Chapter 4
Thirty minutes later, Jacen watched Katie swirl and move in graceful dance-like moves, bringing her green-white lightsaber blade up to deflect one beam after another. She anticipated the remote's moves and firing so well, Jacen would have said that she had as much training as he did.
Finally, the remote reached it's time limit and stopped. Katie powered down her lightsaber and looked at Jacen.
"Every good. I would say that you can use the Force better than me."
"I wouldn't say that," she replied.
"Now for another test."
"What do I got to do now?" she asked, anxious for a challenge.
"I would like you to the same thing, except blindfolded."
"Fine by me." Jacen took a blindfold and tied it over Katie's eyes, making sure that it would stay in place and she was unable to see. Katie reactivated her lightsaber and Jacen threw the remote in the air. It stopped a meter from Katie's face, then it fired one stun beam after another and Jacen lost himself in Katie's dance to deflect the beams from the remote.
After a while, Jaina, Jacen's older twin sister, found him watching Katie practice. She looked at Jacen, then to Katie, then back to her brother and asked, "Who's this?" nodding toward the younger woman.
"Huh?" Jacen said, snapping out of his trance and looked toward Jaina. "Oh, this is Katie Zecli. I found her on my way back here." Both Jaina and Jacen watched Katie in her never ending dance. "She gets her powers from the planet Antooanna, that was destroyed by the Empire a long time ago."
"Powers?" Jaina ask skeptically.
"You'll see."
Finally, the remote ended it's assault and Katie pulled off her blindfold, turned off her lightsaber and hooked it on her belt, and turned to face Jacen and Jaina. For the first time, Jaina noticed the red stone in the middle of her forehead, glowing brightly. The gold highlights in her dark brown hair and the glitter in her skin reflected the sun as she walked toward them.
"I'm guessing that this is Jaina," Katie said as she shook Jaina's hand.
"Why would you say that?" Jaina asked, eyeing the younger woman.
"One, the Force. Two, the resemblance between you and Jacen." Jacen looked away from his sister and Katie. "And three, Jacen has told me about you."
"How long have you been using your lightsaber?" Jaina asked.
Katie thought for a moment and finally said, "For about forty minutes. Why?"
"You've been using that lightsaber as if you had more practice than the other older Jedi Knights I know. How old are you?" Jaina asked next.
"I don't know? What's today's date?"
Jacen told her.
"I guess in about seven days, I'll be twenty," Katie replied. Jacen made a mental note of that date.
"Oh. I guess I'll be seeing you two around then," Jaina said, turning her back to leave. "Bye."
"See you later," Katie called out to her.
"Wow."
"What?" Katie asked.
"It's you. I mean, you can use your lightsaber better than me and you only tried it twice."
"I only did what you said and used my fire power on a much larger level. It's amazing."
"You'll become a Jedi Knight within a week if you keep this up."
"I'm sure I'm not that good," Katie said, looking at Jacen.
"Try me," Jacen replied.
Katie smiled at him. "I'm just glad I'm able to learn about the Force before it's to late." Katie walked away from Jacen and immediately did some flips, then some cart wheels, and finally ended at the other end of the room, about fifty meters away. She turned around and ran as fast as she could toward Jacen. When she was almost to him, she jumped over his head and landed six meters behind him.
"You're never too old to learn," Jacen said, turning to see her.
"I haven't done that in years," Katie breathed, her face glowing from the exercise she did. She started to walk back to him when she almost collapsed. Immediately, Jacen was right beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders and used his free hand to hold her other arm.
"We better get you back to your room," Jacen said to Katie, looking into her brown eyes.
"No, I'll be fine," she said to Jacen, pulling away from him. But she didn't make it far when she did collapsed.
"No. You're going back to your room," he said offering a hand to her. With Jacen's help, they made it back to her room.
Jacen set Katie down on a chair and noticed her stone glowing brightly. "Is there any thing wrong?"
"No," Katie said looking back at Jacen. "It's just that I somehow gotten a childhood disease that I already had."
"A childhood disease?"
"Yeah. It's nothing major. It's just that everyone with an Antooannaian stone will get some kind of sickness. My fire stone will give me a fever, but only for a couple of days. Its natural to almost everyone," she said, looking tired and worn out.
"Let's get you to your bed." Jacen got Katie to her bed. "If you need something, just call. Now get some rest."
