Chapter 12
Katie's consciences worked it's way back and she woke thinking, *where am I?* then, *who am I?*
She quickly sat up and then wished she hadn't when her head began to pound. Katie put her hand against her head as if to try to stop the pounding, and tried to think back but only found a gray mist covering half of her mind.
She put her hand back down and saw it covered with a strange tattoo. Katie looked out of an open window near her to see a sun climb into the air over a city that seems more plant than stone.
"I see that you're a wake," a female voice said, coming from behind her. Katie spun around to see a sixteen-year old woman with dark brown hair wearing a flame dress walked in with a set of the same colored clothes folded in her arms.
"Where am I?"
"You're in the palace of Theed on Naboo."
"On Naboo?"
"Yeah. I found you a couple days back near the woods and the queen would like you to be one of her handmaidens. My name is Adi Amandi." Adi held out her hand and Katie shook it. "What's yours?"
"I. . . I don't remember," she said, searching her mind for clues. "The only thing I seemed to remember is the color yellow."
"Don't worry. Your memory will come back in time. But Queen Jade said that she would like to meet you when you woke up and you need to get dressed," Adi said and handed Katie the clothes in her arms.
Adi left the room and when she came back, Katie was wearing the same outfit as the rest of the handmaidens and her hair put into a braid with one braid still hanging down. Adi motion to Katie to pull her hood up and did the same, leading Katie out of the room into a long hall.
After a while, they arrived at the throne room that had four other handmaidens surrounding the queen who wore a long red dress, her hair braided with a fancy headdress on top of her head, and white face paint with the top and the middle of her bottom lip red.
"My Queen, I would like you to meet Katherine," Adi said, making up a name for Katie.
Katie moved forward and bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said. She looked into the queen's eyes and saw something not quite right. "But. . . you're not the Queen."
All around her the other handmaidens gasped but she ignored them. Katie walked around the circle of handmaidens, looking at each of their eyes. She finally stopped in front of a handmaiden farthest from the throne and bowed slightly. "I will do my best to protect you, Queen Jade."
"Very good, Katherine," the queen said, standing up. "The only people that knew about my switch is me and Erica," she said, waving her hand to the fake queen. "In my disguise, my name is Jessie. The other handmaiden's names are Sabè, Amy, Sara," the queen said and the others stood up as their name was called, "and you already met Adi."
Queen Jade turned toward Adi. "Adi, would you please take Katherine and show her the city?"
"Yes, Your Highness." Adi turned to a hall with Katie behind her. She lead her down the hall and finally stopped in front of a door with six maroon cloaks hanging beside it. Adi gave one to Katie and took one for herself. "I also need to run some errands for the cooks in the kitchens. What do you usually eat?"
"I don't know. The only thing I'm hungry for is fruit," Katie said as they walked out into the Naboo sunlight.
*
"Ahh!"
Thud!
Jacen quickly stood up in the brightly lit room. *Why does that always happen to me?* he thought.
Jacen looked out a window and saw a market place filled with people wearing different colored outfits and stalls filled with flowers, fruit, bread, and jewelry.
He looked himself over and saw that he wasn't injured, though his hair was messed up and he was wearing the Jedi outfit he changed into on Tatooine. Then he noticed that his lightsaber was missing. He quickly looked around and found the silver cloak he was wearing. *The one Katie made me*, he thought sadly. Felling a sense of urgency, Jacen picked it up to put on when a loud clank sounded. He looked down at the floor and saw his lightsaber.
He snapped his cloak around his neck, picked up his lightsaber and hooked on his belt under his cloak where no one else could see, and headed out of the room and nearly ran into a little five year old boy.
"Mommy! He's awa-ake!" the little kid yelled in a sing-song voice.
Three seconds later, a thirty year old woman walked into the hallway, wiping her hands off with her apron. "Josh!" she scolded. "You don't need to be so rude!"
