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Topic:
Rent in the Force Chapter 26 is up 06/25/03 Finished
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ZaraValinor
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/03 9:06pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force (Continuation to Pattern of the Force) Chapter 18 05/21/03
- Date Edited:
6/1/03 4:17pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
ZaraValinor
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Chapter 19: The Force will Guide Us
Han and Harmon followed a safe distance away from Athaliah, the Alderaanian descended Jedi, who was using the Force to keep the still-unconscious Head of Security Feld upright in an imitation of walking. They had already rummaged through Feld's flight suit, and had found the keycard to his quarters. Han knew, from living with Leia, that high-ranking officials in the New Republic had full access to their office records from home offices, and a scenario was beginning to play in Han's mind.
What if this had not been the first time that Gyser Feld had been seduced by a woman seeking information? She might have even given the Head of Security what he had wanted, and then taken whatever information Lord Nefarion had sent her to gather while Feld slept. He couldn't really prove this yet, not without going into Feld's home office and inspecting the station terminal.
He exchanged a look with Harmon as Athaliah slipped the keycard into the door feed and mind-lifted Feld through the door as it spurted open. They would wait a casual amount of time before coming to the door and slipping in the duplicate keycard that Han had made, drawing on the skills of his old smuggling days. Hopefully, whoever had noticed Athaliah go in with Feld, wouldn’t be paying attention at the time Harmon and Han made their entrance.
Han hid a smile as he watched Harmon study Athaliah. The two lovers thought they had everyone fooled about their relationship. Han had to admit that the rest of the Jedi team had no clue as to the deep feelings coursing between the two Jedi, the love that for some reason unknowable to Han, they hid as deeply as they felt. The aging smuggler, who was not used to reading people through some energy field that all his family could touch but remained a mystery to him, had gained a gift of his own.
Jedi tended not to relay their feelings through neither emotion nor gesture, yet living around many of them for as long as Han had, it was no surprise that he could read their thoughts and feelings in the most deadpan of expressions. Everyone betrayed themselves in different ways - a good sabacc player found these ways and exploited them, and Han had always thought of himself as more than a good player.
Looking over at the secretly worried Jedi, Han gave him a crooked smile. “It looks like we’re on, Junior.”
The young Jedi gave him a weird expression, his eyes pinching in the corners to scrutinize the one-time smuggler. “After you, Captain.”
Morphing out of the shadows, Han and Harmon approached Feld’s quarters. Han slipped the duplicate keycard in, and he and Harmon slipped through the door. Athaliah waited on the other side, her hands planted on her hips, and a mocking smile on her lips. “What were you waiting for? Boonta Eve?”
Han tossed her a sardonic look. “Funny.” He jerked his head towards where he guessed Athaliah had dropped Feld off. “He still out?”
“Into another galaxy,” she assured him. She motioned the one-time smuggler and the young Jedi to follow her, and led them deeper into the quarters, down a hall, and to the right. The hall brought them into a small office. “The computer terminal is already open, but I can’t access the mainframe.”
Inwardly Han groaned, as the three of them hunched over the computer terminal. He suddenly wished that Anakin didn’t have Threepio or that Ben had left Artoo behind, someone who could jack in past the NRI security codes embedded in the system. Nor could he hotwire the terminal to do what he wished; he just hoped that a little of that Solo luck would kick in and he could fumble his way through the terminal. But that posed a problem: if he could not get past the security shield, how could anyone who hadn’t the prior information?
“This is not good,” he murmured, slumping into the terminal’s conforming chair and sticking his fingers into his hair in frustration.
Harmon and Athaliah rested their elbows on the edge of the chair, leaning over Han. “What’s that, Captain?” Harmon asked.
“This whole ruse was to prove that someone could get in under the same pretenses that Athaliah did and access the fleet’s transponder codes, even download them to a datapad. That theory pretty much gets devoured in the afterburners, now that we’ve seen the system security mainframe,” Han said.
The room went silent for a long moment, the two Jedi and Han each lost in their own thoughts, each knowing that Feld was not going to stay unconscious forever and the longer they stayed here in the open they were in the open. And Han was pretty sure that Feld would not take kindly to learning that he, the Head of Security in the NRI, had been under the scrutiny of the Jedi, especially when Han and his Jedi team had no proof as to the man’s guilt, or even why they had suspected Feld in the first place. The only defense Han would have was that Feld had acted as any other bureaucrat might have, full of procedure and inefficiency.
“Captain, what if Feld knew he had screwed up,” Harmon mused. “Knew that he had been duped, and wanted to cover it up? He would make sure he had the security blocks on his computer on at all times....”
“Would have taken the antidote to the hypospray in advance,” came Feld’s voice behind them. As one unit, Han and the two Jedi spun around to face Feld. The elderly man looked drugged and haggard, but he was definitely awake. “Oh, and I have called my security force, they should be here any minute to arrest you for breaking and entering the personal quarters of the Head of Security.”
Han leaned back in the conforming chair, affecting a pose of nonchalance. “So it was you who let the transponder codes be compromised.”
A sinister smile twisted the large face of the Head of Security, crooked teeth gleaming in the light of illumination banks overhead. “Come now, Captain Solo, we both know the answer to that question.”
Very clever, Han thought. Feld suspected that they might have a wire on one of them, in case he uttered anything incriminating, modifying his answers to ambiguous sentences that would not have given them anything to work with- if Han had thought of wiring them with a comlink set to record.
“You understand that Jedi are not easily taken?” Harmon asked from Han’s right. “We are agents of the New Republic, I think they will see that we do not act prematurely.”
Oh, to be that naive, Han thought sarcastically. Harmon had that same high idealism that Luke had carried with him up until the time of his death - that eventually things all straightened themselves out, that truth, light and justice would eventually win. The thing was, Han had been infected with the same naivety.
Feld laughed mockingly, apparently he had a very different view of the way the galaxy worked. “I think you grossly underestimate the severity of your position here, Jedi Amodt. Although the Jedi may be more accepted in the galaxy than they were a decade ago, among the Senate you are highly suspicious.” A busy grey eyebrow cocked on the otherwise hairless forehead. “How easy it would be for me to explain that I have found the traitors to the New Republic, and sadly, it is those who have pledged their lives to defending the galaxy.” The man’s face drooped into an exaggeration of regret. “A pity, really, that you’ll have to spend the rest of your young lives in prison.”
Han felt the two Jedi leaning over him stiffen. “Relax, kids,” he uttered to them. “It’s not over yet.”
The pounding of booted feet marked Han’s words but the sound had come to betray him. “I’m afraid it is, Captain Solo. That should be the security force to take you to your prison cell.”
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The door shut quietly behind Jag as he went to join Leia’s daughter at the ship. Slowly she spun on her heel to face her two adventurous grandchildren. The two of them looked up at her with wide eyes: Aunecah on a chair where she waited for her legs to be bound, and Tadeo standing next to her shifting from foot to foot in nervous empathy. The two of them together reminded her so much of her own children at their age, when they had gone off on their own little adventures, getting themselves into large amounts of trouble.
She planted hands on her hips and narrowed her brown-eyed gaze onto them, making them suffer the worry of possible punishment for their disobedience. Of course, Leia wasn’t really planning anything, the fright the children had received in the forest was enough, but she hoped this little suspense would keep them from trying anything so foolish again.
On the way back to the Temple, Auni had explained that she had wanted to learn how to sense the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force like Uncle Anakin and Benny, and that she had convinced Tad to come along with her. It had been an incredibly dangerous stunt, even without the threat of the spy looming over them, and Leia’s breath caught in her chest every time she pondered the fact that her grandchildren might have been kidnapped by the Temple’s intruder.
“Well, I hope you two have learned your lesson?” she said, feeling that she had let them sweat it out long enough. “Now, let’s look at your legs and get them taken care of.”
Dropping to a crouch, Leia grasped her granddaughter’s stick-like ankle in her gentle fingers, and with just as much tenderness she pushed Auni’s pant leg. It was difficult, for parts of the cloth had been glued to her flesh by the blood, and Leia had to peel the clothing off slowly to keep from opening more of the scabs than necessary. Tears traced down Auni’s rounded cheeks, her jaw muscles clenching as she tried not to cry out in pain. Tad held his sister’s hand faithfully, his tiny fingers being crushed in Auni’s grip as the girl unconsciously strengthened it as the pain increased.
