Chapter 9: I Fear Something Terrible has Happened.
"Apprentice Skywalker, are you alright?" asked Sarné, one of the Queen's handmaidens, a slightly younger woman than the Queen but looked so much like her Highness that they could have easily been sisters, concern dripping from her voice.
Ben blinked the sting of tears from his eyes and choked down the nausea that still clung to him like swamp muck to boots. "Fine," he answered weakly, feeling the farthest from the word that anyone possibly could. The echo of Anakin's pain still battered against his sand-blasted mind, and belatedly Ben built his shields around his scarred psyche.
By the pinch of her large eyes, he could tell that she did not believe him, and knew he was lying, but the Handmaiden to the Queen had been well trained, and was wise enough not to question him about matters she could not understand. Still, there was a motherly air to the woman, and Ben was thankful that she repressed whatever natural instinct was sweeping over her.
"I think we've found your R2 unit, Apprentice Skywalker," Sarné said, purposefully averting her eyes as Ben struggled to gain control over his body. The pain of the Yuuzhan Vong still stung through the Force, but Ben had managed to keep the images of their deaths from darkening his vision.
"Please take me to him," Ben said.
The petite woman led him down the corridors. Her strides were slow for his sake, Ben was sure, but he was thankful for that. He felt drained, as though he had been working his body for hours instead of just waking up at Naboo's dawn. It seemed impossible that he had woken to the warmth of Naboo's primary sunning him through the crystalline window, compared to the cold he felt now in the wake of the disturbance in the Force. The cold was penetrating, unlike anything he had ever felt before, but just as Luke had described to him during their training together.
As he had uncountable times since Bellalt, Ben pushed the pain he still harbored at his father's death aside. It was a pain he was well accustomed to, a pain that never quite disappeared from his heart. His first encounter with it was when he saw his mother's death. Of course, he had seen it previously in a vision, but the reality was much more vivid, less obscured by the dream eye.
They had found Artoo next to the statue of Ben's grandfathers and Master Jinn, his red sensory eye scanning the statue, a hum emanating from Artoo that made Ben think of someone attempting to discover the origin of déjà vu. Ben stepped next to the droid that had belonged to his father, resting a shaking hand on the droid's chrome dome.
"You know them, don't you?" Ben asked, analyzing the features of the family. "Like you know Naboo and yet don't."
The droid beeped an affirmative that Ben could understand all too well. Naboo was familiar in a maddening way, and the familiarity set to calm his mind. Yet, he could not stay.
The Force was releasing him from Naboo for the time, although he was sure he would return soon enough. With Anakin practically breathing down his neck, he couldn't waste time looking for imaginary signs of peace even from his enshrined forefathers.
Bowing before the handmaiden, Ben forced his attention to the older woman. "Please relay my thanks to Her Highness. But I'm afraid I must cut my visit to Naboo short."
The overhead ambient light shimmered in Sarné's auburn hair. "Her Highness expected as much, and wishes you a safe journey. She also hoped that you would return to Naboo at a more convenient time."
"Tell Queen Pernillia that it would be my honor to return," Ben said, feeling true to his words for the first time.
With the niceties exchanged, the Handmaiden left without further preamble, her amber shifting orange of her robes flowing behind her. Ben watched her only for a while before he returned his attention to the droid that could be so irritating, and yet Ben couldn't help but feel thankful for the droid's presence, even with Artoo's antics.
"Come on, Artoo," Ben said, waving a hand towards the palace docking bay. "We've got to get out of here before Anakin learns of our location." He eyed the droid. "But that's what you had in mind all along, isn't it?"
The droid twittled indignantly at his new owner, his dome top spinning in the droid equivalent of a denying shake of the head. "Don't act innocent with me," Ben said with a trace of the exasperation he had been holding in tight. "Now let's go."
Artoo trundled in front of him with the air of a child caught with his hand in the cookie receptacle, petulant, and Ben was sure he heard an electronic raspberry emanate from his R2 unit. "I wish I could explain this to you Artoo, but I don't even understand it myself," Ben said, feeling bad for dragging the droid all over the galaxy without so much as an explanation. Visions of the future - they were meant for great heros like his parents, aunt, and uncle, not for a boy who would come to darkness.
His only hope was to avoid those whom he would bring the greatest damage to. The darkness was already rising, he could feel it in the shockwaves in the Force, the many rents caused by the violent deaths of the Yuuzhan Vong that very few could sense in the Force. It took all he had not to take his X-wing and investigate all those deaths, to try to stop them further, but in doing so would he only propagate his own darkness, the turn that was as inevitable as his parents' deaths?
The droid twittered a question.
"We're going to visit an old friend," Ben answered. "He'll keep my location a secret."
[hr][/hr]
Anakin didn't see the deaths of the Yuuzhan Vong, but they ripped through his mind with such intensity that he might as well have. Beside him, Analsa and Dorsca Cherrz shuddered under the impact as well. As if from a far-off distance, Anakin could feel Ben's reaction to the disturbance in the Force, the full impact it had on his young cousin. Ben had never felt such a disturbance, having lived in a relative time of peace for most of his life.
Reaching out to the breathtaking picturesque life on Naboo, life that seemed more like a mirage than reality, Anakin let its warmth fill him, drowning out the cries of several thousand Yuuzhan Vong, their lives unexpectedly taken. Through the mind connection that Anakin had with Ben since the day he had been reborn from the [i]oombassl[/i], he felt Ben's own pain echo through the Force. The youngest Skywalker had never had to deal with such a disturbance, and had no idea how to counteract it with the life surrounding him.
