Beyond - Legends The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M,H/L,many more) New fic 4/16!

I know, it's been a busy week. Thanks for the late beta

Okay, post time now...

 

Chapter 4: Collision Course

The cockpit rattled so violently when the maimed Jedi Interceptor hit Telex's atmosphere that Anakin Solo thought his teeth were going to fall out of his skull. He held on tight to the control yoke for lack of anything else to clutch, though it was obvious no amount of jerking or jostling of the sticks was going to bring the fighter under control.

A web of cracks stitched across the fogged pane of transparisteel that capped the ring of metal on the forward canopy, making it more difficult to see through the murk and tendrils of the stratosphere's thinnest clouds. Anakin squinted and angled his head to see around the biggest patch of frosted glass, trying to ignore the high whistle screeching inside his cockpit that told him there was a breach.

His long range communications were down, Jaina's screaming voice still ringing in his ears a moment before it was interrupted by a static burst.

Telex's surface was still little more than swirls of orange and tan dust and Anakin turned his attention to his instruments in an effort to discover the extent of the damage the turbolaser had done when it tore through the Eta-7 seconds earlier. Artoo was flashing damage reports across his primary display, but like everything the loyal astromech tried to communicate since he was nearly destroyed on the Rapture, the string of words was little more than gibberish.

The droid was still functioning properly, still able to obey commands, navigate, and make repairs, but Anakin had been unable to mend whatever was fried in Artoo's communications processor and hadn't had time to really take the astromech apart for a thorough diagnostic. But he'd spent enough time with his uncle's beloved droid over the years that he could often discern what R2-D2 was chirping or whistling at him in spite of his communications difficulties, and as long as the astromech could understand him, Anakin was in no rush to boot Artoo out of his fighter's dorsal socket for another.

Readings and fluxing schematics were glowing blurs on his trembling instruments and sensor screens, but Anakin managed to center himself and was able to glean the basics: his shields were nonexistent, his stabilizers shot, his port wing and its radiator panels destroyed, the coolant feeds and port power cell offline, and most troubling of all, one of the fighter's ion drives had been boiled to a blackened stump and the other collapsed into a ring of mangled vector plates, with its impulsion chamber flickering bursts of blue ions and a thick ribbon of the thruster nozzle torn half off and flapping like a peel of metal skin in the blaze.

"Artoo, see if you can route power to the starboard drive."

The droid warbled and Anakin glanced down at his primary display again.

[AFTER THE SANDSTORM DROVE HIM FROM HOME THE LITTLE LOST BANTHA CUB WANDERED ALONE]

"Umm, I assume you're asking me if that power wouldn't be better used repairing the shields," Anakin replied, shaking his head and how R2-D2's glitch had switched to reciting one of his favorite childhood stories. "The shields aren't going to do us any good no matter what. I need to try and land this thing and I need thrust to do that so I can keep us from nose diving all the way to the surface."

[SO HE WALKED THROUGH THE DESERT HEAT TILL NOON WHEN HE FOUND A JAWA SANDCRAWLER UPON A SANDY DUNE]

"I know the impulsion chamber is crushed and the electrostatic plates are a mess," Anakin continued, again guessing at what the little droid was trying to communicate. "Just try and get the ion stream going as fast as you can and I'll worry about trying to make it directional."

Artoo whistled something that sounded sarcastic and went about his work just as Anakin's fighter was really beginning to plunge through the first sheets of dusty clouds. Flames began to dance across the interceptor's armor and a billowing column of smoke bled from it in a straight line as they burned through the atmosphere like a meteor with no way to slow their rapid descent. Anakin's feet jammed against the air-brake uselessly while his mind raced almost as fast as his crashing starfighter.

He couldn't die. Not yet.

Before his thoughts strayed to Tahiri and how her face had looked the day he held her lifeless body in his arms, the Jedi Interceptor was pulled deeply enough into Telex's gravity well that the lack of a port wing forced the burgundy-painted starfighter into a spiral. It was quickly apparent by the g's he was pulling that Anakin needed to add the cockpit's inertial compensators and artificial gravity to the list of systems no longer functioning.

"Now would be a good time to fix that thruster, Artoo," Anakin said, fighting off nausea. He considered closing his starboard wing's radiator panels but he needed all the drag he could get in order to make a slightly smaller crafter in Telex's rocky surface when his interceptor crashed.

Unfortunately for Anakin he had little hope of surviving any such crash. He was wearing only his dark Jedi robes and a headset communicator— no helmet, no armor, not flame retardant EV-ready flight suit.

Artoo trilled and beeped unhappily and Anakin knew the droid was telling him he should have ejected after he was hit.

"And who would have stopped you from crashing?" Anakin said, reaching over with a shaking hand to flip an array of switches and open every maintenance cover on the hull in an effort to create drag. He opened his mouth to say something about how his uncle would be upset if anything happened to his beloved droid and quickly shut it. Anakin was no longer convinced his uncle was still alive— the Raithians were a brutal regime who would destroy them— he'd seen their savagery far too often to ever forget. They wouldn't keep Luke Skywalker, the man who was probably the single greatest threat to them and their Sith overlords, alive once they got him away from Denon.

Anakin ground his teeth. It was yet another person they'd taken from his family, another thing to pay them back for.

Another reason why he had to survive.