At last, both the pant legs were off, and the cuts in varying depths were revealed. Leia suppressed a wince of her own as she looked at the fleshy mess Auni had made of her calves. The skin had been sliced and stripped, blood was caked on the skin, but a lot of the cuts were still oozing trickles of blood.
“Oh, Auni,” Leia moaned. “How did you run like this?”
The little girls face was squinched up in pain, and it was with an effort of will that she cracked her eyes open to scrutinize her grandmother. “I just did what Uncle Luke taught us,” she answered through pain-clenched teeth.
“I help,” Tad said, untangling his fingers from his sister’s vice-like grip and coming around the chair to gently trace the cuts on his sister’s legs. As he went, the puckered skin began to form around itself, not fully closing but easing Auni’s pain enough that the girl’s face relaxed as the pain diminished.
“Tad,” Leia gasped. “Who taught you how to do that?”
Her grandson tossed her a toothy grin. “Benny did.”
Leia had thought she was past feeling surprised about the amazing feats that her children and her children’s children could do. And Ben Skywalker brought out the best in each of them - he was like a conduit to their power, bringing them to ultimate fruition. Leia had seen it before, with Luke and Mara, Jaina and Jacen, and even Anakin in the short time of his return. Ben made the Force more reachable, somehow more understandable, yet the boy feared his own power.
She could hardly fault her nephew, however; his destiny had thrown him a lot no child should be called to bear, and as Leia looked at her grandson, she wondered if Tad was not bound to follow in Ben’s footsteps.
Softly she caressed the baby-fat cheek. “Good job, Tad,” she praised him, then pulled his hand away from his mostly-healed sister’s legs. So grand a use of the Force would only tire him out more than he already was. “Now, let’s get you two to bed.”
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[/hr]
They did not make a sound, nor did they disturb the ground under their feet. These were Devotee Yuuzhan Vong warriors, warriors that had been trained to near perfection, warriors that had given the Jedi hardship at the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong war almost two decades ago. On Devotee held worlds they had been hiding in the shadows, gathering skill and might, a force that could not be stopped if and when their Separatist brethren joined them.
There were two hundred such Yuuzhan Vong warriors under the command of Tarsvin Shraq, the Devotee Warmaster, under the charge of the Sith Lord Nefarion. Shraq’s task force had come to the planet disguised under the abomination of a cloaking device, and now approached the Jedi Temple with the natural shielding the Yuuzhan Vong had for most Jedi in the Force. The only two that could possibly feel their approach were both off planet, running away from a ghost. If Solo and Skywalker only knew how perfectly they were playing into the hands of the demigod...
Shraq’s task Force was connected by a new form of the tizo worm, a cross between the worm and a villip, a communication device that allowed them to be in contact at all times. Just one of the main items of biotechnology that the Devotee Yuuzhan Vong had been breeding inside the confines of their held worlds. The amphistaff clutched in his clawed hand was one of those improved inventions.
The Jedi had worked to make sure their dreaded mechanical weapons could cleave through the Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff, the Separatists even aiding them in their attempt - but now the Devotees had found a solution. The Jedi would be helpless against their might.
From the Lady Sarlana they had learned just how many real Jedi there were in the Temple at any time. It had surprised Shraq how few trained Jedi were kept inside the Temple, less than Shraq’s task force, the majority of them teachers for the many children still learning their infidel ways. Still, Tarsvin Shraq had a respect for the Jedi, had been a young warrior in the Yuuzhan Vong war to claim the galaxy as theirs.
A handful of his warriors had encircled a ship lying waiting in the middle, and was waiting for his signal to move in, just as were the rest of his task force as they perched just outside of the Jedi Temple. Shraq took the moment to revel in the power the gods had bestowed him with, almost the ecstasy he received inside the embrace of pain. He sucked it in as if drinking sustenance from the air. It was a palpable essence, nearly shimmering around him as his team crouched like expectant birds of prey, waiting for their pounce.
He sensed their anticipation and found it mirrored in his own soul. The path to taking the endowment of the gods was at hand. With his clawed finger, he pressed the tizo worm in his ear, activating the sonic resonance that would rebound to the other Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology and interpret it in the ears of his team. “Advance.”
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Jaina back-pedaled away from the console, her eyes refusing to believe what she had just seen. The truth that they had been so blind to, and yet had been staring them in the face since Bellalt. How deftly Lord Nefarion and his Sith Apprentice had manipulated them, manipulated Anakin. She was well aware of the feelings that her brother had begun to exhibit towards Analsa Vinn, knew that the girl was with him right now, pretending to assist him in his search for Ben.
The Solo daughter turned back to the replay holo of Lord Nefarion, his robes shrouding him in the haziness of the projection, making him appear more the wraith than Ben had described him. This man had killed her uncle, wanted to corrupt her cousin, and toyed with the emotions of her brother. It was difficult not to feel the rise of anger and hatred that came up to squeeze at her throat.
Lord Nefarion and Lady Sarlana. That's what he had called her, 'Lady Sarlana'. Jaina thought of the girl who had stormed off in a huff after Anakin's oblivious rejection of her more than obvious affection. Had Jaina misread her so terribly?
Well, no longer. Analsa Vinn was about to be exposed. Shakily, Jaina returned to the console she had figuratively run away from moments ago, her delicately boned fingers easily manipulating the standard communications operating system that had been inset into the strange Sith, ship. The Falcon's frequency code floated off of her fingers with no effort at all, she did not even have to think of the numbers. They were a part of her, as basic as instinct.
Anakin, spy identity uncovered, she sent, once it was apparent that she could not hail her brother. Don't trust... Jaina trailed off as she heard the sound of Yuuzhan Vong claws on the metallic deck of the Sith ship.
There were Yuuzhan Vong on Coruscant, of course, but seldom did they venture so close to the Jedi Temple without permission, and never did they enter property that was not their own. A coldness settled in her stomach, one that was only intensified when she realized how close the Yuuzhan Vong warrior was.
“Turn around, infidel,” she heard a mewling voice behind her, and her hand immediately hovered to her lightsaber at her belt. She was about to move into action when the hiss of an amphistaff slithered into her ear. “I would not be so foolish, infidel.”
Slowly, she took her hand away, raising it along with the other to parallel her head. “What clan holds your honor?” she asked, trying to make sense of this sudden attack. Infidel? How long had it been since she had been addressed as such?
With a swift hand, the Yuuzhan Vong warrior disarmed her. “I am outside your jurisdiction, Jeedai. Soon we will all be.”
“You are a Devotee?” she asked, making a conscious effort not to squirm as the amphistaff came closer and closer to her ear. Ben could manipulate the things, but she could not, and she silently cursed the fact that she had not learned them before now.
“I am loyal to Yun Yuuzhan,” the warrior intoned proudly. “Now, if you fear the gift of the Gods then you had better follow me.”
Jaina nodded, and allowed the press of the amphistaff herd her out of the ship. As soon as she came out into the open of the forest she shivered, and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. Encircling the Sith ship were at least a couple dozen Yuuzhan Vong, all with amphistaffs squirming in their razor-clawed hands. She had hoped to get into a wide open area and take the Yuuzhan Vong Devotee warrior, figuring that he had come alone to destroy the infidel Jeedai, but this was more than she expected, more than she feared the Jedi could handle at the moment.
This was all planned, she realized as they began to move from the ship and encompass her in what might have been a guard position for royalty but was more a cage to keep her from escape. Analsa told Nefarion that the only two Jedi who could sense the Vong were out of the Temple. An ample opportunity for the Devotees to besiege us. But how did they get here?
Jaina’s mind was working on overdrive as her legs worked on instinct, taking her towards the Jedi Temple. It was obvious that Nefarion was working with the Devotees to bring the Separatists back into the good graces of their brethren, it would only make sense that Nefarion would provide the cloaking ships that the Devotees would need to land on any planet without detection. How did we not see this coming?