Although his heart went out to his cousin, Anakin saw the opportunity that Ben's battered shields afforded him. Again, he sought the energies of the Force, weaving them to comb the surface of Naboo for the young, vibrant, but incredibly skilled presence of his cousin. Just as he was beginning to secure a location on the boy, Ben's shields came up to surround him, cloaking him from Anakin's search.
"Blast," Anakin muttered, his own mind still reeling from the tiny rents in the Force but with less effect than his two companions.
Analsa was the first to come out of it completely; her already alabaster skin had grown as white as Nubian clouds, but was now returning to its original color. She looked at Anakin with eyes that were half confused, half afraid. "What was that?"
Anakin held off her question with a finger, and walked over to Cherrz, who had gone board-straight and was staring into space as though paralyzed by fear. This was something that only a Jedi trained in the Force should have felt, but Cherrz was no mere Jedi, he was the first Yuuzhan Vong to ever be taught as a Jedi. Placing his hands on Cherrz's sloped forehead, Anakin called upon the Force, building shields to protect the green student's vulnerable mind. His hands shook with the effort of keeping his own tight shields and erecting those for his Yuuzhan Vong friend; strange that he would come to think of any Vong as a friend to the Jedi.
Sensing the relaxation in Cherrz's muscles, Anakin dropped his hands and focused on the sunken sockets of the Yuuzhan Vong. "Is that better?" he asked.
Ben had used the same tactic on him when on the planet Linnal, after a Yuuzhan Vong living dome had been destroyed in the hopes of instigating a war between the Vong and the other beings of the galaxy.
Cherrz blinked his butterfly thin eyelids several times, as if coming out of a long deep sleep, before nodding his head yes. "I've never felt anything like that before."
"Let's hope you never have to again," Anakin said, laying a hand on Cherrz's sinewy muscled shoulder.
"What was that?" demanded Analsa, that same look of warring confusion and fear in her dark eyes.
Anakin worried how Ben was taking this. There was no one there at his side to help deal with the onslaught, as there had been when Anakin had first felt it, or as there was now for Cherrz and Analsa. I stand alone. I fall alone. These words had echoed into Anakin's mind, and the newly made Jedi Knight recognized where they had come from. Ben planned to become his vision alone so he would not bring any of his loved ones down with him, but didn't his cousin realize that by hiding from them he led himself on that dark path that he so feared?
"A great disturbance in the Force. Something terrible has happened," Anakin murmured, more to himself than to answer Analsa's pressing interrogation. "We have to make contact with the High Council."
The two students stared at Anakin and his sudden reversal of policy. He had instructed them that were they to come along they could not let the Council know of their whereabouts for fear that they would inadvertently lead the High Council's team to Ben. He could only imagine to what lengths Ben would go if the Council team found him before Anakin; the youngest Skywalker had already made it quite clear that he would do anything to keep his vision from coming to fruition. Things had changed, however - Lord Nefarion had made yet another move (Anakin having no doubt that those tiny rents in the Force had been the result of yet another of the Sith's plots to bring the separatist and devotee Yuuzhan Vong together), and in the hopes of stopping another one, Anakin knew that communication between every Jedi and the High Council was needed.
"Ben is safe for the time being," Anakin said, addressing their hidden concerns. "It is more imperative that we learn what has happened on other worlds." He looked to Dorsca Cherrz. "Especially those that are held by the Yuuzhan Vong."
Comprehension dawned on Analsa's features. "The Yuuzhan Vong were attacked," she said.
"Yes, and as the few who can sense them in the Force, it is our duty to report to the High Council what has happened," Anakin reiterated. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to the meeting with the six Jedi and their non- Jedi counterparts.
The threesome had just come out one of Naboo's docking ports and had been walking the brick-paved streets, when the disturbance had set them rocking on their heels. Anakin had managed to stash them in a surprisingly empty alley-way so as not to collect attention, which in itself was a miracle. He looked around, at all the faces of the Nubians, the frog-like Gungans, and the refugee Yuuzhan Vong, none of them having sensed what the three Jedi had. Anakin found himself studying the Yuuzhan Vong more intensely, searching for signs that there were others that were like Cherrz, finding none that were readily apparent.
Was Cherrz an anomaly in the Force, the only one amongst his people to be able to harness the power of the energy field that was created by all living things, that was available to the Jedi? He saw Cherrz doing the same thing, looking for someone who was like himself, and it struck Anakin how lonely it must be for the only Yuuzhan Vong to be accepted into the Order for training. It was a loneliness that Anakin was well accustomed to, a loneliness he had felt diminish with his growing relationship to Ben.
"Let's head back to the Falcon. We can make contact there," Anakin instructed. He had led missions before, the last one the mission to Myrkr - nearly doomed, it had been the workings of the Force that it had succeeded, but he was reminded of how out of place he was in this universe.
As they headed back, Analsa took in the view of Naboo, her dark eyes not missing a thing as she peered into a street shop or traced the outlines of the flowing architecture. It was her home world, and yet she acted as though she were a stranger to it. The similarity between them was not missed by Anakin. They were both in places that were meant to be their homes, and yet they could find no solace in them. Was that why he felt so connected to the younger woman? Did he feel that she knew him on a deeper level because of the trials she had been called to endure?
"There's nothing like coming home," he whispered to her, as they continued their pace towards the Falcon.
Analsa remained cold towards him, had been so since last night and the kiss that should never have happened. Her features froze into those that might have been seen on a protocol droid, harsh and metallic. "This isn't my home," she stated.
"Then maybe after all this is finished you would like to return to Bimmissari," Anakin said. He was prying shamelessly and knew it.
