Phoenix: Die Another Day
By: Trickster_Jaina_Fel:




Disclaimer: yup, I ran into George Lucas at the little corner store down the street and he just begged me to take the Star Wars universe, all its characters and planets and work my creative genius on them! oh, Sithspawn! Here come the men in the white suits…how did the psychiatrists notice I was gone already? :D
Rating: PG…I'll let you know if it gets any higher, but i doubt it will.
Summary: When the unthinkable happens, only one Jedi survives the war. Grief-stricken and alone, she struggles to rebuild the Jedi Order and her life while dealing with a tempermental apprentice, a well-meaning commander and a dark-sider that is obsessed with "his master".
Keywords: drama, angst, action, mystery, OC's, Jaina Solo, some K/J
Note: If this is the worst thing you ever read, let me know and I'll take it down or try again or whatever…and if by some miracle you like it: I love praise but constructive criticism is so much better! sigh I'm such a feedback junkie…
and yes rolls eyes i know i'm crazy...and don't worry, i haven't forgotten about RotJ; posts will just be a little less frequent...

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Part One: Dying Embers

The young woman couldn't believer her luck. Crashing on a sith-spawned swamp planet while probably the most important battle in the galaxy—ever—rages above my head! She frowned in intense irritation and hopped out of her X-wing, using the Force to carry her R-2 unit with her. The murky water came up to her mid-chest and she half-sloughed, half-swam out to what looked like dry land.

Sighing dejectedly she watched as her X-wing began to sink deeper and deeper into the water. Well, so much for being part of the great Naboo battle. And isn't Naboo supposed to be some tropical retreat or something? How come I had to land in probably the only swamp on this planet?

She sighed again and plopped down, hardly caring that she landed in mud. As an after thought, she glanced at her chrono. Okay, so unless someone picks me up pretty quick I'm missing the meeting with the Jedi too. " 'All Jedi must attend a very important meeting. It is vital that you attend and be on time,' " she repeated to herself. "Yeah, right.

"I can just imagine my apology now: Sorry Master Skywalker. I got taken out by…well, grutchins—yes, me, taken out by a bunch of animals—actually and landed smack in a swamp! All alone! Can you believe it? And then I started talking to myself." She gave a mirthless snort and moved some of her hair out of her face then turned her face upward to watch the rest of the battle from the ground.

***

A man smiled smugly as he pointed the tattered shuttle out to the warmaster. "It is just there, Warmaster. That is the Eclipse, the Jedi hide-out."

The Warmaster's eyes narrowed. At last, he thought to himself. I will have the jeedai. This galaxy is a gift from the gods. I shall take it. He turned sharply to the Peace Brigader before him. "You will be rewarded, but not today. Today will be for the slaughtering and sacrificing of the jeedai." And when the jeedai come to meet, I will be here. Myself and a worldship and several fleets. After this, there will never be another jeedai. The twin sacrifice will at last be done. Those blasted Solo's cannot fight it.

I have won.

~*~*~

Hilra'an Clat sighed and flew into the Eclipse. See? Nothing to have a bad feeling about. Nothing at all. However, his assurances fell short and he moved out of the cockpit slowly, hand on his lightsaber. His "bad-feeling" intensified when he noticed that every single Jedi that he could see was nervous as well.

Shivering, he followed the others out of the docking bay.

***

The young woman on Naboo had long since made a shelter and now huddled under it as it began to pour. Geez, you'd think they'd notice I'm missing, she thought. Then, considering how they would contact her—through her comlink, which was at the bottom of the swamp with her X-wing—she decided that it would be better if they didn't. They'd think I was dead. Not good.

As she began snacking on her rations bar she became overwhelmed by a Force-warning. Danger! it screeched. She smacked her hands over her ears as if it could block the mental screech. It wasn't for her, she recognized immediately, but for people close to her. She shivered as dread's icy fingers clutched at her throat, more and more tightly as it climaxed. And then her head began to explode as it began.

~*~*~

Hilra'an watched in horror as thousands-no, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions-of Yuuzhan Vong began to board the Eclipse. The space battle had been a brief massacre. It won't be able to compare to what's about to happen, Hilra'an thought with dread. Hilra'an drew his lightsaber, the motion and snap-hiss echoing around the large docking bay.

The Yuuzhan Vong gave a war cry and charged, their tattered mouths all showing the same, smug grin. They know, Hilra'an thought, sick to his stomach. They know all the Jedi are here. And they're about to wipe us out. The same thought seemed to occur to all the Jedi and they fought even more furiously as Yuuzhan Vong and Jedi fell left and right. The docking bay was becoming a graveyard.

All too soon Hilra'an's time came. Ten Yuuzhan Vong were headed in his direction. And in that moment before his inevitable doom, Hilra'an knew what he had to do. It was time to stop playing Jedi and be a Jedi.

It seemed odd that at this moment—the moment before his death, maybe even at the moment of the death of the Jedi—that he would find the answer to the question that all people asked themselves for as long as anyone could remember: Who am I?

At last, Hilra'an knew who he was. Centering himself, he immersed himself completely in the Force. Something that-up until now-only two Jedi had tried: Ganner Rhysode and Anakin Solo.

Both of whom are dead now, Hilra'an realized. He held no false hopes. He was going to die, and he knew it. But if he was going to die he planned on taking out as many Yuuzhan Vong as possible. And he did. As his soul entwined with the Force, letting it take over his actions, he began moving in a deadly dance.

Hilra'an Clat, Jedi Knight, became the battle. He was not aware of the seemingly infinite number of carcasses that fell at his feet. Nor was he aware that the other Jedi—seeing what he was doing—were following his example. Hilra'an was not conscious of anything.

He simply was.

He was Hilra'an Clat.

Jedi Knight.

Hero.

Friend.

Son.

Brother.

Hilra'an Clat.

When he died, he died with a smile on his face.

***

The young woman on Naboo paled as she felt a hundred presences disappear from the Force.

Very important, brilliant presences.

The presences of all the Jedi.

Minus one.

The one that didn't disappear was left to feel the death of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order. She screamed as she felt all of her Force-bonds break. First it was her father, then her mother who became clumsy upon her grief at her husband's death. Then it was her friends, falling, one by one. If friends are the family you choose then I am two-times an orphan, she thought bleakly between anguished cries. Her aunt and—Force, no!—her baby cousin.

A brilliant flare and then a blackhole in her heart and the Force as her uncle died. And then— "NO!" she screamed, even as the two most important bonds in her life broke and ripped her heart to shreds and sent her body into shock. NONONONONO! Sweet Force, NO! Please! she thought wildly. Is it my destiny to suffer for all time? Is it?! "No," she whispered just before the shock of everything she held dear being ripped away from her became too much for her body and blackness swallowed her.

~TJF