Chapter 5

"So he knows now." She said

"Yes, he does." Tenel Ka said, with light annoyance in her voice.

She was lost in a fitful dream. She was sitting face to face with the girl in her head. She had a clear picture of her. She was small, but she had the same fiery red hair she has always had. Her gray eyes had a glint of fire within them that made Tenel Ka uneasy. She studied her, concentrating on the things that were different- the things that would have been.

"Do you want to see what you could have been?" She asked.

"No. It is not who I am now, so why should I?" Tenel Ka snorted.

"You're right.there's no point. It was stupid of me to suggest it."

She stood up from where she was sitting. Her chair fell backwards. Tenel Ka stared confusedly at her. Her eyes had gone black, and her face had gone pale. Her image began to disappear. 'Had this all been that easy?' She thought to herself. She stood, setting the chair back up, the one that she.that her younger self. had knocked over earlier. She lifted her head up to walk out of the door, but before she could take a step, two gray eyes appeared before her. They met perfectly with her height. The body attached to the eyes began to materialize, and Tenel Ka swallowed nervously. Once the entire image had appeared, it took Tenel Ka a moment to realize who it was. She stepped backwards to examine the image fully. The image was clearly a woman. She was Tenel Ka's height, and had the same eyes. Her flaming hair was not braided as Tenel Ka's was; instead it was pulled back into a thick ponytail. She had a blaster hanging at her hip from a thick belt. She was dressed in clothes that Tenel Ka had seen Han Solo, Jacen's father, wear in old holos. She backed up farther, trying to get away from the image. She knew it wasn't real- but it scared her.

"I told you I did not want to see it!" Tenel Ka screamed at the air.

The image did not move, but a voice emanated from it. A voice so different, so thick, so rich that sent chills down Tenel Ka's back.

"Since when did I have to listen to you? You never listened to me."

Tenel Ka was shocked. "I had no choice! I was expected to be queen; if had any other choice, I would have taken it. Do not toy with me. It really wasn't my choice." Tenel Ka said honestly.

She couldn't take her eyes off of the image in front of her. It was scary- but beautiful. Maybe not in and attractive sense, but it was really what she could have been, and that terrified her. She had stopped backing up, for she had been enchanted by the image. However it neither troubled her nor did it pull her in. She heard the voice emanate from the image again.

"See? You could have been this."

"What would I have gained?" Tenel Ka asked.

"Freedom, the freedom to run your own life." Was the answer.

"I would be living in a constant terror for my life- and should I get caught, the question of whether or not I would be free would no longer exist." Tenel Ka stated.

"Yes- but that's the whole thrill of it all."

"Why do you care anymore? I can't change it. I am what I am, the queen, and I can't turn away from it all now."

* * *

Jacen couldn't sleep. He had begun to experience a glimpse of the terror Tenel Ka had been feeling. He felt her body shifting in her sleep; he knew she was having a dream that did not help to ease her thoughts. He felt her breathing, felt her breath against his bare chest. His eyes fell to her lips. The lips he had kissed, the lips that formed the words he had forever wanted to hear. Her eyes squeezed tighter together, and her lips formed into a frown. He pulled her closer to his body, doing all he could to comfort her. He knew that there was nothing much he could do, but he tried.

* * *

"Why can't you leave me alone?" Tenel Ka begged.

"It's not that easy. I came back to avenge myself, not to show you what you could have been."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you know what it feels like to be shut out and forgotten."

"Why are you doing this to me? It was not my choice- I was expected to be queen." Tenel Ka said.

"It hurts, Tenel Ka, and you shall feel the pain of it all."

"Why?"

"Because it was you're doing."

"No it was not."

"It was!"

"You can not take Jacen away!" Tenel Ka screamed.

"Watch me."

* * *

Tenel Ka's eyes shot open. She could feel the sweat run down her face. She was breathing hard. Jacen's head was on his pillow, in a shallow dreamless sleep. He hadn't noticed her wake up. He looked the same he always had, very peaceful and passive. She brushed the hair out of his eyes, kissing his forehead lightly. 'She is wrong.and I will prove it.' She thought to herself. 'Somehow.I will prove it.'