Disclaimer: I do not own these characters... I just play with them. :)

Reviewer Notes:
Adam - You wanted more? Here's more!
Artemis347 - Mush? hm.... I'll think about it. MMM!!!! sugar coated Kyps... my fave!!1 (shh, don't tell my hubby!)
Flute Kahlan Solo Fel - I'm not in this for being fair ;) If life was fair, Kyp and Jaina'd be together in the books!!!! Why didn't the Jedi pick up on it? We'll find out eventually, I'm sure. And your welcome for not villifying Kyp - he's my buddy :)
Katherine - Yes, you ARE easily excited *G* I'm glad, though - makes me feel all fuzzy. Glad you like the twist, too!
Trickster Jaina Fel - *hugs* better have your kleenex handy for this chapter, then.....
Yun-Harla - *salutes* Yes ma'am!!!

Author Note - Please PLEASE review! I thrive in your comments. And flame me if you feel it's necessary, I'd like to know your thoughts too, as much as the "Yay!" reviews :) (that made no sense, but that's okay, I"m sleep deprived)

Hidden Love - Chapter Five
By Raven Pan


The following morning, Kyp sat at a table in the mess. He idly wondered, yet again, whether the food on his plate were actually edible, or if it was the Force that deceived him to think so.

He found himself wondering just what his deceased wife had meant by her original taunting. 'He had better loyal be, to the living not to me.' Did that mean what he'd hoped it meant? Even if it did, there was no blessed thing he could do about it - so he'd better not even bother trying to understand.

The clatter of a tray hitting the table before him brought him out of his musings. He looked up to see a mildly haggard looking Jaina Solo. Her eyes were slightly red-rimmed, and bespoke of a difficult night. Looks like I'm not the only one who got little sleep.

"I'm going to sit here, do you mind?" she asked dully as she sat.

"Not at all, Goddess," he smiled as he waved a hand for her to sit. "I'm always pleased when you grace me with your presence."

She winced, suddenly reminded of the letter she'd read. The letter she wasn't supposed to have ever seen. Suddenly, all his little teasings, his deferring to her, seemed much less of a put-on game and more reality. Jaina wasn't quite sure how that made her feel.

Kyp frowned slightly at the feelings eminating from the young woman. Confusion being foremost. As he raised an eyebrow at her, he felt her clamp down those feelings behind an impenitrable wall.

She looked to either side, checking to see if anyone was listening, then spoke softly, using the Force to carry her words to Kyp's ears alone. "I'm so sick of this," she said quietly, "this whole Goddess thing is really getting on my nerves." When Kyp said nothing, she continued. "I mean, what good is it, being a Goddess, when you can't make people stay?"

"I don't have an answer for you," Kyp shook his head finally. "He did say he was coming back."

She looked at him sharply, "You know?"

He nodded, "I saw him as he was leaving. Tried to stop him, but Colonel Ferrocrete had other ideas."

She chuckled at the nickname Kyp had for the young man. "But it was necessary," she said. It was difficult to tell if she was trying to convince him... or herself. She didn't know.

"Necessary as cutting off your left hand," he mumbled as he shoved some of the near-inedible food in his mouth. He grimaced slightly as he chewed.

Jaina didn't say she agreed. It wouldn't be right for her to, would it? With dull eyes she looked at her plate, pushing the food around while taking occasional sips of her caf.

"You know, Goddess, you really should eat."

"Not hungry."

"Neither am I."

They looked at each other across the trays of non-food usual upon starships. She regarded him as though trying to read his mind only with her eyes, he regarded her with a look that could only be described as caring. After several long moments, they both looked away.

Jaina kept pushing her food around her plate, as Kyp shoved his in his mouth. He suddenly felt very uncomfortable. The way she'd looked at him... it was too knowing. He didn't like that. He finally stood, "Well, I'd better go now. By your leave, Great One." He started to move away from the table.

She suddenly felt the need for his familiar presence to be nearby. "Don't go," she said quietly, unsure whether she wanted him to hear her or not.

He looked over his shoulder at her, seeing the near-plaintive look in her eyes. He smiled slightly, "Don't worry, I promise not to leave. I'll stay as long as you need me to." He turned, deposited his tray into the recycler, and left the mess.