The forward viewport had become a dizzying whorl of orange and Anakin reached out with the Force towards the portside of his interceptor and the shattered wing there. It was almost impossible to get a grip on it spinning and plunging so fast through Telex's atmosphere, but by sheer strength of will Anakin took hold of the portside of his fighter and pushed back against the rotation and heard the already taxed metal frame of the starfighter shriek in protest.

The ship slowed but Anakin continued to hear a sharp squeal, and looked to his left to see Artoo screeching wildly and spraying flame retardant foam from his built-in fire extinguisher to keep the flickering stream of flames from engulfing the whole starfighter. Anakin's vision blurred from the exertion in the Force, but eventually he felt the interceptor stop its rotation and return to simply plunging nose-first towards Telex's surface.

In the same instant, his astromech chirped happily and the impulsion chamber of the starboard ion drive growled with new life, cooking a meter long tail of blue efflux. "Nice job, Artoo," Anakin praised almost absently. He knew this was going to be the really hard part.

The Jedi Knight reached back and placed his right hand on the housing of the flight control connections behind his arm rest and did what no sane pilot would do in this situation unless they'd lost all hope and were trying to escape the rushing horror— he closed his eyes. Anakin fell deep in the Force, becoming a conduit for the energy to travel into his mangled starfighter through his fingertips.

Since he'd been very young, he'd had the ability to repair machinery he didn't even understand with the Force, feeling malfunctions and instinctively knowing how to channel the Force in order to mend them. There were times when the machines seemed to speak to him— they spoke in a language he couldn't really understand cognitively, but was imprinted in his every cell. It was the same ability that had allowed him to operate Centerpoint Station when he was just eight years old, and save the entire Corellian system and the rest of the galaxy it would have terrorized in Thracken Sal-Solo's hands.

The current of Force energy traveled through the cockpit's flight controls to the starboard power cell and then coursed into the active ion drive. Anakin could feel the crumpled vector plates there, unable to direct the stream of blue fire torching through the collapsed thruster nozzle.

Refusing to let himself think about how he'd be dead in a matter of minutes if he couldn't repair them, Anakin carefully began to bend the electrostatic plates back into place with the Force, restructuring the thruster chamber. The metal clacked into place like a ring of crooked teeth over the glowing blue jaws, and formed something resembling the flexible nozzle that had crowned the thrusters before the turbolaser strike.

Anakin's eyes snapped back open to see more detail in Telex's surface as he gasped for breath, the effects of calling on the Force so heavily beginning to fatigue him, and for a moment, he feared he was going to pass out. When his blurring vision came back into focus, the young Jedi wrapped his hands around the flight controls again and gave his rejuvenated thruster a kick. This time the interceptor responded, slowly breaking out of its plunge into more of an angled drop. There was still far too much play in the yoke and the ventral rudders weren't responding, but the vector plates were squeezing the stream of ions boiling out of the one working drive and that gave Anakin at least some ability to steer the crashing ship.

They were now close enough to the ground that he could see the battle engulfing Telex's surface, with laser cannons streaking across the orange rock interlaced with blue maser beams, streaking flares of rocket propellant that punctuated in blossoms of rolling plasma, and Chiss metacannons spraying artillery that burned great swaths through the wasteland.

"Artoo, bring up our attack zone."

The droid chirped a query but filled the primary display with eight year old smashball scores.

"There's nothing I can do for Dad now," Anakin replied, again guessing at Artoo's intent. "But there are people down there we can help, so I might as well complete the mission Thrawn sent us to do."

It hurt Anakin to admit he couldn't save his father on the Raider, again bringing back the memory of his failure on Denon six months ago, when he'd lost her... And it didn't help matters that it was Grand Admiral Thrawn's plan to put Han there. There was no questioning Thrawn's tactical genius, but Anakin was far from trusting his motives. He hadn't been born when Thrawn was trying to tear the New Republic to shreds, but he knew the Chiss had made his family's lives, and that of most beings in the galaxy, a living Corellian Hell.

How could he ever trust the orders of someone who played so recklessly with the lives of others? Especially when he'd told them so little of what he knew about the Raithians, how he had survived all these years, and even, why he was so interested in capturing the Raider when the Raithian fleet was trying to capture Telex and gain a significant invasion corridor into Ascendancy Space?

The tactical display flashed to a contoured grid covering kilometers of Telex's rocky surface, with swaths of deep red and blue to represent the factions trying to annihilate each other below, and chevrons of gold and fast-moving triangular blips tracking the large war machines and starfighters. One section was overlaid with a prismatic band that burned and dimmed slowly.

"That's where Thrawn wanted our support?" Anakin asked, his piercing ice blue eyes still glued to the screens. "It's not too far actually..."

Artoo warbled something skeptical.

"I'll get us there," Anakin said, closing all the panels on the hull he'd flung open a minute earlier to increase drag.

Telex's unforgiving surface was rising even faster than before in his fogged viewport and the Jedi pulled back harder on the yoke and pressed his foot lightly on his thruster controls, causing the nozzle of flimsy vector plates to constrict around the stream of ions growling from the drive and narrow the tail of efflux. The Eta-7's bow rose ever so slightly, further angling his fall but also causing the planet to rush up at an accelerated rate.

When he could make out the Raithian Annihilators, the all terrain assault walkers began to spit cannon fire at Anakin's crashing fighter, the streaks of crimson coming so close to his cockpit that he could actually feel the waves of blistering heat through the cracks in his transparisteel canopy. There was little maneuvering to be done, so Anakin simply pressed his thumbs down on the control sticks' firing studs and watched as bursts of green laser blasts erupted from the barrels stretched out inside his forward mandibles, relieved his weapons systems were still online.

