Beyond - Legends Redemption- a Jacen Solo Fanfic

Daala is delightfully evil in this scene! It's almost like Gaven's found himself in an electronic version of the Embrace of Pain.
"Tell me, was he ever a true Sith Lord" Well, that really depends on who you ask.

 

Thanks glad you like my take on Daala, yeah Gaven is defenetly in a lot of pain right now.

Defenetly, I don´t think even in his darkes moments Caedus was as evil as most other Sith.


Eleven

Night had gathered around them, and with the darkness outside, darkness had filled Jaina's mind as well.

It had been the second day at the village, the second day were she had tried to fix the communicator, the second day where she had achieved nothing. When she was younger she would have seen it as a challenge, she would have enjoyed working to fix the various technical problems of the old machine, but now all enthusiasm had left her, leaving only worries behind.

During the night Jaina had meditated to find her brother, but his presence had felt distant and wrong, as if Jacen's spirit was not his own anymore. But she had also felt Gaven's and the pain her friend was experiencing. When her spirit has first touched his she had flinched, shocked at her friends suffering.

They are torturing him.

Jaina wondered if the imperials had discovered who Jacen was. If that was the reason they now tortured Gaven to find out why a supposedly dead Sith Lord had come to this world.

Looking up and outside of the small hut that Hayes and his men had given them, Jaina saw the survivors who prepared the village for the night. There could only be a few hundred people left only a small percentage of the planet's population.

Hayes had told them that there were several remote villages like this scattered across the planet but the majority of the population lived in the cities. Cities which were now ruled over by the imperials or only burned ruins haunted by the ghosts of their former inhabitants.

The Eldadians had set up small shrines for them, places of mourning like the one they had seen in the ruined city. But the imperials had found out about their activities and left behind shock mines to capture anyone who tried to pay their respect. Jaina suspected that during their search Jacen, Gaven and Nev had unknowingly activated one, knocking them out and alerting the imperial forces.

From what the survivors had found out in the last two days the captives had been brought into the largest city, Eladan, at the other side of the mountains, a few days away from the village.

Jaina was thankful for their help, but it saddened her how traumatized the locals were. Many of them were young but they all had experienced enough dread for a lifetime. Nearly each of them had lost friends and family members to the imperials, and many had blasterscars from their fights with the garrison forces.

And yet, despite being only armed with old blaster rifles and a few pieces of looted imperial equipment, they fought on against an enemy that not only outnumbered them but also used tanks and star fighters against them.

Jaina admired their bravery. It reminded her of the stories her parents had told her about the rebellion against the empire.

They're only a handful compared to Daala´s forces, outnumbered and outgunned, and yet they fight on.

But was it enough?

She was stranded on a remote world far away from the Galactic Alliance, her brother and two friends had been captured, and all she had were a few dozen scattered survivors and a Jedi apprentice.

How could she even hope to save her friends?

How to prevent Daala from finding out who Jacen was?

She knew if Daala managed to reveal her twin´s survival to the rest of the galaxy, chaos would break out. The Jedi --her family-- would lose all credibility while Daala would be proven as having been right all along.

Jaina shivered at this thought. She had always known that keeping Jacen alive and in secret was creating risks, but she had accepted it as a small price for her brother's life. But now, if they couldn´t save him, Jacen could become a weapon in Daala´s war against the Jedi. And how much hope was there for them to save Jacen?

As a Solo, Jaina disliked thinking about the odds but she knew that here they weren´t in her favor.

There is a way to even the odds, to overcome Daala´s armies and to save Jacen. A voice whispered in the back of her head, a voice that had grown stronger with every hour they had spent in this village. Jaina looked down to the weapon that still stuck in her belt.

The Dagger of Mortis was a weapon of immense power. Even now Jaina felt the power that rested in the blade. It was a weapon of gods made to be used in wars between beings much more powerful than any enemy Jaina had ever faced.

If she would take the weapon she would gain its might. Jaina knew, she would become stronger than any other Jedi, a invincible warrior goddess, defeating all enemies.

And wasn´t that her fate? Her body felt electrified as she thought about it and she began to shiver as the thought of all the power she could gain crossed her mind.

She was the Sword of the Jedi, destined to fight the enemies of the order and protect those who suffered. If she would just take the dagger she would have the power to protect the people of Eladus and her brother from the imperials. And all she needed to do was to take the dagger and use its power. Slowly her right hand moved closer to the hilt of the weapon, still hesitant but her resistance against the urge became weaker and weaker.

"You are thinking about using the dagger?" A voice called Jaina out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Leah standing in front of her.

Jaina nodded slowly as her friend sat down next to her.

"I thought about it as well," the apprentice admitted. "Yesterday when you were meditating to find Jacen and the others."

So the dagger was not only trying to influence her mind but Leah´s as well Jaina realized. For a moment she shivered as she once again thought back to the moment on Mortis when the dagger had tempted all of them with its power. It was only now that she realized that her hand was clutched around the daggers hilt as if to pull it from her belt. Shocked how close she had come Jaina pulled her hand back.

For a brief moment she asked herself if this was what Jacen had felt during his fall to the dark side, when visions of war and death had tormented him. Had he also felt the dark side was a weapon he could use to protect the people he loved? Had he thought becoming Darth Caedus was the right thing?

Jaina knew the answer to this was yes. It had been her brother's desire to protect the people he cared about that had driven him into the darkness. I can´t let that happen to me, Jaina thought. When I take the dagger it will change me as well, corrupt me with its influence.

"We can´t use it," she said quietly. "The dagger has too much power for any of us. It would corrupt the wielder and turn them into monsters."

Next to her Leah nodded slowly and Jaina saw the worries in her face, the same worries she had felt during the last days.