"Don't worry," Jacen said, smiling at the little boy. "My little brother is the same way. My name's Jacen."
"I'm Sophie," the woman said, shaking Jacen's hand.
"Nice to meet you. "Jacen thought for a moment, then remembered what he was going to do. "Where did you find me?"
"My husband said he found you inside just the forest. He didn't see any one else."
"Oh man!" Jacen looked around then back at Sophie. "I'm sorry to run out on you, but I need to find someone who might be in danger," he said, running down the stairs.
"Come back any time!" Sophie yelled after him.
Jacen bursted out into the street, nearly running into two of the queen's handmaidens in the process.
"I'm so sorry," Jacen quickly apologized.
"It's all right," said one of them, then moved off in to the market place.
Jacen almost turned back to her, thinking that he heard Kat's voice and Force presence, but dismissed it both as an illusion.
*
Adi looked over at Katie and saw her put up her hand to her head as if she had a headache.
"What's wrong?"
"Huh?" Katie looked at Adi. "Oh. Nothing."
Adi got an idea for Katie's name. "Do mind if the others and I call you Kat?"
"Kat? Sure. I don't mind," Kat said.
Adi and Kat walked through the market place, buying different foods for the cooks, and showing Kat the city.
Chapter 13
One day, about three days after Adi gave Katie her Kat name, Kat and Sabè went out into the market to get more food for the cooks.
Jacen had suspected that Kat lost her memory and was one of the handmaidens and he would stealthily watched them under the hood of his cloak.
The only problem was to figure out how to bring back her memory.
Every once in a while, Kat would looked up and toward Jacen, but was never able to see him.
"So, you have no idea who you are or where you came from?" Sabè asked Kat while they were picking fruit.
"No," Kat said. "I don't have a. . . Ahh!"
Sabè looked at Kat and saw that she was on the ground and seemed in pain.
"Kat! What's wrong?!"
But before Kat could answer, there was a huge explosion near by. Kat got up and ran toward the source with Sabè right behind her.
They arrived at a house with fire coming out of the windows.
"Josh!" a woman screamed.
Kat looked at the house than went to the woman. "Where is he?"
"He's on the second floor," the woman cried.
Kat ran into the house and up the stairs. There was a crash behind her as a part of the ceiling fell.
"Mommy!"
Kat looked to her right and saw a little boy sitting in the corner farthest from the fire and walked over to him.
"It's going to be all right," Kat said, taking off her cloak and wrapped it around the boy to protect him from the fire. Kat picked him up and looked for a way out and saw an open window.
Kat ran toward the window and jumped out, landing safely away from the house with the boy still in her arms. A crowd came over to where they are and Kat handed the mother her son.
*Only a Force user would be able to make that jump*, Jacen thought as he made his way through the crowd toward Kat.
As soon as he got to Kat, Jacen pulled her out of the crowd.
"Let go of me! I need to get back to the palace!"
"You have no idea who you are or where you came from, right?"
"Yeah. But. . ."
"I know who you are."
"If that's right, then who am I?"
"You're a Jedi Knight."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are," Jacen said, grabbing Kat by her shoulders. "You're Katie Zecli, the only Jedi Knight from Antooanna that's still alive!"
"Prove one thing to show that I'm Katie!"
Jacen grabbed her left hand that had her ring. "This ring. The red stone is you, the purple is your father, and the light blue is your mother. You also wear a red stone on a chain that belonged to your great, great grandmother, Kates Zecli.
"And?"
"And," Jacen said, looking into Kat's eyes, "I love you." Jacen kissed Kat passionately on the lips when suddenly she fell to the ground and cried out in pain.
There was a flash of red and suddenly, the flame dress she was wearing turned the white of the Jedi outfit before the silver cloak covered her back and head.
Jacen knelt down beside Kat, felling her Force power grow stronger.
