Chapter Thirty-One: "Happy Late Birthday, Big Sister"
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Cerasy, for her part, had something of a soft spot for Sanar, and Jaina had to talk fast to keep the bounty hunter on Devnos' ship. In the end, Krista provided the perfect excuse.
"So this guy is, like, Sanar's brother?" the blonde checked, cracking her gum. "He's kinda hot. I mean, it's just something about those eyes; and the whole bad boy thing, well…"
Jaina was about to set the record straight when she saw how wide Cerasy's eyes had become. "Just don't let him out of the detention cell, okay, Krista?" the Jedi ordered motherly. "Not even to flirt. Miko hasn't fought against a Dark Jedi recently."
Cerasy's face became pale with horror, and her panicked eyes went to Krista, then to Jaina. "She wouldn't. Would she?"
Jaina's expression was that of perfect innocence, except for the sly gleam in her eye. "Well, I certainly hope not. Could you imagine?"
Miko was watching Jaina sceptically, and she winked. Miko could – probably – take Devnos. But someone had to keep an eye on everything. And an eye on something of a more…personal, emotional manner.
"Everyone ready to go?" the former Dark Jedi asked.
Cerasy eyed Miko distrustfully, and Jaina suppressed a grin. Cerasy believed only in her own abilities, and Krista's bubbly air clearly worried her. "I'm coming with you," the bounty hunter said finally.
Krista smiled happily. "Great. We can ogle Devnos together! Just don't tell me what you'll do to him – it'll spoil my fun…"
Miko's face twisted in a mixture of emotions that Jaina couldn't readily identify. "Are you sure you don't want me to come along?" he pleaded as his shipmates headed up the Assassin's ramp.
"Sorry." She shook her head sympathetically. "But I think being on the Second Chance would just freak you out." Seeing him frown in curiosity, she added, "Hang in there."
His head swung around to watch Krista, who was barely containing her customary energy. "I guess."
Jaina finally put two and two together, and rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Miko. If Zekk and I can make it, you and Krista sure as Hell will."
He looked thrown, then shook his head self-deprecatingly. "I think tragedy actually makes things easier. At least you and Zekk will never be able to let it go without knowing that it's perfect. That it works."
"Does she know?"
Miko looked at her as if she was crazy. "You're joking, right? This is Krista. The second she knew, it would mean absolutely nothing."
"Give her a little credit. And Miko…" Jaina narrowed her eyes. "Give yourself a lifeline. You can't wait around, planning carefully, for the rest of your life. Just lay it out on the table, then let her go from there. I think you might be surprised by her reaction."
Miko changed the subject. "You'd better go. Sanar will need all the help she can get."
Jaina's brown hair swished as she looked up at Zekk's ship. "You're right." Surprising him, she leaned up to quickly kiss him on the cheek, then hugged him tightly. "Tell her, Miko. It'll be okay, either way."
Turning, she sprinted up the Second Chance's ramp.
Krista had turned at the last moment, and seen the quick peck that Jaina so strategically timed. And then she wondered why she stopped when the sight processed. Why her stomach flipped.
But then she shrugged, and pushed it away.
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When Jaina stepped into the main lounge, Sanar was draped upon the couch, her forehead beaded with sweat. Zekk was up in the cockpit, preparing for take-off, and Jaina divested Sanar of her heavy wool sweater before strapping the other woman in. All Sanar needed was a ball-sized bump on her forehead from when she rolled off the hover-couch, and to the other side of the room.
She looked up, unsurprised to find Kyp waiting impatiently. "Watch her for me," Jaina ordered before she hurried to the front, where she buckled herself in just in time to avoid flying back into the lounge. When the hyperspace jump was complete, Jaina all but ripped the crash webbing off. "So, how much do you know about healing?" Jaina asked dryly as she and Zekk kneeled beside Sanar.
Zekk's expression was one of the utmost confusion. "You've got to be kidding me. Trained as a Sith, remember? Just tell me what to do, and keep it simple. Nothing bigger than two-syllable words."
Jaina nodded. "That's what I thought." She glanced up at Kyp. "Looks like it's you and me, Durron. Ironic, isn't? The only one of us she ever liked for even a minute is useless…"
Zekk looked ill. "Let's not bring that up. I'm begging you."