He could see the troops now, an undulating mass of dark shapes writhing on Telex's surface, wrapping themselves in sheets of red blasterfire and annihilating pockets of Chiss soldiers garbed in their own shifting, fractal-pattern armor, and squads of the Empire of the Hands best stormtroopers. The volleys Anakin stitched across the battlefield came far from hitting the hulking annihilators, but each errant blast boiled a dozen Raithian soldiers and sentinel droids to melted armor and clouds of rolling vapor.

A streaking cannon bolt from an artillery mount below torched a smoldering scar across his interceptor's belly, and Anakin immediately fired his cache of proton torpedoes, watching in amazement as only two bright exhaust trails flared from his starboard side and detonated in geysers of orange flame.

"Artoo, where are the rest of my torpedoes?"

[THE TEMPERATURE ON TATOOINE TODAY IS 42 DEGREES STANDARD WITH A 23% CHANCE OF SANDSTORMS]

Anakin shook his head, remembering that when his port wing was clipped off that half of his load of torpedoes would have gone with it. Calling on the Force again as he neared the ground, the Jedi Knight pulled back harder on his flight controls and pushed harder on the thrusters to cut the angle, hoping to skid onto the surface rather than bury himself within it. The air seemed to crackle around him and black spots began to form in Anakin's vision again, as he realizing he was channeling so much of the energy through him that he was almost burning up.

Grains of orange dust and enemy troopers were rushing up in his cockpit's viewport so fast that Anakin was certain he wouldn't be able to pull up in time, but just as the metal and contoured grip were beginning to dig into his hands, he gave a final nudge with the Force and the interceptor leveled out, rocketing across Telex's surface in a burst of blue ions as its belly nearly scrapped the rocks below.

He spotted a sentinel droid raising a blaster rifle to fire through the transparisteel covering a fraction of a second before the droid was clipped in half by the interceptor's wing, cleaving its torso in a blinding stroke and a shower of sparks and severed cables. Then a Raithian trooper was rammed by the Eta-7's forward mandibles, killing him instantly and sending his broken body spinning like a carelessly discarded marionette a dozen meters away.

Soldiers and droids were crushed as Anakin shot through the Raithian lines, each high-speed collision rocking the starfighter violently and chewing away pieces of its forward armor, steadily shredding what was left of the already mangled Jedi Interceptor. He cut the drives, hoping to slow down into a survivable stop and again opened up his lateral laser cannons, letting the super-charged bursts vaporize everything in his path.

Somewhere in the flashes of emerald light, the interceptor hit the ground with such force that Anakin thought every bone in his body was going to shatter, only to bounce up and slam its rent belly into the rock again. A horrible shrieking, crunching, wail became Anakin's universe as his starfighter skidded across the rocks faster than the most brazen swooper would have dared, and the metal frame of the craft was bent and beaten in a cascade of white sparks and spewing wreckage.

The Jedi's teeth gnashed hard enough to wear off enamel and the interceptor's forward mandibles began to dig into the rock and dust, kicking up the ground in a screeching grind and burned a kilometers-long scorch across the desert. When it finally came to a halt, the ship's bow was buried under a two meter mound of rock and dirt.

Exhaling loudly as his vision cleared and an eerie silence settled into the cockpit, Anakin heard a slight whir of servos and looked up to see the severed arm of a sentinel droid sticking through the canopy, its skeletal fingers still opening and closing as if reaching for his face with the last bits of data from the droid's brain triggering faint impulses. He could see nothing of the world outside his ship save for the piles of upturned stone and dirt his fighter had burrowed in.

"Stay here, Artoo," Anakin said, as he wasted no time in unclipping the flight restraints that had worn bloodied sores into his shoulders and popped the interceptor's canopy. He knew they were in more danger now than ever, even if he couldn't see it.

The Jedi Knight rose from the pilot's seat and shrugged off his cloak all in one motion, while his right hand reached down for the polished silver cylinder secured at his hip. His fingers wrapped around the familiar grooves of his grandfather's lightsaber, a weapon his Aunt Mara had unofficially passed on to him at the climax of the Yuuzhan Vong War, when he'd used it to defeat the invader's true Supreme Overlord, Onimi.

Anakin stepped off the lip of his open canopy onto the mound of dirt surrounding his starfighter and took two climbing strides to its summit. Looking down from the little perch, he found himself staring at an endless sea of Raithian soldiers in metallic blur armor and their chrome plated war droids, all gazing up at him in a moment of bewilderment, surprise rolling off of them in waves.

It didn't take them long to recover from the shock of seeing a lone Jedi Knight standing in their midst, however, as almost instantly blaster rifles began singing out, sending staccato bursts of energy streaking towards the dark-robed figure. Anakin's blade snapped to life and he wheeled it around in a fan of blue light, sending a trio of bolts rocketing back into the Raithian lines, then pivoting and catching another pair of fiery dashes on a two-handed backswing.

Dropping to a crouch on the mound, he deflected a soldier's cortosis-woven vibrosword who had reached up to skewer him, and then Anakin spun his thrumming blade and took the trooper's arm for good measure. The glowing stump of cauterized flesh and bone hadn't even hit the ground before he drove his lightsaber through the brain casing of the nearest sentinel droid, and whirled around to slash a deep furrow through the space between a Raithian's helmet and his chest plating with the molten weapon.