"We will save them," she assured the apprentice and tried to keep her voice confident.

Leah looked up to her. "I´ve talked to Hayes today and we had an idea. He and some of his men know the layout of Eladan quite well as they lived there before the imperials came. Maybe we could try to use their knowledge to infiltrate the city and find an imperial communicator to call for help."

Jaina thought about it for a moment. She knew that her and Leah´s Jedi skills would be pretty helpful to avoid imperial patrols and security.

Maybe that, in combination with the local's knowledge of the environment, would be enough to get inside the imperial HQ and send a message to the Galactic Alliance and save my brother from Daala until it's too late.

 

Interesting that both Jaina and Leah had the strength to avoid using the dagger..even though they both wanted to.

Nice chapter.

 

I think their determination not to use the dagger comes from them being close to Jacen who is the living breathing example of what happens when you try to use evil powers for good ends.
Thanks for your comment.

Twelve

Twenty-five steps.

Again the count was the same. Twenty-five steps from the elevator to her cell. Whoever her guards were, if it wasn´t just one person alone, they moved with the precision of professional soldiers. Nev wasn´t sure how long they now was imprisoned here but she guessed it around a week, judging by the number of meals she had received from her captors.

If one could even call these army rations a meal. Nev had asked herself how the imperials had managed to rule the galaxy for decades while eating what tasted like dirt mixed with water. In the Teris sector we treat the animals better than this.

But as bad as the rations had been they hadn´t broken her determination the slightest. Since she had woken up in her cell Nev had did her best to find out as much as possible about this place and prepare her escape.

The cell she was kept in likely hadn´t been build with the purpose of keeping a prisoner but rather seemed like an old storage room that had been emptied to make room for a small plank bed and a washing niche. The door was a standard durasteel construction though the locks had been reinforced and couldn´t easily broken.

Outside, along the corridor, the steps of the guard had told Nev, that there existed several other cells that were currently used as well. Nev wondered who her fellow captives might be and if they could be possible allies in her breakout. She was pretty sure that it was neither Gaven nor Jacen as the two Jedi could likely easily escape a cell as primitive as this using the force.

No her friends where almost certainly kept somewhere else at a different place and under stricter guard. These precautions told her that their captors, whoever they were likely had figured out who both Jacen and Gaven were, or had at least identified them as Jedi.

This was troubling as the knowledge of Jacen´s survival could create turmoil across the entire galaxy.

For Nev it was often hard to see the Jacen who was her friend, with the monster the rest of the galaxy considered him as.

If I had meet him before any of this, could we still have become friends?

Gaven had admitted that he sometimes wondered the same things, if he had been able to safe his friend from the darkness or instead had followed him to the dark side.

But Nev knew too little about the force to have an answer for any of them. For a brief moment she asked herself how it would be to have a connection with the force. On Mortis she had felt its presences as well, but only at the back of her head, something she couldn´t understand or explore further, something she never would have a connection with.

There were times she wished she had these powers too. As a child she had dreamed of being a Jedi, and these days she sometimes felt distant to the people surrounding her for not sharing the invisible bond with the force and each other that they did. But she hadn´t, and there was no point in wondering what could have been, especially not now.

Though a connection to the force would undoubtedly help with this door, she thought while staring at the ceiling.

When she wasn´t using the small space to work out, Nev had spent her time lying on the small bed staring at the ceiling, working on her plan. Her guards had removed her weapons as well as her light armor pieces but otherwise left her alone.

Judging by their total disinterest in her it seemed they thought her unimportant, just a random mercenary or bounty hunter, no one important, a belief Nev was planning to make them regret.

In her time fighting pirates and slavers in the Teris sector she had gathered quite a bit of skills in how to break in and out of prisons, skills that would come in handy now.

The security of this place wasn´t very good but she suspected there were at least two major obstacles on the way out: Her prison door and the elevator. From what she could guess Nev suspected the prison was located beneath the earth on a cellar level and the elevator was likely the only way up there.

It was likely that the elevator would require a key cylinder like the one the guard had. Without that key she would be trapped down here even if she managed to break out of her cell. This meant she had to take the guard out unarmed, which wouldn´t be easy.

In the brief times he opened the cells door to shove the food inside he always had his blaster pointed at her with the other hand. Nev had a plan to get the drop on him but she also knew that even if she took him out and freed the other prisoners, had little to now chance to stay free for long.

If the convoy of vehicles they had seen before being knocked out was any indication, they were held captive by at least a small army, too many to take on, even if she managed to find Jacen and Gaven.

Maybe Jaina and Leah could aid them but when would they be able to do something?

Did they even knew where their friends had been brought?

How far away where they in this moment?

For all Nev knew, they could be on a completely different planet by now.

Sitting up on her bed, Nev was frustrated and unsure how to continue.

Should she take the risk of fleeing at the next possible opportunity? Or wait in hopes that something would happen to give her a better chance?

After sitting there for what seemed hours, her thoughts wandered off to her friends and the dangers she had experienced since she had met Gaven and Jacen in front of her house on Darvin. It was only a year since then but it felt to her like an eternity, so much had her life changed since then.

She had befriended a former Sith Lord, met a surviving Jedi master, finally been able to admit her feelings for Gaven, fought deadly mercenaries and adopted an orphaned girl as her daughter. She had traveled to the core and caused the ire of the entire Hapan court, only to later travel to Mortis itself and survive its twisted horrors.

If she thought about these things she almost couldn´t believe them herself. But it had happened to her and now she was here and a bitter smile appeared on her face. She had fought side by side with Jacen and Jaina Solo and faced the dark side of the force itself, and now a simple door and one guard were blocking her way.

coming...

Nev looked up. Certainly someone had spoken to her, nothing but a whisper, but hadn´t it been Jaina´s voice?

