Disclaimer: See past chapters for this. Or just make up one and tell it
to yourself. They're fairly standard.
Mara froze as she quickly took in the site in front of her. This was the room where they had sent all of the trainees, the non-force sensitive children and the pilots and fully trained Jedi that were supposed to protect them. It was now a pile of smoking twisted rubble.
A flicker of movement caught the corner of her eye and she saw a small hand clawing at anything that it could reach, debris sliding away from it as it moved. She heard a small voice call out, with a panicky mixture of concern and fear, "Valin, Myri?"
Immediately Mara was moving quickly, she ran over to the girl's side. She recognized her instantly as Syal Antilles, Wedge's oldest daughter and grasped the girl's hand reassuringly. "It's okay Syal," she said without hesitation, not wasting a moment to consider whether she was lying or not and begin to dig Syal out. She moved away debris quickly until she had created a hole large enough for the girl to crawl out of. The moment she was out, Syal flung her arms around Mara's neck and clung to her tightly.
Mara who was normally not a touchy-feely person let the girl be and even wrapped an arm comfortingly around the shaking girl's slender form, while she thought. This was no place for anyone, much less a child. No one should have to see the carnage that was probably buried under the wreckage, but there was no other place she could go. The safest place that Syal could be for the moment was with Mara and she had to help search for survivors.
"Syal," she said calmly a moment later, forcing herself to be patient. "Do you know what happened?"
Syal shook her head, "No, I was just sitting here with Val and Myri. I was watching one of the holocubes that Mom sent me and then everything just exploded."
Mara nodded, nothing Syal had just told her was really useful, besides confirming what she already know. She struggled to make her voice soothing and not to let her disappointment show. "Okay, Syal, I want to look for your sister and Valin, but I need you to help me."
The girl loosened her grip slightly and seemed to regain some of her composure. She blinked and nodded at Mara. She might not have grown up with quite as many tragedies as Jaina and her brothers, but she was also no stranger to pain and hardship. She would be okay, at least for the moment, her parents had raised her well. "I'm going to try to find them through the force," Mara explained. "They should be somewhere right around here, near where you were. I want you to keep an eye on the rest of the room. If you see anything move or see anyone, let me know."
Given a mission the young girl nodded valiantly. Syal put her back to Mara, surveying the room carefully.
Mara took a deep breath and turned back to the pile of debris, focusing on it. She reached into the forced and hissed involuntarily. This whole area screamed of pain and charged emotions. She forced back a surge of desperation, impatience and all consuming anger as she thought about her son. The image her mind conjured of her son, buried in the rubble, helpless or dead, almost made her lose her concentration and her connection to the force.
With a struggle she forced down her maternal instincts and focused on Valin and Myri. She could rescue these children now. For the moment, she couldn't help Ben, she didn't even know where he was. A moment later she found a response to her tendril of probing force energy. It was a flicker of contact, the response of one force sensitive mind to another. It was an automatic response that would be present even if the other mind was dormant, but it still sent Mara rushing into action. A grim, but triumph smile tugged at her lips and she touched the back of Syal's arm.
"I found Valin." She murmured. She raised one hand in the air and began to lift rubble off of him and shift it carefully away. Moments later she had dug down far enough to see Valin. As she had expected he was unconscious. As she lifted him out, she didn't notice Syal move away from her. Carefully she laid Valin down on a relatively even space and began to check his injuries. From what she could tell he was bleeding from several cuts all over him and he had a decent size gash on his forehead. That was most likely what had knocked him unconscious.
She almost sighed in relief as she finished checking him over. He didn't seem to be badly injured and there was certainly nothing life threatening for him in the short term. "Syal," she called wanting the girl to stay with Valin while she kept looking. It only took her a short second to note the girl's lack of response. She whirled around to look for her, but it wasn't necessary. She heard a sudden shriek, and then she saw Syal's mop of blond hair pop up.
"Mara," the call was frightened and desperate.
Compassion and anger at the girl for walking off warred within Mara. She didn't need Syal getting into more trouble now. Deciding to leave Valin for the moment, she carefully, but quickly made her way over to Syal and saw immediately what had caused her reaction. A man in a grey flightsuit bearing the distinctive crest of Twin Suns Squadron lay obviously dead acting as a protective shield over Myri Antilles.