"All right," Katie said, smiling weakly. Jacen left the room and closed the door behind him.
Chapter 5
*BOOM! Walls crumbled. Dust and smoke filled the air.
"Jacen! Where are you?!"
"Don't worry about me, just get to your X-wing!"
"I'm not leaving without you!"
"GET TO YOUR X-WING NOW!"*
Katie sat straight up and looked around. It's only a dream, she thought to herself. Just a dream. She looked out the window and saw that it was the middle of the night.
Katie got out of bed and looked out the window, resting her hot forehead on the transparasteel. Everywhere she looked, the lights of Coruscant sparkled around.
She turned her back to the window and went to get a cold wash cloth. She didn't have to turn on the lights because the stone on her forehead glowed brightly in the dim light. She didn't make it far when a wave of pain washed over, making her grab something to stay up right.
But she couldn't hold on to it right. She looked down and saw that her hand was growing larger and her fingernails growing longer and harder. She looked at her arm and saw that it had black and white striped fur. Before she was able to take a step, another wave of pain took her conscience.
*
"Ahh!"
Thud!
Jacen quickly stood up and looked all about him. He was where he fell asleep, except on the floor. He woke up because there was a disturbance in the Force. But what was it. He reached out with his Force sense.
Almost immediately, he was in pain. *Oh no! Katie!* Grabbing his lightsaber from beside his bed, he bolted from his room into the hallway. He ran for the stairs and went down a to the floor she lived on. As soon as he reached Katie's room, he punched in the code that he and Katie had agreed on.
The door slid open and Jacen found himself face to face with a black and white tiger.
"Nice kitty."
In reply, the tiger gave a roar so loud that Jacen thought his eardrums would explode.
Calming his mind, Jacen reached out with the Force to find Katie. Immediately, Katie's presence seemed to come from the tiger. He looked closer and saw a red stone hanging around the neck of the tiger on a chain.
"Katie?"
Suddenly, the tiger seemed to recognize him. Jacen?
"Is that you?"
Oh blast! My fever!
"What about it?"
It takes some control of my morphing powers. Immediately, the tiger grew smaller and the fur and black stripes disappeared. When it was small enough, the tiger stood up and grew even more smaller. It. . . happens . . . some . . . times . . . when . . . I'm . . .
"When your what?" Jacen asked.
*When I'm sick*, she replied back through the Force, because she was unable to use her thought-speak. By then, Katie was done morphing. Her face was pale and her stone glowed brighter than ever from the fever. She leaned against the table, weak from morphing and the fever combined.
"Let's get you sitting down," Jacen said, coming up beside Katie.
"I. . . think. . . you're. . . right," she said, straining with every word. As soon she was down, Jacen got a cold, wet wash cloth and gave it to Katie. She put it against her forehead and her red stone dimmed slightly.
"Is there anything wrong?"
"Not with. . . my powers. The morphing. . . sort of gets out of control when. . . I'm sick. And my red stone. . .shows most of my emotions. It glows. . . when I'm using my powers."
"Are you using one of your powers?"
"Well, my. . . body is trying to. . . fight. . . off the fever."
"Is that all?"
"Well, I usually. . . don't look like a. . . mess in front of others," Katie said, trying to hide.
"You look beautiful."
Both Katie's face and stone glowed a bright red.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't even be here." Jacen turned to the door, but stopped, feeling a sudden pain in his arm. "Is there anything wrong?" he asked, turning back to look at Katie. He saw her arm had feathers all over it and it was slowly going away.
"No. It takes. . . some concentration. . . to get my fever. . . and morphing. . . under control."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Jacen asked.
"Yes," Katie said, smiling weakly. "Now, go get some rest. You'll need it."
Jacen smiled back at Katie and stepped out to the hall with the door sliding shut behind him.
Chapter 6
After Katie got over her sickness, she would go to the academy and practice her ability to use the Force every day.
One day when she was practicing, a man slipped into the room she was in and watched her. Katie, sensing his presence, looked up and toward the spot he was hiding. But before she could see him, he disappeared into the shadows.
*
About five days after Katie got sick, Jacen went to see his Uncle, Luke Skywalker. He explained about how he found her, about her heritage, and about how well she was doing. He said that Katie would like to meet him and she was practicing in the Jedi Academy's gym. Both of them found her doing complex moves and exercises with and without her lightsaber.
