Disclaimer: Same as always.
Notes: I found my inspiration again! I now present to you Chapter Five of Falling and Fallen. Enjoy!!
Jaina looked around at her surroundings. She knew where she was: Yavin 4. Ten meters to her left was the spot in the river where she and her friends used to swim during their training. Looking though the vegetation in front of her, Jaina could see the Great Temple in the distance.
Jaina blinked, trying to figure out why she was at this place, and was somehow taken off of Yavin 4 and deposited in her parent's apartment on Courscant. She knew the rooms like the back of her hand: just down the hall were her and her brothers' old rooms, now a study and guest quarter.
"This isn't right," Jaina said to herself. "This place was destroyed by the Vong." She decided to investigate and turned to leave...
...and found herself standing in the foyer of an unfamiliar place. Hoping that her surroundings wouldn't change until she got some answers, Jaina entered the living room of the house.
Looking around, Jaina noticed two things. First, this was indeed a house. On the far side of the room, there was a flight of stairs leading to a second floor. Out the windows, she could see a sparsely forested yard.
Second, she noticed that there were holos all around the room, on walls and on tables, dozens of them. She went to the nearest one and gasped in shock at what she saw. It was a wedding holo. Her brother's wedding holo.
Jacen looked absolutely dashing in his black tuxedo. That wasn't what shocked her, though. It was the bride. She was beautiful in her floor-length, sleeveless white gown, with her long hair curling gently down around her shoulders. It was the most beautiful that Jaina had seen Tahiri Veila look.
Jaina moved on to the next holo, also from a wedding. Tenel Ka was resplendid in her beaded gown, with strands of Gallinore jewels woven into her hair. The joy she felt was evident in her eyes. Ganner Rhysode wore his Jedi robes with pride, his love for Tenel Ka evident in his eyes.
She decided to look at another wall of holos, but when she turned, there was a blinding flash of light and pain so bad that she couldn't bear it. She screamed.....
Jaina sat bolt upright in bed, strangling back a scream. It was just a dream, she thought to herself. But it had felt so real. Everything had been so vivid. Especially that last part...
She wanted nothing more than to wake up Jag and get his opinion on her dream. But when she turned to wake her husband, she was greeted by an empty bed. Jaina groaned and let herself fall back onto the bed, her right arm resting over her eyes.
She remembered now. Jag was bunking with Kyp until they figured out a way to tell Jaina's parents about their marriage. She had helped him move all of his belongings into Kyp's room earlier that evening.
Jaina debated comming him and waking him up, but decided against it. Better that one of them got some sleep than neither of them.
A glance at the chrono elicited another groan from Jaina. She didn't have to be up for another four hours, but she was sure that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep. With a weary sigh, Jaina hauled herself out of bed and headed for the 'fresher.
Ten minutes later, she came back out, wearing nothing but a simple robe, her wet hair hanging straight down her back. She went to the dresser and pulled out a pair of gray slacks and a white shirt. She quickly got dressed, then pulled on a pair of boots.
"Hmm...what to do, what to do," Jaina murmured to herself. "I could tidy up my rooms. No, don't feel like it." She paused. "Tinker with my X-wing? Not in the mood." Another pause. "Tinker with the Falcon? No, Dad'll kill me." Another, longer pause. "I guess I just have to go for a walk." out of habit, Jaina stuck a blaster in the holster at her side and clipped her lightsaber to her side before leaving her quarters.
Jaina wandered around the deserted corridors of the base for nearly an hour before coming to a small meditation chamber. She had been in there a few times before, and had loved the view of the black holes that it gave her. She entered, hoping the spectacular view through the wall of transparisteel would help to clear her mind.
When the door hissed open, Jaina found that the room was already occupied. He looked up at her as she entered, and smiled. He patted the sitting pad beside him on the floor, gesturing for Jaina to join him
She complied and turned to regard her brother. She hadn't noticed earlier, but Jacen had gotten many scars while in Yuuzhan Vong captivity. The most noticeable traced a serpentine trail from his forehead, around his left eye, down his cheek, and under his left ear, to disappear into his hair. There was a hardness around Jacen's chocolate-colored eyes that would most likely always be there. Even in one of the safest places in the galaxy, his posture was rigid, as if he were ready to jump up and fight at any moment.
He's a warrior now, Jaina thought. He's finally lost all of his childish innocence. He's finally grown up. But at what price?
"So, what are you doing up at this hour?" she asked him.
