Chapter 2
A small sleek ship hung in the blackness of space just above Korriban in the Horuset system. Inside the ship two hooded figures sat in the cockpit watching a small blue Holo-message. An Imperial soldier appearing in the Holo-message spoke: "We have the child."
"Good," one of the hooded figures sitting in the captain seat said to the soldier, "we are on our way." He turned off the Holo and pulled off the black hood of his cloak that hid his face in shadow, reviling small horns emerging from his scull that only a Zebrack would have.
"Are you sure this child is the key Master?" The second of the hooded figures, a thin, pale human with long dark hair, questioned his master.
"The Key is passed down from parent to child, of course he is the key" he scolded coldly, "now," the tone in his voice was now calmer, "we have to hurry before the Yuuzhan Vong get too far in their invasion where even we can't stop them."
"Can't we let Yuuzhan Vong take care of the Jedi for us?"
"Only if we have the information that has been locked away with the key and if the Yuuzhan Vong gets to Coruscant before we do, they will destroy the information with out even knowing its worth." He lectured his apprentice. "You see time is running out. Now punch in the coordinates and let's be off," he ordered.
The human apprentice did as he was told and in a blink of an eye the ship disappeared into hyperspace.
Sara arrived on Coruscant late the next day. The city planet was very different from the desert plains on Tatooine there were high-rise buildings all over the place, the young woman had forgotten the unique beauty of all the buildings and traffic as it had been from above Coruscant. How in the galaxy was she going to find Jacen in this vast place?
A cab brought her to a big gray building, iWell I guess this narrows it down a bit/i she thought as she walked inside the building and into the enormous lobby, spotting a desk with a protocol droid sitting behind it. Relived, she walked up to the desk and asked: "I'm looking for Solo, Ja-"
"Room 81215," the droid answered before she could get her question out.
"Thanks…um—"
"Elevator is on the right down the hall," the droid pointed behind Sara.
About fifteen minutes later Sara found the room she was looking for. The name on the door read 'Coronal Solo.' Sara knocked on the door.
"Come in." A female voice echoed through the door.
The door slid open and Sara entered into a spacious, plain room that had a large window that looked out upon a river. But something was wrong with the window, the view through it shouldn't be a river, it should have been showing the cityscape. Just then the window changed into a bright blue sky with white puffy clouds hovering around the towering buildings, it was a hologram-view window.
She noticed the young woman, who had let her inside the apartment, was standing in front of a hologram unit in the middle of the room, she was dressed in a pilot's suit, the brown haired woman finally looked up from the holograms of X-wing fighters she had been studying, "can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Jacen Solo, I was told I could find him here."
"You're Sara, aren't you?"
"How do you know who I am?" Sara was even more confused then ever.
"My name is Jaina," the pretty brown haired woman explained. "Jacen is my twin brother, Jacen is trying to find my family. My Uncle and Aunt were captured about six months ago," she switched off the hologram, "my parents went to look for them about four months ago, but have been seized as well. My brothers went to go look for them just a few days ago, but have had no luck in finding them." Jaina sounded very business like.
Sara's heart, and her hope, were shattering, i Will I ever see my son again?/i she thought, tears starting to weal in her eyes.
"Is everything alright?" Jaina asked her.
Sara shook her head and the tears started flowing. "No," she whispered. "I need Jacen's help." The young mother looked pleadingly at Jaina . "I have no one else to turn to, the Empire has my son."
The eldest of the Solo children looked thoughtful for a minute, "I think I can help you" She paused and studied Sara with her brown eyes thoughtfully, "if you can help me get my family back, I promise I will help you find your son."
"What if we don't succeed? What will happen to Obi-Wan?"
"Actually it will be one and the same, it's a safe bet the Empire has my family, as well as your son" Jaina explained to her.
"You think Jacen is with Obi-Wan?" Sara's eyes brightened with hope.
In a small cell, three people sat quietly, the man and a woman sat on the bench in the cell, the middle-aged man had his arm around the women who had bright red hair, and the other person in the cell was a little boy of three, who sat on the floor holding his knees against his chest. After watching the boy for awhile, the man took his arm from around the women and moved to the edge of the bench, he lent down to the boy.
"What's your name?"
The little boy lifted his head from his knees, "I'm Obi-Wan," he whispered back.
"I'm Luke, this is my wife Mara," the man motioned to himself and to his wife, "What is your last name, Obi-Wan?"
"Walker," The boy whispered again.