Weakly, her glittery hand felt for the ground as she tried to get up. Jacen put his hand under Kat's and helped her get up. As soon as they were both standing, Kat looked up at Jacen. He saw her fire stone glow a bright red and her gold streaked hair fell in her face.
"Jacen?"
"It's all right, my love. It's all right."
Kat started to cry and once again, they both kissed each other with a long kiss.
Sabè quietly came to them and attracted Kat's attention. "Sabè, do you think that I might be able to see the queen?"
"I will take you to her."
*
Sabè led the two silver figures through the halls and into the throne room where Queen Jade sat, surrounded by her handmaidens.
"You may be seated, Sabè," Queen Jade said, then looked toward Kat and Jacen. "And who might you be?"
Kat took a step forward with Jacen holding onto her elbow for support. "This is Jedi Knight Jacen Solo, and I'm Jedi Knight Katie Zecli, Your Highness. But you know me as Katherine," she said, pulling the hood of her silver cloak off.
"Ah. Katherine. So I see that you found your memories."
"Yes. With a little help from my friend here," Kat said, throwing Jacen a smile. "But right now, we need to contact some one on Coruscant."
"Of course. Sara! Would you please show these two to a room?" the queen asked one of the handmaidens then turn her attention back to the two Jedi. "From there you two could contact Coruscant and get some rest."
"We thank you, Queen Jade," Kat said, bowing. Jacen bowed, too, then helped Kat follow the handmaiden down a separate hall.
"Both of you will be staying in this room," Sara said, opening the door in front of them. "If you need something, just call." And with that, Sara left the two Jedi Knights.
Jacen helped Kat into the room and went for the communications console, sat down in the chair, and punched in the coordinates for Coruscant with Kat looking over his shoulder.
"Are you sure you want to face my parents?"
"It's better to face them together than alone, Jacen," she said. "And besides, I don't have anything else to occupy my time."
Within moments, the face of an outraged Han Solo appeared on the view screen. "Where in blazes have you been?!"
"It's sort of a long story, Dad," Jacen answered. "We're on Naboo."
"Naboo?! How did you need up on Naboo?!"
"Like I said, it's a long story." Jacen looked back at Kat.
"Our X-wings are half-buried in sand on Tatooine, and we need to be picked up on Naboo," Kat said, smiling.
"All right. I'll probably be there by tomorrow. Are you two at least safe?"
"Yes," Kat replied before Jacen could. "For the moment. I know the queen."
"Okay. I'll be there to pick you two up in a couple of days." With that, the com console screen turned black as Han ended communications.
"Well," Kat said, "look at it this way. At least we won't be killed by your father."
Jacen smiled at that. Suddenly, there was a quiet knock at the door and Jacen reached for his lightsaber.
"You won't be needing it," Kat said, walking to the door.
"I feel better with it close by."
Kat smiled and shook her head as she opened the door. Outside stood a handmaiden, dressed in the flame dress.
"May I come in?"
"Sure, Jessie," Kat said. "You know Jacen."
"I heard that he was the grandson of one of our queens."
Jacen was surprised and sent Kat a questioning look.
"Well, which queen?"
"I think it was Queen Amidala," she said, looking at Jacen. "She married a young Jedi and had twins."
"My mother and uncle are twins," said Jacen. "And they both are Jedi."
"Ah. And does one of them have the last name of Skywalker?"
"Why, yes. It's my Uncle Luke." Jacen looked closer at the handmaiden. "And you're not really a handmaiden, are you?"
"Very bright young man, isn't he, Kat."
"Took you a while, Jacen," Kat said mischiefly. "This is actually Queen Jade."
"How did you two know each other?"
"When I was ten, my father and I moved here to a mountain village. Jade and I became friends, while I worked in the palace, before I got my memory back. I bet I still have a few old friends here on Naboo."
*You won't be able to save him, Zecli.*
Kat nearly collapsed onto the floor but Jacen was right beside her, helping her.
*You won't reach him in time.*
"What's wrong?" Jacen asked, his voice thick with concern.