Tonight... be ready...

No, she thought. There was no voice. It must have come from inside her mind, like a random thought at the edge of her consciousness.

Had it been Jaina?

Or just a fragment of her own mind?

Nev knew Jedi could try to influence someone´s mind but she had never experienced it herself. Though this message, if it was one, was probably the best she would get.

Having lost any sense of time she wasn´t sure how long it was until nightfall, but her assumptions where correct the guard would come down in a few hours for the evening meal.

She had to be ready until then, ready to escape and aid her friends.

 

I like how Nev is not giving up hope here, and in fact she continues to use her wits to figure out how to get the best of this situation. Now she finally has a chance to get out of there! It will be great for her to reunite with Jaina!

 

Defenetly, she has been in difficult situations before in her life and her experience and wits will help her get out of this one as well. Thanks for your comment, really apprechiate it.


Thirteen

When Jacen awoke the following morning he was worried for a moment, worried that the happiness he had felt at the last evening had somehow disappeared, that for some reason everything would turn out to just have been a dream, nothing more.

For a moment he kept his eyes shut, fearful to open them, yet he couldn´t say what caused him such fear. Slowly he opened his right eye but the light shining at him caused him to close it again. Sitting up, he felt the soft mattress beneath him, felt the bed sheets fall off his upper body as he got up. Opening his eyes again he blinked a few times to get them used to the brightness surrounding him, but then he recognized his surroundings and let out a sigh of relief.

He knew this room, he knew it very well. The quarters of the Hapan Queen where still as he remembered it.

A small smile appeared on his face when he once again recognized how different this place was from the rest of the palace. Here where Tenel Ka didn´t have to be the queen of Hapes there was no luxury, nothing of the vanities of the Hapan nobility his friend so despised. Her quarters were set up more simply with the few pieces of interests being reminiscent of Tenel Ka´s Dathomirian heritage.

As his eyes wandered around the room Jacen recognized a collection of spears like the ones used by the witches of Dathomir; primitive weapons but Jacen knew that Tenel Ka was as deadly with them as with her lightsaber. Next to them he saw a banner of the Singing Mountain Clan, her mother's family.

For a moment he rested his view on Tenel ka´s collected belongings while he tried to gather up courage to look at the person beside him.

When he turned his head he, for a moment expected --and feared-- that she wouldn´t be there, that at least this part of the following evening had been nothing but a dream. But she was there, her red hair falling over her pillow, still sleeping, and like him, wearing a ring at her finger. So it hadn´t been a dream, nothing of it, they were married now and he was a prince.

He knew this was everything he had ever dreamed of, to be together with Tenel Ka, to marry her so he could finally be able to stay with her instead of meeting her in secret, so Allana could be his daughter, not the supposed child of another man.

Now they could truly be a family. It was the fulfillment of his dearest dream, the thing he had wished for more than anything else in this universe. He deserved this he knew, he deserved that after all the pain and suffering he had gone through. He deserved this happiness, of being married to the woman he loved.

Jacen knew he would never leave her side again, that they would stay together for the rest of their lives and even beyond that.

"So this is your way of atoning?" a voice as cold as space called to him. Jacen turned around.

His heart beginning to race. Mara was standing in the doorway, wearing her Jedi outfit again, not the gown she had worn last night.

"Mara, what? What are you doing here?"

"I´m seeing you break the promise you made to me."

For a brief moment he saw a himself and Mara in a dark cave arguing, he remembered how, in the end, he had turned his lightsaber towards his own chest. Jacen saw the anger in Mara´s eyes as she walked closer to him.

"Is it this what´s behind your promises? That you hide here and pretend your past doesn´t exist anymore? That you imagine I´m still alive so you don´t have to deal with what you have done anymore?"

Each of her words cut into Jacen like a knife and his entire body began to hurt as the memories returned to him.

He cut off Tenel Ka´s arm, he criticized his brother shortly before his death, he send Ganner to die for him, he murdered Nelani, he poisoned Mara, he bombed entire planets, he broke Isolder 's neck.

For a moment Jacen relived each of these memories and watched helplessly as he committed atrocities. He pain was overwhelming but with it his own will awoke.

"What.. what is going on here? What is happening to me?" he asked Mara as his surroundings became more and more surreal.

A storm had begun outside and the walls felt as if they were closing in on them.

"You´ve been drugged," Mara told him, now a bit friendlier. "They´ve given you a drug that has you hallucinate your dearest desires."

The pain grew as Jacen tried to understand what Mara had just told him.

"Jacen!" Tenel Ka´s voice had him turn around again and he realized she had woken up. "Don´t listen to her, she is the one who is not real. It´s a trick, you are a good man, you could have never committed these crimes, that´s a fact."

"Is it this what you want Jacen?" Mara replied to Tenel Ka´s plea by addressing him again. "A fake life where everything went well? A lie you can stay in for the rest of your life, pretending to be happy? Do you want to render my death meaningless? All the others that died?"

For a second, that felt like it lasted for an hour, Jacen closed his eyes, shutting out both the storm and the two women next to him. There was nothing but he himself left, when he asked himself what he truly wanted. This world seemed perfect, and he felt that if he stayed here his life would be as well. There would be no suffering.

And yet...

He couldn´t let that happen, despite the pain it caused him he knew that Mara was right: He had made terrible mistakes in his life but if he hid here nothing would ever get better.

"You know that there is nothing but pain and suffering waiting for you there?"

Tenel Ka´s voice had changed as had her demeanor. She wasn´t she woman he loved anymore. But she was just a part of his mind, a selfish and cowardly part.

"You will always be an outcast for what you have done. You will never get your old life back, never be loved like you have been," Tenel Ka´s image threatened him.

