Author's Note: Jaina's
dream (except for the last 7 paragraphs) was taken from the Star Wars: Young
Jedi Knights book "Jedi Under Siege" by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta.
And now back to the story…
CHAPTER SIX
"Jaina, do you have
a minute?" Jacen asked, poking his head
into the Lightning Rod's cockpit.
"Sure, what's on you mind?" She said,
turning her seat so she was facing him.
He took a seat beside her. "You're a woman, right?"
"That's what everyone keeps telling
me." She gave her brother a sympathetic look. "Tenal Ka's still giving you the silent treatment?"
Jacen shrugged. "You could say that,"
"And you think, being a woman myself,
I can give you advice on how to deal with one?"
"Well, yeah,"
Jaina chuckled. "Tenal Ka's not like any other woman,
Jace. I don't think the traditional
advice on females applies to her anymore than it does a droid."
"I'm so glad you were able to help
me,"
A beeping on the console in front of
Jaina caught her attention.
"The
one piece of advice I can give you, " she began, while she worked the controls
in front of her, "is to give her some time. When she's ready to open up to you, she will," Jaina caught the irony in
her own words. Maybe I should follow
my own advice.
Jacen
said, "how can I do that when I don't even know what I did to make her act like
this in the first place?"
Jaina
didn't answer him right away. She
concentrated solely on bringing the ship out of hyperspace. Easing down on the lever in front of her,
she looked out the forward view port and saw the stars coming back into focus
as the ship shot out into normal space.
A
relatively small planet hung in space in front of them. The sensors identified it as Dundas. It did not look all that different from many
of the other worlds Jaina had visited in her lifetime. Large green landmasses and bodies of water,
which the sensors identified as heavily polluted, covered a large portion of
the northern area of the planet, while there the southern hemisphere appeared
to be mostly barren and rocky. Jaina
picked up a significant number of life forms in the south, and came to the
conclusion they were probably smugglers in hiding.
Taking
her eyes off the planet in front of her, Jaina punched in the coordinates that
would take them to the spaceport in the city Dienya, where the files on Dundas
had said many of the larger gangs made their home. While she did that, she said to her brother, "I hate to bring
your ego back down to human size, Jacen, but did it ever cross your mind that
the way Tenal Ka's acting has nothing to do with you?"
Jacen
let his sister's words sink in. He had
just assumed that the reason for Tenal Ka's distant behavior towards him was
because of something he had done. It seemed to be the obvious conclusion, but now…
Jaina
watched as her brother sat there absorbing what she had just told him. Obviously, it had never occurred to him that
whatever was going on with Tenal Ka had nothing to do with him. She had done him a favour by showing him
that the galaxy – which included Tenal Ka – did not revolve around Jacen Solo.
"Come
on, lover boy," she said, grabbing his arm, "your love life will have to
wait. We have work to do,"
Pushing
his thoughts aside, Jacen let his sister drag him to the Lightning Rod's exit
hatch. They had more than just an
assignment to complete here on Dundas. Zekk's very life might depend on the outcome of this mission, and Jacen
did not want any distractions to get in the way of helping his friend.
"Charming
place," Jacen noted wryly, as the group entered the main spaceport of the city
Dienya.
"It
doesn't get any better from here," Zekk said to him.
They had arrived late in the evening, but the
spaceport was still bustling with activity as smugglers, merchants, and
numerous other rough-looking humans and aliens went about their business –
legal or otherwise. There were at least
a dozen different illuminated signs in their vicinity indicating cantinas and
gambling facilities, along with other questionable places open for business to
the public. Most of the beings they
passed had at least one blaster strapped to them. It was probably safe to say many of them also had other hidden weaponry
on them, ready to defend themselves at the first sign of trouble, or if they
were provoked.
Once
they were out of there, and entered the actual city of Dienya, Jaina understood
what had Zekk meant.
Most
of the street lamps were burnt out, leaving the alleyways looking ominous and
threatening. The darkness helped to
disguise some of the rundown buildings, but it could not hide everything. Some looked like they were being lived in,
while others that appeared to have been abandoned had various markings – likely
gang related, on the windows and sides of them.
Jaina
shivered as a cool chill went up her spine. For some reason she could not shake the feeling that they were being
watched. Maybe she was just restless
after being locked up in the ship for so long, but she didn't think that was it
at all.
She
glanced at her wrist chrono. They had
arrived later than she had anticipated, and it would be difficult to start
searching now in the dark of night when they didn't know their way around the
city.
"Maybe
we should find some place to spend the night, and start looking first thing in
the morning," she suggested.
No one
disagreed, since it was late already and they were all a little tired from the
long trip through hyperspace. Starting
off fresh in the morning seemed like a good idea to everyone, and they set off
in search of a place to spend the night.
"I
won't fight you anymore, Zekk," she said, switching off her lightsaber and
tossing it to the ground. There's still
good in you, but you'll have to decide which direction you want to go –
starting now."
