The Jade Shadow jolted as it exited hyperspace over Coruscant, disturbing Seth's daily meditation that he had missed earlier that morning. He took a deep breath and rose to his feet, trying to shake the groggy feeling that being disturbed during a meditative trance could often cause. He walked into the cockpit to find Master Skywalker and Ben sitting in the pilot and copilot seats. Rey was sitting in her father's lap with her hands on the yoke as they approached Coruscant with his hands over hers as she "helped" him fly the ship. The Jedi Master was smiling down at her, and he rarely smiled these days.
"On time?" Seth stood behind the seats and placed a hand on each.
"Barely," Luke replied, "but better late than never, I suppose."
He obviously hasn't warmed up to the thought of coming.
Seth took a seat behind Ben and strapped in for the final approach and landing.
As they landed on the landing pad attached to the tallest building in the surrounding area, Master Skywalker glanced back at him. "And you said you've never been to Coruscant?"
"Never," Seth shook his head as he stood up and swung his brown cloak over his shoulders. He had chosen slightly more formal robes than he would normally wear at the Academy, and he was hoping he wouldn't have to wear them again for a very long time.
"Really? Master Skywalker raised an eyebrow as the four of them walked out of the cockpit to the ship's descending exit ramp. "In all the years you've been with me?"
"I guess not," Seth shrugged his shoulders.
"Interesting," Master Skywalker mumbled as they arrived at the exit ramp, now fully extended. Ben and Rey walked out onto the landing pad into the Coruscant night, but Master Skywalker held out a hand to stop Seth as he started to follow them. "I'm not Master Skywalker here, I'm Luke. We're not at the Academy, so loosen up and have some fun," he smiled and clapped him on the shoulder and walked down the exit ramp.
Seth followed him down the ramp, and he was instantly blown away. All he could see were lights and buildings in every direction. Impossibly tall buildings. He had always heard about Coruscant and its many skyscrapers and buildings, and it had certainly lived up to that expectation. The lights were almost blinding, having lived on Takodana and Yavin IV for his entire life.
He pressed a button to raise the exit ramp and followed Luke from the landing pad into the building it was attached to. He walked in and was instantly assaulted by scents he didn't recognize and saw beings of a vast number of different species mingling about. He looked around the large banquet hall and saw Luke standing near a large table talking to Han and Leia.
As he continued to scan the room, his eyes fell on a woman in a black dress who was stunningly beautiful. Her straight brunette hair flowed over her shoulders and down her back and the dress clung to her body in all of the right places, and even a few more he had never thought of but were quickly growing on him.
Seth had always been attracted to women, but he had never been in what most would consider a relationship. Even though he had found a few women attractive in his twenty years, they had always been shallow attractions founded on lust or teenage angst instead of an actual connection. However, something about this woman seemed different. He had never seen her in his entire life, but something was different.
She looked in his direction and they locked eyes for an instant, and Seth felt like he'd been electrocuted. Their brief eye contact was broken when Luke walked up to the girl and pulled her into a tight hug.
Before Seth could form any theories on who she may be, Luke looked in his direction and waved him over. Seth obediently joined them and forced a smile in spite of how hopelessly awkward he felt.
"Seth, this is my niece, Jaina," he gestured to the young woman, who was slightly shorter than Seth. "Jaina, this is Seth. He's a Jedi at the Academy."
"Nice to meet you," she smiled and held out a hand, which Seth took without thinking.
"You two should find a seat, the banquet will be starting anytime now," he smiled and walked away, throwing Seth a subtle wink as he turned.
"Have you ever been to Coruscant?" Jaina asked after a few seconds of silence as she took a chair at a nearby table.
"Never," Seth shook his head as he took a seat next to her. "It's actually one of the few planets I haven't been to, oddly enough."
"Really?" she raised an eyebrow. "The capital of the galaxy?"
"Yes, believe it or not."
"I could show you around if you'd like," she glanced over at him.
"At a banquet in honor of such a close friend of your family?"
"Wedge didn't even want this to happen in the first place, so I'm sure he'd be fine with it," she held out her hand, which Seth took again without thinking. "Let's go," she pulled him out of his chair and into the nearby hallway.
Seth stared out over the rooftops of Coruscant in awe from the top of what Jaina had called the Imperial Palace. He leaned on the rail at the edge of the palace and looked straight down. The buildings were so tall that the ground wasn't even visible. Or was there even a ground at all?
