Disclaimer: Once again, I own none of this, the characters the story
nothing.
After Jag left, Jaina flopped back down on the couch. She knew he was partly right at least there were things that she hadn't told her family, things that she was sorely tempted to tell them, the death of Chewbacca, her brothers , the list could become endless. But she would never burden her parents with that knowledge, yet she couldn't fully agree with Jag either. Surely saving the lives of Rebel pilots wasn't a bad thing. In fact, protection was the mandate of the Jedi.
"Troubling thoughts those are little one."
In one smooth automatic move, Jaina was off of the couch and turning to face the intruder, lightsaber drawn before she completely stood.
"Impressive," said the slightly blue fuzzy figure before her.
Unsure whether to trust the mysterious, well he was probably either a holoprojection or a dead Jedi. Almost as if the man before had read her thoughts, which Jaina thought darkly, if he was 'one with the force' like her Uncle was always saying, then he probably had.
The man spoke softly as if not to frighten her. "Don't be afraid, Little One, but I'm Anakin Skywalker."
To his surprise the girl acted relieved, "You're dead right?" She asked casually reattaching her lightsaber to her belt.
Looking slightly offended Anakin nonetheless answered her, "Well yes I am."
As a new thought struck her, Jaina cocked her head slightly and asked curiously, "Do you know who I am?"
"Of course," he replied immediately, "You're my granddaughter, Jaina Solo."
"So I guess Uncle Luke was right when he said the force was all encompassing," Jaina muttered under her breath. Raising her voice she asked, "So cutting to the power cable here, why are you here, Grandfather?"
"Well on one hand, I am here to see your mother, to beg for her forgiveness, and on the other I was sent to help you. There is a way for you and your boyfriend to return to your own time, but the will of the force has sent you here for a reason and there are requirements that must be fulfilled before you can return."
"Oh great a real Jedi quest." Jaina muttered sarcastically, "What am I supposed to do now?"
"I cannot tell you, Jaina, only know that it is the will of the force."
"Cryptic Jedi masters, what's new, or should I say what's old," snapped Jaina.
"Hey," the old man snapped back, "I'm not cryptic or old. I swore I'd never be like Obi-wan."
"Trust me, from what I've heard, you are nothing like Obi-Wan, Grandfather."
"True," he acknowledged, but then he cocked his head as if distracted. When he refocused on her, he said, "Jaina, I can't stay here I must go." He looked serious for a moment and the continued abruptly. "Convey my love to your mother and uncle when you return, and Jaina, know that Anakin loves you and is with you always." He paused once again, this time his face took on an almost protective or paternal look and he smiled sadly at Jaina. "In time the pain and the darkness will heal, Little One." And, with that Anakin Skywalker faded into nothingness, leaving Jaina suddenly feeling bereft.
His parting message and the thought of her little brother watching over her reminded her of Anakin. Reminded her that she would never see him again, reminded her that she had failed at the one task in life she held most important, protecting her little brother.
Overwhelmed she sank slowly to the floor, dissolving in to tears, truly grieving for the first time, not caring if someone saw her. She had been so distracted lately, purposefully so. Now though there was no task to be completed with life and death urgency, no sudden fighter alarms, just silence and emptiness.
When alert alarms started blaring, Jaina mentally amended her last thought as she grabbed her flight gear with one hand and flipped on her comm. link to Luke, demanding to know what was happening and who she was flying with as she ran towards the hangar bays, along with, she noted Imperial and even a few Rebel pilots.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
By the time she had reached the hangar bay, one maybe two squadrons were already lifting off. Probably the one's already on alert, she reasoned as she scrambled into her fighter and completed her pre-flight check in record time. She was flying in Rogue Squadron under the command of the not yet famous Wedge Antilles. As she lifted off with the rest of the Rogue's- she was flying as Rogue eleven ironically-she barely had time to wonder, just for a moment about Jag's whereabouts' before three flight, the group she was a part of, entered the fight.
Two of her flight group were vaped by the Ssi Ruk seconds after entering the dogfight. Laser fire was thick in the void, with the forces so tangled together that a missed shot was as likely to hit a friend as a foe. The brilliant glare and almost constant explosions were almost blinding. Reacting purely on instinct Jaina didn't try to retreat but instead rushed madly into the fighter-brawl, hot on the tail of a Ssi-Ruk fighter, while snapping at the only remaining fighter in her flight group, Rogue twelve, a green rookie, to stay close.
