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!

Star Wars - Anakin Solo's Legacy

Chapter 5 - Elsewhere

Tahiri turned and glanced over her shoulder. "Ana-"

Zekk could see four expressions flash over her face in an instant. First incomprehension, then confusion, then realization, and finally sudden terror. Dropping Tesar, she spun and her face went pale. The desperate terror in her cry jerked everyone to a stop. "NO!"

He tried to grab her as she shot past him up the passage, but he missed. Ganner didn't, but all that earned him was a panic-driven Force push that would've flung him into the wall if Tenel Ka hadn't caught him. Zekk turned and gathered the Force around him, preparing to reach out and try to pull her back, but it wasn't needed.

As the ripple in the Force that was Anakin's death washed over them, Tahiri froze in mid step. Her anguished cry echoed down the tunnel, filled with bottomless pain and loss, as she collapsed.

####

Tahiri stood in a vast emptiness. The ground was formless and black, the sky a featureless grey. She didn't move. There was a familiar place behind her, but she didn't turn. She didn't want to go back there, there was too much pain. Besides, he wasn't there. She peered out into the distance. There was nothing for as far as she could see, but that didn't matter. Though her thoughts were shrouded in a dream-like haze, she knew he was out there somewhere.

She began to walk.

####

Zekk dropped to his knees beside Tahiri as the rest of the strikeforce clustered around. There didn't seem to be anything obvious wrong with her, other than the fact that she was out cold. Her deactivated lightsaber lay beside her where she'd dropped it. He stretched out with the force to lift her off the ground, and then grimaced as he heard a guttural shout. Tahiri had made it almost back to the cloning chamber, and now one of the vong there had just seen them. They were coming, at least fifty of them. Far too many to fight.

He backpedaled quickly into the body of the force, his mind frantically looking for some way out. There! He lowered Tahiri gently to the floor, and stretched out with his mind, focusing on the passage ceiling. A few rocks and some dust trickled down. The other Jedi realized what he was doing and added their efforts to his, and the tunnel ceiling between them and the oncoming warriors collapsed in a roar of dust and stone. They moved farther down the tunnel, and collapsed the roof again. They did this until they had a solid fifty meter stretch of passage filled behind them, and then they fled.

####

A small figure moved across an endless plain. The figure wore a rough brown robe, and shimmered slightly. There were no landmarks to show how far she had come or where she was going, yet she walked unerringly. Her face bore no expression, and her forehead bore no scars. Her green eyes had once sparkled with life, but now were quenched and still. Yet they held a glimmer of hope. She raised her head. There was a thin line across the horizon, and though the ground remained flat, it felt like she was walking downhill.

She quickened her pace.

####

As Zekk jogged down the tunnel, he kept casting glances at the young girl he was levitating and the healer riding on her chest. Tesar had awakened some time ago, but Tahiri remained unconscious despite all Tekli could do, and he was getting worried. Now Tekli suddenly gasped and leaned closer to Tahiri's face. "What is it?" asked Zekk, but she seemed not to hear. He noticed that Tahiri's breathing seemed shallower. "Jacen," he called out to the strike force's new leader.

The strike force came to a halt, and Jacen made his way back through the line of Jedi to Zekk. "What?" he asked. Zekk nodded at Tahiri. "She's breathing shallowly, and Tekli seemed startled by something." He turned to Tekli. "Tekli! What's wrong?"

The healer's voice was low and quiet, almost as if she was far away. "She's fading. Her spirit is leaving her body." Tekli started, as if waking from a reverie. "She's dying."

"What?" exclaimed Jacen. "She's not even hurt!"

"It is not her body that is wounded," replied Tekli. "It is her spirit. I think..." she paused, "I think she is trying to follow Anakin."

"Fas!" Jacen turned away. "We've gotta find a spot to stop, fast."

####

It was a wall. The land behind remained as featureless as ever, but beyond the barrier, it changed. The new land was as green and inviting as the old was bleak and forbidding, and it radiated a deep peace. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would find Anakin across the wall.

She turned and walked along it, looking for an entrance.

####

By the time they found the room, off a side road of the large thoroughfare the tunnel had ended at, Tahiri was gasping for every breath. Jacen could barely see her through the Force. "What can we do?" he asked Tekli.

"I do not know," Tekli said. "This is not an injury I can heal."

"Can we call to her?"

Tekli shrugged, looking uncharacteristically helpless. "I don't know if it will do any good."

"We can try," replied Jacen. He knelt beside Tahiri, and put his hand on her forehead. Calming his mind, he felt for her presence. "Tahiri," he called. No answer came. "Tahiri, come back," he tried again. Nothing.

"Perhaps if we all try," suggested Ganner, "we can reach her."

Jacen sat back. He reached out with his mind, touching everyone present. He felt their anger, grief, worry, sorrow, and hope. He took all the strands and wove them into the meld, and reached out with all their power. "Tahiri," he called, and he felt a flicker of response. "Tahiri, come back to us."

####

There was a gate in the wall. Beyond it lay peaceful green fields, and she was about to step through when the echo of a voice drifted across the waste behind her. She stopped. The whispering voice came again, and she slowly turned to look the way she'd come. There was nothing there. She began to turn back around, but then the voice came again, louder. "Tahiri," it called. She raised her eyes, and saw a tiny pinpoint of light on the horizon. "Tahiri, come back to us." A confused tangle of thoughts slowly tumbled through her mind, eventually unknotting into one word.

"Why?" What is there for me back there? Only pain. She turned, and the voice said something else behind her, but she didn't listen.

She stepped through the gate.

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Surprise, I'm still here! I think it's kinda fitting that I leave it here for my vacation, as it's a cliffhanger! laughs evilly Thank you all for your comments and reviews, and I will see you all in a couple of weeks!