Now indignation replaced the coldness. "Are you interrogating me, Solo?"
"I'd rather think of it as trying to get to know you," Anakin countered, feeling frustration butt against his serene hold. "You don't speak much about your past."
"There's a reason for that, Anakin," she growled.
Well, at least it's 'Anakin' again, the reborn Jedi thought. The way she called him 'Solo', it made him feel as though she were addressing his father, not him. "Alright, I can take a hint," he said, holding up his hands and pushing them against the air as though to ward off her malignant glare.
"Alright, where's your home?" Analsa shot back.
"Right now? Coruscant," Anakin answered.
"Just like that?" Analsa asked, incredulous.
Anakin found himself considering her words. Coruscant had been his home, as had Yavin 4, before both worlds had been terraformed by the Yuuzhan Vong, yet he had moved from planet to planet so much that to claim one place as his home world was quiet ambiguous. "My home is where my family is," Anakin came to the answer.
"Yes, well I wish I could say the same," Analsa answered, and took the lead to the Falcon, leaving Anakin and Cherrz a meter behind.
"What amphistaff crawled into her coralpatch?" Cherrz asked, as he sidled next to Anakin.
Anakin snorted, enjoying the fact that Cherrz could joke around him, even if it were Yuuzhan Vong humor that probably escaped most of Anakin's understanding. "I'm afraid I'm the amphistaff, my friend."
"She cares for you," Cherrz told him. "That is where her anger stems."
"Why is it that sometimes you seem more of a Jedi than myself, Dorsca Cherrz?" Anakin asked, surprised at the clarity with which Cherrz had described the situation.
The Yuuzhan Vong shrugged his shoulders. "We are taught from an early age to study the reactions of those surrounding us. We may no longer be a warrior race, but the old habits die hard. Analsa walks away from you now, but in the way she stomps her feet she betrays her longing to walk towards you."
Anakin studied Analsa's booted feet, trying to see what Cherrz had, and failing miserably. All he sensed and saw was a young woman he had hurt deeply, not intentionally, but the pain was there still the same. "My life was so much easier when I was dead."
"I am told that you were kept in an [i]oombassl[/i]?" Cherrz questioned.
"That is what Ben was told when he discovered me," Anakin assured. "Time flitted by and I had no consciousness of it." His ice-chipped eyes suddenly fixed on his hands, hands that were not the way he remembered them in his most recent memory. His body had registered the passing of time, even as his mind lay dormant waiting for someone to wake him from the death sleep.
Cherrz's deep set eyes considered him with a hint of awe. "It's amazing you survived at all," he revealed. "Any Yuuzhan Vong left for that amount of time would surely have perished. Is it the Force that allowed you to remain for fifteen years?"
Shock coursed through Anakin's already taxed body. Any Yuuzhan Vong would surely have perished. Once again, Anakin was confronted with the question of why he had survived. Why had he been brought back to the living when his death had been prepared? He no more wanted to be the 'Chosen One' of prophecy than Ben did, a life of simple service was all he had ever strived for.
"The Force, the workings of a Jedi Master who saw her own design," Anakin said, bitterness tainting his words. "I have no answers, my friend. I'm only left with the consequences."
Analsa's bootsteps rang against the durasteel of the boarding ramp as she bounded up into the belly of the Falcon. Anakin winced, he had better hurry or the High Council would have to face Analsa's wrath, certainly not endearing Anakin to them any further.
"You are for her too, I think," Cherrz said as they neared the Falcon's loading ramp, Analsa disappearing out of sight.
"She's my student, Cherrz, I can't feel anything - but a teacher," he corrected, knowing that he was lying to himself as much as to his Yuuzhan Vong friend.
"Yet your steps take you to her," Cherrz countered before taking the ramp ahead of Anakin.
Anakin joined them in the Falcon's gaming room, where the holotable had been rigged to work as a holonet transceiver, another necessity that had come out of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. Analsa had planted herself on one of the cushions, and was purposefully making eye contact. He could tell that she was as much upset by the recent disturbance in the Force as by anything that Anakin had said or done. In time she would cool off, and this distance was for the best. She could then find another to take up her training, one that wouldn't let his own emotions get in the way, and wasn't focused on another apprentice.
It wasn't much trouble to get in contact with the Council, and they were about as pleased to see him as he had expected. Their dour expressions were evident even in the holographic static that was customary between long range communications. Senator Ller was not there, much to his relief, but he was worried not to see Corran Horn amongst the High Council. In fact, behind those dour expressions and the glares of disapproval, lay an emotion that he had not expected on the High Council. Fear.
Did they already know of the disturbance that had ripped through the Force? It was possible, considering the training that Ben and Anakin had focused on in their younger classes. Perhaps one of the children had advanced enough to feel the disturbance and report on it.
Master Durron took point as the highest ranking member of the Order. "Anakin, I should have expected you not to follow orders." Was it Anakin's imagination, or was Kyp actually pleased that he had not?
"I felt that the High Council had made an error in judgement," Anakin said evenly, not displaying an inkling of guilt to those who sat in the circle of the High Council. "Rather than take the time to discuss it in committee, the Force urged me to action."
"I assume that you made contact now because you have felt Valin Horn's death," Kyp said, in tones that were both sad and antagonistic. Kyp didn't like being disobeyed, something he had forgotten whenever he had felt Anakin's uncle was wrong.
For the second time today, a tremor of shock passed through Anakin. "No," he said, more subdued. "I wasn't aware."