"Obi-Wan Walker, it's nice to meet you," Luke smiled but the little boy didn't reply, so he though he should ask a few more questions, "where is your father or mother?" Obi-Wan shrugged, Luke glanced over at Mara, before trying again gently, "you don't know...where are you from Obi-Wan?"
"Tatooine."
"Really now? I grew up on Tatooine, I lived on a moisture farm with my Aunt and Uncle. Where do you live?"
"A cottage in the Desert Mountains." The child answered brightly looking up at Luke with sad eyes.
Mara lent around her husband and smiled, "how old are you, Obi-Wan?"
"I'm three."
Luke moved off the bench to sit next to Obi-Wan, "are you a little scared?" He questioned kindly.
Obi-Wan didn't answer right away, but lowered his head, "yes," he finally whispered, Mara knelt down next to her husband as Luke put his arm around the boy to try to comfort him, Obi-Wan in return lent his head against Luke's shoulder.
When Sara and Jaina arrived at the station where their family was being held, Jaina had the idea of ambushing a couple stormtroopers and disguising themselves in their armour. After hiding the bodies in a storage closet they ran in to the detention area, the holding cell area was a star shaped building. The centre was the front desk and the points branched out to where the individual rooms were.
Jaina took care of the guards in the room, she walked around the desk and looked at the computer, she picked out the name Solo right away.
"Aisle five, room number 612," she called out to Sara.
Sara ran down aisle five, room 612 was about half way down the hallway, she pressed the panel key and rushed into the room and spotted Jacen sitting with Anakin on the far bench. Sara threw off the helmet she was wearing and ran into Jacen's waiting arms, "they have Obi-Wan, Jacen, I don't know how they found us…I just don't know…" Sara took in panicky breaths as tears streamed down her face.
Jacen pulled her away, holding her by the shoulders firmly as he looked down at her, "Who? Who took-"
"I found him!" Jaina yelled from another hallway, interrupting Jacen.
"Obi-Wan!" Sara turned from Jacen and ran down the hall towards the front desk where she and Jaina had entered, she could hear the small voice of her son coming down from another hallway.
"Mommy!"
Sara found the hallway that held her son, Obi-Wan emerge from a cell and she rushed up to him as he ran towards her, Sara fell to her knees so she could be at Obi-Wan's height as her son jumped in to her arms. All Sara could do was hold him tightly, as she kissed him on the head and pulled him back to stare at him. "Are you alright?" She brushed his hair from his eyes, Obi-Wan nodded his head and she wrapped her arms around her son again.
Sara didn't notice the people gathering around her as Jacen and Anakin followed her, Luke and Mara emerged from the cell after Obi-wan and Jaina came out of another cell from down the hall with her parents. Noticing that Luke was staring at Sara with a look of disbelief on his face, Jacen came up and stood behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder, Sara lifted her eyes and found herself staring at a face she had not seen in a long time, she stood up, lifting Obi-Wan with her, never taking her eyes off the person in front of her, passing Obi-Wan to Jacen, she walked slowly up to the man that had been staring at her. "Daddy?" She whispered.
"Sara, I"- Luke hardly know what to say, before he could continue, Sara wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him tightly, Skywalker put his arms around her and just held her.
Nearly a minute passed before Jacen's father Han Solo spoke up.
"Hey if we don't get moving, we all are going to be a pile of space dust." He took the blaster Jaina handed him and headed for the exit.
The group of nine ran down the hallway towards the docking bay, eventually they ran into a T in the road.
"Okay," Jaina spoke up as she looked down each way, "the Falcon is this way and the Jade Shadow is that way, I think we should split up. Mom, Dad and Anakin I think we should head for the Falcon, Uncle Luke, Jacen and Sara can go with Aunt Mara to the Jade Shadow."
"What about the tractor beam?" Anakin asked.
"I'll take care of it, I'll get out on the X-wing," Sara spoke up.
Luke broke in protectively, "What?! No, I'm not losing you again."
"I'll be fine Daddy." Sara defended her self.
"I'm going with you," Jacen intervened.
"Ok," Sara nodded. She set Obi-Wan on the floor. "Obi-Wan I need you to do me a favour. I need you to go with your Grandpa."
"Mommy no!" The little boy protested.
"Please Obi-Wan, he'll take good care of you. You remember the stories I told you, don't you?"
Her son nodded his head, "but I want to be with you." He whimpered.
