Author's Note:
Pretty good, Falcona Skywolf (thanks for putting the pieces together in your review), though I'd ask you to watch your language, please. :) Nothing personal—I'm just the visual learner type who learns from words rather than pictures. Yeah. :)
Thank you, Princess-Kinky for your review, as well. I do intend to keep going. I read your Ben story—my problem is all my extended family is in another state, and my 'little brother' happens to be bigger than me (I'm 18 months older.) I'm working on spending more time with little ones, though… :)
WARNING: This chapter has a few things that might discomfit a few of you. I only wrote it because it seemed like a logical reaction on Tahiri's part, and the reasons are given. I think I managed it pretty tactfully; but there's some forewarning in the preceding dialogue, so if you want to be really safe you can skip from the bullets onward and wait for chapter seven, though you'll miss some amusing dialogue.
Chapter seven will come with the next review.
Enjoy! :)
Chapter Six
Staring at her grinning friend, Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila wondered—too late, as usual—if Eerin Bant was insane.
A familiar wave of the Force arose in her—familiar, yet not so. She couldn't recall what it was…
The Force power shoved from her outward, sending the droidekas clattering.
"Go!" Bant dove to the side, rolling—
A green lightsaber blade warmed her nose, deflecting some blaster bolts that had been about to get her. A face she only saw in nightmares appeared in front of her. "Tahiri!" he snapped.
"Anakin?"
"Later." The blade whirled in his hands as he sent more energy bolts back. Unfortunately, some of the droidekas had already recovered. "C'mon."
He Force-leapt to a stone bridge above. Dully, she followed.
The Force wave. They'd linked. But that meant—
"Ana—"
They were joined by a tan-skinned young woman, attractive with dark eyes and shoulder-length hair streaked with gray. Her face was too young and the streaks too regular for them to be anything but dyed. She held her yellow blade lightly, but readily. "Good idea."
"Thanks." Anakin checked over the side banister. "No way to fight through that. We'll have to go around." He pushed off the side, scrambling to the nearby building. He stopped, looking back at the woman. "What?"
She watched the scene intently. "Got that other lightsaber?"
Anakin deftly pulled the item from his pack. "Here."
The woman took it, checked its power supply, then threw it in the midst of a bunch of the spindly humanoid droids.
"Wh—"
It ignited, abruptly chopping a few's heads off as the rest flew into a nearby wall. The Mon Calamari wielder came into view. Bant looked at them.
Go.
"Bant!" Tahiri cried. "No!"
The Anakin look-alike grabbed her arm. "You heard her!"
"They won't kill her."
Tahiri tore away from the supposed Anakin, glaring at the woman. "How do you know?" she demanded.
"In Eerin Bant," the young woman replied coolly, "Chun has probable ensuing capture of all the people he and his Masters want most. That reason enough for you?"
Without waiting for Tahiri's verbal reply, she calmly scanned outside. "Good. Let's move."
"Tahiri, this is Barriss Offee." The Anakin Solo look-alike clapped the young woman's shoulder. "She's one of my grandfather's old friends."
"His only peer friend, actually." Barriss led them down the halls. "He came about a decade late to training and was a loner, so we weren't quite sure what to think of him. I didn't make friends with him until a decade later, when we were on the same mission."
A grin was on her face. "Ansion. Ask him about it, sometime." She stopped, giving Anakin a mean look. "No, ask him about when he performed to show the natives his inner self." The grin grew wider. "Or when Master Unduli didn't let him finish his watch."
Barriss continued onward, silent but for her voice. "He'll complain and protest, but it'll be worth the answer."
She pointed out a nearby window. Across the street was a hangar. "Go on. I've just got here from a furlough on Mon Calamari. Got plenty of energy to run on." She smiled kindly at Tahiri. "Eerin ranks me, dear. She'll be fine."
The Anakin nudged her, but Tahiri grabbed Barriss's arm. "Wait—if you guys're dead, how can you be alive?" she asked, looking mostly at the Anakin Solo. As much as her mind told her it wasn't him, she felt him, felt whole in the Force…
Barriss and Anakin exchanged a small smile. "We've debated that since we found ourselves working together. He was looking for you, I was after Master Eerin. Now he has you, and I still need Eerin. Good-bye."
