| Author |
Topic:
Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 6 7/21/08
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rebel_cheese
Registered:
Jul '06
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Date Posted:
5/26 10:00pm
Subject:
RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 2 5/19/
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morrison85 posted:
Please put me on the PM list, and also please at everybody, I havent read the originl story yet and dont want to be spoiled please.
Okay, you're added. Thank you for your interest. 
Postie below, much later than I intended but technically on Monday depending on what time zone you're in.
Hopefully for the rest of the story the chapters will come on Monday afternoons as intended.
3
When the war began, he remembered his father saying "Jacen, if you want to survive, remember to trust yourself more than anyone else. Your mother and I may not always be there for you."
Now those words repeated themselves in an endless loop in his brain. He is truly alone now.
He looked up and sees the towering inferno above. His family is up there. Probably still is, as incinerated ashes. Chewie carries him away from the building then, before darting down an alleyway across the street. Panicking souls rush around them, faceless except for the terror emininating from their frightened eyes, their mouths open in eternal screams.
Then he is finally set down, and as Jaina promptly sits down, her eyes glassy and staring through the duracrete walls in front of them, Jacen looks up. The sky is dark with the phantasms of strange, horrifying vessels discharging fire all over the sky. Fireballs mushroom in the dawn sky, as quick-moving grey shapes twirl around the dark specters, and attempt to set them alight in a similiar and spectacular fashion.
That is when Chewbacca roars. Jacen, startled, stares at Chewbacca, before suddenly realizing his face aches and his throat feels like it is burning. He realizes his mouth has been open the whole time. A buzzing noise penetrates his ears, his head spasms, and black and jade spots flicker in front of his eyes. He had gotten up too fast. But there was nothing else he could have done besides rushing himself.
He looks at the imposing Wookiee, and his hand presses against his forehead, trying to dull the pain any possible way, as the spots begin to die. He hears Jaina mumbling something, and he strained to hear her over the cacophony around him.
"They're gone. Jacen . . . they're gone. They . . . they . . . killed them, Jacen."
The Wookiee makes a few rumbling roars, and motions down the alleyway. Even without knowledge of the alien language, Jacen can understand what Chewbacca wants. They have to move down the alleyway, farther away from the epicenter of the flaming skyscraper they escaped. It will crumble soon, as the fortified materials keeping the building upright will overheat and melt, and cause the building to implode upon itself.
There is a slim chance that the rest of his family is still alive, that they survived the conflagration. But even that hope felt overly sanguine, false. For now, Jacen knows, he will have to press on without them. Considering all of the adjustments he has been forced to make in his life the past three years, since the first year the invaders came into the galaxy with their malignant and ghastly intent, this just felt like another one he had to make.
For three years he had witnessed scenes, pictures taken from the holovids, depicting the unnatural carnage as they swooped across the galaxy. They swooped in upon the warring nations still fighting the Galactic Civil War. They promptly eradicated a race called the Yevetha just as the crisis with them had been heating. The fleets of all nations were shoved back, and the Empire has been regulated to a historical footnote, now. And now the New Republic's day of reckoning begins as the Praetorite Vong's unbridled apocalypse is unleashed. Jacen remembers hearing about Bastion's quick destruction, and now he wonders if the same thing is happening to Coruscant.
If that is the case he needs to escape quickly. Bastion was transformed into a memory within hours of invader penetration. And now Coruscant could very well become the same.
He knows what is going to happen now. His father had told them all, being careful to use the word if rather than when to describe the enemy advance.
Chewbacca is just enacting the family plan. The family will have to escape through the sewer system, through the tunnels, to avoid the enemy fusillade as much as possible. Then they will reach the nearest spaceport, where the Millennium Falcon will be. They will be forced to abandon everything, including their home in 500 Republica, and will have to flee to another planet in the galaxy, but survival matters above all else, his father had said. They can always buy or find more possessions. All they truly need is an escape vessel and each other.
But now Jacen didn't even have that.
He has lost everyone but his sister and the Wookiee.
And then there was an unearthly, stygian rumble and a metallic shriek behind him.
Jacen looks.
He sees the horrendous sight of the skyscraper, his home, crumble. Dust and metal and shards all begin falling to the ground in a fiery, smoking torrent, and he realizes that many of the debris is going to crash upon the alleyway.
"Jaina, run!" he shouts, grabbing his sister's limp hand and dragging her down the alleyway.
She falls, but quickly regains her footing, and then the Wookiee scoops them up once again and they run, run quickly, and make a left down the alleyway, as a massive metallic beams crushes the alleyway, removing tiles and bricks off of the nearby building and causing much of the ground to implode and sewer water geysers into the air.
Jacen hears the crashing, splintering sounds of transparisteel shattering, and low rumbles of the earth as the skyscraper returns, unseen, to the ground, damaging and smashing walkways and vehicles and untold other materials . . . and people, who are unlucky enough to be within range of the skyscraper.
Jacen forces himself to breathe, despite his body's preference to choke, and stares at his wide-eyed, tearful twin sister. Her lively eyes are already dark with anxiety, and her tiny hands have contracted into the tiniest, shaking, balls.
He smells smoke, and blood. He looks up, and sees flames tearing into the skies like claws of a demon struggling to break through the seals that bind him to his dimension. That is when Chewie, his brown fur darkened with smoke accents all of a sudden, approaches Jacen and roars again, and places something in Jacen's hands.
It is a blaster pistol. It is small, nearly insignificant, and seems made of only three parts: the barrel, the handle, and the trigger. Jacen looks up at the Wookiee, and the gigantic being roars and points a furred hand towards a manhole cover. One of the tunnels his father always talks about. Unfortunately, Jacen lacks the slightest idea of how to navigate these labyrinths underneath the surface, but Jacen realizes that Chewbacca knows how. Chewie won't get lost down there.
Jacen nods, and grabs Jaina, still stunned, and still shaking as her truama only grows worse. Leading her by the hand, he runs over to the manhole, before letting her go and attempting to raise the cover by himself, before quickly realizing that he doesn't have the strength.
But the Wookiee does. Chewbacca marches over, his famous bowcaster now cradled in his right arm, and his left hand picks the cover up and move it aside. Then he motions for Jacen and Jaina to get inside. Jacen nods.
"Get in, and stay together," was the meaning behind that arm shake.
That is when Jaina screams loud enough to nearly curdle Jacen's blood. Jacen looks, and sees several of the scarred, gruesome invaders of his harshest nightmares. That is when three bolts of green light strike the three warriors in front and drive them back into their comrades, knocking several of them down.
Chewie unleashed a ferocious roar upon Jacen then, and Jacen realizes that Jaina needs to go first. In her shock, she would not move without encouragement, and Jacen would have to provide it. Grabbing Jaina's hand, Jacen pulls her towards the manhole, and places her hand on the ladder.
"Climb down," he urges. "I'll be right behind you."
The sizzling sounds of the bowcaster pulling back and firing burn in Jacen's ears. He hears horrid, vile screams, bleats, and shouts in their language as the invaders are blasted back once again. Jaina, her whole body trembling, manages to put her quivering feet upon the ladder, and methodically climb down.
"Go, go!" Jacen says, and then looks up again.
Six Praetorate Vong warriors lay on the ground, sizzling, black holes in their chests, torsos, or heads. As another squad of warriors attempt to rush the Wookiee the bowcaster is pulled back by the being's powerful limbs, and a massive ball of light grows upon the tip of the bowcaster. Then Chewbacca let go once again and the gigantic green orb splits into three smaller, but no less lethal, globes, and the three bolts barrel into the next three warriors, knocking them over, and killing all three before they struck the ground.
Jacen then looks to the left, as he places his right foot on the top rung of the metal ladder, as Jaina's metallic plinks echo farther and farther down into the dark tunnel. He sees more. Four more had rounded the corner, stepping gingerly around the cracking, fragile ground. But now they were all prepared to battle, and all wielded the repulsive snake-like creatures they used as lances.
"Chewie! Behind you!" Jacen screams, and Chewbacca turns around, cranks his bowcaster back, and fires several quick, solo shots at the warriors, the green bolts striking their armor flesh and making all of them cry out in pain. Then, as the final warrior fell to his knees gasping, and his armor smoking, Chewbacca's bowcaster stopped working.
Frantically, Chewbacca ejected a power cell and pulled out another one out of his belt. But the other warrior was rising to his feet now, and he rises to his feet, his distorted, tattooed, hideous face curling into a rageful snarl. And then he rushed forward with a fierce cry, heading directly towards Chewbacca with his snake-lance.
