Part II
Kyp Durron wasted no time; the dilapidated state of their corner of the apartment building, the devastation pouring off them in the Force, the stunned silence as they watched him look around… it was obvious that the worst had happened.
He had felt Leyla's terror and panic and then, terrifyingly, the slow slide into unconsciousness. The only reassuring part of that had been that he felt no pain accompanying it, suggesting that she had not been injured. The panic from Jaina's mind, however, drowned out everything else afterwards, followed by her barely noticed pain when the blaster had caught her in the side as her attention focused solely on reaching her daughter…
The pain was returning full-force now though and, though the other two seemed too shocked to do much of anything, this was something he could fix now while his mind tried to catch up with what to do about his taken daughter who was already beyond their reach. Striding purposefully forward, he scooped Jaina up in his arms, startling Jag out of his reverie, and the three retreated into the front of the apartment, away from the damaged walls.
"Medpac," he snapped at Jag, laying Jaina on the sofa and ripping her shirt up the side, pulling the charred fabric away from her burnt flesh. Accepting the antiseptic spray and bacta patches from Jag, he worked quickly while sending his own healing and pain relieving vibes to her. "Tell me everything," he said shortly to Jag while he carefully applied the patch to Jaina's wound.
Jag's voice was unforgivably bitter. "I wasn't here. Someone sent me a phony emergency call from the embassy; by the time I realized I'd been duped and got back here, it was too late. They'd already left with her.
"Jaina?" Jag moved away to check the fallen commandos but listened intently.
A cold numbness radiated from her. "I played right into their hands. They disabled the security systems, even the force-field around the balcony- obviously. A squad came up through the door and, while I was fighting them, another came through the balcony, pinning me in the middle while they looked for Leyla."
"They were specifically after her?" Kyp asked in alarm. "You don't know who took her?"
"No. But they mostly used stun weapons so they might have been trying to capture me too. And there was a woman…" her voice broke as she saw the dark woman fleeing with Leyla unconscious in her arms. "She was trained in the Force, might have been Sith. We fought briefly before she… took her."
Jag walked quickly back in the room. "They're all dead except for this one," he toed a man in the doorway distastefully. "Looks like he got a blasterbolt in the chest, but he's still alive."
Jaina eyed the unconscious man. "I got him," she said slowly. "Reflected his shot back to him. But," she frowned, "I used stun bolts. The rest of them shouldn't be dead…"
"Well they are."
Then she remembered. "They killed the ones I stunned," she said slowly. "Whoever they are, they didn't want any survivors to give anything away."
Kyp balled his hand into a fist. "Okay," he said quickly. "Here's what needs to happen-"
"Jaina needs a medcenter," Jag broke in.
"She'll live," Kyp said harshly. "It can wait. By now, your alarmed neighbors have probably succeeded in getting some sort of word out about this, despite the jamming. And I'm guessing that more help is on the way from your family?" he directed to Jaina.
She nodded tentatively. "I think so; they probably called security too."
"Then we don't have much time. I need to leave."
"What?" Jaina and Jag asked in tandem.
He sighed. "Whoever planned this is good, and apparently has frighteningly far-reaching resources if they can get at your apartment and the embassy. They aren't that good though- if they were, they'd have set up a diversion for me. If they don't know about me, then I need to use that." He turned and surveyed the room. "I'm taking the one who is still alive and disappearing. Jag, I need you to check any security holofeeds and make sure any indication of my presence is gone- that shouldn't be a problem, the whole system is still offline. Once security is here, get Jaina to the medcenter at the temple, you should be secure there. Once security has done their thing, Jag, I need you to compile every relevant and irrelevant fact about what happened tonight; who contacted you, whose clearance did they use, from where was the emergency beacon from the embassy broadcast, that sort of thing. Encrypt everything and put it on a chip for me, and meet me tomorrow at noon inside the temple entrance hall."
Kyp stood, drew a blaster, and fired another stun shot into the unconscious man on the floor. Jaina winced. "Where will you go, Kyp?" she asked softly.
"Hunting."
Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.
Three hours later, Kyp stared disgustedly at the man he had just put out of his misery with a blaster bolt to the head. A cold chill settled deep in his stomach as he contemplated what he had been told. His knowledge had been incomplete, but there had been enough to give Kyp a start- not a very promising start, but a start.
