Jaina ran into Jacen halfway to the communications room, and together they rushed to the terminal that presently housed the image of an extremely worried looking Leia Organa Solo. Her eyes were red from crying and Jaina feared the worst.
Neither Jaina nor her twin had felt
anything through the force, but that did not mean that something serious hadn't
happened to Anakin. Their younger
brother was light years away on Courscant spending a few extra days with their
parents, so the distance factor may have hindered their abilities to pick up on
his presence.
"Mom, what happened to Anakin?" Jaina asked immediately.
"He took off from Courscant in one of
the supply ships heading for Yavin Four," Leia told them.
His face a mask of complete
seriousness, Jacen said, "why did Anakin take off?"
"He and your father were working on
the Falcon when they got into an argument," she began slowly. "One thing led to another and then your
father lost his temper and said some things he shouldn't have, no matter how
mad he was at Anakin."
Jacen and Jaina exchanged worried
looks.
Fearing she already knew the answer to
her question, Jaina asked it anyways. "What did dad say to him?"
Their mother blinked back tears. "He yelled at him for leaving Chewie
behind,"
Oh no, Jaina thought, closing
her eyes briefly. The incident at
Sernpidal was still an extremely sensitive subject in her family, especially
for Anakin, even now, months after Chewbacca's death. Things had finally gotten back to normal in her family, with Han
no longer blaming his youngest son for Chewie's death, but now, Jaina sensed
that the healed father and son relationship was falling apart again.
"I already talked to Luke," said Leia,
"Anakin should be there in a few hours,"
Jacen placed a comforting hand on his
sister's shoulder. "Don't worry, mom,
we'll take care of him," he assured her.
Leia gave them a small grateful smile.
Jaina said, "where's dad now?"
Their mother's smile vanished. "I don't know, but I'm sure he's somewhere
beating himself up for what he said."
Jaina took that as code for their
father was looking for the most lowlife infested cantina he could find so he
could get himself drunk.
"He'll try to hide how upset he really
is," Leia told them, "you know how Anakin is,"
They did. He would keep everything bottled up inside him, but no one, Jedi
or not, could keep that up forever. Anakin may think that he could, but if he continued to push his feelings
farther and farther away in an attempt to hide them, Jaina knew that they would
one day creep up on him and slap him in the face. There was only so much your body could hold in. After that, it was up to the person to
decide whether to deal with it or let themself drown in the emotions that they
had spent so long refusing they even existed.
"I'm sure Anakin and Dad just need
some time to clear their heads," said Jacen.
"I hope so. I don't know if I –" Leia cut herself off in mid-sentence. "Just give me a call when he gets there and
let me know he's all right. Unless he
wants to talk to me himself, which I doubt."
"He's not mad at you. He just needs some space, that's all," Jaina
said.
Leia didn't look convinced but she
didn't argue with her daughter. With a
final inquiry into how Jaina and Jacen were doing, and then telling them she
missed them, Leia signed off.
Despite their reassuring words to
their mother, Jaina did not believe for a second that 'some space' would help
fix things between father and son.
The supply shuttle, Eclipse,
cleared through the atmosphere of Yavin Four, carrying with it its monthly load
of supplies to the Jedi Academy. With
little difficulty the small shuttle made its way towards the great temple and
touched down on the designated landing pad outside it.
After
thanking the Eclipse's captain for letting him hitch a ride, Anakin Solo
grabbed the bag that he had hastily packed and departed the ship.
He
expected his brother and sister, and even his Uncle Luke to be there waiting for
him, but they were no where to be seen. He was grateful for that because he really did not want to speak to
anyone right now. They must have known
he was coming, though. He was certain
his mother would have called and told them what had happened.
Deciding
he had a better chance of reaching his room unseen if he did not go in through
the main entrance, Anakin continued walking until he was almost halfway around
the ancient massassi temple. It was
there he found one of the many hidden entrances to the temple that he had
discovered years ago he had been a student at the Jedi Academy.
He
pushed open the door, the hinges of it groaning slightly, and slipped
inside. He knew his way around the
place better then most people, so he was able to take a set of back stairs –
that the majority of students didn't even know existed – up to the floor his
room was on.
Numerous
glow panels that had been installed into the ceiling lit up the corridor that
led to his quarters. The hallway itself
was deserted, with the majority of students off attending their afternoon
classes.
When
he reached his room, he nearly let out a sigh of relief at having been able to
slip inside undetected, when he felt her all too familiar presence approaching
from behind him.
"Hey,
you never told me you were coming back earlier," Tahiri lightly scolded him.
"It
was kind've a last minute thing," he explained, coming around to face his best
friend.
"What's
wrong?" She asked, picking up on his
uneasiness.
Of
all the beings in the temple, why did he have to run into the one person who it
would be impossible to hide anything from?
"It's
nothing," he assured her.
Tahiri
didn't look like she believed him. "Nothing? You should know by now
you can't hide anything from me, Anakin Solo,"
"Fine. It's nothing important. Does that satisfy you?"
"No,
it doesn't."
"Well,
it's going to have to because I don't feel much like talking right now," he
moved to open his door but Tahiri stepped in front of it.
"Tahiri,
would you please move? I have stuff to
do," Anakin said, annoyed that she wouldn't go away.
"I'm
not going anywhere until you tell me what's bothering you," she said, crossing
her arms over her chest.
"Maybe
you should just mind your own business," he snapped at her.
Hurt,
she said, "fine. I can take a
hint. When you do feel like talking
about it, you may find you don't have a best friend to talk about it to." She pushed past him and stormed off down the
hall.
Anakin
watched her go, sighing to himself. He
seemed to be doing a good job of screwing up the relationships in his life
these days. If things kept up like
this, he could manage to alienate himself from his brother and sister and
everyone else on the planet before day's end.
He
walked into his room, throwing his duffle bag onto his bed. He would go apologize to Tahiri later, that
is, if she was still interested in being his friend.
Anakin
flopped down onto his bed. He really
didn't need the added weight of Tahiri on his mind. He had enough problems to worry about. For starters, how he was going to keep his family from falling
apart because of him.
So what do you think so far?
I'll try to post chapter's three and four in
the next few days.