A hint of her pale golden hair spilled out from under the man's body. Mara touched Syal's shoulder gently. "Go back down to Valin," she said softly. She wasn't sure how badly Myri was hurt or if she was even alive. Syal was barely holding up as it was, being confronted with the death of her sister... Well, Mara would try to spare her everything that she could.
Syal didn't protest, but she did keep her eyes locked on her sister. She didn't ask Mara if Myri was all right. She knew there was no answer, but she did glance over at Mara for just a second. Mara could see the plea in her eyes to simply make everything better and she wished with all of her heart that she could grant that wish. She looked back down at the pilot and drew upon her years of experience as an assassin and hardened her heart against the reminder of mortality in front of her. She pushed the man aside and stripped his ID without sparing him a second glance.
She reached down to Myri and almost sighed in relief as she realized with relief that Myri was still alive. She picked her up with the force, cradling her in her arms at the same time and laid her down next to Valin.
"Will she be okay," Syal asked as soon as Mara was next to her, but she seemed almost hesitant to hear the answer.
Mara didn't respond, instead she reached into the force, searching...searching and then slipped Myri into a healing trance. She nodded at last, "I'm not sure, Syal," she answered honestly, and then focused on Syal. "I'm going to need you to stay here with these two." She thought for a moment and then climbed back over to where they had found Myri and took the pilot's comm. link and blaster. She handed them to Syal a moment later. "I'm going to look for other survivor's," she said finally.
She paused, debating whether to tell Syal the complete truth or not. She decided, "Syal there are both Yuuzhan Vong and Dark Jedi here on Shelter. Callista's the dark Jedi and if you see her or any other Jedi that you don't know, shoot first and ask questions later." She pushed aside a grimace, she hated doing this. "If you see any Vong, hide, only shoot if you think they've already found you."
"Okay," Syal said with a slight quaver, but her grip on the blaster was steady and her hand didn't shake. She was young and untrained, but she was holding up better than some soldiers that Mara had known.
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Kyp's first instinct was to begin tearing into the plates of durastell and beams of permafab that trapped Jaina, but he didn't. Speed was necessary at times, but it could also get a person killed. He needed to think rationally and to allow his Jedi training to take over. The force could guide him through this easily.
He closed his eyes and tapped into the force. Kyp didn't seek to control it, rather he let it control him. Moving with absolute confidence, Kyp began moving towards Jaina. Moving metal and broken machinery, with both his hands and the force he worked steadily closer to her with single minded determination. As he got close enough to her to finally see her, his focus almost seemed to slip as his desperation surged. He faltered as he lifted a beam away from her, when he saw her shift slightly and murmur groggily, "Jag?"
"Jaina," he called out, "Wake up, Goddess. Talk to me."
Jaina's eyes flickered and then snapped open. "Kyp," she called urgently, her tone almost a demand. "Kyp, I need help," fear and panicked urgency claimed her voice and Kyp could feel her begin to indiscriminately push at everything trapping her with the force.
"I know Goddess," he said placatingly, trying to keep her calm.
"No, Kyp," already her voice sounded stronger, through sheer strength of will, he suspected. "You have to find Jag," she blurted. "He's hurt."
Kyp frowned, this was not good. Jaina was his priority. He had to get her out first and then he would start looking for Fel, but telling Jaina that was not a good idea. Stalling her he said quickly, "I couldn't find him in the force. Can you tell me where he is?"
Jaina looked at him sharply and Kyp didn't have to read her mind to know what she was thinking. As far as she was concerned for the moment, Jag was injured and missing. If she allowed herself to think that he was dead..
It had been hard enough on her when her brothers had died. Most people had credited him with Jaina's return from the Dark side, but he also knew that it was due in no small part to Jag's presence and his feelings for Jaina. If Jag was gone, truly dead, he didn't want to think about what would happen to Jaina and what she would allow herself to become.
But then Jaina's eyes snapped shut and Kyp could feel her reaching out to the force around them. He grabbed hold of a large piece of durasteel in front of him with both his hands and the force. It was the last thing separating him from Jaina. He lifted and groaned at the weight.
