AN: As promised… a quick update. Relatively speaking of course... Hope everyone enjoys it.
Loteva: Could be… Han's got the charm. Maybe some of it rubbed off on Jacen.
Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay: Let's see if he was right to get a move on. No idea if he's falling for her. Don't think Jacen's feelings run away from him that fast, or do they?
LudiMagister: /Hug Thanks beta-reader! Big shout-out to you.
Onimiman: Glad you're enjoying the risky pairing. They are my two favorite SW characters. Finally decided to create a scenario where they could have some moments. Let's see how it plays out. Literally don't know where I'm taking it yet.
the brown cow: I suppose there were hints…
Utuu: Glad you liked it. Here's the new chapter.
Sitting in the cramped cockpit of his star-fighter, the swirling patterns of hyperspace spiraling all around him, Jacen had ample opportunity to think. While the majority of his thoughts were occupied by worry for his daughter, emphasized by the fact that he checked up on her through the Force every few minutes, he did have other things on his mind as well. His mother's words still rang in his head. "You're frightening us Jacen." Her words had echoed behind him as he escaped the medbay at a dead run, making a bee-line for the Temple's hangar. His decisions, made without consulting anyone, worried his family, or so his mother had told him while he was hurriedly dressing. She had rebuked him for not giving himself the needed time to recuperate. His injuries needed to heal and he was doing himself a disservice by refusing to allow enough time to pass.
She was not wrong, of course. But if he allowed ample time for recuperation in perfect comfort while his daughter was literally murdered in her cradle he would end up with a wound that would kill him slowly for the rest of his life. Of course he could not tell his mother that. Allana's existence was supposed to stay a secret. 'Ironically, to keep her safe.' The thought caused him to scoff in a mixture of panic and terror.
Initially he had thought to warn Tenel Ka. He had begun to initiate the call through the holonet when he recalled the holorecording that R2-D2 had preserved all those years in his memory banks. The one he had watched with Mara and his uncle before Luke died… Anakin Skywalker's visions of his wife's death had been the catalyst for their occurrence. His attempts to deflect the event in the most straightforward way possible had brought about the very thing he wanted to prevent. Rather than have Tenel Ka actively try and stop the assassination from occurring, he would trust the in the Force again. It had never let him down when it mattered. It would not have granted him an insight and not given him enough time to prevent it. He reassured himself of this every few minutes. It took all his willpower to keep himself from dropping out of hyperspace next to the nearest comm-buoy to call his daughter's mother and warn her.
He distracted himself by milling over his recent indiscretions and actions. Sometimes he thought he must have hallucinated the whole thing. There was no way he had actually kissed Mara… But he snapped out of that line of thought rather quickly whenever his mind started wandering down that road. He could try and blame any number of factors or substances. But alcohol, drugs, and blood loss combined could not account for him doing something he had never wanted to do in the first place. 'Sober thoughts are drunk deeds, or some such,' Jacen mused. He knew that on some level he was attracted to Mara. How could he not be? She had entered his life in a serious capacity when he was already ten years old. And she was not the sort of person to do so subtly. She knew how to make an entrance. He could not help but be impressed by her in a vivid manner at that age. What had been puppy love had simply transformed into distant fascination which he never really found time to interpret or analyze. With time it had become nothing but simple respect for his aunt as a person.
Now that Luke was dead, however, his ancient impressions of Mara had become something different. He was protective and jealous of anyone who might try and take Luke's place. And somewhere down the line he had actively come to desire her for himself. Perhaps it had always been there in some capacity. Or maybe it was something that developed. But there it was. Jacen sighed audibly, annoyed at himself.
And then his thoughts returned to Allana, as they had the proclivity to do since he had left Coruscant. His hand began to rise to his controls—to begin the process he had initiated several times already. Consult his route. Find a comm-buoy. Drop out of hyperspace. Contact Tenel Ka. Warn her. Several hours ago he had actually made it to the drop out of hyperspace step and then thought better of it. His lack of certainty was almost killing him. He felt helpless to make the right choice. And as far as he could see there was no grey area.