That is when Jacen takes his first life. As he sees the warrior rush towards Chewbacca, he remembers the scene he has just witnessed, the crumbling skyscraper, the inferno that killed his entire family in an instant. Had left him with only Jaina and Chewbacca.
And now Chewbacca is about to die.
Suddenly, Jacen raises the blaster pistol without any questioning of what he is about to do. He raises the pistol with his left hand, keeping his right hand implanted on the ground to keep himself steady in case the recoil makes his feet slip off the ladder. His right eye closes, thus shielding it from the carnage he is about to bestow. But his left eye will see it all.
As his family's faces flash in front of his vision, his closed right eye wells up with tears, and he struggles to keep his blaster steady. But somehow, he does. And he fires, and the pistol kicks up ferociously in his weak, eight-year-old hands. A current of yellow light erupts from the blaster, and flashes across and strikes the warrior in the left shoulder, nearly severing it from his chest.
The warrior let out a surprisingly high-pitched scream as his head faced up towards the sky, but then he turns around, and his eyes glitter malevolently towards Jacen. Jacen, staring at the destruction that his one shot does, freezes, afraid to fire again.
But, as the warrior runs forward towards him, Jacen remembers his father's words, and aims and fires again, this time letting out a soft, gulping noise as he fired straight into the warrior's chest.
The armor takes it, but the warrior gasps, and stares at Jacen in shock. And then Jacen shoots again. And again.
And again.
Each shot drives the warrior further back, and knocks him further off balance. But it is the fifth shot, the final shot, that strikes the warrior's face, and burns away much of it. The warrior mercifully falls back onto his back then, and with one final chest heave, perishes.
And then Jacen Solo realizes he has become a killer.
He looks, and sees more warriors swarming from the right, charging above the bodies of their dead allies. Chewbacca raises his bowcaster again, pulls it back, and fires. And fires, as he rushes over towards Jacen, coming so close Jacen has to yank his hands back and place them on the rungs in order to dodge the Wookiee.
Jacen climbs down several steps, and shouts for Chewie to climb down and hurry. But the Wookiee doesn't. Instead, he grabs the manhole and shoves it upon the opening, suddenly sheathing Jacen in the uncomfortable color of darkness.
Then tremors shake the tunnel, and Jacen slips down several rungs, and then, after one final moment, the ladder breaks, and Jacen finds himself falling backwards, deeper into the darkness. He can only scream as he falls backwards and loses his grip, and pliunges into free fall. He knows impact is coming and he realizes he is about to die, die just like his family, just like Chewbacca . . .
* * *
"Jacen!" someone shouted.
Jacen jumped out of his old, tattered bed, his eyes wide. It took him a moment before he began breathing again. Sweat beads poured down his face in a flood, and he grabbed his head. Another nightmare. Another vision of the past had driven into his brain, picking up exactly where it had left off from his first awakening today.
His head was pulsing and pounding with a brutal headache, and he concentrated on breathing, and calmness. There was no attack. He wasn't actually falling. Besides, he had lived through the one he was dreaming about. Everything was fine. He was still here, he was still alive.
He looked to his right, and did not see Nelani like he expected, but Eryl Besa, her green eyes blinking once at him.
"Had another one, huh?" she asked.
Eryl Besa was the child of a spacer that had lived in nearly every point of the galaxy at some time or another. Eryl had popped into Jacen's life three years ago, as he began forming his gang around Zekk and River. Eryl had proved herself with her resourcefulness and improvision over the last three years, and had such earned a prestigious spot in one of the larger gangs in Capital City, whatever remained of it, now.
"Yeah," he admitted. "I did."
"Well, River told me it was time to wake you up, Jacen. I found some canned crap in the pantry, and the heatwave machine still works, so you can make yourself some turkin pot pie or something."
She tossed him one of the cans, and Jacen opened it up, and wrinkled his nose. The date was still decent, due to expire in roughly two months, but the ingredients weren't exactly appetizing.
Still, it was better than starving, and Jacen had trained himself years ago to eat all 'safe' food, no matter how rotten and disgusting he found them. Except for something dangerous such as rotting fruit or expired goods, it was safest to eat anything and everything possible, and take as many provisions as possible.
"Yeah, I might as well," Jacen said, and he stared outside.
What was then dark, shadowy, and imposing was now bright, green, and rotting. The technology of this once-great city was slowly being covered by foreign vegetation, and the city Jacen still remembered clearly in his dreams now appeared more like the bottom of a jungle-filled canyon.
Complete with all of the predators of a jungle.
As the leader, Jacen's responsibility was towards making sure his own followers remained as safe as possible. And with Nelani Dinn, whose ability and reason for her instant admittance into the exploration party was because of her power. When she was at his side, Jacen felt a whole lot safer than he ever had before the last six months.
Or, more accurately, three months. That was how long it took to transform Mesthia Kwaad back into Nelani Dinn and keeping it permanent. But there was no doubt on Jacen's mind that Nelani would revert back to Mesthia if he or River fell. So, while the party had more forewarning than any other group in the streets of Coruscant, they were also riper for a betrayal than any other gang as well.
But that was all right. Jacen had no intention of either him or River falling. As long as they both remained with Nelani, she would remain human, and not transform back into the once-pure. Nelani deserved having her benevolence and humanity back, and Jacen did not want all of the physical scars he now bore to go to waste.
Even if he was not alive to see Nelani's grey eyes suddenly darken into glassy black orbs with bloodthirsty glints. He had seen those callous, maddened eyes far too much after rescuing her right before what would be her final transformation into Mesthia. He preferred seeing the cloudy, yet kind grey of Nelani's eyes.
And that reminded him of something.
"Eryl," he asked, "How's Nelani? I know she slept by River, but . . ."
"She's fine, Jacen," Eryl said with a smile. "Nothing to worry about. Today makes it a month since she last attempted to revert. I think Mesthia's gone now."
"I hope," Jacen said, as he rose from the bed.
He was about to remove his sweaty, stained, too-large excuse for a shirt when he realized that Eryl was still in the room.
"Um, Eryl . . . " he paused. "Could you leave please? I gotta get dressed."
"Oh." Eryl sounded as if she was half-asleep and had been yanked forcefully back to reality.
"Right, right," she said as her face flushed scarlet. Jacen, sighing, turned around, and heard her footsteps echo down the wooden stairs as she left Jacen's room.
He stared at the can for one more moment, before flipping it over his back. It landed on the tip of his bed, bounced off, and rolled on the floor for a moment before stopping at the wall. He knew he'd have to eat the contents of that can, whether he liked turken pot pie or not. The younger members of the gang were the ones who had more options, they could eat the food they liked, or enjoyed the most, it was the eldest, and the leaders, who would have to make due with the most disgusting portions.
He looked outside as he got dressed. There wasn't a sign of sentient life other than the vegetation. But that was a lie, and he knew it. Biological predators brought along by the Yuuzhan Vong had been unleashed here; and some of the plant life were predatory as well.
Also, occasionally, Yuuzhan Vong would leave their bases and venture out into the hostile world they had generated, aiming at raiding hidden supply depots and underground resistance headquarters. Sometimes, they would mass to make an assault on one of the compounds that still held out across the planet.
Other times, they would send out hunting teams to attack a gang, if the gang in question was becoming too troublesome, or was simply a target of opportunity. That was the main reason Jacen avoided fighting the Yuuzhan Vong despite his emotions whenever he thought about them.
Fighting the Yuuzhan Vong put his team in jeopardy, and right now, his team was geared and prepared to survive, not to fight. Of course, if the Yuuzhan Vong gave them no choice the Phantoms, as Zekk had so originally christened the gang, would fight back like a cornered animal. But that sort of situation never happened, not unless they were in the Yuuzhan Vong's way or were becoming a nuisance.
At least with Nelani's addition to the team the first kind of encounter had become increasingly rare.
Jacen aimed to lay low for the time being. Freeing Nelani had definitely put the Phantoms on the extermination list. His group had garnered years of nonperishable supplies during their five years in operation, so making the foraging more infrequently wouldn't put a strain upon the gang. But there were still some cases, such as this one involving the medicine, or defending their territory, that the Phantoms needed to come out of their base and expose themselves.
And of course the Phantoms had voluntarily exposed themselves to rescue Nelani, when they had stumbled upon a shaping operation. Bartus, Raynar, and Eryl, if asked, still said that they disagreed with the inteference. They didn't understand why Jacen needed to risk himself and everyone else for one little girl.
But Jacen knew why. And he wasn't going to divulge that reason to anyone. Not even Nelani herself.
"Tell me what?"
Jacen was startled enough that he nearly leapt into the air. Turning around, he made sure all, or enough, of his clothes were on before facing Nelani Dinn.
