he threatened his patrol squadron to shoot all of us down. Not only did Talwyn and I refused, we told them that this isn't the way negotiations were to be made. We asked to board his ship so we could discuss the dispute. Instead, he chased after us, and shot us down. We landed hard in the middle of a desert, somehow ejected from our ship that crashed. Clank and I were okay, but I could tell Talwyn was in trouble. I tried to revive her, but thankfully a vehicle riding off in the distance came toward my aid-"
"And it was Jak, Daxter, and Keira?" Ahsoka inquired.
"Yup," Ratchet confirmed. "I was in distress, injured, begging for help. They came to my aid and rushed Talwyn and I from the middle of nowhere to the nearest medical center in Haven City. I was less worried about any injuries I had. I was more concerned with Talwyn. She was unconscious and barely hanging on. I had to wait in a separate room to heal up, for hours. I was anxious to hear the news of her condition, and I refused to rest until I heard at least something. But when they told me that they did everything they could…I was crushed." Ratchet's voice started to break at the end of this dialogue to Ahsoka.
As Ahsoka sighed and sighed a tear, Ratchet continued, "I didn't know what to do without her. Luckily Jak and Keira befriended me, took me in, gave me a position in command in their military, and Clank and I were able to survive after all. Hell, we became a part of his extended family that way."
"You know," Ahsoka added on, "They really don't pass off as 'King and Queen' of their own capitol of a planet, do they?"
"They really don't" Ratchet concurred, "In fact, Jak didn't want his family's long-lost throne initially, but he knew he was the rightful one to take it. So he did, but he and Keira didn't rule like monarchs. They let the law making and enforcing to their local council that the people elected. They pretty much let the people of that entire planet do what they wanted, as long as they acted within the laws. And when there were problems, we took care of it. All of us. Jak and Keira went beyond great lengths to help the people out by searching for lost eco to rebuild the entire planet's infrastructure. They put a lot of emphasis on giving back to the people of that world. We all had a ton of great adventures together, too many to count. We were looked at as protectors of the people rather than rulers of the people. That's why it was so heartbreaking for all of us to leave Eco, when it fell into the clutches of The Empire."
Ahsoka sighed, and concluded to him, "All this time I was fighting for an entity that was about to take everything from me. From the time I left to the time I came back, I was confused. I thought coming back would be the right thing to do, but instead, it twisted my mind even more. When I saw Anakin rushing by me to save The Chancellor, I don't think he ever saw me. It was like tunnel vision; I called to him, as loud as I could, and he just, whistled past me like the wind, as if that was his main concern. I don't know what happened to him after that. But in that moment, right before the collapse of virtue began, I became more conflicted than ever before. Ever since then, I lost touch of what's right and what's wrong, what is peace and what is war, what is love and hate, hope and fear, light and dark…"
She predicted, "Someday, maybe we'll be at a crossroads to where we can't pick one side or the other. Maybe pure love and justice can't be the answer without conflict. Someday, I believe the Jedi and Sith will die out, and someone will fully and truly understand the balance between all that is right in the universe, and all that is wrong, and bring forth that balance. I believe it is Jak, from what we've all seen, and I hope he finds my master, and that he tells him before it's too late."
Ratchet nodded, looked out into the Korriban sunrise, then looked back at Ahsoka, "First of all, he has to come back the same way he left. I wonder how he's doing out there. I hope he's not in bad of shape."
"Speaking of shape," Ahsoka followed, "we should check up on how Keira's doing-"
"Fine," A growl sparked behind them. They turned around slowly and noticed Keira, dressed in her normal attire, but with a stern and angry look on a face that was as red as the sky that surrounded them, "Just fine."
"Keira!" Both Ratchet and Ahsoka sprung up, Ratchet scratched his head, chuckled anxiously, and continued, "Uhh, hehe. We were just about to check up on you! And see how-"
"Where is he!?" Keira barked.
'Crap, she knows,' Ahsoka thought to herself.
"We're on Korriban, aren't we?" Keira asked them, they both nodded in reply, and then she yelled at them so loud it forced them to sit back down in their respective chairs, "You two are to explain to me EVERYTHING that just happened, RIGHT NOW!"