"Arnine, what's the ETA?" Jacen asked.
Text scrolled down his console. Four hours and thirteen minutes. There was nothing to do but wait. At this point it was absurd to even consider the option of warning Tenel Ka. Best thing he could do was induce a healing trance for the next four hours in order to make sure he would be in his best possible shape when he arrived. Jacen inhaled deeply.
"In case I don't wake up in four hours, blast the collision warning through the cockpit until I do." Jacen instructed his astromech.
Moments later he entered into a deep trance.
He came out of his trance several minutes before exiting hyperspace. His healing trance had been more effective than he had expected. The dull throbbing pain of his recently knit wound had lessened. Jacen felt his daughter's presence: a beacon of pure innocence and vitality. She was relatively close now. And she was still alive. But when he touched her mind he felt something he had not felt earlier: a muted sense of an ominous threat that was fast approaching. Allana felt it to. The moment she felt her father's touch she latched onto him, almost desperately. Jacen responded to her with a wave of soothing reassurance.
The sensation of his daughter clinging to him through the Force, recognizing him as a benevolent and safe presence, filled him with such a fierce sense of protectiveness that it almost overwhelmed him. Jacen maintained his connection with her and waited. Minutes later Arnine alerted him that a reversion to real space was imminent. Jacen hit some buttons on the control panel. The streaks and swirls of light reverted back into specks of light that dotted space all around him; before him the Hapan homeworld dominated his view. Jacen activated his StealthX's cloaking shield and angled his approach towards where he knew the Queen Mother's palace to be.
It took him another few minutes to arrive, but the palatial complex called the Fountain Palace finally extended before him. He had approached it across a heavily forested area that was uninhabited. The StealthX was invisible to sensors but not the naked eye. He lowered the StealthX into a clearing, as close to the palace as he dared to go. As the canopy rose, and the humid air enveloped him, he took a deep breath. The sun was setting in the distance and its descent resulted in a beautiful spectrum of maroon, orange, and yellow light. Hapes had too many natural satellites to ever enjoy a true night, but their night was a little dimmer than their days.
"Keep the canopy locked. If anyone approaches and appears hostile, leave and get the ship to a safe distance from the planet. But stay within communication range," Jacen ordered the R9 droid.
The astromech beeped back an affirmative and Jacen jumped out of the cockpit. He landed several yards away and called on the Force to lend him speed. The two clicks to the Fountain Palace were traversed quickly as Jacen dodged out of the way of low hanging branches and leapt over obstacles. He picked up on life signs all around him, scurrying through the forest. Some of them were alarmed by his invasion into their territory and scrambled away into the underbrush. He acknowledged all of this in passing but did not let it distract him. It only took him three minutes to make it to the perimeter of the palatial gardens.
A powerful force leap carried him sailing over the enormous reinforced fence. He knew it was under a potent electrical current which would stun a man into unconsciousness upon contact and alert the Royal Guard of the disturbance. It was not designed to hold out a powerful force user however. Not that something like that could be adequately designed. He was annoyed at the pain shooting up his side, but copious amounts of healing energy steadily funneled towards the wound kept it from reopening. The pain, he could not do anything about however. Jacen blurred past an inattentive guardsman who was strolling through the garden.
At that moment his comm-device buzzed. Jacen instantly stopped and launched himself into a backflip. The guardsman was spinning towards the noise and managed to fully turn just in time to see Jacen fly over him and land directly behind him. Jacen's arms enveloped the man instantly in a choke hold. The guardsman was well trained. Even in the hopeless situation he found himself in he tried to jab his panic button rather than attempt to pry Jacen's arms away from his neck. It was a futile attempt. Jacen used the Force to extend the man's arms out away from his torso, keeping him from setting off the alarm.
The moment the guard sunk into unconsciousness, Jacen unceremoniously dropped him. He did not even bother to wipe the man's memory since there was no way he had seen Jacen. He ripped the comm-device off his belt in annoyance. It indicated that his informant was contacting him. Jacen returned to his previous pace. It was still several hundred meters to the palace. The gardens were vast and beautifully maintained.