Did I say that aloud? he asked himself.
"I can sense your thoughts, Jacen. Father Corran says I have the Force like you, Zekk, Eyrl and Raynar," Nelani counted them off on her fingers, in that dramatic way she had picked up soon after Mesthia lost control of the girl's body.
"Great. Go read someone else's mind while I get dressed," Jacen said, buckling his ammunition belt, equipped with two thermal detonators and five blaster packs in pouches.
"There you are, being cranky again," Nelani said, but this time it wasn't the sobbing, disheartened Nelani from the night. This time there was a smile and a sardonic tone behind the remark, and Jacen breathed a silent sigh of relief. Perhaps his words had reassured her after all.
"Yeah. That's me, Mr. Cranky," Jacen said, taking one final look outside. "Mr. Cranky and his can of turken pot pie that'll make me want to vomit."
"Turken pot pie? I`ve always wanted to try that!" Nelani squealed, grabbing the can.
"Oh trust me, you don`t," Jacen said, taking one last look outside. Still no activity. It was definitely quiet out there . . . and Jacen hoped that wasn`t an omen of things to come. His team was in the worst position possible to be attacked.
"Here Jacen, catch," she said. Jacen turned around and caught the can quickly. A quick examination proved it to be corned wildecattle soup, one of his absolute favorites.
"No, Nelani, you don`t have to . . . this is one of your favorites," he said in a low mumble.
He checked the date and found it was even fresher than the pot pie soup, at roughly three months before expiration. Why would Nelani give this to him?
Nelani smiled, her white, baby teeth glittering in the bright light of morning. "Because I`ve had that already and I want to try something new," she said matter-of-factly. "If I don`t like it that`s the way it is. I won`t have it again. But you don`t know until you try, that`s what they say."
Nelani looked more thoughtful then, and Jacen was reminded that Nelani wasn`t an ordinary child. Perhaps the Vong`s attempts to transform her had indeed succeeded . . . except in ways they hadn`t expected.
Perhaps all that happened was that they had turned Nelani into an adult in a child`s skin. At the very least, she had an aura of maturity around her in these calmer moments that made Jacen comforted. While she had to be different from before she was captured, she was indeed a human being . . . and she had emotions, feelings, and a clear sense of right and wrong.
That was when Nelani`s eyes widened fearfully and she collapsed to her knees with a short gasp. The can fell out of her hands and rolled on the floor until it hit a bedleg and stopped.
She moaned painfully, and both of her hands pressed against her left eye, like she always did when she sensed them.
Jacen suddenly changed from a passive near-older brother to the militaristic, strong leader he had to be in these situations. He looked at Nelani.
"Where are they? How many? It`s all right, Nelani, nothing`s going to happen to you," he added a moment after the questions, eager to keep Nelani calm, and most importantly, feeling she was safe.
"There's-ow-twelve of them. Running right towards this building. It`s like they know we`re here," Nelani said, her voice breaking as she tried to suppress tears.
Her sensory abilities came at a cost of severe, throbbing pain, and until the Vong moved out of her 'range' or were otherwise removed, the pain would continue to assault her.
"How fast?" Jacen asked, instantly picking Nelani up and carrying her down the stairs.
He needed to warn them. They would need to leave at a blistering pace, and they were likely going to lose whatever they weren`t carrying. Jacen knew Zekk was responsible for the medicine, and Zekk never forgot his duties, so the most important part of their being out here would still be completed.
"Really fast, like-agh-within a minute. They`re riding these creatures," Nelani groaned.
No wonder the pain`s worse than usual . . . she`s dealing with their creatures, too, Jacen thought.
But what was worse of all was that there was no possible way they could clear out of the building before the Yuuzhan Vong arrived. His gang was going to have to hide and hope for the best, or, more likely, have to launch an ambush out of their hiding positions. There would be blood spilled today. And, in all likelihood, some of the blood would be on his side.
He walked off the final step, and he knew the alarm on his face, and Nelani gripping her forehead, meant the absolute worst. Zekk stood up, knocking his chair down. Eryl stopped midbite, and River and Bartus immediately drew their weapons.
"The Yuuzhan Vong are coming. Twelve of them, really fast. Hide. The moment one of you open fire is when the rest of us spring out and kill them all," Jacen said.
Then he dashed upstairs, carrying Nelani in his arms. He was out of time . . .
* * *
Denua Ku was one of the finest warriors in the Yuuzhan Vong Yammka caste. And his wonderfully scarred face was etched into a grin that had not dissipated since his squad was given this duty, a duty given to the most zealous.
Denua had been handed a mission meant for the most holy, the most obedient, and the most respectful of the gods. And he was not going to fail Yun-Yammka, Yun-Yuuzhan, or any other of the deities surely watching over him today. The gods had been supporting him since the first attack, just hours ago.
The Bothans had never stood a chance. It had been mere hours after their trade, and they had come home to find Yuuzhan Vong warriors swarming all over their base. The overwhelming Yuuzhan Vong instantly smashed them, and then Denua and his Rider Squadron had been given the task of pursuing the humans that the Bothans had traded with.
The two surviving Bothans had been most cooperative before they had been sent to the World Brain for sacrifice. They had told Denua everything they possibly could about the small, strange human gang they had traded medicine with, in exchange for some strange and undeniably, at least in Denua`s enthusiast eyes, tainted infidel vegetables.
The child was with them, the Bothans said. Well, that was not exactly what the Bothans had told them, but their description of the girl, and her abilities, revealed her to all but the dullest, emptiest mind.
And so Denua had been sent off, to capture the embodiment of sin and heresy. And then bring her back to the shaper caste so they could purify this girl, and complete her transformation, before the infidels would be able to use her anymore. Failing that, Denua would have to kill this girl, but that was understandable, even in the eyes of the shapers.
After all, Mesthia Kwaad was rapidly becoming a failed experiment.
He was almost there, he knew. This strange little creature he had brought with him today, a baby, a child of the queen the shapers had formed out of the most ferocious and lethal infidel creatures, was shrieking and calling and its little eyes staring concentrating on one of the buildings. The creature was only days old, it would be weeks before it would be the truly lethal predator it would become.
But already it was proving its use. Infidels were in this particular building, what remained of one of the dozens of blasphemous contraptions called skyscrapers, now mercifully brought to a mere three stories.
He pulled his gigantic beast to a full halt, and with a hand signal, signaled his whole squadron to stop. He stared at the building, and grinned spitefully. Here was when he`d earn the respect of the gods, and when he passed into the afterlife, would reap the many rewards he would receive for this deed.
* * *
It all began with a small, almost insignificant creak. And that was when Jacen Solo knew they had gotten inside.
Twelve Yuuzhan Vong had entered the building. Already, he could hear the warriors' footsteps as they rushed up the building, and they knew the humans were there, they just hadn`t found them yet.
Nelani softly breathed into his chest, her eyes welled up with tears. She was in tremendous pain now, Jacen saw, with the enemy now within earshot and almost right upon them. She kept trying to groan, but Jacen muffled it by pushing her face into his clothed chest, simply praying she would not become crazed, or even worse, revert into Mesthia.
"It`s okay, it`s okay," Jacen whispered, his breath blowing her thick raven strands of hair. "They won`t touch you."
More creaking. Louder this time. At least two of them were marching up the stairwell, right towards the top floor. Where Jacen and Nelani were, clustered in the little hideaway she had used early this morning. Jacen closed his eyes, and gripped his blaster pistol tighter. After six years of wielding a lethal weapon, he had become proficient with most kinds of blasters and other weapons.
Then he thought of a plan.
"Nelani, this is going to be loud," he warned. "Cover your ears."
He set his blaster pistol silently on the ground, next to his left hand, and with his right hand, shifted through his belt until he discovered one of his thermal detonators. He would blow as many of the Yuuzhan Vong apart as possible and shoot the others. Meanwhile, his companions would hear the shots and rise out of their hiding places as the enemy rushed to find Jacen.
It would be a perfect, if risky and improvised, ambush. But this was something the gang had executed before, and succeeded. This one would be no different. The Yuuzhan Vong would not see this attack coming.
He grabbed the thermal detonator, and nearly fumbled it with his one hand. Meanwhile, her head still buried in his chest, Nelani`s little hands slowly left her frantic embrace and reached her ears. Then Jacen leaned, behind the tiny piece of cover the interior of the wall was, and gaped through the hole. He saw two Yuuzhan Vong, and they were moving methodically, professionally throughout the room.
These were not amateurs like the usual ones sent in for 'combat experience', as one of the acquaintances Jacen had met over the years had said.
