Chapter 10

Warmth enveloped her when Allana regained consciousness, the wet heat of bacta surrounding her utterly and completely, the mask fixed firmly in place about her mouth and nose to prevent inadvertent inhalation. The brief costume she wore was light on her skin and her fingers tingled where blood flow was limited. A quick glance around showed she wasn't the only one in bacta and the reassuring dark shadow of another body in the next tank over lifted her spirits.

They didn't put the dead in bacta.

Ben...

Lifting one hand slowly, she placed her fingers against the glass of the tank in a futile attempt to reach him; she knew it was futile, but that didn't stop her from reaching anyway. She couldn't see him clearly, but she could picture him the way she'd seen him when she'd last come to find him here. He'd be dressed briefly, all that tanned and toned muscle on display for everyone to see.

Jealousy came from nowhere and she banished it with a frighteningly concerted effort. Ben was in bacta; he couldn't be draped in robes. The fact he was in the bacta at all meant he stood a good chance of recovery and he wouldn't have been given that chance if they thought he would die.

The tingling in her extremities brought her attention back to her own predicament and she turned her attention to her own injuries. Unable to see more than lines of pink - healing flesh surrounding long lines of stitchery where flesh was slowly re-growing over barely concealed muscle - she considered how long she would have had to been in the tank to re-grown what flesh was obviously new.

Safety precautions and health factors would mean pulling her from the healing fluid every day for several hours to give her body a chance of exposure to bacteria and other natural air born motes and mites to avoid derailing her immune system. Still, it wouldn't mean they'd pull her out at the same time as Ben - and he hadn't a clue if she'd recently been reinserted, or was due; or even how long she'd been in.

The effort of staying awake was too much, her body already taxed from using all of its strength to heal, and she slipped away once more.

"Put them together."

"But... sire, are you certain that's wise?"

"With the Queen Mother indisposed, her powers fall to me. You dare question that?"

"I wouldn't dare."

"Put them together. They're weak as newborns - and the contact will comfort them."

"They won't be aware of it."

"Do it anyway; it's what they'd want. It's what she would want."

"Yes sir, however ill advised I think it may be. If they should wake together-"

"They'll be ecstatic."

"Then this is a standing order, sir?"

"Until they're both conscious once more; then they can decide if arrangements are to their liking."

"Immediately, sire."

Zekk rubbed the back of his neck as he settled into a chair in the living room of his suite and tilted his head back against the head rest. It was late - or was it early when the sun was coming up and you hadn't been to bed yet? - and he was exhausted. Bone weary, he didn't dare close his eyes, catching the sight of the main bed room door out of the corner of his eye. If he didn't have to go back out to speak with the guards and the medics in less than an hour, he would have been tempted to join his wife.

As it was, he'd had to pry her away from the console she'd been glued to six hours ago and she needed her sleep. This stage of her pregnancy wasn't easy and she slept light; even now he could feel the faint awareness about her and soothed her unconsciously. Jaina was as restless as he, but she couldn't just think of herself at a time like this; their child had to be her first concern, just as Zekk's first born was his own.

Things were not going as he'd hoped. Tenel Ka's 'help' had been cryptic at best - just like she had sometimes been through life - and his own time on Hapes was questionable. He hadn't spent a great deal of it without the Solo Twins or Tenel Ka, and he didn't exactly understand what she'd meant. The girl Allana had fought was too... identical to be her sister if not a twin. He was still waiting on the DNA analysis - which was on hold as the medics attempted to save Allana and Ben - but a suspicions had already formed in his mind.

"Daddy?"

Zekk's head came around and his was on his feet in seconds, moving towards the toddler's side. Jacen's hair was a mess - sticking up every which way just like his name-sake's used to - and he had his thumb in his mouth. Scooping his son into his arms, Zekk hugged him. "Hey kiddo. What're you doing up?"

"Lana hurt?"

"That's right." How Jacen had 'heard' wasn't hard to guess. People often didn't curb their tongues around children, forgetting they understood more than they seemed to. "She's very hurt. A bad lady wanted to make her go away for good, but your cousin Ben wouldn't let her."