"I could ask you the same question," Jacen told her. He studied her intently, and she could feel him probing her through the Force. "You seem troubled. Come on, spill."
"I had a dream, a vision probably," she explained. "First, I was on Yavin 4, then Mom and Dad's place on Courscant, then...I don't know where the last place was. It was a large house, that's all I know." She purposefully omitted the part about the wedding holos, not wanting to upset her twin. "And then blinding light and excruciating pain."
Jacen was silent a moment before speaking. "I don't know what to tell you, Sis. It's strange. You went to two place that have been destroyed. Do you think the last place has been destroyed too?"
"I don't think so," she answered. "I don't think it's been build yet." The silence stretched out longer this time. "But, you never answered my question. Why are you up at this hour?"
Jacen turned to look at his twin and Jaina saw the haunted look in his eyes. "I have terrible nightmares, from my time with the Vong," he told her. "I don't think that I've gotten more than three hours of sleep since I was rescued."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jaina asked, wrapping her arm around her brother. She reached out through the Force, lending him some of her strength.
Jacen rested his head on her shoulder. "Not yet," he told her. "I'm not ready yet. But thanks for the offer."
"No problem," she said quietly. "I'm here whenever you need to talk. Just come find me."
Jacen didn't answer, so Jaina looked down and saw that he had fallen asleep. She shifted and maneuvered her brother so that his head rested on her lap. She gently stroked his hair away from his face.
"Sleep well, dear brother," she said, almost inaudibly. She shifted her gaze from Jacen to the view visible through the transparisteel wall in front of her. Deciding to try to meditate, Jaina still her emotions and regulated her breathing. Concentrating on nothing but her breathing, Jaina closed her eyes.....
She was back in the strange house, this time facing a different wall of holos. She studied the first picture in front of her.
It was of her and Jag. She was sitting up in a bed, hair drenched with sweat, but a weary smile on her face. He was bending down so that their heads were at the same level, his green eyes sparkling with joy. They each held a newborn infant in their arms.
"Twins," Jaina said in wonderment. "We have twins. The Skywalker legacy."
She moved on to the next picture, which was mot unlike the first. Jaina was sitting up in bed, an infant in her arms. The twins, a boy and a girl, now three or four, crowed around their mother, anxious to see their baby sibling. Jag was smiling down lovingly at his family.
The next holo was a formal family portrait, taken a few years later, for the youngest, a girl, was now a toddler. The two girls had the same hair as Jaina, but had Jag's eyes. The boy had his father's dark hair and the brightest blue eyes that Jaina had ever seen. Almost the same shade as her brother Anakin's eyes.
"His name is Anakin," Jaina heard a voice behind her say. She whirled and cried out as she saw her baby brother standing in the doorway of the room. She ran to him and embraced him fiercely.
After a moment, she pulled back to regard her dead brother. "Anakin, why am I here?" she asked.
"You need to choose, Jaina," he answered. At her questioning look, he continued. "You either tell Mom and Dad about your marriage, and soon, or lose all of this."
"What? Anakin, I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."
"If you tell our parents about you and Jag, your twins will be conceived at the right time, and the war will be won. However, if you wait, you, and everyone you love, will be killed by the Vong, and they will win. You will lose all of this like Yavin 4 and Courscant were lost. Jaina, the fate of the entire galaxy rests on your decision."
Anakin, and the house around him, started to fade into whiteness. "Anakin, wait! I need to know more!" Jaina called out worriedly. "Don't go! Not again!"
Everything around Jaina had completely faded away. Her white surroundings seemed to grow brighter. As she was on the verge of being blinded, she heard Anakin's voice: "Don't delay, Jaya. May the Force be with you."
The light kept growing brighter. Jaina squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to block it out, but the light seemed to be in her mind. She couldn't escape it.
Suddenly, she was falling. Or maybe she had been falling the entire time and had only just noticed it. Whichever it was, Jaina was scared. She flailed around, trying to find purchase and screamed.....
Jaina jerked as she came out of her meditative trance. She about jumped to her feet, but the weight of Jacen's head on her lap stopped her. She looked down at the only brother she had left and sighed wearily.
She glanced at her wrist chrono and noted that her vision had lasted the better part of two hours. It was now only a little more than an hour before most of the base would be up and about.
Jaina gently shifted Jacen so that his head rested on the floor. She stood and winced as sore muscles tried to work. She stretched and pulled her comlink out of her pocket. She exited the meditation chamber and thumbed on the device in her hand and entered Jag's personal frequency.