He was Imperial by citizenship, but was not part of the Imperial forces; instead, he and his fellow commandos were part of a private elite group, hired out to perform highly secretive jobs like this. The problem was, he didn't know his own employer. They were recruited, paid, briefed, and trained by different people- names or pseudonyms now highly encrypted on Kyp's datapad- and each mission was specially tailored.
Most alarming though was the fragmented knowledge he had of the Force-trained woman with their company. He'd been under the impression that there were more of her kind- dark forces, awaiting the opportune moment to exert their power. She had been known to him only as Xela.
Xela had provided their detailed instructions on their approach- the injured commando did not know where they came from, as they had been called up and sequestered during many hyperspace jumps before their whole crew was accumulated. The main gist of those instructions had been to acquire the child of Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel without injuring her; if possible, capture the Jedi mother, keeping parent and child separated; and neutralize without harming the father.
He knew little else- only that the Jedi were wanted alive, but not for what purpose. Confident that he had anything of value, Kyp killed him with a single shot to the back of the head.
It would not due to have any loose ends at his back.
Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.
The temple was subdued. All of those present keenly felt the emotional pain of Jaina Solo-Fel as she lay recovering and useless in the medical ward. At ten minutes until noon, she was staring despondently ahead as her twin Jacen and friend Zekk filled her in on their investigation of GA space defense and security.
"They had to have had help on the inside," Zekk said softly. "They pulled all of their logs from last night and we found the two shuttles arriving and departing. They're listed in the register as supply vessels originating from Nirauan, of all places, but the make and model are inaccurate according to what you described."
"Besides which," Jacen put in, holding Jaina's hand in his, "the clearance codes they gave for landing are totally bogus; they never would have passed uninspected without someone clearing them manually as they came and left."
Jaina frowned, wondering what sort of enemy her and Jag had made with such far-reaching powers in the Galactic Alliance. "Where did the codes come from?"
Zekk checked his datapad. "They were old Imperial codes; very old, Emperor-days old."
"Chiss craft, Imperial codes…" Jacen frowned. "That's just too convenient to be right."
"You think this is political?"
Jacen huffed at Zekk. "You think it isn't?"
"It's not," Jaina whispered. "They wanted her. They sent some Sithly woman after my baby, and what would be the point of that unless they wanted to use Leyla?"
The two men's faces fell. "Oh, Jaina," Zekk sat down heavily. "We'll get her back, don't think like that."
"I need to get out of here," Jaina muttered, apparently not hearing her friend. She started to remove various sensors monitoring her health, quickly drawing the attention of Tekli, Cilghal's former apprentice. "I'm going to comb the galaxy if I have to, no matter how long it takes, but I can't even start while I'm sitting here in this kriffing bed!"
An untouched tray of food flew across the room. Zekk ducked as pieces of fruit rebounded towards his head, and Jacen seemed torn between helping Jaina up or forcing her back in the bed. "Sis," he pleaded as Tekli, without comment, began cleaning up the spilled tray, "just wait until Jag gets back, okay?"
She visibly deflated and sat back once more, reaching out in the Force for the millionth time, sensing that Leyla was unharmed but still unconscious, and sending reassuring thoughts that may or may not have been reaching her at all.
Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.
Jag strode into the nearly silent grand foyer of the Jedi temple a minute before noon. His pace was measured as he discreetly scanned the space for Kyp Durron, Jedi Master, family friend and, unbeknownst to her, Leyla's biological father.
Strange circumstances had brought Jag, Jaina, and Leyla together as a family. Several months prior to the beginning of his relationship with fellow squadron-leader Jaina Solo, she had apprenticed under Kyp and the two had become close, carrying on a discreet romantic relationship at the same time. When he betrayed her trust soon after, however, she left him, causing a ripple effect in Durron's psyche. For all of his failings at the time, he had truly cared for Jaina, and the pain of her departure drove him back towards the dark side that he had forsaken more than a decade earlier.
In a desperate attempt to bring Jaina back to him, Kyp had used the Force to manipulate her body after knocking her unconscious, ensuring conception- and then he raped her, in the hopes that, while carrying his child, she would have nowhere else to turn.