Even without the ability to sense the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, save for Ben and Anakin, the Jedi should have felt the disturbance in the Force. The trouble was that the disturbance was always there, steadily increasing, until it filled the senses, and it centered on Lord Nefarion. The Jedi had grown lax in their own defense as they worried about saving the Separatist Yuuzhan Vong.
She could think of only one way to warn the Jedi of the oncoming onslaught, and hope that it didn’t come too late. Jacen, I think we’re in trouble.
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Leia had just gotten the kids settled when she heard a clicking sound in the hall outside of the small Solo apartment. Thinking that it might be Jag and Jaina coming back to check on the children, Leia rushed to open the door, only to find the corridor empty and dark. A bad feeling beginning to blossom in her stomach, Leia stepped into the hallway, her hand reaching to the lightsaber at her belt.
Her senses were on the alert and she managed to catch a flicker of motion before everything went dark.
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[/hr]
Jacen, I think we’re in trouble. That was how he would have translated the terrified feeling in the Force that awakened him, as he bolted upright in the bed he shared with his wife. He caught his breath in a rush, reaching out to his sister to gather more information. What he saw through her mind’s eye was even worse than he could have imagined. Yuuzhan Vong Devotees were everywhere, marked by the ritualistic scars and tattoos of their religion.
Next to him, Tahiri stirred, the large bulge of her stomach evident under the bed cover. Jacen’s eyes fixed on her stomach; the only protection that their child had was Tahiri, and Jacen’s vongsense was telling him that their unborn baby girl would need all the protection she could get. Grasping Tahiri’s shoulder, Jacen shook her, gently but insistently. Whatever was coming, he had to get Tahiri to a safe place and warn the rest of the Jedi.
“Tahiri, wake up,” he hissed at her insistently.
She moaned in her sleep. She was so close to the birthing of their baby - due any day, the Master Healers had said - and she needed her rest - the Healers had admonished her - but they had to get out of here, and fast, from what Jaina was intoning.
Her eyes fluttered open a few heartbeats later and centered on Jacen. “Love, what is it?”
“Yuuzhan Vong,” he whispered, and she immediately reacted, sitting up in their bed just as quickly as Jacen had.
They had both suffered under Yuuzhan Vong captivity, their captors trying to remake each of them in the Yuuzhan Vong image. Where they had tried to physically convert Tahiri, Jacen’s trial had been more of a mental one, as the hierarchy of Yuuzhan Vong hoped to bring a Jedi warrior to their side. Jacen was well aware that Tahiri still had nightmares of her torture at their hands, and had long ago struggled with the Yuuzhan Vong side of herself. It was her strength during that time that had attracted him to her in the first place.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he said, grabbing her hand and helping her out of bed. She cringed as her weight shifted to her swollen bare feet. He cupped her face in his hands. “Will you be alright?”
She gave him a cocky grin that only evidenced her weariness to him, and failed to dispel the fatigue in those emerald green eyes. “The Force is my ally,” she answered.
Fear still clung to him - fear for her, fear for their child, but he nodded nonetheless. How had Uncle Luke ever lived through Aunt Mara’s death? Just the thought of losing Tahiri caused ice to form over Jacen’s heart. He could not imagine never waking up next to her again.
She placed her hands over his and gently pulled them from her face, squeezing them. “What’s going on?”
He shook his head, knowing that she had caught his fear for her in his eyes and essence. “I’m not sure, but Devotees are surrounding the Temple,” he answered her. He shuddered with a sigh. “They may even be in the Temple.”
Spasmodically, her grip tightened on his hands, before one of hers came to rest on her pregnant belly. “The baby...” her voice trailed off as her thoughts turned to the worries that neither of them could have pondered.
He locked her gaze into his. “Will never be in the hands of the Devotees. I promise you this, Tahiri. Remember what Ben told you. She’ll be safe.”
With an effort of will, she nodded. That’s when they began to hear the chaos raging in the lower levels of the Temple. Tiny disturbances cut into the Force, lancing it with each death of their fellow Jedi. Holding her in one hand, and his lightsaber in the other, Jacen pulled her towards the door.
“We’ve got to go now, before they reach our level,” he gasped.
Tahiri pulled him back for a moment. “Where will we go?”
Jacen kissed her quickly, reassuringly. “We’ll let the Force guide us.”
-----signature-----
Proud Master to Meredith_Kenobi & Lolly_Tolly
"He full-on Obi-Wan'd me!"
Dean Winchester - Supernatural
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Scorsa
Registered:
Jun '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/03 9:52pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 19: The Force Will Guide Us 05/28
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Wow! The tension builds, the plot thickens...
How exciting...wonder what will happen to the kids though...
-----signature-----
"Some people play tennis, I erode the human soul" -- Tycho, 'Penny Arcade'
"Blow me. Not literally, though, unfortunately there's no promotion involved." -- Dignam, 'The Departed'
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RebelMom
Title: TFF Secretary
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Apr '00
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Date Posted:
5/28/03 10:39pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 19: The Force Will Guide Us 05/28
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this doesn't look good. I hope this doesn't turn into a purge. *shiver*
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Short Story: Pressure Point http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/26961243/p1/?7 Jacen Solo and Anakin Skywalker - as it should have been. TFF: Cheryl
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ZaraValinor
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Date Posted:
5/29/03 9:15pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 19: The Force Will Guide Us 05/28
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Scorsa
Wow! The tension builds, the plot thickens...
How exciting...wonder what will happen to the kids though...
Let me just warn everybody that this is my Empire. This is not going to end happy.
RebelMom
this doesn't look good. I hope this doesn't turn into a purge. *shiver*
Not exactly into purges but many Jedi will die.
-----signature-----
Proud Master to Meredith_Kenobi & Lolly_Tolly
"He full-on Obi-Wan'd me!"
Dean Winchester - Supernatural
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ZaraValinor
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Date Posted:
5/29/03 9:29pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 19: The Force Will Guide Us 05/28
- Date Edited:
6/1/03 4:27pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
ZaraValinor
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Chapter 20: And We’re the Bait.
The sound of rushing waterfalls, and the cold mist of a summer’s eve on Naboo, caressed Anakin’s senses as he stepped out onto the large balcony that he had traced his cousin’s Force-essence to. Sure enough, just an outline against the darker shadows, stood the short but compact form of Ben Skywalker. Elbows leaning on the guard railing, Ben was hypnotized by the sound, the rays of the blue moon glittering off of the palace’s waterfall. So much so that he did not turn to greet Anakin - perhaps didn’t even know he was there, but Anakin doubted it.
Coming closer, Anakin took the slowness of his pace as opportunity to study Ben before disturbing the boy from his thoughts. It now no longer confused Anakin when he thought of Ben as just a boy. Keorra Cereaslean had pinned it right when she said that Anakin had matured not by years but by unique experience. He was no longer that seventeen-year-old boy who had given his life for the secured future of the Jedi and his family, but a man grown in the Force.
Although the galaxy around him remained on the whole foreign, and sometimes even frightening, he now understood why it was that the Force had saved him, had caused him to awaken at this point and time. And in that purpose he had found his stability, and hoped to share it with Ben.
As the blue light of the moon bathed Ben’s still-youthful face, Anakin was forced to recall the reason for the harshness in the young Seer’s features. The dark circles that rimmed Ben’s blue-green eyes, the sharp gauntness in his cheeks, the way the muscles in his jawline clenched and unclenched as though he were continually fighting something unseeable to the rest of them. Keorra had explained to him that Ben had not slept much while on the asteroid world that Karrde had founded his home base on, that when he had it hadn’t been long before he awoke screaming or wide-eyed.
Pausing just short of Ben, Anakin took a deep breath of the nectar-filled night air. There was a familiarity to this place, as though it were born inside of his bones, if not inside of his mind, a place that caused the Force to tingle inside of him. A feeling that had more than the obvious teeming life on Naboo to it. No wonder Ben had come here in his search for peace.
“There is an old tale that is told to children here on Naboo. That the Force itself plucked a jewel from the earth of an unknown planet in another galaxy and stuck it in our own, to brighten the skies of the universe,” Ben said without preamble, a strained smile touching his fatigue-drawn face. “Before, there was only darkness in the galaxy, and the Force wished to bring in the light to balance it.”
