Disclaimer: See all of the previous chapters
Cat: I can't say what will happen next, but no, Jaina is still fighting the war with the Vong now. That hasn't changed.
Altariel-Jaina: Why did I write Callista so bad? I have to admit, I'm a bit biased against her character. But as for my actual reasoning, I can't remember which of the three books that featured Callista that it was in, but it was revealed that the only way that she could touch the Force was through the darkside. In my opinion over time, it would be very easy for her to give into that temptation, especially with no one there to keep her in check.
The impact of his words wasn't lost on Jaina, but one thing about what he had said was bothering her. "Why are you telling me this now? I've already used the Darkside and come back from it. I've been fighting by the rules of the Jedi Order."
Anakin nodded, looking at her seriously with a hint of concern- concern for her and about the consequences of the choices that she face- and said, "You haven't truly made your decision yet. You've tasted both sides of the balance, but you haven't truly committed to either one yet. The time hasn't come for you to make that choice." He could sense that she wanted to question him more, but he kept talking. "Soon." He said softly, "You will know when the moment comes, Jaina." He steepled his fingers in front of him in the traditional pose of a Jedi in contemplation and started walking forward. "You have been given this opportunity for two reasons. First, you needed to be made aware of what had happened and second..." He trailed off and Jaina got the sense that he didn't want to continue for her sake. "The future is always in motion, Jaina, and the Galaxy is already locked in great turmoil, much as it was in my days. But what is coming next effects you, personally. The Force has allowed you this place to come when you truly have need of it."
She looked at him. This was surreal and while her faith in the will of the Force was unshakable, she questioned whether this was real or simply a phantom of her unconscious mind. She opened her mouth to say something to him and everything went sideways. She saw him, but not him. Faces blurred, her sight blacked in and out. Just when she thought that even with her Jedi control , she would irreversibly nauseous, everything was calm and still.
It resolved into one achingly clear image. Jag.
A huge smile crept slowly over her face as she saw him. He looked much better than the last time she had seen him. The time he had spent in a bacta tank had certainly helped. She reached one hand up to his face, tracing gently over his features, her hand searching for any new scars. His smile, while not large by most standards still made her feel better than a hundred healing trances, because she knew that it was reserved for her alone. As she remembered what had occurred to put her in Shelter's med center- she had immediately recognized her surroundings- her smile diminished. Jag saw the change in her expression even as she asked, "Mara, Ben are they- is he okay?"
He took her hand gently and something began to tingle in the back of her mind. Not her traditional danger sense, but a warning none the les. She ignored the indistinct sensation and focused on Jag's response.
"They're fine," he said quickly to her relief. "Master Jade only had a few very minor wounds from her fight with Callista and Ben will be fine once the trauma he sustained has had a chance to fade away with time. Master Luke is already on his way here, as well." He cocked his head, looking at her curiously as she leaned up towards him. "Jaina," he asked with an edge of curiosity and caution, "What are you doing, Solo?"
She ignored him and the tingling warning that was growing more insistent in the back of her mind and kissed him without hesitation. She had been so scared when she had seen him laying there bleeding, underneath the rubble and burned from Callista's Force lightning attack. He responded eagerly, but she could feel his surprise. The sense of warning in the back of her mind grew from a tingle to a full fledged shriek. A sudden sensation of weakness hit her without warning.
She broke the kiss as the disorienting feeling of a sudden high fever hit her. "Jaina," he asked, his voice full of concern.
She looked at him strangely, his voice had been oddly distorted and garbled. His face wavered in front of her and she blinked, trying to refocus her vision. The first thing to come back into focus was his green eyes, but suddenly they seemed darker than she remembered. His hair was longer. It was actually shaggy. She hadn't been gone that long and besides no male fighter pilot would allow his hair to get that long. She looked for his distinctive lock of white hair and found..nothing. She pulled back from him unsteadily, as she recognized one of her oldest friends. "Zekk?"
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Jagged Fel hung suspended in a bacta tank. He would spend the next four hours in the healing liquid and then be pulled out again. It was the longest anyone was remaining in the bacta for now. With a shortage of bacta tanks and quite a few injured people, a rotation of the injured had been set up.