These were professional, trained soldiers. Evidently the Yuuzhan Vong had discovered something important about the Phantoms; and Jacen knew exactly what.
Nelani,he realized with a frightened, barely stifled gasp.
The Yuuzhan Vong knew the Phantoms had Nelani Dinn, or Mesthia Kwaad as they would think of her. That was why they were here. They knew, some way or another. And they were going to make sure Nelani Dinn fell into their grasps again.
Forget it, Jacen vowed. None of you will touch her.
Not as long as I`m alive.
And then Jacen clicked the thermal detonator on so it flashed. Five seconds.
He counted One, two, three . . . and then flung the little metal orb into the middle of the room, so close to one of the Yuuzhan Vong that one of them nearly tripped over it as it rolled in front of his feet. The warrior had barely a time to scream a warning before a massive pulsing force of metal, fire, and sound tore through the building, and broke the uneasy silence.
Jacen heard one of the bodies impact the wall where he and Nelani were sheltering, and immediately looked into Nelani's eyes.
"Stay here. I`m going to take care of the rest of them."
He looked out and saw two more of the warriors rushing upstairs, as the rest of the building suddenly erupted into chaos. He heard blasters sounding off, and distinctly heard Zekk let out a battle cry as he had undoubtedly attacked one of the Vong with that cortosis sword of his.
And then Jacen added two bursts of his own blasterfire to the increasing crescendo assaulting his ears. One of the Vong instantly fell backwards as a small fiery explosion attacked his face, and another took two to his armored chest, and another to the head as well, as the bolt sent electrical currents throughout his body and frying his brain and organs.
He got up then, and rushed forward, he looked down the stairs, and saw a lone Vong backing up the stairs, his back turned to Jacen, apparently attempting to make a last stand of sorts. Jacen simply aimed and fired at the back of the warrior`s head, and the warrior rolled down the stairs a moment later, killed where he had stood.
That was when it quieted, briefly. Jacen saw Zekk rush forward, black blood dripping off the tip of that Old Republic sword he loved to carry.
For a second, Jacen thought that Zekk was going to rush him, but Jacen`s first comrade finally realized that it was Jacen that was standing at the top of the stairs. Zekk smiled, his dark eyes pleased.
"Good job, Jace. I think we got 'em," Zekk said pleasantly.
"No, we didn`t. Jacen's got five, you and I got three, and the others have three too. That`s eleven!" River called out.
"What?" Jacen cried. Then where was the last one . . . if he had killed five and the others had killed six . . . then where was . . .
* * *
Denua Ku was running for his life. The infidels were steeled, and expecting a fight. They had fought like an elite unit, and with a start Denua realized that of course they fought expertly, in order to survive, in what was to them a hostile environment, took a lot of resourcefulness. Especially when guarding one of the most wanted beings living in the Yuuzhan Vong dominated galaxy.
He had barely made it out the door, and rushed forward, to the nearest steed. He needed to tell his superiors the skill of these 'Phantoms`. If these infidels indeed were the ones who were guarding the body of Mesthia Kwaad, they were more than a force to be reckoned with, they were impious embodiments of heresy.
They needed to be killed in the most purifying, ritualistic way.
He hopped onto one of the steeds, urged it to move at top speed, and began to move away, down one of the wrecked, half-biological, half-infidel technology valley.
* * *
River Ulric stared through the scope of her Disrupter rifle. It was a weapon she had found off a dead mercenary years ago, and through years of practice, and dozens of used power cells, she had trained herself on how to use this weapon. She needed to, the Phantoms could not live up to their namesake without at least one trained sniper.
She aimed through her scope, and quickly saw the strange, horned beast charging down the street, directly in front of Jacen`s room. She zoomed in, aimed her shot slightly in front of this hulking, yet surprisingly agile beast, and powered up her rifle blast. It was going to take a lot of power to destroy the beast, if she missed the rider.
She had disintegrated people before. Rival gang members, occasionally the insane, and often the once-pures. The fact that she was about to to this to a Yuuzhan Vong, the race that created this maddened planet and so many wretched livelihoods, didn't bother her at all.
This chill that she felt when using this rifle occasionally worried her, but it was nothing to be overly concerned about. To be able to kill required the ability to turn herself cold, emotionless.
River aimed at the best spot she could think of and fired. It hit the beast's head, and as the beast disintergrated in a flash of light.
The Yuuzhan Vong crashed to the ground at a speed approaching thirty miles an hour. Undoubtedly the warrior had broken a few limbs. River would not grant him the opportunity to see if he could move. She aimed, let a moderate charge enter the barrel, and fired again, firing a red bolt that quickly tore through cells and flesh of the Yuuzhan Vong, killing him in an instant.
With a sigh, she checked the power level and slung the rifle around her back. She stared at her companions, who were staring at her intently.
She nodded once. "He's down."
"Good," Jacen said, and then he looked at everyone. "All right, everyone pack up everything you can. We're leaving in five minutes."
The unheard warning in Jacen's voice, They'll be coming back, was transparently clear.
River sighed and took a moment to breathe. The battle was over. They were all safe, no casualties. No body that would have to be unceremoniously hidden in the rubble. From the looks of it, no one had even been scratched, not even Zekk when he had rushed the Vong with that sword of his.
She looked at Jacen, who still showed no signs of vulnerability. He turned to her with those bright brown eyes of his and said "Please get Nelani, she's in that hole in the wall. She's terrified, please show her she's not alone."
River nodded. Nelani couldn't be left alone for very long. For all of the girl's precocious strength, loneliness was Nelani's most significant weakness. If she felt she was alone, Mesthia would undoubtedly attempt to take over, even with Nelani dominant at this time.
She walked over to the hole, where Nelani, presumably, was still hiding. She crouched down at the hole. She was about to coax Nelani out of hiding when she spotted the bloody, ripped body of a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, a forsaken remnant of what had been alive before the shards of a thermal detonator had torn through him.
Without even considering any alternatives she knew that Nelani could not see this body, or any other bodies, for that matter. The girl had already been severely scarred. She didn't need to see this display of war. Especially when it could enrage her still-sentient alter ego.
She leaned in, and Nelani gave a small, terrified squeak, before the girl's eyes warmed with recognition.
"River!" she wailed, and rushed into the sniper's arms.
"Oh . . ." the girl moaned before unleashing a barrage of tears into River's shoulder.
River simply smiled and let Nelani cry for a moment, before gripping Nelani's shoulders and speaking to the girl in the most motherly, soothing tone she knew.
"All right, Nelani. We're getting out of here right now, all right? I'll be carrying you out. Look at me, and only at me. Don't look at anyone, or anything else, okay?" she said.
"Mmm-hmm." Nelani nodded slowly, a small, grateful smile etching across her face. Right now, Nelani had to be pleased that she was simply going to survive.
River understood that. After all, the girl was only eight, and had experienced far more of the Yuuzhan Vong than River ever wanted to know. The knowledge that the Vong had not won, and she wasn't alone, had to have been worth twice as much as the most extravagant lifeday present.
"Okay, then let's go."
River scooped Nelani up, and took special care to carry Nelani upright, almost like an infant, as she walked past the bodies of the dead. She looked at Jacen once as he began gathering clothing from this place, and he nodded. With permission granted, River took Nelani outside, where they would wait for the others.
And then they would be finally away from this place. From this relic of war. From another stressful, horrifying memory in a life that was full of them. River sat down outside, cradling Nelani, and half-tone sang a small children's song to her, and tried to flush the memories away. Before they could latch on and haunt her forever . . .
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Padawan of princess_of_naboo E-married to the amazing padawanlost  Member of Charon_Force Beginning's End: http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=28450077&brd=10477&replies=1
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morrison85
Registered:
May '05
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Date Posted:
5/27 2:20am
Subject:
RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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I hope for them that they are not chased throughout the story O.O
Brilliantly written. I really like the flashback(dreams) too.
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e-sis of Darth Gangrenous
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Draconarius
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
5/27 4:56am
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RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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 Why do I get the feeling that Nelani is going to play an important part in winning this little war?
Incredibly well written, cheese. I love the dream sequences.
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Shattered Mirror - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28487856/p1/?1 Proudly A/T and J/J Knighted by the wonderful SilSolo  "Damned if I'm gonna lose to you!" "Then damned you shall be!" - my brother and I playing Smash Bros.
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padawanlost
Registered:
Apr '06
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Date Posted:
5/27 1:36pm
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RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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Good development with River here. I liked seeing a little of her perspective as the sniper. Her cold-minded killing is a great counterpoint to how comforting and motherly she is with Nelani.