"What!?" Jacen answered angrily.
"You were right, sir." His informant replied patiently. "There's a shindig at the Hapan Court tonight. It's already started."
Jacen exhaled forcefully. "It took you three days to acquire this information?"
"I knew two days ago. I couldn't reach you. Your comm should say something like thirty missed communiques."
Jacen glanced at his comm, and sure enough the man was right. Thirty-five missed incoming comms. Some of them were from the Executive Office in Coruscant. He had been unreachable in hyperspace, of course. "Right. Well, did you get a guest list?"
"Yeah I have it. It's a lotta names." The spy replied.
Jacen reached the marbled façade of the palace. Using the Force he disabled the security on one of the gleaming bejeweled windows on the second floor. Once he felt satisfied he depressed the latch using a gentle prod. The window swung open a moment later. A Force leap carried him up and inside.
"Sir? You're breathing pretty heavily." The man said in what sounded like genuine concern. Likely for his next paycheck, Jacen thought.
"How many blonde women on the list, height around 185 centimeters?"
Jacen landed in the palace's interior soundlessly, muffling the impact. He maintained a combat crouch as he scanned his surroundings. A patrol was moving away from him in the direction of the official quarters. Jacen's path would take him the opposite way, so that was fine by him. Before he started to move he closed the window behind him and reactivated security. With luck his entrance would go unnoticed. He enveloped himself in a Force shield that would make him invisible to both recording devices and shrink him in the Force, to a point that he would be invisible to other Force users.
"Only like four. Not many women that tall," the informant told him in response to his last inquiry
"Do you have any pictures?" Jacen pressed.
"Only for one of them… Apparently she's new to the Royal Court."
Jacen came up behind another guard, whom he knocked unconscious with a swift blow to the temple. A force shove tossed him into a nearby closet, if one could call the work of art that decorated the hall that. Jacen reinforced the man's sleep with a wave of his hand. The guard would nap for hours.
"Does she have a heavy scarf around her neck? Or perhaps its covering the lower portion of her face?"
"By the nine Corellian Hells!" The spy exclaimed. "There is a scarf around her neck. But more than that, something is not right with this image. The lower portion of her face is manipulated somehow. I used to work in intelligence and I specialized in recognizing doctored pictures. This holopic is not genuine. It's exquisitely worked—a real artist—but the lower portion of her face has been manipulated somehow."
Jacen frowned. He had seen her face in the prognostic vision. Why would it look doctored in the holopic? Not the time to ponder this, Jacen thought. "Find out what you can about her. Freeze her assets. See if she's working for anyone. Find out who that person is, if she does."
Jacen ended the call and resumed his path with a renewed sense of urgency. Something was off about this assassin. He had wondered just how she had carved through Tenel Ka's guard so rapidly in the vision. With each clue he became more certain. This assassin was not only Force sensitive, but powerful in her own right. Jacen finally reached the private quarters of the Queen. The entrance to the nursery was not guarded, principally because no Royal Guard could ever be as effective as an YVH droid such as Allana's nanny droid was, but also because her identity was closely guarded, and no member of the Queen Mother's household was allowed to see her. Jacen entered casually through the door. The droid inside instantly spun on him, several weapons primed. It recognized Jacen as the girl's father.
"Jedi Solo?" It greeted him. "You are not scheduled for a visit."
"Unannounced surprise," he explained stepping past the droid. Allana was crying.
"She has been inconsolable for over an hour now. I would have alerted her mother, but she is officiating an important ceremony and asked to only be contacted in case of an emergency," the nanny droid explained.
The moment his daughter caught sight of him she stopped crying and extended a little hand towards him. Jacen's heart expanded at the gesture. He scooped her up, beaming at her. "I'm here now," he said soothingly. "Your father's got you now. You're safe now."
As he held her she grabbed the folds of his robe, gurgling contentedly. Jacen poured out his love for her through the force. As he beheld her tiny helpless form a part of him felt renewed fury for whatever monster was willing to harm her. Any harm that would befall her now would have to occur over his dead body. And there was no way he would let that happen. There was still so much to do...
