Title: Only Love
Author: Flowerlady
Timeframe: Legacy AU
Characters: Ben/Jysella, Krayt, OC
Genre: Angst, Drama, One Shot
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Jysella has to save Ben from becoming the thing of nightmares.
A/N: Written for the Benella Index and Discussion Challenge from the JC Boards.
Challenge #2: Write a 2000+ word one-shot about either a dark Ben or dark Jysella facing a light version of their counterpart (i.e. dark Ben facing light Jysella and vice versa.). Allegories and at least one flashback must be made to show a romantic past between the two, and that, deep down, both parties still care about the other. Can end tragically, happily, or somewhere in the middle.

Words:
At least one Star Wars curse word (damn or hell doesn't count)
Charging
River
Poem

One of these 'elemental' words:
Maelstrom, tempest, inferno, whirlwind, or earthquake

Only Love

She watched in horror as she saw him raise his red lightsaber and strike at the children as they began to run from him. She could tell that the place was the main Academy building on Ossus. She screamed, but it was silent and did nothing to distract the mad man who was killing every Jedi in his way.

"No!" She tried again but was powerless to stop him.

"You can stop him, Jysella," she heard a voice behind her. She spun and saw a man who surprisingly looked a lot like the man doing the killing. He stared at her with the same blue eyes and a similar smile, the only difference was his hair color. She had seen holograms of this man. She knew who it was.

"Anakin Skywalker?"

"If you must have a name of the man I once was, then yes, I was Anakin Skywalker. But that is irrelevant. You have the power to stop him before it comes to this. You and his son must find him."

"But he will kill us."

He smiled and it unnerved Jysella how much her husband looked like this man who had become Darth Vader, "Do you really believe that?"

She shook her head, "No. I know that there is still good in him."

"Then you need to find that good and redeem him with it. You know what it is that still is Light within him?"

She looked back out at the silent detached scene and watched as the man she loved continued in his appalling destruction of the Jedi Academy. However, when she turned back to meet the other's blue eyes, she said, "Yes. Yes, I do."

She sat straight up in bed and wiped the sweat from her brow. She suddenly knew what she needed to do to stop the vision she had been having from happening. She knew what would stop Ben Skywalker from becoming the most powerful Sith Lord in history.

—Only Love.

X

The jungle was dark and damp as she picked her way through. The planet had been heavily Vongformed and she had to be careful of the strange creatures and odd flesh eating plants that seemed to thrive in the hot, humid air. However, she continued to trek on, trying not to think about what she needed to do, or of what could happen. No, she couldn't let herself think of the worst case scenario either concerning her, the children who depended on her, or the man she had once loved, the man who had been her husband.

Jysella Horn Skywalker stopped, pushed back a lock of her black hair and looked around as she tentatively stretched out with the Force to get her bearings. Although, it was unsettling that the planet's life forms were large voids within the Jedi's perception, she was glad that the distraction from the life forms wasn't there. She could feel his cold, oily presence and she knew that he knew she was coming and that she wasn't alone. She glanced over at the boy beside her.

"He knows we're here," she said as calmly as she could muster.

The boy took a deep breath and looked at her, she could see the doubt in his blue-green eyes, "What if—What will happen if we can't turn him back?"

"We will, Kieran. We have to because everything is counting on us," Jysella said to the thirteen year old beside her. "I know there's good in him. I know Krayt hasn't complete taken him away."

They continued on in silence as they used their lightsabers to cut the vegetation as it became thicker and more evasive. Jysella finally let her mind drift back to the past, to the past that was all happiness and dreams despite the devastating war they were in the midst of.

"Stay sharp, Two," she called out over the comm to her wingman. They were approaching the on coming fighters and she knew the battle would be a tough one.

"Sorry, Lead," his voice came over as he closed the gap in the formation and she felt his love wash over her, which despite the danger they now were charging into caused her to smile. She sent him her love as well.

Then she flipped to his private comm channel and said, "Don't do anything too heroic, okay?"

"Only if you don't," she could hear the challenge in his voice and feel his concern through their bond that went beyond the battle meld. But soon their attention was completely devoted to the oncoming X-wings and Eta-5's.