"Katie, would you please come over here," Jacen called out to her.
"Sure. Hold on." There was a flash of red and suddenly, a black and white tiger came running toward them. Luke took a step back while Jacen stood calmly in the tiger's path. There was another flash of red and Katie, in human form, ran the rest of the way.
"I see you've been practicing your powers," Jacen said, admiring her skills.
"Yeah," Katie replied. "And I see you've brought someone with you."
"I would like you to meet Luke Skywalker."
Luke took a step forward out of the shadows and Katie took a step back with a surprised and scared look on her face. "I saw you before, a couple days earlier. And Jacen has told me so much about you," Luke said, shaking her hand.
"Y-yeah. S-same here," she said nervously.
Luke smiled and turned to Jacen. "I need to check on some things. I'll see you two later." And with that, he disappeared into the shadows once again.
Jacen looked at Katie and she looked as if she has seen a ghost. "Is there anything wrong?"
"W-wrong?" she asked, her voice unusually high. "W-why would anything be wrong?" She looked back at Jacen, trying to calm herself.
Jacen was about to use his Force powers when Katie gave in. "Well," she started, "your uncle looks like someone I knew."
"I'm sorry."
"No. It's all right. It's just that I was shocked when I saw him. I just hope that I wasn't rude."
"Don't worry. When he first met my mom, he didn't get the warmest greeting."
"I guess your right. Is there something else you would like to tell me."
"Yeah. I was just wondering, if you're not doing anything tomorrow night," Jacen said, looking sheepishly, "would you like to go to dinner with me? I just figure we could dance and. . ."
"Sure. I would love to go with you. I have nothing else planned for that night."
"All right. Is eight o'clock okay?"
"It's fine by me. In front of my room?"
"That's what I planning on. See you then?"
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye." Jacen left Katie to her practices and smiled at the thought of the surprise she'll get.
Chapter 7
Jacen arrived in front of Katie's door at eight o'clock wearing a white tuxedo, and was about to knock when she opened it.
She was dressed in a two-piece, form-fitting, sleeveless, floor-length, flowing dress that was made out of a material that changed from the colors from a royal blue to a sea green with every move she made with a soft lace-like covering that's attached to the bottom of the top piece and laid on top of the skirt. Her hair was pulled back from her eyes, but from behind her ears, it laid loosely on to the middle of her back with a braid in front of both her right and left ear. On her right ear was a sun earring and on her left dangled a moon earring. Katie had also strips of silver ribbons coming from both the left and right side of her stone, and disappeared into her gold striped brown hair, so that it looked like she had on a tiara.
"I, uh. . . you look. . . uh. . ." Jacen stopped, searching his mind for the right word. "Entrancing."
Her stone glowed a bright red and she smiled. "So do you. You ready to go?" she asked.
Jacen smiled. "If you are?" he said, getting over his nervousness.
Together, they walked out in to the Coruscant evening air with no certain place in mind. They walked, hand in hand, for an hour or so, looking at the sights and the lights. They had dinner in one place and about eleven o'clock they started to a different destination. Finally Jacen and Katie stopped in front of dance room and Jacen had to argue to Katie to go in. But before she could argue back, it started to pour down rain and so they had to go in to stay dry. They danced for hours while it rained.
*
During one slow song, Jacen noticed that Katie was quietly crying so that it wouldn't be heard over the music.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she said, wiping away the last of her tears. "It's just that whenever my dad and I would hear this song, we would dance to it, no matter where we are."
"Would you like to leave?" Jacen asked, hoping not to hurt her feelings.
"No," she said, laying her head against his shoulder. "This is just perfect." And they danced the rest of the night away.
*
When Jacen checked the clock on one wall, it said 12:45.
"It's time to go," Jacen whispered, smiling.
"That's fine by me," Katie replied sleepily, weaving on her feet.
Jacen lead her out of the building and into the cool, night air. "But not directly back." He pulled out a blindfold and put it over her eyes. "Can you see anything?"
"That depends."
"What do you mean, 'That depends'?"
"Well, I can't see with my eyes, but I can see through yours."
Immediately, Jacen shut down his Force senses.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
"It's a surprise."
"Oh, fine. But you better not try to run me into anything, because it won't work," Katie said stubbornly.
Jacen smiled. Katie was already made a Jedi Knight earlier that day. And one of the strongest ones. She had built a new lightsaber as part of her training and because she felt that Kates lightsaber shouldn't be used.