"And you grew up here?" he asked, not looking over at Jaina, who was leaning on the rail next to him and staring out across the sea of skyscrapers.
"Yep," she said simply, obviously not as impressed with the view as he was.
"What's the ground like?"
"Hardly inhabitable. Sunlight doesn't really reach down there, so it's mostly illuminated by artificial lights. The law isn't enforced down there like it is in the upper levels, so it's largely inhabited by criminals and people without a home."
"Interesting," Seth replied absentmindedly as he looked out across the skyscrapers and bright lights of the planet-wide city. "I've never seen anything like it."
"All-powerful Jedi rendered speechless by a nice view," she smiled and nudged him with her elbow.
"Jedi are just normal beings with abnormal abilities," he smiled and glanced over at her, "and I'm not exactly what you might call 'all powerful.'"
"I may not be a Jedi or know much about the Force, but I can feel your power."
"There's a difference between powerful and all-powerful," Seth turned around and leaned back against the rail and crossed his arms over his chest. "There's also lightyears of distance between power and skill or mastery," he stared up at the stars. He wasn't sure how they could be so bright, or even visible at all, given the lights cast by the skyscrapers covering Coruscant's surface, but he was hardly interested in shattering the illusion by finding out they were artificial.
"I'm trying to compliment you," Jaina gave him a hard shove.
"I appreciate your compliment, Jaina Solo," he smiled over at her. "Happy?"
"Hardly."
"I live to please."
Without the slightest warning, she suddenly lurched toward him and kissed him hard on the lips. She grabbed both of his hands and planted them firmly on her lower back before clasping her hands behind his neck. He had been so distracted that he hadn't sensed it coming like he normally would have. Even if he had, he wouldn't have done anything to prevent it.
After several seconds that both felt like an instant and an eternity, Jaina pulled away and smiled up at him.
"Do you do this with every guy you've known for less than half an hour?"
Jaina thought about the question for a moment then shrugged her shoulders. "No," she said simply before leaning up and kissing him again, but much more aggressively this time, forcing her tongue into his mouth and what felt like down his throat into his stomach. This time, Seth pushed back.
"Really? Your room? Not somewhere a bit more conspicuous?" Seth asked as Jaina dragged him through the front door of her parents' home and closed the door behind them.
"It's either here or your place, and you're sharing an apartment with my uncle, his daughter, and my brother," Jaina replied, finally letting go of his hand and walking into the living room with Seth close behind.
"Point taken," Seth conceded, leaning against the door jamb that separated the kitchen from the living room. "So what now?"
Jaina perched herself on the arm of the nearby couch. "Ideally we'd have some drinks and get to know each other for a while, then I'd let you make me breakfast in the morning," she smiled, "but for now we'll just see where it goes."
"Vague," Seth nodded. "I like it."
After a few seconds, she stood up, walked across the living room, and grabbed his hand. "Not as vague as you think," she pulled him across the living room, down a hallway, and through an open door. As soon as they entered, she closed the door and shoved him onto the nearby bed. "I see you're new to this sort of thing."
"You're not too far off," Seth stood up, took off his cloak, and sat back on the bed and began to remove his shoes as Jaina quickly shed her dress. He looked at her as it fell to the floor around her, leaving her only in her undergarments, and was instantly taken aback by how hopelessly amazing she looked.
"Well, you'll catch on fast," she pushed him down onto the bed and climbed on top of him and kissed him on the lips with the same ferocity she had on the roof of Imperial Palace.
"Not a bad way to kill half an hour, eh?" Jaina rolled off of him and sat up on the bed and began to try to smooth her hair that Seth had done a very good job of tousling.
"Not at all," Seth smiled and sat up as well. "Only one way it could've been better." He stood up from the bed and began to smooth his robes.
Jaina laughed and threw one of his boots at him as she stood up to grab her dress off of the floor. "Another day, Jedi. I'd have you so sore you wouldn't even be able to walk to your ship tomorrow."
"Trust me, I've been through worse."
"Someday we'll see if you still feel that way," Jaina winked at him and walked to her bedroom door, still smoothing her dress that she had donned surprisingly quickly. "Coming? We should probably get back down to the banquet. I'd hate for anybody to think I'd almost made you break your vow of celibacy."
"Someday we'll see how strong that 'vow' is," he grinned and gave her a quick kiss on the lips as he walked past her into the hallway beyond. "Together or separate?"