Completing his spin, Anakin's knees bent and he leapt. He rose above the streams of blasterfire passing close enough to his body to raise blisters on his skin, and he came down in a dive right into the Raithian horde, where he was enveloped in clawing limbs, blades, and a sweeping blue light.


***


Jacen Solo has come unstuck in time.

It is not the first time it has happened. In fact, he's slipped out of time all together sporadically since his hermitage on Zonama Sekot after the Yuuzhan Vong Conflict. It was on the living planet that Jacen learned to see more than any other person could.

He is seeing time as it truly is— an infinite knot of coiled bands of light and motion. In these bands are everything that was, what will be, and the seemingly endless possibilities therein.

This is how Zonama Sekot sees time, and it was from the bond Jacen formed, that he learned to see it too. But his human brain is far too limited, too narrow, to truly grasp the scope of time in its entirety, instead processing only the dazzling tangles of light and blurred paths of every being and every thing stitched within the fibers of the universe.

When he concentrates fully and is completely within the Force's flow, Jacen can pick one of these lines and follow it in any direction. He chooses a peculiar looking one that seems to tremble with significance and traces it back. It seems to stretch out through millennia, and finally a picture comes into focus.

He sees a giant with flesh as black as coal and an obsidian suit of armor. The alien radiates power, veins bulging around the taut sinew that encases his bones, and in his hand is a ridiculously oversized ax. Rain is falling all around him in puddles around his feet between piles of mangled corpses— some humanoid that resemble the giant, only with red skin, and others even more peculiar, with strange cone-shaped heads and eye sockets that jut out from the sides of their heads.

This is the Beginning.

Jacen knows that this is how it all starts.

That this is the Sith'ari.

Jacen moves forward in time, passing twenty-eight thousand years of galactic history and begins to pick through the vein-like tendrils of the future. But there are far too many possibilities for him to see anything clearly.

Instead of continuing to explore, he decides to employ a technique his master, Darth Malig, has begun to teach him. According to Malig, a Sith vision is an entirely different animal from that of the Jedi. The Sith do not meditate to fall within the Force's flow and ask for its guidance— instead, they rip a glimpse of the future away.

Not what can happen— what will. Malig has told Jacen that the future is not in motion, but has already happened, is always happening and will always happen, as does the past. The artificial divisions that sentient minds put on time are illusions.

So Jacen concentrates on tearing a moment from the future, exerting his own will over the Force in order to make it reveal what lies ahead. What he sees is a large circular chamber ringed by transparisteel and strange tanks. At its center is a sort of shallow pit.

Jacen has seen this vision before. It is the vision he shares with Darth Malig.

This is the End.

Both he and Malig are there, and he can sense other presences in the strange chamber as well. For the first time, he can make out one of their faces. He is somewhat surprised to see the round face and red hair of his five-year-old cousin Ben at the chamber's center.

Darth Malig's interest in Ben had certainly increased of late, but Jacen was perplexed by the boy's presence in the Sith Lord's moment of triumph, when the Force will be liberated. Curious, he tries to trace the knotted bands of light back and figure out how and why his cousin is present, when he stumbles onto something more troubling in Time.

Jacen sees that his paths, all his possible paths, are colliding with another. The collision points burn with white light along the cords of time, and Jacen sees no way around them.

In each one, the results are catastrophic.

When Jacen begins to trace back the source of these collisions, he sees that they are all the branches of a single beings path— his little brother, Anakin.

He doesn't know what to make of the anomaly, but one horrifying certainty begins to sink into Jacen's bones.

One of them is going to kill the other.





His dark eyes fluttered open to a thick yellow haze and his swimming head was immediately assaulted by the stench of ammonia and sulfur. Jacen Solo couldn't remember where he was and the fog blanketing everything in sight wasn't helping matters.

A liquid gurgle and the faint whip of a tentacle ahead of him followed by a meaty splash triggered his memory. He was deep in Coruscant's undercity, in a place the Yuuzhan Vong had grown when they'd terraformed the whole planet. It was one of the last remaining traces of Yuuzhan'tar on the former Galactic Capital, called the Well of the World Brain, where Jacen's old friend resided, helping the Alliance undo the Vongforming three years after the war had ended.

Jacen had worked with the World Brain for two months after the war, helping it get started in its enormous task before he left for Zonama Sekot again, to learn more about the Force and the living planet. This was the first time he had seen the World Brain in years.

In the last two weeks the World Brain had taken ill and was no longer assisting in the reconstruction effort, severely slowing down the process and hindering any chance that Coruscant would once again become the galaxy's capital in the next two years as planned. After days of pressure from the media and the somewhat meek requests of Chief of State Fyor Rodan, Jacen had left with his master's blessings— in fact, the Dark Lord had insisted he leave for Coruscant to tend to the ailing World Brain.

It had been difficult to abandon his other responsibilities, to the Raithian military, of which he was now completely in control— the public face of the Raithians to keep his master, Lord Malig, protected in shadow. But Coruscant was a symbol that the galaxy needed, and it would always be his home. Even Malig seemed to agree that their destiny could wait a few days.

Jacen had to help the World Brain.

So why was he lying flat on his back?

