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This fic was originally posted on theforce.net, where I go by the screenname of SaberBlade. If you recognize this, don't worry, it isn't plagiarized; I'm simply reposting it here also.
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General Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to George Lucas and the characters belong to their respective authors. Anything you don't recognize is mine; please respect my muse. I don't intend any infringement with this fic; it was created because I have an abiding love for Star Wars and a wish to share my interpretation of it with the world.
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Details:
Name: Miracle
Time Frame: Post-NJO
Pairing: Kyp Durron and Jaina Solo
Summary: A crash landing leaves Jaina lucky to be alive, but she can't remember the last ten years of her life. What will this mean for her and the man she was to marry?
Rating: PG to PG-13.
Post: Chapter 22 of ?
Story Status: Work in Progress.
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As always, reviews are appreciated.
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Jaina lay in bed for a long moment, considering. Kyp was a warm and solid presence at her back, his arms draped possessively around her, his breath feathering the hair at her temple. It was nice, waking to this, knowing that she was safe and secure in the arms of a man who loved her.
Even if the man was a sneak and a liar. He'd put her into a trance. She knew he had. But somehow, she wasn't as furious as she had the feeling she should be. She should poke him in the side and make him wake up so that she could inform him that he had no right to put her into a trance and that he shouldn't have done so.
Instead, she twisted in his arms to look at him. He looked worn, she realized with a start. Tired, old. She lifted her hand and brushed her fingers against the grey-shot hair falling onto his face, then traced the wrinkles around his eyes, the laugh lines by his mouth.
Part of her was wailing that Kyp was only forty-one and shouldn't look so old, and another part of her– the part that was still convinced she was still sixteen– was wondering why on earth she had agreed to marry a man sixteen years older than her. But that voice was dwindling, growing smaller and smaller, and Jaina let her fingers trail along Kyp's cheek and waited for that voice to grow silent.
He didn't deserve this.
She sighed, shut her eyes, and burrowed closer to him. It was hard for him; she knew that. It wasn't his fault that she couldn't remember anything, and yet he was worried about it just as much as she. And no one thought to worry over him.
Without opening her eyes, Jaina let her fingertips pause over his forehead and quickly ordered her thoughts. A quick nudge through the Force, and his breathing slowed, deepened, and a bit of the tension that seemed ever-present in his face – even in sleep – vanished.
Turnabout was fair play, after all. He put her into a trance, she put him into a trance. He needed it just as much as she.
She untangled herself from Kyp's arms, and dressed quickly. She opened the door and shut it quietly behind her, leaving Kyp to his rest, and turned to regard the warrior standing guard outside the door.
"I wish to practice," she said, and nearly stopped in panic when she realized that she was speaking Yuuzhan rather than Basic. But she grimly propelled herself forward before she could think too much about it and lose her ability. "Can you take me to a place suitable?"
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To her surprise, the place Qetlong guided her to was already occupied. As she approached, Tahiri turned to greet her, the blue of her lightsaber blade vanishing back into the hilt as she called a greeting.
"You look much better," the blonde woman said, sounding satisfied.
Jaina's eyebrows rose. "And you look worse," she said. "Are you all right?"
Tahiri shrugged. Her eyes looked tired, but her skin was flushed and healthy. "I needed to work some things out," she explained, and for just a second, Jaina thought that Tahiri's mask slipped and she saw roiling confusion hid behind her eyes.
"That's what I was hoping to do," Jaina said. Her hand snaked to the lightsaber at her belt. "I haven't had a chance to practice since I sparred with Jacen a few days before we left."
Tahiri's smile grew. "Want a partner?" She indicated the practice area with a wave of her hand. "I'll wait for you to warm up."
"Thanks." Jaina unclipped her lightsaber and self-consciously, aware that Tahiri was watching her, moved into the center of the area and paused.
She shut her eyes and reached for the Force. It was there, comforting and familiar and welcoming. But over the last few weeks, she had noticed the differences: the hints of darkness, the tiny threads of shadow intersecting with the great weave of light. She could reach out and know that the darkness was there ready to accept her.
But still, the Force hadn't changed at all. She had changed– she was the one who had fallen, and her perception of the world around her had shifted a bit. Her perception of the Force had widened with that extra knowledge: she knew what there was out there to be afraid of, and it somehow made her stronger.
Jaina would give up the extra strength to have her view of the Force back to where it had been before: the strength and shining power of good, of the Light Side, untainted by the Dark. That extra strength wasn't worth the burden of knowing that she had fallen.
She took a deep breath and dove deeper into the Force. On her exhale, her finger feathered over a button, and her lightsaber sprung to life. The familiar snap-hiss, the familiar hum of the blade, the familiar throbbing of the hilt in her hand... this was the same, unchanged over the course of ten years. The rest, she knew, would be both familiar and foreign. She was a better fighter than she had been, and she didn't remember quite how she knew the moves and strikes that she made, but going through the motions felt so familiar that it was hard to remember that she didn't remember this.
She opened her eyes and stared unseeing past her violet lightsaber. Another deep breath, still concentrating on the Force, and she began to move. Her steps and swings were slow at first, as she focused on the Force rather than on the movement. A lunge that stretched her legs, and lazy thrust that she turned into a twirling retreat, a slow defense that had her lightsaber weaving through the air before her face. All calm, all familiar, all movements she had learned so long ago– and yet so recently– from her uncle.