She began to undo Sanar's restraints. "Men, eh, Sanar?" Jaina muttered to the still woman. "They're fine about doing nothing until you remind them that that's all they can do…"
No reaction. Jaina had hoped that the feminist-style crack would at least get a twitch.
"Zekk, go get a bag of ice, would you? She's burning up." Jaina looked up at her former master. "Got any ideas, Kyp?"
Kyp had been staring at nothing, and he jumped when Jaina spoke to him. "What was that?" he asked slowly.
Frowning, she said, "Are you okay?" A new thought struck her, and something within her froze. "Do you…need to go?" Is this the real goodbye until I die again? she wanted to ask.
His head shook almost of its own accord. "No. I need to be here – for Sanar. That's my job."
Jaina's heart gave an audible crack at the expression on his face. Neither she nor Kyp were what they had been. No one could cross into the River and be the same.
But she had been able to come back to live her destiny. Kyp…was a ghost. Just a ghost.
Looking down at Sanar, Jaina stood. "What I said was, do you have any ideas?"
Kyp's hand began to touch Sanar's cheek, but then he shook his head, reality drowning him again. Jaina knew exactly how he felt. "We need to stop the poison from advancing," he told her, watching as Sanar's body started to twitch.
Jaina bit the inside of her cheek pensively, and realized vaguely that it was a habit she had picked up from Sanar. "Alright. Mystics 101, here we come."
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It only really, truly sank in when she was baby-sitting some of the kids.
Aarylia Tisane knew everything was different. She knew it would never stop being different. Jaina Solo would never be her master again, and she would never be able to just pop in on the Solo family, and snitch some of their cookies, again. Jaina would try to be a mentor again, but Death had changed her, and eventually she would drift away. It wasn't her job to groom Aarie for adulthood; Jaina had a new destiny. One far grander than being a normal Jedi Master.
Aarie understood that.
She was thirteen now – on the brink of womanhood, or so everyone told her. And while she had gleefully – wilfully – taken after Jaina's impulsive behaviour, Aarylia knew she wasn't Jaina Solo.
And, she realized, she didn't want to be, either.
She was just Aarie. Just another, future Jedi Knight. Part of a new generation, true, but just that. Aarie's parents weren't heroes – at least, she didn't think they were. They had died long before her memories started. Neither she nor her roots were special. She would be part of the background, watching occasionally, and helping where she could.
And she knew that that was right for her. She wasn't made to save the galaxy; she didn't think she would be able to stand that sort of thing. But she wanted to matter – and she would. To people whose names she knew. To a few people, whose government had been put back into order, or whose planet was directed out of war.
The thought banged her upside the head, and Aarie had to stare at the floor for several long minutes before she could recover.
Her path had cut away from Jaina's. It hurt, and Aarie couldn't wait to escape to her room, where she could cry. But she understood something she had hidden from before. Something that she hadn't been able to accept when the path she had expected was wrenched away from her.
Aarie didn't fit with Jaina anymore. She fit into Master Tiran's world. He wasn't perfect; he wasn't necessarily someone she idolized. But he was someone she could tease about his girlfriend, but still take seriously. She trusted him, and knew that, although he would protect her until his last breath faded, he wouldn't coddle her. She would wake up everyday, and learn something new – something that everyday heroes, heroes who knew the name of their short list of saved people, needed to know.
Feet pounded on the floor, stealing Aarie's attention. A young blond girl smiled shyly at her baby-sitter. "Aarie, Arelyk was wondering if we could have snacks now."
Aarie grinned and stood, taking Lera's hand. "Is Arelyk helpless to come and ask me himself, now?" she teased
Lera blushed and looked down. "No…but he wasn't going to ask. And someone had to. Besides, I was sorta hungry anyway, and…"
"Alright, alright." Aarie chuckled. "I'm going to make you laugh yet, Lera."
Lera stopped and frowned. "But I do laugh," she insisted solemnly. "Everyone laughs."
"Everyone else…" Aarie's voice faded as she stared at the ten-year-old. Everyone else is different, she thought silently.
Apparently, her epiphanies were not limited to just her own role. "Lera, do you keep a journal?"
Lera tugged at one of her braids, uncomfortable under her babysitter's stare. "Well, um, sometimes, but I keep forgetting to update it. Why?"
"Oh, nothing." I just have the feeling your life is going to get very interesting. "Now, let's go find some cookies."