"And yet, it's what you need to do," Mara told him her voice stern but encouraging. "The Jacen I forgave wouldn´t spent his time desiring a life he can´t have, but do what he could to do good, to atone."

Jacen knew she was right. He had promised it to her, to Gaven, to Jaina and to himself. Again pain floated through his body as the world around him began to fade away, Tenel Ka, the bed, the room, the storm outside disappeared, leaving only Mara at his side.

He looked up to his aunt and tears filled his eyes, "I´m sorry," was all he could say. Mara gave him a weak smile as she herself began to fade away into the darkness and Jacen awoke.

 

Ooof...talk about a depressing dream, even if it was drug-induced.

It would be easier, I think, than living a life where:

It is not possible to simply 'atone' for the rest of his life...ask Kyp. At some point society has either forgive him or execute him.

Thanks for the update...sorry for the delayed reply!

 

Great new chapter! Mara has become his muse and his conscience. Ironically, by killing her, he has made her immortal in his mind. She will haunt him forever.

It's so tempting to just slide into that comfortable life. But it isn't real, and the falseness of it will show through. He has to face what he's done. He has to live with the truth of his actions.

 

Defenetly, though I think the depressive elements where Jacen´s own will fighting against his drugg caused happyness.

It´s easier, just as takeing the dark side of the force over the light, or not trying to verfiy a weird vision one recieves.

Thing with Kyp though is that he was posessed so while there is certianly a certian amount of responsibility most of the crimes weren´t really his doing, unlike Jacen. Also will say really disliked Kyps "redemption" and how it mainly consisted of him and his friends going around murdering non violent criminals who only a few years ago had been allies of the Jedi order for sport.
Glad you liked it

Yeah Mara´s death defenetly had the largest impact on his mind and her forgivenss kinda what really set him onto the road of healing, but that forgiveness if of course tied to his promise to atone.

Exactly, its the easy way out. But he has done these things, he can´t run away from them, not if he truly wants to heal and find redemption.



Fourteen

When the door of her cell opened, the imperial as always pointed his blaster at her, or to be more precise, he tried to.

In the previous hours Nev had used her time to test out the electronics of her cell to see if she could find any weaknesses. The door had an electronic lock that had once been usable from both sides, another clue that this place hadn´t been conceived as a real prison and was instead little more than a repurposed cellar. Each time she had tried to access the lock from her side her access had been denied as was expected, but nearly thirty years of fighting slavers had taught her everything about how to use this to her advantage.

Especially how constant attempts to access the door would lead to a nasty surprise for anyone opening it. The overloaded energy of the lock hit the imperial in the same second the door opened.

Which caused him to lower his blaster in shock and surprise. That moment was all Nev needed as she threw the tray her previous meal had been on in his face before tackling him. Grabbing quickly below the edge of his helmet, she tore it off while using the other hand to secure the blaster.

She was surprised how young the soldier was, clearly only a few months into adulthood. Seems these guys are running out of manpower. She saw the fear in his eyes as she pointed his own blaster against his skull.

"How long do we have until they notice something is up?" Nev asked him directly.

"What?" the young man replied, clearly beginning to panic.

"How long until they miss you?" Nev asked pressing the blaster directly against his skull.

"I... I don´t know, a few minutes maybe."

"How many soldiers are in this base?" Nev continued her interrogation.

"A...a few hundred, most are in orbit with the fleet."

At least something, Nev though before continuing. "I´m looking for two other prisoners. A man a bit younger than me, brown hair and eyes. Another a bit older, pitch black hair, several scars."

The young man said nothing for a moment, whimpering in fear. "Don´t know that, if they are not here, heard they brought another prisoner to interrogation, but that was days ago."

For a moment nothing but pure rage overcame Nev at the thoughts of her friends being tortured for days. For a moment she wanted nothing more than just pull the trigger and get at least a bit of Vengeance. But she stopped and controlled herself, she couldn´t let this boy pay for what others were doing.

"The other prisoners here?" she gestured to the other cells, "who are they?"

"Locals..." the young soldier said, apparently glad to be able to answer. "They resisted our rule, we imprisoned them to get some information on the others hiding in the wilderness."

Nev gave him a grin, so there was resistance out there, if they were lucky Jaina and Leah might had already met them.

"Please don´t kill me," the young man begged her, "I never wanted any of this, she forced us to fight for her!"

"Who forced you?" Nev asked, even though it mattered little to her, she had already made her decision on the young man's life.

"Admiral Daala, she and he cradle of fanatics have gone completely mad."

Daala, Nev had heard the name before, she was the former head of state of the GA who had fled with some imperials loyal to her and was now considered missing.

"How do I get from here to the interrogation room?" she asked and the young soldier explained it to her.

"I hope you said the truth," Nev said darkly.

"I did, please just don´t kill me," the soldier replied. Nev switched her blaster on stun, "don´t worry, I´m not killing children who are way in over their head. But I need your clothes."

With that she stunned him.


When she opened the first cell door next to her own she was greeted by looks of utter hatred that soon turned confused.

Three teenagers were locked into the cell, all three of them looked starved and tired, but they all were confused at Nev who was now wearing the badly fitting imperial uniform and armor but no helmet and gave them a smile.

After she had tied up the young soldier and locked him into her own cell she had decided that now was the time to approach the other prisoners.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the teenagers finally found the courage to ask.

"You can call me Nev and I took care of our imperial friend," she assumed that the prisoners already knew that. The confrontation outside had surely been loud enough for them to get the gist of.

The three carefully stepped outside the cell.

"So I assume you are locals?" She asked, and they nodded slowly.

"I have some friends on this world as well, who knows maybe they have met yours by now, and they are coming to help us." She opened the next cell door, this time she found an old man and a middle aged woman in it.