"I know you do but right now it won't be safe for you, I promise we will be together soon, okay?" Sara gave her son one last tight hug, and then gave him to her father. Together Obi-Wan and Luke, Mara and the Solo family watched Sara and Jacen disappear down the hallway.
Sara and Jacen stealthily made there way down the hallway to the main reactor with no trouble at all. Upon entering the room Sara stopped dead in her tracks when she realized that they had to walk on a walkway that stretched out over an endless fall.
"What's wrong?" Jacen tried to stop himself from running into her.
"High, this is very high." She froze in her uneasiness from the height.
"Sara we don't have time for this. We have to hurry." Jacen took her hand. She had to remind herself that it was for her son, so he would be safe. With this in her mind her fear melted away. She took a deep breath and followed Jacen's lead to the center of the room where the control computer lived for the main reactor.
They came up to the computer that controlled the main reactor and Jacen stared to scroll through the different screens to find the command to turn the tractor beam off. Sara on the other hand, took off the panel that concealed all the wires for the computer, and started playing with the different colored wires. After a few pages of scrolling, Jacen had to bring up the topic of Luke Skywalker. "So that's your dad? Why didn't you tell me who he was?" Jacen sounded a little hurt as he started typing commands into the computer.
"It's not something I like to advertise and I was supposed to be in hiding." Sara answered as she sliced a set of blue and green wires and started to twist the ends to the blues wires to the green ones.
"What about us? He is my Uncle."
"It's not like I have his blood in me." She was kind of short with him because he was distracting her from concentrating while she sliced a yellow wire and attached it to one of the blue and green wires. "He took me in when I had no one."
A screen popped up on Jacen's screen. "Blast! They found out..." the Jedi trailed off as he read that the tractor beam had been disabled. "How did you do that?" He asked know that it wasn't him that disabled it.
Sara gave him a triumphant smile. "Let's just say I was a bit of a handful when I was younger." She grabbed his hand so they could hurry and get out of there before anyone figured out what they had done. "Come on les get out of-"
Blaster shots interrupted her hitting the pole right next to her head, scaring the daylights out of her. They both hit the floor fast, Jacen doing his best to cover Sara, shielding her from any other blaster shots being fired at them from the two Stormtroopers on the other end of the walkway. Shots filled the air like fire works both Jacen and Sara trying desperately to get some in themselves.
"Why were you not at the Jedi Academy?" Jacen asked her over the ear ringing blaster shots.
"I was, just not very long." She shouted. "I had some trouble with some of the other students, so Dad had Obi-wan's father give me some personal training." Sara got off a blaster shot missing the Stormtrooper with in an inch of his helmet.
"Who is he, Obi-Wan's father?" Jacen asked boldly firing a few shots himself adding more to the chaos.
"Why do you want to know?" Sara was starting to get annoyed with all the questions he was asking her during this time. She wondered why he couldn't wait for a more convenient time. "Do we really have to have this conversation right now?" She spoke before he could answer her.
"Ok," The Jedi was looking for an opening between blaster shots so they could make there escape. "I was just curious."
"Jacen," She snapped at him. "Now is not the time." She fired a shot at one of the Stormtroopers but only grazed his helmet.
Taking that as his cue to leave that topic alone he changed the subject. "I wish I had my lightsaber, and then maybe we could get out of here."
"Here," Sara unhooked her lightsaber, the one she inherited from her Uncle Obi-wan, off her belt and shoved it into the Jedi's hands. "Take mine, I prefer the blaster anyway." She took a few more shots and hit one of the Stormtroopers in the arm, but it wasn't enough of a blow to get him to stop shooting back at them.
Jacen turned the lightsaber on and the purple light flickered to life as he jumped up and started to reflect the shots that were being thrown at them. Sara jumped up beside him and got few more good shots off hitting the Stormtrooper she had hit earlier square in the chest taking him out of play. The girl turned and ran for the exit on the other side of the main reactor room, Jacen following shortly after knocking the shots away from them. They both ran down the corridor that led to the docking bay where Jacen's two person X-wing sat waiting for them.
They entered the enormous room that housed all different size ships. As they weaved threw the different ships to get to their X-wing, A coldness surrounded Sara when a dark sleek ship caught her attention that had two cloaked people standing at the base of the ramp. She stopped and stared at them like they had hypnotized her as her companion kept running to there escape. Sara had felt there presents before, long ago when she was young. They were just one of the reasons Luke hid is daughter on Tattooine four years ago. The feelings she felt towards them busted, flooding her with anger, they where behind this whole conspiracy.