"Together," she grabbed his hand and led him down the hallway and out of the Solo residence into the long hallway that led deeper into the palace and in the direction of the banquet. "You've never been to Coruscant, so I showed you around. Remember?"
"Of course," Seth followed her down the hallway back to the banquet hall.
Jaina released his hand just before they arrived at the doorway to the banquet room. He followed her inside and saw that everyone had finished eating and a few were gathering their things to leave.
Half an hour?
He looked around the room as Jaina walked away to join some young women who Seth guessed were friends of hers and noticed Ben glaring at him from across the banquet hall.
Great.
He smiled and winked at Ben for good measure and started to walk towards a corner of the banquet hall where Luke stood talking to Han and Leia, but the conversation suddenly became very heated with Han waving his hands around and Leia trying to calm him down. In spite of this, Luke appeared perfectly calm, which most likely enraged Han even more.
Seth had no idea what they could possibly be discussing and hardly wanted to know, so he altered his course and made his way out of the banquet hall and up to his bedroom. He had wanted to speak to Han and Leia since it had been some time since he'd spoken to them and he had always liked them, but there would be another opportunity where hopefully things wouldn't be so tense.
He walked through the small living room of his dwelling for the evening and out onto the balcony. He always felt at peace when he was outside, regardless of the weather or time of day, and he definitely had some things he'd need a clear head to sort out.
He stood by the edge of the building, clasped his hands behind his back, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and began to immerse himself in the Force, but his thoughts kept drifting to Jaina. He felt like they had connected somehow. They had certainly connected physically, but they had on another level as well, and Seth couldn't quite put his finger on what this level could be. It felt like the Force was leading him to an answer, but just as it began to materialize it disappeared and he would be forced to start over.
If I felt it this strongly, could she have felt it too?
He had read about particularly strong bonds or attachments forming between individuals through the Force, but his knowledge on the subject was severely limited. Before he could follow this line of thought, he felt an angry presence quickly approaching him from behind.
Ben. Perfect timing as always.
"What did you do with my sister?" He stopped at the doorway and snapped fiercely.
"Nothing that concerns you," Seth replied calmly as he turned to face him.
"Anything with her concerns me."
"She's an adult, and she seemed more than capable of handling herself."
"She's my younger sister, she's my responsibility to protect," Ben snapped. "Of course, I wouldn't expect you to understand sibling relationships," he added with a heavy layer of condescension.
He's goading you. Don't give in.
Seth took a deep breath to quench his anger. A very deep breath.
"Is this about Jaina or your bitterness that I'm a Master and you aren't?" Seth asked, forcing himself to remain calm and steady his voice.
As ashamed as he was to admit it, he almost wanted Ben to attack him. To finally have the opportunity to show him the difference between strength in the Force and untamed power. Untamed power sounded great in theory, but strength was the ability to use that power effectively and control it.
Ben began to stalk toward him, anger radiating out from him like the heat off of the sun. Seth began to gather the Force, because he knew that a fight against Ben Solo would require him to call on it very strongly.
Just as Seth was getting ready to block Ben's first blow, a presence in the Force appeared so suddenly and so strongly that he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Ben must have felt it too, because he turned around and looked back into the apartment. Seth leaned around Ben to look into the apartment and saw Luke Skywalker standing inside of the apartment holding his sleeping daughter in one arm, her hands draped around his neck and her head on his shoulder.
No words were exchanged. The look on his face said all they would have needed to hear.
Enough.
He sensed no anger or even frustration in the Jedi Master, he just stood there staring at the two young men. Without a word, he nodded and turned to walk deeper into the apartment. If he hadn't had his sleeping daughter in his arms then the exchange may have taken place very differently. Ben must have known this as well, because he walked into the apartment without another look at Seth. Seth turned to look back out over the city.
Luke Skywalker seemed to be the only person in the galaxy who could control Ben completely, and was essentially the only person he feared, and for good reason. There was a reason that people in the most remote corners of the galaxy spoke of Luke Skywalker as though he were some sort of mythical being.
He heard a faint knock behind him and turned around to see Luke standing in the doorway that separated the balcony from the inside of the apartment.
"We're heading out tomorrow morning. Make sure you're ready or we'll leave you."
I don't think I'd mind that.
"You got it," Seth gave a small smile.
Luke disappeared from the doorway without a word, leaving Seth alone on the balcony.
No, I don't think I'd mind that one bit.
