The Ardent Warrior

Revan's following Kaelyn, overseeing and protecting, as she crawls this way and that, when the vision occurs. It's nothing grandiose, no big neon sign flashing, just a whisper of a thought passing through. He's never been a true Seer – battle precognition, always; Force visions, rarely – but he's had visions before to recognize one when it hits.

He Sees himself on a jungle planet, dense foliage all around. Without a doubt, he knows he's in the Unknown Regions. It's so clear that he feels he's there with the humid warmth surrounding him. It's not danger he feels, but an eerie calm, like the awaiting of an inevitable battle.

And then, all too soon, it's gone.

He blinks, finding Kaelyn in the midst of trying to pull Ilona out of the pittin's hiding spot.

"Kae, baby, no. Leave her alone," he says, shaking his head to clear the thoughts of the vision away. Whatever it was, he's not ready to face it. He moves to pick Kaelyn up. "Let's go play with toys and not torture pittins, huh?"

It's by chance that Revan's hoping Bastila might be staying at Milliways (and not avoiding him in the Force for whatever reason) this particular evening as he walks through the closet door on Alderaan and into the familiar bar.

He'd been planning to head there for a drink or two anyway, in an attempt to unwind after a very long day of the girls crying over almost everything, when he had the sudden urge to see her. Or maybe it wasn't all so sudden, but rather a thought that had been at the back of his mind for the past few weeks or so since he had last talked to her.

Either way, when he could no longer sense Bastila anywhere in their galaxy, it left him with one place to look: Milliways.

From here and an hour or less later, the girls have been tucked into bed, both yawning and exhausted. Revan drops kisses to their foreheads and whispers goodnights before slipping from the room and leaving Kira to do the same. And then he waits for her in their bedroom, sitting on the edge of their bed.

Up the stairs Revan goes, two at once to catch up to Bastila. He doesn't call out to stop her though. He actually has no idea why he's following her or what he could possibly say to her anymore.

So maybe that makes him a bit masochistic then, as he rounds the corner in time to see her disappear into her room. It's not only hurting her to keep at this, after all. Or maybe he just doesn't want to give up that easily. They might not have known each other very long – only six years at the most (and he was gone for four of those) – but they have too much history to try and not salvage what friendship they could still have.

In any case, he reaches her door as it closes, coming to a stop as the lock clicks into place. He raises his hand to knock.



Only, he hesitates as a thought comes to mind. He rests his forehead against the doorframe, dropping the barriers he'd put up and opening himself to their Bond instead.

Only when the Hawk dropped out of hyperspace and the planet speckled with rainforests and mountain ranges came into view did Revan feel the first traces of nervousness. It surprised him, the feeling. He hadn't been expecting it, but he supposed it made sense.

Not only was he meeting his father again after a little more than a decade apart, but Kira was going to be meeting him for the first time too. He didn't know why, especially when he himself could care less about getting along with his father, but he wanted Kira (and, eventually, the girls) to like the man.

Maybe it was just fatherhood making him soft again to think in such ways. Or maybe he was starting to see how important family could be. He didn't know.

Either way, there they were.

Revan sighed, opening a channel to the planet below. "Wayland Medical Station, this is the Ebon Hawk requesting to land. Transmitting transponder codes now."

"Copy Ebon Hawk, this is Wayland Medical Station. You're cleared to land."

And with that, shoving any lingering thoughts aside, he concentrated on landing the ship with great care. After all, there were babies aboard.

Another house. Another walkthrough. And Revan is yawning as he walks through the front door.

There were too many rings, far too many to choose from, and Revan stood, looking around at all of them, with no idea where to begin. For one, all the rings looked the same to him. And he was not even certain what he was doing in the shop to begin with.

No, that was not true. He knew what he wanted and what had turned him into the store, but Kira never brought it up and he had no idea how she felt on the subject. That is, other than the one time she had said she had not wanted to marry because she was pregnant and not even he had wanted to be married then, but that conversation had been five years ago for Revan.