Satisfied that her connection to the Force was solid, Jaina allowed herself to concentrate more on her moves, and soon began to pick up speed. Her lightsaber began to take on a mind of its own, spinning and dancing and thrusting as though it controlled her hand. Jaina knew, in some distant corner of her mind, that she didn't know how to do any of this. But this had happened when she had sparred with Jacen, and so she managed to ignore the little voice screaming in confusion and concentrate only on the experience.
She abruptly turned and finished moving, breath still slow and even, lightsaber twisted into a salute, facing Tahiri.
"I'll take that to mean you're ready," the woman said with a grin, and her own lightsaber ignited, burning white-blue.
Jaina said nothing; she merely lifted the point of her lightsaber in challenge and waited.
Tahiri took a cautious step closer, quick flicks of her wrist sending her lightsaber blade spinning in controlled circles. She thrust forward once, testing, and Jaina easily blocked the blow. Tahiri stepped back and the two began to circle.
Jaina didn't know which of them was the better fighter. Or rather, she amended, she couldn't remember which of them was better. She was older, but she had spent most of the war in X-wing and Tahiri had spent most of the war on the ground. So, not knowing her opponent's strength, she automatically took the defensive, parrying Tahiri's strikes quickly and easily.
On Tahiri's fifth testing strike, Jaina raised her lightsaber, blocked the downward blow, and countered with a low hissing strike of her own. Tahiri blocked it and struck out again, and the two began to really spar.
No words were exchanged; none were needed. Twisting and thrusting and turning and dodging and blocking and striking– the world narrowed down to the fight. Everything else– the sun filtering down through the large trees surrounding the area, the sudden flight of avians from a nearby bush, the quick burst of warm wind from the south– everything else was secondary. True, some of the secondary bits were important enough to warrant her attention, but they were granted a quick observation and then logged away in her memory, stored and used almost immediately.
The ground toward the east end is uneven; I'll have to watch her footing. There is a large rock at the very center of the area; I shouldn't let Tahiri corner me there. There is a slope toward the back; I should try to finagle Tahiri that direction, so I'll had the advantage of slightly higher ground. Jaina spun away from a particularly well aimed strike and countered with a low blow that Tahiri avoided by springing a meter or two into the air. There are trees overhead toward the edges of the area; too near them, and I'll have to consider attacks from above. Tahiri's left foot moves the second before she attempts a low strike; I'll have to watch it. There is a small group of people gathering in the north; we should keep well away from them. Tahiri seems to be able to tell when I'm going strike high; avoid that move until I can figure out how I give myself away. And then, as the two dodged and cut their way across the uneven east-end ground, Tahiri's wrist is getting tired; her grip isn't as strong anymore.
Jaina disengaged from their current quick flurry of blows with a tight flip – which surprised her, as she hadn't thought she'd have been able to do that – and before Tahiri could return to a defensive rather than offensive stance, brought her lightsaber harshly up in a concentrated thrust. Tahiri raised her lightsaber to block it, and the blow landed just where Jaina had planned it: it hit the first bit of lightsaber blade above the hilt of Tahiri's blade, and the sudden shock of the hit proved too much for Tahiri's tired wrist. Her grip wasn't strong enough to keep hold of the hilt. Tahiri's lightsaber went flying out of her hand, blue blade deactivated as soon as contact was lost, and Jaina heard it land somewhere behind her with a soft thud.
Tahiri dropped her hands and Jaina stepped back victorious. "Well won," Tahiri said.
"You were already a bit tired coming into it," Jaina observed. "Someday I want to try a fair fight."
Tahiri grinned and moved past her to find her lightsaber. Jaina followed. "I'll hold you to it."
"Thanks for the practice," Jaina said, and used the Force to tug Tahiri's lightsaber up to eye level.
"No, thank you. I think I've got everything worked out of my system now, so I'm going to go get some sleep." Tahiri plucked her lightsaber out of the air.
Jaina glanced up at the morning sun. "Have you even been to bed yet?"
Tahiri laughed. "Nope. I needed to think for a bit. And now that I have, I'm off to crash." Her grin remained. "But look, I'll bet you can still stay and spar. Good morning, Master Durron– care to give Jaina a run for her money? She's a bit too overconfident today."
"Overconfident?" Jaina scoffed. "I am not. One win doesn't make me overconfident."
"No, but it dents my pride. Go beat her, Kyp. Give me something to hang over her head."
"And how does me beating her give you something to hang over her head?" Kyp asked mildly, coming to a halt before them.
Tahiri shrugged. "Logic was never my strong point. Anyway, I've off to sleep. See you in a couple of hours."
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Jaina was barely breathing heavily, and her cheeks were flushed with excitement. "That's not logic at all," she complained to Tahiri's back, but the younger woman only turned, stuck her tongue out, and continued on.
Kyp chuckled. "You're afraid you're going to lose," he taunted.
Fire kindled somewhere in her eyes, and Kyp felt a little too pleased with himself. "I'll wait for you to warm up."
"Oh, I'm fine," he assured her, pulling his lightsaber to his hand. "You, Goddess, put me into a trance."
She grinned. "Yes, I did. Turnabout's fair play."
"Since when do you and I play fair?" And with no other warning, he thumbed his lightsaber to life and lunged at her.
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Reviews make my day! Tell me what you think I did well or horribly. I appreciate constructive criticism and honest appraisals…
Thanks!
-Keth
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