I shut down my saber and wished Jysella was there to hold me. I needed her presence, her warmth. I craved it. It was when I was sitting there, crying over my dead cousin, who I had just killed, that I realized that once more Tahiri had been right.
She had been right about everything.
I curled up in a ball, there on the floor of the morgue and cried. I cried until I had no more tears.
Finally done with my tears; I sat up and turned towards my parents.
I looked at my parents, who were standing in the same spot they had been in since I tossed the Ooglith Masquer at them. Neither losing an arm, nor Jacen's death had any effect on them. I closed my eyes as I remembered the things Jacen said, about the Krath and about the mind control. I thought about what little Jacen had taught me about the Krath.
I searched the Force, throwing all my power into the attempts to break them from whatever held them. I wanted my parents back, I needed them. Yet I did not want to do what I knew it would take to get them back.
Finally I came to the realization that there was only the one choice if I wanted to get my parents back. Jacen's abilities and powers had far surpassed mine. He had spent years studying arcane Force lore. I even remembered how he had used his abilities to fix a destiny for Aunt Leia.
He had used those skills, what he had learned from those texts on the Krath, to basically turn them into living statues.
I was crying once more, as I placed my hands on each of their foreheads and stretched out with the Force. I probed their bodies, found how they interacted with the Force, how it helped, how it hurt, how it obeyed and how it controlled.
Then armed with that knowledge about them, the Force and the relationship between each of them and the Force, I began the task of retrieving my parents.
As the tears started rolling down my face once more, I ripped those connections away.
I sundered them from that great wellspring of existence.
I stripped them of the Force.
They both gasped and fell to the floor unconscious.
I called some healers to take care of my parents, and then went to sit in the bacta area and watch Jysella as she once again floated in one of the tanks. My thoughts dark. My guilt heavy. My heart nearly broken.
I stayed there for the six days that Jysella remained in the bacta, and when she was moved to her room, I followed.
As soon as the orderlies had left, I kissed her and hugged her tight. I placed my hand on her cheek. "I was so worried."
She gave me that slight smile, and leaned back to go to sleep.
As she slept, she tossed and turned, once more wracked by nightmares. So staying true to my earlier decisions on these things, I climbed into bed and wrapped her in my arms. I kissed the top of the head, and as I held her, her dreams seemed to subside. She twisted around and cuddled closer to me, and I felt my tears as they once again fell, as I drew warmth and comfort from the simple embrace.
While I lay there holding Jysella and she me, my thoughts drifted back to what had happened six days before. I thought about how I had killed Jacen and then stripped my parents of the Force. I wondered how the Order would be able to survive now that my dad no longer had access to the Force. I wondered if there was anyway they would be able to access it again. I wondered if my feelings of guilt and shame would ever leave.
Ultimately, I wondered if they would ever forgive me.
Finally I slept.
I awoke feeling groggy and as if someone had been pounding on my head all night. My back was slightly sore from sleeping in a chair. I opened my eyes and looked towards the bed to see Jysella and noticed that she was gone. In her place were some bits and pieces of a lightsaber.
Then I remembered that I had fallen asleep on the bed holding Jysella.
I glanced at the chrono and horror sunk in with the realization that I had been asleep for nearly thirty hours.
I said more than one of those Correllian words here. In fact it was a string of them that would have made Uncle Han proud and Dad blush.
I searched for Jysella through the Force, but had a hard time picking up on exactly where she was.
And then I felt her. She was being hurt, tortured. Our Force bond transmitted to me every pain, all her fears, and ultimately her rage.
Her feelings of despair and abandonment crushed me.
I could feel it around me, covering me. I tried to help Jysella, I sent her comfort and reassurance, but all I received in return was pain and fear. Her feelings were a cold blanket that was suffocating me.
I felt the Dark Side then, offering me the chance to save her. The Dark Side knew where she was, and I could stop her pain, ease her fears.
I pushed the voice that was offering me this out of my mind and focused on our Force bond. I saw it, a golden string which connected us.
I followed that string.
Night fell, but still I ran on, ignoring everything but the fact that I had to get to Jysella. I could barely feel her now, and this caused my worry to grow even greater.
I ran into the woods, always that string before me. As I ran, I noticed that the string started changing, it got darker, going from that golden light, to more of a dull bronze.
I feared what this might mean, yet still I ran on.
Near midnight, I finally stopped for the night and slept, awakening at dawn, to once more follow the string.
As it neared noon, I cursed my own recklessness, and thought I should have grabbed a speeder bike for this.
Finally I burst into a clearing, and within it sat a blood red Imperial shuttle craft, along with five stormtroopers wearing armor with the same red coloring.
As one, they swung their carbines towards me and began firing.
Yes, it was time for another of those Correllian words, as I dodged and ignited my saber to bat a few of the bolts back towards the troopers.
Then one of them threw a flash grenade at my feet, I turned and jumped back into the woods as it went off.
I was still dazed from the flash but from where I lay, I could feel the tremble in the ground indicating that the shuttle had launched.
I stood up; everything I saw was bleached white, there was a ringing in my ears making me effectively deaf. I could feel the frustration and rage as I could only stand there and watch the shuttle as it flew away.
In my mind, I could hear Lumiya's laughter.
I turned around and began my long walk back to the Jedi Temple.
Back to the Pulsar Skate.
There was nothing that was going to keep me away from her.