Revan might not seem like the marrying type, but it seemed like the logical conclusion to him now: babies, house, and marriage. (Not that it was always in that order, and even when the babies had not arrived and the house had not found or bought yet.)

And so he moved to looking at another ring that seemed identical to the last seven.

"May I help you?"

Revan looked up from the small cut ring to the young Alderaanian man standing behind the counter. "I was looking for a ring for my..." He trailed off; the man was now blinking at him, as though he was trying to recall where he had seen Revan before.

His brow furrowed. "Are you...?"

Revan sighed. "No, you have never seen me before in your life," and the gesture of the hand was almost unnoticeable.

"No, I guess I've never seen you before in my life," the young man repeated, his stare blank before he turned his attention back to the rings. "You were looking for a ring?"

"Yes, for my girlfriend."

It was almost amusing how the young man's demeanor shifted to being one of elated, his eyebrows rising and a small twinkle in his eyes. "For an engagement?" He was hoping for a big sale, Revan knew.

There was something about the word that made Revan frown though. Engagement. Commitment. Entrapment. His brow furrowed. "Yes. I think." He was not certain how Kira felt about being tied down to him. But he knew what he wanted.

"...You think?"

"No. I mean, yes. Yes, that it is for an engagement."

"Then you do not want these rings," the man said, walking around the counter to lead him to another. "What you're looking for is over here."

Revan frowned at the case he had been to; these rings looked no different than the others he had been looking at with the exception of the stone maybe. "It is?"

"Yes," the man sighed. "Trust me. Now, do you know if she has a favorite setting, a cut, what sort of band she prefers...?" But the man trailed off at the look on Revan's face. "No, I should've known. Do you know her ring size, at least?" Again, the man sighed at the look on Revan's face though. "We can always resize it later, if we have to."

Revan watched the man as he keyed open the display case, reaching in to pull one of the many rings out. It was huge, too huge of a stone, and Revan found himself laughing; the ring would probably cost more than the Hawk, he knew that much. "I don't think so," he said before the man had even finished taking the ring out of the case.

"Right, something more demure then?" And this time the man pulled out a much smaller ring, but Revan found himself wrinkling his nose at it; there was too much going on with it, he wanted something simpler. But not even the next ring the man pulled out was simple enough.

"I see this is going to take awhile," the man grumbled beneath his breath and Revan tried not to smirk.

It was unreasonably hot in the morning and by the afternoon it was scorching. So much so that Revan had stripped down to simple trousers while he works on repairing a machine, letting and not quite caring that the sweltering sun burns at his shoulders and back. It was much too hot to be wearing a shirt. Even his young companion, who sits atop the fence watching him and swinging her legs back and forth, was wearing nothing more than a simple sundress.

She taps his shoulder with her barefoot, toes lingering. "Are you sure that goes there?"

"I am the mechanic," he grunts, shrugging his shoulder to knock her foot off. Her legs go back to swinging as he fits the part properly into place. He sends a smug, boyish grin over his shoulder.

"Oh, ha-ha," and she shoves at him playfully with her foot before he stands wiping the sweat from his brow. "All done?" she asks, peering at the machine as he leans against the fence next to her.

Revan nods with confirmation. "What did you need, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth leans over, wrapping her arms around his neck before he can escape, and presses herself against him just so. "A date for the dance tonight, is all."

"No."

She frowns, a slight pout on her lips, and she sits back. "You used to be more fun."

"That was before I found out you were seventeen," he points out.

"Please?" she asks, reaching over to card her fingers through his hair. "Otherwise I'm stuck going with grabby hands Edric. Don't you want to protect my virtue?"

Revan merely laughs, shaking his head.

Following his little chat with Rand, Revan wanders back to the room he shares with Kira, closing the door behind him with more force than necessary. He doesn't stop to look around the room or pet Ilona who mewls at him as he walks by, he heads straight for the 'fresher, closing and locking the door behind him.

It's safer there.

He held his anger in check for so long that when he finally lets it out, hidden from the world in the 'fresher, it's through the Force. Before he can stop the wave of energy, the bottles of soap in the shower explode and the mirror cracks.