That caught the older Jedi off guard, and he instantly was morose. "I'm sorry to have to tell you like that, Anakin." He stiffened, donning the Jedi Master facade once again. On Kyp it was a façade, on Luke Skywalker it had been a mantle. "Why have you contacted the High Council then?"
"There was a disturbance in the Force," Anakin said, trying to get the image of the little boy he had rescued from Yavin IV along with the other Jedi children out of his head. He felt as though he had failed the young boy for not being able to rescue him again.
Kyp's dark brows furrowed on his ghostly white skin. "We have felt no disturbance."
"The disturbance involved Yuuzhan Vong," Anakin explained the Council's inability. "Only myself, Dorsca Cherrz, Analsa Vinn, and Ben felt it. Someone or something is targeting Yuuzhan Vong."
"You suspect the Sith?" Kyp asked, his eyes narrowing with the name. For a short time, Kyp himself had tread the Dark Side, and had been under the control of a dead Sith Lord, Exar Kun, during that time.
Anakin nodded, noting that Analsa and Cherrz were whispering to each other behind him. "It would follow the pattern Ben lined out once we returned from Linnal. If Lord Nefarion is like any other Sith Lord we've run into, he wants power, and the quickest way to power is to start chaos. The Yuuzhan Vong realigning and instigating war against us would be that chaos."
Thoughtful, Kyp folded his arms to himself, pacing as he pondered Anakin words. He looked up suddenly. "You said that Ben felt it as well, is he with you now?"
"No, he's still on Naboo, but for how long I don't know. His shields were torn open by the disturbance and I was able to sense his turmoil, but he was quick to erect his barriers and I couldn't get a location on him," Anakin admitted.
From off of Anakin's view, he heard the sound of doors whirring open and Kyp turned to the new arrival; by the look of pity on Kyp's face Anakin knew that it was Corran Horn. Did I send his son into this danger? Is it because of me that Valin died not a week into his Knighthood? Anakin already knew that Valin was not in an oombassl, that the Force had taken away the young man and his brightness, and there was nothing Anakin could do to stop it.
Kyp traveled off screen, most likely to fill Corran in on the developments Anakin had related. A moment later, both Jedi Masters stepped into view. It was all Anakin could do to keep from smashing his eyes closed at the desolation Corran so painstakingly tried to hide behind the serenity of a Jedi Knight. It was a look only slightly less haunting than the one he had seen on Ben's face before he had left the Temple.
"Corran..."Anakin started, ready to apologize for getting his son mixed up in this mess.
"Don't, Anakin," the older Jedi stopped him, the command sounding more like a plea from the grief-stricken Jedi. "Valin managed to get off a report before his ship was destroyed. He confirms your suspicion that it was the Sith Lord. Nefarion is more dangerous than we realize, I think. The fleet that came over Aulkner had registry transponders of the New Republic Defense Fleet. I fear it is only a matter of time before the Yuuzhan Vong retaliate."
Behind Anakin, Dorsca Cherrz stiffened. "I hope it does not come to that, Master," Cherrz said, the sincerity ringing in his voice hard to miss.
A smile that lacked humor came upon Corran's aging face. "That is what we all hope. Anakin, Dorsca Cherrz's training is of the utmost important now. Perhaps through him we can stop this war. But do not divert from your search of Ben - if he is the 'Chosen One', he will need to bring balance to the upset Nefarion is making."
"Aulkner wasn't the only planet to be targeted," Anakin said, sticking to business and avoiding the ache that was pressing on his heart. "The disturbance was too large for that. Have you gotten any further reports?"
Kyp nodded. "One from Ithor, but it may be a while before we hear from the other Yuuzhan Vong-held worlds. Communications may have been knocked out."
"Especially if Nefarion wants the Yuuzhan Vong to feel as though the New Republic has abandoned and betrayed them," Corran put in, the Jedi Master showing the same resolve in his duty that Anakin had seen in Ben, even though he believed Ben was taking the wrong turn.
"I get the feeling that this won't be the only attack," Anakin re-entered the conversation. "Ben spoke of an elusive darkness that was approaching. I feel as though these attacks are connected."
"All the more reason to bring in Ben Skywalker," Kyp confirmed.
Anakin swallowed hard against the rising lump in his throat. "It must be done carefully, Kyp. I can't explain everything, but call off your team or we may end up with our 'Chosen One' taking his own life."
Now the glares had turned to pale, wide-eyed disbelief. "Is it that serious, Anakin?" Corran asked.
"It could be," Anakin answered, not wanting to reveal anything further to the Council.
Corran took Anakin's diversion to heart, and rapidly changed the subject. "Then I think we can all agree to allow Anakin Solo to continue his search alone," Corran said, sweeping his gaze to all the present Council members; not one of them rose up to argue with him. Anakin was grateful for that. He would hate for Corran to have to argue his way, so shortly after his son's death. "Ben made contact with us upon his arrival on Naboo. He did so at the request of Queen Pernillia. You may want to see if she is willing to divulge any information about his whereabouts."
Anakin bowed, "Yes, Masters." Corran's eyes remained on him as the transmission flickered and disincorporated.
The Skywalker/Solos always seemed to pull off the impossible; yes, they had lost Luke, but that was after a thousand near-death experiences. Anakin coming back, a reborn Jedi, seemed hardly fair to all those who had lost loved ones in the Yuuzhan Vong war. Did Corran hate him now because of the resurrection? Whereas Valin would never have the chance to be reborn, dead in a space battle meant to cause chaos for a Sith Lord who wanted the son of Skywalker?
[i]There are things no one can fix[/i], Anakin thought wearily as he slumped down onto the gaming table bench.