Opening cell after cell, Nev had soon freed around twenty people while telling them about what she knew and what was going on.

"I´m not expecting any of you to help me, if my friends act like the usually do this base will be in complete chaos soon enough, should give you the opportunity to sneak away. The strangers stared at her, with both a mixture of confusion and thankfulness.

Then the old man took a step forward. "You freed us, I will help you."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Okay," Nev said a bit surprised. "Though I warn you, I will go right up to the interrogation room and get two of my friends back. From what I gathered there are at least two control posts between us and that place, could be rough."

"Life has been rough to all of us since the imperials came," a woman about Nev´s age said. "If we can help you fight them we will."

"Thank you," Nev said with a smile and wondered if that was how Gaven had felt all those times when she and the other Terian´s had chosen to fight with him against impossible odds.

"With my imperial armor I can maybe cause some brief moments of confusion to give us some time." She began to explain as she stepped closer to the elevator. "Many of the imperials here are conscripts so they should be inexperienced and easily surprised...."

Then out of a sudden thought she added, "most of them are forced to be here against their will, try to avoid unnecessary killing. I know the empire did terrible things to your world, but save your wrath for the commanders who deserve it."

 

Ha! Yep, that pretty much sums up Jaina's modus operandi! When in doubt, blow something up. Nev was fun to read in this chapter!

 

It looks like Nev has started creating her own army! These people have no loyalty to Daala and would in fact be very happy to act against her.

I love that part. Nev gets it. The conscripts were forced to fight, the commanders used them against their own people. I love how she makes sure that the others understand that.

Great update!

 

Yeah, Jaina never had the most subtle approach. Glad you like it!

Thanks
Yeah Nev defenetly understands the situation, traveling with Jacen has taught her that saving/sparing a life is always better if given the choice.

Also appologies for takeing so long to continue this story, got distracted, repeatetly.


Fifteen

The pain was gone, at least most of it but Jacen awoke with a headache as if two planets had collided in his brain. His was lying on a bed, again, but this time it wasn't comfortable but rather a bleak metal construction.

"What is going on here?"

He heard a voice, female, calling near to him.

"He is waking up," another voice, this one male, on the other side of his bed.

"This is impossible, the drug, he should be knocked out for hours with that dose."

Sitting up Jacen felt an intravenous needle in his real arm. Gripping it with his prosthetic he tore it out and the fog in his brain began to fade a bit. He noticed that he wasn't wearing his old clothes, but a light hospital shirt, his weapons were gone as well. That didn't surprise him, he had been a captive, sedated to keep him harmless for a Jedi was never truly disarmed as long as he had the Force. Jumping down from the bed onto his own two feet Jacen quickly oriented himself, the room he was in was small, made out a bleak metal similar to the bed. It seemed to him like a weird combination of a medical laboratory and a prison cell, and he wasn't alone. The humans stared at him, the owners of the voices he had heard while waking up, both wearing white lab coats over black Imperial style jumpsuits. Both where shaking and Jacen's returning Force senses allowed him to feel their fear. The woman broke from her trance a few seconds earlier, pulling out a small handblaster and pointing it at him.

"Put your hands up and..." Reacting quickly Jacen pulled the blaster from her hand and aimed it at her colleague who was just pulling his own blaster from the holster.

"Don't even think about it." He gestured the young man to throw the weapon aside, before ordering the two to step closer towards each other so he could keep both of them in sight.

"Where are we here?" Was the first question he asked, beginning his interrogation.

It took him quite a while as both of his captives were so terrified of him they had trouble giving him clear answers and only opened up after a while they finally began to realize that he wouldn't kill them once they had told him everything. What he learned didn't help much to raise Jacen's spirits or to weaken the worry for his friends. This world was called Eladus and had been taken over by Daala's forces only a few months ago. While the former head of state still had a hard core of loyal subordinates a considerable number of her forces where made up from conscripted militia forces who had little love for their new leader. The same seemed to apply to his two captives who had both been medical students until press ganged into Daala's force. Their low rank though also meant they could only give him little useful information. Daala apparently had a force of a couple hundred soldiers here at her base as well as several forces out chasing the local resistance or being stationed in orbit. Jacen wondered what Daala was doing here, the recruitment of additional forces and brutal takeover suggested that she planned on more than to simply hide but of course she would never be able to create a considerable fighting force in these parts of the galaxy. His captives also were unsure on what had happened to Gaven and Nev but at least where able to direct him towards the cell block. Two things relieved him, first the fact that only three captives had been taken, which meant that Jaina and Leah where still out there and the fact that his captives did not recognize him, they believed him to be just an agent of the Jedi order not the thought to be dead Sith Lord that he was. So at least the conscripts don't know, maybe there is still a chance we can prevent the secret from spreading out. But that was something he could worry about later, now he needed to find Gaven and Nev.