"You have that magic touch," The droid said. "The Queen Mother has said it many times."
"That's because you're daddy's little girl." Jacen said tickling Allana's stomach. She giggled delightedly in response. "And no one will ever hurt you so long as I live," Jacen said with intensity. Allana sensed his serious mood and stopped grinning. "I'd burn the galaxy before I'd allow harm to befall you, Allana."
Jacen placed his hand protectively on his daughter's head, the wisps of golden red hair as smooth as silk. "Is she healthy?" Jacen asked the droid.
"She is in perfect physical health. Her brain activity signals an active mind. She will likely be precocious, as humans say," the droid informed him.
Jacen slowly moved towards one of the corners of the room. He blew some air at his daughters face and laughed when she squinted in irritation. "You're adorable," he told her, hunching over to kiss her forehead. "I'll never let you go again, no I won't."
He leaned against the soothing green colored wall of the room. The color had been specifically chosen in response to how Allana's Force signature had reacted toward it. The color calms her, Jacen had told Tenel Ka, and his lover had promptly painted the nursery's walls the exact hue. The corner in which they now stood was shadowy. Jacen sensed an ominous warning through the Force. The threat was not directed against him, but against his daughter. Jacen felt it due to being connected to her. Jacen shielded her psyche, not letting her feel the malevolent ruthlessness of her would be assailant. Jacen used the Force to increase the shadowy nature of the corner, making them invisible within it.
Jacen reached out and touched the minds of the guards nearby. One of them reacted with surprise towards something and then horror. A moment later his life was extinguished. Jacen turned to the nanny droid. "The next person to come through that door means the Chume'da harm. Kill her."
The droid's eyes turned from a blue glow, to a threatening red. "Of course," it replied.
Jacen veiled his daughter's presence in the force heavily and projected a Fallanassi illusion into the crib, reinforcing the image with a false life signature heavily reminiscent of Allana's real one. Jacen made sure once more that all his shields and Force illusions and suggestions were intact and properly supported. When he was satisfied he devoted the necessary concentration towards maintaining them.
The presence that approached the door a minute or so later oozed a cold calculating ruthlessness and efficiency that reminded him of a more malevolent version of Mara. Someone devoted and honed to a razor's edge pursuant of whatever goal she had set herself—or had been set for her—with not an ounce of pity or mercy to temper or dissuade her. A suspicion that had begun to grow inside of him was reinforced by this insight.
The door opened a moment later. The YVH's weapons hummed to life but before it could fire at the intruder it was hit by a Force blast that knocked it against the wall. The assassin jumped inside, moving with Force assisted speed. A lightsaber hilt of an unusual shape was in her fist. When she ignited it to finish off the droid he found himself surprised to see glowing tendrils which extended from the hilt. A lightwhip. Only one person that he knew of wielded that signature weapon. A single slash sent pieces of the droid careening off across the room.
Jacen was impressed by the deadliness of the weapon. But he was not overly worried. He was not planning of crossing sabers with this woman, however. When she approached Allana's crib Jacen felt his anger begin to rise. The thought that this woman was willing to kill a defenseless baby disgusted him. The moment she reached inside the miniature bed to kill his daughter, or rather the illusion of her that he was projecting, Jacen reached deep inside himself and drew on every iota of Force power that he could muster. Allana somehow felt what he was doing. Suddenly Jacen felt his Force expand greatly. His little girl was instinctively reaching out to him to support her father. Jacen extended his right hand, holding Allana safely with his left and let lose a Force wave. The moment it released Jacen felt lightheaded, momentarily, from the energy it had cost.
The assassin must have felt something for she jumped out of the way. Not fast enough, however. The wave lifted her off her feet and carried her into the far wall. The Force wave impacted the wall with such force that it buckled and partially collapsed. Part of the roof that lost support fell in on itself. Jacen projected a shield above him like he had done against the Chiss bombardment on the Killik world months ago. The broken pieces of permacrete and marble bounced off the shield. The assassin was half buried by the rubble by the time he got to her.