He tried to close his eyes and relax. It was supposed to help him heal, he knew, this wasn't his first time taking a dip in bacta, but every time he shut his eyes an image of Jaina, hurt and dieing assaulted him. Jag remembered going to help Jaina and he remembered the horrible, mind-blowing pain of Callista's force lightning attack. There had been nothing that he could do. He hadn't even been able to stop himself from moaning and writhing in pain. His muscles all gave a sympathetic twitch at the memory. He had gone there to help Jaina and he had ended up making things worse for her. Because of him, because she had been forced to protect him and not focus fully on fighting Callista, Callista had been able to defeat Jaina, at least temporarily.
Jaina could have died because of him.
He knew he was becoming more and more agitated, but he couldn't seem to summon his usual grim, calm. When it came to Jaina, his response was based on feelings, feelings that he didn't like to acknowledge, much less act on. When it came to Jaina, he was almost like a different person all together. He let his eyes fall closed, momentarily losing the fight against exhaustion. Jag felt himself drifting, edging closer to sleep and its sweet oblivion.
A topaz lightsaber cut through his line of sight and wasn't blocked by its opponent. It slid inexorably into its target and penetrated its victim with uncanny, but lethal ease.
Jag jerked awake as Jaina's lifeless body hit the floor. He felt a momentary panic that not even the cool light of awakening could completely banish. He wouldn't be totally reassured that Jaina was okay, until he saw her again and held her tightly in his arms. Despite or maybe because of Jaina, thoughts of the messages that his father and sister had sent him had been on his mind. He hadn't mentioned to Jaina, even in passing, that he was being recalled by the Chiss. She knew nothing about it. Jaina knew nothing about the decision that he was being forced to make. It was unlikely, especially given the recent tension on Csillia that his family had described and the Anti-Galactic Alliance sentiment that was prevalent, that the Chiss would join the war on the Vong.
He and the rest of the squadron that he had originally led into the Known Regions would be reassigned to some post far away from the Galactic Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong. He refused to abandon Jaina, but he also had a duty to his family and the culture that had taken he and his family in and accepted them as their own. Somehow he had to find a compromise. He would have to go to his father and actually ask the Baron for his help. It was probably the last thing that Jag wanted to do. The Baron had always carried high expectation for his children and now that Jag was the oldest of his living children, the rancor's share of his father's expectations had fallen on him.
He had always struggled to surpass the standard- and not just human standards- but Chiss standards, as well. Jag had prided himself on being the best of the best and never disappointing the Baron, whenever he could help it. Going to his father would be an admission that he couldn't handle it himself. Besides the Baron would never approve of Jaina, simply based on the fact that she was a Solo. His father would approve even less if Jag actually told him about Jaina, but Jag couldn't think of any other option.
A flurry of activity across the med bay inadvertently sent a jolt of adrenaline rushing through his veins, countering his exhaustion for the moment. His serious, worried tangle of thoughts pushed away for the moment, Jag watched in bacta enforced silence as a knot of med personnel pushed into the room with a patient and other med techs in the room started prepping equipment. Jag glanced at the Chrono visible from where he floated and read it through a pinkish haze. He only had three and a half more hours left in this session. Then maybe he could talk to Kyp and see if there was any new information about Jaina.
A glimmer of titian hair that almost didn't register in his pinkish world, made him take a closer look at the group of med personnel. During his last period out of bacta, Kyp had stopped by for few brief moments to tell him that Jaina was gone on a mission with Mara. If the Jedi Master was back, the surely she would have at least some information about Jaina. For one wild moment, Jag forgot the severity of him injuries and how blissful the bacta felt after hours of its absence. He wanted nothing more than to break free of the bacta tank and demand to know where Jaina was and if she okay.
The moment he had his answer, he wished he was still wondering. Even from his distance and through the unique tint of bacta, he could see how pale and unresponsive Jaina was. She had obviously been in a fight, he could tell that much. What he didn't know was who she had fought or how bad her injuries were. Jag was puzzled as he watched the healers moving around Jaina. He wasn't familiar with Jedi Healers or their practices like he was with normal medical personnel, but it certainly didn't look like she was being prepped for the bacta tank. Of course, that could be good news or bad. It could mean that her injuries weren't serious enough to warrant bacta or that her wounds were beyond the ability of bacta to heal. Not knowing, being forced to watch while he was helpless, was worse than already knowing the diagnosis for Jaina's injuries.
