Things will be a bit brighter from now on.


Jax didn't remember much of what happened after the rescue. The sounds of yelling voices, boots stomping on more gravel and medical equipment beeping their readings all spun in his head until it blended into one collective sound that numbed his mind pleasantly.

The hover-gurney that Jax had been forced onto despite his protests of "being fine" glided smoothly as one clone guided it with sure footsteps.

"Don't worry, brother. You'll be home soon," he said reassuringly, patting Jax's head briefly before returning to his task.

Jax craned his neck until he was able to see past his feet. Kiki lay on the hover-gurney behind him, her chest still rising and falling evenly.

The ceiling above rushed by too quickly, warm, stale air making Jax nauseas. He rubbed his side again as pain sharpened between his ribs.

"You alright, vod?" The clone's concerned voice barely registered in Jax's spinning head. He squeezed his eyes shut, one hand moving up to cover his mouth as acid burned his throat.

"Hey! Hey! Stay with me, brother. We're almost out."

Jax felt the air around him shift and move faster over his skin as the hover gurney picked up speed. The pain in his side grew more pronounced, sharp threads like needles spreading through his abdomen.

The world flashed white, cool wind whipping past his face, before everything went black.

##

He awoke again, harsh whiteness temporarily blinding him. Jax glanced around his surroundings. Something about where he was felt entirely off; it wasn't cold, or hot, he felt nothing.

Wherever he was, it was completely empty. There weren't even any seems to mark walls from floors. It was completely empty.

He stood in silent confusion, his brain refusing to process what he could see. There was an unnatural brightness to where he was, as if the place was glowing without any actual source to the light. Jax blinked hard, shook his head, and pressed his palms against his eyes.

He couldn't feel his hands. When he pulled his hands away, Jax almost screamed.

He was see-through. Not entirely invisible, but his once-black glove was pale grey. The brightness of the area almost shone through it.

"Hello?" Jax called, his voice echoing off walls that were probably there. "Is anyone there?"

Silence.

Although he couldn't see much, he could feel that he was in some sort of room, just as he felt Edger materialize behind him.

"Jax?" Edger looked around frantically, just as confused as he was.

"Edger? Where are we?" Jax ignored the lack of footsteps as he rushed over to him. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"I was just about to ask you that." Despite the lack of senses they had, Edger still gave Jax a tight hug. "I'm just glad to see your okay—mostly okay."

"Have you seen General Jorani?" Jax's anxiety was beginning to spike. His back stiffened, parts of him sensing someone appearing behind him. Edger visibly paled.

"Jax…" Edger hissed, his finger rising to point at something outside of Jax view.

Jax spun, lurching backward at what he saw behind him. The Twi'lek child's blue-green skin was a harsh contrast to the white scene around them. He looked at the clones with expectant brown eyes, clutching a toy in his small hands.

The three remained silent for an uncomfortably log amount of time, the small Twi'lek boy looking between Edger and Jax. He spoke suddenly. "You know who I am, right?"

Jax's face twisted in confusion. "Am I supposed to?"

The child shrugged nonchalantly. "I think the Captain would know me if he saw me. He already sees me a lot in some of the bad dreams he has—"

A feeling a dread descended on him like freezing cold water. "Wait…" He almost couldn't bring himself to say it, the words curling up and souring in his mouth. "You were—"

"The kid that burned a few years back, yeah." The ease with which the child said it was unnerving. He shrugged again, his little shoulders lifting and dropping lightly. "It doesn't really bother me as much—probably because I don't remember that much of it, but—"

"How are we seeing you?" Edger asked, cutting off the child. "You died—"

"I know. You can see me now because of you, and what's happening," he said. His face was a scary mixture of innocence and lack of emotion. He scooted forward a few more steps, his feet padding lightly on the ground Jax assumed existed.

"Why are you solid?" Edger frowned, eyeing the child from head to toe. The whiteness behind him didn't shine through his skin. A solid head was attached to a solid neck on thin-but-there shoulders.

"I accepted what happened to me—among other things—and then I was granted back all the stuff I used to be able to do." He smiled, wide and bright. "My mom is somewhere around here, although I don't think you'll see her." Suddenly, his eyes focused on a spot just above Jax's shoulder. "Your friends are coming."