Anakin mimicked the smile. “It is a lovely tale.”
“A story of hope,” Ben said, morbidly defeated.
“Hope is not resigned to children’s fairy tales, Ben,” Anakin reminded.
Ben’s profile was almost ghostly in the pale light. “My parents used to tell me similar stories. Stories of a man who had once been the light itself, and had turned as dark as charcoal, only to be revived in the fires of his son’s love.”
“History has many such stories,” Anakin agreed. “I remember one of a baby, not even out of his mother’s womb, who healed her of a vicious disease. Even as he was being attacked by the disease himself.”
“While his mother protected him,” the Seer nodded. “Except now he has no mother, no father, and no one to save him.”
Anakin closed his eyes and shuttered a breath. “I will not believe in your vision.”
“Whether you care to believe in it or not, it is true nonetheless,” Ben said, finally facing Anakin in his anger. “Avoiding it will not help. I tried that. I ran away, ran away from the future. Do you know what the problem with the future is, Anakin?”
Swallowing, Anakin shook his head. “Tell me.”
“We forget the moment. The now. Except, once you focus too tightly on the now, you lose sight of what your actions might bring to the future, and the past - how do we learn from it and not dwell on it?” a mocking laugh colored Ben’s voice. “And I see them all. The future, the past, and the present. Slivers of them, but important slivers.”
“You are still on the side of good in the now,” Anakin said tightly, controlled.
“Do you know who the savior of Naboo was during the Trade Federation blockade so many years ago?” Ben asked, in a sudden reversal that sent Anakin’s head spinning. “A boy of nine years, a former slave from Tatooine who held the light of the Force inside of him. He was our grandfather, Anakin. The one whose name you bear. The man of fairy tales.”
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[/hr]
Tarsvin Shraq hefted the limp body of Leia Organa Solo into his arms, her head and legs flopping with each step. Behind the door their grandmother had just passed through, Tad and Auni watched the Yuuzhan Vong leave with eyes colored with fright.
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[/hr]
“Our Grandfather fell because of his own designs, Ben, not because of some pre-destiny,” Anakin shot back at his cousin angrily. Why was Ben forcing him to come to terms with this possibility? It was a possibility all Jedi held inside of them, even himself. The temptation of the Dark Side. It wasn't foreordained, but a choice each person made, no matter what Ben's visions held.
“I've seen the past, Anakin, and you're right - Anakin Skywalker did not fall because he was destined to. He fell because of power. He was the 'Chosen One', the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, the Force did not only whisper to him but it shouted. It was because of this fact that my father limited his use of the Force - he didn't want to hear the screaming, but the small intuition. He could have whipped out the Yuuzhan Vong when they entered our galaxy, Jacen could have, you could have, but you each chose the higher path. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“Are you saying you have absolute power?” Anakin asked, pushing the lump in his throat aside.
Ben turned back to the waterfalls, frustration, fatigue, fear, and longing all written on his features. “I don't want to.”
Tentatively, Anakin placed a hand on his cousin's shoulder. “Ben, you are the 'Chosen One'.”
To his surprise, Ben shook his head, the collar-length locks of the ruddy brown hair ruffling in the evening breeze. “I am the spearhead of the Chosen.”
“I don't understand,” Anakin admitted. Ben's mind seemed to jump from subject to subject with no matter and no meaning.
“Is the Force really in balance, Anakin, or did my father and our grandfather create an opening for the Jedi to build before the true disruption, the onslaught?” Ben asked pointedly, his eyes now colored in steel. “The Yuuzhan Vong invasion came in a time of supposed balance, the destruction almost as bad, if not worse, than what Palpatine wrought during his reign as Emperor. Now Nefarion rises, a man who is Palpatine reincarnated, and has the aid of the Yuuzhan Vong. This is not merely the fate of the Order, but the fate of the galaxy. Was balance brought fully, or does it need to be finished?”
Anakin sighed, wishing that Ben would stay on one subject at a time, answering one thought pattern before moving on to another one. “Balance is something we constantly fight to achieve.”
“And can never attain?” Ben questioned. “I don't believe that. The Jedi had balance for over a thousand generations, and yet after we defeat the Sith, we continue to be thrown into conflict, a few decades between each, but what is a few decades compared to the peace of thousands of years?”
Anakin had to admit these were questions that he had asked himself not so long ago.
“You're saying that these are more than just ripples from Palpatine's initial disturbance?”
“I'm saying this is the same disturbance. Palpatine's death just gave us more time to prepare for what he had brought about. The purges of the Jedi left the galaxy hardly in balance. We had one Jedi facing everything that was thrown at him,” Ben elucidated. “Now we have hundreds to fight the rise of the Dark Side. This is the final moment, the moment of decision, Anakin.” Ben clenched his hands together so tightly that they went white under his tan. “And I can't be a part of it.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[/hr]
Jacen and Tahiri ran with everything they had, thud bugs thunking into the tile of the Temple below their feet, some of them nipping at their heels so that they left blood as they ran. Somehow, Tahiri was managing to keep up with him, but pain was etched into the soft contours of her face, causing her flesh to harden. They were running out of time, Jacen could feel that, and they were running out of places to run to. It was only a matter of time before they were caught.
He understood that they wanted him and Tahiri alive. The Solo family were to be sacrifices unto the Gods, had been meant for such an offering since nearly the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. However, if they kept up their retreat, these warriors may decide not to put off the sacrifice any longer, and deal with them now. And Tahiri was tiring.
“We can run no longer,” he breathed to her, as he brought her hand back, slowing his hurried pace. Jacen sliced his green lightsaber downward, burning a number of thud bugs on the intensity of the saber.
“I won't be under their captivity, Jacen,” Tahiri hissed at him. “I can't be.”
“They want us alive for the time being. They'll be busy enough trying to gather the rest of us, we have time yet,” Jacen explained, as he continued to block the oncoming assault. “Trust me, love.”
He saw the internal battle rage inside of her, the need to protect their unborn child, the fear of her previous encounters with the Yuuzhan Vong. Tahiri had come to accept the Separatists, but the Devotees she had no feeling for. He could not fault her, as his thumb came up to trace the three balled-tissued scars on her forehead.
“I trust you, my husband,” she assured him.
Jacen squeezed her hand, and batted thud bugs away from them before calling out to their pursuers. “We surrender.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[/hr]
“You must be a part of it,” came the voice of Keorra Cereaslean, intruding as planned into the conversation between Ben and Anakin, her violet eyes shining, even more enigmatic in the pale blue light of Naboo's moon. “You must make sure that the sword of destruction remains sheathed.”
Ben rushed the girl, gripping his hands around her shoulder, locking his gaze on hers. “Look into my soul,” he pleaded. “See into me, Upoi Soulreader. Will I go Kalla?”
Keorra did not wince under the iron grasp of Ben, but gazed into his eyes, not searchingly, because her own gaze became cloudy, but Anakin felt as though something important was happening. Suddenly, she went limp in his arms. “I cannot see it,” she whispered. “But there is also hope in doubt.”
At Ben's distraught look, Anakin felt he had to step in. Keorra was being brave, but Ben was on the edge of desperation, there was no telling what he would do. Gently, but firmly, he pulled Ben's arms away from Keorra. There was so much sorrow in her gaze, a sorrow that matched that of the Jedi's greatest Seer. Then abruptly, as if the light inside of her had come on, Keorra's eyes brightened.
Without a word, she ran across the length of the veranda, and hopped onto the railing that Ben and Anakin had just been leaning over. Balanced in only the way a Upoi Warrior could be, Keorra glanced over the side of the building, and by the way her eyes widened the drop was incredible. She turned to face the two stunned Jedi.
“Do you wish to know who you are, Skywalker?” she asked.
Next to Anakin, Ben tensed, ready for action, but unsure what was going on. He was not the only one. When planning this little confrontation, Keorra had never told him anything close to this. If she were to slip, she would die.
“Keorra, step down. This isn't funny,” Ben snapped, and Anakin felt the concern his cousin had for her.