He watched in forced stillness as Jedi Healers attended to Jaina. He noticed, as he watched- even from his distance that the healers all wore worried expressions and although he couldn't hear what she was saying, he could see Mara talking to Cilghal. The Jedi master seemed almost as worried about her niece as she was protective about her son. She hadn't let Ben out of her arms the entire time- not that he had wanted to get down.
Only the fact that catching the attention of the medics would distract them from Jaina, kept Jag from banging impatiently on the side of his bacta tank and demanding to be let out. Being with Jaina, no matter what happened, had to be better than this.
============================================================================ ======
Hours later when Jag was finally pulled out of the bacta tank at the end of his rotation, he almost felt worse than when he was put in. Usually when he came out of a bacta dip, he felt much better than when he was put in. Today, he felt like he had gotten into a hand-to-hand fight with two dozen Yuuzhan Vong warriors, while having a rancor do a tap dance on his skull. Instead of four hours of rest and time spent in the bacta's healing properties, he had four hours of torture, restrained from Jaina for his own good.
"Colonel," he looked almost blankly at the med tech before nodding.
"Good," the man said tightly, "That was the fourth time I spoke to you. I was starting to think that you had an undiagnosed hearing injury." The man gestured sharply before Jag could reply, "This way, sir. We need to assess your condition befre we proceed."
Jag was barely focusing on the man, all he was seeing was where Jaina had been taken. He couldn't see her anymore, but he knew she had to be there. He would have noticed if she had been moved.
"Colonel," the man called again as Jaina moved away from him completely. He knew vaguely that he was still unsteady from his injuries, but totally focused on one person as he was, he didn't even notice. He was across the med bay quickly, only slowing down as he got closer to her. Jag stopped outside the door to the small room where Jaina was being treated. The small concession to privacy, Jag assumed was due to her status as Goddess. Even within the walls of Shelter the façade had to be maintained, although not so strictly.
He reached for the door and started to enter. In the next moment, he stopped abruptly cocking his head to the side in an unnecessary gesture. He heard voices inside, voices that weren't Jaina's, but were familiar nonetheless. For the first time in his rush to get to Jaina, he hesitated. He wanted to see Jaina- he needed to see her- but he didn't want to have to deal with her family or friends at the moment. Just a few private moments was all that he asked.
He started to turn away, but stumbled back as he came face to face with the med tech that he had ignored. This time the man's face showed more sympathy. It had replaced the hard all business attitude almost completely.
"Here," the man said more generously, "I didn't realize that you knew Jedi Solo." He palmed the door open before Jag could utter a half-hearted protest or explanation. Involuntarily, Jag's eyes immediately found Jaina.
"She.fine.a fight.Vong."
Jag was only registering a few of the man's words. He was too focused on Jaina. So focused, in fact, that it took him a moment to notice that Jaina was awake. At the brilliant smile on Jaina's face, he felt the corner's of his own mouth twitch into a small happy smile of relief. It was impossible to be anything but relieved now that he had seen her and reassured himself that she was okay.
It was a full minute later before he noticed the man standing next to her and then it was only because of the way that Jaina was caressing the man's face. Dismissing Jaina's unusual actions and his own flare of jealousy, it only took him a moment to place the man. He hadn't recognized him before then because the last time he had seen him, that man was being rushed in for medical treatment. It was the young Jedi who Jaina had been so worried about- Zekk.
Then without warning, the moment had changed irreversibly, and Jaina was kissing Zekk. He stood numb, but bombarded with a myriad of emotions. Every thought, every hope was cut off instantly, dieing a sudden and painful death. With as much certainty and determination as he had poured into getting to her side in first place, Jag turned sharply and walked away. Some would call it impulsive, others would note that it was very out of character for the precise, controlled young man. Jag didn't care. His family needed him. Jaina obviously didn't. It was incredibly simple and infinitely painful.
Please delurk and leave a review for this chapter to let me know what you think.
