Chapter Four

Jaina Solo stood on the green plains of world not marked by harsh unnatural structures, but instead of calming her, the soothing view only seemed to send a rolling wave of dissent through her. She glanced right and left, out across the rolling plains. She glanced back and suddenly there was Anakin standing silently before her.

His icy blue eyes glittered with harsh accusation as he stared at her. "You failed me, Jaina, and he killed me. Will you fail me again?" Anakin's gaze burned into her and then slid past her, focusing on something behind her.

Jaina followed his gaze and turned. Leia stood there before her, a blaster holstered on her right hip and her lightsaber dangling from a belt over her left hip, and stared at her with an expression of shock.

"Jaina?" Leia asked, disbelief and wonderment warring in her voice. Before Jaina could move or think, she was suddenly hurtled onto the ground, her lower back erupting into pain.

Leia was screaming and there was blood. Jaina could feel it trickling down her sides. The blood was her own. She reached her arm back behind her with surreal calm, and found the amphistaff that had hit her like a spear. Then her world changed in an instant, doubling her disorientation.

Jaina Solo jerked to a sitting position, looking around wildly. Even from a sitting position, she collapsed onto the ground in front of her, pain splintering through every part of her body.

Vergere crouched oddly behind her, one of her hands resting on Jaina's lower back. "Examine this lesson carefully, little one. Pain comes in all forms, from within and without. You must learn to accept what the pain can teach you. For every person it is a unique lesson, if truly learned. Only once you have begun to understand what pain has to teach you, can you learn about death." She rose and let a clawed finger brush over the top of Jaina's head, almost in a gesture of tenderness. "Learn quickly, little one. Your destiny awaits you impatiently."

Han Solo lay in the bed he was sharing with his wife. He could feel Leia laying next to him in the bed. Her presence was comforting to him even as his own personal demons kept him from relaxing into a dreamless sleep. He resisted the urge to toss and turn, knowing that it would disturb Leia. This was the first night that she'd had a chance to really sleep. She had spent the past several nights in a steadfast attendance at Jacen's bedside.

Leia groaned in her sleep and Han tensed beside her. She groaned again this time sounding more distressed. Han rolled over on his side towards her and caught her hand in his, holding it reassuringly. He gently stroked her forehead with his other hand. "It's okay, Leia."

He continued to hold her and tried to soothe her. For a moment she seemed to calm and Han thought that it had worked. Then she jerked up out of his embrace and a scream tore from her throat. "Jaina!"

Jacen Solo paused at the exit to the Hapan medical facilities. It was late at night and the halls of the palace were deserted. He glanced around the corridor but saw nothing that could help guide him to his destination. He had been brought to the medcenter unconscious and now had no idea how to reach the quarters where his parents were staying.

Jacen grimaced, and considered for a moment heading back to the medcenter or commming his parents, but discarded both ideas. He'd had more than enough of the medcenter in the last few days and he was reluctant to comm. his parents. They were likely already sleeping and besides, Jacen wasn't sure if he could handle seeing that same heartbreaking look in his mother's eyes again.

So Jacen just walked, letting his feet carry him through the palace as they would. He finally stopped to take in his surroundings when he found himself outside the palace walking in the midst of a water garden.

The gardens looked so eerily still and were thick with silence. They seemed so unbearably empty. Jacen looked slowly down into the water and in the moonlight saw nothingness reflected back to him in his own eyes. Without Jaina and Anakin, he was nothing, no one. Slowly he reached his mind out into the water garden, feeling the flow of the Force there and realizing the fallacy of the garden's apparent emptiness. There was so much more there below the surface.

Then with a swift surge, Jacen sent his mind rapidly outward, searching for some connection that would show him that the galaxy's emptiness for him was just a fallacy like the water gardens. There was nothing. Nothing answered his desperate probing search. Nothing could. Jaina and Anakin were both gone.

"Jacen?" Tenel Ka's voice broke the thick silence.

Tenel Ka took a step forward and then she hesitated. It surprised Jacen more than he thought he could be surprised anymore. She opened her mouth to speak, clearly choosing her words carefully.

"I felt y-" She shook her head in aggravation and started again. "When were you released from the medcenter?"

Jacen shrugged. He had no idea how long he had been walking or how long he had been standing there.

Tenel Ka nodded as if he had truly answered her question. Neither one of them spoke again. Tenel Ka glided slowly down towards him, her boots making no noise as they touched the ground.

Jacen had to turn, putting his back to the water garden as Tenel Ka settled onto a seat on a small stone bench. He stood, watching her for a moment, staring at her openly and with the same numbness that had been his companion all night. But this was different. Something seemed to be drawing him towards her and he couldn't resist. Slowly he took several steps forward and then dropped onto the bench beside her.

They sat together for a moment, at a loss for words, and then Tenel Ka slowly reached up and brushed his cheek with the back of her fingers in a tender gesture. "Dear Jacen, I wish I could take all of your pain away."

He didn't know how to reply. He couldn't answer her, but he was still being drawn towards her. Jacen leaned slower to her without realizing it. Tenel Ka remained where she was as he leaned closer.

"Jacen?" She made his name into a soft question. They were so close that she could feel her lips brush against his as she spoke.

He didn't answer her question and he didn't increase the distance between them. Just as their lips were about to touch, Jacen jerked back, and screamed, "Mom!"