Upon learning the truth, Jaina knew that she alone would have the power to apprehend the renegade Jedi Master, and she enlisted the help of Jag and Zekk to do so. After succeeding, and learning that she was in fact pregnant, Jaina had disappeared, knowing the importance of keeping the unborn child away from the deluded and dangerous man.
Jaina's uncle had set Jag on her trail, and then spent several months rehabilitating Kyp, pulling him back towards the light side of the Force. Sequestered in the Unknown Regions and Outer Rim, the relationship between Jaina and Jag grew until he proposed to her a few hours after she gave birth to Leyla on Jag's home world of Csilla.
It would be almost two years before Jaina was confident enough in the redemption of Kyp Durron to tell him the truth, and had finally done so during the conclave on Zonama Sekot, at the very end of the Yuuzhan Vong war. He had felt devastatingly guilty at first, but his affection for Leyla and Jaina's entreaties convinced him to accept their forgiveness for past crimes and get to know his daughter.
After they were married, they did not see the Jedi Master for a few months while he assisted in establishing a new Jedi school. When he came to visit at the time of Leyla's second birthday, he confessed to a great deal of thought and reflection that led him to the decision that it was best if his identity as Leyla's true father remain a closely guarded secret among those who already knew.
Perhaps it was simply Jedi foresight, Jag thought as he glimpsed the older man disappearing into a room off the main chamber. But today, that decision seemed a very good one indeed.
"Do you have it?" Not wasting any time, Kyp drew the hood of his cloak down and surveyed the younger man. Jag handed over a small datachip and an encryption key. "Any trouble getting it?"
"No," Jag shook his head. "Given the circumstances, security in the embassy was more than willing to give me access to their files. Whether those had been doctored before I got there… well, that's not for me to say. But you'll find a list of remote access connections that should give you a start if the rest of the information turns up in a dead end."
Kyp tucked the small casing away in his robes. "I'll know soon enough- I have several names to cross-check."
"Oh? Our commando survived?"
"Long enough to tell me everything he knew," Kyp returned, gaze even and piercing.
Jag jerked his head in acknowledgement. "Understood."
"Listen, Jag- this is important- we can't meet again. From here on out, until you have Leyla back in your physical possession, I'm just another casual Jedi acquaintance. No one is to know that I was at your apartment last night, no one is to know that I've even ever been to your apartment. Leyla is just a girl I've encountered once or twice, no more, no less."
Jag swallowed. "What are you going to do?"
"Whatever it takes. Whoever is leading this, they've made a fatal error; you should always know what personal vendettas you're starting. They'll be keeping tabs on everyone- you and Jaina, her parents, Jacen, your whole family, the Skywalkers… but not me. The last thing they want in this is a surprise, and I'm going to give that to them one way or another." The cold determination in Kyp's voice sent chills down Jag's back. "There's something dark at work here, Jag- and unfortunately for them, that's a language I speak very well."
"What should we do in the meantime?"
Kyp's voice was sharp. "Everything you'd be doing anyway. I can't give you any information from the commando, they'll be more off-guard if they don't suspect one survived. But go on what you have, follow up where you can, and if you find something promising, run with it. I'm going to disappear soon and when that happens- you'll have to get this into Jaina's head too, and her family's- you can't argue with anything, can't support or deny any claims that are made about me. I have a feeling that I'm going to need to make a dramatic exit from the Jedi order, and you have to accept whatever happens. My priority now is Leyla, and I'm more than willing to wound the pride of the Jedi to get her back. Understood?"
"Understood." He hesitated. "Kyp… what do you know that I don't?"
The older man ran an anxious hand through his long hair. "A lot that I can't tell you. But for now- Jag, this wasn't a ransom kidnapping, not a political ploy. They wanted Leyla and now that they have her, they are going to disappear and watch the galaxy unravel from a safe distance."
A knot formed in Jag's stomach, a lump in his throat. "Do what you need to do," he said hoarsely. "May the Force be with you."
Kyp nodded, paused, and shook the young man's hand firmly. "Take care of Jaina; give her a kiss for me."
And he was gone in a swirl of robes.
End Part II