Even in the state she was in she managed to bring up her lightwhip when he approached. Jacen flicked his hand to which he had summoned his lightsaber and cut off her arm. He was not overly surprised when instead of cutting off a limb he found himself cutting off a prosthetic that sparked and flickered when it was dismembered. The woman did not grimace in pain of course but merely remained lying on her side, a mangled heap of flesh and machinery. She looked up at him with a look that bespoke something akin to acceptance and weariness.
"Lumiya, I presume?" He spat, already knowing the answer.
Blood oozed out of her mouth. "Jacen Solo…"
He nodded and touched his daughter's forehead, inducing a deep sleep. "You tried to kill my daughter." Her eyes flashed in surprise at the statement. "The Force warned me, thankfully. It takes a particularly low sort of person to kill a defenseless baby."
Lumiya's lips curved slightly. "I don't have long to live so I won't insult you by lying to you. It's not about her. It's about you and your destiny."
Jacen scoffed. "What would you know about my destiny? It seems you should have worried more about your own… it's about to come to an end."
Tenel Ka came storming into the room at that moment, her lightsaber grasped tightly. When she saw Jacen she gasped in surprise.
"Jacen?!" She scanned the wreckage that had been made of the nursery. "What happened in here?"
Lumiya did not react to her presence, although considering her state and the fact that she was pinned beneath rubble, disinterest in Tenel Ka might not have been the cause of that. Her attention was fixed on Jacen. "Look at you. Your destiny is being fulfilled already. You're everything he wasn't. He clung to the light. You walk the razor's edge between two powerful forces. He reformed an outdated order of glorified monks who clung to an outdated code. You will rule the galaxy." Tenel Ka had walked up beside Jacen by this point. She looked down at the mangled heap that was Lumiya's body and a flash of pity crossed her features. "He couldn't even keep himself from dying prematurely. You will save the galaxy all by yourself."
Tenel Ka tried to take Allana from Jacen but he shook his head. His attention returned to the dying, self-proclaimed, Sith. "How would you know all that? How am I already fulfilling my destiny?"
Lumiya smiled cryptically. "I don't know—" she coughed. "… maybe everything I tell you is a lie."
Jacen's eyes widened. "Who told you to say that?!" He practically yelled.
"Vergere herself did. She was one of us," Lumiya explained. She coughed again, blood flying out of her in little droplets. "The Emperor's humanocentrism drove her away. Your path is dark and lonely Jacen, no matter the road you take. The end of your path is one of solitude, that much I do know. Or perhaps that's a lie too…" She smiled enigmatically again.
Her eyes began to flutter. "And one more…thing: I fulfilled…my…destiny. I kept my…oaths. They're all…you're left with…in the end." She accentuated the word "oath" with a curious sort of reverence. "Ask your…aunt…if she can say…the—" Her Force signature winked out of existence simultaneously with her death rattle, before she could finish.
Tenel Ka turned to face Jacen. "What was all that about? Who was she…?" She pointed at Lumiya's corpse.
"A relic from the Empire." He turned around and began to step over the rubble towards the door of the nursery. "I saw Allana's death in the force, through your eyes. I came just in time to save her," Jacen explained.
"Through my eyes?" Tenel Ka questioned, confused.
"Yes… it was strange. Unlike any vision I've ever experienced." Jacen nodded towards the fallen assassin. "You followed her through a secret door in the Hall of Masters, did you not? After you're security chief told you about two sleeping guards that had been found at one of the palace's side entrances."
Tenel Ka nodded. "Yes. Exactly." Tenel Ka shook her head and inhaled deeply. "I'm glad you kept her from kidnapping our little girl."
"You were rather busy attending your royal duties." Jacen said slowly, not bothering to correct her.
Tenel Ka stopped midstride. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Jacen turned to face her. "Exactly what you think it meant. If I hadn't been warned by the Force, Allana would be dead right now."
Tenel Ka frowned. "What? Oh please. This was all clearly about you. Lumiya was trying to get at you through Allana. That much was very obvious from what I heard. So the only reason Allana was in danger in the first place, is because of you."
