Jaden reached the lake and took a deep breath. She didn't need Aeden's anger even though she understood it. He had questions and she would have to answer them, but right now she wanted to retreat into herself and ignore all the rest. Stripping down to nothing, she climbed to the top of the rock she would jump off when she was little and dove into the cool waters of the lake. Surfacing she began to swim to the other side; each stroke angry and sure matching the thoughts going through her mind.
The past two days had been rough. When the master's had yanked her from the council chambers on Coruscant, they didn't realize they had also brought Aeden with her. She had been trying to heal him on the sly or at least healing enough that the pain wasn't debilitating. When she woke up in the Force and realized he wasn't there, she began to panic and found him when she heard his agonizing scream. The dark masters where torturing him, infusing him with a poison designed to drive him insane. For the second time in her existence she struck back at the dark side, causing it to retreat long enough for her to reach him and bring him here to her sanctuary. This is where she came to hide. Hide from the masters and hide from herself when she could no longer stand what she was doing as the Force. For two days she had sat with Aeden as he fought off the effects of the poison. She held his hand, slept beside him, fed him, and healed him. Each time he woke she was there to reassure him that everything would be ok. But would it?
She emptied her mind as she crossed the lake repeatedly. Each stroke, each kick, each breath allowed her returned Midiclorians to find their place in her cells. Light and dark joined to become gray and settled within her. Yes, she had gone home briefly, but not being able to stand at the center of the temple had done little in terms of merging who she was. She was the Force, the embodiment of the Force and each passing moment convinced her even more that it was time to end this and write the final accord. The Force would continue, but embodiers would not. Sentient beings can screw up and fix their own mistakes, they didn't need a millennial long feud screwing up their own screw ups.
It was only when her mind was finally quiet after months of chaos and her muscled warmed with the full strength of the Force, that she stopped swimming. Taking a deep breath, she looked around and found Aeden sitting in one of the chairs on the patio, watching her with every distrustful, snark-laden, angry cell in his body scowling at her from afar. She would miss him the most, she thought as her soul smiled.
Climbing from the lake, she pulled on her tunic and picked up the rest of her clothes. She could feel his anger as she drew closer to the courtyard but that was ok. She was now ok.
"Where are we?" He demanded when she reached the slate tiles of the patio. He had been watching her for the last several minutes, trying not to admire the strength of her as she repeatedly crossed the lake. He could feel the atmosphere around him change the longer she swam until it seemed to settle. He didn't divert his gaze as she climbed from the lake, water sluicing off her golden skin. As he always had, he thought her magnificent, strong, and fearless.
As she approached, she noticed he was continually rubbing his left arm, probably unaware he was doing it, but she was and knew the reason why. Setting down the bundle of clothing she told him, "This is Naboo, I grew up here." She reached out and grabbed his left hand, turning it over so she could see. When he attempted to pull it back she told him to hold still and be quiet.
Aeden looked down at his arm, red from where he had been rubbing and watched as she moved her hand over the skin. Just below the surface he noticed a red web-like welt moving under his skin, several of them in fact. Her quiet 'damnit' had him looking up. "What the hell?"
Jaden let go of his arm and started for the house, when he reached out to grab her she gave him as stern look and continued. She returned several minutes later and set down a pink frothy mixture in front of him.
"Drink this."
"No."
"Aeden," she sighed, "I will answer your questions, but you need to drink this." He picked up the glass took one swig and set it down making a face at the acrid taste. "All of it," she added as she picked up the bundle of clothes. "I'm going to clean up, then we can talk."
It would be under penalty of death that Aeden was going to admit the liquid she had brought him had an instant effect, but he did what she asked and drank the contents of the glass. As he did, he watched and could feel the, whatever was under his skin, squirm and die and rise to the surface only to vanish when it reached the air, turned to dust, and blew away with the breeze. It was disgusting and gross and made his skin crawl, literally, but it also held a certain fascination, like being attracted to a speeder wreck.