Meanwhile, just outside the ship, Jak and Daxter slowly stood up after enduring the tumultuous escape from Darth Bane's tomb. The jetboard laid hundreds of feet away from them, and was destroyed into scrap metal upon impact. They scratched their heads, rubbed their eyes, and checked their surroundings until they saw the ship.
"See that, Dax?" Jak began, "The worst is almost over."
"But Jak," Daxter interjected, "What about Master Windu? We can't leave him behind!" Daxter pointed in a direction behind them, and saw him laying prone and unconscious in the sand.
"Well, we can't leave him if he's okay." Jak agreed, and began to walk toward the Jedi Master. As they crept closer, Jak called out to him, "Master Windu?"
Suddenly, as Jak began to lean over him, Master Windu sprung up, grew claws, and tried to strike him with them. This caught Jak and Daxter by major surprise because of what he was turning into. His eyes turned into a bright yellow, his skin turned to pale grey, his teeth sharpened, and his voice drastically changed. This sudden transformation of the former Jedi Master caused Jak to pensively, and reluctantly draw his light saber, while the monster drew his and held it in a reverse grip. It was at this moment, they both realized he was poisoned with dark eco when Daxter bit him back on Coruscant.
After Windu charged at him visciously and swung and missed the leaping hero, Jak began to console him, "Woah! Easy Master, I'm not gonna fight you."
"You…" Master Windu growled, "You stole my path!" He then ignited dark eco force lightning from his fingertips.
"What!?" Jak exclaimed as he blocked the lightning with his sword.
"For months…." Master Windu seethed, "I've been plotting revenge against The Emperor for what he did to me. I was set to bring justice and order to The Galaxy, and he attacked me, and threw me off his balcony, leaving me mad. I was set to do that again, and you came along and stole my path from underneath me!" He charged and swung at him some more, with Jak blocking all of his strikes.
After they broke off the duel momentarily, Jak spun around and turned back to him, "That's the dark eco in you talking! Use The Force! Fight it!"
"I wanted to fight the darkness when I found you. I saw your power, your raw potential of transforming The Galaxy forever. After your 'friend,' altered me with dark eco, I could feel that poison killing me, but I needed more to feed my addiction of the power that I witnessed from you, to emulate you, to control what you can't control, so I can defeat this 'Empire' and take The Galaxy for myself!"
"So that's why you had those dark eco crystals on you from Tatooine!" Jak concluded, "You wanted revenge?"
"Yes, just like you do!" Master Windu spat back, "The Empire took your planet, turned it into their own colony in everything but name, and you came here to swear that you'd destroy them once and for all, AND YET YOU HAVE FAILED! YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING! BECAUSE WHAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO ME!"
"Jak! I think he's gone crazy!"- Daxter exclaimed.
"They took my pride," Windu followed with a strike, "my power," another strike, " my purpose," another, "my plan," and finally, finishing him off with a dark eco blast, "THEY TOOK ME AWAY FROM EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE BUILT!"
Windu released the dark eco blast from his fingertips, flying Jak and Daxter a few hundred feet away from him. He turned to his west side, and saw The Renegade still parked on the desert sand, with the main hatchway still opened.
"And now…" Master Windu grumbled as he limped closer to the ship, "This Empire is mine!" His process was interrupted when Jak, in his dark form, leapt from the sky out of nowhere, directly into his path, dropping a dark bomb in front of him. He looked up, growled at the deranged Jedi Master, and charged at him. Jak swung his light saber at him, but Windu had increased his reflexes to defend thanks to his dark powers. When the time came for Windu to push forward, Jak would counter with dark eco force lightning. They circled, went back and forth, throwing their blades, slashing with their claws, punching, and kicking each other. Shedding blood, giving scars, and taking blows. This was an all-out war.
It was a dogfight between two beasts, and Keira, Ratchet, and Ahsoka stood behind the window of the ship, stunned, and astounded at what they were witnessing, unbeknownst to them that Jak was the one using his dark powers to react defensively and protect his crew, thus mastering complete control of The Dark Side.
After trading shots back and forth with each other, the two mutated Force-wielders crossed their blades in a close, tight-knit stalemate, staring at each other down with their bulging, black eyes. They broke off, and Master Windu kicked Jak in the chest, knocking him down. Then, he put his hand on Jak's throat, attempting to kill him. Jak would then kick him in his stomach as he jumped himself upright, and then stabbed the former Jedi Master in the heart with his saber, instantly killing him.