And, then she was in the thick of it. Despite the constant barrage of deadly laser fire and the enemy's overwhelming forces, she wasn't worried. These enemies she could feel with the force, a fact which she wasn't used to, but gladly took advantage of. So falling into the force, she began to cut a swath through the enemy. With her wingmate beside her, they began wracking up kill after kill, but despite that she wasn't immune and minor damage began to add up. Three percent loss of shields here and ten percent damage there and soon she found herself surrounded with no way out and no shields.
The situation looked pretty bleak, after all even a goddess was only so good. But her Solo luck, which seemed to have deserted her in her own time, looked as if it was making a brief reappearance. Her wingmate suddenly appeared in front of her-catching the bolt of laser fire that would have blown up Jaina's x-wing- and snapped off a quick shot at the Ssi- Ruk. As the enemy fighter exploded out in a ball of flame and shrapnel, Rogue twelve jinked to miss a large piece coming strait for them. Even as her wingmate jinked, Jaina's danger sense began screaming. Feeling the situation through the force, even before it had fully developed, Jaina tried to avoid it and realized, seconds before impact that she didn't have enough power to maneuver.
* * * * * * * *
"Durron, we have another problem."
Startled Kyp Durron glanced up from his noon meal into the face of Iella Antilles. "What's the matter? Did you find something out about Jaina?"
"Well yes actually but right now we have bigger problems. Leia Organa Solo is on the holonet and she wants to speak to Jaina. I told her that Jaina was unavailable and she practically demanded to talk to you."
"Do you think Leia suspects anything," Kyp asked as he rose and started towards the communications center.
"I don't know, with her you can never tell. I don't think she really suspects anything she's just calling to check up on Jaina."
"Okay thanks, Iella. I'll try to make up some plausible excuse for her absence. I just hope I don't end up regretting this."
"Me too Durron, me too," answered Iella seriously.
* * * * * * * * *
"Kyp," despite the calm expression on Leia Organa Solo's face, her eyes and voice betrayed her true anxiety, "is she okay?"
"Of course," he replied imbuing his voice with as much confidence as he could muster, "she's just not available right now."
"Where exactly is she then Kyp?"
"Come now Princess," Kyp replied in his most diplomatic voice, "surely you know this is not a secure channel."
Leia looked momentarily angry but then clarified, "But she is all right then."
"She's fine Princess. You know Jaina, but I think right now she's actually taking some time off." Kyp hoped devoutly that Leia wasn't as good as her brother at detecting lies and that Leia would never have to find out about this or he didn't even want to think about what she would do to him, especially if Jaina was not fine.
* * * * * * * *
Commander Luke Skywalker sat aboard the Mon Calamari star cruiser that he commanded and watched the skirmish unfold around him. It was a relatively small skirmish, as skirmishes went, but there were some reports of very heavy fighting coming in. Momentarily talking his eyes off of the main tactical displays, trusting his captains and the Imperials under Pter Thanas to do their jobs, he focused on the area of space where Rogue Squadron was supposed to be.
Dismayed, he realized that the Rogues had been cut nearly in half, sustaining heavy losses and were still surrounded by several dozen Ssi-Ruvi fighters. Immediately he began surveying the region for unengaged forces. Although the fighting was fairly light in most spots, few of his forces were totally unoccupied, except for, he noticed, the Millennium Falcon.
"Han," he called quickly, "I need you."
"What's up, Kid?" Han's reply came back immediately.
"Wedge and Rogue Squadron are in trouble. They need support, now."
"Okay, Luke, we'll take care of it for you."
The Millennium Falcon dived into the fighting twisting in and out of formations and avoiding laser beams. As they approached the blazing mass of fighters, Han relinquished the controls to Chewbacca and raced to join Leia up in the gun turrets. Chewie's roar of dismay made Han jerk and fire the quad laser's prematurely.
Seeing Han's premature shot Leia asked anxiously, "Han, what's the matter, What did Chewie say?"
Almost growling in frustration, he bit out, "Chewie said that Jaina's fighter exploded." At Leia's shocked gasp he continued, "She successfully ejected but it's going to take a near miracle to get her out of that." He gestured shortly but expressively at the seething mass of fighters.
*Leia* suddenly came a voice in her head. Her first thought was Luke, that he was calling to her as he had done at Cloud City, but she dismissed the notion almost as soon as it hit her. The contact she felt had been feminine.
*Jaina?* she queried not sure if she could send thoughts as well as receive them.