Cat: I can't say what will happen next, but no, Jaina is still fighting the war with the Vong now. That hasn't changed.
Altariel-Jaina: Why did I write Callista so bad? I have to admit, I'm a bit biased against her character. But as for my actual reasoning, I can't remember which of the three books that featured Callista that it was in, but it was revealed that the only way that she could touch the Force was through the darkside. In my opinion over time, it would be very easy for her to give into that temptation, especially with no one there to keep her in check.
The impact of his words wasn't lost on Jaina, but one thing about what he had said was bothering her. "Why are you telling me this now? I've already used the Darkside and come back from it. I've been fighting by the rules of the Jedi Order."
Anakin nodded, looking at her seriously with a hint of concern- concern for her and about the consequences of the choices that she face- and said, "You haven't truly made your decision yet. You've tasted both sides of the balance, but you haven't truly committed to either one yet. The time hasn't come for you to make that choice." He could sense that she wanted to question him more, but he kept talking. "Soon." He said softly, "You will know when the moment comes, Jaina." He steepled his fingers in front of him in the traditional pose of a Jedi in contemplation and started walking forward. "You have been given this opportunity for two reasons. First, you needed to be made aware of what had happened and second..." He trailed off and Jaina got the sense that he didn't want to continue for her sake. "The future is always in motion, Jaina, and the Galaxy is already locked in great turmoil, much as it was in my days. But what is coming next effects you, personally. The Force has allowed you this place to come when you truly have need of it."
She looked at him. This was surreal and while her faith in the will of the Force was unshakable, she questioned whether this was real or simply a phantom of her unconscious mind. She opened her mouth to say something to him and everything went sideways. She saw him, but not him. Faces blurred, her sight blacked in and out. Just when she thought that even with her Jedi control , she would irreversibly nauseous, everything was calm and still.
It resolved into one achingly clear image. Jag.
A huge smile crept slowly over her face as she saw him. He looked much better than the last time she had seen him. The time he had spent in a bacta tank had certainly helped. She reached one hand up to his face, tracing gently over his features, her hand searching for any new scars. His smile, while not large by most standards still made her feel better than a hundred healing trances, because she knew that it was reserved for her alone. As she remembered what had occurred to put her in Shelter's med center- she had immediately recognized her surroundings- her smile diminished. Jag saw the change in her expression even as she asked, "Mara, Ben are they- is he okay?"
He took her hand gently and something began to tingle in the back of her mind. Not her traditional danger sense, but a warning none the les. She ignored the indistinct sensation and focused on Jag's response.
"They're fine," he said quickly to her relief. "Master Jade only had a few very minor wounds from her fight with Callista and Ben will be fine once the trauma he sustained has had a chance to fade away with time. Master Luke is already on his way here, as well." He cocked his head, looking at her curiously as she leaned up towards him. "Jaina," he asked with an edge of curiosity and caution, "What are you doing, Solo?"
She ignored him and the tingling warning that was growing more insistent in the back of her mind and kissed him without hesitation. She had been so scared when she had seen him laying there bleeding, underneath the rubble and burned from Callista's Force lightning attack. He responded eagerly, but she could feel his surprise. The sense of warning in the back of her mind grew from a tingle to a full fledged shriek. A sudden sensation of weakness hit her without warning.
She broke the kiss as the disorienting feeling of a sudden high fever hit her. "Jaina," he asked, his voice full of concern.
She looked at him strangely, his voice had been oddly distorted and garbled. His face wavered in front of her and she blinked, trying to refocus her vision. The first thing to come back into focus was his green eyes, but suddenly they seemed darker than she remembered. His hair was longer. It was actually shaggy. She hadn't been gone that long and besides no male fighter pilot would allow his hair to get that long. She looked for his distinctive lock of white hair and found..nothing. She pulled back from him unsteadily, as she recognized one of her oldest friends. "Zekk?"
========================================================================
Jagged Fel hung suspended in a bacta tank. He would spend the next four hours in the healing liquid and then be pulled out again. It was the longest anyone was remaining in the bacta for now. With a shortage of bacta tanks and quite a few injured people, a rotation of the injured had been set up.