He looked down and saw the palm of his left hand was covered in bright red liquid. His gaze traveled up and found most of the arm wet and in the same condition, and his combat suit tattered along his torso, where hot shrapnel had sprayed against him and buried itself into his abdominal wall.

It was strange that he felt no pain.

Even more peculiar, he felt as though he had been about to say something before he'd passed out, and couldn't remember what it was... Oh yes.

"You don't want to do this," Jacen said hoarsely, feeling the fire running up his body and constrictions along his ribs and chests that made it difficult to speak or even breathe. He knew it was a useless thing to say, but it seemed necessary somehow.

His assailants stepped into his line of sight then— a human male and a female Rodian he recognized vaguely as employees of Booster Terrik. Both were carrying blaster rifles and looking nervous.

The memory came flooding back then, of the concussion grenade being tossed he somehow couldn't sense coming in the Force, and the explosion of yorik coral that that left him more disoriented than he could ever remember being.

As he looked up into their eyes, he could see that he was wrong. They did want to do this.

"Jacen."

This voice was different, female, and familiar. He tilted his head to the other side and saw two women— one a bronze-skinned Dathomirian and the other a powerful looking human with a Chandrilan's build. He recognized them as Jedi Masters Kirana Ti and Octa Ramis, their lightsabers blazing as if they expected him to leap up and attack them.

"Jacen," Kirana Ti repeated, looking for some recognition in his eyes his pain-dazed mind must not have been showing. "You're coming with us."

 

Second's the best, as the saying goes.

For some reason, I have the feeling their will be some an heroing happening in this story soon...

[image=http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj232/zonzo2142/An_hero.jpg]

 

Third

 

First with comments!!!


Very cool!

Flames began to dance across the interceptor's armor and a billowing column of smoke bled from it in a straight line as they burned through the atmosphere like a meteor with no way to slow their rapid descent. Anakin's feet jammed against the air-brake uselessly while his mind raced almost as fast as his crashing starfighter.

He couldn't die. Not yet.

Cool imagery. I imagine him jostling all over trying to get it to land. I?m visioning a little of his grandfather in ROTS.

Anakin ground his teeth. It was yet another person they'd taken from his family, another thing to pay them back for.

And another step closer to the dark side.

The current of Force energy traveled through the cockpit's flight controls to the starboard power cell and then coursed into the active ion drive. Anakin could feel the crumpled vector plates there, unable to direct the stream of blue fire torching through the collapsed thruster nozzle.

Cool use of Force powers!!!! Take that! Grandpa Anakin. Bet you never tried that one! What an awesome landing. I could see Anakin taking out countless troops with laser fire and then using the ship itself to crush them. He?s so cool!



Jacen sees that his paths, all his possible paths, are colliding with another. The collision points burn with white light along the cords of time, and Jacen sees no way around them.

In each one, the results are catastrophic.

When Jacen begins to trace back the source of these collisions, he sees that they are all the branches of a single beings path? his little brother, Anakin.

He doesn't know what to make of the anomaly, but one horrifying certainty begins to sink into Jacen's bones.

One of them is going to kill the other.

What does Malig have planned for little Ben? Can't be good. And how does Jacen get himself so messed up?
Sith level flow walking. Jacen, when will you ever learn. Well, I sure hope Anakin wins that battle!

Ooh! I did not see the end coming ! Will Jacen go with the nice Jedi? Hmmmm!

 

Yes, yes, I know I'm late. I've been a little tied up.

Couple of comments about Ch 3.

Raithian soldiers being the finest in the galaxy? You do realize, this means war.

[image=http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r213/CloneCmdrWedge/clonetroopers6.jpg]

[image=http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r213/CloneCmdrWedge/gifs/thCloneTroopervsSBDs.gif]

Two, Vox should give up now. Kyle will crush all remaining baddies.


Instead of continuing to explore, he decides to employ a technique his master, Darth Malig, has begun to teach him. According to Malig, a Sith vision is an entirely different animal from that of the Jedi. The Sith do not meditate to fall within the Force's flow and ask for its guidance? instead, they rip a glimpse of the future away.

Not what can happen? what will. Malig has told Jacen that the future is not in motion, but has already happened, is always happening and will always happen, as does the past. The artificial divisions that sentient minds put on time are illusions.

I'm sure Palpy would've had something to say about that.


Both he and Malig are there, and he can sense other presences in the strange chamber as well. For the first time, he can make out one of their faces. He is somewhat surprised to see the round face and red hair of his five-year-old cousin Ben at the chamber's center.

Darth Malig's interest in Ben had certainly increased of late, but Jacen was perplexed by the boy's presence in the Sith Lord's moment of triumph, when the Force will be liberated.

Yes, so far he's only been interested in the Solo kids, not Ben...wonder what changes...


Jacen sees that his paths, all his possible paths, are colliding with another. The collision points burn with white light along the cords of time, and Jacen sees no way around them.

In each one, the results are catastrophic.

When Jacen begins to trace back the source of these collisions, he sees that they are all the branches of a single beings path? his little brother, Anakin.

He doesn't know what to make of the anomaly, but one horrifying certainty begins to sink into Jacen's bones.

One of them is going to kill the other.

Close enough for me to unveil this one picture!

*Jacen turns and sees Saren*

Jacen: Saren?

Saren: Jacen.

Jacen: This isn't your Universe, Saren. What are you doing here?

Saren: Clone_Cmdr_Wedge thought you might need some help being a villian.