The battle with the minions of the Darth Krayt was as tough as Jysella had assumed it would be. Only half of her Hardpoint Squadron made it back to the cruiser. She was distraught when she thought about the Jedi, the friends, which were lost as she landed her Stealth-X, but she was eternally relieved to see his X-wing land next to hers. She popped the canopy the same time as he and stood up as he did. He looked at her as she met his eyes and watched him pull his helmet off.

She would never forget the leap her heart made as he shook his long coppery hair and leapt from the side of the fighter. Jysella followed him to the hanger floor and she pulled her helmet off and dropped it to the floor as she took off running into his waiting arms.

She had been in love with him since he was sixteen and she was nineteen, although she never let him know. She never let anyone know of her feelings for the Grand Master's son. However, their love for each other was no longer a secret and he wasn't sixteen anymore, he was a full fledged Jedi Knight and had just past his twenty-first lifeday.

Ben gazed into her green eyes with his blue and then captured her lips in a kiss that spoke of his feelings for her and she returned it with as much fervor. "I love you, Jysella," he whispered into her ear after breaking the kiss. "I couldn't believe what you did out there. You scared me. I can't lose you."

She looked up in to his eyes, "Oh Ben, you will never lose me, I love you too much."

"Then marry me," he said with that crocked grin that always melted her.

She reached up and ran her fingers through his shaggy red hair and smiled, "Yes!" Tears began running down her cheeks and she pulled him even closer, if that was possible. "Yes, Ben Skywalker, nothing would make me happier."

Eight months later they were married in a simple ceremony and fourteen months later Kieran was born. She looked over at her son and sighed. She, Kieran and his three year old sister Jaden had spent the past three years in hiding until she had enough of it. She was tired of running from the man who promised to love her forever, the man who cried when he first held the infant who was growing up needing the father who he resembled so much it hurt, the man who gave up his soul so that she and their second child could live.

Krayt had captured Jysella and took her to his lair on Korriban. Jysella was on war torn Corellia with other Jedi trying to help with rebuilding the planet that the Sith had nearly destroyed, while Ben was held up on Ossus. Krayt had really wanted the ten year old Kieran but Jysella's mother and grandfather were able to rescue him before the Sith could get to him. However before she was able to also get away, the man who had once been Jacen Solo easily captured her by killing Mara and Corran as they tried to protect her.

Jysella's emotions were a maelstrom as she was forced away by the Sith and two of his Hands. Krayt laughed as she held her saber in shaking hands before her in a shambles of a guard position, hatred filling her as she thought of the family this man took from her. "Careful, my dear Cousin. You know what they say: Anger is the path to the Dark Side."

"I am not your cousin." She simply said and circled him.

Krayt only continued to follow her moves, his unlit lightsaber held loosely in his hand. "Your marriage makes you such. But no, I suppose technically you are not my cousin, but your child is and will be my next apprentice."

She made circles with her blade as she scoffed, "Ahh…but Kieran has gotten away and is hidden. You have failed."

His face twisted in a pathetic imitation of Jacen's crocked grin, "But I'm not referring to Kieran. That boy is too indoctrinated in the ways of the Jedi anyway. No, my dear Jysella, I'm referring to the child within you."

Jysella was cold then, she was so cold she couldn't move. "How? How could you have known? I just found out."

Krayt used this distraction to simply reach out with the Force and snatch her saber away. She tried to make a grab for it but was unable to and without telekinetic ability she couldn't call it back to her.

"Kriff…" She growled as he easily caught the hilt in his hand.

He inspected the silver blade and said mockingly, "What a pitty that you Horns are such failures as Jedi." Then he smiled condescendingly as his orange eyes met hers, "I surly hope that my new apprentice hasn't inherited this—limitation."

Just then Ben came rushing into the Temple room where she was being held on the Sith planet, having fought his way in. Krayt stared disbelievingly at his former apprentice and snarled, "Well, he has returned. It is never too late to complete your training, Cousin."