He led her around for a while, but finally ended up at his X-wing's storage building. He never, if rarely, flew his X-wing, but he always made sure that it was in tip-top shape. Right beside it was another X-wing.
Jacen pulled off the blindfold on Katie and she gasped. "Jacen! What's this?!"
"It's your new X-wing."
"My X-wing?!"
"Yes. Your X-wing. Every Jedi Knight has a X-wing. But you got a newer version," Jacen said, explaining it. "Ours doesn't need an astromech 'droid. They're basically built into the X-wing."
Katie walked around the X-wing, listening to every word Jacen said. Suddenly, the dream she had came to her mind. But she immediately put it out of her mind. She ran back to Jacen and gave him a big hug. "Thank you!" she said, smiling widely.
But suddenly, before Jacen could reply, there seemed to be a large rumble of thunder. Katie's stone glowed a bright red and she gasped.
Jacen felt Katie's terror.
"Oh-no!"
"What is it?" he asked.
But before she could reply, the walls shook hard and Jacen knew what was happening.
"Smugglers! They're always try to steal a X-wing!" The walls shook harder and dust fell from the ceiling. "Get to your X-wing and set a course for. . . for. . . Tatooine! We need to led them away from here!" Jacen shouted over the noise, saying the first planet that came to his mind.
Suddenly, the walls caved in with a tremendous crash. Dust and smoke obscured their view of each other.
"Jacen! Where are you?!" Katie yelled, her dream coming back to her.
"Don't worry about me, just get to your X-wing!"
"I'm not leaving with out you!"
"GET TO YOUR X-WING NOW," Jacen yelled back, using the Force to carry out his command.
Katie ran to her X-wing and, using the Force, leapt to the top of it and slid down into the pilot seat. Letting the Force guide her hands, she started the new star fighter and blasted her way out into open air. Once out in black space, she checked her rear scopes and saw one X-wing and about ten other fighters following.
"Jump to hyperspace, Katie!" Jacen's voice cracked over the intercom.
Katie reached for the hyperspace levers and pulled them back, seeing the stars in the distance become streaks as she went into faster-than-light travel.
Thirty minutes later, Jacen watched Katie swirl and move in graceful dance-like moves, bringing her green-white lightsaber blade up to deflect one beam after another. She anticipated the remote's moves and firing so well, Jacen would have said that she had as much training as he did.
Finally, the remote reached it's time limit and stopped. Katie powered down her lightsaber and looked at Jacen.
"Every good. I would say that you can use the Force better than me."
"I wouldn't say that," she replied.
"Now for another test."
"What do I got to do now?" she asked, anxious for a challenge.
"I would like you to the same thing, except blindfolded."
"Fine by me." Jacen took a blindfold and tied it over Katie's eyes, making sure that it would stay in place and she was unable to see. Katie reactivated her lightsaber and Jacen threw the remote in the air. It stopped a meter from Katie's face, then it fired one stun beam after another and Jacen lost himself in Katie's dance to deflect the beams from the remote.
After a while, Jaina, Jacen's older twin sister, found him watching Katie practice. She looked at Jacen, then to Katie, then back to her brother and asked, "Who's this?" nodding toward the younger woman.
"Huh?" Jacen said, snapping out of his trance and looked toward Jaina. "Oh, this is Katie Zecli. I found her on my way back here." Both Jaina and Jacen watched Katie in her never ending dance. "She gets her powers from the planet Antooanna, that was destroyed by the Empire a long time ago."
"Powers?" Jaina ask skeptically.
"You'll see."
Finally, the remote ended it's assault and Katie pulled off her blindfold, turned off her lightsaber and hooked it on her belt, and turned to face Jacen and Jaina. For the first time, Jaina noticed the red stone in the middle of her forehead, glowing brightly. The gold highlights in her dark brown hair and the glitter in her skin reflected the sun as she walked toward them.
"I'm guessing that this is Jaina," Katie said as she shook Jaina's hand.
"Why would you say that?" Jaina asked, eyeing the younger woman.
"One, the Force. Two, the resemblance between you and Jacen." Jacen looked away from his sister and Katie. "And three, Jacen has told me about you."
"How long have you been using your lightsaber?" Jaina asked.
Katie thought for a moment and finally said, "For about forty minutes. Why?"