"But—"
Tahiri found her protests halted when Anakin hauled her out the window. Even with the Force, they landed hard on his side, her back on his body.
She gasped, a bit winded. "Good job."
"Sorry."
She rolled off him and on her feet. Droids showed up as they darted into the hangar.
"Which ship?"
Wordlessly, Anakin nodded towards a piece of junk. Deflecting incoming blaster bolts, they headed up the ramp.
Tahiri smacked the door panel. She turned to Anakin. "Now what?"
He smiled tightly, jogging to the cockpit. She followed, sliding in the copilot's seat.
"I don't think anyone'll come after us, but you shoot if they do." Anakin waved at some controls.
He was right. Naboo's atmosphere was empty.
"His target was Eerin. You were extra." He stood as he sent the ship into hyperspace. "Next stop, Mon Calamari."
Tahiri stayed seated as he headed to the back. "Who are you?"
The young blond man stopped, looking at her with his earnest blue eyes. He dropped to his knees before her, pained face reminding her of her nightmare. "It's me, Tahiri," he said gently, pleadingly. "I'm back."
"That's impossible," she scoffed. "Anakin Solo's dead. I was at his funeral. I watched his body burn."
He glanced down. "I've wondered about that, myself. I don't know what's happened. I only know some Jedi and Sith are returning from the dead." His hand hovered over her arm. "Check the Force, Tahiri. You know it's me."
She squeezed her eyes tight. Yes, the Force told her he was Anakin, but…
She opened her eyes. "Strip."
He stared in surprise. "…What?"
Her green eyes narrowed at him. "Once Master Skywalker was tricked into thinking an actor was Kenobi by some Force-mimicking devices. Strip and throw your clothes in the cycler. I'm sure we can find an extra flight suit on this thing."
True to character, Anakin crimsoned from the shoulders up. "Uh, Tahiri?" he mumbled. "Can't I do that in another room?"
"No. You could hide something in your new clothes or swallow it, and I'd be none the wiser. Here."
He looked like he'd refuse.
"You want me to believe you're Anakin, don't you?"
"You already know who I am," he muttered, but sighed resignedly as he unfastened his jacket. "Fine."
Tahiri felt her own face redden. She hadn't expected him to accept. This guy was pretty desperate.
He was really desperate. Tahiri felt like
her whole body was blushing.
"Convinced?"
"You could've left your underwear."
"You said to strip."
"Sorry," the Jedi gritted. "I'll go find you something."
"Thanks." Anakin sat in the pilot's seat, legs crossed. "Could you hurry? This is kind of uncomfortable."
"Gladly." Out of the cockpit, Tahiri gulped air. If Jacen ever took that memory off of her, she'd kill him. Seeing Anakin naked was not her definition of a good memory.
Still, kissing him like that might be interesting…
Tahiri violently shook her head. How sick is that? And this is my best friend I'm thinking about, here!
Rummaging through a locker, Tahiri felt guilty. Valin. She'd sent him an apologetic annulment message after that nightmare, but he hadn't called her, since. How am I going to explain this to him?
"Who says I have to?" she asked herself aloud, finding something of pale gray fabric. She shook it out. Coveralls. Without bothering to refold them, she tucked them under her arm, heading for the cockpit.
She stopped outside, face away. Blindly opening the door, she stuck the garment in. Tahiri fought the perverse urge to look as Anakin took it from her.
"Thanks."
"You're cute."
She knew Anakin gave her a humored look. "Clothed or nude?" he teased.
She flushed again, but returned the jibing. "A hot Jedi hero like you? Nude, definitely."
Coveralls a little small, Anakin stepped into the hall. "Let's get lunch."
Tahiri couldn't look at Anakin as they headed to the mess. She feared she'd see something she shouldn't. Again.
Seated across from each other with some sort of stir fry, she saw Anakin's gaze slowly take her in. "I should make you strip, for that."
Her heart jumped, her neck and face heating. Tahiri gulped. "Uh, I don't think so."
His lips quirked as he shoveled a bite in his mouth. Slowly chewing it, he pushed his plate to the side. He took Tahiri's right hand in his left.
"It's been a long time."
She nodded, watching herself push her food about on her plate, occasionally nibbling.