When Jaden returned to the patio, she set down a bowl of stew and a glass of ale in front of him before she sat down. Pleased he had drank the antidote to the dark master's poison, she studied him. "You eat, I'll talk."
"What did you do to me?" he asked then pointed to his arm, "What is this?" he demanded.
"On Coruscant, in the council chambers, the master's overwhelmed me and pulled me into the Force. Because I was trying to heal you, you were dragged along. When I came to, I couldn't find you until I heard you scream. The dark masters were infusing you with a poison, so I lashed out enough that I could get you away from them and brought you here. For the last two days, I have been treating you."
"And for that I'm supposed to thank you?" He snapped remembering her comment about saving him. Jaden sighed as she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead reaching for patience. "And how the hell did you get us here? I doubt your lover would have just let you leave."
"That ship sailed," she snapped with an annoyed look. Waving away his skeptical expression she told him, "Our physical selves are still on Coruscant. You're a guest in the medical center of the Jedi Temple and I'm in an apartment. We are both under guard." She took a drink from his glass. "You didn't realize you could, nor did they tell you, but while the Force was severed, you gained the ability to go in and out of the Force; you've experienced it. When it happens, the physical self is left behind. As I said before, this is Naboo. I created this place, so I could come here and find peace and be alone. The masters can't reach me here, call it a haven if you want."
When she reached for his glass again, he frowned and pulled it away, closer to him. She smiled at the childish act and shook her head before she went on.
"I lived here for the first 5 years of my life with my mother. This was her home. The day after my fifth birthday she told me she had a surprise for me. We were going to go to a castle where I would get to be the princess." She began. "Wouldn't that be fun!"
The sarcasm wasn't lost on Aeden. "What happened? You didn't want to go?"
"Are you kidding, I was bouncing off the walls waiting for the private, mind you, shuttle to arrive. What a great adventure. And it was," she paused, "up until the time that I let go of her hand and ran ahead, ignoring her call to come back and wait for her. Wait, was she kidding," she said remembering how excited she was to see the castle sitting in the meadow on the hill. "I wasn't going to wait, I had to reach the castle, get to be the princess! When I turned around to tell her to hurry up, she was just standing there, her hand covering her mouth as tears ran down her face.
"I didn't know what was going on, I rolled my eyes figuring she was excited for me, overwhelmed at the good fortune. It wasn't until I went back to her," she stopped and jumped from the chair to stand by the low stone wall that encompassed the patio. "I couldn't reach her," she continued in a softer voice. "I accused her of trying to teach me a lesson about listening to her. I was sorry I made her cry and I wouldn't do it again. But I couldn't reach her. Every time I tried I kept hitting the barrier that prevents entrance into the Valley of the Jedi. I don't know how long it was before my panic became full blown and I was crying and screaming for her, but she didn't hear me. She had collapsed and at one point when she lifted her hand and placed it against mine, I thought maybe she could." Jaden slowly shook her head before continuing. "Remember me, baby girl, and know that I love you."
Aeden watched her closely. His anger with her was shifting as compassion for a little girl began to take its place. He tried fighting against it, but he was finding it difficult. She seemed to shake herself free of her thoughts before she apologized. He waved it off as not needed.
Wanting to shake off the feeling of melancholy remembering the past always swamped her with, she jumped ahead a few decades to the other day and told him, "The dark masters don't take failure very well. It's not tolerated, and it's met with swift and final action. You failed them and for that they wanted to kill you."
"Because I didn't defeat you," he stated as she came back to the table and sat down.
"Defeat, destroy, kill, maim, murder, you name it, you failed. I knew they would come after you, that's why I was trying to heal you, so you would have a chance to protect yourself."
"If you knew that, why didn't you just destroy me? Why let me live?" When she didn't answer, he slammed his fist on the table. "Why?"
"Because I won't let them win. I won't let them regain . . ." she trailed off.
