Part 33: Family Reunion
Several Jedi, all Masters, stood before the remains of a large, bulky ship and examined their surroundings, both with their eyes and the Force.
"She's here." Jacen muttered as he reached into the Force and found his first child after following a convoluted, clogged path. He touched the Hapan, but the response was at a minimum, indicating that the girl was still alive but either asleep or not willing to talk. As he retracted his overstretched probe, the Jedi Master felt six presences he had not felt since around the time Sil was born. Perhaps the time extended even longer, since he and Zekk left for the Unknown Regions months before then.
The other Jedi chosen to take the planet from the surface chatted as they prepared to complete their task, but Jacen remained oblivious to the chatter until one person asked. "The Hapan kid?"
"And every other Jedi to visit this planet after it was taken." Jacen replied. He could sense the others question his seriousness and with a mere, unconscious thought, he silenced the suspicion. Such was one of the many side effects of initiating and holding too many battle melds.
"I feel… Emperor's black bones!" One Jedi swore as he reached into the Force and felt the same people Jacen had sensed. "They are all in that monster of a castle, aren't they?"
"Yes." Jacen replied as he led the way to the citadel and tried not to think about the changes that occurred in the beautiful and yet ugly landscape since his last visit. The planet was once and could never again be the cold, busy place he called home. In its place was an unnatural, thick carpet of flora that only Tahiri could describe as a divine piece of artwork.
The hatred aroused freshly in Jacen's veins, as if he was once again following Vergere's silent tour, but the Jedi Master refused to allow emotion to dominate. There was no dark side, but there was also no need to end innocent lives. His goal was to pick up a child before she could cause or find herself in trouble and to defeat the Supreme Overlord, a mission, which accomplished, will most likely send the scarheads packing.
"Great Jeedai!" One Yuuzhan Vong waved her amphistaff in the air when the Jedi reached the citadel. "Have we prepared adequately for your arrival, divine ones?"
Jacen gasped at the horrific scene before him. Body piled upon bloody body and limbs were everywhere before they were all pushed to the sides to 'make way for the Jeedai gods'. So far, after fifteen years, those Yuuzhan Vong still had yet to learn their lesson in fanaticism.
"I am Taan, priestess of Hun Harla, selected by her student and visited by Yun Neshel." The female, obviously a Shamed One, dropped her amphistaff and bowed before the group of Jedi.
"What's this about my student?" Asked Jaina as she appeared at the scene at Jacen's side. A sideways glance at a Chiss ship attacking from a rather low altitude told him all he needed to know about how his twin arrived on the surface.
"She appointed me to be one of the honored leaders in our holy war." The Yuuzhan Vong woman replied.
"You don't mean…" Jaina was interrupted before she could finish her sentence.
"Jaina? Is this you?" Asked an old man around the age of sixty as he emerged from the murky depths of the citadel. His skin was pale and slightly wrinkled, but the lightsaber at his side and the glimmer in the eyes said that he was far from a sickly, old man. The hair was either a dark blonde or a light shade of brown, but it was hard to tell when he was both wet and in the dark. The man was short and his Jedi clothes hung loosely on his medium-sized frame.
None of the Jedi were surprised that Jaina was the first to be recognized, for the only changes her appearance had gone through in the last two decades were simple haircuts and a few wrinkles.
Jaina opened her mouth to call the newcomer 'old man', but she stopped when she recognized him. Both twins would have rushed to hug the man if there had been no Yuuzhan Vong between them.
"Yun Yuuzhan, have you pre-ordained this divine reunion of domain and gods?" Asked the Yuuzhan Vong male, apparently an old warrior, at the old man's side.
"Yun Yuuzhan? That's a new one." Commented a woman's voice.
"Our apologies for the lack of respect. We are not worthy to behold such a reunion." Taan dropped to her palms and the remainder of the Yuuzhan Vong soon followed suit.
"Get up, Taan." Tahiri ordered simply.
"Please, great gods of war, shaping, creation, and trickery, do not be angry with us." Taan begged as she pushed herself to her feet. "Yun Harla's chosen student told us the only one truly deserving of your wrath is Shimrra."
"What is going on here? First, some kid tells us all we're fourteen years in the future and then a bunch of scarheads start worshipping us." Demanded the hidden woman.
"What does this person look like?" Jacen asked as he brushed aside his shaggy, brown curls, somewhat revealing his facial features. Perhaps Sil had encountered old family members?
"Jacen? You're here, too? And Tahiri!" The old man asked upon recognizing the younger Jedi Master and then matched the bare feet, the only recognizable features of Tahiri, with their owner. "An apprentice with two lightsabers like I've never seen before told us you're retaking Coruscant. He's a little taller than you, Jacen."
Jacen's spirits sank with the description, for there was no way Sil could match such a description.
"That would be your cousin, great twins. Hul Rapuung says he saw him leave." Answered Taan.
"Our cousin, as in Ben?" Asked Jaina.
"Yes." Replied the heavyset, aging Yuuzhan Vong at the old man's side. He then stepped forward and revealed his identity as the warrior Taan had named. "He entered with your daughter."
"And he was alone when you saw him?" Jacen asked, turning to the old man at the Yuuzhan Vong's side. The list of people to collect was growing longer and longer, and Jacen was glad that he was not helping Jaina gather the kids in Tahiri's clan, plus Jaina's children and Sil, from a multi-level, Hapan mall like he was forced to four years ago. It had taken two entire days to load all twenty-some kids into the Rock Dragon.
"Yeah, he was the only one we saw." The mysterious woman stepped forward slightly, putting the lower half of her body in the dimmest of lights.
"But I felt someone else. I couldn't get a good feel of her, but she feels somewhat like you, Jacen." The old man said.
"That's Sil. Where is she?" Jacen demanded.
Before the old man could answer, a sissing in the background caught everyone's attention. In the recesses of the citadel's entrance stood the outlines of four figures. "We found Shimrra. Let us tear him down."
"I'm going after Ben. Just what is that kid doing here?" The voice of the hidden woman recovered after some time and the twins suddenly recognized the speaker. Before anyone could reply, there was a whir of black, red, and blue and then a pure, eerie silence.