Jacen's dream gave some really good clues as to what I'm expecting from Jaina when she shows up. That is, if you hold onto the fact that she is the consummate older sibling and will be blaming herself for not being stronger. It was good to see a mention of the Force here too, indicating that they at least remember it. I do look forward to seeing just what it is that is causing the Force to diminish- is it like Mace and Yoda talked about in the prequels, when their abilities were decreasing as the Dark Side ascended? Wouldn't that be an irony for the Yuuzhan Vong if they were using an infidel power like the Force? I know, I've read the original, and the cast, so I should know- I just like the clues your leaving. Of course we haven't seen much anti-Jedi sentiment here, so maybe that's something that you've changed from the original NJO?
So what happened to the baby Voxyn? Wouldn't that be an interesting pet for Jacen? Okay, now I'm just being crazy.
Can't wait for next week. Aftermath of the battle of Naboo?
alex
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e-married to rebel_cheese , so read his stuff or else Padawan of NYCitygurl Proud member of Charon Force. Check out our NJO AU: http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/27537567/p1/?23
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jadesabre75
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
5/27 3:27pm
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RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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Man...Jacen's flashback was horrible. I can only imagine thinking your entire family was dead.
Awesome chapter!!!
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Stories are in my bio! Have at it!
"Writers block is when your characters get tired of everything you do to them and go on strike."
Lucky Member of the Jagateers: Jagateer of the Imperial Red Swim Trunks
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RK_Striker_JK_5
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Jul '03
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Date Posted:
5/27 8:19pm
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RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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Wow, one heck of a nightmare for Jacen to suffer through... 
Very tense post, here. Poor Nelani. Poor all of them! The Phantoms... remain Phantoms. Can't wait for more, dude.
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E-married to the wonderful DarthIshtar. Now also her Padawan. Member of the Y.J.K. Revolution Staring into the Darkness http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/27537567/p1/?23
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
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Jul '02
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Date Posted:
6/1 9:19pm
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RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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I liked this character. Awesome background developement with the beginning, and a good action scene. I adore Nelani And I'm glad they all made it
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"Not till the moon falls. Not till the world ends."
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rebel_cheese
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Jul '06
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Date Posted:
6/2 11:38am
Subject:
RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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morrison85:
I hope for them that they are not chased throughout the story O.O
We'll find out. There's no way for the Yuuzhan Vong to report back (since they're . . . um, dead) so the Vong won't be chasing them for a while at least . . .
Brilliantly written. I really like the flashback(dreams) too.
Thank you!. Yeah, I've been enjoying the dream/flashbacks too.
Draconarius:
Why do I get the feeling that Nelani is going to play an important part in winning this little war?
What makes you say that? 
Incredibly well written, cheese. I love the dream sequences.
Thanks. I'm glad you've been enjoying them so far.
padawanlost:
Good development with River here. I liked seeing a little of her perspective as the sniper. Her cold-minded killing is a great counterpoint to how comforting and motherly she is with Nelani.
I was trying to convey that. River has both a warm and cold side to her, and that'll come into play later in the story. She kills efficiently and quickly when she's cold . . . but will that ultimately take away her humanity, which includes the warm side that cares for Nelani?
Jacen's dream gave some really good clues as to what I'm expecting from Jaina when she shows up. That is, if you hold onto the fact that she is the consummate older sibling and will be blaming herself for not being stronger. It was good to see a mention of the Force here too, indicating that they at least remember it. I do look forward to seeing just what it is that is causing the Force to diminish- is it like Mace and Yoda talked about in the prequels, when their abilities were decreasing as the Dark Side ascended? Wouldn't that be an irony for the Yuuzhan Vong if they were using an infidel power like the Force? I know, I've read the original, and the cast, so I should know- I just like the clues your leaving. Of course we haven't seen much anti-Jedi sentiment here, so maybe that's something that you've changed from the original NJO?
You'll have quite a few hints throughout the story . . . hopefully by the end of the story there'll be enough pieces to fit together into a coherent idea. Yeah, one of my intentions was not to have the twins forget about the Force. Corran isn't that dense to make them forget, but knowing they have gifts makes their lives easier than if they had no idea what they could do. And yeah, anti-Jedi sentiment is down a bit . . . mostly because the galaxy's in too dire of straits to bother fighting among themselves. Everyone has to work together or everything's done.
So what happened to the baby Voxyn? Wouldn't that be an interesting pet for Jacen? Okay, now I'm just being crazy.
It got killed offscreen. In the original version, I had River kill it, but then I decided it went beyond PG, and I removed all mention of it besides so River's scene would make sense.
Can't wait for next week. Aftermath of the battle of Naboo?
Kinda sorta. 
jadesabre75:
Man...Jacen's flashback was horrible. I can only imagine thinking your entire family was dead.
It's not something I ever want to experience, that's for sure.
Awesome chapter!!!
Thank you!
RK_Striker_JK_5:
Wow, one heck of a nightmare for Jacen to suffer through...
Yeah. It took a lot just to write it, I can't fathom what it's like to live through something like that.
Very tense post, here. Poor Nelani. Poor all of them! The Phantoms... remain Phantoms. Can't wait for more, dude.
Nelani's a precocious and mature girl, but she has to be to put up with what she has to deal with. It frankly sucks that she's put through so much pain but at least she can save their lives with her ability. I think that's why she mentally bears with it. And yes, the Phantoms will remain phantoms for some time . . . but one can only wonder how long that can last. More later today!
NYCitygurl:
I liked this character. Awesome background developement with the beginning, and a good action scene. I adore Nelani And I'm glad they all made it
I think you meant 'chapter'.  In any case, thank you. It was a difficult chapter to write, but out of all of the work I've written, this remains my favorite chapter of everything I've ever done, because it is essentially a microcosm of everything I've ever tried to convey in my writing. Yes, I like Nelani too. It's not hard to. As for them all making it, I have tried to inject more hope in my writing lately, and that's a sign of it there.
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Padawan of princess_of_naboo E-married to the amazing padawanlost Member of Charon_Force Beginning's End: http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=28450077&brd=10477&replies=1
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rebel_cheese
Registered:
Jul '06
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Date Posted:
6/2 5:02pm
Subject:
RE: Beginning's End (NJO-era AU, J/Tk/OC, J/J, A/T, H/L, Luke, Tionne, Nelani, more) Chapter 3 5/26/
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4
All humans have inner demons, that they all must wrestle against. Sometimes, they won. Luke Skywalker was the prime example of this. Other times, they lost. Luke's father Anakin infamously proved how far one could fall into depravity after giving his soul to an inner demon, a dragon that consumed everything. Jaina Solo was no exception to this rule of humanity, and she had her own imposing dragon.
And she was losing.
Because whenever she was about to listen to the atrocity of hope, whenever she saw the sun, whenever she wished to become part of the dawn-
It would come. And whisper its words to her in its seducing, quiet, demonic tone that both mesmerized and horrified her.
All things die, Jaina Solo. Your family did. You uncle will. it told her whenever she felt the slightest pang of happiness, and then whatever blithe emotions she had would be tarnished, ruined.
Exterminated.
That was why she couldn't be happy anymore. Whenever she had tried to be the dragon only became stronger, and whenever she stubbornly fought it the dragon became so enormous, hideous, and monstrous that she was bathed in flame and crushed underneath its claws. Every time she fought it the monstrosity would become more powerful. Its whispers would become shouts.
She couldn't remember the last time she had cracked a smile, or had emotions besides despair, anger; or a hollow feeling that horrified her deeply. Yet she found herself slowly accepting that aching, cleaved emptiness with each passing day. And with each Yuuzhan Vong she killed her anger become ever so more ferocious, and she felt herself sliding ever so closely to tangents of rage. And whenever she lost a pilot, a friend, she felt despair in all of its grey glory and it overwhelmed her.
With all three of those factors and the dragon's whispers, Jaina wondered whether she would ever be happy again. When she would finally let the light shine through on herself.
And on cue, just when she thought that, the whisper came. Dusk always falls, Jaina. Night comes and covers everything, no matter how hard you try to stop it. Darkness will always overcome light.
How badly she wanted it to leave her alone for one damn day. That was all she wanted. Just for the serpentine creature of fire to leave her alone.
But it never had, and Jaina doubted it ever would.
The Yuuzhan Vong were regrouping the distance. They had finally stopped destroying each other, and, despite being whittled down to perhaps a third of their size, they were preparing to counter-attack. They never stopped, never gave up. If they were either offered the opportunity to escape or die they always chose death, hoping to take as many of the infidel as they could with them.