"T-there's a S-sith near."
"But, they've disappeared when Darth Vader died," Jacen protested.
"There has always been one apprentice and one master," Kat said with worry. "No more, no less. But I think this one is looking for an apprentice."
"You mean me?!" Jacen asked.
"Or me. The Sith sent the message to me. I'm stronger but less experienced in the Force. And more likely to turn." Kat turned to Jade. "You need to stay as Jessie for the next couple of days or at least until Jacen and I leave Naboo. And always have a guard around you."
Chapter 14
During that night, Kat and Jacen couldn't sleep in fear that the Sith would capture the other.
Jacen had insisted to Kat to take the bed in the room while he slept on a couch. Kat finally gave in but still was unable to sleep, dispite her efforts.
Early in the morning, while most of Theed was still asleep, Kat and Jacen left the palace to go to the mountains. They figured that if the Sith would follow them, it would be better to confront him in a less populated place.
Kat ran the mountain trail in one of her tiger morphs while Jacen rode. They finally came to the edge of a forest, too dense for a tiger.
Stopping. Kat came to a sudden halt but with Jacen still on.
"Thank you."
Jacen got off and Kat flashed-morphed into her Antooannaian form. She pulled the hood of her cloak down and looked around. Birds sang in the morning air as they flew from branch to branch. They started into the forest, not knowing what to expect.
Finally, after about an hour of walking, they came to the other side of the forest. Less than ten meters away was the end of a cliff. Jacen walked over and looked down to see the bottom tens of thousands of meters below him, with a little thin blue line of a river disappearing into the forest below.
"So what time do you think my dad will be here?" Jacen asked turning back to Kat. But he saw her on the ground, slumped against a tree trunk. There was a figure in black standing between Jacen and Kat.
Jacen saw an icy blue stone on his forehead, right below his silver striped black hair. His skin glittered in the sunlight as he moved closer to him.
"I don't know," he said. "But I'm sure that he'll be real depressed when he finds out that you fell of a cliff." He drew a lightsaber out from beneath his black cloak and lit the glowing red blade. The handle was long enough to be two lightsabers.
Jacen immediately drew his and ignited the blue blade, prepared to do battle. "Who are you and what do you want?" Jacen asked.
"I'm Drake Sucli," he said as if it was the most known fact in the universe. "And all I want is Zecli over there."
"But why?"
"To be my apprentice," Drake said, smiling. "And my wife."
"You won't be able to take her!"
Jacen lunged toward Drake, his lightsaber touching Drake's. They fought on till they where almost at the edge.
The clash of the lightsabers woke Kat up. She was alarmed to see Drake and Jacen fighting. Immediately, Kat got up and went toward the fight, grabbing for her lightsaber.
Drake, noting the movement of Kat, immediately went into action. He went from defensive to offensive, overpowering Jacen. Drake and Jacen got to close to the edge and Drake pushed him over.
But Jacen grabbed on to Drake, pulling him over the edge.
"JACEN!" Kat cried out running toward the edge. In her line of vision, a black hovercraft came by, picking up Drake. But Jacen was still falling toward the forest below.
Kat jumped off the cliff after Jacen. Suddenly, there was a pain in her back, and gold wings grew from her shoulder blades. Her silver cloak came loose and was caught by the wind, throwing it into the air. Kat realized what had happened and narrowed her wings for greater speed, not caring about what might happen to the cloak.
In less than fifteen seconds, Kat reached Jacen, grabbed onto his shirt collar, and opened her eight meter wing span. The wind caught them and Kat's wings strained against gravity, but slowed them down enough.
Kat aimed for the river, for they were still going too fast to land on the ground.
By then, Jacen was unconscious. They plunged into the river and Kat dragged Jacen onto the shoreline, leaving gold feathers on the ground and in the water. She finally collapsed beside Jacen, one wing covering him and the other laying on the ground.