"A hand here, Goddess," he asked quickly. He almost growled as she didn't respond.
A sharp rebuke was on the tip of his tongue as he looked over at her, but it died unspoken as she cried, "Stars, Jag!"
He immediately felt a surge of power as Jaina joined her strength to his in the force. "Kyp, he's under there!"
=================================================================
Callista laughed as she stroked his smooth cheek with a finger. Blood smeared off of her hand and onto the little boy's unmarred skin. He jerked back from her as much as he could with her arm holding him firmly against her and let out another piteous cry. Callista's smile widened as she felt the boy trying to match his verbal cry with a mental one. He was so strong in the force and he was filled with untainted power, power that could easily be twisted, turning the innocence and naivety of a child into unparalleled darkness.
He would serve her will and he would fit her Master's purpose with ease. Ben Skywalker would be the perfect ransom to control his parents and even if his parents ever rescued him, he would be a creature of darkness, unrecognizable to his parents. She ruthlessly crushed his clumsy and childish attempt toe instinctively call for his mother's help through the force and savored his fear as he was cut off from his mother and the force.
After all she was a Dark Jedi.
She remembered his fear when she had found him. She had caused that explosion. Oh, she hadn't been there at the time, but she had rigged it to go off earlier. Callista knew that Mara Jade was on her way, she could feel the puny little pretend Jedi coming. She moved quickly.
It wasn't time for a confrontation between them, yet. That would be on her Master's terms. It had only taken her a moment to find Ben. She could hear him crying. It had taken her a long moment to finally pinpoint him and reach him through the rubble, but there was no one left to protect him. A pilot, she vaguely recognized him as one of their escorts, was dead beside him and several feet to his left lay a groaning Tionne. Callista didn't bother to waste any time on the pilot and spared Tionne only a harsh kick in the gut and quickly scooped up Ben.
Now, she was in the x-wing she had stolen from Shelter and was quickly exiting the area that was affected by the varied and twisted gravitational forces of the Core. All she had to do now was get clear and then she could send a signal to her Yuuzhan Vong Masters.
Then they would see.
Please, be kind, leave a review and let me know what you think of this update.
Mara froze as she quickly took in the site in front of her. This was the room where they had sent all of the trainees, the non-force sensitive children and the pilots and fully trained Jedi that were supposed to protect them. It was now a pile of smoking twisted rubble.
A flicker of movement caught the corner of her eye and she saw a small hand clawing at anything that it could reach, debris sliding away from it as it moved. She heard a small voice call out, with a panicky mixture of concern and fear, "Valin, Myri?"
Immediately Mara was moving quickly, she ran over to the girl's side. She recognized her instantly as Syal Antilles, Wedge's oldest daughter and grasped the girl's hand reassuringly. "It's okay Syal," she said without hesitation, not wasting a moment to consider whether she was lying or not and begin to dig Syal out. She moved away debris quickly until she had created a hole large enough for the girl to crawl out of. The moment she was out, Syal flung her arms around Mara's neck and clung to her tightly.
Mara who was normally not a touchy-feely person let the girl be and even wrapped an arm comfortingly around the shaking girl's slender form, while she thought. This was no place for anyone, much less a child. No one should have to see the carnage that was probably buried under the wreckage, but there was no other place she could go. The safest place that Syal could be for the moment was with Mara and she had to help search for survivors.
"Syal," she said calmly a moment later, forcing herself to be patient. "Do you know what happened?"
Syal shook her head, "No, I was just sitting here with Val and Myri. I was watching one of the holocubes that Mom sent me and then everything just exploded."
Mara nodded, nothing Syal had just told her was really useful, besides confirming what she already know. She struggled to make her voice soothing and not to let her disappointment show. "Okay, Syal, I want to look for your sister and Valin, but I need you to help me."
The girl loosened her grip slightly and seemed to regain some of her composure. She blinked and nodded at Mara. She might not have grown up with quite as many tragedies as Jaina and her brothers, but she was also no stranger to pain and hardship. She would be okay, at least for the moment, her parents had raised her well. "I'm going to try to find them through the force," Mara explained. "They should be somewhere right around here, near where you were. I want you to keep an eye on the rest of the room. If you see anything move or see anyone, let me know."