Jaina's reply was instantaneous and authoritative. Although it was more a series of pictures and impressions than coherent thoughts or words the message still came across clearly.
*Go to these coordinates* obligingly a set of coordinates appeared in Leia's head and she called out, "Chewie we need to go over there.
Then the rest of Jaina's message began to filter into her mind. *Open the cargo bay doors, dead stop the 'Falcon for five seconds and then shut the doors.*
Hurriedly Leia repeated the rest of the message to Chewbacca. Then she scrambled out of the gun turret and down to the cargo bay. What she saw when she entered amazed her. Jaina, or what she assumed to be Jaina was an anonymous pilot sitting in an anonymous space suit strapped on to an anonymous ejection seat. She saw the chair drift into the cargo bay and land, gently and precisely on the deck as if under its own power, yet none of its maneuvering systems seemed so be activated.
Snapping out of her momentary stupor, Leia ran towards the ejection seat. When she reached Jaina, she realized that although the girl had many bruises and quite a few severe cuts, she appeared to be fine. She looked a bit stunned and Leia devoutly hoped that Jaina wasn't going into shock. That was the last thing either of them needed, but except for looking a bit green and having trembling hands as she took of her helmet and undid her restraints, Jaina looked fine.
As Leia helped her down from the ejection seat she tried to start a conversation with Jaina just to make sure that the girl didn't have a concussion. "Was that your first time EV?"
"No," Jaina replied grimly, "but the last time I wasn't conscious."
As she said it, Leia noticed that she seemed to be a little shaken, not that, that was anything unexpected after what Jaina had just been through. "Here," Leia gestured down the corridor towards the 'Falcon's crew quarters as Jaina started shaking in a delayed reaction to the cold of space, "let's get you in here. We can get some thermal blankets to warm you up and get several bacta patches on you to stop the bleeding."
Half-sensing, half-seeing Jaina's worried gaze, Leia reassured her. "Oh don't worry about the fight, Jaina, Han and Chewie have it under control." Then she rolled her eyes and said sharply, "Well at least as much as is possible with those two."
Jaina smiled weakly as if to reply, but then instead she crumpled as her body just gave out. Acting on instinct, Leia caught her an instant before she hit the decking breaking Jaina's fall.
Thank you for reading. Please review.
After Jag left, Jaina flopped back down on the couch. She knew he was partly right at least there were things that she hadn't told her family, things that she was sorely tempted to tell them, the death of Chewbacca, her brothers , the list could become endless. But she would never burden her parents with that knowledge, yet she couldn't fully agree with Jag either. Surely saving the lives of Rebel pilots wasn't a bad thing. In fact, protection was the mandate of the Jedi.
"Troubling thoughts those are little one."
In one smooth automatic move, Jaina was off of the couch and turning to face the intruder, lightsaber drawn before she completely stood.
"Impressive," said the slightly blue fuzzy figure before her.
Unsure whether to trust the mysterious, well he was probably either a holoprojection or a dead Jedi. Almost as if the man before had read her thoughts, which Jaina thought darkly, if he was 'one with the force' like her Uncle was always saying, then he probably had.
The man spoke softly as if not to frighten her. "Don't be afraid, Little One, but I'm Anakin Skywalker."
To his surprise the girl acted relieved, "You're dead right?" She asked casually reattaching her lightsaber to her belt.
Looking slightly offended Anakin nonetheless answered her, "Well yes I am."
As a new thought struck her, Jaina cocked her head slightly and asked curiously, "Do you know who I am?"
"Of course," he replied immediately, "You're my granddaughter, Jaina Solo."
"So I guess Uncle Luke was right when he said the force was all encompassing," Jaina muttered under her breath. Raising her voice she asked, "So cutting to the power cable here, why are you here, Grandfather?"
"Well on one hand, I am here to see your mother, to beg for her forgiveness, and on the other I was sent to help you. There is a way for you and your boyfriend to return to your own time, but the will of the force has sent you here for a reason and there are requirements that must be fulfilled before you can return."
"Oh great a real Jedi quest." Jaina muttered sarcastically, "What am I supposed to do now?"
"I cannot tell you, Jaina, only know that it is the will of the force."
"Cryptic Jedi masters, what's new, or should I say what's old," snapped Jaina.
"Hey," the old man snapped back, "I'm not cryptic or old. I swore I'd never be like Obi-wan."
"Trust me, from what I've heard, you are nothing like Obi-Wan, Grandfather."