Katie's consciences worked it's way back and she woke thinking, *where am I?* then, *who am I?*
She quickly sat up and then wished she hadn't when her head began to pound. Katie put her hand against her head as if to try to stop the pounding, and tried to think back but only found a gray mist covering half of her mind.
She put her hand back down and saw it covered with a strange tattoo. Katie looked out of an open window near her to see a sun climb into the air over a city that seems more plant than stone.
"I see that you're a wake," a female voice said, coming from behind her. Katie spun around to see a sixteen-year old woman with dark brown hair wearing a flame dress walked in with a set of the same colored clothes folded in her arms.
"Where am I?"
"You're in the palace of Theed on Naboo."
"On Naboo?"
"Yeah. I found you a couple days back near the woods and the queen would like you to be one of her handmaidens. My name is Adi Amandi." Adi held out her hand and Katie shook it. "What's yours?"
"I. . . I don't remember," she said, searching her mind for clues. "The only thing I seemed to remember is the color yellow."
"Don't worry. Your memory will come back in time. But Queen Jade said that she would like to meet you when you woke up and you need to get dressed," Adi said and handed Katie the clothes in her arms.
Adi left the room and when she came back, Katie was wearing the same outfit as the rest of the handmaidens and her hair put into a braid with one braid still hanging down. Adi motion to Katie to pull her hood up and did the same, leading Katie out of the room into a long hall.
After a while, they arrived at the throne room that had four other handmaidens surrounding the queen who wore a long red dress, her hair braided with a fancy headdress on top of her head, and white face paint with the top and the middle of her bottom lip red.
"My Queen, I would like you to meet Katherine," Adi said, making up a name for Katie.
Katie moved forward and bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said. She looked into the queen's eyes and saw something not quite right. "But. . . you're not the Queen."
All around her the other handmaidens gasped but she ignored them. Katie walked around the circle of handmaidens, looking at each of their eyes. She finally stopped in front of a handmaiden farthest from the throne and bowed slightly. "I will do my best to protect you, Queen Jade."
"Very good, Katherine," the queen said, standing up. "The only people that knew about my switch is me and Erica," she said, waving her hand to the fake queen. "In my disguise, my name is Jessie. The other handmaiden's names are Sabè, Amy, Sara," the queen said and the others stood up as their name was called, "and you already met Adi."
Queen Jade turned toward Adi. "Adi, would you please take Katherine and show her the city?"
"Yes, Your Highness." Adi turned to a hall with Katie behind her. She lead her down the hall and finally stopped in front of a door with six maroon cloaks hanging beside it. Adi gave one to Katie and took one for herself. "I also need to run some errands for the cooks in the kitchens. What do you usually eat?"
"I don't know. The only thing I'm hungry for is fruit," Katie said as they walked out into the Naboo sunlight.
*
"Ahh!"
Thud!
Jacen quickly stood up in the brightly lit room. *Why does that always happen to me?* he thought.
Jacen looked out a window and saw a market place filled with people wearing different colored outfits and stalls filled with flowers, fruit, bread, and jewelry.
He looked himself over and saw that he wasn't injured, though his hair was messed up and he was wearing the Jedi outfit he changed into on Tatooine. Then he noticed that his lightsaber was missing. He quickly looked around and found the silver cloak he was wearing. *The one Katie made me*, he thought sadly. Felling a sense of urgency, Jacen picked it up to put on when a loud clank sounded. He looked down at the floor and saw his lightsaber.
He snapped his cloak around his neck, picked up his lightsaber and hooked on his belt under his cloak where no one else could see, and headed out of the room and nearly ran into a little five year old boy.
"Mommy! He's awa-ake!" the little kid yelled in a sing-song voice.
Three seconds later, a thirty year old woman walked into the hallway, wiping her hands off with her apron. "Josh!" she scolded. "You don't need to be so rude!"