She smiled at him. “Then follow me,” and with that, she flipped off the edge of the railing, plunging down into the darkness of the night.
“No!” Ben cried, calling upon the Force and leaping from their standing point and over the ledge.
“Ben!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[/hr]
Ben ejected his grappling hook as he fell, just a moment behind Keorra, and using the Force to push his descent further. He caught her nimbly, and held her close to him as they plunged together into the darkness, when abruptly the hook caught onto the veranda railing overhead, and they jerked with the effort of stopped motion.
“Are you insane?” he cursed her as they hung suspended over the waterfall runoff.
There was that mysterious smile on her face, the same one that she had given him before she had leapt off the edge. “If you do go Kalla, and you fall away into the abyss,” she said and twanged the tight cord with her fingers. “Tether yourself, and there will always be someone ready to reel you in.” Her finger pointed up to where the grappling hook held them balanced, Anakin's nervous face bathed in the light of the moon. Then she placed a hand to his cheek, cupping it. “And there will always be one who will go over with you.”
“I'm afraid,” he told her, feeling safe admitting this to her. “I'm afraid of the dark.” He knew he sounded as though he were a little child, wanting to stay in his parents’ bed, inside their protection, but he knew she would understand. She would see into his soul, had already.
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side,” she reminded him, quoting the adages her parents had taught her.
He saw her pain in them. “And a caution,” he countered. “We fear what could hurt us. Just as you fear your parents. They aren't really dead, are they.”
“No, they aren't,” she answered truthfully. “But they might as well be, for I am dead to them.”
Ben wanted to ask her more, ask her who they were and why they had abandoned their daughter so willingly, but knew that would only compound her pain. “We each try too hard to please our parents. I remember, as a child, my father and I got along quite well, but as I grew older I felt that to make him proud I had to make him think. I started acting up, started questioning him, trying to define myself against him, while at the same time trying to be him. It caused so much needless discord between us.” Ben frowned as tears began to fill in his eyes. “I never got the chance to tell him how sorry I was for that.”
“He knew, Ben, he knew,” Keorra assured him. “I can see him reflected in your soul, and he was so proud of you.”
Which was more than Keorra had ever got from her parents, Ben thought. His father had worked to incoporateJedi and non-Jedi into his Order, to show those strong in the Force that they could learn from those who were not, just as he had learned from his friend and brother, Han Solo. Luke had also wanted it as a sign of healing between the galaxy and the Jedi who had sworn their lives to protect them. Somehow, Keorra had gotten lost in the mix.
Suddenly they jerked again, as Anakin began to bring them up, with the help of some of the Queen's guards. “You know, the Queen is going to think you're suicidal now,” he joked.
“I prefer to call it an interesting personality quirk,” she replied back with a cocky grin. “Besides, I had to show you that right now is all that matters, not visions of the future. Like your grandfathers, you still have good to do, and that is all that matters. Whether you fall to the darkness or not.”
“Thank you for reminding me of that,” he said, solemnly. Her head came forward, her eyes closing as though to kiss him. Little did she know that it would be his first kiss, and as he reached out to the Force to feel the sensation fully, he was catapulted into a vision.
Hovering in mid-air, Ben's every muscle contracted as he was gripped inside the waves of the Force. Images cascaded into his mind, as he struggled to gain control, but then he remembered the fear that he could have stopped the attack against Naboo if he had let his visions come, and he ceased struggling. He found as they came that he had more ability to navigate through the visions when he did not fight against them, when he let the Force draw him to the points that needed to be made.
He only marginally felt Anakin and the palace team lift him up and over the rail, with Keorra still in his grasp. “He's fine,” he heard Anakin tell the worried palace workers, when they found Ben almost in an unconscious state. “He is meditating on the Force.”
Ben would have laughed at the strange excuse if he could. Who goes over an edge to meditate on the wonders of the Force? But the palace workers were not about to argue with a Jedi Knight, let alone the reborn Anakin Solo. “I must lead him out of his thoughts.” Anakin and Keorra laid him gently on the stone veranda as the workers took note that Anakin wanted to be alone with his apprentice.
“What happened?” Anakin asked.
“He's in a vision,” came the girl's voice, the sweet contralto he had come to rely so heavily on. A girl he cared all the more for because he had not foreseen her presence.
A hand came to rest on Ben's shoulder, but then it was pulled away just as rapidly as it was placed. “No, don't disturb him,” Keorra said, distantly. “He needs to see this through.”
And Ben did. He allowed the Force to use him as its tool, the vessel through which its future was possible, and to show the present that was rocking Coruscant. It was a long, arduous vision, seeing what was happening at the Temple and not being able to stop it, but taking hope in the fact that the Yuuzhan Vong Devotees seemed to want to keep most of the Jedi alive. When the images finally cleared, Ben focused his eyes on his cousin and Keorra.
“Ben, what did you see,” Anakin asked him.
Ben rolled to his feet. “We've got to get home, Anakin. The tide has already fallen.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[/hr]
Jaina and Jag were tossed into one of the training rooms inside the Jedi Temple; the group of Yuuzhan Vong who had captured her had stumbled upon Jag during their march towards the Temple. They fell to the training room floor, the barest minimum of light coming from the overhead illumination banks and lighting one another's faces. Jag's eyes roved over her, making sure that the Vong had not hurt her. Then he flung his arms around her, crushing her to him for a long moment.
“I can't feel my mother, Jag,” she whispered into his shoulder, trying to hide her fear that Leia was gone.
He pulled her back, locking her at arm’s length. “The children?”
“Fine, but frightened. I don't know how they're evading the Vong, but they are,” she said, pride and hope vying with fear.
“What about your brother and Tahiri? Are they safe?”
She shook her head. “I'm not sure. I can't feel them when they think like Yuuzhan Vong. They disappear.” She fell back into his arms. “If only we had seen this coming.”
He held her tighter, as if the strength of his arms could last them through this trial. “Ben and Anakin will come,” he said, to assure her that all was not lost.
Jaina only wished that it were true. This was the darkness that Ben had ran from, the darkness he feared would change him from the boy he was. She did not want her cousin, who in some ways was like a son to her, to come near this Temple until this crisis passed. And what could Anakin do when he had the Sith apprentice, Lady Sarlana, with him? She had failed to get the warning transmission off to her youngest brother, and Anakin was now doomed to manipulation under the Sith witch.
The door shifted open and two Yuuzhan Vong Devotee warriors came in, carrying Leia's limp form in their arms. Jaina leaped to her feet as soon as she saw her prone mother. “Mom!”
Amphistaffs appeared out of nowhere and pointed at the soft flesh of her neck. “Don't move, infidel.”
“What have you done to her?” she demanded. Unafraid at this moment, but seething with anger.
“She is merely knocked out. You will all be safe until the Jeedai infidel Skywalker comes, then you will be prepared for the sacrifice,” one of the Vong Devotees told her as he unceremoniously spilled Leia to the floor.
Leia's head cracked against the tiled floor as she fell, and it took every ounce of Jaina's control not to attack the Devotee warrior. As soon as the Devotee warriors left, Jaina crawled to her mother on hands and knees. “Mom?”
But whatever the Vong had done to her, it had worked well, and Leia's only response was a moan as she writhed on the floor of the training room. Jaina looked to her husband. “She needs a healer.”
“They'll hardly offer us one. You don't heal someone you are only keeping alive as a sacrifice,” Jag retorted, in that maddeningly cool tone of his. Why was it during these times of stress that her husband seemed more Jedi than she did?
She nodded. “Most likely not.” She sighed, lifting her mother's head so that it might be pillowed on her lap, instead of on the harsh hard floor. “I wonder where the children are?”
“You can still sense them, can't you?” Jag asked, now portraying the worry she had already known was there.
Reaching out to the Force, she traced tendrils through the Temple until she found her children, frightened but alive and conscious. “They are still alright. They're managing on their own.”
They fell into companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Jaina worried that they would not bother keeping the children for the sacrifice if they were found, and hoped that they could be their usual sneaking selves and steal away from the Temple undetected. But then where would they go? The forests outside could be just as dangerous as the Temple full of Yuuzhan Vong Devotees.
