AN: Okay, there's some very famous poems in here, including the works of Percy Shelley, Aphra Behn, Alfred Lord Tennyson and one or two others. If you're curious, email me and I'll tell exactly who wrote what, but I'm too lazy to write it out now.

Chapter Six: Even Angels Fall

Love in fantastic triumph sate

Whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed.

For whom fresh pains he did create

And strange tyrannic power he showed:

From thy bright eyes he took his fires,

Which round about in sport he hurled;

But 'twas from mine he took desires

Enough to undo the amorous world.

"All set Vergere?" Jacen asked as he powered up, with evident relief, the Lamba class shuttle.

The brooding avian creature finished adjusting the crash webbing of her seat and then gave her alien version of a nod.

"You are sure about leaving early?" Vergere said in her neutral, observing tone.

A frown shadowed Jacen's face, and he looked speculative for a moment.

"I have a feeling something is wrong. I'm worried something is going to happen, and I'm not going to be there in time to make a rescue or something," Jacen considered.

"This woman hardly seems to be the type that needs you to come to her rescue," Vergere pointed out thoughtfully.

Jacen laughed, a foreign, of late much unused sound.

"Yeah, that's Tenel Ka. Still, Tahiri left to see her right before I came, and I have a bad feeling about that too. It just doesn't seem like Tahiri."

"They seem like similar people in some ways, are you sure it is not something harmless?" Vergere asked.

"I'm sure they're in danger," Jacen said without hesitation, "Anyway, Tenel Ka is invited to the knighting ceremony, and Uncle Luke said it was okay if I went personally instead of sending a transmission."

Vergere gave a solemn affirmation. "Let's go then."

Jacen set about retrieving the coordinates and readying the ship while Vergere considered this mission from different angles. They had already taken off and Jacen was engaging the hyperdrive when Vergere asked suddenly, "What is the name of this system?"

"Hapes," Jacen replied happily.

Oh dear, wailed Vergere in her head, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach,

Everyone is in for quite a surprise…

"Tahiri?" Tenel Ka asked, stepping through the doorway of the library.

Tahiri, curled up comfortably in a recliner, reading a book of Ancient Hapan love ballads, glanced up with a dazed look.

Of intolerable joys,

Of a death, in which who dies,

"Huh?" she asked.

Tenel Ka nodded her head in the direction of the hallway.

Loves his death and dies again

And would for ever so be slain

"I was going out for a walk on the beach. Would you care to join me?" she asked.

Tahiri gestured to the book and replied with a wry smile, "I'm absorbed, go ahead without me."

And lives and dies and knows not why

To live, but that he thus may never leave to die!

Inclining her head gracefully, Tenel Ka strode from the library and took a turbolift up to her own room. Not wanting to clean off the salt residue from her armor later on, she changed into loose cotton shorts and a grey tank top, and twisted her hair up into a large knot at the back of her head. She was about to leave the room, when she saw the crystal pink necklace she'd rescued from the palace sitting on her dresser top.

And close in his embraces keep,

Those delicious wounds that weep

Without thinking, she reached out and tied it around her neck. Somehow it felt right to wear it, though she couldn't put a finger on why.

Balsam to heal themselves with. Thus,

When these they deaths so numerous…

"What do you mean, 'she's not here'?" Jacen asked Isolder worriedly.

They stood on a landing pad near the palace, Jacen having just gotten off the shuttle.

Isolder looked weary and placed a hand on Jacen's shoulder.

"Listen carefully Jacen Solo," Isolder said, a hint of threat in his voice, "You were my daughter's friend at the Jedi Academy. You trusted her, she trusted you, you had many adventures in your teenage years. But my daughter nearly died yesterday, and you have just spent months in Yuuzhan Vong captivity. Her enemies here think she's dead. They can remain in that state of mind until Tenel Ka returns."

Jacen stepped back, surprised by Isolder's threats. Anger would have coursed through him not so long ago, but now he remained calm. He arranged his arguments logically in his mind and spoke in a moderate, yet heartfelt voice.