Jacen reached the ladder to his ship, spun around to let the girl he love climb up first and noticed that she was not behind him. He looked up at where he had come from and found Sara standing staring at the two people with her anger radiating out from her. He started to run for her when he saw that they had lit their red lightsabers and slowly headed for Sara. He got to her just as she was about to fire a shot at them and grabbed her arm making her shot hit the ship the figures arrived in. He pulled her as quickly as he could back to their ship as she struggled to free herself from his grasp.
"No, Jacen we need to stop them. They are behind this whole thing." She desperately tried to convince him to let her go.
Jacen trapped her against the ladder to the X-wing "We don't have time," he looked her in the eyes and thought he saw a twinge of yellow in them, but brushed it off as nothing when she blinked and the yellow was gone and all he saw was the determined emerald green eyes staring back at him. "We need to catch up to you father and your son." She didn't argue with him, at that moment she just wanted to be with her son and her father to hold them both in her arms. She quickly turned and climbed up the ladder with Jacen closely behind her.
Jacen and Sara took off in the X-wing making it to orbit with no trouble like no one had alerted the building of there presence. Sara sat in the seat behind Jacen with her back to him. She was quiet and the Jedi pilot could feel her uneasiness. "Are you ok?" his voice crackled threw the speaker next to her.
"Yea," she lied to him. She did want to talk about what had just happened in the docking bay. "Let's just get out of here."
"Ok," He could feel the avoidance of his question and punched in the coordinates for Coruscant and in a flash they were taken in to hyperspace.
That night back at Coruscant, Luke sat on the edge of a bed where he was trying to get Obi-Wan to sleep.
"Do you think my mommy made it back, Grandpa?" Obi-Wan asked Luke. iGrandpa/i there was a word that fill Luke's heart joy. The little boy he was with was his grandson and he was amazed by how much he loved him already.
"I hope so, Sar—your mom is a survivor, she doesn't surrender very easily, besides she has Jacen there to help her."
"I miss her."
"I know you do…so do I," Luke thought about how long it had been since he had seen his daughter, to talk to her and hold her in his arms, and now she has a child of her own.
Sara's voice came from the door way, "I miss you guys too,"
They both looked up and Obi-Wan let out a happy laugh and his Grandfather smiled, "You made it back," Luke was more relieved then happy to see her standing there.
"Mommy!" Obi-Wan crawled out of bed and jumped in to her arms, "will you stay with me tonight?"
"How about I spend the night with you and let your mom catch up with her dad." Another voice came from the door way, it was Jacen.
"Mmm…Ok" Obi-Wan sounded a little annoyed, but he agreed.
"Thanks Jacen," Sara smiled at the Jedi Knight, "now Obi-Wan it is time for bed," she placed her son back in the bed and kissed him goodnight, Sara walked over to Jacen and kissed him on the cheek, "good night"
"Thanks Jace," Luke said, patting his nephew's shoulder as he walked out of the door with his daughter leaving Jacen and Obi-wan alone in the bedroom. Jacen lied down on the bed next to Obi-wan resting his head on his hands and crossing his legs at his ankles in a relaxing position.
The child moved so he could mimicking the man's position. "Did you guys run into trouble?" the boy asked curiously.
"A little bit." He didn't want to scare him with what really happened. "But it was nothing we couldn't handle."
"Is Grandpa a Jedi Knight like you?" he wondered.
"Sort of, he is a Jedi Master." He tried to impress the boy with Luke's ability as they lied there.
"I want to be a Jedi Knight when I grow up."
"Really," Jacen smiled at the boy. "I think your Grandpa will like that."
Sara walked into her fathers room, followed closely behind her was Luke.
"I'm glad your home," he spoke softly.
Sara didn't say anything, she just walked around the room looking at pictures on the shelf.
"Is it as you remember?" Sara looked at him and smiled as Luke continued, "I remember my favourite time spending with you. You would run in here, scared because you herd a noise in your room or you had a bad dream."
As Sara listened to his story, she noticed a small holo of Luke and a woman with red hair, the same women that she had helped rescued from the Empire, they were all dressed up, Luke in a tux and the red haired woman in a white dress. Sara picked up the holo to take a closer look.
"…And you would fall asleep on my chest," Luke paused "I miss that."
"You got married?" Sara asked not really listening to the end of the story.
"Yea, I did," he walked over to her, "her name is Mara, she is wonderful, she was there for me when I lost you," Sara wrapped her arms around Luke waist and he just held her tightly, "I wanted you to be there for the wedding so badly."