The fleets were roughly even in strength now. The Yuuzhan Vong were finally adjusting to offset the yammosk jammers. The New Republic were preparing to attack at last, knowing that the enemy would cannibalize himself for no longer. Now it would be a slugging match until the end.
Jaina prepared to accelerate forward, and tried to keep herself firmly on Ganner Rhysode's right wing, felling her anger and despair tugging at her soul. And then, she remembered the day the dragon had been born . . .
* * *
Splash.
Jaina Solo rises from the watery, gooey muck and looks at the form of her brother falling deep into the neck-high sludge. Frantic, she rushes over to him, stumbling as she trips on unseen obstacles under the water. Finally, she manages to reach where he had fallen, right before he rises from the quagmire.
His sudden appearence terrifies her, and she jumps back before he knocks her over. "Jacen!" she cries.
"Jaina," he replied and embraced her, furthering covering themselves in the sewer muck. "You're all right!"
"Oh, Jacen," she sobs. He is still alive. He didn't abandon her too. Feelings of happiness, and hope gyre throughout her, and a smile, a precious little smile, cracks her face open. Not everyone is gone yet.
Pounding noises, like a giant smashing the ground above, shake the tunnel again, and Jaina reminds herself that there is an enemy barrage above. They let go and Jacen bends down, his arm searching the muck for the blaster pistol Chewbacca gave him. It is then that Jaina is reminded that Chewbacca is most likely dead. He has been lost too, just like the rest of their family. That sobering thought nearly sends her to her knees, and she struggles to repress her tears.
Jacen continues to search for a long time, perhaps minutes, perhaps an hour, Jaina can no longer tell the difference. Finally, Jacen finds it, but as he attempts to dry it off it sparks and, completely surprised, he drops it into the sludge again. He sighs. "The blaster's toast," he speaks, and Jaina feels his fear rise underneath his calm exterior.
Jacen looks at Jaina then, his eyes gleaming in the refracted light around them. "We're going to need to be careful, especially since we're not armed. We'll need to take this until we make it to a spaceport, and then we'll hitch a ride on one of the refugee vessels, all right?"
Jaina tries to speak, but all that comes out is muddled squeaks. She shuts her mouth then and simply nods.
"Great. Now stay calm, all right? I'll get us out of here. Stay behind me, if something happens I want you to run in the opposite direction, got it?" he tells her.
She nods again, not trusting her voice enough to speak. She looks around. Other than a couple of holes allowing white light to cross into the sewer, there is no illumination. The lights have malfunctioned, or perhaps the power station had been bombarded and destroyed. Tiled steelbricks cover the shaft all around them, and as Jacen leads them out of the sludge and on cracking duracrete ground, she finally notices the disgusting, rotting smell and she feels vomit threatening to spew from her throat.
"Trust me, I want to do it too. But keep it down. Please," Jacen says, and Jaina feels a moderate amount of comfort seeping into their bond. She obeys, and breaths in through her mouth, not allowing her nose as much as a whiff of this place.
"Thanks," Jacen murmurs, and he looks around the first corner, and sees that the sewer's sludge hasn't risen as much that direction. Knowing that there wasn't a better option, Jacen walks cautiously, quietly down the duracrete walk, and Jaina follows, mimicking his movements and sounds.
All the while thinking about how her family has suddenly become an endangered species in their own home.
She knew they had been coming, closer and closer each day. Wasn't a week ago when she witnessed on the holovids that Borleias, the fortress world, Coruscant's invincible guard against invasions, had fallen? She could still remember the devastation wrought upon that world, had seen through the cameras three-dimensional images of war and depredation, watching soldiers flee their bases as massive fireballs crashed upon their fortresses and trenches like a judgement of an almighty deity. She had seen cameras collapse to their ground as their operators had been slain. She saw doomsayers speak on commentary channels, all predicting that the Praetorate Vong could not be stopped, that there wasn't any hope left. She had seen the brutal tragedy of this war, before her mother, mercifully, saw her watching the searing images and switching the holovid off.
But her shield, her bubble of security, is forever broken. She knows that the devestation will never end, not while she's here. As she continues down the tunnel, hugging herself, she wonders whether she will ever feel safe again. Whether that bubble of security will ever return.
She wonders whether she will survive.
"Don't think thoughts like that, sis," Jacen speaks suddenly as he halts. He turns around, and Jaina looks up at her taller brother.
"We'll make it out of this. You'll see," he says, adding a confident grin Jaina knows is a facade for his real emotions and thoughts, but she plays along with a grateful nod.
"Good," Jacen says, and they further down through the underground labyrinth. For hours, days, perhaps, she can't tell, they walk. They encounter no one. Not a single survivor, not a member of the Praetorate Vong. All the while the soundtrack of war plays above, softly echoing down into her tunnels like a communication from another world, another galaxy. She hears explosions. She hears flames. Occasionally she even hears screaming. But she never actually sees any of it.
Not until they stumble upon the war.
She is growing exhausted by the time they nearly bump into the soldiers. They are friendly, on her side, and she feels nothing but relief when she sees these young men and women, clutching their E-11 blaster rifles and carbines like precious treasures. They are here. They will protect them both. They are soldiers. They are trained to fight. They can beat them back, can't they? They can hold off the Praetorate Vong long enough for the two of them to find their way on a refugee vessel?
But the soldiers scarcely are able to acknowledge the children before hissing, whooshing sounds fill the air. And she is in perfect position to see a soldier's head suddenly vanish in a red haze as a massive grey projectile assaults his face. And then the blasters sound off. Repeatedly.
Frantically.
The soldiers lay prone on the moist ground, crouch behind whatever slim and flimsy cover they can find. Jaina looks to the left, and sees the monstrous humanoid creatures, launching those insectoid knife-like projectiles, rushing towards the Republic barricade suicidally. The Republic cuts them down initially, despite soldiers falling with decapitating wounds. Their makeshift barricade is sufficent enough to hold them back. Initially.
But the enemy keeps coming. They leap over their dead. Suddenly, their serpentine staves swinging in the air, they slash. Cut. Maim. They begin to break through, and the Republic soldiers are quickly overwhelmed.
And they come ever closer to Jaina and her brother.
Suddenly, a hand grips her right arm. She is so frightened she nearly leaps into the air, but when she turns around she sees her brother, his face fearful and urgent. He speaks quickly, so fast his sentence is nearly one word: "Jaina, let's get outta here!"
Nothing else needs to be said. They run in the opposite direction away from the battle, and Jacen is nearly sprawled to the ground as he bounces off a soldier rushing towards the killing field. Stumbling back to his feet, Jaina takes the lead this time, leading her brother by the hand as she rushes down the tunnel, desperately trying to escape.
She looks back once, at her brother, and sees his nose is bleeding from the impact. She looks up, and sees the soldier that had rammed Jacen suddenly fall. She looks, and immedately wishes she never did.
Half of his face had just disappeared[/i]. It is such a vile sight that she freezes.
"Jaina, come on!" Jacen calls out groggily, and they run away, but Jaina cannot tear her eyes away from that sight. All she could see as the image forever seared into her memory, was the soldier's final eyeball, endlessly staring into space, at her, [/i]through her . . .
And then she finally turns around and runs.
* * *
"All fighters lock S-foils in attack position," she suddenly heard, and she awakened from her trance. Her eyes opened, revealing dark irises far different from the wide-eyed, hazel ones she had when she was a child. Dark rings circled her eyes, and sweaty strands of untameable brown hair collapsed down her face.
Inhale. Exhale. Then she announced "Twin Nine, acknowledged." She flipped the switches, and said "Get ready, Sparky, we're going to go back in. You ready?"
As ready as I'll ever be. the message said.
Jaina nodded. "Good. Keep the inertial compensator stabilized this time. I nearly lost control during the last run." No humor in her voice, no emotion at all. She had to stay emotionless, a machine, out there, in the war. It was all she could do to keep the dragon silent.
"You doing okay, kid?" Ganner Rhysode's voice said, his voice distorted over the com.
"Perfect," Jaina said, as Twin Suns Squadron accelerated towards the battlefield.
The battleships, of Corellian and Mon Calamari origin, mostly, were arraying themselves into optimal firing positions, as the Vong adopted a loose organization. Evidently, even though they were regaining a sense of enemy and friend once more, they were continuing to be afflicted by the yammosk jammers set in place by her 'cousins' and aunt. They were disorganized, and Jaina privately wondered the wisdom of them making another strike in their condition.
But, darkly, she realized that the Vong were offering themselves up for bloodletting. She was going to be able to shred these degenerate monsters into little black droplets and grey flesh. They had taken her family away. Revenge would never make up for her loss; she doubted revenge would ever satisfy her enough. But she would be able to release upon those savages.