"Your Majesty, I would rather spend another lifetime in the Vong torture chambers than ever let any harm come to your daughter. I…" he paused, "I care for her deeply and would protect her at any cost. I have been through hell and back, so please, trust me. Please tell me where Tenel Ka is."

Isolder looked at him for several long, scrutinizing moments, assessing the young Jedi Knight before him.

"She's on a planet called Dreena," Isolder said quietly, almost whispering. He listed the coordinates.

Jacen nodded solemnly then bowed and hurried back into the ship.

Tenel Ka stepped off the main path around Nesaliquas to a tiny path that led down to the beach. Already, she could inhale the salty, tangy smell of the ocean and hear the roaring of the waves against the rocks. She walked easily, swinging her legs, her arm reaching up so her hand could play absently with the necklace.

The fountains mingle with the river,

And the rivers with the Ocean,

The sun was directly overhead in the sky, glaring down in its ambiguous, uncaring way. So much of nature carried on daily through millennia, uncaring of the petty mortals that lived out their dramas, each oblivious to the other.

The winds of Heaven mix forever,

With a sweet emotion;

Tenel Ka didn't think much on the way to the beach. She saw everything in a detached, faraway sort of way, but at the same time, she could feel everything. She took off her sandals and the soles of her feet felt every crevasse, imperfection and pattern in the rock. Slowly she descended down the path, looking at the ground at she put one foot in front of the other, as she took yet another step forward.

Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine,

Though she didn't really think it, or acknowledge it, Tenel Ka knew she had reached her lowest point. She heard, saw, and smelled the merest details, but nothing registered in her mind. It was like walking around in a coma, but the paralysis was only with her mind. There was nothing now. Nothing to live for. Her freedom, her joy, they were gone. Everything that was holding her she hated, her crown, her duty, her family.

In one spirit meet and mingle.

Why not I with thine?

She walked on, too absorbed to notice the sound of starship engines.

Jacen stepped out of the shuttle onto the landing pad, Vergere behind him.

"A party seems to be here to welcome us," she said softly, her eyes facing in the direction of the house, where some of the household was exiting.

"Think you can handle them?" Jacen asked anxiously, "Tenel Ka isn't in the house, I can feel it."

"For certain," Vergere said quietly.

Jacen gave her a quick nod, then stretched out with the Force, feeling for that familiar presence. He frowned as he found it, for it was diminished somehow, blighted.

He set off at a run, worried.

The sun beat down from above, heating her skin. She could almost feel the weight of the rays as they fell on her hair and body. The sand dunes surrounded her, billions and billions of tiny, miniscule shards of rock and glass, pressing into her feet and reflecting the dazzling sun back into her eyes. Her walk remained slow, patient, understanding things often took their time in coming to realization.

Music, when soft voices die,

Step…

Vibrates in the memory –

She felt the grainy texture of the sand, the rough, course beads beneath her feet. The shards were as thick as the planets in the galaxy, broken but still connected.

Odours, when sweet violets sicken,

Step…

Live within the sense they quicken.

She could feel the violence of the sun, the ultra-violet rays mixed homogeneously with the average photons. Each second slowed down enough that it seemed she could feel the individual particles hit her.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,

Step…

Are heaped for the beloved's bed.

The wind sung around her, loose, wild, and free. She was so close now, close to ocean, close to the edge of her epiphany, her recognition. The coolness of the ocean rolled off with the breeze, roiling around her, ruffling her hair and clothing.

And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,

Step…

Love itself shall slumber on.

She reached the water's edge and sank into the water. The waves hit her knees, soothingly, calming her. Loosing her hair from its restrictions, she lay down on the sands, letting the crystal waters flow over her.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,

Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,

'Til her blood was frozen slowly

And her eyes were darkened wholly…

For ere she reached upon the tide,

The first house by the water side,

Singing in her song she died…

Jacen jumped quickly from rock to rock, his heart racing not from exertion or physical activity, but because of the chaotic state of his emotions. How many times in the past few months had he thought of this day? For how many moments had he contemplated this meeting? Anticipation ran so thickly through the air that it was almost tangible.