Dark eyes so much like Jaina's stared at him solemnly. "Me see Lana?"

Wishing he could, but not willing to subject his son to his daughter's injuries, he regretfully shook his head. "Not tonight, Jacen."

"Why?"

"Because it's too early and you should be sleeping."

"Why?"

"Because it's still your bed time and Mommy needs her rest."

"Why?"

"Because of the baby, big brother." Striding towards the adjacent room with Jacen balanced on his hip, Zekk opened the door and stepped in. A soft night light weakly illuminated the area around the door and he clicked the light on.

"Daddy, down!"

He placed his son on the ground - and the obedient little boy yawned and toddled towards his bed. A paternal smile full of pride crossed Zekk's lips as he watched him. The toddler wavered but persevered, gripping the little ladder Jaina had suspended at one end of his bed and pulled himself back in.

Jacen was an independent as his mother.

"Kiss?"

Zekk chuckled, dropping down to sit on the edge of the bed as he held the covers so Jacen could crawl back in. Tilting his face to his father, Jacen presented his cheek and extended his arms for a hug. Zekk obliged him with a tightness in the back of his throat. "Sleep well, kiddo. Sweet dreams."

"Night night." Jacen closed his eyes, hugging the stuffed X-wing someone had brought him - the toy of the week no doubt - and Zekk gently caressed the soft, tangled curls on his son's head.

Dropping another light kiss on the boy's forehead, Zekk rose to his feet and exited the room, clicking the lights off. He closed the door most of the way behind him - just in case Jacen needed them - and was stepping back into the living room when a flash of disbelief and a muffled groan came from the bedroom, the power of the Force impression making him gasp.

"Jaina!"

Darting forward, Zekk threw open the doors expecting to find another assassin - and instead found his wife curled on her side in the midst of a contraction. He was beside her in an instant, taking her hand. "Breathe, Jay."

"H... horrible... t-timing."

Laughing the much needed release, Zekk took in the soaked sheets about her with a glance. Her water had already broken. Trust Jaina to be indignant about going into labor. "Only you would think so. Hang onto me; we don't have time to wait for the medics to get to you; I'm going to take you to them."

She didn't need to be told twice as she grasped him tightly around the neck, exhaling on a hiss as another contraction rocked her small frame. Too close. She was too close. Zekk lifted her in his arms and dashed from the room; the guards would have to mind Jacen.

The crying of a baby woke Allana, distorted by the liquid of the bacta.

A baby.

Her younger brother or sister - or had someone else in the palace gone into labor? Her fogged brain couldn't remember if anyone else was expecting, and if they were, when. The murmur of her father's voice - a sound she would have recognized anywhere, through any barrier, gave her the answer she sought.

His voice and a baby; it had to be her new sibling; and she was in bacta. Behind the mask her lips curved into a semblance of a smile. She had a new family member, someone to meet when she got out of this awful liquid prison. Someone Ben and she could-

Ben.

Turning her head, she caught sight of the formless blob bobbing in the tank next to hers and her panic dissipated. He was still okay.

Her thoughts disjointed, they bounced back and forth between Ben and her family, especially the new member. Boy? Girl? Her parents hadn't wanted to know and now she did. Would Ben be excited? He was an only child and she'd always thought to be one too - except now she was the oldest of a trio.

Unable to sustain the mentally draining activity of thought grav ball, she slipped away before she knew any answers and never saw her father's silhouette when he walked in to check on her a couple of hours later or the smile on his face.

"The tissue damage has been corrected and the stimuli to ensure re-growth is promising. There may still be a slight limp in one leg as one of the gashes was more severe than the other, but overall the diagnosis is promising."

"And Jedi Skywalker?"

"The Queen Mother has woken up several times during treatment. Jedi Skywalker has yet to regain consciousness. Until this happens, his outlook is grim."

No!

"You're certain?"

"His physical injuries are healing, sire, which indicates his body is still alive, but the will to live may not be present."

"Is he aware of the Queen Mother's condition?"