"You've been using that lightsaber as if you had more practice than the other older Jedi Knights I know. How old are you?" Jaina asked next.
"I don't know? What's today's date?"
Jacen told her.
"I guess in about seven days, I'll be twenty," Katie replied. Jacen made a mental note of that date.
"Oh. I guess I'll be seeing you two around then," Jaina said, turning her back to leave. "Bye."
"See you later," Katie called out to her.
"Wow."
"What?" Katie asked.
"It's you. I mean, you can use your lightsaber better than me and you only tried it twice."
"I only did what you said and used my fire power on a much larger level. It's amazing."
"You'll become a Jedi Knight within a week if you keep this up."
"I'm sure I'm not that good," Katie said, looking at Jacen.
"Try me," Jacen replied.
Katie smiled at him. "I'm just glad I'm able to learn about the Force before it's to late." Katie walked away from Jacen and immediately did some flips, then some cart wheels, and finally ended at the other end of the room, about fifty meters away. She turned around and ran as fast as she could toward Jacen. When she was almost to him, she jumped over his head and landed six meters behind him.
"You're never too old to learn," Jacen said, turning to see her.
"I haven't done that in years," Katie breathed, her face glowing from the exercise she did. She started to walk back to him when she almost collapsed. Immediately, Jacen was right beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders and used his free hand to hold her other arm.
"We better get you back to your room," Jacen said to Katie, looking into her brown eyes.
"No, I'll be fine," she said to Jacen, pulling away from him. But she didn't make it far when she did collapsed.
"No. You're going back to your room," he said offering a hand to her. With Jacen's help, they made it back to her room.
Jacen set Katie down on a chair and noticed her stone glowing brightly. "Is there any thing wrong?"
"No," Katie said looking back at Jacen. "It's just that I somehow gotten a childhood disease that I already had."
"A childhood disease?"
"Yeah. It's nothing major. It's just that everyone with an Antooannaian stone will get some kind of sickness. My fire stone will give me a fever, but only for a couple of days. Its natural to almost everyone," she said, looking tired and worn out.
"Let's get you to your bed." Jacen got Katie to her bed. "If you need something, just call. Now get some rest."
"All right," Katie said, smiling weakly. Jacen left the room and closed the door behind him.
Chapter 5
*BOOM! Walls crumbled. Dust and smoke filled the air.
"Jacen! Where are you?!"
"Don't worry about me, just get to your X-wing!"
"I'm not leaving without you!"
"GET TO YOUR X-WING NOW!"*
Katie sat straight up and looked around. It's only a dream, she thought to herself. Just a dream. She looked out the window and saw that it was the middle of the night.
Katie got out of bed and looked out the window, resting her hot forehead on the transparasteel. Everywhere she looked, the lights of Coruscant sparkled around.
She turned her back to the window and went to get a cold wash cloth. She didn't have to turn on the lights because the stone on her forehead glowed brightly in the dim light. She didn't make it far when a wave of pain washed over, making her grab something to stay up right.
But she couldn't hold on to it right. She looked down and saw that her hand was growing larger and her fingernails growing longer and harder. She looked at her arm and saw that it had black and white striped fur. Before she was able to take a step, another wave of pain took her conscience.
*
"Ahh!"
Thud!
Jacen quickly stood up and looked all about him. He was where he fell asleep, except on the floor. He woke up because there was a disturbance in the Force. But what was it. He reached out with his Force sense.
Almost immediately, he was in pain. *Oh no! Katie!* Grabbing his lightsaber from beside his bed, he bolted from his room into the hallway. He ran for the stairs and went down a to the floor she lived on. As soon as he reached Katie's room, he punched in the code that he and Katie had agreed on.
The door slid open and Jacen found himself face to face with a black and white tiger.
"Nice kitty."
In reply, the tiger gave a roar so loud that Jacen thought his eardrums would explode.
Calming his mind, Jacen reached out with the Force to find Katie. Immediately, Katie's presence seemed to come from the tiger. He looked closer and saw a red stone hanging around the neck of the tiger on a chain.
"Katie?"
Suddenly, the tiger seemed to recognize him. Jacen?
"Is that you?"
Oh blast! My fever!
"What about it?"
It takes some control of my morphing powers. Immediately, the tiger grew smaller and the fur and black stripes disappeared. When it was small enough, the tiger stood up and grew even more smaller. It. . . happens . . . some . . . times . . . when . . . I'm . . .