When he left the room he had been held in Jacen's heart began to race. The black Imperial jumpsuit and the fact that most of Daala's forces were made up of fresh recruits, who didn't know each other, would hopefully allow him to avoid any conflicts but the risk was there. He was just one man armed with nothing but the Force and a weak handblaster. After the interrogation he had knocked out both of his captives with the Force and tied them up just to be sure. They had told him it was still a few hours until the next shift would arrive and thus he hoped his escape would remain unnoticed at least for a while. As he made his way through the corridors of the base Jacen couldn't help but remember the stories his father had always told him about how they had once infiltrated the Death Star disguised as imperial to rescue his mother. Once again pain threatened to overcome him as his thoughts lingered on his parents. The last time he had seen them hadn't been as bad as the first two times they had visited him in his cell but he knew it would never be as it had been, they would never consider him their son again, and they were right with that. Reminded of Jaina's advice though, Jacen pulled his thoughts away from his parents and the pain those memories brought him. Outside of the building the sun was setting and darkness began to cover the streets and buildings he saw outside. This city had been build similarly like the ruined one he they had been captured in, simple colonial style buildings. Whatever this building has been in the past, it probably wasn't a military structure. There were no checkpoints, armored doors or even security cameras. The only real risk where the soldiers patrolling in the corridors but Jacen found it easy enough to pass by them, just acting as if he was busy on an assignment. If one of the soldiers showed a bit too much interest Jacen quietly used the Force to distract their minds. In another life he knew he would have taken each of them down, used his Force powers to break their bones or shoot lighting into them. He wouldn't have taken the risk of leaving enemies alive in his rear. But now things were different and every needless death he prevented was one less soul added to the thousands that already rested upon his conscience. When Jacen came closer to the cells he felt a group of beings ahead, serious, ready for a fight. So this was it, like his fathers infiltration so many years before his own would now descend into violence with the prison guards. Ad he came closer he noticed one of the auras and his heart became a bit lighter. For a brief moment he closed his eyes and touched her mind with his, it's me.

When he entered the room a few weapons where raised but Nev quickly said, "He is on our side. Seems I was not the only one who broke free on her own."

She approached Jacen with a smile and two friends shared a hug. "Good to see you," she whispered.

"You too, was going to rescue you, but it seems you are already one step further." Jacen replied. Looking around the room he saw a around twenty people, most of them in a tattered prisoner garb, some armed with blasters, others having picked up simple metal rods. At their feet he saw a few unconscious figures the outer prison guards they had taken down.

"A few hours ago, someone touched my mind like you just did," Nev told him, skipping any further pleasantries and going straight to the point.

"Think it was Jaina, something about them coming here, not sure where Gaven is. The soldier I interrogated said he was brought to questioning days ago. Can you use the Force to find him?"

Jacen nodded slowly, closing his eyes he reached out in the Force, further than before. He could feel the soldiers in the base, the nervousness of the recruits but also the stoic calmness of several veterans. When he reached further he noticed something, below their feet, his sister was somewhere down there. Jacen briefly touched her mind before continuing his search for Gaven. When he found his friend, several level above them near the top of the building his heart began to race and he awoke from his trance. "Jaina isn't far from us, but below. I suspect she might try to get into the city via the sewers. There were others with her as well, Leia and several more. But Gaven, he isn't doing well, they must have tortured him for days. His aura, it... it feels as if he is dying."

 

Love the understatement here!

Jacen recovers pretty quickly....I'd have expected him to be kinda groggy for a bit. Thanks for the new chapter!

 

Nev has always been sarcastic I guess.

I suspect a strong connection with the force has its benefits in a situation like that. Thanks for commenting.


Sixteen

The stench was terrible, yet compared to what she had been through in her life it was probably not even in Jaina's top ten worst stenches.

"Is this truly the only way?" Leah asked crawling at the end of their group.

"The only one I think could have at least some chance of success," Firmus Hayes replied from the top of their group. It was probably right, Jaina had to admit. In the last two days they had done their best to spy on the city of Eladan, to see if maybe just maybe they could locate a way inside. Had discussed several options but in the end the sewers where the only ones left with any hopes of success of getting into the inner parts of town. The Imperials had put the center of Eladan under a lockdown, only they were allowed to enter. It was here that their friends had likely been brought, and possibly even more importantly where they could get access to a decent sector wide communication relay. If Hayes assessment of the Imperial forces was correct they would need help and Jaina could only hope that her uncle and the others Jedi where looking for them and thus not too far. There were a lot of ifs to this plan but that was hardly a new thing for Jaina Solo. As they crawled deeper into darkness as the dagger of Mortis once again touched her mind, the temptation that had lessened in the activity of the last two days returning to her. It was a risk to take the weapon with her she knew, if they failed it could fall into Daala's hands. Given how little Nev had reacted to it, it might be nothing but a useless piece of metal and bone to Imperial but who knew? Jaina knew she could have left the dagger behind in the village, but... something had prevented her from doing so. Maybe it was just worry one of the people there could take it, that the weapon could cause a lot of trouble, maybe she wanted it at her side just in case they did need it... or maybe.... its influencing my mind, trying to stay close to me. Maybe the dagger was trying latch itself onto a strong force user, and there were few force users in this galaxy stronger than her family. Maybe it wouldn't matter in the end anyway, maybe she had to use it, what others hopes might there be. A dozen badly armed teenagers, a Jedi padawan and herself, hardly a force to take on hundreds of soldiers, not to mention Daala's fleet in orbit. Jaina had an idea that could help them even the odds but could only hope her plan was even possible.

"How far still?" Someone asked behind them, one of Hayes friends.

"Not too far, I think we have passed the outer ring of defenses by now." Hayes replied from the top of their group.

"Are you sure the Imperials haven't secured this shaft?" Leah once again asked them.

"We can´t be sure of anything when it comes to this." Hayes responded. "But usually the air down here would not be breathable for humans, with the toxic gasses in the sewage. One would need breathing equipment... or the skills of a Jedi it seems." Jaina allowed herself a little smile, they had actually found some old retreaters in the village, once used by divers in the nearby lakes and with her technical skill she had been able get a dozen of them to work for Hayes and a his men. While she and Leah where able to use the Force to breathe in this toxic air, at least for a time. Jaina felt pain in her heart when she remembered the last time she had used this skill. Against a gas attack from the Galactic Alliance Guard, not too long before her and Jacen's final duel. Fighting down the memories of the war as good as she could, she found some solace in the irony that this time she was on her way to save her brother instead of trying to kill him. She felt some pride in how quickly Leah had managed to learn this skill, maybe the stay on Mortis had strengthened Gaven's padawans' connection to the Force quite a bit.