"True," he acknowledged, but then he cocked his head as if distracted. When he refocused on her, he said, "Jaina, I can't stay here I must go." He looked serious for a moment and the continued abruptly. "Convey my love to your mother and uncle when you return, and Jaina, know that Anakin loves you and is with you always." He paused once again, this time his face took on an almost protective or paternal look and he smiled sadly at Jaina. "In time the pain and the darkness will heal, Little One." And, with that Anakin Skywalker faded into nothingness, leaving Jaina suddenly feeling bereft.
His parting message and the thought of her little brother watching over her reminded her of Anakin. Reminded her that she would never see him again, reminded her that she had failed at the one task in life she held most important, protecting her little brother.
Overwhelmed she sank slowly to the floor, dissolving in to tears, truly grieving for the first time, not caring if someone saw her. She had been so distracted lately, purposefully so. Now though there was no task to be completed with life and death urgency, no sudden fighter alarms, just silence and emptiness.
When alert alarms started blaring, Jaina mentally amended her last thought as she grabbed her flight gear with one hand and flipped on her comm. link to Luke, demanding to know what was happening and who she was flying with as she ran towards the hangar bays, along with, she noted Imperial and even a few Rebel pilots.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
By the time she had reached the hangar bay, one maybe two squadrons were already lifting off. Probably the one's already on alert, she reasoned as she scrambled into her fighter and completed her pre-flight check in record time. She was flying in Rogue Squadron under the command of the not yet famous Wedge Antilles. As she lifted off with the rest of the Rogue's- she was flying as Rogue eleven ironically-she barely had time to wonder, just for a moment about Jag's whereabouts' before three flight, the group she was a part of, entered the fight.
Two of her flight group were vaped by the Ssi Ruk seconds after entering the dogfight. Laser fire was thick in the void, with the forces so tangled together that a missed shot was as likely to hit a friend as a foe. The brilliant glare and almost constant explosions were almost blinding. Reacting purely on instinct Jaina didn't try to retreat but instead rushed madly into the fighter-brawl, hot on the tail of a Ssi-Ruk fighter, while snapping at the only remaining fighter in her flight group, Rogue twelve, a green rookie, to stay close.
And, then she was in the thick of it. Despite the constant barrage of deadly laser fire and the enemy's overwhelming forces, she wasn't worried. These enemies she could feel with the force, a fact which she wasn't used to, but gladly took advantage of. So falling into the force, she began to cut a swath through the enemy. With her wingmate beside her, they began wracking up kill after kill, but despite that she wasn't immune and minor damage began to add up. Three percent loss of shields here and ten percent damage there and soon she found herself surrounded with no way out and no shields.
The situation looked pretty bleak, after all even a goddess was only so good. But her Solo luck, which seemed to have deserted her in her own time, looked as if it was making a brief reappearance. Her wingmate suddenly appeared in front of her-catching the bolt of laser fire that would have blown up Jaina's x-wing- and snapped off a quick shot at the Ssi- Ruk. As the enemy fighter exploded out in a ball of flame and shrapnel, Rogue twelve jinked to miss a large piece coming strait for them. Even as her wingmate jinked, Jaina's danger sense began screaming. Feeling the situation through the force, even before it had fully developed, Jaina tried to avoid it and realized, seconds before impact that she didn't have enough power to maneuver.
* * * * * * * *
"Durron, we have another problem."
Startled Kyp Durron glanced up from his noon meal into the face of Iella Antilles. "What's the matter? Did you find something out about Jaina?"
"Well yes actually but right now we have bigger problems. Leia Organa Solo is on the holonet and she wants to speak to Jaina. I told her that Jaina was unavailable and she practically demanded to talk to you."
"Do you think Leia suspects anything," Kyp asked as he rose and started towards the communications center.
"I don't know, with her you can never tell. I don't think she really suspects anything she's just calling to check up on Jaina."
"Okay thanks, Iella. I'll try to make up some plausible excuse for her absence. I just hope I don't end up regretting this."
"Me too Durron, me too," answered Iella seriously.
* * * * * * * * *
"Kyp," despite the calm expression on Leia Organa Solo's face, her eyes and voice betrayed her true anxiety, "is she okay?"
"Of course," he replied imbuing his voice with as much confidence as he could muster, "she's just not available right now."
"Where exactly is she then Kyp?"
"Come now Princess," Kyp replied in his most diplomatic voice, "surely you know this is not a secure channel."