"Regain what?" he asked with a sinking feeling. There was obviously more going on here than Jaden saving him from the dark side. He always had a feeling he was being used, more so at the end of this debacle when they faced each other on the Gehenna. "Answer me! Regain what?"
"Years ago, Mandalore the Ultimate came to me wanting to use the strength of the dark side to help his army in their fight against the Republic. The dark side agreed, seeing this as a way to strike at the light side. I didn't care one way or another, but I put some restrictions on what he could do at the request of the light masters and I added one of my own."
"Wait, I remember Canderous saying the Sith came to them"
Jaden 'Pffft' and went on. "While they were rampaging across the Republic's space I was quietly helping the light side and watching the Jedi do nothing. Revan had already started her fall to the dark side so when she showed up at the temple on Malachor V it wasn't a big surprise. She pledged herself to the Sith, to me specifically." Her tone was matter-of-fact.
"Everything was going well. The Republic was getting its ass kicked, the Jedi, pansies that they are, were still waiting for what I don't know, and Revan had manipulated you and the others against the council and off you went to war." She could hear Aeden's ragged breathing and looked over at him. "Did you think, as the embodiment of the Force, the dark side specifically, I wouldn't have had a hand in orchestrating much of this?"
"You caused the war." He stated in a low dangerous voice. His eyes were dark and hard, and she relished the anger she could feel building within him.
"No, but I didn't stop it either. It's not the job of the Force embodier to start or stop wars, its job is to maintain balance. Sentient beings start and stop wars. The destruction of the Republic and Sith fleets? Balance. Battles won and lost? Balance." When he looked away and didn't respond she went on.
"There had been a lull in the fighting, a chance for everyone to catch their breath I guess, including me. I was meditating, wandering around the galaxy as the Force does when I heard my mother scream. I wasn't sure I was really hearing her, but she screamed again, then she was begging, that turned to whimpers and then finally silence. I tried to reach her, but I was too late." Jaden pointed to a spot near the stairs. "That's where my mother died, trying to crawl to safety." With that she got up and went inside.
He didn't want to care, fought the urge to go after her. Aeden didn't understand why he was the one privy to this highly personal story of her life. What did it have to do with him? His knuckles were white from gripping the arms of the chair when she returned with two fresh bottles of ale.
"Why are you telling me this?"
After she sat down she looked over at him. "Because you're the only one I can tell."
He rolled his eyes, "Jaden – "
"You asked what I didn't want the dark masters to regain. For you to understand my statement, you need to know why it was lost." She jumped up again and wandered to the wall. "Maybe I need to tell someone, because it will never, never make it into the archives or history of the Force." After several minutes of silence, she returned to her seat.
It amazed him, as he watched her, being able to feel every nuanced emotion, every conflicted thought that ran through her mind. "What happened?"
"Mandalore had sent a scouting party to Naboo and they came across my mother down by the lake. They tortured her, raped her, sodomized her, brutalized her. When she managed to get away from them, they tormented her and then started the whole process over again until finally she gave up. She begged for me to help her, but I was too late."
Every word she said, every description played in his mind and he briefly wondered if Jaden realized she was projecting her memory into him. With vivid detail he saw every brutal blow, heard every laugh from the five men as they gang raped a helpless woman while she begged for her daughter to help her. Remember me, baby girl, and know that I love you. Her final words before dying continued to echo in his mind.
"They were ransacking the house when I arrived. I couldn't help my mother, but I could punish them for what they had done. I gathered everything I was, every ounce of dark side power I possessed, and I made them do to each other what they had done to my mother, repeatedly, until only one of them was left alive. I denied him his final breath and sent him back to Mandalore the Ultimate.
"When he arrived on Mandalore he was granted an audience. When he was in the main chamber, he relayed in rich detail everything they had done on Naboo. When he was done with his tale, he told his leader one more thing."
Aeden shook his head and looked at her. "Never break the word of the leader of the Sith Empire."
Jaden, pleased he remembered her words from Korriban, gave him a sad smile and nodded. "When that was done, he began coughing to the point where he was turning himself inside out."