"When your what?" Jacen asked.
*When I'm sick*, she replied back through the Force, because she was unable to use her thought-speak. By then, Katie was done morphing. Her face was pale and her stone glowed brighter than ever from the fever. She leaned against the table, weak from morphing and the fever combined.
"Let's get you sitting down," Jacen said, coming up beside Katie.
"I. . . think. . . you're. . . right," she said, straining with every word. As soon she was down, Jacen got a cold, wet wash cloth and gave it to Katie. She put it against her forehead and her red stone dimmed slightly.
"Is there anything wrong?"
"Not with. . . my powers. The morphing. . . sort of gets out of control when. . . I'm sick. And my red stone. . .shows most of my emotions. It glows. . . when I'm using my powers."
"Are you using one of your powers?"
"Well, my. . . body is trying to. . . fight. . . off the fever."
"Is that all?"
"Well, I usually. . . don't look like a. . . mess in front of others," Katie said, trying to hide.
"You look beautiful."
Both Katie's face and stone glowed a bright red.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't even be here." Jacen turned to the door, but stopped, feeling a sudden pain in his arm. "Is there anything wrong?" he asked, turning back to look at Katie. He saw her arm had feathers all over it and it was slowly going away.
"No. It takes. . . some concentration. . . to get my fever. . . and morphing. . . under control."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Jacen asked.
"Yes," Katie said, smiling weakly. "Now, go get some rest. You'll need it."
Jacen smiled back at Katie and stepped out to the hall with the door sliding shut behind him.
Chapter 6
After Katie got over her sickness, she would go to the academy and practice her ability to use the Force every day.
One day when she was practicing, a man slipped into the room she was in and watched her. Katie, sensing his presence, looked up and toward the spot he was hiding. But before she could see him, he disappeared into the shadows.
*
About five days after Katie got sick, Jacen went to see his Uncle, Luke Skywalker. He explained about how he found her, about her heritage, and about how well she was doing. He said that Katie would like to meet him and she was practicing in the Jedi Academy's gym. Both of them found her doing complex moves and exercises with and without her lightsaber.
"Katie, would you please come over here," Jacen called out to her.
"Sure. Hold on." There was a flash of red and suddenly, a black and white tiger came running toward them. Luke took a step back while Jacen stood calmly in the tiger's path. There was another flash of red and Katie, in human form, ran the rest of the way.
"I see you've been practicing your powers," Jacen said, admiring her skills.
"Yeah," Katie replied. "And I see you've brought someone with you."
"I would like you to meet Luke Skywalker."
Luke took a step forward out of the shadows and Katie took a step back with a surprised and scared look on her face. "I saw you before, a couple days earlier. And Jacen has told me so much about you," Luke said, shaking her hand.
"Y-yeah. S-same here," she said nervously.
Luke smiled and turned to Jacen. "I need to check on some things. I'll see you two later." And with that, he disappeared into the shadows once again.
Jacen looked at Katie and she looked as if she has seen a ghost. "Is there anything wrong?"
"W-wrong?" she asked, her voice unusually high. "W-why would anything be wrong?" She looked back at Jacen, trying to calm herself.
Jacen was about to use his Force powers when Katie gave in. "Well," she started, "your uncle looks like someone I knew."
"I'm sorry."
"No. It's all right. It's just that I was shocked when I saw him. I just hope that I wasn't rude."
"Don't worry. When he first met my mom, he didn't get the warmest greeting."
"I guess your right. Is there something else you would like to tell me."
"Yeah. I was just wondering, if you're not doing anything tomorrow night," Jacen said, looking sheepishly, "would you like to go to dinner with me? I just figure we could dance and. . ."
"Sure. I would love to go with you. I have nothing else planned for that night."
"All right. Is eight o'clock okay?"
"It's fine by me. In front of my room?"
"That's what I planning on. See you then?"
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye." Jacen left Katie to her practices and smiled at the thought of the surprise she'll get.
Chapter 7
Jacen arrived in front of Katie's door at eight o'clock wearing a white tuxedo, and was about to knock when she opened it.