"Don't worry," Jacen said, smiling at the little boy. "My little brother is the same way. My name's Jacen."
"I'm Sophie," the woman said, shaking Jacen's hand.
"Nice to meet you. "Jacen thought for a moment, then remembered what he was going to do. "Where did you find me?"
"My husband said he found you inside just the forest. He didn't see any one else."
"Oh man!" Jacen looked around then back at Sophie. "I'm sorry to run out on you, but I need to find someone who might be in danger," he said, running down the stairs.
"Come back any time!" Sophie yelled after him.
Jacen bursted out into the street, nearly running into two of the queen's handmaidens in the process.
"I'm so sorry," Jacen quickly apologized.
"It's all right," said one of them, then moved off in to the market place.
Jacen almost turned back to her, thinking that he heard Kat's voice and Force presence, but dismissed it both as an illusion.
*
Adi looked over at Katie and saw her put up her hand to her head as if she had a headache.
"What's wrong?"
"Huh?" Katie looked at Adi. "Oh. Nothing."
Adi got an idea for Katie's name. "Do mind if the others and I call you Kat?"
"Kat? Sure. I don't mind," Kat said.
Adi and Kat walked through the market place, buying different foods for the cooks, and showing Kat the city.
Chapter 13
One day, about three days after Adi gave Katie her Kat name, Kat and Sabè went out into the market to get more food for the cooks.
Jacen had suspected that Kat lost her memory and was one of the handmaidens and he would stealthily watched them under the hood of his cloak.
The only problem was to figure out how to bring back her memory.
Every once in a while, Kat would looked up and toward Jacen, but was never able to see him.
"So, you have no idea who you are or where you came from?" Sabè asked Kat while they were picking fruit.
"No," Kat said. "I don't have a. . . Ahh!"
Sabè looked at Kat and saw that she was on the ground and seemed in pain.
"Kat! What's wrong?!"
But before Kat could answer, there was a huge explosion near by. Kat got up and ran toward the source with Sabè right behind her.
They arrived at a house with fire coming out of the windows.
"Josh!" a woman screamed.
Kat looked at the house than went to the woman. "Where is he?"
"He's on the second floor," the woman cried.
Kat ran into the house and up the stairs. There was a crash behind her as a part of the ceiling fell.
"Mommy!"
Kat looked to her right and saw a little boy sitting in the corner farthest from the fire and walked over to him.
"It's going to be all right," Kat said, taking off her cloak and wrapped it around the boy to protect him from the fire. Kat picked him up and looked for a way out and saw an open window.
Kat ran toward the window and jumped out, landing safely away from the house with the boy still in her arms. A crowd came over to where they are and Kat handed the mother her son.
*Only a Force user would be able to make that jump*, Jacen thought as he made his way through the crowd toward Kat.
As soon as he got to Kat, Jacen pulled her out of the crowd.
"Let go of me! I need to get back to the palace!"
"You have no idea who you are or where you came from, right?"
"Yeah. But. . ."
"I know who you are."
"If that's right, then who am I?"
"You're a Jedi Knight."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are," Jacen said, grabbing Kat by her shoulders. "You're Katie Zecli, the only Jedi Knight from Antooanna that's still alive!"
"Prove one thing to show that I'm Katie!"
Jacen grabbed her left hand that had her ring. "This ring. The red stone is you, the purple is your father, and the light blue is your mother. You also wear a red stone on a chain that belonged to your great, great grandmother, Kates Zecli.
"And?"
"And," Jacen said, looking into Kat's eyes, "I love you." Jacen kissed Kat passionately on the lips when suddenly she fell to the ground and cried out in pain.
There was a flash of red and suddenly, the flame dress she was wearing turned the white of the Jedi outfit before the silver cloak covered her back and head.
Jacen knelt down beside Kat, felling her Force power grow stronger.