It was only a few moments later when Tahiri and Jacen were also brought, Jaina moving quickly to keep Tahiri and her swollen belly from crashing to the floor. The Devotee warriors did not speak, but just exited. Jaina hugged her sister-in-law to her as Tahiri trembled in her grasp. “Are you alright? You're shaking!”
Jacen came over and took his wife from his sister's grasp, sending waves of Force energy to Tahiri and their unborn child. “After I got your message, we tried to escape, but they had already come into the first levels of the Temple. We went up, but there was no other place to go. We ran across some of the Jedi that weren't fortunate enough to survive the invasion. Some of them were young children.” Jacen suddenly looked around and Jaina knew he was searching for her children. “Tad and Auni?”
“Hiding,” Jaina said, miraculously her voice kept even and unshaken. The Devotees had resorted to murdering children. She didn't know why this surprised her so, it had been no different when they had first invaded, but somehow the mellow quality of the Separatists had softened her perception of all Yuuzhan Vong. “I'm not sure where. Mom was with them, settling them to bed. Jacen, they found the ship of our spy. Auni wanted to learn how to sense the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, and convinced Tad to go with her. The spy is Analsa.”
“Analsa,” Tahiri spoke up from her husband’s side. “Anakin's Analsa?”
“Yes, she’s Nefarion's apprentice. He's been directing the show through her the whole time,” Jaina spat out. “The Sith have been one step ahead of us from the beginning. It was a miracle of the Force that they didn't get Ben back on Bellalt.”
“But now we're the bait,” Jag broke into the conversation. “Nefarion knows that Ben wouldn't come back to resume his training unless we were at stake. Unless his family were in danger.”
“Which means that Analsa will be revealing her true identity soon,” Tahiri added. “I just hope Anakin will be prepared for it.”
-----signature-----
Proud Master to Meredith_Kenobi & Lolly_Tolly
"He full-on Obi-Wan'd me!"
Dean Winchester - Supernatural
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Aimeer9
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Date Posted:
5/30/03 4:24am
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RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 20: He's After Someone Called Skywalker. And W'e're the Bait 05/29
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Wow, great two chapters there! Can't wait till the next one. 
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ZaraValinor
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Date Posted:
5/30/03 10:28pm
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RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 20: He's After Someone Called Skywalker. And W'e're the Bait 05/29
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Aimeer9
Wow, great two chapters there! Can't wait till the next one.
Hopefully up tomorrow.
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Proud Master to Meredith_Kenobi & Lolly_Tolly
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RebelMom
Title: TFF Secretary
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Date Posted:
5/31/03 3:25pm
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RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 20: He's After Someone Called Skywalker. And W'e're the Bait 05/29
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Ben's starting to improve. that's good.
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Short Story: Pressure Point http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/26961243/p1/?7 Jacen Solo and Anakin Skywalker - as it should have been. TFF: Cheryl
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ZaraValinor
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Date Posted:
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RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 20: He's After Someone Called Skywalker. And W'e're the Bait 05/29
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RebelMom
Ben's starting to improve. that's good.
He's improved in time to face his future.
Upping also with Shloz's edits. Thanks everyone.
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Proud Master to Meredith_Kenobi & Lolly_Tolly
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Shloz
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Date Posted:
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RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 20: He's After Someone Called Skywalker. And W'e're the Bait 05/29
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Two incredible posts.
You've got us on the edge of our chairs, and biting our nails. True Star Wars action and suspense!
I love how perfect Keorra is for her role as Ben's anchor. It's scary to think of someone whose life has made even wiser than her years than Ben is. I'm also beginning to wonder about who her parents might really be, and the connection to Nefarion...
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Episode III: Palpatine's "Road Map to Peace" with the Separatists... and to Empire.
Support those who battle today's evil - terrorism.
"So I said to him, 'George, the third film was a flop. Cute, little, bear-things?!'"
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ZaraValinor
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Date Posted:
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RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 20: He's After Someone Called Skywalker. And W'e're the Bait 05/29
- Date Edited:
6/8/03 12:38pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
ZaraValinor
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Shloz
Two incredible posts.
You've got us on the edge of our chairs, and biting our nails. True Star Wars action and suspense!
I love how perfect Keorra is for her role as Ben's anchor. It's scary to think of someone whose life has made even wiser than her years than Ben is. I'm also beginning to wonder about who her parents might really be, and the connection to Nefarion...
Nefarion's identity is going to surprise you I think. Although there have been some hints. Especially in Pattern I haven't eluded much to his identity. Thanks Shloz
Chapter 21: That’s Why I Must Go To Them
“I declare war!” Representative Zorel cried out as he stood on the parapet of the meeting chambers’ veranda. Below him, thousands upon thousands of Separatist Yuuzhan Vong cheered at the words of their Representative, their traitor. Unknowingly, they cheered for a man with his own desires in mind, and who cared little for the destruction he was sure to wreak on his people. All they saw was the New Republic chipping away at them one planet at a time, and the Jedi unable to do anything about it, maybe even putting on a show of pretense to assure the Separatists that the Republic was with them even as they destroyed them.
“We have given them ample time to bring proof of their innocence, and what have they given us? Excuses and petitions for more time,” Zorel continued, raising his hands up in a furtive gesture. “The Republic will not stop until each and every one of us is destroyed. Separatist worlds such as Bellalt, Yivos, and Ithor have been struck, and struck hard. We must do something now before all of our people are destroyed.”
A cacophony rose through the chamber, thundering in sound and shook the parapet he stood upon. The rumble filled Zorel with a dark pleasure, one that came close to the ecstasy of pain. His people would do anything he said; they trusted him without question. Now all he had to do was point, and they would go in the direction he wished of them.
“There is only one thing we can do now, my brothers, my people, my friends.” He paused, sighing heavily, as though a weight of great pain came to rest upon his back. He felt the crowd take in a breath, holding it as they waited for the answer to their salvation. “We must align ourselves with our lost brethren. We must join the Devotees and join the old ways.”
With this, Zorel withdrew an Elom spike and sliced vertically and horizontally across his face, blood trickling down his face to pool at his sharpened chin. “Yun Yuuztar!” the former representative cried, rocketing his hand clutching the Elom spike into the air.
“Yun Yuuztar,” the crowd said, repeating his gesture.
[/hr]
Dorsca Cherrz sat cross-legged on the floor inside his quarters in the palace of Naboo. In these moments of respite he liked to take the time to review everything he had learned under the tutelage of Anakin Solo and Ben Skywalker. The Force was still an elusive quality to him - something he could feel, but not quite yet control. He envied Ben and Anakin, who could call upon it at a whim, but knew he himself had drawn on it subconsciously even before he had known that it had truly existed.
His people. The separatist Yuuzhan Vong had declared war against the Republic, a government Cherrz had sworn his life to uphold. His people were dying; they knew no other way to retaliate than the old ways. He knew that many of the Separatists had left for places like Linnal and other Devotee-held worlds to join themselves to their lost brethren.
Cherrz felt pulled in two directions. From Ben's dreams, the Temple was in danger, but he felt compelled to go to his people and talk them out of this war they had declared. A war machinated by the Sith Lord Nefarion. Yet he wondered what he could do on either side. He was not a full Jedi Knight, hardly even a novice. He wouldn't be much use to the Jedi. Nor was he any longer Devotee or Separatist, but something different, something larger.
To be a Jedi meant you held a little piece of every being in the galaxy with you. You were their protector, and their advocate. For the first time, Cherrz realized what it cost to be a Jedi, and wondered why he hadn't seen it before. He saw it in Anakin. After fifteen years of absence from the galaxy, the young Jedi had not shirked his duty but had pressed forward, even when the galaxy around him had become strange and frightening. He saw it in Ben. A boy, who although he was confused and frightened by the destiny he foresaw, continued to aid those in need without a thought for himself.
At this juncture of his life, which fork did he take? Did he stay with those who had been his teachers, and help them rescue the Jedi, or did he go to his people in the hopes of averting a disaster?