After a moment, Jag's voice came groggily though the device. "Fel here."
"Sorry to wake you, but we need to talk," Jaina told her husband.
"Jaina? What's wrong?" Jag asked, his voice instantly alert.
"Not now. I'll explain later," she told him. "Meet me in the pilot's lounge in fifteen minutes. I'll tell you then."
"I'll be there in ten," Jag told her. "Fel out." The link was shut off from his end and Jaina tucked the device back in her pocket.
The pilot's lounge was actually a smallish maintenance room just off of Hangar Bay Three. Jaina set off at a brisk pace and got there in only a few minutes. The lounge had a sabacc table, a small bar filled with non-alcoholic drinks, a holovid player, and four couches. Jaina flopped down on the couch nearest the door and set herself to wait for her husband.
Jaina had waited a little more than five minutes when her danger sense flared. She jumped up off the couch and had her lightsaber in hand before her feet hit the floor. She was warily surveying the room when an explosion rocked the base. A shock wave of pain radiated outward from the direction of the explosion.
Jaina left the lounge at a dead sprint. It felt like the explosion hadn't been far from the docking bays and Jaina headed in the direction that the pain came from. The explosion had seemed small; hopefully, the base wasn't leaking atmosphere. If they were, then there would be trouble sealing the breach and/or evacuating everyone.
She rounded a corner and stopped dead in her tracks. A wall had collapsed, along with some of the ceiling, but there seemed to be no structural damage. However, Jag lay sprawled in the rubble, a piece of debris pinning his body to the floor.
Jaina ran to him and skidded to a halt on her knees beside him. As she cradled his head in her lap, she couldn't help but start to cry. His Force-sense was fading, and fast.
Not, Jag, don't leave me!
Dum dum dum....cliffhanger! I know you hate me right now, but this seemed like the best place to stop, without having a HUGE chapter. Now, hit the little button down there at the bottom of the page, and leave me a comment or two. Thank!! And I'll get the next chapter out ASAP. Oh, and if you want to be notified by e-mail when I update this, leave a signed review, leave me you e-mail addy, or send me an e-mail letting me know, at duckie_710@yahoo.com.
Notes: I found my inspiration again! I now present to you Chapter Five of Falling and Fallen. Enjoy!!
Jaina looked around at her surroundings. She knew where she was: Yavin 4. Ten meters to her left was the spot in the river where she and her friends used to swim during their training. Looking though the vegetation in front of her, Jaina could see the Great Temple in the distance.
Jaina blinked, trying to figure out why she was at this place, and was somehow taken off of Yavin 4 and deposited in her parent's apartment on Courscant. She knew the rooms like the back of her hand: just down the hall were her and her brothers' old rooms, now a study and guest quarter.
"This isn't right," Jaina said to herself. "This place was destroyed by the Vong." She decided to investigate and turned to leave...
...and found herself standing in the foyer of an unfamiliar place. Hoping that her surroundings wouldn't change until she got some answers, Jaina entered the living room of the house.
Looking around, Jaina noticed two things. First, this was indeed a house. On the far side of the room, there was a flight of stairs leading to a second floor. Out the windows, she could see a sparsely forested yard.
Second, she noticed that there were holos all around the room, on walls and on tables, dozens of them. She went to the nearest one and gasped in shock at what she saw. It was a wedding holo. Her brother's wedding holo.
Jacen looked absolutely dashing in his black tuxedo. That wasn't what shocked her, though. It was the bride. She was beautiful in her floor-length, sleeveless white gown, with her long hair curling gently down around her shoulders. It was the most beautiful that Jaina had seen Tahiri Veila look.
Jaina moved on to the next holo, also from a wedding. Tenel Ka was resplendid in her beaded gown, with strands of Gallinore jewels woven into her hair. The joy she felt was evident in her eyes. Ganner Rhysode wore his Jedi robes with pride, his love for Tenel Ka evident in his eyes.
She decided to look at another wall of holos, but when she turned, there was a blinding flash of light and pain so bad that she couldn't bear it. She screamed.....
Jaina sat bolt upright in bed, strangling back a scream. It was just a dream, she thought to herself. But it had felt so real. Everything had been so vivid. Especially that last part...
She wanted nothing more than to wake up Jag and get his opinion on her dream. But when she turned to wake her husband, she was greeted by an empty bed. Jaina groaned and let herself fall back onto the bed, her right arm resting over her eyes.