JacenTurns around* I didn't expect to be the bad guy and possibly have to kill my brother, the situation's bad.

[image=http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r213/CloneCmdrWedge/under_control_jacen.jpg]

Saren: Don't worry Jacen, I've got it under control.


This voice was different, female, and familiar. He tilted his head to the other side and saw two women? one a bronze-skinned Dathomirian and the other a powerful looking human with a Chandrilan's build. He recognized them as Jedi Masters Kirana Ti and Octa Ramis, their lightsabers blazing as if they expected him to leap up and attack them.

"Jacen," Kirana Ti repeated, looking for some recognition in his eyes his pain-dazed mind must not have been showing. "You're coming with us."

I smell lightsaber fight in the near future.

 

*reserves reply space*

so Kirana and Octa Ramis are on to Jacen

 

A web of cracks stitched across the fogged pane of transparisteel that capped the ring of metal on the forward canopy, making it more difficult to see through the murk and tendrils of the stratosphere's thinnest clouds. Anakin squinted and angled his head to see around the biggest patch of frosted glass, trying to ignore the high whistle screeching inside his cockpit that told him there was a breach.

Wow - cool scene.

Considering the damage, it's amazing his ship can still function - but our Anakin never gives up. What a guy!

The droid warbled and Anakin glanced down at his primary display again.

[AFTER THE SANDSTORM DROVE HIM FROM HOME THE LITTLE LOST BANTHA CUB WANDERED ALONE]

"Umm, I assume you're asking me if that power wouldn't be better used repairing the shields," Anakin replied, shaking his head and how R2-D2's glitch had switched to reciting one of his favorite childhood stories. "The shields aren't going to do us any good no matter what. I need to try and land this thing and I need thrust to do that so I can keep us from nose diving all the way to the surface."

[SO HE WALKED THROUGH THE DESERT HEAT TILL NOON WHEN HE FOUND A JAWA SANDCRAWLER UPON A SANDY DUNE]

"I know the impulsion chamber is crushed and the electrostatic plates are a mess," Anakin continued, again guessing at what the little droid was trying to communicate. "Just try and get the ion stream going as fast as you can and I'll worry about trying to make it directional."
That was awesome.

Unfortunately for Anakin he had little hope of surviving any such crash. He was wearing only his dark Jedi robes and a headset communicator? no helmet, no armor, not flame retardant EV-ready flight suit.
But he's Anakin.

The metal clacked into place like a ring of crooked teeth over the glowing blue jaws, and formed something resembling the flexible nozzle that had crowned the thrusters before the turbolaser strike.
Loved that description.

The droid chirped a query but filled the primary display with eight year old smashball scores.

"There's nothing I can do for Dad now," Anakin replied, again guessing at Artoo's intent. "But there are people down there we can help, so I might as well complete the mission Thrawn sent us to do."
Clever the way you match R2's deranged bursts with associations from the past - and then relate them to the present.

He could see the troops now, an undulating mass of dark shapes writhing on Telex's surface, wrapping themselves in sheets of red blasterfire and annihilating pockets of Chiss soldiers garbed in their own shifting, fractal-pattern armor, and squads of the Empire of the Hands best stormtroopers. The volleys Anakin stitched across the battlefield came far from hitting the hulking annihilators, but each errant blast boiled a dozen Raithian soldiers and sentinel droids to melted armor and clouds of rolling vapor.
Go, Anakin. [face_cheering]

Somewhere in the flashes of emerald light, the interceptor hit the ground with such force that Anakin thought every bone in his body was going to shatter, only to bounce up and slam its rent belly into the rock again. A horrible shrieking, crunching, wail became Anakin's universe as his starfighter skidded across the rocks faster than the most brazen swooper would have dared, and the metal frame of the craft was bent and beaten in a cascade of white sparks and spewing wreckage.

The Jedi's teeth gnashed hard enough to wear off enamel and the interceptor's forward mandibles began to dig into the rock and dust, kicking up the ground in a screeching grind and burned a kilometers-long scorch across the desert. When it finally came to a halt, the ship's bow was buried under a two meter mound of rock and dirt.
Better than a movie.

Anakin stepped off the lip of his open canopy onto the mound of dirt surrounding his starfighter and took two climbing strides to its summit. Looking down from the little perch, he found himself staring at an

 

Well, goodbye Kirana Ti and Octa Ramis. It was nice knowing you two.

 

Just dropping in to say that I´ve decided to read the fic regularly again... right now I am catching up on Exodus, I am at chapter 23 at the moment. So it may be a while until I get to here, maybe tomorrow or maybe just next weekend.

Magnus

 

Anakin is so cool! Great writing, Yobi.

I have been wondering though...
Unfortunately for Anakin he had little hope of surviving any such crash. He was wearing only his dark Jedi robes and a headset communicator? no helmet, no armor, not flame retardant EV-ready flight suit.

.....Why did the Jedi ditch the oh-so-effective combat suits? I'm mean, I know they have the Force and all, but not not make use of the tools you have?

 

Anakin's definitely got a death wish alright. but will jacen be the one to grant it?

 

Well that was an interesting twist. I wonder what Jacen will do with the information he got from his vision?!

I am not surprised somehow that Ben is at the middle of things at the end! I had a feeling he had a big role to play in all this.

Thanks for another great chapter Yoda!