"Apprentice Skywalker, are you alright?" asked Sarné, one of the Queen's handmaidens, a slightly younger woman than the Queen but looked so much like her Highness that they could have easily been sisters, concern dripping from her voice.
Ben blinked the sting of tears from his eyes and choked down the nausea that still clung to him like swamp muck to boots. "Fine," he answered weakly, feeling the farthest from the word that anyone possibly could. The echo of Anakin's pain still battered against his sand-blasted mind, and belatedly Ben built his shields around his scarred psyche.
By the pinch of her large eyes, he could tell that she did not believe him, and knew he was lying, but the Handmaiden to the Queen had been well trained, and was wise enough not to question him about matters she could not understand. Still, there was a motherly air to the woman, and Ben was thankful that she repressed whatever natural instinct was sweeping over her.
"I think we've found your R2 unit, Apprentice Skywalker," Sarné said, purposefully averting her eyes as Ben struggled to gain control over his body. The pain of the Yuuzhan Vong still stung through the Force, but Ben had managed to keep the images of their deaths from darkening his vision.
"Please take me to him," Ben said.
The petite woman led him down the corridors. Her strides were slow for his sake, Ben was sure, but he was thankful for that. He felt drained, as though he had been working his body for hours instead of just waking up at Naboo's dawn. It seemed impossible that he had woken to the warmth of Naboo's primary sunning him through the crystalline window, compared to the cold he felt now in the wake of the disturbance in the Force. The cold was penetrating, unlike anything he had ever felt before, but just as Luke had described to him during their training together.
As he had uncountable times since Bellalt, Ben pushed the pain he still harbored at his father's death aside. It was a pain he was well accustomed to, a pain that never quite disappeared from his heart. His first encounter with it was when he saw his mother's death. Of course, he had seen it previously in a vision, but the reality was much more vivid, less obscured by the dream eye.
They had found Artoo next to the statue of Ben's grandfathers and Master Jinn, his red sensory eye scanning the statue, a hum emanating from Artoo that made Ben think of someone attempting to discover the origin of déjà vu. Ben stepped next to the droid that had belonged to his father, resting a shaking hand on the droid's chrome dome.
"You know them, don't you?" Ben asked, analyzing the features of the family. "Like you know Naboo and yet don't."
The droid beeped an affirmative that Ben could understand all too well. Naboo was familiar in a maddening way, and the familiarity set to calm his mind. Yet, he could not stay.
The Force was releasing him from Naboo for the time, although he was sure he would return soon enough. With Anakin practically breathing down his neck, he couldn't waste time looking for imaginary signs of peace even from his enshrined forefathers.
Bowing before the handmaiden, Ben forced his attention to the older woman. "Please relay my thanks to Her Highness. But I'm afraid I must cut my visit to Naboo short."
The overhead ambient light shimmered in Sarné's auburn hair. "Her Highness expected as much, and wishes you a safe journey. She also hoped that you would return to Naboo at a more convenient time."
"Tell Queen Pernillia that it would be my honor to return," Ben said, feeling true to his words for the first time.
With the niceties exchanged, the Handmaiden left without further preamble, her amber shifting orange of her robes flowing behind her. Ben watched her only for a while before he returned his attention to the droid that could be so irritating, and yet Ben couldn't help but feel thankful for the droid's presence, even with Artoo's antics.
"Come on, Artoo," Ben said, waving a hand towards the palace docking bay. "We've got to get out of here before Anakin learns of our location." He eyed the droid. "But that's what you had in mind all along, isn't it?"
The droid twittled indignantly at his new owner, his dome top spinning in the droid equivalent of a denying shake of the head. "Don't act innocent with me," Ben said with a trace of the exasperation he had been holding in tight. "Now let's go."
Artoo trundled in front of him with the air of a child caught with his hand in the cookie receptacle, petulant, and Ben was sure he heard an electronic raspberry emanate from his R2 unit. "I wish I could explain this to you Artoo, but I don't even understand it myself," Ben said, feeling bad for dragging the droid all over the galaxy without so much as an explanation. Visions of the future - they were meant for great heros like his parents, aunt, and uncle, not for a boy who would come to darkness.
His only hope was to avoid those whom he would bring the greatest damage to. The darkness was already rising, he could feel it in the shockwaves in the Force, the many rents caused by the violent deaths of the Yuuzhan Vong that very few could sense in the Force. It took all he had not to take his X-wing and investigate all those deaths, to try to stop them further, but in doing so would he only propagate his own darkness, the turn that was as inevitable as his parents' deaths?
The droid twittered a question.
"We're going to visit an old friend," Ben answered. "He'll keep my location a secret."
[hr][/hr]
Anakin didn't see the deaths of the Yuuzhan Vong, but they ripped through his mind with such intensity that he might as well have. Beside him, Analsa and Dorsca Cherrz shuddered under the impact as well. As if from a far-off distance, Anakin could feel Ben's reaction to the disturbance in the Force, the full impact it had on his young cousin. Ben had never felt such a disturbance, having lived in a relative time of peace for most of his life.
Reaching out to the breathtaking picturesque life on Naboo, life that seemed more like a mirage than reality, Anakin let its warmth fill him, drowning out the cries of several thousand Yuuzhan Vong, their lives unexpectedly taken. Through the mind connection that Anakin had with Ben since the day he had been reborn from the [i]oombassl[/i], he felt Ben's own pain echo through the Force. The youngest Skywalker had never had to deal with such a disturbance, and had no idea how to counteract it with the life surrounding him.