Weakly, her glittery hand felt for the ground as she tried to get up. Jacen put his hand under Kat's and helped her get up. As soon as they were both standing, Kat looked up at Jacen. He saw her fire stone glow a bright red and her gold streaked hair fell in her face.
"Jacen?"
"It's all right, my love. It's all right."
Kat started to cry and once again, they both kissed each other with a long kiss.
Sabè quietly came to them and attracted Kat's attention. "Sabè, do you think that I might be able to see the queen?"
"I will take you to her."
*
Sabè led the two silver figures through the halls and into the throne room where Queen Jade sat, surrounded by her handmaidens.
"You may be seated, Sabè," Queen Jade said, then looked toward Kat and Jacen. "And who might you be?"
Kat took a step forward with Jacen holding onto her elbow for support. "This is Jedi Knight Jacen Solo, and I'm Jedi Knight Katie Zecli, Your Highness. But you know me as Katherine," she said, pulling the hood of her silver cloak off.
"Ah. Katherine. So I see that you found your memories."
"Yes. With a little help from my friend here," Kat said, throwing Jacen a smile. "But right now, we need to contact some one on Coruscant."
"Of course. Sara! Would you please show these two to a room?" the queen asked one of the handmaidens then turn her attention back to the two Jedi. "From there you two could contact Coruscant and get some rest."
"We thank you, Queen Jade," Kat said, bowing. Jacen bowed, too, then helped Kat follow the handmaiden down a separate hall.
"Both of you will be staying in this room," Sara said, opening the door in front of them. "If you need something, just call." And with that, Sara left the two Jedi Knights.
Jacen helped Kat into the room and went for the communications console, sat down in the chair, and punched in the coordinates for Coruscant with Kat looking over his shoulder.
"Are you sure you want to face my parents?"
"It's better to face them together than alone, Jacen," she said. "And besides, I don't have anything else to occupy my time."
Within moments, the face of an outraged Han Solo appeared on the view screen. "Where in blazes have you been?!"
"It's sort of a long story, Dad," Jacen answered. "We're on Naboo."
"Naboo?! How did you need up on Naboo?!"
"Like I said, it's a long story." Jacen looked back at Kat.
"Our X-wings are half-buried in sand on Tatooine, and we need to be picked up on Naboo," Kat said, smiling.
"All right. I'll probably be there by tomorrow. Are you two at least safe?"
"Yes," Kat replied before Jacen could. "For the moment. I know the queen."
"Okay. I'll be there to pick you two up in a couple of days." With that, the com console screen turned black as Han ended communications.
"Well," Kat said, "look at it this way. At least we won't be killed by your father."
Jacen smiled at that. Suddenly, there was a quiet knock at the door and Jacen reached for his lightsaber.
"You won't be needing it," Kat said, walking to the door.
"I feel better with it close by."
Kat smiled and shook her head as she opened the door. Outside stood a handmaiden, dressed in the flame dress.
"May I come in?"
"Sure, Jessie," Kat said. "You know Jacen."
"I heard that he was the grandson of one of our queens."
Jacen was surprised and sent Kat a questioning look.
"Well, which queen?"
"I think it was Queen Amidala," she said, looking at Jacen. "She married a young Jedi and had twins."
"My mother and uncle are twins," said Jacen. "And they both are Jedi."
"Ah. And does one of them have the last name of Skywalker?"
"Why, yes. It's my Uncle Luke." Jacen looked closer at the handmaiden. "And you're not really a handmaiden, are you?"
"Very bright young man, isn't he, Kat."
"Took you a while, Jacen," Kat said mischiefly. "This is actually Queen Jade."
"How did you two know each other?"
"When I was ten, my father and I moved here to a mountain village. Jade and I became friends, while I worked in the palace, before I got my memory back. I bet I still have a few old friends here on Naboo."
*You won't be able to save him, Zecli.*
Kat nearly collapsed onto the floor but Jacen was right beside her, helping her.
*You won't reach him in time.*
"What's wrong?" Jacen asked, his voice thick with concern.
