Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or even JJK. Dammit . . .
A/N: AHH! School! Nooooooo!!!!!
Chapter VII: Carratos
". . .won't be coming to help us! They can't even protect their own capitol!"
The crowd marched unending before the speaker, faces human and alien, all hardened for the fight of their lives. Carratos was their world, and they didn't intend to let the Vong have it. "Banding together is the only way! Forget petty squabbles among yourselves, for now! We've wrested Carratos from Imperial grasp before – what are the Vong but an Empire, conquering all in their path?! CAN WE LET IT HAPPEN?!"
"NO!!" the people or Carratos shouted, cutthroats, pirates and smugglers all. The female Selonian who addressed the crowd had been stirring up gossip for weeks, both because of her uncommon patriotic attitude towards Carratos and the figure who stood calmly behind her.
The Nightsister Jaina Solo stood with fingers steepled behind the Selonian whom she'd chosen to enforce. Enforce her she could, as well – a band of thieves who'd thought to attack easy prey – a lone human female – had gotten a surprise death, almost flippantly charred by the Dark Force lightning. When the Selonian had heard, she sought out the Nightsister immediately, not even recognizing her as Jaina Solo.
Few people would.
Brandy eyes ringed in red stared out from beneath a draping black hood, and fingers already beginning to twist from the use of Dark side lightning emerged from sleeves that swept down from her arm in triangles that reached past her waist. The full-length black garment clung to her body from hood to hips, were it separated into billowing pant legs that gave the illusion of being a robe. The only part of her body that was visible were her red-ringed, calculating eyes.
Carratos was not her world, and she cared little for the fate of its 'people'. The only reason she was here at all was because it seemed to be the next target in the Vongs path of conquest.
She intended to be an obstruction.
*
"Well? Was our deceased navigator on track?" Sannah asked as they came towards Carratos.
Jacen closed his eyes, reaching to the planet for his twin. If she was down there, she was hiding it well. Then he felt Tenel Ka rested her hand in his. "Stronger together."
He felt Tenel Ka, Zekk and Lowie join him, and even as their minds bonded as they had hundreds of times before, Jacen directed their being to encompass the planet. Jaina was still hiding, though, and no matter how hard he looked, his twin seemed to be no where. They were nearly ready to give up and retreat back to their bodies on the Rock Dragon when Zekk found a trace of recently-used Force. Dark Side lightning, in fact, which he wordlessly pointed out made sense. Zekk led them from then on, able to discover and follow traces of the turned Solo more easily than his companions. He returned first.
"Chofin. It's near a coastline, you ought to be able to get the coordinates from the computer," he said as he came out of the trancelike state. Lowie and Tenel Ka emerged from theirs a moment later, leaving Jacen to come up last. Although he had improved during the three-day trip to Carratos, he was no where near fully healed yet.
"Zekk, how did you find her trail when even Jacen couldn't?" Tenel Ka inquired. "I was under the impression that the twin-bond is one of the strongest there is."
Zekk sighed. "I've known Jaina for nearly as long as Jacen has. We just have a different kind of bond. She's been turned; I knew what to look for and expect. Jacen didn't."
Jacen was silent, stunned by what they had found instead of his sister. There was a gaping black hole in the Force, a stunning array of torturous thoughts embodied in a facsimile of his twin in black dress.
Lowie growled a comment, sensing Jacens astonishment. Tenel Ka and Zekk nodded in agreement. Zekk grinned. "Well. Guess it's my turn to rescue her!"