Surprise
and anger and confusion chased each other across Zekk's face. "How do you know I won't kill you?"
Jaina
shrugged. "I don't know that. But I won't fight you. Make your choice." Jaina pushed back her straight brown hair and looked directly
into Zekk's eyes with calm assurance – not assurance that he wouldn't harm her,
but assurance that she had done the right thing.
"Well,
what are you waiting for?" she whispered.
Zekk
raised his glowing red lightsaber over Jaina's head. The hum of the lightsaber filled Jaina's ears as her former
friend brought it slowly down toward her neck. "You never understood, Jaina…. You can't understand. You've always been so protected. The dark side is like a scar that's on the inside."
Zekk's
eyes locked with hers. His hand
remained steady, and he began speaking in a low voice. "But these are scars that can't be healed,"
he went on. "You can try to cover them
up" – hum; buzz – "but they're still there… underneath."
Jaina
could feel the energy blade edging closer and closer to the exposed skin of her
neck. But the buzzing sound had
disappeared, along with her Uncle Luke and the rest of the Jedi trainees
gathered around them. It was just she and Zekk now.
Had
she guessed wrong? Was Zekk really that
far gone that she had been a fool to try and save him?
His lightsaber was almost touching her
now. She could already feel the
scorching heat of the blade singing the exposed flesh of her neck. The pain was excruciating, but she didn't
flinch. She continued to keep her gaze
looked on Zekk.
His
blade suddenly stopped where it was, and this time when Zekk looked at her, she
thought she saw a flicker of sadness in his blazing emerald eyes.
He
leaned close to her ear, and whispered in a barely audible voice, "you can't
save me, Jaina. No one can. Once you let the dark side in, it's with you
forever. No matter how hard you try to
forget it or pretend its not there, it still hovers over you waiting for that
moment of weakness when you'll give into it." He backed away from her, still holding his lightsaber out in front of
him. "You should have stayed away from
me. Forgot I ever existed," he said to
her, anger creeping into his voice.
Jaina
shook her head defiantly. "Never,
you're my friend," she said, choking over the last word.
Zekk
narrowed his gaze at her, his eyes clouding over with darkness. "No, I'm not," he said, raising his blade
above his head, "I'm your enemy," and plunged his blood-red lightsaber towards
her chest with full force –
Gasping
for air, Jaina bolted upright in her bed, heart pounding furiously and body
trembling uncontrollably. She unraveled
herself from her twisted bed sheets and threw them to the floor where her
blanket already lay. Her straight brown
hair was a sweaty, tangled mess, with clumps of it plastered to her face. She called on a Jedi calming technique to
the slow the beating of her heart, but it had no effect.
Even
though she was sweating, she felt cold. Hugging her arms around herself, she thought, it had been so real.
She
looked around the room she was in, momentarily forgetting that she was on
Dundas sharing some rundown motel room with Tenal Ka and Tahiri. The guys were sharing their own room across
the hall. They did not have the luxury
of many places to choose from to spend the night, so had ended up settling for
a place called the Spacer's Dive, a cheap, second rate motel run by a scruffy
looking Rybet. Jaina would have been
much more comfortable squished together with everyone else on the Lightning
Rod. The only problem with that was
if word got around you were sleeping on your ship it was assumed it had items
of high value onboard, so you could expect to run into unruly individuals
wanting to take a peek at your cargo.
Jaina
glanced at the sleeping forms of her two friends, relieved that her fitful
dream had not woken them up.
She
tried closing her eyes to get some perspective on her nightmare, but kept
seeing Zekk in his Dark Jedi armored outfit towering over her. She had dreamt about her battle with Zekk
that day in front of the Jedi Academy every night for weeks afterward, but had
not experienced that nightmare in almost two years. It had ended different this time though. Zekk was supposed to have trusted her,
renounced the dark side and come back to the light, just as he had done in real
life. This time she had been unable to
save him. He had said he was her
enemy and then swung his blade to kill her. That was when she had waken up.
She
wasn't sure what had triggered the dream but it had left her shaken. It was possible that the story Zekk had told
her about what he did on Nar Shaddaa as part of the Shadow Academy had affected
her deeper than she had thought. Or
maybe it was something more. Was it the
future reveling itself? She did not
want to believe in the possibility of Zekk turning back to his former self.
During
her tenure at the Jedi Academy, her Uncle Luke had often spoken about Jedi,
including himself, who had had visions of the future. He told them it was difficult to determine which were just dreams
and which were actually visions of one possible future. Even if it was a vision, Luke had explained
that the future itself was always in motion so it did not necessarily mean that
it would come true.
She
chided herself for letting an old nightmare get her so worked up. Zekk had worked too long and hard to get to
where he was today to throw it all away. If he were reverting back to his old self she would have felt it.
Jaina
believed in her heart that Zekk would never turn back to his old ways, but even
that faith couldn't stop her from spending the rest of the night lying awake in
her bed, haunted by images of an uncertain future.
There are still 8 more chapters to come, so keep the
reviews coming and let me know what you think.