"You would think someone would have remembered to pass that story on."
"Small potatoes and quickly forgotten in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, when I returned to the temple after burying my mother the light masters quietly conferred upon me the title of Supreme Jedi Lord. I didn't care, sometimes I still don't. I've often wondered what would've happened if the Jedi had acted sooner, but it didn't matter. It didn't change the fact that my mother was dead or that it was her time. How she died, was a whole other matter."
The air around him immediately became charged causing the hairs on his arm to stand on end while a greasy feeling slid through his system.
"I was in the rotunda of the temple when the dark masters appeared congratulating me on passing my final test. I was now worthy to become the Sith'ari having proven I could wield the dark side with the best of the embodiers. I wasn't sure what they were talking about but as they continued their speech it dawned on me what had happened. When I confronted them, they didn't deny it, they were the ones that had convinced Mandalore that he needed to send a scouting party to Naboo. The resources alone would help fuel his war machine for years to come."
She had a faraway look in her eyes when he said, "Your added restriction was that the Mandalorians would leave Naboo alone." He couldn't even begin to imagine how that type of betrayal would feel.
Jaden slowly nodded. "I lost it and I lashed out at the dark masters. I beat them at their own game, used every trick they had ever taught me, against them. They were down and nearly out, defeated to the point of non-existence."
As the images of that battle also flashed through his mind, her ruthlessness and brutality as she tore at the dark side, their cries of pain as she slashed through the dark manifestation, beat it to its knees so to speak, had him asking in a horrified whisper, "How is that possible?"
"It's not. I would have doomed myself and the galaxy had I succeeded. It took the light masters and several ancient powerful Jedi to pull me off. All the dark masters could do was slink away in defeat." She drained half the bottle of ale.
"For months after that they tried to strike back at me. They tried bolstering Mandalore and his armies, I sent Revan to kill him. They tried infiltrating some of her Sith, her closest advisors, so I killed them. Every chance they tried to gain the upper hand, reclaim some of their dark side power, I turned them back."
The greasy feeling, Aeden had earlier turned in his gut. "And then I severed the Force with the Mass Shadow Generator."
"Yes, and they took advantage of that, used you to strike at me. It's forbidden for the masters to harm their embodier, but they found a way around that little rule with you."
"So, I was a pawn." Aeden muttered with a faint smile
"Yes." Jaden winced at the simple answer. Truthful though it was, there was probably a better way to say it, maybe add an explanation but she wasn't going to get the chance. Aeden had shot out of his chair as if it was on fire and was furiously pacing in front of her.
"It's a noble effort, what you did to avenge your mother's death, but do you realize how all this sounds? That everything we ever learned about the Force is a damn lie?" He continued to pace his breathing harsh. "You fracking screwed with people's lives, with my life!"
Jaden closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was nothing she could say or would say and watched as he continued to pace the slate tiles of the patio.
"You know, at the end, I had a feeling I was being used, you even told me that, that you couldn't do what they wanted, the dark masters, so they were using me to strike at you. But I had no idea that it was one more battle in some personal war you all fight amongst yourselves." He stopped pacing and looked at her. "You were the one striking through the Force, the one Revan went in search of," he demanded. When she didn't answer he again demanded, "Answer me! Were you the unknown that was striking through the Force?"
She watched him for a moment before nodding. "Yes."
His pacing took on an even angrier edge, his breathing harsher. "To what end? Didn't anyone at some point in the past think all this was a bad idea?"
Yes, she thought, you. "Up until recently the only thing the embodier ever did was," she waved a hand, "referee. And cause their own trouble," she added thinking of her predecessor and what he had done to Atton's grandmother.
"You forgot to mention treat everyone in the galaxy as a fracking pawn in their, in your, sick game."
"Power corrupts . . ." she began to say, not sure what she could tell him since everything he said was spot on.
"What does that even mean?" He snapped with annoyance.