He tried to close his eyes and relax. It was supposed to help him heal, he knew, this wasn't his first time taking a dip in bacta, but every time he shut his eyes an image of Jaina, hurt and dieing assaulted him. Jag remembered going to help Jaina and he remembered the horrible, mind-blowing pain of Callista's force lightning attack. There had been nothing that he could do. He hadn't even been able to stop himself from moaning and writhing in pain. His muscles all gave a sympathetic twitch at the memory. He had gone there to help Jaina and he had ended up making things worse for her. Because of him, because she had been forced to protect him and not focus fully on fighting Callista, Callista had been able to defeat Jaina, at least temporarily.
Jaina could have died because of him.
He knew he was becoming more and more agitated, but he couldn't seem to summon his usual grim, calm. When it came to Jaina, his response was based on feelings, feelings that he didn't like to acknowledge, much less act on. When it came to Jaina, he was almost like a different person all together. He let his eyes fall closed, momentarily losing the fight against exhaustion. Jag felt himself drifting, edging closer to sleep and its sweet oblivion.
A topaz lightsaber cut through his line of sight and wasn't blocked by its opponent. It slid inexorably into its target and penetrated its victim with uncanny, but lethal ease.
Jag jerked awake as Jaina's lifeless body hit the floor. He felt a momentary panic that not even the cool light of awakening could completely banish. He wouldn't be totally reassured that Jaina was okay, until he saw her again and held her tightly in his arms. Despite or maybe because of Jaina, thoughts of the messages that his father and sister had sent him had been on his mind. He hadn't mentioned to Jaina, even in passing, that he was being recalled by the Chiss. She knew nothing about it. Jaina knew nothing about the decision that he was being forced to make. It was unlikely, especially given the recent tension on Csillia that his family had described and the Anti-Galactic Alliance sentiment that was prevalent, that the Chiss would join the war on the Vong.
He and the rest of the squadron that he had originally led into the Known Regions would be reassigned to some post far away from the Galactic Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong. He refused to abandon Jaina, but he also had a duty to his family and the culture that had taken he and his family in and accepted them as their own. Somehow he had to find a compromise. He would have to go to his father and actually ask the Baron for his help. It was probably the last thing that Jag wanted to do. The Baron had always carried high expectation for his children and now that Jag was the oldest of his living children, the rancor's share of his father's expectations had fallen on him.
He had always struggled to surpass the standard- and not just human standards- but Chiss standards, as well. Jag had prided himself on being the best of the best and never disappointing the Baron, whenever he could help it. Going to his father would be an admission that he couldn't handle it himself. Besides the Baron would never approve of Jaina, simply based on the fact that she was a Solo. His father would approve even less if Jag actually told him about Jaina, but Jag couldn't think of any other option.
A flurry of activity across the med bay inadvertently sent a jolt of adrenaline rushing through his veins, countering his exhaustion for the moment. His serious, worried tangle of thoughts pushed away for the moment, Jag watched in bacta enforced silence as a knot of med personnel pushed into the room with a patient and other med techs in the room started prepping equipment. Jag glanced at the Chrono visible from where he floated and read it through a pinkish haze. He only had three and a half more hours left in this session. Then maybe he could talk to Kyp and see if there was any new information about Jaina.
A glimmer of titian hair that almost didn't register in his pinkish world, made him take a closer look at the group of med personnel. During his last period out of bacta, Kyp had stopped by for few brief moments to tell him that Jaina was gone on a mission with Mara. If the Jedi Master was back, the surely she would have at least some information about Jaina. For one wild moment, Jag forgot the severity of him injuries and how blissful the bacta felt after hours of its absence. He wanted nothing more than to break free of the bacta tank and demand to know where Jaina was and if she okay.
The moment he had his answer, he wished he was still wondering. Even from his distance and through the unique tint of bacta, he could see how pale and unresponsive Jaina was. She had obviously been in a fight, he could tell that much. What he didn't know was who she had fought or how bad her injuries were. Jag was puzzled as he watched the healers moving around Jaina. He wasn't familiar with Jedi Healers or their practices like he was with normal medical personnel, but it certainly didn't look like she was being prepped for the bacta tank. Of course, that could be good news or bad. It could mean that her injuries weren't serious enough to warrant bacta or that her wounds were beyond the ability of bacta to heal. Not knowing, being forced to watch while he was helpless, was worse than already knowing the diagnosis for Jaina's injuries.