Ben stepped closer and Jysella could feel the hatred and anger coming off him. She knew he was precariously close to the Dark Side himself. "Ben, don't!"

She watched as the man she loved held his blue bladed saber in a high guard and deflected a strike from her blade. Krayt laughed as he ignited his own red blade with his other hand, "Oh, poor misguided Ben I really don't want to have to kill you, even if you have been such a failure in everything that you have ever done."

"Shut up, Krayt. Let my wife go." He said evenly as he slashed at Jacen.

Krayt simply parried the strike and came back with more. "Never."

Jysella watched in horror as they battled it out. She blocked out the mocking words of the Sith and concentrated on sending her husband loving and calming thoughts through their bond. However, Ben shut her out as his anger and hatred grew to unbelievable proportions.

"Yes…yes," the Sith purred as Ben's strikes became more heated and more desperate. "I feel your hate, your anger. Use it to strike me down if you can."

Finally, Krayt got in under Ben's weakening defenses and the silver blade of Jysella's lightsaber sliced through his right forearm, severing it just below the elbow.

Krayt laughed and sneered, "What is it with you Skywalkers? You're always losing your fighting arms. Interesting, I'm from the same blood but still have mine."

Ben let out a pained cry and Jysella began to run toward him when she was hit with a bolt of Krayt's dark lightning. She quickly halted the energy and began to absorb it to use to strengthen her powers. She threw a shield up to protect her and her unborn baby. It appeared that the lightning was harming her but she only absorbed what she needed and shielded the rest from her, sending it to dance along the invisible shield she held around her body.

Suddenly, she heard Ben cry out, "Stop. Please stop, Jacen. Don't hurt her. She means everything to me." She could hear tears in his voice as he pleaded with the Sith Lord who was still sending lightning at her. She was unable to tell Ben that she was fine, that the baby was fine; that she was using the power he was sending at her to increase her own shields. "I'll do anything you want. Just let Jysella go."

"Anything?" Krayt inquired and increased the onslaught.

"Yes," Ben sobbed. "Please, stop. You're killing her."

"Tell me Ben, what are you willing to do for the pathetic life of your wife?"

Ben looked over at Jysella. Her thoughts were a tempest as she tried to send him her reassurance, her confirmation that she was okay. But she met resistance and realized that Krayt was affecting her mind and Ben's in some way by disrupting their bond they had in the Force.

Ben cried his anguish as he fell to his knees, holding the cauterized stump of his right arm. In a voice barely above a hoarse whisper he said the words, "I'll pledge myself to you, my Lord. Just please stop hurting my wife and baby."

Krayt laughed and sent one more wave of energy into Jysella. Then the conflagration ended, leaving her so drained she couldn't move. All she could do was whisper, "No, Ben. Don't."

However it was too late. Ben was broken. He kneeled before his Sith Master, the same man who twenty years before had been his Jedi Master, and cried. Krayt immediately had Jysella moved to a cell in the Temple Ruins and took Ben away.

Jysella would have probably died there and by Ben's own hand if she hadn't been rescued six months later by a team of Jedi led by Allana Djo and Valin Horn. The battle to free her had been a bloody one and four of the ten Jedi who had come to free her were lost including Valin's wife, Tahiri. Three of the Jedi were killed by Ben. She never saw Ben again after that day. He had become a twisted shell of the man she once loved and all she could do was get away before her daughter was born or they found Kieran.

"Mom," Kieran brought her out of the painful memory and she turned to meet his eyes. "I think he's coming."

Jysella swallowed and looked out over the river that they had been following for the past several kilometers. Then she saw him as he leapt across the rapid water, his black cape billowing out behind him. He landed several meters away and glared at her.

Jysella gasped as she saw the hate and angry fire in his almost translucent blue eyes. His hair was longer, wilder than she ever had seen it and his face looked haggard, as if he didn't sleep well.

"Ben—" she breathed as he stepped closer.

"That name means nothing to me anymore," his voice was cold, hard and yet Jysella heard, or maybe felt his pain. "I'm Darth Iolaus."