"What, power corrupts? Power corrupts and absolute- "
He waved her explanation away and snapped, "I know the phrase!"
Jaden continued to watch him. His frustration and anger were beginning to manifest itself in his actions. His pacing was hard and steady, his hands flexing open and closed as if he was ready to strike at something. "They would have given you your heart's desire, Aeden; all you had to do was ask and do what they wanted." She said it quietly hoping to calm him down, but it didn't have the desired effect, he shot her a nasty and hateful look.
"I figured out that much early on in this debacle."
"Then why didn't you do what they wanted?"
"Because I'm tired of people, or dark masters, telling me what to do." He stated as he continued to pace. "Even I questioned why I questioned everything as a Jedi growing up. Everyone figured I was just curious, or annoying, not willing to just accept and go along with what I was told. I was lectured on it!"
Jaden told him, "You questioned everything because you inherently knew something was wrong." When he stopped pacing long enough to look at her, she gave him a faint smile. "You weren't looking for any answer that someone may or may not have had. Deep down you knew something was wrong, with the Force and what we were doing."
"You did too," he snapped, "and you did nothing."
"As I said, this is the first time an embodier – "
"Stop! Just stop trying to justify what you and the others have done." He turned away and headed toward the stairs to the lake.
"Aeden . . . Aeden!" She called out. When he turned around his face was a mask of stone, his lips tight together and his blue eyes nearly midnight in color with his anger. He continued to walk backward as he jerked his hands in a stop motion before he turned around and jogged away.
He thought he wanted to be a Jedi, studied hard, well mostly, but that caused him to question so many things and ultimately led to him leaving the council and joining Revan to fight the Mandalorians. Now he wondered his that decision was even his own. When that didn't work out, he thought he wanted his exile. He couldn't feel the Force, managed to survive all on his own, and continued to question why even that wasn't enough. Why wasn't it enough to want to be the Sith'ari, ruler of the Sith Empire? Wield the ultimate in power, the dark side, as evidenced by Jaden during the battle with the Republic. Seeing the holocron of their confrontation on the Gehenna brought back the stark reality of his failure, maybe all his failures.
He growled low in his throat as he marched away from the cottage. His questions, his lack of satisfaction wasn't because of a sense of inadequacy or wanting to know more, it was because he knew something was wrong with the Force.
As he had in the past when something wasn't right, he turned to something he knew. Picking up a long stick he found beside the path he began the training exercises he had learned as a young boy and practiced his whole life. He hoped it would help him work off the feeling of frustration that continued to build within him. It was usually after several minutes of his routine, that his mind would quiet enough that he would begin to hear the harmony of the Force through his body, the low murmur of voices, the rustle of the wind through the leaves across the galaxy, the sharp edge of anger, the pain of loss and the euphoria of love. This time, Aeden could feel and hear the emotions and thoughts as he let the Force guide his actions from one move to the next with an ease he never experienced before. In the past, as it was happening now, he reached for something that was just beyond, something he felt he wanted but was denied by a barrier that rose up and slapped him back to reality. He could feel that barrier begin to rise in front of him ever taller with each inquiry, each thought that fought its way free. There was a theme in all of this, a thread that if he pulled hard enough would unravel to reveal the answer. He always made the choice to step back, to not climb that barrier, but why? Was he afraid of what he might find, afraid it wasn't the answer he wanted? Why did he make that choice?
Aeden stopped his movements when he realized his breathing was ragged, and his heart raced almost to the point of pain. Gulping in great breaths, he concentrated on getting himself under control as he went to his knees then allowed himself to fall over to his back. The overpowering feeling continued to weigh on him. He began to panic when the barrier didn't dissipate as it usually did when he stopped his training routine. It wasn't going to be denied this time and, in an effort to calm himself he placed both hands, palm down on the grass. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the point between his skin and the soft yet spiky grass. He continued to work at controlling his breathing and heart rate as he focused on the point of contact. It was cool to the touch, the texture of the blades of grass were like a woven mat and below that was the firmness of the earth, the dirt warmed by the days sun. As he focused, his breathing evened out and his heart rate slowed to match the beating of the planet. He could feel the vibration of life around him, echo through pulses in his body. This feeling was different, not like what he felt or heard when he meditated. This was bigger, quieter, the noise of life more muted, not wrestling for attention. Through his whole body he could feel the inhales and exhales of the galaxy match his own, the pulses of life match his own as his heart now beat steady and sure. When he opened his eyes, he found everything around him a blur. The barrier he had fought against was now upon him, and he needed to get past it.