She remembered now. Jag was bunking with Kyp until they figured out a way to tell Jaina's parents about their marriage. She had helped him move all of his belongings into Kyp's room earlier that evening.
Jaina debated comming him and waking him up, but decided against it. Better that one of them got some sleep than neither of them.
A glance at the chrono elicited another groan from Jaina. She didn't have to be up for another four hours, but she was sure that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep. With a weary sigh, Jaina hauled herself out of bed and headed for the 'fresher.
Ten minutes later, she came back out, wearing nothing but a simple robe, her wet hair hanging straight down her back. She went to the dresser and pulled out a pair of gray slacks and a white shirt. She quickly got dressed, then pulled on a pair of boots.
"Hmm...what to do, what to do," Jaina murmured to herself. "I could tidy up my rooms. No, don't feel like it." She paused. "Tinker with my X-wing? Not in the mood." Another pause. "Tinker with the Falcon? No, Dad'll kill me." Another, longer pause. "I guess I just have to go for a walk." out of habit, Jaina stuck a blaster in the holster at her side and clipped her lightsaber to her side before leaving her quarters.
Jaina wandered around the deserted corridors of the base for nearly an hour before coming to a small meditation chamber. She had been in there a few times before, and had loved the view of the black holes that it gave her. She entered, hoping the spectacular view through the wall of transparisteel would help to clear her mind.
When the door hissed open, Jaina found that the room was already occupied. He looked up at her as she entered, and smiled. He patted the sitting pad beside him on the floor, gesturing for Jaina to join him
She complied and turned to regard her brother. She hadn't noticed earlier, but Jacen had gotten many scars while in Yuuzhan Vong captivity. The most noticeable traced a serpentine trail from his forehead, around his left eye, down his cheek, and under his left ear, to disappear into his hair. There was a hardness around Jacen's chocolate-colored eyes that would most likely always be there. Even in one of the safest places in the galaxy, his posture was rigid, as if he were ready to jump up and fight at any moment.
He's a warrior now, Jaina thought. He's finally lost all of his childish innocence. He's finally grown up. But at what price?
"So, what are you doing up at this hour?" she asked him.
"I could ask you the same question," Jacen told her. He studied her intently, and she could feel him probing her through the Force. "You seem troubled. Come on, spill."
"I had a dream, a vision probably," she explained. "First, I was on Yavin 4, then Mom and Dad's place on Courscant, then...I don't know where the last place was. It was a large house, that's all I know." She purposefully omitted the part about the wedding holos, not wanting to upset her twin. "And then blinding light and excruciating pain."
Jacen was silent a moment before speaking. "I don't know what to tell you, Sis. It's strange. You went to two place that have been destroyed. Do you think the last place has been destroyed too?"
"I don't think so," she answered. "I don't think it's been build yet." The silence stretched out longer this time. "But, you never answered my question. Why are you up at this hour?"
Jacen turned to look at his twin and Jaina saw the haunted look in his eyes. "I have terrible nightmares, from my time with the Vong," he told her. "I don't think that I've gotten more than three hours of sleep since I was rescued."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jaina asked, wrapping her arm around her brother. She reached out through the Force, lending him some of her strength.
Jacen rested his head on her shoulder. "Not yet," he told her. "I'm not ready yet. But thanks for the offer."
"No problem," she said quietly. "I'm here whenever you need to talk. Just come find me."
Jacen didn't answer, so Jaina looked down and saw that he had fallen asleep. She shifted and maneuvered her brother so that his head rested on her lap. She gently stroked his hair away from his face.
"Sleep well, dear brother," she said, almost inaudibly. She shifted her gaze from Jacen to the view visible through the transparisteel wall in front of her. Deciding to try to meditate, Jaina still her emotions and regulated her breathing. Concentrating on nothing but her breathing, Jaina closed her eyes.....
She was back in the strange house, this time facing a different wall of holos. She studied the first picture in front of her.
It was of her and Jag. She was sitting up in a bed, hair drenched with sweat, but a weary smile on her face. He was bending down so that their heads were at the same level, his green eyes sparkling with joy. They each held a newborn infant in their arms.
"Twins," Jaina said in wonderment. "We have twins. The Skywalker legacy."
She moved on to the next picture, which was mot unlike the first. Jaina was sitting up in bed, an infant in her arms. The twins, a boy and a girl, now three or four, crowed around their mother, anxious to see their baby sibling. Jag was smiling down lovingly at his family.