She was dressed in a two-piece, form-fitting, sleeveless, floor-length, flowing dress that was made out of a material that changed from the colors from a royal blue to a sea green with every move she made with a soft lace-like covering that's attached to the bottom of the top piece and laid on top of the skirt. Her hair was pulled back from her eyes, but from behind her ears, it laid loosely on to the middle of her back with a braid in front of both her right and left ear. On her right ear was a sun earring and on her left dangled a moon earring. Katie had also strips of silver ribbons coming from both the left and right side of her stone, and disappeared into her gold striped brown hair, so that it looked like she had on a tiara.
"I, uh. . . you look. . . uh. . ." Jacen stopped, searching his mind for the right word. "Entrancing."
Her stone glowed a bright red and she smiled. "So do you. You ready to go?" she asked.
Jacen smiled. "If you are?" he said, getting over his nervousness.
Together, they walked out in to the Coruscant evening air with no certain place in mind. They walked, hand in hand, for an hour or so, looking at the sights and the lights. They had dinner in one place and about eleven o'clock they started to a different destination. Finally Jacen and Katie stopped in front of dance room and Jacen had to argue to Katie to go in. But before she could argue back, it started to pour down rain and so they had to go in to stay dry. They danced for hours while it rained.
*
During one slow song, Jacen noticed that Katie was quietly crying so that it wouldn't be heard over the music.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she said, wiping away the last of her tears. "It's just that whenever my dad and I would hear this song, we would dance to it, no matter where we are."
"Would you like to leave?" Jacen asked, hoping not to hurt her feelings.
"No," she said, laying her head against his shoulder. "This is just perfect." And they danced the rest of the night away.
*
When Jacen checked the clock on one wall, it said 12:45.
"It's time to go," Jacen whispered, smiling.
"That's fine by me," Katie replied sleepily, weaving on her feet.
Jacen lead her out of the building and into the cool, night air. "But not directly back." He pulled out a blindfold and put it over her eyes. "Can you see anything?"
"That depends."
"What do you mean, 'That depends'?"
"Well, I can't see with my eyes, but I can see through yours."
Immediately, Jacen shut down his Force senses.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
"It's a surprise."
"Oh, fine. But you better not try to run me into anything, because it won't work," Katie said stubbornly.
Jacen smiled. Katie was already made a Jedi Knight earlier that day. And one of the strongest ones. She had built a new lightsaber as part of her training and because she felt that Kates lightsaber shouldn't be used.
He led her around for a while, but finally ended up at his X-wing's storage building. He never, if rarely, flew his X-wing, but he always made sure that it was in tip-top shape. Right beside it was another X-wing.
Jacen pulled off the blindfold on Katie and she gasped. "Jacen! What's this?!"
"It's your new X-wing."
"My X-wing?!"
"Yes. Your X-wing. Every Jedi Knight has a X-wing. But you got a newer version," Jacen said, explaining it. "Ours doesn't need an astromech 'droid. They're basically built into the X-wing."
Katie walked around the X-wing, listening to every word Jacen said. Suddenly, the dream she had came to her mind. But she immediately put it out of her mind. She ran back to Jacen and gave him a big hug. "Thank you!" she said, smiling widely.
But suddenly, before Jacen could reply, there seemed to be a large rumble of thunder. Katie's stone glowed a bright red and she gasped.
Jacen felt Katie's terror.
"Oh-no!"
"What is it?" he asked.
But before she could reply, the walls shook hard and Jacen knew what was happening.
"Smugglers! They're always try to steal a X-wing!" The walls shook harder and dust fell from the ceiling. "Get to your X-wing and set a course for. . . for. . . Tatooine! We need to led them away from here!" Jacen shouted over the noise, saying the first planet that came to his mind.
Suddenly, the walls caved in with a tremendous crash. Dust and smoke obscured their view of each other.
"Jacen! Where are you?!" Katie yelled, her dream coming back to her.
"Don't worry about me, just get to your X-wing!"
"I'm not leaving with out you!"
"GET TO YOUR X-WING NOW," Jacen yelled back, using the Force to carry out his command.
Katie ran to her X-wing and, using the Force, leapt to the top of it and slid down into the pilot seat. Letting the Force guide her hands, she started the new star fighter and blasted her way out into open air. Once out in black space, she checked her rear scopes and saw one X-wing and about ten other fighters following.
"Jump to hyperspace, Katie!" Jacen's voice cracked over the intercom.
Katie reached for the hyperspace levers and pulled them back, seeing the stars in the distance become streaks as she went into faster-than-light travel.