Jak began to change back to normal as the corpse of Master Windu dropped to the ground. He looked ahead at Daxter as he was running and panting, just missing all the action. Then Jak looked to his left, and saw his wife, and his two other comrades staring at him. Blank, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, and shocked at what just took place.
"Master…"Ahsoka shuddered at the sight of the fallen Jedi's body.
Keira displayed the most emotion of all. Tears streamed from her eyes like twin white-rapid waterfalls, her cheeks were hued with an angry color, her body trembled in rage, and her heart was so over-filled with sadness, it was broken. Jak saw this, and felt an instant remorse.
"Keira-" he began to plead, but was interrupted as she rushed towards him.
"YOU LYING, NO GOOD, POWER-HUNGRY MONSTER!" Keira screamed at him, pushed him, shoved him, and grabbed and shook him around like a rag doll. Jak did not react however, as he vowed to himself to let cooler heads prevail. She continued, pointing at Master Windu's body, "Do you realize what you've done!? What you let the Dark Side do to you! You've lost control!"
"It's not what it looks like!" Jak retorted, "Daxter and I, we escaped the tomb, we found the secret of The Sith so we can destroy them, and Master Windu got knocked unconscious in the process. We saved him, but when he woke up, he had dark powers, and lost control on his own. He tried to attack the ship to kill us all, and stop The Empire all on his own, but I wasn't gonna let him harm you. I learned to control my powers, to the point where I can use my dark ones only for defense. For protection! You have to believe me."
"Do you really expect me to believe you," Keira growled then roared, "When you lied to me about meeting your friends, my friends, OUR FRIENDS, AND MY FATHER, at Dromund-Kaas to stop The Empire from using our dark eco, LIKE WE AGREED UPON BACK ON TATOOINE!? You don't even care for what happened to them, do you? THEY'VE BEEN CAPTURED, JAK! ERROL CAPTURED THEM!"
"How do you know that?" Jak inquired.
"Because I saw it. In a vision!" Keira retorted, "I saw it while I was resting. They needed our help over there! You knew in the back of your mind that helping them was the right thing to do to stop this war, instead you wanted the power of the Dark Side all to yourself so bad, not only were you willing to leave them to die in their hands, you took my moment of weakness and used it to your advantage, for what? To take The Empire for your own? It wouldn't shock me, because you're not the man I married, and you're not the boy I fell in love with back home. You're not the hero of Eco like everyone said you were! No, you're just an evil pawn acting like an overlord."
"You know none of that is true!" Jak cried.
"He's right!" Daxter chimed in, "Well, we did lie to you about the Korriban part, but the rest of it he's not making up! I infected him with dark eco back on Coruscant after I tried to bite his shoulder off when I had my dark powers. It got into his bloodstream, and he told us he got addicted to the stuff. He smuggled dark eco from that dark maker ship back on Tatooine! And then he went all insane-o and tried to kill us!"
"You see?" Jak defended, "Daxter would never lie about anything. When has he ever lied in his life? He's like the worst liar ever! Sorry, Dax." Then Jak pointed at the body, "Look Keira, don't you see the dark eco pouring out of him?"
Keira looked at the corpse, and then looked up at her husband, eyelids shaking, lips quivering. She broke, "No, I only see the dark side in you." She stepped backwards, gasping as she cried, "Goodbye, Jak."
"Keira…"Jak called out to her as he reached his hand out while his wife turned her back on him, covering her cringing face with one hand as she walked up the ramp of the ship. Jak walked towards her but Ratchet blocked his path as he was about to step on. He looked at Ahsoka who vanished from the doorway when she looked at him.
"I'm sorry, buddy." Ratchet said to him as he pat him on the shoulder and walked up the ramp. Tears slowly crawled down from Jak's face as the ramp of the ship closed in front of him. Him and Daxter stood there helplessly as the ship hissed and levitated off the ground for takeoff. He watched them slowly drift away into the Korriban sun. Then they disappeared into outer space. Jak and Daxter were once again exiled into the wasteland.