"I know I lied to you, Tahiri, but I'm not sorry. I couldn't let you die with me."
"…I know," Tahiri whispered. "I used to think I left you, but I came to see…" She wiped her eye. "That's why I started seeing Valin. I knew you wouldn't want me to languish in negatude."
She stared up into his eyes. "You came back just in time, you know that? Another year, I would've been married to Valin."
Something passed through his eyes. "Why does that matter?"
Tahiri felt her chest tighten as her eyes widened. "I…" She looked at her plate. "I'm sorry," she half choked, angry at herself. "I—"
"Don't cry," he murmured, taking her head in his hand and wiping her tear with his thumb. "Yes, I love you, Tahiri. But I'm dead. Just because I've been brought back, I'm sought by Sith I've never heard of. Do you want to risk that?"
"I… We're stronger together, you know."
"I do. But what kind of guy does that to his girlfriend?" Anakin kissed her, keeping his face near hers. "If you decide you want to risk it, let me know. Don't answer now. Wait, see those still living…"
"No."
He shook his head. "Tahiri—"
"When we get to Mon Calamari, we're finding a holy man or something and marrying, then taking a honeymoon. I'm here. Your family can wait."
"Uh, no."
"Why?" she demanded.
Anakin was beet red. "Tahiri, I…" He tried again. "I'm impressed you were that, uh, taken by my, um—"
"C'mere." She grabbed his face in her hands, kissing him hard. "I'm not letting you take the easy way out, this time," she breathed fiercely.
"Huh?"
"You said it'd be easier if we didn't make it." She glared at him accusingly, only half playing, remember the agony of losing their opportunity in the bud. "We made it, started figuring it out, and you decided to get yourself killed."
Anakin's lips quirked. "My secret's known."
"Now," Tahiri asked him, "will we be Jedi's Solo or Jedi's Veila?"
"Veila?"
"Well, there are enough Jedi's Solo, don't you think?"
They began arguing.
Author's Note:
Well, what do you think of that reunion? (How he & Barriss get there so fast comes in two more chapters.)
Think I stuck with their behavior? (Yes, why Tahiri's acting like her old self will be coming… Eventually.)
Review, please.
Pretty good, Falcona Skywolf (thanks for putting the pieces together in your review), though I'd ask you to watch your language, please. :) Nothing personal—I'm just the visual learner type who learns from words rather than pictures. Yeah. :)
Thank you, Princess-Kinky for your review, as well. I do intend to keep going. I read your Ben story—my problem is all my extended family is in another state, and my 'little brother' happens to be bigger than me (I'm 18 months older.) I'm working on spending more time with little ones, though… :)
WARNING: This chapter has a few things that might discomfit a few of you. I only wrote it because it seemed like a logical reaction on Tahiri's part, and the reasons are given. I think I managed it pretty tactfully; but there's some forewarning in the preceding dialogue, so if you want to be really safe you can skip from the bullets onward and wait for chapter seven, though you'll miss some amusing dialogue.
Chapter seven will come with the next review.
Enjoy! :)
Chapter Six
Staring at her grinning friend, Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila wondered—too late, as usual—if Eerin Bant was insane.
A familiar wave of the Force arose in her—familiar, yet not so. She couldn't recall what it was…
The Force power shoved from her outward, sending the droidekas clattering.
"Go!" Bant dove to the side, rolling—
A green lightsaber blade warmed her nose, deflecting some blaster bolts that had been about to get her. A face she only saw in nightmares appeared in front of her. "Tahiri!" he snapped.
"Anakin?"
"Later." The blade whirled in his hands as he sent more energy bolts back. Unfortunately, some of the droidekas had already recovered. "C'mon."
He Force-leapt to a stone bridge above. Dully, she followed.
The Force wave. They'd linked. But that meant—
"Ana—"
They were joined by a tan-skinned young woman, attractive with dark eyes and shoulder-length hair streaked with gray. Her face was too young and the streaks too regular for them to be anything but dyed. She held her yellow blade lightly, but readily. "Good idea."
"Thanks." Anakin checked over the side banister. "No way to fight through that. We'll have to go around." He pushed off the side, scrambling to the nearby building. He stopped, looking back at the woman. "What?"
She watched the scene intently. "Got that other lightsaber?"
