Disclaimer: I am not George Lucas, I am not making any money from this, and I do not own Star Wars, or any of these characters, although if he lets me use them I will return them in good condition, I promise! Or, well, as good a condition as his writers left them in, anyway! Lines and scenes in this chapter are taken from the book Star by Star, and no copyright infringement is intended.

MistiWhitesun, please don't apologize for asking questions. I thoroughly enjoy answering them. It makes me think more about what I've written, and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that someone cares enough about my story to ask questions about it! As for an outline, no, not really. I know where I generally want the story to go, but I don't have a plan like: ok, this happens in chapter 5, and then this happens in chapter 6, or anything like that.

Star Wars – Anakin Solo's Legacy

Chapter 4 - Myrkr, part 2

Eight blaster bolts streaked down the hill, through the thorn hedge, and into the four guards outside the cloning grashal. Six ricocheted off their armor, but two burned through, and two guards fell. The strike force was instantly up and running down the slope. They had lost three more Jedi since leaving the slave city - the Barabel sisters Bela and Krasov killed, and Raynar, wounded – but had finally reached the cloning center, where they hoped to find the voyxn queen. Even as Tahiri ran down the slope, the powerful crack of Alema's longblaster sniper rifle rang out, dropping one warrior. Concentrated blaster fire took out the other.

Anakin had started out next to her, but was no longer there. Looking over her shoulder, she saw him only halfway down the hill, obviously unable to keep pace. Tahiri turned and hurried back up the hill to his side. He had refused to say anything about his wound, but it was obviously getting worse. He was white faced and sweating, and his pain was evident even without the force. To Tahiri, through their link, it burned like a constant, low fire. Tahiri wished, not for the first time, that she could have persuaded him to stay at the light freighter they'd found for their escape along with Raynar and Lowie. But, then again, that would've probably been bad, seeing as that freighter was now gone, stolen by the dark Jedi they'd rescued, with Raynar still on board.

As Tahiri ran up, accompanied by Jaina and Tesar, Anakin tried to wave them away. "Go! I'll catch up."

"When Jawas swim!" replied Tahiri. It was obvious what kind of pain he was in.

"Anakin, you're in no condition," Jaina put in. "Go back to the equipment pit and locate Lowie. Maybe if you find a safe place to hole up and go into a healing trance-"

"Too late for that," Anakin said. "I'm seeing this through."

"Even if it means putting others at risk? If you're slow, you're a danger to us all. At least try a trance." Anakin paused for a moment, and Tahiri felt a sudden hope that he would reconsider. It was dashed a second later.

"I'm going."

Jaina looked away. "I thought so."

As the four proceeded the rest of the way down the hill, the rest of the strike force reached the hedge and began to push through. The branches of the hedge came alive, grasping at them, and they had to use their lightsabers to cut a path. Clear on the other side, they rushed towards the grashal wall, not stopping to help the others through the hedge. Speed was critical. While scoping out the area, Anakin had sensed a large group of Yuuzhan Vong waiting just a few hundred meters on the other side of the lab, presumably waiting to ambush the Jedi along the route they'd been expected to approach.

By the time they made it through the hedge, the other Jedi had already cut through the lab wall. Tenel Ka, Alema, and Zekk rode along with the block they'd cut out as Ganner levitated it inside. A withering hail of thud and razor bugs greeted them, and their lightsabers sprang into motion, cutting a whirling dance through the air as they blocked the projectiles. Zekk armed and threw three grenades, and their thunderous explosions reduced the storm of bugs to just a trickle. Zekk yelled, "Clear!"

The rest of the Jedi followed them into the grashal, but Anakin handed Tahiri Alema's longblaster and ordered her, along with the diminutive Chadra-fan healer, Tekli, to cover the entrance. Tahiri nodded and watched him walk inside. Stagger inside, more like. Darn it, what did he think he was doing? The roar of combat erupted behind her as she turned to watch the way they'd come, and she did her best to ignore it, just as she tried to block out the distracting emotions swirling through the battle meld. Less easy to ignore was her connection to Anakin. She could feel his pain as he went into combat, feel his aching tiredness and how deeply he had to draw on the Force to stay upright. She was deathly afraid for him. There was only so long the Force could hold off such an injury if one could not stop and heal, and she was afraid he was pushing that limit. The impact of a blow rang through the meld, and someone fell unconscious. Tekli slipped from her side and entered the grashal as incendiary grenades crackled, but Tahiri barely noticed as Anakin's control slipped for a moment and pain roared through them.

She sank back against the wall, eyes closed, and strove to fight it off. It was like trying to dam a river with her bare hands, but she slowly managed it, and then the pain eased as Anakin regained his control. She opened her eyes. Movement near the tunnel the strike force had come from attracted her attention, and she dropped to the ground while bringing up the rifle. She watched though the scope as a small squad of Yuuzhan Vong exited the tunnel, with four strange beasts trundling along behind them. They were low-slung four legged creatures, and had very large mouths with no visible teeth. She frowned in thought, and a memory that she knew wasn't hers swam up from the depths of her mind. They were Meqhin Dval, magma spitters, artillery creatures designed to spit explosive balls of molten rock a considerable distance on either an arcing or flat trajectory. If they got set up, no one would be leaving by this exit. She took careful aim.