Given a mission the young girl nodded valiantly. Syal put her back to Mara, surveying the room carefully.
Mara took a deep breath and turned back to the pile of debris, focusing on it. She reached into the forced and hissed involuntarily. This whole area screamed of pain and charged emotions. She forced back a surge of desperation, impatience and all consuming anger as she thought about her son. The image her mind conjured of her son, buried in the rubble, helpless or dead, almost made her lose her concentration and her connection to the force.
With a struggle she forced down her maternal instincts and focused on Valin and Myri. She could rescue these children now. For the moment, she couldn't help Ben, she didn't even know where he was. A moment later she found a response to her tendril of probing force energy. It was a flicker of contact, the response of one force sensitive mind to another. It was an automatic response that would be present even if the other mind was dormant, but it still sent Mara rushing into action. A grim, but triumph smile tugged at her lips and she touched the back of Syal's arm.
"I found Valin." She murmured. She raised one hand in the air and began to lift rubble off of him and shift it carefully away. Moments later she had dug down far enough to see Valin. As she had expected he was unconscious. As she lifted him out, she didn't notice Syal move away from her. Carefully she laid Valin down on a relatively even space and began to check his injuries. From what she could tell he was bleeding from several cuts all over him and he had a decent size gash on his forehead. That was most likely what had knocked him unconscious.
She almost sighed in relief as she finished checking him over. He didn't seem to be badly injured and there was certainly nothing life threatening for him in the short term. "Syal," she called wanting the girl to stay with Valin while she kept looking. It only took her a short second to note the girl's lack of response. She whirled around to look for her, but it wasn't necessary. She heard a sudden shriek, and then she saw Syal's mop of blond hair pop up.
"Mara," the call was frightened and desperate.
Compassion and anger at the girl for walking off warred within Mara. She didn't need Syal getting into more trouble now. Deciding to leave Valin for the moment, she carefully, but quickly made her way over to Syal and saw immediately what had caused her reaction. A man in a grey flightsuit bearing the distinctive crest of Twin Suns Squadron lay obviously dead acting as a protective shield over Myri Antilles.
A hint of her pale golden hair spilled out from under the man's body. Mara touched Syal's shoulder gently. "Go back down to Valin," she said softly. She wasn't sure how badly Myri was hurt or if she was even alive. Syal was barely holding up as it was, being confronted with the death of her sister... Well, Mara would try to spare her everything that she could.
Syal didn't protest, but she did keep her eyes locked on her sister. She didn't ask Mara if Myri was all right. She knew there was no answer, but she did glance over at Mara for just a second. Mara could see the plea in her eyes to simply make everything better and she wished with all of her heart that she could grant that wish. She looked back down at the pilot and drew upon her years of experience as an assassin and hardened her heart against the reminder of mortality in front of her. She pushed the man aside and stripped his ID without sparing him a second glance.
She reached down to Myri and almost sighed in relief as she realized with relief that Myri was still alive. She picked her up with the force, cradling her in her arms at the same time and laid her down next to Valin.
"Will she be okay," Syal asked as soon as Mara was next to her, but she seemed almost hesitant to hear the answer.
Mara didn't respond, instead she reached into the force, searching...searching and then slipped Myri into a healing trance. She nodded at last, "I'm not sure, Syal," she answered honestly, and then focused on Syal. "I'm going to need you to stay here with these two." She thought for a moment and then climbed back over to where they had found Myri and took the pilot's comm. link and blaster. She handed them to Syal a moment later. "I'm going to look for other survivor's," she said finally.
She paused, debating whether to tell Syal the complete truth or not. She decided, "Syal there are both Yuuzhan Vong and Dark Jedi here on Shelter. Callista's the dark Jedi and if you see her or any other Jedi that you don't know, shoot first and ask questions later." She pushed aside a grimace, she hated doing this. "If you see any Vong, hide, only shoot if you think they've already found you."
"Okay," Syal said with a slight quaver, but her grip on the blaster was steady and her hand didn't shake. She was young and untrained, but she was holding up better than some soldiers that Mara had known.