He watched in forced stillness as Jedi Healers attended to Jaina. He noticed, as he watched- even from his distance that the healers all wore worried expressions and although he couldn't hear what she was saying, he could see Mara talking to Cilghal. The Jedi master seemed almost as worried about her niece as she was protective about her son. She hadn't let Ben out of her arms the entire time- not that he had wanted to get down.
Only the fact that catching the attention of the medics would distract them from Jaina, kept Jag from banging impatiently on the side of his bacta tank and demanding to be let out. Being with Jaina, no matter what happened, had to be better than this.
============================================================================ ======
Hours later when Jag was finally pulled out of the bacta tank at the end of his rotation, he almost felt worse than when he was put in. Usually when he came out of a bacta dip, he felt much better than when he was put in. Today, he felt like he had gotten into a hand-to-hand fight with two dozen Yuuzhan Vong warriors, while having a rancor do a tap dance on his skull. Instead of four hours of rest and time spent in the bacta's healing properties, he had four hours of torture, restrained from Jaina for his own good.
"Colonel," he looked almost blankly at the med tech before nodding.
"Good," the man said tightly, "That was the fourth time I spoke to you. I was starting to think that you had an undiagnosed hearing injury." The man gestured sharply before Jag could reply, "This way, sir. We need to assess your condition befre we proceed."
Jag was barely focusing on the man, all he was seeing was where Jaina had been taken. He couldn't see her anymore, but he knew she had to be there. He would have noticed if she had been moved.
"Colonel," the man called again as Jaina moved away from him completely. He knew vaguely that he was still unsteady from his injuries, but totally focused on one person as he was, he didn't even notice. He was across the med bay quickly, only slowing down as he got closer to her. Jag stopped outside the door to the small room where Jaina was being treated. The small concession to privacy, Jag assumed was due to her status as Goddess. Even within the walls of Shelter the façade had to be maintained, although not so strictly.
He reached for the door and started to enter. In the next moment, he stopped abruptly cocking his head to the side in an unnecessary gesture. He heard voices inside, voices that weren't Jaina's, but were familiar nonetheless. For the first time in his rush to get to Jaina, he hesitated. He wanted to see Jaina- he needed to see her- but he didn't want to have to deal with her family or friends at the moment. Just a few private moments was all that he asked.
He started to turn away, but stumbled back as he came face to face with the med tech that he had ignored. This time the man's face showed more sympathy. It had replaced the hard all business attitude almost completely.
"Here," the man said more generously, "I didn't realize that you knew Jedi Solo." He palmed the door open before Jag could utter a half-hearted protest or explanation. Involuntarily, Jag's eyes immediately found Jaina.
"She.fine.a fight.Vong."
Jag was only registering a few of the man's words. He was too focused on Jaina. So focused, in fact, that it took him a moment to notice that Jaina was awake. At the brilliant smile on Jaina's face, he felt the corner's of his own mouth twitch into a small happy smile of relief. It was impossible to be anything but relieved now that he had seen her and reassured himself that she was okay.
It was a full minute later before he noticed the man standing next to her and then it was only because of the way that Jaina was caressing the man's face. Dismissing Jaina's unusual actions and his own flare of jealousy, it only took him a moment to place the man. He hadn't recognized him before then because the last time he had seen him, that man was being rushed in for medical treatment. It was the young Jedi who Jaina had been so worried about- Zekk.
Then without warning, the moment had changed irreversibly, and Jaina was kissing Zekk. He stood numb, but bombarded with a myriad of emotions. Every thought, every hope was cut off instantly, dieing a sudden and painful death. With as much certainty and determination as he had poured into getting to her side in first place, Jag turned sharply and walked away. Some would call it impulsive, others would note that it was very out of character for the precise, controlled young man. Jag didn't care. His family needed him. Jaina obviously didn't. It was incredibly simple and infinitely painful.
Please delurk and leave a review for this chapter to let me know what you think.