“We are at a crossroads, Dorsca Cherrz,” Ben Skywalker muttered as he stepped into the room. He was dressed in the cream-colored, loose-fitting tunic and leggings that Cherrz had first seen him in so many weeks ago. “We are very much the same, you and I. Brothers in the Force, if in no other way.” Grey shot through the green-blue hue of his eyes. “I always wanted a sibling.”
“It honors me that you think of me as such,” Cherrz said, spinning to face Ben head on. “Perhaps my brother can help me to know what the Force would have of me.”
An enigmatic smile came over the youth's features. “Such a hard thing to discern, I know. The Force brought us together, but for what purpose?” Silence followed Ben's question as the young Jedi ambled forward and dropped to the ground in front of the Yuuzhan Vong Jedi. “I was wrong to have left you and Anakin, Dorsca Cherrz, I hope you can forgive me.”
Uncomfortable with the apology, Cherrz evaded Ben's gaze before answering, “You had your reasons.”
“They were selfish reasons,” Skywalker insisted.
“You thought you were doing what was best,” Cherrz reminded him.
Ben ran a hand through his long ruddy brown hair. “I thought if I stayed I would bring the rest of you down with me. But instead of accepting your help, I ran away from it. I acted childishly, and I'm sorry that your training had to suffer for it.”
“You acted as well as any one of us would have. Your father just died, Ben Skywalker. You cannot Force-heal that sort of wound,” Cherrz tried to comfort him. Both Ben and Anakin had saved his life, and here Skywalker was apologizing for his behavior. “Master Horn knew I could learn much from you and your cousin.”
Ben swallowed suddenly and Cherrz was reminded that Master Horn's son, Valin, had been killed in the first wave against the Yuuzhan Vong. “Valin died because of me.”
Cherrz sat up straighter, resting a clawed hand on the younger Jedi's shoulder. “You cannot be blamed for that. It was Nefarion and his fleet that killed Valin, not you.”
“Mentally, I know that, but in my heart I feel responsible.” Ben snorted. “We were never the best of friends, Valin and I, but I did admire him. He had a strength of character that was admirable even for a Jedi. Our fathers had hoped we would be friends, but I think in some ways we were too much alike. Too stubborn, too obstinate. Just like siblings.”
“The Jedi are your family,” Cherrz said, simultaneously reassuring himself and Ben.
Ben studied his hands, rolling them over as if seeing them for the first time. “They are the only family I have left.” Ben forced his gaze back to Cherrz. “The Falcon is packed and ready. Analsa has been given a release under Anakin's protection. Keorra and I will follow them to Coruscant. The question is, Dorsca Cherrz, in which direction will you be headed?”
“The Jedi are my family, too,” Cherrz said on a puff of frustration.
Steel was in Ben's eyes as he leaned forward to grasp both of Cherrz's shoulders. “Sometimes it is necessary to risk your family for the betterment of the galaxy.”
A tingling sensation ran up Cherrz's spine at the power held in those words, uttered by a boy who had not even reached his majority but understood the nature of life and death so much more profoundly than Cherrz did. He remembered that Anakin had called his cousin the 'Chosen One'. A Jedi so powerful in the Force that he held the Force in balance.
“You think I should go to my people?” Cherrz asked.
Ben nodded. “I think that is what the Force is whispering, but what I think is irrelevant. You have to feel it yourself, Dorsca, or it has little meaning to you.”
“The Force is ambiguous to me,” Cherrz admitted. “The harder I try, the more difficult it becomes for me to feel it.”
A nostalgic smile played on the young seer's boyish features. “Then stop trying.” At Cherrz's confused look, Ben continued. “If you only attempt, you've already given in to failure. My father's Master often told him, to ‘do or do not, there is no try'. If you believe it will happen, it will. You must not only try for the Force, but believe that it will be there to greet you.”
Tentatively, Cherrz fluttered his eyes closed after an encouraging nod forward from Ben. As Anakin and Ben had taught him, Cherrz cleared his mind of everything, envisioned the bright light of the Force that he had felt burgeoning inside of himself that day Ben and Anakin had healed him of the wounds he had sustained on Corellia. The warmth had forever been with him, a part of Anakin Solo and Ben Skywalker that could never be erased.
Just as he found that moment of emptiness, the moment of complete humility, the moment of teachability, the Force flooded into Cherrz. He almost gasped at its incredible warmth, almost shivered in the possibility of ice darkness. He veered away from that part of the Force, the part that Ben was afraid would take him one day, and followed his path along the future.
When he finished, he opened his eyes with a shudder, finding a smiling Ben Skywalker on the other side. “You stopped trying,” Ben told him.
“Your father taught you that,” Cherrz gasped, seeing again the wonder the Force could bring.
Ben nodded, and for the first time Cherrz saw that the memory did not pain him as much as it had before. “It is one of the many things my father taught me. Did you find what the Force would have of you, my brother?”
“I will inform Anakin and Analsa that I will be heading for Linnal,” Dorsca assured him, knowing that Ben had seen the same destiny as he had.
“Analsa,” Ben murmured the name, a frown marring his smooth features. “He loves her, doesn’t he?”
Cherrz studied the young Jedi, wondering what it was about the girl that Ben found distasteful. “I believe he does.” Cherrz furrowed his sloped forehead. “You disapprove.”
Ben stood up and adjusted his tunic, running a nervous hand through his longish hair. “Analsa Vinn is not all she pretends to be. I’m not quite sure what she truly is, but I fear what will happen to Anakin once he discovers the truth.”
“You have seen something, haven’t you?” Cherrz accused.
Ben’s mouth hardened in contemplation. “Nothing concrete, just glimmers. Specters of the future.”
“You’re afraid,” Cherrz spoke without thinking, but spoke with feeling.
“We are at the edge of the crucible, Dorsca. The events ahead of us will define the balance of the Force. It is time for the Chosen to make their choice.”
Why do I feel suddenly afraid?
Ben offered him a hand up, and Cherrz took it, Ben grasping his shoulder once again. “I wish you did not have to face what is coming alone, Cherrz, but neither me nor Anakin could help you in this.”
“You are the enemy, they would only come to trust one of their own,” Cherrz recited what they both knew.
“It will be difficult; the forces of darkness do not only come in the form of Force-users. They will promise you much to join them, and you will be an enemy I would not want to face if you did so.” Ben smiled at him through watery eyes. “But I have faith in you.”
“As I have in you,” Cherrz said, reaching out to grip his new brother in a return grasp.
[/hr]
“I hate to say it, but we have yet to come up with a plan as to getting into the Temple,” Analsa Vinn said aboard the Falcon, after Keorra and Skywalker had docked their X-wings and had tethered over through an airlock tunnel.
They were seated around the gaming table as they plotted a way to retake the Temple. It was a tentative plan at best, considering they had only the information of Ben’s scant visions to go on. Basically, Keorra had heard a lot of ‘the Force will guide us.’
“I have a way in,” Skywalker assured her, and gave her a cocky wink.
Vinn’s dark eyebrows cocked questioningly at Skywalker, and Keorra caught a glimpse into her eyes. Her Upoi Soulreader abilities kicked in almost on instinct, and she caught a maelstrom of confusion before Analsa’s eyes closed and the depths of them were blocked off from Keorra. The Soulreader stiffened. She had never met someone who was so confused in their heart, and did not eventually lose themselves. Even Ben had more strength of purpose in his trial than the strange Jedi woman.
Solo interjected into the conversation. “Perhaps you could explain, Ben?”
“It’s a little secret I’ve carried since Dad and Mom first decided that it was time to rebuild fully what had been lost,” Skywalker elucidated. “When the Yuuzhan Vong terraformed Coruscant, they did not stay long enough to finish the jobs. Coruscant became honeycombed with tunnels, and when we came to Coruscant I used to explore them.” Skywalker gave an embarrassed look. “Much to my parents’ chagrin.”
“It runs in the family,” Solo replied, sharing a smile with his cousin.
“Anyway. Once we started working on the Temple, father and I decided to build over the old Temple spot, where most of the tunnels had been formed from the Yuuzhan Vong terraforming. It was meant as an escape route in case we ever needed it, but now it will get us into the one place we probably shouldn’t want to be.”