The dragon lusted. Jaina gritted her teeth, and repressed it, barely, with her mind erecting a brick wall inbetween her subconscious and her conscious mind and functions. She couldn't allow it any semblance of control.
She saw the Starchaser's gleaming silver form as she flew past them. She felt comforting thoughts from Tionne as she sensed Jaina's distress. She felt Danni absorbed in information. Lusa, wrestling with new data. Then Malinza far more faintly, as she was concentrating on her latest order from Danni. Jaina sighed, and briefly remembered being on there for several years, before Uncle Luke had finally permitted her to fight just a few days ago.
Those weren't happy thoughts, too burdened by constant and repetitive failures, so the dragon didn't quash them under its claws. But at least they weren't entirely depressing memories, either. She could remember when Danni bossed her around too, and she briefly sent a message of comradery to Malinza. Malinza felt it, to her it was a faint, tickling sensation in her head, and Jaina felt a brief, hysterical wave from Malinza as the girl let out some involuntary laughter from the feeling.
You'll get used to it, Jaina sent, and that only brought a picture of Malinza at her knees laughing hard. With a sigh, Jaina decided to stop interfering and broke the connection. She would need to speak with Malinza through the Force more often, Jaina decided, to stop these insipid bouts of laughter, especially in combat situations.
"Hey, Twin Nine! Pay attention, we're going in!" Ganner suddenly shouted. Jaina suddenly shook from her daze and looked out ahead, and saw wave after wave of coralskippers arrayed against her.
"Right, right," Jaina said, and put herself back into position as the two waves of fighters approached maximum engagement range. All around her blastboats and X-wings, E-wings, B-wings, Y-wings, V-wings, Corellian blockade runners, anything the Republic could scrounge up, were preparing to fight. And in front of her . . . the living vassals of the darkness were approaching.
Jaina set herself, and the moment she saw red flames begin to shoot out of the coralskippers she triggered her lasers, quickly prepared a concussion missile while still firing, and let loose. She then turned to the right, as an X-wing directly behind her, belonging to a Denonian squadron, was vaporized by a stream of fire meant for her. Instantly feeling pangs of regret over letting that happen, Jaina suddenly saw two coralskippers approaching a small blastboat.
Quickly, she swerved in behind them and frantically triggered her lasers on the wingman. After several impacts it splintered into three flaming pieces before two exploded and the other died out. By the time the flames on the remaining shard vanished, she was already firing upon the other coralskipper, which had noticed the death of its comrade and tried to spiral first left and then down in a dive.
Jaina spotted that manuever and quickly turned in after it, despite Rhysode's calls for her to stay in formation. She ignored him. She wanted this kill . . . needed this kill. Before she realized exactly what she was doing she let loose two of her concussion missiles and transformed the coralskipper into little more than dust.
She breathed then.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
More targets to the left. Jaina made a quick corkscrew in that direction, and intercepted the fighters as they were flying past her sights. She pulled the trigger, and sent one of them careening off out of control, fire cascading around the burning coral. The other escaped, and Jaina saw it on her sensors. It veered into a crossfire between Republic and Vong destroyers and vanished off the display a moment later.
In.
Out.
She suddenly had a sensation of being overwhelmed. She had lost complete track of Twin Suns and her wingmates. All she saw was blazes flashing around the dark starry space around her comparatively diminutive starfighter. Feelings of vexatious exposure and merciless panic took her over, and she desperately searched for a rally point of any kind.
In.
Out.
The Starchaser, like an angel of mercy, appeared on her screen a moment later. That was as well of a place as any. She turned in its direction, and was about to send off a call to Ganner and Miko to head in her direction, when she suddenly, and only, saw peril.
In.
Out.
The Starchaser, holding her aunt Tionne and her adopted 'cousins' was surrounded by coralskippers. Professional Republic gunners were firing wildly in a panic in an attempt to hit as many coralskippers as humanly possible. Unfortunately, they were hitting allies too-Jaina witnessed two E-wings hit mistakenly by the Starchaser's guns and crash into each other in a raging fireball.
In.
Out.
She saw more fighter squadrons racing forward towards her, rushing around her as they intercepted the attacking coralskippers, lasers blazing. Behind them a task force was beginning a flanking motion, aiming to catch the Yuuzhan Vong forces in the venerable pincer movement. But, to her stunned horror, she saw an entire squadron of X-wings suddenly get obliterated in three wide streams of massive fire as they attempted to rush to the Starchaser's aid. A fourth stream missed her by single-digit feet, and slammed into a nearby blastboat, transforming it into a blossoming mushroom explosion, before it faded into blackened dust.
In.
Out.
She checked the ship behind her, and discovered a Yuuzhan Vong destroyer, seemingly impervious to the crossfire, rushing towards the Starchaser. Not firing at it, but Jaina quickly saw the destroyer's shadow be cast upon the silver ship, suppressing its refracted, scintillating gleams of Naboo's sun. They were aiming to capture the vessel.
She held her breath in fright. Suddenly, she screamed into the Force.
I can't let them get captured they'll die it'll be my fault I disobeyed orders how can I let them die-
The Force answered nary a question, increasing her frantic terror.
But the dragon answered. It always did.
Everything dies, Jaina Solo. Even stars. Even the ones you love.
No that's not true I can find a way there is a way I must find it-
But no matter how she tried to think, as the Starchaser desperately fired all of its guns towards its captor, nothing could help her. Not a scrap of her uncle's teachings gave her any guidance. No one was around to succor the situation. Not her uncle, not Ganner Rhysode, no one. Nothing that would choke the dragon down.
Despair gripped her as she stared at the imposing sight of the destroyer. Then rage over the suffering she felt. Then hate. Hate of the Yuuzhan Vong, who had destroyed her siblings, her parents-
And were now taking the only family she had left.
Then every beacon in Jaina's heart dimmed until there was no light left.
Blackness.
* * *
It was a massive, overpowering surge of the darkest power that he had felt since Palpatine's anger and hate. It had caught him completely unawares. He had sensed Tionne's trouble, and Jaina's disappearence, and had been turning Twin Suns around to rescue them both. That was when the corruption seared into the bond, severing ties, flooding the Force with a geysering explosion of fury, despair, and hate.
With the dark power supplementing the void in the Force, Luke Skywalker suddenly felt as if a giant's fist was enclosed around his heart and lungs. It was a struggle to breathe, almost unfathomable to even think a coherent thought. But he was Luke Skywalker, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. If there was someone who had to break through this gargantuan void it would have to be him.
He tried to sense the source. Then to his horror the worst possible outcome had transformed from a worrying fantasy into an indisputable reality.
Jaina Solo was the source. And her darkness was infesting the vulnerable Force bond that the Jedi had. The dark and void combined were now crushing the Jedi, and Luke knew what had to be done, even though it would certainly doom several of his Jedi in these precious minutes.
"Disconnect. Everyone, disconnect from the bond. Now!" he ordered raspily, and he flipped his connection to the Force off like it was a switch.
There wasn't any time to see whether his order was understood or not. But a bewildered scream punctured his ears, and he looked towards his squadron's display that Miko Reglia's X-wing was flashing, before it faded away altogether, leaving just eleven X-wings.
He checked the status. No ejection. The young man had been annihilated mere moments after disconnection. Luke allowed himself a moment of regret to pass through his system, and then looked out, ahead towards the battlefield where Jaina's dark beacon had been.
He looked towards Jaina's location, and saw the young woman's starfighter blasting away at the ship madly, her X-wing dashing all around the destroyer assaulting it with everything. Shadow bombs impacted the destroyer's surface, and it began to list. Whatever was pulling the Starchaser in was neutralized, and the Starchaser containing his beloved wife was able to break away.
Suddenly, the destroyer broke apart in a fountain of demonic fire. Explosions tore throughout the vessel as it snapped in two pieces, a massive fiery plume spraying from the seizure point.
Then the fire expanded and enveloped the two shards, and Luke could only make out the fleeing X-wing and Tionne's ship as they barely escaped the outer reaches of the explosion. He flew forwards as the fire died from a complete lack of air, and saw the X-wing fly aimlessly for a moment, and Luke dared to re-enter the Force again, wondering if Jaina's blaze had been satisfied and was dying out.
It was the opposite. The fire only hungered for more. Before he became another victim of Jaina's vindictive wrath, Luke quickly discerned that the young woman had completely lost herself in the whorls of the dark side.
I knew it was too early to bring her out there. She wasn't ready yet emotionally, he thought sadly. It was his fault that she was out here. She had claimed she was ready for real combat, and he had listened, against his better judgement. And he knew that if he shot her down he'd likely kill her, for she would be so absorbed in her swirling eddies that she would never notice her X-wing becoming little more than a funeral pyre.
