Disclaimer: I DO NOT own star Wars. I promise.

A/N: I'm soooo sorry I took so long to update! I started this irritating thing called school. **groans** I leaped on the computer, wrote this, and prayed that someone out there remembered me. This has got to be the first time in more than a week that I've written anything! I'm going mad!

Chapter IX: "Did you ever get kidnapped as children?"

Sobs racked a body brought to it's last, short hair hung forlornly over eyes so drenched in tears that their owner could not see. She was hidden under a hundred black folds and it was her death shroud. She could not see, she could not hear, she could not touch – no until something touched her.

She didn't, couldn't physically feel it. A soothing presence. She had never been one to be coddled, but it didn't coddle her. It – or rather, he – didn't expect anything more or less than what he found. He accepted it, worked past it, and delved slowly through her inner barriers until he stood at the threshold of the very last one. This last he would not penetrate unless invited, but he didn't need to. He was no longer an abstract presence, he was an identifiable personality within her tortured mind.

*Zekk . . .*

He spoke no words; none were needed. Zekk didn't so much comfort her as he did wrap her in his wings until he was certain he could release her without harm. Jaina was flooded with him, immersed and enveloped by his understanding. He knew, as none of the others did, what had happened to her. He found her when she was lost in the dark. He was not, however, going to put up with her if she didn't work toward getting where she wanted. If she wanted to come back to the light he would help her but he would neither make excuses nor accept them.

*Jaina?* Zekk inquired hesitantly when she was coherent enough to understand the voice in her mind and all the feelings it carried with it. Jaina heard but did not answer.

Then there was another presence in her mind, one she did not recognize as quickly. *Go on. He knows what he's doing, for once. You owe him a rescue after this,* the whisper seemed to chuckle. *Go on, Jaya.*

Jaina gasped her way back to consciousness, eyes snapping open and fingers clenching around Zekks arms. "Anakin!" she cried. "ANAKIN!!"

*

Jacen grinned and wrapped an arm around Tenel Ka's waist. "C'mon, Lowie, Sannah. Zekk's got her." She was scarred, but she would heal. With time and the help of friends and family, Jaina would heal.

"You mean you can sense her again?" Sannah piped up as they left the room, following Jacen unerringly as the shook trailing behind.

"Yeah," Jacen poked his head in the door where he felt his twin, who was already staring at the doorway, expecting him. "So. Heard from our deceased brother yet?"

*

The shook, whom they discovered Jaina had called Kievnur – meaning "Vengeance fire" in Selonian – was quite happy to go along with them, provided she got to stay close to one or both of the Solo twins. She put up with the others by default only.

"I wonder what Master Ikrit would have thought of Kievnur," Sannah commented as the shook wrapped it's tail and hind legs around a girder to sleep. "He also had the gift of animal speech."

"I suspect he would have thought Kievnur was going to eat him," Zekk observed wryly as he stood behind Jaina, who was helping Uldir prep the Rock Dragon for launch. Tenel Ka wasn't about to leave Jacen's side when there were two much more qualified pilots available. "Alright, O dead Jedi, that's two for two. Where are we going next?"

Uldir cocked his head, taking on the peculiar 'listening' pose that he assumed whenever Anakin spoke to him. Although few of the Jedi could speak directly mind-to-mind, Anakin used the bonds erected between himself and others to scurry around on. As he didn't have a physical body he could do things with his mind that simply weren't possible for the living. This time Uldir 'listened' for longer than he ever had before.

"Um, Uldir . . ?" Sannah spoke up.

The pilot shook his head in an effort to wake himself up. Then he turned to Jaina, who was waiting for the coordinates. "Um – did the three of you ever get kidnaped as children?"

Jaina and Zekk laughed so hard they could hardly stand.

"What? What?" Uldir asked, confused.

"We've – been – kidnaped so many – times that I'm – not actually – sure – who all the people who – kidnaped us – were!" Jaina choked out between laughs.

The look on Uldir's face was priceless. "Fine. A guy named Hethrir?"

Jaina shuddered a little. "That's where we met Lusa. He was selling the aliens as slaves, and wanted to sacrifice Anakin."

"Apparently he also wanted Anakin's Force-potential for his own, because he created a clone."