The sun beat down, and he wrapped his shirt around his waist, shrugging off the sweltering cloth. He reached the beach and he could see the ocean stretching out before him in all its glory.

But for him, the beauty of the sea was incomparable to the young woman that lay half submerged in the water, the tiny waves lapping over her legs and soaking the ends of her knee-length red hair that shone with gold in the sunlight. He couldn't speak, but he walked forward.

Grant that I may not so much

Seek to be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive

In pardoning that we are pardoned,

And in dying that we are born into eternal life.

Tenel Ka absorbed the warmth and life of the light. She basked in its glow, she felt it in every pore. She reveled in its fire, glorified in its golden rays.

On the outside, always on the outside. Her physical form, the shell of her was alive. But the light couldn't penetrate her skin. It couldn't penetrate the void inside of her. She was unreachable to the light. But it surrounded her and tried to make her whole. Her eyes may be closed, but the sun washed over her like the waves.

And then…

The sun was obstructed. A darkness, a darkness that at the same time felt like light, cut her off from the sun. It blocked it from her like a cloud.

But it was not a cloud.

She opened her eyes.

A face that she remembered in her every waking moment, in her every dream, every nightmare, was above hers, smiling. His form was outlined by the sun, surrounding him like a halo.

"I've missed you Tenel Ka," he said softly.

Tenel Ka never spoke unnecessarily when she could help it. Now, half-formed thoughts and words tumbled from her mouth, none of them coherent.

"How…. Why? Wha…" she stuttered. Then tilted his head down to meet her lips. He had never kissed before this way in her life. It was passionate, sad, hopeful, happy, chaste, adoring and hard. She couldn't fully convey what it was she was feeling, but everything he felt, Jacen spoke to her with that kiss. And when he was finished, Tenel Ka didn't want him to stop, but he broke away.

Without a word, Jacen scooped her out of the water and into his arms, his arms encircling her impenetrably, joyously.

Tenel Ka shrieked as she came out of her shock, a high cry that didn't come anywhere near to expressing the happiness that spread to every part of her body at once and the life that infused her spirit.

Jacen was swinging her around in circles in the surf, hugging her so tightly she found it almost hard to breathe, and her feet barely touching the water.

"Oh, oh!" Tenel Ka exclaimed through her laughter, "Jacen! Put me down!"

"I can't do that!" Jacen exclaimed back, though he did loosen his hold just slightly so that she could stand on her own, "I'm never letting you go again, never!"

Tenel Ka laughed again, because suddenly, everything seemed right and wonderful, as though she should laugh constantly and unrestrained. Life was complete again.

"I do not argue, I confess," Tenel Ka said breathlessly.

She ran her hand over his back, she could feel his bones to clearly she realized, though there was also an unfamiliar bulk of muscle. She touched his hair, felt his shoulders, traced the lines of his face and lips and then looked into his eyes for long, speculative seconds.

His eyes showed elation now, but Tenel Ka could see deeper than the present, and she understood that there was a much greater depth to those eyes, hidden secrets, eternities of pain, unimaginable hardships. She would comprehend them someday.

"Tenel Ka," Jacen breathed, "Oh, Tenel…"
Around and around they spun in the surf and the waves, the ocean spraying up around them in millions of little droplets, casting rainbows in the air, splashing Jacen's clothes and further soaking Tenel Ka's attire. The tears of joy she cried mingled with the salty water and ran back down into the ocean, while the waves increased in crescendo like their rapture.

At last when they stood apart and looked at each other fully, Tenel Ka saw the multitude of scars adorning his chest. She traced her finger from his shoulder, down the indentations in the center of his chest along the sternum bone, across the whiter skin of the spider-web scar beneath his heart, down to the healed wound of his muscled abdomen. She looked up, appalled, to meet his eyes.

"What happened?" she asked simply.

A wry grin pulled at Jacen's mouth.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later," he said softly.

She looked into his eyes more closely and understanding passed between them. He would tell her everything, but not right at this moment.

"We should go back up to the house," Tenel Ka blurted suddenly, remembering Tahiri, and guilt flooded through her, "There's someone you have to talk to."