He would kill his own niece in that case. And he would never forgive himself if he did such a thing. He had promised Leia, right before the void had absorbed so much of the Force, that he would take care of Jaina. That he would protect her, shelter her, love her, and mold her into a Jedi Knight.
He didn't want Jaina to become a Sith or a corpse.
He needed a solution, and fast. He needed Jaina out of the battle meld and in a hurry before he lost more than just Miko Reglia.
"I can't hold it!" Another shout gripped the squadron's channel, and Luke's display depicted another X-wing flickering before it vanished. This time, however, the pilot had survived some way.
Luke took a breath. Then he said "Tionne, I need you to hit Jaina with the ion cannon and bring her into the emergency bay and calm her down."
"She might endanger Malinza-"
"That's a chance we'll have to take, Tionne," Luke said, looking as Jaina rushed towards several coralskippers, and corkscrewed around them, her lasers incinerating them with pinpoint, unnatural accuracy. "I don't know how much longer she'll be able to know right and wrong."
Silence. Then "I understand."
Luke saw the Starchaser move upwards, towards the rampaging X-wing. Good luck, he thought, knowing that with this crushing, chaotic Force that he would not be able to communicate with his wife, unable to tell whether she was all right or dead-
Until Jaina Solo was brought back to the light.
* * *
It was several minutes after the order when one of the gunners had finally hit the uncontrollable X-wing with the ion cannons, shorting out its technical systems. Tionne Skywalker had allowed herself a moment to check Jaina's Force signature, hoping that the young woman's turmoil and rage would have begun to die without an outlet for it.
But Jaina had continued her storming rage, and the instant she felt it she had directed all of it in a frothing hostility towards Tionne. She was forced to disconnect or surely all of that hate and fire Jaina had unleashed would have incinerated her mentally.
Or worse, had driven the older woman to darkness herself.
The dark side was indeed like a virus, as she had told Luke years ago, as Jaina had begun to grow older, and like a tenacious predator, the dark side consistently contacted her. And whenever Jaina gave in the dark side, it would spread through the Jedi's universal bond and infect others, spreading the darkness until all were enveloped in darkness.
That was why Jaina needed to be brought back, and in a hurry, before others made any contact with Jaina and fell. She would have to be treated, mentally, as a quarantine patient. And as she looked from Lusa to Danni and herself, one of them would have to be the cure.
That was not a pleasing thought.
With Uhala Kore firmly at the controls of the Starchaser, Tionne watched the X-wing being pulled into her minature, one-fighter bay by the tractor beam, and the doors slamming shut and air and compression brought back to the bay. The moment it reached minimal limits Tionne overrode the safety codes and rushed into the bay, ignoring the pressing headache she received from marching inside during atmosphere restoration.
Danni Quee was right behind her, the twenty-two year old's straight blonde hair cut to a length that barely reached the bottom of her neck on all sides. Her green eyes were apprehensive and nervous. Lusa followed, her hooves clopping the ground considerably louder than either Tionne or Danni. Lusa's burgandy eyes and her face showed more confidence, and that reassured Tionne somewhat.
All three of them had their lightsabers ready for if Jaina decided to launch straight towards them with her own blade. They would have no choice and expose themselves to the corrupted Force then, and they would need to end the battle quickly before they began to fall.
Tionne's eyes looked from anxious Danni to calmer Lusa, and she was about to give the order to open Jaina's canopy when suddenly it opened.
Jaina leapt out of the canopy and landed on her feet, and she stomped forward, her blackened brown eyes sunken and bloodshot. Her lips were contorted into a snarl, and she growled "Why did you shoot me down? I saved all of you! Is this how you repay me?"
Jaina hadn't turned completely dark, not yet, but she was rapidly approaching that point. Tionne thought she saw a golden flicker in Jaina's eyes-or perhaps it was just her imagination-but whatever the case Jaina was definitely a Dark Jedi at this moment and was approaching Sith in a hurry.
Jaina's torrential rant continued. "I was winning out there. I took a destroyer out by myself. I destroyed an entire squadron of the rodders. Why the hell did you shoot at me?"
She glowered at Tionne suddenly. "Uncle Luke told you, didn't he?" she snapped. "He doesn't trust me. He thinks 'oh no, my precious niece shows anger and we're all going to die because'-"
"Jaina, that's not it at all," Tionne said calmly, and those words, at least, silenced Jaina for this moment. She took a silent sigh of relief at this, that Jaina could still be reasoned with.
Tionne allowed herself to smile gently, and speak in a supportful tone. The girl had been permanently altered for the worse at Coruscant. Scars impossible to heal physically and mentally had seared into her, as seen by the white streak in her hair and a thin slash above her right eyebrow. Her psyche had also received severe bruising, and as she had grown older fits of depression and turmoil relentlessly attempted to consume her.
She needed as much love and support as she could possibly receive.
"Jaina, your uncle is . . . concerned about you. He isn't sure whether you'd be all right out there by yourself," Tionne spoke.
"Why? Because I'm seventeen? Because he thinks I'm a-"
"Your temper and mood right now is precisely why your uncle didn't want you out there directly exposed to battle and-" Tionne had to grip a nearby ladder for support as the Starchaser committed some evasive manuever and tossed everyone around for a moment.
After it halted and her sense of stability was righted, she spoke again. "And threats. He wasn't sure whether you were mentally ready for such stress."
"Of course I am! I just killed all of those-"
"Did you like killing them?" Lusa said sadly.
"Yes! Why wouldn't I? They-"
"Jaina, this is what Luke was afraid of. I had to convince him to give you a shot out there," Tionne said, remembering her argument with Luke two days ago about having Jaina fly a real X-wing instead of always practicing in the simulator.
"You're not supposed to enjoy killing others. No matter who they are. Killing is something meant as a-"
"Last resort, I know I know," Jaina snarled, throwing up her hands and stomping past the three other Jedi.
She turned around then, and Tionne again thought she saw that golden fleck in her eyes. "You drummed that in my head when I joined the Jedi. But what am I supposed to do? Cry over the murder of the beasts who killed my brothers and parents? Is that what you want me to do?"
Now her voice wasn't as much a growl as it was a desperate, heartbroken sob. Tionne and the others were instantly reminded about how ferocious the death and separation from her family was, and she was utmost sympathetic towards Jaina for being strong enough to continue living.
But Jaina had not allowed herself to recover. It was almost if she was forcing herself to be in pain over their memory, to not grant herself any solace over losing them.
"No, Jaina." Tionne took a breath, exhaled to calm herself, and then accessed the Force again, finding that it wasn't as corrupted as it was before. Jaina was wavering away from the darkness, so Tionne's calm logic was beginning to win.
"No, that's not want we want to do. What we want to do is protect our allies. That's what the Jedi do. Defend. And that's what we're doing. We are defending Naboo right now. We are defending the galaxy just by existing and counter-attacking so we can force the enemy to moderate themselves so they can see reason. That's why we're here. We only kill when we have little choice, and that's precisely what we have right now. Killing is a tragedy, Jaina, no matter who it is."
Tionne stopped then, and stared at Jaina, who looked at all three Jedi unblinkingly for what seemed like hours. Finally, Jaina blinked and a single tear trickled out of her right eye. "I screwed up big time out there, didn't I?"
Danni's upper lip curled. "Yes. You nearly corrupted the whole meld and you've likely got several Jedi-"
"Danni, enough. Go upstairs and see if Malinza needs any help maintaining the jammers."
When Danni attempted a protest, Tionne turned and gave her a stoic, warning glare. Danni realized that prudence was better than an argument and walked away, mumbling "Yes, Mother."
Tionne looked at Lusa then, and the Centaur nodded and said "I understand."
Then Lusa walked away, her four legs clopping on the metallic flooring, before it vanished as she went upstairs and back to the main compartments.
"Come here." Jaina walked over, and Tionne embraced Jaina. "You're almost there. You're not quite there yet, that's all," she said softly.
"I had to have killed so many people in Twin Suns, didn`t I? I killed Jedi because I was stupid," Jaina sobbed.
"No, you`re not stupid," Tionne said. "You did manage to save us, after all. Your tactics would have worked and we wouldn`t find any problem with it if the darkness hadn`t been motivating you. Hate leads to suffering, Jaina. Luke is right about that. His father suffered for decades before he returned to the Light. We don`t want that to happen to you. That`s all. We care about you a lot, Jaina, and that`s the truth."
"Uh huh," Jaina said.
Tio | |