Chapter 2: Blazing Past

She was on fire. Every inch of her burned, but she remained unharmed. It was consuming her but not. How can the flame do this? It is their nature to consume all and leave nothing. Then it hit her. The flames were only consuming the package that she called her body. So the fire raged around her, consuming what she had been.

NO! She raged at it as it attempted to encroach on what she knew. You can take the wrappings but not the gift inside. Her furor made the blaze stop. She got the impression that it blinked at her momentarily and nodded it acceptance of her decree.

It backed off. Allowing her to see what it had been trying to hide form her.

~Smoke and fire ravaged everything. The jungle had been dieing for several years now. Her old apprentice had done her job too well. In a last act of revenge on the people here, Icara had ignited the second sun that hung in the sky. The resulting rise in temperature had taken roughly ten years to do its job of evaporating the once vast ocean that had covered the planet. The oceans had grown smaller while the deserts had become vaster eventually enveloping the entire sphere. The once breathtaking beauty of Tatooine shattered forever by a single spark from a campfire.~

Tears streaked down her face as the fire once more blocked her view. No matter how much this hurts I will overcome. Pain is nothing. That is what I learned from that tragedy. It relented once more.

~Smoke surrounded her. Flames guttered here and there. She was feeling lost, bereft. As if there had been more than just her family torn from her in the explosion. The feeling turned quickly to anger and hate for the person that had caused this tragedy. Her best friend and greatest rival J'bron T'nil. He had planted a bomb meant to kill her for taking his place on the Grav-ball team.

The rage reached boiling and he flew back against the railing. He barely managed to grab a hold of the railing. She saw this and imagined his fingers peeling off the rail slowly and so they did. Just as the last peeled from the metal bar she heard a yell. "NO!" She turned to see one of the rarely seen Jedi. His look of sorrow and reproach caused her to shudder. But then his gaze lightened as he saw her genuine disgust for herself. "At least you understand wheat you did was wrong. Now come with me, we will see that you are properly trained."~

The flames seemed to cradle her now. Giving her a brief reprieve from intense searing pain. Heralding a gentling of the memories that flowed through her mind. The years spent with a guiding hand. The love and acceptance of her fellow Jedi. The bittersweet time spent with her soul's mate. All of this and many other memories assailed her in the time she spent healing in the bacta.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jan looked on in mute fascination. The techs said they had never seen anything like this before. It appeared that the girl was fighting the treatment. "If this keeps up much longer, we'll run out of bacta. And you already owe me enough for even letting you stop here Ors." Came a gruff male voice.

"I know Garm. But you were the closest person I could think of with a supply to make an attempt." She looked to the old General, "Besides you needed someone to do a supply run for you anyways."

"Then it's a good thing that you were already done with it when this problem arised isn't it?"

She smiled. "I guess it is. We might as well get her out of there. I know enough to keep her from harm until her wounds heal." Her grin became wider, "We wouldn't want to have me go out on another run for you so soon. It wouldn't look good."