Her first shot took one of the Yuuzhan Vong on his chestplate, burning through and dropping him to the ground. Her second shot glanced off as her target dove for cover, but her third vaporized the throat of her next target. All the warriors were crouching now, covered by the crest of the hill, so she took aim at one of the artillery creatures. Her shot was true, but reflected off the beast's armored scales. The thing had more intelligence than she gave it credit for, and turned to face her. Muscles in its chest rippled powerfully, and she jumped to her feet and dashed into the grashal. A ball of flame followed her inside, and hit the block they'd cut out of the wall. The explosion picked her up and sent her flying, but she used the force to cushion her landing and was up immediately. She spotted Anakin not ten steps away and shouted to him, "Magma spitters! We're cut off."

He didn't bother to look. "Tekli?"

Tahiri pointed off to the side, where the healer was attempting to awaken Tesar.

"Take him...and go." She could feel his pain as he spoke. Anakin pointed towards the others. "You may need to cut a way out."

"'You'?" He was not going to die. He was coming too, dang it! "I'm not going-"

"Do it!" he snapped. Her face fell, and he spoke softer. "You need...to help Tekli. I'll be along."

"Yes, Tahiri," Tekli said. "Tesar is not responding. I cannot move him and work on him both."

He was lying, she thought dimly. He didn't believe he'd make it. She wanted with all her heart to stay with him, to make sure he came back, but he was right. Tekli needed her help. Tears blurred her vision, and she stretched to kiss him, then stopped. "No-for that, you have to come back."

His lopsided smile broke her heart. "Soon, then."

"Soon," she repeated. "May the force be with you," she added quietly. You're going to need it.

Furiously blinking back tears, she turned to where Tesar lay. She stretched out her hand and tried to lift him off the ground, but she lost her concentration and he didn't move. Her connection to Anakin was stronger than ever, his feelings, sensations and emotions crowding through her mind, driving out all else. She closed her eyes, and with tears running down her cheeks tried to concentrate, but their pain, mental, emotional, and physical, was too strong to be ignored. She had to close herself off from it. It felt like cutting off a piece of herself, but she had to do it, and soon she had their link closed down to the point where she could only sense his presence, not his feelings. She levitated Tesar off the floor, and with Tekli riding on his chest set off towards the others.

The grashal was shaped vaguely like a triangle, with the Jedi's makeshift entrance near the east corner, the voxyn pen area, where they could sense the voxyn queen, at the south corner, and a large door on the west wall. The Jedi were advancing down the east wall towards the pen area, but most of the remaining Yuuzhan Vong were solidly entrenched in cover behind planting bins between them and their target. Tahiri went for the rest of the force, but behind her she could feel Anakin heading towards the main entrance, and she wondered what he was doing.

She had no business in hand to hand combat, not with half of her attention on levitating Tesar, so as she reached the rest of the group she slung the longblaster on her back and pulled out her blaster carbine. A bug came for her, and she shot it from the air before turning to face the warrior who'd thrown it at her. His cover saved him, as her shot burned into the bin he was hiding behind. She took another couple of shots at various warriors, but their cover was proving damnably effective. A volley of bugs forced most of the team to take cover behind bins. Tahiri leaned out from her cover and held down the trigger, walking her fire back and forth across the Yuuzhan Vong position. She was rewarded as one bolt streaked through a gap in the bins, taking a warrior in the throat and dropping him, but there were more, and they couldn't afford to be delayed.

Anakin's voice crackled across her comlink. "Imposter!" he warned. "Trying for pens." Tahiri turned to see him over by the main door, being forced into cover by a tall Yuuzhan Vong in a masquer. He wore a jumpsuit and was armed with a blaster rifle, and set off towards the voxyn pen at a sprint. Tahiri raised her blaster and fired, but the imposter ducked behind a row of planting bins and she missed. He vanished behind the Yuuzhan Vong line. Suddenly she could feel the Voxyn queen moving down and away.

"Hutt breath!" cursed Jaina. "She's escaping!"

Anakin's voice came over the comlink. "The imposter must have opened an escape tunnel." Tahiri dove to the floor to avoid a thud bug. "...after her," Anakin finished.

"Can't get there, Little Brother," said Jaina.

"The path will clear."

A couple of seconds passed, and then the Yuuzhan Vong line wavered as blaster bolts started to pepper them from the side. Anakin had worked his way around, and although the angle was bad enough to keep his attack from being more than a distraction, by the time the warriors realized this the strike force had buried them in an avalanche of Jedi. An explosion sounded somewhere behind Tahiri, and she glanced over her shoulder to see the main door melted and Yuuzhan Vong warriors pouring in. "Go!" someone shouted, and the strike force took off, pursuing the voxyn down a small tunnel. Tahiri could feel Anakin right behind her, and the rest of the strike force was in front as they ran down the passage. She turned her head to look over her shoulder and began, "Ana-"

That was odd. Where was he? His force presence had been so strong, she'd assumed he was right-

She whirled, stretching out to their link. Tesar thudded to the ground behind her, but she didn't notice. Her eyes went wide as she sensed the vast storm of the Force raging in the chamber they'd just left. She could sense Anakin's presence at its heart, and he was fading. Fast.

"NO!" She tore off back up the passage, and someone tried to grab her arm. She threw whoever it was off, and when they tried to grab her again, she turned and hit him -Ganner- with a force blast that threw him five meters. She flew up the passage, desperately trying to outrace death itself, but she was too late. The force tempest died out, and a single word came over their link.

Goodbye.

An ebon knife slashed apart her link to Anakin, and she heard herself cry out as the world went black.

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And here it is. I'm going on vacation in a week or so, and I might or might not be able to write another chapter before then. Vacation will be about two weeks, and I probably won't have computer access.

Even if I'm not going to be here to read them, reviews will still be greatly appreciated!