The next holo was a formal family portrait, taken a few years later, for the youngest, a girl, was now a toddler. The two girls had the same hair as Jaina, but had Jag's eyes. The boy had his father's dark hair and the brightest blue eyes that Jaina had ever seen. Almost the same shade as her brother Anakin's eyes.
"His name is Anakin," Jaina heard a voice behind her say. She whirled and cried out as she saw her baby brother standing in the doorway of the room. She ran to him and embraced him fiercely.
After a moment, she pulled back to regard her dead brother. "Anakin, why am I here?" she asked.
"You need to choose, Jaina," he answered. At her questioning look, he continued. "You either tell Mom and Dad about your marriage, and soon, or lose all of this."
"What? Anakin, I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."
"If you tell our parents about you and Jag, your twins will be conceived at the right time, and the war will be won. However, if you wait, you, and everyone you love, will be killed by the Vong, and they will win. You will lose all of this like Yavin 4 and Courscant were lost. Jaina, the fate of the entire galaxy rests on your decision."
Anakin, and the house around him, started to fade into whiteness. "Anakin, wait! I need to know more!" Jaina called out worriedly. "Don't go! Not again!"
Everything around Jaina had completely faded away. Her white surroundings seemed to grow brighter. As she was on the verge of being blinded, she heard Anakin's voice: "Don't delay, Jaya. May the Force be with you."
The light kept growing brighter. Jaina squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to block it out, but the light seemed to be in her mind. She couldn't escape it.
Suddenly, she was falling. Or maybe she had been falling the entire time and had only just noticed it. Whichever it was, Jaina was scared. She flailed around, trying to find purchase and screamed.....
Jaina jerked as she came out of her meditative trance. She about jumped to her feet, but the weight of Jacen's head on her lap stopped her. She looked down at the only brother she had left and sighed wearily.
She glanced at her wrist chrono and noted that her vision had lasted the better part of two hours. It was now only a little more than an hour before most of the base would be up and about.
Jaina gently shifted Jacen so that his head rested on the floor. She stood and winced as sore muscles tried to work. She stretched and pulled her comlink out of her pocket. She exited the meditation chamber and thumbed on the device in her hand and entered Jag's personal frequency.
After a moment, Jag's voice came groggily though the device. "Fel here."
"Sorry to wake you, but we need to talk," Jaina told her husband.
"Jaina? What's wrong?" Jag asked, his voice instantly alert.
"Not now. I'll explain later," she told him. "Meet me in the pilot's lounge in fifteen minutes. I'll tell you then."
"I'll be there in ten," Jag told her. "Fel out." The link was shut off from his end and Jaina tucked the device back in her pocket.
The pilot's lounge was actually a smallish maintenance room just off of Hangar Bay Three. Jaina set off at a brisk pace and got there in only a few minutes. The lounge had a sabacc table, a small bar filled with non-alcoholic drinks, a holovid player, and four couches. Jaina flopped down on the couch nearest the door and set herself to wait for her husband.
Jaina had waited a little more than five minutes when her danger sense flared. She jumped up off the couch and had her lightsaber in hand before her feet hit the floor. She was warily surveying the room when an explosion rocked the base. A shock wave of pain radiated outward from the direction of the explosion.
Jaina left the lounge at a dead sprint. It felt like the explosion hadn't been far from the docking bays and Jaina headed in the direction that the pain came from. The explosion had seemed small; hopefully, the base wasn't leaking atmosphere. If they were, then there would be trouble sealing the breach and/or evacuating everyone.
She rounded a corner and stopped dead in her tracks. A wall had collapsed, along with some of the ceiling, but there seemed to be no structural damage. However, Jag lay sprawled in the rubble, a piece of debris pinning his body to the floor.
Jaina ran to him and skidded to a halt on her knees beside him. As she cradled his head in her lap, she couldn't help but start to cry. His Force-sense was fading, and fast.
Not, Jag, don't leave me!
Dum dum dum....cliffhanger! I know you hate me right now, but this seemed like the best place to stop, without having a HUGE chapter. Now, hit the little button down there at the bottom of the page, and leave me a comment or two. Thank!! And I'll get the next chapter out ASAP. Oh, and if you want to be notified by e-mail when I update this, leave a signed review, leave me you e-mail addy, or send me an e-mail letting me know, at duckie_710@yahoo.com.