Jaden said he questioned things not because of some need to know, but because he recognized there was something wrong with the Force.
"But they never saw it," he whispered. "No one ever saw how . . . broken the Force was."
But I did, he thought, and he recognized what the Jedi and the Council did not. He chose not to go past the barrier because he didn't know he could. The masters talked about choice and how the choices we made defined what we did in the future, but that was wrong. The Jedi and Sith were unknowingly punished for the choices they made if they didn't meet the ultimate master's design; if the embodiment of the Force didn't maintain some semblance of balance.
Jaden didn't deny being a big part of the Mandalorian war, didn't deny offering unlimited dark ability to Revan to satisfy her selfish needs. Jaden probably knew every name and face of every being she destroyed as the embodiment of the dark side, and he was willing to bet she knew the name and face of every being she saved, healed, or helped as the embodiment of the light side.
Atris had told him on Telos IV, the first time he was there to get the Ebon Hawk, that aggression meeting aggression only fed the Mandalorians need to conquer, prove they were the better foe. The council preached patience because they didn't want to feed that hunger; had hoped the Mandalorians would see the Republic as not worth the effort and move on. There could have been a kernel of truth to that philosophy, but based on what Jaden said, that she, as the dark side, was aiding the Mandalorians at their request, the patience the Jedi preached was another form of cowardice and they never saw it. Or perhaps they weren't allowed to see it in order to keep the private battles between the light and dark a secret.
Even the Sith, well the Kath-Sith, played at being the badass wielders of the dark side, not knowing that even they were never the powerhouse they thought they were. Yes, they had destroyed the Jedi, dwindled the numbers to only a few that he himself had finally destroyed only to learn later that he had been used as well.
Thinking on it now, he began to understand why the masters had told him he was a wound in the Force, and why it was a cause of fear for the council. Draining someone's connection was somewhat true, but it wasn't in the sense they thought. He had severed the Force at Malachor V causing what held the galaxy together to wander about without a purpose, without a way to help those that relied on it. Their connection to the Force wasn't grounded, it didn't know what side it should be, what it should do so it faded away. Even to the point of death. He thought of what Jaden had once told him ". . .Your connection was," she waved her hand, "short-circuited and as it searched for a link it drained others of their connection to the Force."
~~ We lost our referee, our custodian. ~~
~~ Yes. ~~
This time when he opened his eyes, the barrier that seemed to blind him all these years was fading.
~~ Then the Midiclorians took advantage. ~~
~~ Yes. ~~
~~ Why didn't the strongest of Jedi recognize this? ~~
~~ You did, you just didn't know what to do about it. ~~
A seemingly inconsequential choice sometimes had the greatest ramifications. Aeden laid where he was a while longer absorbing the quiet nature of the Force, the beat of the galaxy continued to steady him, the heat of the earth warm him. This was what the Force should be, a steadying influence, not a chaotic mechanism designed to divide and conquer.
When he returned to the cottage he couldn't find Jaden. He searched twice and tamped down on the trickle of panic that she had left him here. He hurt her with his accusations, well truth telling and didn't stay long enough to hear her side. Maybe that was for the best, that he come to some resolution some understanding on his own. Standing on the patio, his arms akimbo, he noticed a faint trail that led up a small rise to the left. Having nothing to lose, he followed it away from the house.