Although his heart went out to his cousin, Anakin saw the opportunity that Ben's battered shields afforded him. Again, he sought the energies of the Force, weaving them to comb the surface of Naboo for the young, vibrant, but incredibly skilled presence of his cousin. Just as he was beginning to secure a location on the boy, Ben's shields came up to surround him, cloaking him from Anakin's search.
"Blast," Anakin muttered, his own mind still reeling from the tiny rents in the Force but with less effect than his two companions.
Analsa was the first to come out of it completely; her already alabaster skin had grown as white as Nubian clouds, but was now returning to its original color. She looked at Anakin with eyes that were half confused, half afraid. "What was that?"
Anakin held off her question with a finger, and walked over to Cherrz, who had gone board-straight and was staring into space as though paralyzed by fear. This was something that only a Jedi trained in the Force should have felt, but Cherrz was no mere Jedi, he was the first Yuuzhan Vong to ever be taught as a Jedi. Placing his hands on Cherrz's sloped forehead, Anakin called upon the Force, building shields to protect the green student's vulnerable mind. His hands shook with the effort of keeping his own tight shields and erecting those for his Yuuzhan Vong friend; strange that he would come to think of any Vong as a friend to the Jedi.
Sensing the relaxation in Cherrz's muscles, Anakin dropped his hands and focused on the sunken sockets of the Yuuzhan Vong. "Is that better?" he asked.
Ben had used the same tactic on him when on the planet Linnal, after a Yuuzhan Vong living dome had been destroyed in the hopes of instigating a war between the Vong and the other beings of the galaxy.
Cherrz blinked his butterfly thin eyelids several times, as if coming out of a long deep sleep, before nodding his head yes. "I've never felt anything like that before."
"Let's hope you never have to again," Anakin said, laying a hand on Cherrz's sinewy muscled shoulder.
"What was that?" demanded Analsa, that same look of warring confusion and fear in her dark eyes.
Anakin worried how Ben was taking this. There was no one there at his side to help deal with the onslaught, as there had been when Anakin had first felt it, or as there was now for Cherrz and Analsa. I stand alone. I fall alone. These words had echoed into Anakin's mind, and the newly made Jedi Knight recognized where they had come from. Ben planned to become his vision alone so he would not bring any of his loved ones down with him, but didn't his cousin realize that by hiding from them he led himself on that dark path that he so feared?
"A great disturbance in the Force. Something terrible has happened," Anakin murmured, more to himself than to answer Analsa's pressing interrogation. "We have to make contact with the High Council."
The two students stared at Anakin and his sudden reversal of policy. He had instructed them that were they to come along they could not let the Council know of their whereabouts for fear that they would inadvertently lead the High Council's team to Ben. He could only imagine to what lengths Ben would go if the Council team found him before Anakin; the youngest Skywalker had already made it quite clear that he would do anything to keep his vision from coming to fruition. Things had changed, however - Lord Nefarion had made yet another move (Anakin having no doubt that those tiny rents in the Force had been the result of yet another of the Sith's plots to bring the separatist and devotee Yuuzhan Vong together), and in the hopes of stopping another one, Anakin knew that communication between every Jedi and the High Council was needed.
"Ben is safe for the time being," Anakin said, addressing their hidden concerns. "It is more imperative that we learn what has happened on other worlds." He looked to Dorsca Cherrz. "Especially those that are held by the Yuuzhan Vong."
Comprehension dawned on Analsa's features. "The Yuuzhan Vong were attacked," she said.
"Yes, and as the few who can sense them in the Force, it is our duty to report to the High Council what has happened," Anakin reiterated. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to the meeting with the six Jedi and their non- Jedi counterparts.
The threesome had just come out one of Naboo's docking ports and had been walking the brick-paved streets, when the disturbance had set them rocking on their heels. Anakin had managed to stash them in a surprisingly empty alley-way so as not to collect attention, which in itself was a miracle. He looked around, at all the faces of the Nubians, the frog-like Gungans, and the refugee Yuuzhan Vong, none of them having sensed what the three Jedi had. Anakin found himself studying the Yuuzhan Vong more intensely, searching for signs that there were others that were like Cherrz, finding none that were readily apparent.
Was Cherrz an anomaly in the Force, the only one amongst his people to be able to harness the power of the energy field that was created by all living things, that was available to the Jedi? He saw Cherrz doing the same thing, looking for someone who was like himself, and it struck Anakin how lonely it must be for the only Yuuzhan Vong to be accepted into the Order for training. It was a loneliness that Anakin was well accustomed to, a loneliness he had felt diminish with his growing relationship to Ben.
"Let's head back to the Falcon. We can make contact there," Anakin instructed. He had led missions before, the last one the mission to Myrkr - nearly doomed, it had been the workings of the Force that it had succeeded, but he was reminded of how out of place he was in this universe.
As they headed back, Analsa took in the view of Naboo, her dark eyes not missing a thing as she peered into a street shop or traced the outlines of the flowing architecture. It was her home world, and yet she acted as though she were a stranger to it. The similarity between them was not missed by Anakin. They were both in places that were meant to be their homes, and yet they could find no solace in them. Was that why he felt so connected to the younger woman? Did he feel that she knew him on a deeper level because of the trials she had been called to endure?
"There's nothing like coming home," he whispered to her, as they continued their pace towards the Falcon.
Analsa remained cold towards him, had been so since last night and the kiss that should never have happened. Her features froze into those that might have been seen on a protocol droid, harsh and metallic. "This isn't my home," she stated.
"Then maybe after all this is finished you would like to return to Bimmissari," Anakin said. He was prying shamelessly and knew it.