Anakin deftly pulled the item from his pack. "Here."
The woman took it, checked its power supply, then threw it in the midst of a bunch of the spindly humanoid droids.
"Wh—"
It ignited, abruptly chopping a few's heads off as the rest flew into a nearby wall. The Mon Calamari wielder came into view. Bant looked at them.
Go.
"Bant!" Tahiri cried. "No!"
The Anakin look-alike grabbed her arm. "You heard her!"
"They won't kill her."
Tahiri tore away from the supposed Anakin, glaring at the woman. "How do you know?" she demanded.
"In Eerin Bant," the young woman replied coolly, "Chun has probable ensuing capture of all the people he and his Masters want most. That reason enough for you?"
Without waiting for Tahiri's verbal reply, she calmly scanned outside. "Good. Let's move."
"Tahiri, this is Barriss Offee." The Anakin Solo look-alike clapped the young woman's shoulder. "She's one of my grandfather's old friends."
"His only peer friend, actually." Barriss led them down the halls. "He came about a decade late to training and was a loner, so we weren't quite sure what to think of him. I didn't make friends with him until a decade later, when we were on the same mission."
A grin was on her face. "Ansion. Ask him about it, sometime." She stopped, giving Anakin a mean look. "No, ask him about when he performed to show the natives his inner self." The grin grew wider. "Or when Master Unduli didn't let him finish his watch."
Barriss continued onward, silent but for her voice. "He'll complain and protest, but it'll be worth the answer."
She pointed out a nearby window. Across the street was a hangar. "Go on. I've just got here from a furlough on Mon Calamari. Got plenty of energy to run on." She smiled kindly at Tahiri. "Eerin ranks me, dear. She'll be fine."
The Anakin nudged her, but Tahiri grabbed Barriss's arm. "Wait—if you guys're dead, how can you be alive?" she asked, looking mostly at the Anakin Solo. As much as her mind told her it wasn't him, she felt him, felt whole in the Force…
Barriss and Anakin exchanged a small smile. "We've debated that since we found ourselves working together. He was looking for you, I was after Master Eerin. Now he has you, and I still need Eerin. Good-bye."
"But—"
Tahiri found her protests halted when Anakin hauled her out the window. Even with the Force, they landed hard on his side, her back on his body.
She gasped, a bit winded. "Good job."
"Sorry."
She rolled off him and on her feet. Droids showed up as they darted into the hangar.
"Which ship?"
Wordlessly, Anakin nodded towards a piece of junk. Deflecting incoming blaster bolts, they headed up the ramp.
Tahiri smacked the door panel. She turned to Anakin. "Now what?"
He smiled tightly, jogging to the cockpit. She followed, sliding in the copilot's seat.
"I don't think anyone'll come after us, but you shoot if they do." Anakin waved at some controls.
He was right. Naboo's atmosphere was empty.
"His target was Eerin. You were extra." He stood as he sent the ship into hyperspace. "Next stop, Mon Calamari."
Tahiri stayed seated as he headed to the back. "Who are you?"
The young blond man stopped, looking at her with his earnest blue eyes. He dropped to his knees before her, pained face reminding her of her nightmare. "It's me, Tahiri," he said gently, pleadingly. "I'm back."
"That's impossible," she scoffed. "Anakin Solo's dead. I was at his funeral. I watched his body burn."
He glanced down. "I've wondered about that, myself. I don't know what's happened. I only know some Jedi and Sith are returning from the dead." His hand hovered over her arm. "Check the Force, Tahiri. You know it's me."
She squeezed her eyes tight. Yes, the Force told her he was Anakin, but…
She opened her eyes. "Strip."
He stared in surprise. "…What?"
Her green eyes narrowed at him. "Once Master Skywalker was tricked into thinking an actor was Kenobi by some Force-mimicking devices. Strip and throw your clothes in the cycler. I'm sure we can find an extra flight suit on this thing."
True to character, Anakin crimsoned from the shoulders up. "Uh, Tahiri?" he mumbled. "Can't I do that in another room?"
"No. You could hide something in your new clothes or swallow it, and I'd be none the wiser. Here."
He looked like he'd refuse.
"You want me to believe you're Anakin, don't you?"