====================================================================
Kyp's first instinct was to begin tearing into the plates of durastell and beams of permafab that trapped Jaina, but he didn't. Speed was necessary at times, but it could also get a person killed. He needed to think rationally and to allow his Jedi training to take over. The force could guide him through this easily.
He closed his eyes and tapped into the force. Kyp didn't seek to control it, rather he let it control him. Moving with absolute confidence, Kyp began moving towards Jaina. Moving metal and broken machinery, with both his hands and the force he worked steadily closer to her with single minded determination. As he got close enough to her to finally see her, his focus almost seemed to slip as his desperation surged. He faltered as he lifted a beam away from her, when he saw her shift slightly and murmur groggily, "Jag?"
"Jaina," he called out, "Wake up, Goddess. Talk to me."
Jaina's eyes flickered and then snapped open. "Kyp," she called urgently, her tone almost a demand. "Kyp, I need help," fear and panicked urgency claimed her voice and Kyp could feel her begin to indiscriminately push at everything trapping her with the force.
"I know Goddess," he said placatingly, trying to keep her calm.
"No, Kyp," already her voice sounded stronger, through sheer strength of will, he suspected. "You have to find Jag," she blurted. "He's hurt."
Kyp frowned, this was not good. Jaina was his priority. He had to get her out first and then he would start looking for Fel, but telling Jaina that was not a good idea. Stalling her he said quickly, "I couldn't find him in the force. Can you tell me where he is?"
Jaina looked at him sharply and Kyp didn't have to read her mind to know what she was thinking. As far as she was concerned for the moment, Jag was injured and missing. If she allowed herself to think that he was dead..
It had been hard enough on her when her brothers had died. Most people had credited him with Jaina's return from the Dark side, but he also knew that it was due in no small part to Jag's presence and his feelings for Jaina. If Jag was gone, truly dead, he didn't want to think about what would happen to Jaina and what she would allow herself to become.
But then Jaina's eyes snapped shut and Kyp could feel her reaching out to the force around them. He grabbed hold of a large piece of durasteel in front of him with both his hands and the force. It was the last thing separating him from Jaina. He lifted and groaned at the weight.
"A hand here, Goddess," he asked quickly. He almost growled as she didn't respond.
A sharp rebuke was on the tip of his tongue as he looked over at her, but it died unspoken as she cried, "Stars, Jag!"
He immediately felt a surge of power as Jaina joined her strength to his in the force. "Kyp, he's under there!"
=================================================================
Callista laughed as she stroked his smooth cheek with a finger. Blood smeared off of her hand and onto the little boy's unmarred skin. He jerked back from her as much as he could with her arm holding him firmly against her and let out another piteous cry. Callista's smile widened as she felt the boy trying to match his verbal cry with a mental one. He was so strong in the force and he was filled with untainted power, power that could easily be twisted, turning the innocence and naivety of a child into unparalleled darkness.
He would serve her will and he would fit her Master's purpose with ease. Ben Skywalker would be the perfect ransom to control his parents and even if his parents ever rescued him, he would be a creature of darkness, unrecognizable to his parents. She ruthlessly crushed his clumsy and childish attempt toe instinctively call for his mother's help through the force and savored his fear as he was cut off from his mother and the force.
After all she was a Dark Jedi.
She remembered his fear when she had found him. She had caused that explosion. Oh, she hadn't been there at the time, but she had rigged it to go off earlier. Callista knew that Mara Jade was on her way, she could feel the puny little pretend Jedi coming. She moved quickly.
It wasn't time for a confrontation between them, yet. That would be on her Master's terms. It had only taken her a moment to find Ben. She could hear him crying. It had taken her a long moment to finally pinpoint him and reach him through the rubble, but there was no one left to protect him. A pilot, she vaguely recognized him as one of their escorts, was dead beside him and several feet to his left lay a groaning Tionne. Callista didn't bother to waste any time on the pilot and spared Tionne only a harsh kick in the gut and quickly scooped up Ben.
Now, she was in the x-wing she had stolen from Shelter and was quickly exiting the area that was affected by the varied and twisted gravitational forces of the Core. All she had to do now was get clear and then she could send a signal to her Yuuzhan Vong Masters.
Then they would see.
Please, be kind, leave a review and let me know what you think of this update.