"We... cannot be certain. We have tried informing him hourly that her condition improves, but there is no way to know if he truly hears us."

"Keep trying. Even if he doesn't understand now, he might eventually and once he does, it should bring him out of it."

"Yes sire."

The outlook of the medics for the Queen mother's condition was hopeful. She was recovering well and only days away from being released from the bacta tank and placed into medical observation as her body recovered from the wounds. Rehabilitation was batted about, and Zekk made a point of being in any meeting considering Allana or Ben's extended care.

Jacen was often a tag along to give Jaina a chance to rest between feedings. That their young son was fascinated by the baby would be an understatement and Jaina had finally ordered Zekk to keep him out for a couple of days so she could sleep while the baby did. Zekk, ever the solicitous husband, did as she asked and turned Allana's care into a puzzle for Jacen to watch.

Surprisingly, it had been the toddler who asked if Allana had been able to touch Ben - not in so many words of course, but the gist of it had been there. Intrigued by the idea, the medics, when they next pulled a semi-unconscious Allana from the tank had set up a rig to let her lie above the other bacta tank. Using the hatch at the top of the tank, they slipped her hand into the other tank - and had watched as her fingers curled possessively in Ben's red locks.

On Medic had called it a latent reaction, something triggered by the tactile receivers in the fingers - until Allana's hand had slipped down over the side of Ben's face and about his exposed ear. Watching in disbelief, the Medics could only stare as the unconscious Allana's touch seemed to trigger something within their other patient.

Pulling her away and out of the room to install her in the large recovery bunk the Prince consort had insisted upon, the Medics swarmed the tank holding Ben and began to analyze the readings being pumped through the machines. A general feel of optimism rippled through the medical bay as Jacen curled close to his dad with a wide grin. Zekk hugged him back, kissing the top of his head in a silent thank you.

Jacen couldn't understand, but he'd just given his older sister the only thing she'd ever wanted.

When Allana woke next it was to the soft pressure of lips against her temple and an arm around her waist.

The scent of bacta lingered in the air, testament to the fact she hadn't been out of the tank long - and that her bed mate had also been immersed. The solvent used to clean the goop from one's body never succeeded in completely removing the smell and the slight tang to the scent was telling. Shifting, she shivered and lifted her eyelids cautiously.

Dim lighting made the room bearable to eyes that had seen through a bacta induced haze for however long she'd been in and out of treatment. Soreness in her limbs was a dull throb at the edge of her consciousness - a consciousness that was almost completely focused on the chin in line with her gaze. She knew that slight cleft and the faint freckle on the left side of unfairly generous lips.

"Ben?"

His name came out croaked and she coughed at the dryness of her throat. That chin jerked down, replaced immediately by the bluest pair of eyes she thought she'd seen the last of.

"Easy Twitch," he told her softly, the hand about her waist shifting to rub her back. "You've been out for a while."

Unable to respond, Allana could do little more than ride out the coughing fit as tears flooded her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Her fingers - splayed against his chest - curled into the light weight shirt someone had draped over him and held on tightly as she tucked her head under his chin. Ben held her, rubbing her back as she fought to breathe and speak all at the same time.

"I..." wheeze "thought" cough "you were" wheeze "dead."

A soft chuckled rumbled through his chest as he tightened his grip on her for a moment. "I think I almost was."

Her gaze flew back to his, her head tilting back at his soft reply.

Ben brushed his lips across one cheekbone. "I'd convinced myself I was too late to save you."

"Ben-"

"Hush, let me talk for a minute, okay?"

She snapped her lips shut and nodded, coughing softly as the spasm seemed to pass.

"Good." He shifted, sitting up with a wince. There was stiffness in his movements; old injuries not yet completely healed compounded by new ones - but it didn't stop him. She stayed where she was as Ben propped himself against the wall at one end of the mattress they were sharing. It wasn't really a bed, but it wasn't one of the recovery bunks either - yet they were in a recovery room. Someone, her father's doing no doubt, had ensured they would be together even when unconscious.