Now indignation replaced the coldness. "Are you interrogating me, Solo?"
"I'd rather think of it as trying to get to know you," Anakin countered, feeling frustration butt against his serene hold. "You don't speak much about your past."
"There's a reason for that, Anakin," she growled.
Well, at least it's 'Anakin' again, the reborn Jedi thought. The way she called him 'Solo', it made him feel as though she were addressing his father, not him. "Alright, I can take a hint," he said, holding up his hands and pushing them against the air as though to ward off her malignant glare.
"Alright, where's your home?" Analsa shot back.
"Right now? Coruscant," Anakin answered.
"Just like that?" Analsa asked, incredulous.
Anakin found himself considering her words. Coruscant had been his home, as had Yavin 4, before both worlds had been terraformed by the Yuuzhan Vong, yet he had moved from planet to planet so much that to claim one place as his home world was quiet ambiguous. "My home is where my family is," Anakin came to the answer.
"Yes, well I wish I could say the same," Analsa answered, and took the lead to the Falcon, leaving Anakin and Cherrz a meter behind.
"What amphistaff crawled into her coralpatch?" Cherrz asked, as he sidled next to Anakin.
Anakin snorted, enjoying the fact that Cherrz could joke around him, even if it were Yuuzhan Vong humor that probably escaped most of Anakin's understanding. "I'm afraid I'm the amphistaff, my friend."
"She cares for you," Cherrz told him. "That is where her anger stems."
"Why is it that sometimes you seem more of a Jedi than myself, Dorsca Cherrz?" Anakin asked, surprised at the clarity with which Cherrz had described the situation.
The Yuuzhan Vong shrugged his shoulders. "We are taught from an early age to study the reactions of those surrounding us. We may no longer be a warrior race, but the old habits die hard. Analsa walks away from you now, but in the way she stomps her feet she betrays her longing to walk towards you."
Anakin studied Analsa's booted feet, trying to see what Cherrz had, and failing miserably. All he sensed and saw was a young woman he had hurt deeply, not intentionally, but the pain was there still the same. "My life was so much easier when I was dead."
"I am told that you were kept in an [i]oombassl[/i]?" Cherrz questioned.
"That is what Ben was told when he discovered me," Anakin assured. "Time flitted by and I had no consciousness of it." His ice-chipped eyes suddenly fixed on his hands, hands that were not the way he remembered them in his most recent memory. His body had registered the passing of time, even as his mind lay dormant waiting for someone to wake him from the death sleep.
Cherrz's deep set eyes considered him with a hint of awe. "It's amazing you survived at all," he revealed. "Any Yuuzhan Vong left for that amount of time would surely have perished. Is it the Force that allowed you to remain for fifteen years?"
Shock coursed through Anakin's already taxed body. Any Yuuzhan Vong would surely have perished. Once again, Anakin was confronted with the question of why he had survived. Why had he been brought back to the living when his death had been prepared? He no more wanted to be the 'Chosen One' of prophecy than Ben did, a life of simple service was all he had ever strived for.
"The Force, the workings of a Jedi Master who saw her own design," Anakin said, bitterness tainting his words. "I have no answers, my friend. I'm only left with the consequences."
Analsa's bootsteps rang against the durasteel of the boarding ramp as she bounded up into the belly of the Falcon. Anakin winced, he had better hurry or the High Council would have to face Analsa's wrath, certainly not endearing Anakin to them any further.
"You are for her too, I think," Cherrz said as they neared the Falcon's loading ramp, Analsa disappearing out of sight.
"She's my student, Cherrz, I can't feel anything - but a teacher," he corrected, knowing that he was lying to himself as much as to his Yuuzhan Vong friend.
"Yet your steps take you to her," Cherrz countered before taking the ramp ahead of Anakin.
Anakin joined them in the Falcon's gaming room, where the holotable had been rigged to work as a holonet transceiver, another necessity that had come out of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. Analsa had planted herself on one of the cushions, and was purposefully making eye contact. He could tell that she was as much upset by the recent disturbance in the Force as by anything that Anakin had said or done. In time she would cool off, and this distance was for the best. She could then find another to take up her training, one that wouldn't let his own emotions get in the way, and wasn't focused on another apprentice.
It wasn't much trouble to get in contact with the Council, and they were about as pleased to see him as he had expected. Their dour expressions were evident even in the holographic static that was customary between long range communications. Senator Ller was not there, much to his relief, but he was worried not to see Corran Horn amongst the High Council. In fact, behind those dour expressions and the glares of disapproval, lay an emotion that he had not expected on the High Council. Fear.
Did they already know of the disturbance that had ripped through the Force? It was possible, considering the training that Ben and Anakin had focused on in their younger classes. Perhaps one of the children had advanced enough to feel the disturbance and report on it.
Master Durron took point as the highest ranking member of the Order. "Anakin, I should have expected you not to follow orders." Was it Anakin's imagination, or was Kyp actually pleased that he had not?
"I felt that the High Council had made an error in judgement," Anakin said evenly, not displaying an inkling of guilt to those who sat in the circle of the High Council. "Rather than take the time to discuss it in committee, the Force urged me to action."
"I assume that you made contact now because you have felt Valin Horn's death," Kyp said, in tones that were both sad and antagonistic. Kyp didn't like being disobeyed, something he had forgotten whenever he had felt Anakin's uncle was wrong.
For the second time today, a tremor of shock passed through Anakin. "No," he said, more subdued. "I wasn't aware."