Keorra eyed Ben. “The old stand-by that your enemy will never expect how stupid you really are.”
“I sense you object, Keorra,” Skywalker said dryly, and the tension suddenly between them was palpable. Just when she thought the man was finally coming to his senses he went and did something that knocked her opinion of him down a notch.
“Do you have to rush into every situation blindly, Skywalker?” she asked heatedly.
His eyes snapped with fire. “And what would you have me do, Keorra Cereaslean? We have little time. We know that the Devotee Yuuzhan Vong have infiltrated the Temple, and that more and more of the Separatists are leaving the Republic to join their brothers in the fight. So when am I supposed to have the time to consider exactly what it is that Nefarion is attempting with this plot?”
“I would have thought that obvious,” she sneered.
Ben glared at her. “Enlighten me.”
“Nefarion has placed the bait, and you come like a ravenous nek battle dog,” Keorra growled.
Ben pushed away from the table, knocking his chair to the ground. “Do you think I don’t know that? Do you think I don’t know that he is waiting for me? But my responsibility is to the Order and to my family.” His smooth features hardened into determination. “I will no longer run from him.”
“Nor will you confront him,” Anakin countered, the weight of authority in his voice.
Skywalker shook his head. “How can I not confront him? He will search me out until I do. I will be hunted every day of my life if I turn and hide. I must choose the place of battle.”
Keorra caught Vinn watching Skywalker closely. The older girl seemed pleased by his words, whereas Solo looked as though he wanted to knock sense into his cousin. “Your training should not be held off by Nefarion’s wishes,” Solo said, leaning his head forward so that his fingers ran through his dark, close-cropped hair. “He bested you last time, Ben. Admit it. If you are to stop him, you must continue your training.”
“So you plan on keeping me from the battle?” Skywalker questioned.
Solo’s head came up, and as his ice-chipped eyes met the aqua color of his cousin’s, surprisingly a smile flittered on Solo’s manly face. “I think we’ve been through this before. We both know we can’t keep the other one from doing his duty. But Ben, don’t give Nefarion what he wants. Don’t give him his chance at you.”
Skywalker pulled at the inner flesh of his cheek with his teeth, thinking. “I have to admit I do not want to face him.”
“He killed your father - that is only natural,” Keorra assured him, seeing that by this admission he felt as though he were admitting to some terrible weakness.
“No, that’s not it. I’m afraid of what I will do when I see him. There is still so much... anger that he is gone. I haven’t worked through it all.” Skywalker searched Solo’s eyes. “I need you to be my Master, Anakin. I need you to tell me what to do.”
Keorra shot an encouraging glance at Anakin, and mentally urged him to take up the offer Skywalker was unconsciously giving. Skywalker was finally asking for the help he needed. Keorra knew that Solo would question his ability to provide, but knew, as Luke Skywalker had, that balance would be brought through these two.
Solo stood up to join his cousin. “Then let me be your Master, Ben.”
“I’m no longer running,” Skywalker said, splaying his arms in a welcoming gesture.
Relief glimmered in Solo’s ice-chipped eyes. “Then if you will excuse us, ladies, my apprentice and I have some training to do.”
Solo threw an arm around Skywalker’s slighter frame and led him out of the gaming room. That left Keorra sitting across from Analsa Vinn. The Upoi Soulreader had to admit that she had not liked the girl on sight, and Ben had told her that there was more than what lay on the surface. Now, the other girl looked at her as though she was looking down at a gnat, although Keorra knew that they were of the same height.
“So, you’re Ben's girl?” Vinn said dryly over the makeshift conference table.
“Friend,” Keorra corrected, not willing to rise to the bait. “We are friends.”
“And that's all you want to be?” Vinn asked, cocking a cultured eyebrow.
Keorra shrugged, putting on a cloak of nonchalance to mask her true feelings. “That's all Skywalker will accept at the moment.” Until he faced his fears of turning Kalla, until his trial was through, he would not accept her love for him. She had looked into his soul, had seen the purity in it, despite his fears, and she could not help but feel the way she did. As much as she hated to admit it, her parents had been right when they had taught her that some things were meant to be.
It slightly frightened her that she could give so much of herself to one that was pure now, but could be tainted by the power he had inherited. She was bound to the sheathed sword of destruction, and she did not know what would happen if he ever let loose the power he held.
For a moment, Vinn lost all the trumped-up arrogance and nodded. “I know how you feel.”
"I believe you do." Keorra had observed the furtive glances that Solo and Vinn had been surreptitiously exchanging, trying not to let the other on to the fact. It was the first time that Keorra could actually feel connected to the other girl, that Analsa Vinn was not so much a confused bundle of nerves, but a real person. Her love for Anakin Solo made her real.
The arrogance returned; haughtily, Vinn tipped her chin back. "You know nothing of me. It is dangerous to assume you do." Vinn slammed her palms on the table and pushed herself away from it, escaping from Keorra's searching glare.
Keorra grabbed Analsa's arm, forcing the older girl to look at her. “Skywalker is important to me,” she stated harshly. “And Solo is important to him. If you do anything to jeopardize them, I swear I will hunt you down.”
The older girl stiffened, and shrugged off Keorra's arm. “What makes you think I would want to hurt them?”
Those dark brown eyes held the depths of confusion in them, a maelstrom of indecision. Keorra had a hard time delving into those swirling pools, not anything like when Ben had begged her to read his soul. He had been open, willing to let her into the innermost part of his heart. Even so, Keorra was the most talented Upoi Soulreader of her time, she should be able to move through the clouds of reality into the soul of this woman, and find her true heart.
It took a series of fruitless attempts for Keorra to realize why she could not read the other woman. Analsa was not sure of her own heart - was pulled in two directions, influenced by two sides. Her soul was torn.
“You will most likely end up hurting yourself,” Keorra muttered.
Analsa snorted. “And I'm allowed to do that without tempting your wrath?”
“Do you think that you have no effect on Solo? He loves you,” Keorra told the obstinate woman.
“Did he tell you this?” Analsa asked the question with an edge of emotion.
Keorra smiled with the falseness of saccharine. “He doesn't need to tell me. I can see it in his eyes.”
Like donning a favorite shipsuit, Analsa's features arranged themselves into that hard expression of impertinence. Funny how we wear our emotions to cover those we don't want seen, Keorra thought as she observed this girl whom she did not trust because she could not read.
"Perhaps you would like to read my soul, Upoi?" Vinn surprised Keorra, as her eyelids fluttered over her dark eyes. "Since you have taken the liberty with everyone else." And with that, Analsa Vinn spun on her heel and retired into the cabin that Keorra was to share with her.
I'm going to kill Karrde for this.
-----signature-----
Proud Master to Meredith_Kenobi & Lolly_Tolly
"He full-on Obi-Wan'd me!"
Dean Winchester - Supernatural
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RebelMom
Title: TFF Secretary
Registered:
Apr '00
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Date Posted:
6/4/03 7:44pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 21 is up 06/04/03 Ben Skywalker Anakin Solo and gang
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the thought of Analese's heart torn is encouraging. She's fallen for Anakin and it's confusing her initial intentions I think. Soon she'll realize that she's got no future with Nefarious.
Anakin's going to have to give Ben an intense training course if they are going to do the Jedi in good. I'm glad to see them settle into that relationship finally.
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Short Story: Pressure Point http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/26961243/p1/?7 Jacen Solo and Anakin Skywalker - as it should have been. TFF: Cheryl
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ZaraValinor
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Date Posted:
6/5/03 9:00pm
Subject:
RE: Rent in the Force Chapter 21 is up 06/04/03 Ben Skywalker Anakin Solo and gang
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RebelMom
the thought of Analese's heart torn is encouraging. She's fallen for Anakin and it's confusing her initial intentions I think. Soon she'll realize that she's got no future with Nefarious.
Anakin's going to have to give Ben an intense training course if they are going to do the Jedi in good. I'm glad to see them settle into that relationship finally.
Ben and Anakin have a very tumultous relationship. They love each other, understand each other on a certain level, and drive each other crazy. Remind you of another Master and Apprentice team?
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Dean Winchester - Supernatural
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