"You already know who I am," he muttered, but sighed resignedly as he unfastened his jacket. "Fine."
Tahiri felt her own face redden. She hadn't expected him to accept. This guy was pretty desperate.
• • •
"Convinced?"
"You could've left your underwear."
"You said to strip."
"Sorry," the Jedi gritted. "I'll go find you something."
"Thanks." Anakin sat in the pilot's seat, legs crossed. "Could you hurry? This is kind of uncomfortable."
"Gladly." Out of the cockpit, Tahiri gulped air. If Jacen ever took that memory off of her, she'd kill him. Seeing Anakin naked was not her definition of a good memory.
Still, kissing him like that might be interesting…
Tahiri violently shook her head. How sick is that? And this is my best friend I'm thinking about, here!
Rummaging through a locker, Tahiri felt guilty. Valin. She'd sent him an apologetic annulment message after that nightmare, but he hadn't called her, since. How am I going to explain this to him?
"Who says I have to?" she asked herself aloud, finding something of pale gray fabric. She shook it out. Coveralls. Without bothering to refold them, she tucked them under her arm, heading for the cockpit.
She stopped outside, face away. Blindly opening the door, she stuck the garment in. Tahiri fought the perverse urge to look as Anakin took it from her.
"Thanks."
"You're cute."
She knew Anakin gave her a humored look. "Clothed or nude?" he teased.
She flushed again, but returned the jibing. "A hot Jedi hero like you? Nude, definitely."
Coveralls a little small, Anakin stepped into the hall. "Let's get lunch."
Tahiri couldn't look at Anakin as they headed to the mess. She feared she'd see something she shouldn't. Again.
Seated across from each other with some sort of stir fry, she saw Anakin's gaze slowly take her in. "I should make you strip, for that."
Her heart jumped, her neck and face heating. Tahiri gulped. "Uh, I don't think so."
His lips quirked as he shoveled a bite in his mouth. Slowly chewing it, he pushed his plate to the side. He took Tahiri's right hand in his left.
"It's been a long time."
She nodded, watching herself push her food about on her plate, occasionally nibbling.
"I know I lied to you, Tahiri, but I'm not sorry. I couldn't let you die with me."
"…I know," Tahiri whispered. "I used to think I left you, but I came to see…" She wiped her eye. "That's why I started seeing Valin. I knew you wouldn't want me to languish in negatude."
She stared up into his eyes. "You came back just in time, you know that? Another year, I would've been married to Valin."
Something passed through his eyes. "Why does that matter?"
Tahiri felt her chest tighten as her eyes widened. "I…" She looked at her plate. "I'm sorry," she half choked, angry at herself. "I—"
"Don't cry," he murmured, taking her head in his hand and wiping her tear with his thumb. "Yes, I love you, Tahiri. But I'm dead. Just because I've been brought back, I'm sought by Sith I've never heard of. Do you want to risk that?"
"I… We're stronger together, you know."
"I do. But what kind of guy does that to his girlfriend?" Anakin kissed her, keeping his face near hers. "If you decide you want to risk it, let me know. Don't answer now. Wait, see those still living…"
"No."
He shook his head. "Tahiri—"
"When we get to Mon Calamari, we're finding a holy man or something and marrying, then taking a honeymoon. I'm here. Your family can wait."
"Uh, no."
"Why?" she demanded.
Anakin was beet red. "Tahiri, I…" He tried again. "I'm impressed you were that, uh, taken by my, um—"
"C'mere." She grabbed his face in her hands, kissing him hard. "I'm not letting you take the easy way out, this time," she breathed fiercely.
"Huh?"
"You said it'd be easier if we didn't make it." She glared at him accusingly, only half playing, remember the agony of losing their opportunity in the bud. "We made it, started figuring it out, and you decided to get yourself killed."
Anakin's lips quirked. "My secret's known."
"Now," Tahiri asked him, "will we be Jedi's Solo or Jedi's Veila?"
"Veila?"
"Well, there are enough Jedi's Solo, don't you think?"
They began arguing.
Author's Note:
Well, what do you think of that reunion? (How he & Barriss get there so fast comes in two more chapters.)
Think I stuck with their behavior? (Yes, why Tahiri's acting like her old self will be coming… Eventually.)
Review, please.