"T-there's a S-sith near."
"But, they've disappeared when Darth Vader died," Jacen protested.
"There has always been one apprentice and one master," Kat said with worry. "No more, no less. But I think this one is looking for an apprentice."
"You mean me?!" Jacen asked.
"Or me. The Sith sent the message to me. I'm stronger but less experienced in the Force. And more likely to turn." Kat turned to Jade. "You need to stay as Jessie for the next couple of days or at least until Jacen and I leave Naboo. And always have a guard around you."
Chapter 14
During that night, Kat and Jacen couldn't sleep in fear that the Sith would capture the other.
Jacen had insisted to Kat to take the bed in the room while he slept on a couch. Kat finally gave in but still was unable to sleep, dispite her efforts.
Early in the morning, while most of Theed was still asleep, Kat and Jacen left the palace to go to the mountains. They figured that if the Sith would follow them, it would be better to confront him in a less populated place.
Kat ran the mountain trail in one of her tiger morphs while Jacen rode. They finally came to the edge of a forest, too dense for a tiger.
Stopping. Kat came to a sudden halt but with Jacen still on.
"Thank you."
Jacen got off and Kat flashed-morphed into her Antooannaian form. She pulled the hood of her cloak down and looked around. Birds sang in the morning air as they flew from branch to branch. They started into the forest, not knowing what to expect.
Finally, after about an hour of walking, they came to the other side of the forest. Less than ten meters away was the end of a cliff. Jacen walked over and looked down to see the bottom tens of thousands of meters below him, with a little thin blue line of a river disappearing into the forest below.
"So what time do you think my dad will be here?" Jacen asked turning back to Kat. But he saw her on the ground, slumped against a tree trunk. There was a figure in black standing between Jacen and Kat.
Jacen saw an icy blue stone on his forehead, right below his silver striped black hair. His skin glittered in the sunlight as he moved closer to him.
"I don't know," he said. "But I'm sure that he'll be real depressed when he finds out that you fell of a cliff." He drew a lightsaber out from beneath his black cloak and lit the glowing red blade. The handle was long enough to be two lightsabers.
Jacen immediately drew his and ignited the blue blade, prepared to do battle. "Who are you and what do you want?" Jacen asked.
"I'm Drake Sucli," he said as if it was the most known fact in the universe. "And all I want is Zecli over there."
"But why?"
"To be my apprentice," Drake said, smiling. "And my wife."
"You won't be able to take her!"
Jacen lunged toward Drake, his lightsaber touching Drake's. They fought on till they where almost at the edge.
The clash of the lightsabers woke Kat up. She was alarmed to see Drake and Jacen fighting. Immediately, Kat got up and went toward the fight, grabbing for her lightsaber.
Drake, noting the movement of Kat, immediately went into action. He went from defensive to offensive, overpowering Jacen. Drake and Jacen got to close to the edge and Drake pushed him over.
But Jacen grabbed on to Drake, pulling him over the edge.
"JACEN!" Kat cried out running toward the edge. In her line of vision, a black hovercraft came by, picking up Drake. But Jacen was still falling toward the forest below.
Kat jumped off the cliff after Jacen. Suddenly, there was a pain in her back, and gold wings grew from her shoulder blades. Her silver cloak came loose and was caught by the wind, throwing it into the air. Kat realized what had happened and narrowed her wings for greater speed, not caring about what might happen to the cloak.
In less than fifteen seconds, Kat reached Jacen, grabbed onto his shirt collar, and opened her eight meter wing span. The wind caught them and Kat's wings strained against gravity, but slowed them down enough.
Kat aimed for the river, for they were still going too fast to land on the ground.
By then, Jacen was unconscious. They plunged into the river and Kat dragged Jacen onto the shoreline, leaving gold feathers on the ground and in the water. She finally collapsed beside Jacen, one wing covering him and the other laying on the ground.