She knew he was there. She could sense him flitting about the edges of her consciousness. Trying to get in. "Go away!" she screamed. "I won't let you do this."
"Won't let who do what?" her other self hissed into her ear. "He's just trying to help."
"Help what? To kill me. You and An…he are already doing a bang up job of that."
"If you are weak that is what will happen, but we know better." The other-self said as she turned and supplicated herself. The moment between that and the feel of claws sinking into her shoulder was so brief that she stifled a gasp.
"So I have finally caught you. Running never got it anywhere did it Riina?"
She gritted her teeth against the pain. "That is not my name."
"It is but one of many you have collected . You just choose the one that is right for the moment."
"What?"
A hissing laugh issued forth from the creatures mouth. It's putrid breath caused her to gag. That movement making it's claws dig deeper into her shoulder. The twisted version of her peeked up and gave her a wicked grin. "Just give up…"
"Enough of this." A new voice entered the conversation. However, this one saw what was really going on. She stood there talking with Anakin. Refusing to acknowledge the fact he was gone and that she was more than the little girl that was taken to the temple from Tatooine.
He approached to the surprised look of the one on her knees. "Get up Tahiri. This has got to stop. You can't keep yourself in separate sections of your life without breaking."
As he finished, that which was Anakin smiled and began to disappear. He noted that her unscarred self sighed in relief. Then collapsed to her knees as the version of Tahiri that he had come to know screamed, "Come back!!"
"Even if he could, I wouldn't let him. He's gone. Accept it."
"I can't." She whispered. "He was the only one who loved me enough to come for me. He could have helped me back from …"
"Give it up weakling," the perfect one hissed, "it was his meddling that got me like this in the first place. You just couldn't leave well enough alone." This last was to Jacen as he came ever closer.
"Anakin asked me to help. He said she had lost something."
A snigger came from the flawless blonde. "You could say that. Though, if you have it to give back to her, it might help. I know that at least then we could come to terms. It escapes me how you will get her to accept it."
"I have an idea. But I do have one question that I'd like answered."
"Shoot."
"What is it that she's missing?"
A wistful smile came across her features as she looked as the sobbing version of herself. "It is a mixture of many things. Love, strength, happiness, hope, but mostly it's" she paused leaning in rather close to his ear and breathed the last into his ear, "faith." Then she brushed her lips on his cheek and faded. Leaving his body fairly thrumming for no reason.
He took two steps in the ashy sand and kneeled. There he reached down and pulled the Tahiri he knew into his lap. Letting the young woman shed her tears onto his shoulder, he looked over the barren mind-scape she had created herself. Off in the distance, the wind whipped a furious storm across the desert. He stared there until he felt the first of the hiccups that accompany a good cry start to abate.
He lifted her head from his shoulder gently. "Will you come with me? There is something that I need to show you."
The barest nod of her head was all the assent that she gave. He wasted no time.
The surroundings changed with such an abruptness that it caused a sense a vertigo for Tahiri. She felt a steadying hand on her shoulder. A voice soon followed. "It should pass shortly. I forgot that you aren't used to being in another's mind."
"Where are we?"
"In my mind T."
She took a quick look around. They appeared to be in a small apartment. It had one or two rooms from what she could tell. It looked as though he spent most of his time in this one. There was a small sleeping pallet in on corner. A couch positioned between it and a holoprojector. On the other side of the room she saw a miniscule kitchenette with a door on each side. He stood in front of the one on the right.
"There is a holo over there that I want you to watch. I'd ask that you be patient and see it through, I'll explain the rest later. Jaya's going to get very nosy once you start watching it."
She nodded and he slipped through the door. She put the holo in and sat on the couch. It shocked her briefly that she was actually watching one of his memories. 'What is he doing?' she thought as she leaned forward and reached up to touch the projection. The instant her hand passed into it she found herself actually experiencing the things he had.