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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 23 of ?
Story Status: Work in Progress.
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As always, reviews are appreciated.
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Jaina's lightsaber snapped on and rose up to block his attack in the mere second before his strike would have hit her. Kyp grinned, proud of her. Her instincts were still in place, at least.
"Should be an easy victory for me," he taunted as he blocked her counter-attack and spun off of it into a low cut at her knees.
She let loose a curt bark of a laugh. "In your dreams, Durron," she retorted, and leaped to avoid his strike. Her jump turned into a twisting flip as she maneuvered herself around him; even while she was in the air, she lashed out at him.
He parried, which required a bit more strength since her blow had the help of her weight and gravity on its side, but he put just enough force into his block to send her a bit off balance. She landed awkwardly, without dropping into the usual guard stance, and took a precious second to flip backwards away from him and land correctly.
"Not as good at this as you should be, Goddess," Kyp informed her. "If I wanted, I could have won by now."
Annoyance flashed across her face, followed by the faintest flicker of confusion. But her response didn't seem to match her emotions. "Lots of talk and no action, Durron," she said, and attacked again. This time, however, the finesse that she usually fought with was gone, and Kyp found it all too easy to predict her moves, to counter blows before she made them, to know where she would step a moment before she moved.
Jaina knew it too, and she recognized that he was going easy on her. "Damn it, Kyp," she snapped, stepping back and shutting down her lightsaber. "You're not helping."
Kyp paused, and then his own blade vanished. "And what am I supposed to be helping with?"
"Getting me out of what's familiar."
He blinked, then scowled down at her. "What?"
"I fought with Tahiri, and I fought well," she explained, "because I didn't think about it. I was able to react and I was fighting better than I've ever fought. Or–" Here she blinked and gave that soft sigh that meant she had forgotten, honestly forgotten, that she wasn't sixteen, that she hadn't been at the Academy a few days ago. "–Or at least I don't remember fighting this well. Ever. If I don't think about it, I can do it. You're not even trying to make me fight... you're just sort of putting up with it. It's familiar, and so I can't remember. Does that make sense?"
Kyp considered. "Almost. You remember things when you're forced out of your depth?"
Again, that exasperated sigh. "I suppose so. And you're not challenging me at all, you're just sort of letting me work my frustrations out. Which I appreciate, but it's not what I'm trying for."
"Fair enough," he admitted, and spun his lightsaber thoughtfully. "Want another go?"
"A real one this time," she demanded.
"Yeah," and he couldn't help the feral smile that was spreading across his face. "A real one. You realize that I've been fighting with you, for all intents and purposes, for ten years, so I'll know all your moves, but you don't have that same experience to draw on anymore. It's unfair advantage."
A ghost of a smile was his only answer. Her lightsaber thrummed to life. "Where's the fun in fair?" she asked softly, but Kyp had the feeling her words were more directed towards herself than to him.
When they engaged again, Kyp took the offensive immediately, forcing her to parry and defend and give up ground without the chance to strike back at him. Any attempt she made to take the upper hand he quickly noticed and beat back.
It was strange, sparring with this Jaina. The Jaina he was used to was more controlled, more experienced. Here was not the fighting style of someone who had actually fought for her life, but the fighting style of an apprentice. She was fighting in perfect form, and that alone told Kyp how much trouble she was having falling back into her physical memories. His Jaina had a style that was much looser, much more flowing than it had been ten years ago. His Jaina fought with a random precision and intensity that was lacking here.
This Jaina fought as though she had never been forced to fight for her life. She fought as though she had never set foot off the Academy... which, he granted, was still impressive, but no longer was she a challenge.
He began to harass her, flicking his lightsaber through her defenses in lightning-fast strikes that licked dangerously close to her. He could sense her frustration growing, could feel it in the extra energy that seemed to have infused each of her parries. She was getting closer; her arms were no longer quite so tense, and her feet were no longer solidly planted in the defensive stance her uncle had taught. Now she was a bit looser, a bit more mobile, even as her lightsaber only moved in traditional patterns of guard and parry.
Kyp deliberately taunted her then, with a quick flip over her head and a strike at her back that she normally wouldn't have allowed anywhere near her. "Losing your touch, Goddess," he mocked, and she spun to counter his next blow, darted past it, and attacked.
The concentration was gone from her face, and Kyp was pleased with himself. He had pushed her past trying to remember how she should be fighting, and now was actually fighting. Her body knew the motions if her mind didn't– this was his Jaina.
Kyp didn't call any attention to it; he'd noticed, earlier, that if he pointed out that she was remembering something, she'd instantly forget. So he simply switched his methods a bit, and let them circle and flip and strike their way across the practice area, from one side to the other.
When he heard her breath coming faster, when he saw the muscle tension growing and the slight tremble in her arms when she rose her lightsaber to block his attack, Kyp knew she was close to exhausting herself. He abruptly stopped, returned his switched-off lightsaber to his belt, and stepped forward. Jaina was slower to pause than he; she still had her deactivated lightsaber in her hand when his fingers touched her temples.
Kyp focused his attention and reached out to the Force. Slipping past the secondary consciousness that was all around him, he found the bond that linked Jaina to him and followed it back to her.
He'd done this before. It was an odd experience, to know that he had such total control over another's mind. Before, he'd used his power here to erase memories, to deliberately tangle information, to force the mind to rewind and not recall hours. Never before had he tried to reconnect memories.
Her mind was lightly shielded, but after a second Jaina dropped her shields, as though she'd belatedly realized that he must be trying something. Exhaustion made her mind heavy and easily influenced, and her surface thoughts were mainly of the fight and so easy to push through. Her memories were next, the layer small and incomplete. There was a strange tickling, as though something was fluttering about just underneath the surface of her memories; Kyp reached out with the Force, latched onto the fluttering, and heard Jaina's gasp.
He retreated quickly, and looked down at her. Tears were shimmering unshed in her eyes; as soon as his fingers dropped from her forehead, she launched herself at him, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest.
"Jaina?" he asked uncertainly, moving his arms around her waist. He couldn't keep the concern out of his voice. "Jaina, are you all right?"
"I wondered about that," she said, words muffled against him. "I wondered if we always bickered back and forth when we fought." She looked up at him, crying and smiling. "And we do. I remembered. We were someplace warm, and we were sparring, and we were bantering back and forth like we were when we first started fighting today, and Jacen was standing off to one side and calling out suggestions while we sparred."
Her description seemed familiar; Kyp thought for a moment. "Was there a statue in the center of the courtyard, and your uncle was sitting there with Ben?"
Jaina's smile, if possible, spread. "Yes! Oh, that's Ben?" Her entire face softened, and her watery eyes took a far-away look. "Oh, he's adorable." She looked up at Kyp then, eyes alight and shining with happiness. "It was right in the back of my mind and I couldn't catch it," she told him. "But you did. Thank you." And she rocked forward onto her tiptoes and kissed him.
Kyp smiled back at her, trailing a hand up her spine to tug on the loose tangled ends of her hair. "I'm just glad it worked."
"Me too," Jaina said, and they shifted their weight simultaneously to begin walking back out of the practice area, arms still slung about each other's waists. "That's two memories, Kyp, two whole memories."
He tightened his hold on her; she was practically bouncing with each step. "We'll try again in a bit," Kyp told her. "But how about we find Jag and find some food?"
"All right," she agreed. "I've got two memories, Kyp!"
He didn't let his smile falter, but he felt his spirits dim. She was so pleased with so little.
She didn't deserve this.
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Thanks!
-Keth
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