A/N: This is, basically, going to be a J/TK vig in three parts. This is my first attempt at this pairing, and I'm not entirely convinced about the characterization myself, but here's hoping you enjoy it.

And then there was light…

Part 1

Click.

A small ball of golden light erupted just above the handle of the glowrod, struggling to expand; struggling to dissipate the immediate darkness to glow with its usual golden clarity. It flickered and expanded a couple of times, before, with an ominous muffled hiss coming from the handle, the light gave out altogether. Jacen Solo smirked, and sighed.

How symbolic.

"It is not working?"

Jacen looked across the darkness to where he knew the calm female voice was coming from. "No, it's not," he confirmed. "Apparently the battery's down and out."

Tenel Ka 'Chume Djo shifted slightly. "I see." There was an overpowering silence after that, broken only by the sound of water dripping from the walls of the cave they were trapped in. Jacen leant back against the cold, damp wall of the cave, reflecting on the all the happenings that had culminated in the two of them being in this situation.

He and Tenel Ka had planned to retreat to Naboo – if only for a few days – for a… He didn't know what to call it, exactly. Vacation? Rendezvous? Rest? He didn't even fully understand why he had accepted Tenel Ka's invitation, either. Maybe, five years after the war, and after all his travels, he just wanted a break. Maybe it was something deeper than that. Which one was it? He didn't know.

He didn't think, then, that he'd ever know.

They had been on a walk in the wilderness not far from where they were staying, enjoying a solitude that had been denied to them for so long, before the earth had begun to shake. Jacen wasn't sure if it was even a natural earthquake, but it sure had been unprecedented. Rocks had tumbled down the slope they had been navigating, and before they knew it, both of them had been pressed into the damp cave, layers of unsteady soil and rock covering their only means of entrance – and exit. And of them had lost their lightsabers in the tumble.

A curious coincidence.

Still slightly disoriented, and taking a deep breath, Jacen rose to his feet. "Well, we're still breathing," he said. "This cave's got to have a way out." He turned to where Tenel Ka had been sitting. "Shall we go, then?"

Her answering voice, though, came from way ahead of him. "Yes, I have been waiting."

Jacen rolled his eyes. What else can I expect? He made his way to where he had heard Tenel Ka's voice and reached out and gripped her hand gently. "Okay, then."

He could almost feel Tenel Ka's piercing gaze on him as they walked. "That was not necessary," she said.

"What was not necessary?"

"The hand." The arm in his grip stiffened slightly, but she made no move to pull away from him. "You could always sense me in the Force."

Jacen smiled, even though she couldn't see it. "There are some things that need to be felt beyond the Force, too." His grip tightened, as if to mock her protest. "Besides, we don't want to get separated, now, do we?"

Tenel Ka sighed – a sigh of acceptance, but… there was no resignation in her tone. There was a world of difference between resignation and acceptance, and suddenly Jacen found himself feeling a strange satisfaction, little whispers of elation flooding his heart, lighting it up with an emotion he had thought he had been made incapable of feeling. If so, then…

Her voice snapped him back to the present. "If you insist," she was saying. Jacen suddenly fought back an urge to laugh. "Yes, I insist," he said playfully, unaware of when or why he had become so, "And it's not a big sacrifice you're making here by holding my hand, Tenel Ka."

"Of course I'm not," her voice perfectly even, with a vague undercurrent of surprise. Jacen sighed. Some things never changed.

Just then, his danger sense kicked in like a bucket of cold water dumped over his head, a few seconds before the earth underneath their feet started shaking again. Fissures traced their zigzag paths along the cave walls, and dust poured from the ceiling of the cave, enveloping them in a foggy, suffocating mist. Jacen gathered the Force around him to hold back the rocks – he could feel Tenel Ka begin to do the same – when the ceiling, without warning, collapsed right on top of them.

Without even really thinking, Jacen shut his eyes and threw himself on top of Tenel Ka as the walls of the cave collapsed. Surprisingly however, not a single rock touched him – them – and he opened his eyes.

To immediately gaze into the deepest pools of grey he had ever seen.

The freak earthquake seemed to have caused something in the distance to dislocate, and a faint, blue-tinged light filtered in, lighting up Tenel Ka's face in a soft glow. They stared at each other, their lips parted, but no words coming out. Finally Tenel Ka whispered, "Light… we have light…"

Who needs light, Jacen thought, when your eyes are suns by themselves…

Suddenly something clicked and whirred in his head, and Jacen blinked. Since when did I start becoming poetic? He hoisted himself to his feet, dusting his shirt, and before he could offer help to Tenel Ka, she had risen as well. "Let us get out of here as soon as possible," she said, turning her back to him and commencing her walk to where the light was coming from.

Jacen found himself grinning. There was something in her voice that had intrigued – and thrilled? Maybe – him, and he was desperate to know what it was. He started following Tenel Ka.

This was turning out to be an interesting experience.