Melting Ice

Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not on the subconscious level where savage things grow. I know I wasn’t. I expected the betrayal ever since the mission to “stop the Chiss.” I warned everyone that would listen, and when my warnings feel on deaf ears, I did what I could to change what was happening.

I did what we were being told a good Jedi did, I obeyed what I saw as the Will of the Force.

My reward? I was sent to this mudball, with just Tesar and Lowbacca as company.

I could feel the Force in shreds from all the missing Jedi. It is a weeping, gnashing feeling in the base of my soul.

There are fewer and fewer Jedi out there now. I close my eyes, and see them, a few bright spots in the Force, and one dark black hole. A smudge across the canvas of the Force.

I’m sitting here, on a patch of almost dry mud, meditating, watching one of those few Jedi who happen to be left. Watching as that dark black hole gets closer and closer to the Jedi.

And with a wail the Force lets me know that yet another Jedi has fallen. I probe the Force and it whispers to me that it was Zekk who has died, who has become one with the Force, years before he was supposed to.

The Yuuzhan Vong in me can’t seem to find the tears to cry for him, for any of them.

Time passes fast here at times, and at times, it seems that each second draws on for eons.

As I watch each Jedi fall in the Force, it’s one of those times when the hours and days pass by in an eye-blink. I have known for days now that there is the last Jedi heading this way. I assume he is hoping to find sanctuary, or maybe he’s merely looking for help.

Of course, I know something that he obviously doesn’t. The Dark One is right behind him.

I stand up, and face the west. The west, which is the direction from which they both are coming and I can feel them coming. Feel the familiarity in the Force.

I can feel my face as it curls into a smile, as the Jedi arrives.

Yet as he pushes through the undergrowth, my smile dies away. I was totally not expecting him to be the Jedi. I never expected Jacen to be the one that was doing the running. He was running to us of all people, the Exiles who were banished because we dared to question his intentions.

I watch, awestruck, as he collapses at my feet, gasping for breath. He lifts his head, his cocoa colored eyes boring into mine and he gasps out a single word. “Run.”

Yet I cannot. Because I can feel the dark one, and it is coming. It is almost here. I’m too afraid to run, and too afraid to stay here.

Then he steps through the brush. My eyes lock with his ice-blue ones. A blue I knew as closely and as well as the blue of the Tatooine sky. Blue eyes that I have dreamed about every night for almost a decade now.
I can feel my heart breaking as he does not recognize me, doesn’t care one bit about who I am.

I hear a throbbing noise, not sure if it’s my heart, some insect, or his ignited saber.

My own voice is raw and filled with pain, and I can feel the tears in my eyes. “Anakin?”

I walk around Jacen, and start to run towards him. I’m absently aware of Jacen saying something.

I throw my arms around him, as I feel a cold fire in my gut. It’s a burning sensation, which makes breathing hard.

I look down and see the blood red blade that Anakin is holding sticking through my stomach.

I playback what Jacen had been saying, and I pay attention to the words this time. “No, Tahiri! It’s not Anakin. It’s a Vong construct, based off of Anakin’s cells, designed to kill Jedi.”

I reach out and touch the smooth skin of his face, and my voice is weak and raspy. “I love you, dummy.”

As I go to become one with the Force, I’m staring at those ice-blue eyes, and see them begin to melt.