 

Ohboy, I hope this doesn't go bad for Kirana and Octa. And poor Anakin, out of one mess, into another.

Great post, YodaKenobi.

 

Thanks so much for everyone who nominated this story and others in the Fanfic Awards. It was very much appreciated. "Exodus" was nommed for Best Drama, Best Epic, Best Ensemble, Best Canon Female for Jaina, Best OC Female for Aero, Best Child for Ben, and Best Non-Human for Threepio. My Mara fic "Severed Hand" was also nommed in Best Canon.

Thanks to those who nommed these stories and the others that didn't make the voting round. You guys are the best





PointGIven: First!

Way to go

okay... reading now.
Anakin's got a death wish. Loved the way you wrote R2 and his "malfunction"

You're not the only one who's going to take note of Anakin's recklessness

Glad you liked Artoo. There was a reason why he got shot back in Exodus and his communications are scrambled throughout this fic. It will be clear why when we get to the end of this.

Also at Jacen's predicament. How will he get out of this mess?

Good question...

A Kurol up his sleeve maybe?

Well, we've only seen three of them with Faybol where ever he and Luke are at, but I'll ruin it by saying all 6 Kurol are with Faybol at this moment.

Interesting that Faybol didn't warn him about Jedi on Coruscant unless they had ysalamiri with them (which would explain Jacen not feeling the concussion grenade being thrown at him)

Good guess Also, Faybol is way in Raithian Space somewhere. We aren't quite sure if there's some reason he wouldn't be able to sense Jedi from there or what the communications situations are between so much space. Luke seemed to think there was something weird about that place

And again, the feeling that one of the Solo boys will kill the other just intensifies...

Jacen is at least aware now that the conflict is coming, though he probably had an idea when Malig told him about faking Tahiri's death at the end of Exodus.

PS. Post something about Jaina, Jag and Wrev soon!

It will be a few chapters, but we'll get to that eventually

Thanks so much for reading and replying





zonzo: Second's the best, as the saying goes.

Congrats

For some reason, I have the feeling their will be some an heroing happening in this story soon...

Nah, I promise we won't

Thanks for reading






Spike: Third



Thanks for reading!






iamobiwan: First with comments!!!

You are quick Thanks.

Very cool!

Thank you

Cool imagery. I imagine him jostling all over trying to get it to land. I?m visioning a little of his grandfather in ROTS.

He's going to be spending some time retracing Vader's footsteps, so I guess that's appropriate.

Glad you liked the imagery!

And another step closer to the dark side.



Cool use of Force powers!!!! Take that! Grandpa Anakin. Bet you never tried that one!



I think you're right. Anakin has some crazy abilities with machines. Check out the Corellian Trilogy if you haven't read it. It's a really fun series with some cool Anakin stuff

What an awesome landing. I could see Anakin taking out countless troops with laser fire and then using the ship itself to crush them. He?s so cool!

He is pretty badass This was an image I had in mind for the start of the third fic way back when I was starting to outline the series, so it was fun to finally write it.

What does Malig have planned for little Ben? Can't be good.

Can't say We'll start to get a picture by the end of this one though, I think.

And how does Jacen get himself so messed up?

Concussion grenade Or do you mean mentally?

Sith level flow walking. Jacen, when will you ever learn.

This has been something Jacen has been doing since The Age of Heroes as a result of his time spen

 

So, I just finished Exodus, and still under the impression of the final chapters, a remark upon Anakin: If ol'Palps would have walked out just then when Anakin had just found Tahiri "dead", I think Anakin would have gone his grandfathers way, if old Palpy had convincingly done the "I can save her" spiel.

That having being said, great work, great writing from you. I loved the numerous allusions to other works of Star Wars, with several choice quotes having being thrown in. It wasn´t as unremittingly dark as I had feared, although really dark enough, because at least the Jedi got off their behinds and *did* something. Also, with Lorra Klorne, we got a fleet commander willing to work with the Jedi. If things pan out as I think, we´ll get some great fleet action, having a Chiss/Remnant/Fourth Fleet/Corellia/who knows who else versus the GA/Raithans. I´ll look forward to see if that happens.

I am really interested to see how the character arcs play out. Go Jaina/Jag, btw! ^^ Down with Jaina/Wrev.

Looking forward to The Lands of the Dead now, I´ll get back to you after you post the next chapter, until then I´ll read the already posted ones.

*Edit* Aaaand finished the first chapters of TLotD... hey, I didn´t know you´d perfectly anticipate my wants, and give me a big space battle at the *beginning* of the fic. Just missing Pelleaon charging in with guns blazing...

Hm, funny thing with Artoo, but I hope that gets fixed soon enough... a joke is funny as long as it isn´t beaten to death. Maybe in the course of his repair some of those internal holos of the olden times can be rattled free?

I´m guessing that´s the last we´ll see of Octa Ramis and Kirana Ti... you really seem to want to get rid of almost all the "old" generation.

And... Yoda? I´m kinda guessing it´s another one of his species, not the old muppet.

Otherwise, this fic is really starting off much more "light" than the last one ended, so I´m hopeful that things begin to look up for our heroes. After going through mortal peril, of course.

BTW, Mass Effect is a-ok, but holds no candle to KOTOR.

Magnus

 

*placeholder*

detailed review coming soon

 

Great prolouge. Cant wait to read more. Keep up the great work. Really liked that it started with Thrawn.

 

YK:Good tied up or bad tied up?