That caught the older Jedi off guard, and he instantly was morose. "I'm sorry to have to tell you like that, Anakin." He stiffened, donning the Jedi Master facade once again. On Kyp it was a façade, on Luke Skywalker it had been a mantle. "Why have you contacted the High Council then?"
"There was a disturbance in the Force," Anakin said, trying to get the image of the little boy he had rescued from Yavin IV along with the other Jedi children out of his head. He felt as though he had failed the young boy for not being able to rescue him again.
Kyp's dark brows furrowed on his ghostly white skin. "We have felt no disturbance."
"The disturbance involved Yuuzhan Vong," Anakin explained the Council's inability. "Only myself, Dorsca Cherrz, Analsa Vinn, and Ben felt it. Someone or something is targeting Yuuzhan Vong."
"You suspect the Sith?" Kyp asked, his eyes narrowing with the name. For a short time, Kyp himself had tread the Dark Side, and had been under the control of a dead Sith Lord, Exar Kun, during that time.
Anakin nodded, noting that Analsa and Cherrz were whispering to each other behind him. "It would follow the pattern Ben lined out once we returned from Linnal. If Lord Nefarion is like any other Sith Lord we've run into, he wants power, and the quickest way to power is to start chaos. The Yuuzhan Vong realigning and instigating war against us would be that chaos."
Thoughtful, Kyp folded his arms to himself, pacing as he pondered Anakin words. He looked up suddenly. "You said that Ben felt it as well, is he with you now?"
"No, he's still on Naboo, but for how long I don't know. His shields were torn open by the disturbance and I was able to sense his turmoil, but he was quick to erect his barriers and I couldn't get a location on him," Anakin admitted.
From off of Anakin's view, he heard the sound of doors whirring open and Kyp turned to the new arrival; by the look of pity on Kyp's face Anakin knew that it was Corran Horn. Did I send his son into this danger? Is it because of me that Valin died not a week into his Knighthood? Anakin already knew that Valin was not in an oombassl, that the Force had taken away the young man and his brightness, and there was nothing Anakin could do to stop it.
Kyp traveled off screen, most likely to fill Corran in on the developments Anakin had related. A moment later, both Jedi Masters stepped into view. It was all Anakin could do to keep from smashing his eyes closed at the desolation Corran so painstakingly tried to hide behind the serenity of a Jedi Knight. It was a look only slightly less haunting than the one he had seen on Ben's face before he had left the Temple.
"Corran..."Anakin started, ready to apologize for getting his son mixed up in this mess.
"Don't, Anakin," the older Jedi stopped him, the command sounding more like a plea from the grief-stricken Jedi. "Valin managed to get off a report before his ship was destroyed. He confirms your suspicion that it was the Sith Lord. Nefarion is more dangerous than we realize, I think. The fleet that came over Aulkner had registry transponders of the New Republic Defense Fleet. I fear it is only a matter of time before the Yuuzhan Vong retaliate."
Behind Anakin, Dorsca Cherrz stiffened. "I hope it does not come to that, Master," Cherrz said, the sincerity ringing in his voice hard to miss.
A smile that lacked humor came upon Corran's aging face. "That is what we all hope. Anakin, Dorsca Cherrz's training is of the utmost important now. Perhaps through him we can stop this war. But do not divert from your search of Ben - if he is the 'Chosen One', he will need to bring balance to the upset Nefarion is making."
"Aulkner wasn't the only planet to be targeted," Anakin said, sticking to business and avoiding the ache that was pressing on his heart. "The disturbance was too large for that. Have you gotten any further reports?"
Kyp nodded. "One from Ithor, but it may be a while before we hear from the other Yuuzhan Vong-held worlds. Communications may have been knocked out."
"Especially if Nefarion wants the Yuuzhan Vong to feel as though the New Republic has abandoned and betrayed them," Corran put in, the Jedi Master showing the same resolve in his duty that Anakin had seen in Ben, even though he believed Ben was taking the wrong turn.
"I get the feeling that this won't be the only attack," Anakin re-entered the conversation. "Ben spoke of an elusive darkness that was approaching. I feel as though these attacks are connected."
"All the more reason to bring in Ben Skywalker," Kyp confirmed.
Anakin swallowed hard against the rising lump in his throat. "It must be done carefully, Kyp. I can't explain everything, but call off your team or we may end up with our 'Chosen One' taking his own life."
Now the glares had turned to pale, wide-eyed disbelief. "Is it that serious, Anakin?" Corran asked.
"It could be," Anakin answered, not wanting to reveal anything further to the Council.
Corran took Anakin's diversion to heart, and rapidly changed the subject. "Then I think we can all agree to allow Anakin Solo to continue his search alone," Corran said, sweeping his gaze to all the present Council members; not one of them rose up to argue with him. Anakin was grateful for that. He would hate for Corran to have to argue his way, so shortly after his son's death. "Ben made contact with us upon his arrival on Naboo. He did so at the request of Queen Pernillia. You may want to see if she is willing to divulge any information about his whereabouts."
Anakin bowed, "Yes, Masters." Corran's eyes remained on him as the transmission flickered and disincorporated.
The Skywalker/Solos always seemed to pull off the impossible; yes, they had lost Luke, but that was after a thousand near-death experiences. Anakin coming back, a reborn Jedi, seemed hardly fair to all those who had lost loved ones in the Yuuzhan Vong war. Did Corran hate him now because of the resurrection? Whereas Valin would never have the chance to be reborn, dead in a space battle meant to cause chaos for a Sith Lord who wanted the son of Skywalker?
[i]There are things no one can fix[/i], Anakin thought wearily as he slumped down onto the gaming table bench.