"I refuse to call you by any other than the name of the man who fathered my children." She reached over to gently grasp the arm of the boy who was standing slightly behind her. He bravely stepped forward, but Jysella could feel his rush of fear at finally facing the man they had been running from for so long.

Ben looked from her to the lanky, auburn haired boy and scoffed, "I can't believe you'd bring the boy to witness your demise, Jysella. But then it will make things easier for me. I've been looking for an apprentice and who better than Ben Skywalker's son."

"I will never turn," Kieran's voice was strong and defiant as he glared at the Sith Lord who was his father. "I've come to help my mother find my father."

Ben laughed bitterly as he circled them as a predator does its prey, "Then you are truly wasting your time. That man no longer exists."

"I don't believe that, Ben. I can feel the conflict in you. I know you don't want to do these things," Jysella poured her love into the words. She wanted to save him. She had to according to the vision that brought her and Kieran here, the vision that predicted the demise of the Jedi by Ben's own hand. She couldn't allow him to completely be lost to the Darkness of Krayt's twisted evil. "Your children need their father, Ben."

"I told you not to call me by that name," Jysella felt her throat constrict slightly at the hatred in his voice. However, she could tell it wasn't hatred directed toward her, it was self loathing. She could feel Ben's fear—his fear of losing his humanity, his fear of what he had to do to complete his own training. "I knew you'd eventually seek me out, Jysella. I knew that the Jedi in you would think that I can be redeemed and stop running."

Jysella watched as he called his lightsaber to his prosthetic right hand. She felt the confusion in him as he ignited the red blade. The snap-hiss was deafening to her among the thousands of other sounds in the forest. She stared at the blade as her emotions became a raging hurricane as she considered her options. Finally, she turned her watery green eyes to him and whispered, "I will not fight you, Ben. I will not give you reason to kill me." Then she gave herself to the Force preparing herself for what was coming.

"Mom!" Kieran screamed as he watched Ben swing the blade toward her.

She was vaguely aware of Kieran raising his own blade to stop Ben's but Ben was too quick. The red blade came into contact with her outstretched hand as she placed it before her to block the attack. She poured all her strength into catching the energy from the blade before it was able to cut through her flesh and bone. She felt the burn on her palm and used it to help focus the adsorption of the lightsaber's intense energy. Suddenly, she couldn't contain it any longer and with a rare show of just how powerful Jysella Horn Skywalker really was she used it to Force shove Ben away. He flew across the bank of the river to land against a large tree trunk which knocked his lightsaber from his grip.

Ben shook his head as he tried to get up but found himself pinned to the ground. He looked up and saw Jysella holding out her hand but as the energy she absorbed waned he felt the grip on him loosen. Then suddenly it was there again and he saw its source. Kieran was standing beside Jysella and was holding him down. The boy also easily called Ben's lightsaber to his hand catching it and attaching it to his belt.

Ben snarled as if he was a wild rabid animal caught in a trap. He glared at Jysella and screamed, "You don't get it, do you? I am not Ben Skywalker. He died to save you and now I will have to kill you."

"Ben is not dead," Jysella calmly replied.

"The man who read you love poems and sang lullabies is gone, woman." He tried to get up again but Kieran still was holding him in his Force grip. Ben looked at his son and growled, "Let me go, boy. You aren't strong enough to hold me for long. I don't want to kill you too."

"I don't think you want to kill either one of us, Father," Kieran Skywalker quietly said. "If you did, you would have done so by now. You would have broken through my grip on you."

Jysella watched as Ben began to tremble and she could feel his bubbling hate and anger as he continued to murderously stare at his son. She felt the shift in Ben's Force presence and suddenly was fearful that Ben would break through Kieran's hold on him. However, just as she was ready to intervene, Ben lost all control and let out a scream as the internal tug of war between the Light still within him and the Darkness became too much. She could sense the torment of his self-hate, his pain and his love for her and the son he had cherished and the daughter he had never met. He let out a roar as he began to sob and she felt his anger release.

"Enough, Kieran," she whispered and stepped forward.

"Mom?"

She looked back at him and nodded, "Let him go. It will be okay."