The thirteen-year-old forgot about her brief feeling about Lera Verili by the time she had gotten the bag of cookies out. Aarie was just a normal Jedi apprentice. She'd leave the tough stuff up to the others. To the save-the-galaxy heroes, like Jaina Solo.
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Jaina was submerged in a world in which she had never before been. Her talents in the Force had never lain in healing. They never would.
But she was the only one who could even hope to manipulate Sanar's molecular structure, or whatever it was that was affected by the poison. Jaina was alive, and bonded more tightly to Sanar than anyone was supposed to be.
Even Garik wouldn't argue with that reasoning, she mused. So why am I so sure that Kyp would be the better person? Well, maybe it was only her believing – knowing – that Kyp was easily the more experienced Jedi.
/You're not concentrating, Jaina,/ Kyp whispered in her mind.
She refocused on Sanar's aura, which was pale pink, in contrast of its usual, deep scarlet. Where was it the palest, the splotchiest? If Sanar was going to survive the trip – and any mistakes Jaina made – she would need a boost of energy, which Kyp would provide, through Jaina.
There.
"Alright. Now…" Her words were barely more than a breath. They sufficed; Kyp wasn't listening to her with his ears, after all.
Energy poured into her, and she thought she might actually explode from it – the power was far, far more than she possessed, or could stand – but desperation made it work. Straining to control the waves of Kyp's power, she nearly collapsed in relief when both Kyp and Zekk reached out to take on some of the burden. With her eyes clear once more, she directed the energy to where it was needed, and felt Sanar breathe easier in response.
Withdrawing, and willingly returning Kyp's loan of power, Jaina concentrated on the reality of Sanar's body. It was difficult, but she managed to cobble together a vague idea of what she needed to do.
Then she set to work.
Jaina's probes stumbled from relatively healthy organ to useless place that she could not even recognize (not that that was a foreign idea). Time passed, and she cursed her slowness.
But then she found it, nestled insidiously close to Sanar's lungs, and flowing through her veins from there. Sanar's blood ran dark with the poison. Breathing a deep sigh of relief – and letting it out with horror – Jaina set to work. Kyp had given her instructions as best he could, but it was really all up to Jaina. Unless…
/Sanar?/
There was no reply. So. It was just Jaina. And her gift to Sanar, for saving Jaina's life. Well, for a multitude of other reasons, too, but the life-saveage was probably the only excuse Sanar would deign to accept.
Kyp had been drifting again, but when no follow up of "I found it!" came, he nudged Jaina in reminder. /We don't have all day, Solo./
/Then stop sleeping on the job,/ she returned absently.
With new focus, she attacked the void-like bacteria. To her frustration, it didn't work; everytime she sliced 'n' diced the poison atoms, they split and formed more of the same. Disgusted, she watched as the poison simply used her every would-be arresting action to multiply.
But Jaina had always been good at thinking on her feet. It was one of the perks of being Han Solo's daughter.
A long time ago, when she was younger, and her parents were still pretending that she had a choice about being anything other than a Jedi, Jaina had taken science classes. At twenty, she barely remembered anything that wasn't directly related to a ship's physics, but she did recall a few, random pieces of information. One of those tidbits was that things slowed down when they were cold.
Well, maybe it wasn't random, since it really helped when she needed to fix a hyperdrive unit, or an engine, but… It was important in a whole new arena, now.
As deliberate as she was doubtful, Jaina imagined a chill sweeping along Sanar's veins. This caught Kyp's attention, who prompted her to focus on actually dropping Sanar's temperature, rather than playing mind games with Sanar's blood.
Now, Jaina had done something of that sort of thing once, on herself. Immediately after, she had ended up in a private ward at the med-centre, where they had hoped she wouldn't be able to spread her unique, freezing disease.
/Just hurry up,/ Kyp urged. /Try to slow her heart beat a little. It's too frantic now./
Clumsy, she did so. To her delighted relief, this even cooled Sanar – and the poison molecules – a noticeable bit. Excellent one-stone-two-birds application, she congratulated herself. Expanding on this technique just a little more, Jaina matched Sanar's heartbeat with her own, relaxed thump.
/Not too much…!/ Kyp warned quickly.
/I'm not the type to murder my sister,/ Jaina whispered back, completely calm.
Calm, because, at that moment, the poison slowed…stilled…and stopped.
It stopped.
Withdrawing from Sanar's consciousness, Jaina smiled. "Happy late birthday, big sister."
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Please R&R :)
.Tjz