Ben tilted his head against the wall with a hiss, indicating he wasn't as recovered as she'd first believed, and she sat up sharply. "Are you-"

"Fine," he assured her quickly. "Just a little sore. I thought you'd died, Allana; I didn't want to heal. I thought I'd failed you; that I deserved whatever injuries I'd suffered and their natural consequences were."

"What changed your mind?"

Lifting one of her hands, he ran his thumb over the knuckles. "I felt your touch."

She stared at him. "I never touched you - I was in bacta, just like you were."

"You did," his lips tilted and his fingers squeezed hers. "I'd know the feel of these calluses anywhere. You've caught my hand too many times when I've fallen for me not to." He lifted his free hand to his hair, brushing his fingers across his scalp and down one side of his face. "Here... right here. You ran your fingers through my hair and then cupped my face. The heel of your hand was on my cheek bone and your fingers on my chin as your thumb played with my ear."

Her jaw dropped. "I-"

"That touch is what brought me back, Allana." Ben reached out to cup her face. "It's what made me want to wake up."

"You'd have gone on without me," her words were slightly strangled. "Even if I hadn't made it, you're stronger than that Ben."

"I used to think so too, but I've been living without you for a long time and never, not in all this time, have I ever felt so right as when I'm with you. I love you, Allana. You. Not the Queen Mother the cluster sees but Allana Djo; daughter to Jedi Zekk. The adventurous, self sacrificing, courageous warrior I left behind who's only grown and matured with time. You say you've changed; I don't disagree - but the fundamentals of who you are haven't. You've had to learn a new skill set - so have I. Life's happened and we've had to grow or risk being left behind. That growth doesn't meaning leaving who you are in the past, it means taking the best of what you were and becoming who you want to be. It means-"

"Ben - shut up. Just... shut up."

"Sire?"

Zekk lifted his head wearily at the soft inquiry, Jacen still sleeping peacefully across his lap. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was and it must have shown in his expression. The Medic regarded him sympathetically.

"A newborn in the house is never easy. Perhaps you should find a bunk of your own?"

He shook his head. "I'm just not as young as I used to be. How's Allana; any change?"

"Her Majesty and Jedi Skywalker were resting comfortably."

"Were?"

"Several minutes ago the monitors in the room indicated they were no longer sleeping."

"Are they awake?"

"It would appear so."

Carefully shifting Jacen to the seat - where the tyke promptly curled into a ball with a soft sigh - Zekk stood and stretched. He winced as his joints cracked; he'd been sitting in that position for far too long. Ah, to be young again and able to bounce back from awkward sleeping positions. "Can I see them?"

"I would advise caution," the Medic told him with a faint smile. "There is no telling just how much they remember or how much they've recovered. Jedi Skywalker is particularly injured and will need extensive treatments to ensure the damage done on Gallinore doesn't compound on his new injuries."

"And Allana?"

"She will recover."

"Fully?"

"With time and care, we are hopeful. If she shows the same determination in her recovery that she has for her reforms, she will no doubt walk one day without a limp. We cannot, however, predict what injuries - if any - will be long term on Jedi Skywalker. Until his reaction to the Queen Mother's touch, it was impossible to tell if he would live or die. His will to live seemed... minimal."

Glancing back at the sleeping Jacen, Zekk silently thanked the Force again for small miracles. Love was a strange thing sometimes. It had power even he still didn't completely understand, but he was grateful for it. "Could you keep an eye on him?"

The Medic settled into the chair he'd vacated, pulling the toddler partially into her lap. "I could use the reprieve. Remember, Sire - caution."

"I'll be the soul of discretion." Zekk promised with a faint smile. Turning, he headed for the recovery room where Allana and Ben had been placed several hours ago. With Jaina going into labor, Jacen's inspirational idea and the rest of the excitement over the last two days, Zekk wondered what Allana would think of what he'd discovered regarding her attacker - if she remembered being attacked.

Stopping outside the door, he knocked, using two knuckles to announce his presence and well aware that - had it been him and Jaina inside - he likely wouldn't have wasted much time talking once he realized they were both going to survive.

"Come in," came the muffled, slightly disgruntled call.