Jysella fell to her knees in front of him as Kieran released his grip. Ben buried his face in his hands and pulled his knees to his chest. He fell over onto his side and curled into a ball as he wept. Jysella reached out a trembling hand and gently ran her fingers through his hair. He moved his hands and looked up at her, his blue eyes were full of pain and regret, but they were Ben's blue eyes that looked upon her and not the translucent ones of Darth Iolaus.

He reached his shaking hand of flesh out and touched her tear streaked face. "Jys, what have I become? How could I ever want to hurt you?" his words were rough and quiet.

"Shhh…" she said as she pulled him into her lap and held him close to her with his head on her chest while she stroked his long red-gold hair. "Shhh…It's all over now," she soothingly said.

He sobbed against her as he clung to her so tightly it hurt. She looked up at Kieran who was watching from the same spot he had been standing from the beginning. She could see the bewilderment in the boy's face as he watched his father cling to his mother like a small wailing child. She smiled at him and softly said as she motioned with her hand for him to come closer, "Come. Everything will be okay."

Kieran pulled his blue-green gaze from the broken man to the stonewall that was his mother and carefully moved to kneel beside her. Ben either sensing or hearing him approach looked over at him and said in a pain stricken voice, "I'm sorry, son. I'm so sorry."

Kieran swallowed hard and tentatively reached out to lay his hand on Ben's quivering shoulder, "You're with us now, Dad, and that is all that matters."

Ben nodded against Jysella's chest and then pulled away to look at his wife, "The baby, where is she? It was a girl, wasn't it?"

She smiled and cupped his still handsome face. "Yes. Her name is Jaden."

He looked surprised, "After Mom?"

She nodded and smiled, "Yes, although she looks more like me, she is appropriately named. She drives my grandfather crazy, he says she's so much like your mother it's scary."

He hiccupped and sat up more, but he didn't break the contact with Jysella. He then asked, "So she's on the Errant Venture?"

Jysella stroked his face and held his flesh hand, "Yes. Valin will come and take us back to it."

He looked at her in disgusted horror at the thought of the pain he had caused his brother-in-law. "Valin?"

She nodded and still in her quietly soothing tones she assured him, "He had wanted to come along but I made him stay with the shuttle."

She saw the pain constrict his features again and he quietly stammered, "He'd come for me knowing—even though I'm the one—I killed Tahiri?"

Jysella swallowed, the death of Valin's wife of three years had hit him hard. Tahiri had finally healed enough to move on and when she did Valin was there. They married and had a son and they were considering having another child when the Jedi came to Korridan to rescue her. Tahiri had died upon Ben's blue lightsaber.

However, she shook those memories from her head and said as she pulled Ben back into her embrace. "Ben, none of the past matters. We only have the future and by me saving you, I saved our future. I had a vision that I had to redeem you. That Kieran and I had to do it. If I hadn't succeeded you would have became more powerful a Sith than Krayt and it would have been you who would have destroyed the Jedi and eventually the galaxy.

"But that isn't why I saved you. I had to save you because I love you so much that I ached without you by my side. You have always been my other half, Ben Skywalker. Without you I'm a shell. Without you I'm as good as dead. You gave yourself to Krayt to save me, but Ben, I would have rather died than to watch you destroy yourself." Tears came to her eyes anew and she took a deep breath. "Ben, I once told you that you'd never lose me. But I can't lose you either."

Ben held her tightly and whispered, "I love you, Jys. I don't know what I ever did to deserve you. But please never give up on me. You're everything to me." He then looked at Kieran who was still kneeling beside his mother and beginning to look rather uncomfortable with their words of love. He reached over and pulled the boy into his embrace with Jysella. Softly he said, "You both are."

Finally, Jysella pulled away and smiled, "Let's get off this rock and go home. There is a very precocious little girl who is dying to meet her daddy."

Ben smiled too, "And I can't wait to meet her. Lets go. I have my life to rebuild."

FIN

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Ben's Sith name is from Greek Mythology...
Iolaus was Hercules's nephew.
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All reviews are welcome...

Thanks for reading...