Both Jax and Edger spun to see a dark spot hovering in the air. It spun and took shape, the ball becoming a head and arms and legs.

Kiki stood before them, semi-transparent and looking around in confusion. Ratchet formed to her left, also with the same look of bewilderment. "Where are we?" she asked. Her eyes caught on the little boy standing between Jax and Edger. Despite how transparent she was, Jax could see color drain from her face. "You're supposed to be dead," she said softly.

"I am dead." The child's face wrinkled in confusion.

An uneasy feeling grew steadily in the pit of Jax's stomach. "What's going on? Will anyone else be here?"

"Your friend Marik will be here soon, and I can't tell you yet. Not everyone is here," the child said. "It shouldn't be that long, but not everyone is going to be here."

"Why not?" Edger eyed the vast space of whiteness that surrounded them. Just then, Marik materialized next to him.

"Where am I?"

"Do you really not know? What was the last thing you remember?" the child asked, brow furrowing. "At least one of you should know."

His words were met with silence.

"This place is what a lot of cultures would refer to as 'limbo'—like that place between the living world and the dead world." He stepped a bit closer to the group, almost conspiratorially.

"But we're not dead," Edger said, unbelieving.

"Marik's burned arm got infected. He had a really bad fever and was barely breathing when—"

Marik tensed, narrowing his eyes at the small boy. "How do you know that?"

He shrugged. "I kinda just…know. I think I can sense what happened to you guys before you arrived here. Like with Ratchet: his brain trauma is a lot worse than the medics think it is. Jax, that pain you were feeling in your side is an internal injury, and it might be bleeding."

Jax's spine slowly tensed, cold fingers of dread and fear gripping his back and sides. There was no way any of this was real. The last thing Jax remembered was being carried on the stretcher toward safety. Crusade Squad and the Jedi should have been safe, receiving whatever medical attention they needed and resting away their injuries.

Wherever they were must have been some kind of strange hallucination because Jax could feel exactly what everyone else was. There were different levels of fear and confusion clouding around them. It was cold and sharp with a sour smell that choked off air to Jax's lungs.

Is this what the Force is like? The very thought terrified him to his core.

"Then what about General Jorani? She put herself into a Force trance and healed her injuries," Edger said, his frantic and desperate. He held some hope that whatever they were going wouldn't be the same fate as Kiki's.

It was only then that Jax noticed her lack of extra weight; there was no roundness to her midsection that indicated pregnancy. Her stomach was flat and healthy-looking. They were all healthy looking, not a single bruise or cut marring their skin.

"No she didn't," the child said. "When she was in the Force trance, she diverted all of her energy to keeping her child alive. She did nothing with her other injuries."

A look of guilt descended upon Kiki's face. Her had gripped her arm as she aimed her gaze somewhere else.

"You didn't heal your injuries?" Edger asked, his soft voice tinged with anger.

Kiki bristled. "I'd started to miscarry right before I blacked out," she shot back defensively. "Healing my injuries wasn't my top priority." Even as she said it, she winced.

"While her baby is healthy and almost full grown, Kiki's mental and physical states are dangerously fragile. She's been put into half bacta while the droids debate whether to operate on her—all of this I'm getting from my mom," he said.

"So, basically, our injuries are fatal," Ratchet spoke. His face twisted into a look of abject grief.

"So that's why we're here? So you could tell us about what happened?" Edger said, bordering dangerously close to anger.

"No." There was no recoil in the little boy from Edger's tone. "Those who are dead are solid, and I can see colors right now—we're standing in a meadow. The people are haven't yet crossed over are you guys." He tipped his head, perplexed.

"Don't you get it?" he said. "You're all dying."


So, I have lost the meanings of both "brighter" and "dark".

The next chapters should certainly be interesting. As a note to add about Jax's injuries: I forgot about an incident that happened while the walls were caving in a few chapters ago. Jax received internal injuries as rocks fell from the ceiling. While diving out of the way, he was hit by one in the side. I think his rib would have been pushing against something important and causing swelling—I will go back to fix this error.

I apologize for the long update wait! I had to force myself to write parts of this, but others came pretty smoothly.

~AAx