When he reached the top, the overgrown trail opened to a small glen surrounded by trees on three sides, one area was open to a spectacular view of the valley and lake below and the mountains beyond. Flowers in more colors than he thought possible rioted from nooks and crannies of rocks and patches around the perimeter. Their fragrance was subtle, a hint of sweet, delicate, and earthy all at once. Near the opening to the valley view was a small monument, the name Alcinia etched on the matte surface. A few feet away Jaden sat on a stone bench, facing the headstone. Her forearms rested on her parted knees and her head hung dejectedly. He took a quiet breath and went to sit with her.
"I don't want this," he whispered. It was a weird sensation, but now he understood what he hadn't for so many years. The Jedi never should have taken him from his home. But in doing so they started a series of events that brought him to this point. Of the six there are three, of the three, only one. He should have stayed ignorant of what he was.
"I won't destroy you."
"I want to not want this." He clarified.
Still not looking at him she sat back and took a deep breath. "Then what do you want? I won't destroy you, I won't sever our connection – "
"I don't want that!" he barked with a tone akin to panic. "I don't want to lose," he paused getting himself under control and then motioned between them, "this, whatever this is," he added looking at her. "Darling, . . ."
Jaden took in a short breath and closed her eyes. Since he had stormed off earlier she was terrified Aeden would reject her explanations and in a sense, her. She didn't lie when she told him he was the only one she could tell her story to, he was owed an explanation as to why his life was turned upside down, why the dark masters wanted him dead now that he had failed to defeat her. Hearing him call her darling went a long way to alleviating her fears.
"I'm going to write the final accord," she told him. "It's time for all of this to end," she looked at him. "As you already figured out, there has only been an allusion of choice in the galaxy for millennia. The sentient beings don't need some self-serving Midiclorian masters to influence their lives. They're capable of screwing them up on their own and fixing their screw-ups."
He gave her a faint smile. "And when they screw it up so bad they don't know how to fix it?"
"Despite what Kreia thought, you can't bring about the death of the Force," she said thinking of the passage at the temple that the masters called The Ending. "The end is sealed up tight, there will always be some . . . thing, living or inanimate that will continue. There will always be one, one chosen, be them right or wrong, that will make the right choice at the right time."
"Even if the right choice is the wrong one?"
Jaden finally looked at him and smiled. "Your Jedi is showing."
He grinned, put his arm around her and pulled her close. After a few minutes of companionable silence, he said, "I want the choice. I want to pick to stay or go back."
Jaden moved away from him. "You can't stay here."
"Why not? Why can't we?"
The 'we' warmed her heart but it just wasn't possible. "Because this isn't real. I created this to hide and while it serves its purpose, even I must face my problems. Just as you do."
He thought for a moment and frowned. "So, the problem I have to face is going back and being stood up against a wall? Do I at least get a choice of last meals?" he sneered.
"Ugh, no one is going to stand you against a wall." I won't allow it. She watched as he pressed the heel of his palms against his eyes and growled. "Since you now realize the Jedi never should have come for you, I need to ask. In hindsight, if Master Kavar hadn't shown up, what would you have done?"
"What? I would've walked out the back door and kept on walking if I knew then what I know now." He took a deep breath and stood, walking over to look out over the valley. As he watched the grass wave in the breeze, he was reminded of his grandfather's place on the cliff overlooking the ocean on his home world. He spent a few summers there before the Jedi came for him, helping his grandfather in the nearby village. When he passed away the home went to his mother and Aeden bought it anonymously when she put it up for sale. He had visited a few times during his exile, but he was to restless then to stay. He still had it, paid for the upkeep, and even expanded the small house. He sighed, shaking off the vision, and turned to Jaden with a suspicious look.
Knowing she was busted for manipulating his thoughts, she hunched her shoulders and returned his suspicious look with a contrite one. "I need to return and it's time for me to go home, but I'll honor your request and give you the choice." She stood and walked to him. "You can go back, deal with any consequences and live the life you really wanted to, or you can return to the Force."