Suppressing a grin - he recognized that as a trait of his own - Zekk palmed open the door controls. A quick look showed his daughter in Ben's arms, her head on his chest with Ben toying with the ends of her hair in one hand.

"Dad!"

"You're looking good for someone just out of bacta, brat." Ben made to release her, but Zekk held up his hands to dissuade him. "Don't move on my account; neither of you is close to fully healed yet. The medic would never forgive me for reopening your wounds."

It was tacit, unspoken approval - and Ben's slight inclination of his head Zekk's way showed he understood Zekk's unspoken message... and appreciated it. "Thank you, sir."

"Zekk," he corrected, dryly. "No need for ceremony. May I come in?"

Allana waved him towards a chair on one side of the bed. "I never would have told you to if you weren't permitted."

"Just checking," teasing his daughter was second nature. "I wouldn't want to be interrupting anything."

"Dad…"

Taking the seat, Zekk stretched his legs out. "How're you both feeling?"

"Not dead," Ben responded dryly.

"Which means anything is an improvement?"

"Exactly." Ben shifted as Allana moved, sitting up but not moving from the circle of his arm. "Not that we're ungrateful for the company, Zekk, but is there more to your visit than just checking up on us?"

"Checking up?" Amused, Zekk shook his head. "My daughter is more than capable of making her own adult decisions, Skywalker; she's proven it time and time again. Allana is the last person who needs checking up on."

"Get to the point, dad."

"Ah ha! I did interrupt something!" Zekk didn't give her a chance to respond to the tease, holding up one hand as he smiled faintly. "I meant it; you're an adult and capable of making your own choices - and frankly, I don't want to know."

Allana glared at her father. "Get to the point," she repeated, her tone clipped.

"What do you two remember?"

"About the attack?"

Zekk nodded.

Allana and Ben shared a look. "Images," Allana ventured. "Fragments of images, really. I keep thinking I was looking into a mirror."

"Close," Zekk allowed. "Ben?"

"The same - except I wasn't fighting a mirror; I was fighting Allana."

"Which you were." Zekk ran a hand through his hair. "What do you two understand about the Force and its ability to warp time?"

"You mean time walk?"

Zekk nodded.

"Very little," Ben conceded. "My father said it was an ability few Jedi could master and even then it was so dangerous that unless you knew exactly when and where you were going, you could get time lost."

"Luke pretty much told me exactly that when I contacted him yesterday," the elder Jedi confirmed, leaning forward in the chair as he braced his elbows on his knees. "The genetic analysis shows that the woman you fought was Allana. Identical down to markers in her genetic structure that can't be reproduced and aren't possible in twins - except she was Jacen's daughter, not mine."

"Are you saying that the girl we fought was Allana who was time lost?"

"Essentially." Rubbing his hands together, Zekk exhaled slowly. "What we've been looking for is how it's possible and who coached her. Your mother, Allana, pointed us in the right direction."

"Mom!" Allana sat up straight as if shot. "But..."

"I know she's dead, but she's manifesting herself as a Force ghost to keep us on the right path. The answer, she told me, lay in my time on Hapes before you were born. It turns out one of the guards on her staff wasn't as completely loyal as she believed and informed Jacen of her... transgression with me."

"So… Jacen Solo was responsible for it?"

"Jacen always believed that you were his daughter; according to his personal journal entries - some of which are stored in the palace's database - he believed it right up until the day he died."

"Then why would he time walk or whatever if he thought I was his daughter?"

"Because it was never you he was talking about in his diaries." Clarifying that point seemed to turn a light bulb on in Allana's head. "Somehow, Jacen was able to cross not just through time but into another timeline. The Allana he spoke of in his journals was his daughter being raised here on Hapes in secret; the daughter he intended to replace you with."

"Except mom got in the way."

"Partially correct." Tenel Ka's ghost materialized in the room at that point and - to everyone's shock - the ghost of one Jacen Solo. "Perhaps it would be best if Jacen explains himself."

Zekk had jumped partially out of his seat with their appearance, his gaze on the man who had been like a brother to him - and forced to kill to protect his daughter. "Jacen."