"I think we are there," Hayes told them from his position ahead. Jaina nodded and to check she placed her hand on the ceiling of the tunnel, closing her eyes and reaching out in the force. Above them was about a meter of concrete, then a room, with two people working inside, both tired.

"Seems to be," she responded. They had long discussed where exactly they would leave the shaft, Leah and Jaina had suggested freeing the prisoners first but in the end Hayes argument that securing the communications was the key to success had won out. If they freed the prisoners first Daala would win time to call in her fleet for aid, they need to blind their enemies first.

"Ready?" Jaina asked and the people around her nodded. Taking a deep breath she quickly touched Leah's mind to reassure her. Then she ignited her lightsaber, cutting a circular hole the ceiling, using a Force push to throw the cut out piece inside the room she followed it. The two technicians reacted far too slowly and Jaina had both them knocked out without even using her sword as Hayes began to climb inside the room after her. His predictions where correct, this seemed to be truly the communications center. As the other Rebels climbed into the room Jaina had already taken a seat in front of the main console. It was secured but she hadn't expected anything else. Her hands flew over the controls as she tried to remind everything Lowie had taught her about hacking. So far luck seemed to be with them as the console was only moderately locked. "We are in," she told the others. Hayes men had secured the exits as well as the two technicians, while Leah knelt on the floor, her eyes closed, meditating, trying to reach out to Jacen and Gaven's spirits. Meanwhile Jaina had send out a simple message into the sector, anyone not initiated would simply believe it to be a routine check of the communications, but a Jedi would recognize the hidden code in it. The next minutes where filled with silent excitement, a quiet hope that someone was out there to pick their message up. Then they were released as someone was making contact. "Yes?" Jaina asked, her voice trembling.

"Jaina?" her Uncle's voice asked and Jaina breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, it's me." she told Luke, trying her vest to keep clam.

"Are you okay?"

"I am, Leah is with me but, the others they have been captured. Met our old friend Daala down here." she said quickly.

"Daala? And Jacen are you sure he hasn't..." Luke said but Jaina cut him off before he could continue.

"No, he is on our side, but they did something to him." She rolled her eyes, she understood her Uncle's mistrust of her brother but if Jacen was still a Sith he would have plenty of opportunities to betray them by now.

"Do you have a plan? We only have a few ships in the sector." Luke asked.

"I do," Jaina responded. "We have some friends on this world. I will send Daala's fleet fake orders to send them one wild Veermok chase over the sector, while our friends will stage an uprising here on world. If you aid us, we should be able to take down Daala before her forces return."

"Sounds good, I gave your coordinates to our Captain. If we jump now we can be at your position in two hours at max."

"Understood." Jaina said. "This is our chance to get Daala once and for all."

"It is," her Uncle agreed before asking, "do you have it?"

Jaina smiled, "yes, I've got the dagger. And one hell of a story to tell when we see each other again."

 

Ah, the perks of being a Jedi: seeing the galaxy, learning new things, having a top-ten list of horrible smells.....

It's interesting that the dagger seems to have some sort of consciousness.

 

Wow
I read everything in one go, it's so good
I love how you deal with everyone's trauma, the anger of some, Jacen's redemption, it's a much better job than some writers hired by Del Rey have done
I can't wait for the next chapter

 

Best job in the galaxy they tell ya... Really think a Jedi, especially someone as far travled as Jaina probably has something like that.

That was my intention, kinda imagine it a bit like the One Ring, in that there is a constant temptation.

Glad to hear you enjoy it, story is, sadly moving rather slowly but I´ll try my best to get it finished this year. Thanks for commenting.




Seventeen

"And you feel Leah in this direction?" Nev asked Jacen as they made their way through the corridor. They had left the other freed prisoners behind to guard the cell block and the captives there and headed out after Leah's mind had touched Jacen's.

"Yeah, Jaina is with her, and a few others, I suspect the two of them made a few new friends as well," he replied, before suddenly grabbing Nev's arm and pressing her, and himself into a corner.

Their eyes met for a second and Jacen's mouth formed a silent word 'patrol'. A few soldiers came down the hallway ahead, slowly walking like men who's shift had just ended and who now only longed for something to eat and the comfort of their beds. It made them less perceptive and thus allowed Jacen to influence their minds, to make them not realize the two humans cowering in the corner when they passed them.

"Nice trick," Nev whispered after the patrol had passed them.

"Thanks," Jacen said with a smile.

After nearly dying at Jainas blade his connection with the force had been nearly completely severed, during their adventures in the last year it had begun to slowly heal, but in many ways it had been the trip to Mortis that had rebuild the connection, now it seemed to him as if he was getting stronger again with every hour that passed. The Force returned to him, almost as if it had never been away, he was not yet as strong as he had been during his best years after the Vong war but his connection, his almost natural affinity was back and it made him wonder how he had ever been able to live the last five years with barely a crippled connection. I'm healing, he knew in the past he would have tried to block the process and instead continue torturing himself, but now accepted it, even embraced it.

Just as he had begun to slowly accept himself again.

"What about Gaven?" Nev asked him as they continued their way.

"He feels weak," Jacen said, "they must have tortured him."

"Then we must get to him, now." Nev demanded but Jacen sadly shook his head. "There are several guards close to him, Veterans not the untrained kids down here. Best we link up with Leah and Jaina first so we have a chance at winning."

Nev nodded slowly and Jacen felt she was unhappy with this decision but had accepted it.

"Jacen!"

A voice tore him out of his thoughts and as he looked up a smile appeared on his face as he saw who had found them. The Solo Twins embraced each other in a tight hug for a moment, while Leah and Nev did the same.

"Good to see you," he told Jaina after they let go.

"Likewise, felt you and Nev where heading towards our position so we decided to met you half way, but we need to hurry, Gaven he..."