</Kosh> Yes.


Well, let's put it in perspective. A Raithian commander thinks that Raithian soldiers are the best in the galaxy. It's not exactly an unbiased source

True, but you have to remember that I'm very protective about my Clonetroopers.


Looks good. Now if only I'd played Mass Effect

Great job with the pic Jacen does look like that ugly alien.


Thanks. That is the Jacen from the Revelations cover, btw. Might explian why he's so ugly.


Probably a massive one




By the way Yobi, something I was curious about. Is that Anakin quote in your sig in response to Invincible?


PointGiven:So if Anakin kills Jacen, will Darth Malig resurrect Jacen into some cybernetic monster?

A flaming cybernetic monster that jumps all over the place and shoots rockets? Awesome. That would improve Jacen's coolness factor.

 

Hm. Poor R2. At least he's alive, I suppose. (In a manner of speaking.) Anakin's nuts - desparate with nothing to lose. I have Skywalker-on-Tat-with-Sand-People creeps running through my head. Even if the Raithians are the bad guys. Not a good place to be. However, I will continue to hold out for a healthy recovery. I hate that in Profic the Solo name will die with Han - unless Jaina shares with her future hubby. (Weird.) Long live Solo!

Looks like the ladies got the jump on Jacen. Let's hope it's not their last excursion. Leia and Mara were smart to send someone not emotionally invested to bring him in.

And what's with Ben in the vision? Uncool.

Great update!

 

Finally got around to reading this (just started my new job and it's very tiring).

I enjoyed the Jacen parts a lot, especially his revelations regarding Anakin and Ben. Looking forward to seeing what he does to the Jedi foolish enough to challenge him

 

Magnuskn: So, I just finished Exodus, and still under the impression of the final chapters, a remark upon Anakin: If ol'Palps would have walked out just then when Anakin had just found Tahiri "dead", I think Anakin would have gone his grandfathers way, if old Palpy had convincingly done the "I can save her" spiel.

Hehe. I think Malig is planning a similar pitch for Anakin when he finds his way to the Dark Lord. Though Malig may actually have the ability to save people

That having being said, great work, great writing from you.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it

I loved the numerous allusions to other works of Star Wars, with several choice quotes having being thrown in. It wasn´t as unremittingly dark as I had feared, although really dark enough, because at least the Jedi got off their behinds and *did* something.

Glad to hear it. The Jedi do get their butts kicked on all fronts in it but I'm glad it wasn't depressing.

Also, with Lorra Klorne, we got a fleet commander willing to work with the Jedi. If things pan out as I think, we´ll get some great fleet action, having a Chiss/Remnant/Fourth Fleet/Corellia/who knows who else versus the GA/Raithans. I´ll look forward to see if that happens.

Sounds like a very reasonable possibility if Klorne still hasn't turned in A'Kla...

I am really interested to see how the character arcs play out. Go Jaina/Jag, btw! ^^ Down with Jaina/Wrev.



I'll keep that in mind

All of the characters have long journeys ahead of them.

Looking forward to The Lands of the Dead now, I´ll get back to you after you post the next chapter, until then I´ll read the already posted ones.
*Edit* Aaaand finished the first chapters of TLotD... hey, I didn´t know you´d perfectly anticipate my wants, and give me a big space battle at the *beginning* of the fic. Just missing Pelleaon charging in with guns blazing...

Hehe. Won't be much Pellaeon in this one, but we'll be seeing him again in a big way in fic #4 Glad you liked the space battle.

Hm, funny thing with Artoo, but I hope that gets fixed soon enough... a joke is funny as long as it isn´t beaten to death.

Artoo will be like this throughout the fic, but we won't be "seeing" him talk again if that makes you feel any better. There's a reason why I had him get shot in Exodus and it will probably become evident why as the story wears on.

Maybe in the course of his repair some of those internal holos of the olden times can be rattled free?

I'll get back to you on this when the story is over

I´m guessing that´s the last we´ll see of Octa Ramis and Kirana Ti... you really seem to want to get rid of almost all the "old" generation.

There is a lot of pruning off of the old guard in this series so far. Don't worry though, some youngesters are going to get it before this is over too

And... Yoda? I´m kinda guessing it´s another one of his species, not the old muppet.

I think that's a very good guess. I'll have a definitive answer for you soon.

Otherwise, this fic is really starting off much more "light" than the last one ended, so I´m hopeful that things begin to look up for our heroes. After going through mortal peril, of course.

There are two major storylines in this one. Both are dark I guess, but one has a very happy ending and one does not.

BTW, Mass Effect is a-ok, but holds no candle to KOTOR.

I never thought it would KotoR pwns all!

Thanks so much for reading and replying Glad you're enjoying the new fic.






jagsredlady: *placeholder*
detailed review coming soon

Detailed response to your detailed review coming soon






excellion_razor: Great prolouge. Cant wait to read more.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it

Keep up the great work. Really liked that it started with Thrawn.

 

Okay, caught up with this fic. Still working one the one's before it, of course, but then again if I waited till I'm fully caught up this fic will be finished before I read it.

Loving it so far. Anakin is grief-stricken, guilt-ridden, and seems to have a habit of making people think he's going to kill himself while flying... He's beginning to remind me of his grandfather.

I can't wait to see what the Jedi do to Jacen. Something very painful, I hope.

Could you add me to the PM list, please?

Draco.