Jaina looked after his retreating form, and sighed. Sith.


17....18....19....20. Kyp lay back from where he'd been doing situps beside his bunk. This was his thirteenth setup. He rolled over onto his stomach, letting the cold of the floor seep into his screaming muscles. He lay his cheek against the floor and closed his eyes as he allowed himself a brief rest.

He'd been mulling over the visitation he'd had, nearly two weeks earlier, from his departed wife. What exactly her words had meant, was difficult to say. He never did understand that woman, even when she was still alive. She'd taught him what life was about, how to live in stead of just being alive. Was she still trying to teach him?

He pushed himself to his feet and moved over to sit beside his footlocker. Keying in his passcode, he opened it to reveal his few posessions, things he always had with him, things nobody had ever seen. Just beneath a crimson cloth, lay a still holo in a frame. He reached to pick it up, when the alarm klaxon sounded. He tossed it back into the locker and flicked the lid, never noticing as he pulled on his flightsuit while running out of the room, that the cloth had lodged into the lock.

*

"Jag!" the surprised cry broke into Kyp's concentration as Jaina noted the appearance of a clawcraft into the middle of the fray. He could tell the Chiss craft hadn't been expecting this, though inwardly cheered the pilot as he quickly broke into evasive actions.

Unfortunately, they weren't enough. Though the skips had been surprised at his arrival, he'd managed to be surrounded immediately, and no modicum of escape could be found.

"Kyp! We have to do something!" Jaina's voice shrilled in his cockpit.

"Keep the skips off my tail, I'll punch a hole for him," Kyp commed back to her. He could feel her worry for the Corellian Chiss pilot through their Force bond. He felt her mental nod, and set his mouth in a grim line as he hauled his X-wing around.

In going to rescue Jag, Kyp knew he just might be signing his death certificate. However, Fel was a nice guy, in his own messed up way, even if a bit on the emotionless side. Jaina loved him, and so Kyp would do all he could to save the younger pilot. In his reckless way, he went in with lasers blazing, shooting alongside a few skips as he tried to create confusion enough to punch a hole through the enemy surrounding the clawcraft.

To do so, he flew head to head in a deadly game of cluck, taking almost as much damage as he dealt out. The first time through, Jag punched out in his wake, and the skips decided this new threat was a better prize. Kyp soon found himself with no way out, Jaina screaming through the bond. He didn't quite realise why, until he looked at his damage display and found he had no shields left.

The situation was getting grim.

The HUD (Heads up display) told him that his time in this plane of existance was short, and getting exponentially shorter. His position was much worse than that which he'd just rescued Jag from. Jaina and Fel, as well as Piggy and Sharr, were busy picking at the surrounding skips in a futile attempt to gain him the time he needed to break through.

Kyp continued his evasive maneuvres as well as he could, considering the small confines he found himself in. His alarms blared, deafening him as one of his s-foils was sheared off, causing his x-wing to begin spiraling uncontrollably. Plasma pounded the snubfighter, desintegrating it slowly and surely.

He saw reinforcements arrive, and knew they would defeat the Vong this time around. But for him... the help had come too late. Through the Force, he sent Jaina a calm farewell. He then slammed down his presence from her, severing the bond as surely as death itself, and hit the eject key.

*

Jag stared in amazement as the canopy to Kyp's X-wing malfuncted, causing the jedi master to slam through the half opened canopy as the X-wing exploded beneath him. He heard Jaina scream, and inwardly winced as he saw the shrapnel tear through Kyp's containment field to pierce his body - an expecially large piece lodging itself in the centre of the man's chest.

Through the shield-trio comm, which he'd finally been able to open, he could hear Jaina crying. He knew, with near shattering certainty that Kyp would not be around to keep Jaina from going to the Darkside this time. Not for the first time, or last, Jag wished he could understand this facet of Jaina's life.

The words screamed through the comm threatened to crack his calm exterior.

"Kyp! You promised you wouldn't leave me! You PROMISED!"

Next time:

"Who are these people, Uncle Luke?" she thrust the still-holo at him. "Tell me!"

*G* please review!
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