Leia looked momentarily angry but then clarified, "But she is all right then."
"She's fine Princess. You know Jaina, but I think right now she's actually taking some time off." Kyp hoped devoutly that Leia wasn't as good as her brother at detecting lies and that Leia would never have to find out about this or he didn't even want to think about what she would do to him, especially if Jaina was not fine.
* * * * * * * *
Commander Luke Skywalker sat aboard the Mon Calamari star cruiser that he commanded and watched the skirmish unfold around him. It was a relatively small skirmish, as skirmishes went, but there were some reports of very heavy fighting coming in. Momentarily talking his eyes off of the main tactical displays, trusting his captains and the Imperials under Pter Thanas to do their jobs, he focused on the area of space where Rogue Squadron was supposed to be.
Dismayed, he realized that the Rogues had been cut nearly in half, sustaining heavy losses and were still surrounded by several dozen Ssi-Ruvi fighters. Immediately he began surveying the region for unengaged forces. Although the fighting was fairly light in most spots, few of his forces were totally unoccupied, except for, he noticed, the Millennium Falcon.
"Han," he called quickly, "I need you."
"What's up, Kid?" Han's reply came back immediately.
"Wedge and Rogue Squadron are in trouble. They need support, now."
"Okay, Luke, we'll take care of it for you."
The Millennium Falcon dived into the fighting twisting in and out of formations and avoiding laser beams. As they approached the blazing mass of fighters, Han relinquished the controls to Chewbacca and raced to join Leia up in the gun turrets. Chewie's roar of dismay made Han jerk and fire the quad laser's prematurely.
Seeing Han's premature shot Leia asked anxiously, "Han, what's the matter, What did Chewie say?"
Almost growling in frustration, he bit out, "Chewie said that Jaina's fighter exploded." At Leia's shocked gasp he continued, "She successfully ejected but it's going to take a near miracle to get her out of that." He gestured shortly but expressively at the seething mass of fighters.
*Leia* suddenly came a voice in her head. Her first thought was Luke, that he was calling to her as he had done at Cloud City, but she dismissed the notion almost as soon as it hit her. The contact she felt had been feminine.
*Jaina?* she queried not sure if she could send thoughts as well as receive them.
Jaina's reply was instantaneous and authoritative. Although it was more a series of pictures and impressions than coherent thoughts or words the message still came across clearly.
*Go to these coordinates* obligingly a set of coordinates appeared in Leia's head and she called out, "Chewie we need to go over there.
Then the rest of Jaina's message began to filter into her mind. *Open the cargo bay doors, dead stop the 'Falcon for five seconds and then shut the doors.*
Hurriedly Leia repeated the rest of the message to Chewbacca. Then she scrambled out of the gun turret and down to the cargo bay. What she saw when she entered amazed her. Jaina, or what she assumed to be Jaina was an anonymous pilot sitting in an anonymous space suit strapped on to an anonymous ejection seat. She saw the chair drift into the cargo bay and land, gently and precisely on the deck as if under its own power, yet none of its maneuvering systems seemed so be activated.
Snapping out of her momentary stupor, Leia ran towards the ejection seat. When she reached Jaina, she realized that although the girl had many bruises and quite a few severe cuts, she appeared to be fine. She looked a bit stunned and Leia devoutly hoped that Jaina wasn't going into shock. That was the last thing either of them needed, but except for looking a bit green and having trembling hands as she took of her helmet and undid her restraints, Jaina looked fine.
As Leia helped her down from the ejection seat she tried to start a conversation with Jaina just to make sure that the girl didn't have a concussion. "Was that your first time EV?"
"No," Jaina replied grimly, "but the last time I wasn't conscious."
As she said it, Leia noticed that she seemed to be a little shaken, not that, that was anything unexpected after what Jaina had just been through. "Here," Leia gestured down the corridor towards the 'Falcon's crew quarters as Jaina started shaking in a delayed reaction to the cold of space, "let's get you in here. We can get some thermal blankets to warm you up and get several bacta patches on you to stop the bleeding."
Half-sensing, half-seeing Jaina's worried gaze, Leia reassured her. "Oh don't worry about the fight, Jaina, Han and Chewie have it under control." Then she rolled her eyes and said sharply, "Well at least as much as is possible with those two."
Jaina smiled weakly as if to reply, but then instead she crumpled as her body just gave out. Acting on instinct, Leia caught her an instant before she hit the decking breaking Jaina's fall.
Thank you for reading. Please review.