"I know," Jacen said. "He needs our help."

He noticed several other humans behind Jaina, but decided now was not the time for long introductions.

As they made their way through the corridors the siblings quickly told each other what had happened since they had split up above the ruined city. Seeing that other people on the planet where preparing to fight as well gave Jacen some hope, as did the news that his uncle was only about an hour away from them. It aided them that the building wasn't constructed for military uses, for it had no fortified doors or checkpoints. One of Jaina's new friends who had worked here before the Imperials had come was even able to show them a few shortcuts and servant corridors that the Imperials seemed to largely ignore.

"This truly isn't a large operation," Jacen mused as they got closer to Gaven. "Many soldiers are conscripts from this world or other similar ones in the region, either Daala is growing desperate or she doesn't intend staying here for long."

"I suspect the later," Jaina said, "there was quite a bit of communication between here and places in the galaxy, Daala might try to contact some old allies to retake power."

"You think she told them..." Jacen left the question unsaid because they both knew what he meant.

"Not sure, Luke said that your survival hasn't been leaked anywhere and a message like that would have made the news." This at least relived Jacen a bit as he once again considered the damage the knowledge of his survival could cause to the galaxy, the Jedi and his family.

"Can you access the Imperial communication now?" Jacen asked his sister a bit later.

Jaina nodded, "we left some of our number behind at the com center, when we are ready they will rally the people to fight Daala."

"Maybe we could also try to get the soldiers to surrender," Jacen suggested. "The diehards will likely not respond but it could impact the conscripts."

"Good idea," Jaina nodded at her brothers suggestion. "Send Daala´s fleet to the other side of the sector, they won't be back for twenty four hours at least."

"Then we can do more than just escape from here," Firmus Hayes suggested, "then we can drive the Imperials off our world." They continued to discuss their plan until they arrived at the third level of the building, where Gaven was held. "Our advantage of surprise will likely end here," Jaina said and the others nodded.

"Soon every Imperial on the planet will know what´s going on."

"If fighting starts, you better take this," Leah handed Jacen her lightsaber, the blade he had used on Asterian before passing it to her.

"You are better with it then I am." Jacen gave the young woman a thankful nod. "Then let's do this," Nev told Jaina who quickly opened her comlink and told the fighters at the com relay to begin spreading their messages over every channel.

The soldiers guarding the room where Gaven was held where veterans, Stormtroopers who had served under Daala for several years at least, and they had several desks and pillars to use as cover. Against any normal foe they would have been a tough enemy to overcome. But with their twin bond restored Jacen and Jaina Solo where no ordinary foe, entering the room side by side they easily deflected the blaster fire send against them. Quickly moving forwards while using the force to push and pull the soldiers enemies out of their cover. The Rebels followed them carefully seeking cover behind the Jedi while taking shots at the exposed Imperials. Stormtrooper after Stormtrooper fell to Jacen's blade, their deaths saddening him but the feeling to the dying Gaven behind them giving him the resolve to push further. The fight didn't last long and soon the twins cut down their last enemies.

Just as in the good old days, Jacen almost said but he stopped himself. Instead he and Jaina exchanged a quick smile, while some of the rebels even allowed themselves to cheer while from outside of the building they heard the noise of the beginning battle.

The sight of Gaven though, it whipped away their good mood. Jacen almost couldn't believe that his friend was still alive as he hung almost lifeless in the electro cuffs. His hair, his face, his clothes, his entire body where bloody, around his wrists, where the cuffs where place his skin was black and burned, the result of countless electro shocks, the left side of his face was a bloody eyeless ruin and his right leg locked as if a wild animal had tried to rip it apart.

When Jaina slammed her lightsaber into the energy panel Jacen and Nev caught the falling body. Jacen's hand reaching for Gaven´s neck. A pulse, it was still there, but weak.

With a chocking breath Gaven returned to the wakening world and his remaining eye opened.

"Gaven, it's okay, we are here, you are save." Nev assured him while Jacen began to use the force to stabilize the older man.

"Is... is that you Kenth..." Gaven muttered. "I didn't tell them anything, I didn't..."

"He is talking to Hamner," Jaina said and Jacen felt the worry in her voice.

"It's me Jacen," desperation filled his voice.

"Jacen...?" Gaven said after a moment, "Jacen Solo is dead... tell Kenth that I didn´t tell them..."

The light behind the eye disappeared as Gaven lost consciousness again. Jacen felt his friends heart rate flicker as he used the Force to keep him stable. Please don't let him die, he begged. I should have been the one, don't... Jaina knelt down next to him as well placing a hand on Gaven's chest. Slowly Gaven's heart rate began to normalize. Jacen didn't know how he knew it but his feelings told him that this skill was how she had saved him as well, five years ago. Leah appeared behind them with a med kit as she and Jacen began putting bacta on Gaven's worst wounds. Jaina had closed her eyes and placed Gaven's head in her lap, fully united with him in spirit as she held him in this world. Jacen let out a sigh of relief, their friend would survive.

But when he looked at Nev, who now stood next to the door outside, her ashen face and the darkness in her heart he knew the damage had already been done. Slowly she took out her comlink and opened a channel to the free captives at the cell block, "kill the captured Imperials, we take no prisoners today." She yelled into it before Jacen could stop her, then she left the room, and headed outside, her mind filled with only one desire, vengeance.

"Can you take care of him?" Jacen asked his sister and Jaina responded with a nod.

Jacen jumped to his feet, and gestured Leah to follow him "then we need to try and save our friend from herself."

 

Been reading these stories for the last week or so, I really love this trilogy. A lovely balm to heal what happened in the EU.

 

Thanks, really need to get back to this saga at one point... but currently not motivated at all sadly.