Chapter Forty-Two: The Natural Progression of Life
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"Kip?" Jaina shook his shoulder gently as she called, "Kip, can you hear me?"
He blinked; she took that as a positive sign.
"Have you figured it out yet?" she whispered in sympathy. Kip, for all his oddities, and for the pain he sometimes caused her, had been a friend.
She wondered if, before her death, she could have managed to have this conversation with anyone, let alone a friend.
Kip's eyes moved, just a little.
"I guess the Empire just doesn't make souls like they used to," she continued softly, "because yours is failing. That's the lack you felt – the fundamental of your existence fading."
Kip's eyes shone; she remembered that grief. There was nothing like staring Death in the face – there was loss, desperation, anger, and that other side of it, too…a strange kind of joy, and peace.
"You'll be with your brethren again," she told him, referring to the other clones, whom the Empire had managed to catch and kill. "And you can bathe in the River, and talk with all the people who already joined the Force." A slight, reminiscing smile escaped her. "Don't even try to imagine it, Kip; the living can't comprehend what waits in the next pane of existence."
For a moment she drifted, and it seemed that the River called her back, louder than before. But she shook it off, and remembered all that remained for her.
"I'm telling you this," Jaina told the bed's still occupant, "because I want you to know that you don't need to be afraid. And that…I'll miss you, but you won't miss me until I join you.
"On a less sentimental note…" She trailed off, uncomfortable. "Kyp's spirit seems bent on crossing back over; I guess the Force has something planned. I know this sounds so…heartless…to be asking you this, but… Oh, blast," she muttered, rolling her eyes. Just spit it out, Solo. "Do you mind horribly if, when you're gone, Kyp kind of…checks in?"
The awkwardness of her question just went to show how little of her mother's genes Jaina had inherited. I hope New Sibling is up to the challenge of learning diplomacy, she thought with a sigh.
Kip echoed her, sounding resigned.
"Talking to comatose people, Solo?"
Jaina's head snapped up, and she raised an eyebrow when she saw who had spoken. "Tiran? I didn't know you were a friend of Kip."
"I'm not, really," the tall man replied, and he reached around the corner to steer Aarie into the room. "Midget wanted me to come, though. I think she knew you'd be here." He cast a not entirely displeased look on his apprentice.
Aarylia shrugged, and grinned at Jaina. "You're both stubborn." Crossing the room, she studied Kip's face with wide, searching eyes. "Is he okay?"
"He's dying." Jaina inwardly winced the second she said it; hadn't Aarie heard of, and seen, enough death? But Aarie only looked sad.
"He helped me with the baby-sitting, sometimes," the red-haired girl said mournfully. "The kids always had fun; they said he talked funny — you know, very…precisely."
Tiran had stepped forward, and he squeezed the girl's shoulders. "Life goes on, hey, kiddo?" He gave Jaina a sketchy look, as if measuring her up. "What happened to the robot, anyway?"
She supposed "the robot" was a nickname of which Kip was aware. "His soul is fading," Jaina explained.
"I guess he should have gotten a better warranty," Tiran said, messing Aarie's loose, artificially curled hair at the same time.
Aarie swatted his hand away. "Stop it," she complained. "I just spent an hour getting the curls right."
Instinctively, Jaina and Tiran shared a look that said, Teenagers, and Jaina spoke before Tiran could dwell on the awkwardness for too long. "Planning on impressing someone, Aarie?" she teased.
The apprentice's blue eyes went wide with innocence. "Jaina!"
The Jedi Knight noted the less formal name, the absence of "Master", and accepted it. Aarylia deserved peace.
"…Does a girl need a reason to look human?" the teenager asked. "Why does everyone think I only get dressed up because I'm trying to hook in a crush?"
Jaina hid a smile. "Maybe because you live in your pajama pants, and call make-up 'evil'?"
Tiran looked disturbed by all this talk of make-up and crushes. "Could we talk about something else?"
We'll talk later, Jaina promised her former apprentice with a look, but changed the subject. "I may as well warn you now: Kyp might be back."
"Did Kip go somewhere?" Tiran pointed to the bed sarcastically.
"The original," she corrected.
Now Tiran looked wary. "Explain."
"When Kip's soul disappears completely, his body will still be working exactly the way it should."
"My stars," he breathed as he understood.
"Kyp's spirit hasn't fully left the River of Death's shores since he moved on; he's been forced to wait for something."
"You can't be serious!"
"Perfectly."
"How do you justify something like that?" Tiran asked, more surprised than angry. "Maybe if he had just died… But Kyp's been dead for two, almost three, years! You can't just bring people back to life whenever you feel like it."
"Certainly not," she agreed vehemently. "That would be chaos. I wouldn't even think about it if I didn't believe the Force is setting this up. Not everything is as it seems."
Tiran did not look convinced. "Just because you had that miracle doesn't mean you can manufacture it for dead friends."
"She couldn't do this for selfish reasons," Aarylia piped in, arguing with her master. "The Force wouldn't let her, I think."
Jaina raised a cocky eyebrow at the other Jedi. "Your apprentice speaks truth."
Something like gratitude flashed in Tiran's eyes at the acknowledgement. "My apprentice," he countered, "is a thirteen-year-old who'll get dishes tonight for being smarter than her master." He winked at the redhead.
"Not fair!" the girl cried. "Not, not, not!"
"Maybe she'd like to dry, too, for complaining?" he teased.
Jaina grinned at the pair, acknowledging how her death had barred her from this, and how this was Aarie's choice.
I'm sorry, Aarylia.
As quickly as her attention had been drawn away from Kip, it snapped back. At first, she saw nothing, but then…
Blink.
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Please R&R :)
.Tjz