Jacen thoughts came to a screeching halt. Was she right? Was he really at fault? Lumiya had been rather keen on getting through to him, with her dying breath no less. Had Allana's death been a means to an end? But Lumiya had been unaware of Allana's connection to Jacen. He had seen as much in her eyes. "Something doesn't quite add up," he said thoughtfully.
Tenel Ka shook her head. "Fine, but don't try to pin this all on me."
She walked up to him. "I am glad you're here." She placed her hand on his cheek. "You look weary and you're feverish."
She was right about that. He felt weak and tired, and his healing wound was painfully throbbing again. Her face bespoke care and gentleness. "Let's go to my bedroom. I'll have my guard clean up this mess. I'll take care of both of you tonight," she said nodding at Allana.
Jacen felt himself begin to nod before he even realized it. Then he throttled the gesture of acquiescence. "Don't ever do that again!" he exclaimed venomously.
His voice was so sharp that Tenel Ka was actually startled and took a step back. "I'm just trying to soothe you. You're radiating so much emotional turmoil…it can't be good for Allana."
"I'm shielding her from that. I'm not a careless fool. Which should be obvious from her being asleep." He brushed past her into the hall, where her security chief and two Royal Guards were standing.
Tenel Ka followed behind him. "Where are you going Jacen?" she said in a sharp voice.
"Back to Coruscant. There's still much to be done." He stated purposefully.
Tenel Ka came flying over his head and landed in front of him, her lightsaber in her hand. "Jacen, give me my daughter."
He smiled. "Give her back to another nanny droid, you mean. Not likely."
The security chief stepped up to him, her weapon drawn. "The Queen Mother was not asking."
Jacen glanced at her. "In fact, it was I who was not asking."
Tenel Ka responded to this by igniting her lightsaber. "I don't know what's gotten into you. But you're not taking my daughter from me."
"No man steals the Chume'da from the Hapan palace," the security chief added.
Jacen laughed throatily. Allana, remained blissfully asleep through this whole ordeal, guarded by his shield and sleeping peacefully in a Force induced trance. Tenel Ka was visibly shocked by his behavior and obviously unbalanced by his laugh. "If you make me go through you and your sexist sidekicks over here, I will. I'll cut you all down and I'll leave this wretched consortium in a state of political turmoil. I really don't care at all, right now. I'd prefer not to kill my daughter's mother but if you want to be an obstacle in my path I will move you out of the way. You're too weak to realize what's at stake. My death would send the future spinning out of control, but yours would not."
A tear rolled down Tenel Ka's cheek. "Don't do this Jacen."
"My Queen! We can stop him." The security chief exclaimed and stabbed at the air with her ceremonially decorative vibrosword. A look of confusion passed across her face and she repeated the motion. "It's some kind of holorecording… He's not even here!"
Jacen had recognized her lethal intent and had clouded her senses moments earlier. She was attacking a phantom version of him. The guardsman next to her, hands on the ornate blaster rifles were frowning in confusion. They could still see Jacen. To them it looked like their commander was attacking thin air.
"This is a dark path you're considering walking, Jacen. No good can come of this." Tenel Ka said with conviction.
Jacen shook his head. "I love my daughter. She will be safer with me. You know that, deep down, if not on the surface."
"No, Jacen!" she implored. "This," she said pointing at Allana, "is not love. This is something possessive and obsessive. A loving father would not take his daughter from his mother."
Jacen stood there for a moment, unmoving, looking up at the ceiling. His feverish state was not diminishing. He had to leave, and soon, while he still could. But then a thought struck him. If he returned Allana to her mother's arms now, he would never be trusted to see her again. His rapport with Tenel Ka was likely forever ruined. He had gone too far. "He would if that mother put her official duties above her child's well-being." His former lover's glance turned from determined to sad. "Tenel Ka, get out of my way… NOW!"
Jacen breathed an inward sigh of relief when she did. So she still thought Allana safe with him. There was no way she would have let him take her daughter if she thought Allana would be anything but safe with him. Jacen walked passed her warily, keeping a close read on her with the Force. Once he rounded a corner, he broke into a Force aided run, quickly putting distance between him and his daughter's mother.