"Zekk." The unruly hair that had been Jacen Solo's trademark through his childhood was no better in death than it had been in life - and the ghost ran one hand through it, every line of his posture screaming remorse. "An 'I'm sorry' doesn't exactly cut it, but I am."

"I know." And Zekk did know; it had been in Jacen's eyes as he'd died. Jealousy and grief were powerful emotions. "What did you do?"

"Exactly as you surmised," Jacen returned dryly, not looking at his cousin or his friend's daughter. "I crossed the timelines and plucked a young Allana that was my blood kin from it to return to ours. What I never expected was the strain on her young body and mind; the trip caused a shift I never expected."

"In other words, it drove her mad."

"Exactly - and in the process, so was I." Jacen admitted. "You have no idea what it was like watching Tenel Ka raise your child, knowing she should have been mine."

"Excuse me, but said child is still in the room," Allana snapped, glaring at her mother's former consort. "You ruined my life!"

"No," Jacen shook his head. "I didn't know it at the time, but I gave you your life, Allana. Had you been raised here on Hapes, you would have turned out as the daughter I brought over. She was a product of Hapan society, twisted and corrupted. She was everything you could have been had Ta'a Chume had her way."

"You gave that lost little girl to Ta'a Chume?"

"Who better to train the heir to the Hapan throne?" Jacen looked down, chagrined. "I was wrong; I know that now. But I also know that if I hadn't done what I did, you - Allana - would not be the young woman you are today. No matter the strength your mother's influence would have been, her memory under Zekk's tutelage has had a far greater impact that she ever could have in person."

"But-"

"This is a fact, daughter," Tenel Ka admonished softly. "Zekk has raised you well."

"I just have one question," Ben interjected, looking from one ghost to the other.

"Go ahead."

"Why, if the Allana you had trained here was intending to take over the throne, did she attack my Allana in the way she did?"

"Your Allana?"

Ben's lips kicked into a grin at Tenel Ka's reaction to his possessive claim. "Well… she is."

"And willingly, mom."

"A good match," Tenel Ka conceded with a nod of her head, her lips twitching into a faint smile. "Jacen?"

"We don't know what went wrong exactly," he told her honestly. "All I know is that when I died, the ripples were felt through the Force and the Allana I had brought back here was tied to me quite tightly. The loss pushed her over the edge of sanity and she began training - not for taking over the Consortium as we're planned - but for killing Allana and all those she held dear. We don't have the details and we may never have them all, but that's what I know."

"It helps," Zekk informed his old friends. "And it explains more than I could have."

"Do you have further questions?" They both shook their heads and Tenel Ka reached for Jacen's hand. "Listen to your father, daughter; he is a wise man. May the force be with all of you."

"Must you go?"

"Our place is not in this world any longer... and Jacen still has much to atone for."

"This is just part of it. I'm sorry I've caused all of you so much grief."

Zekk rose to his feet. "Whatever you did, Jacen, the outcome was good and I was given the chance to know my daughter; I can't regret that."

"Say hi to Jaina for me - and congratulations."

"Thanks."

Jacen and Tenel Ka disappeared, leaving Zekk with Ben and Allana once more.

"Twisted," Ben whistled with a shake of his head. "And congratulations on what?"

Zekk smiled. "Allana's a big sister again. I'll leave you two be; there's another few bacta treatments you'll both need to undergo, but they'll be shorter now that you've regained consciousness."

"Dad, wait."

Zekk paused in the doorway, turning to look back at the two of them.

"Do I have a little brother or sister?"

His lips kicked into a smile. "Your brother is delighted to have a little sister to go along with his big one."

"What'd you name her?"

Zekk's gaze drifted towards where Jacen and Tenel Ka had been standing. "Do you really have to ask?"

The door closed behind him as he departed, leaving the two of them alone again. Allana sagged back against Ben, her eyes glued to the door. "He would!"

"What? He would what?"

Allana placed her hand over Ben's heart and smiled, looking up at him. "They named her Tenel Ka."