Themed Drabbles Set 4

Friends

He is tense as he gazes over his friends. Those who are expecting him to get him through this. Those who are expecting him to lead them.

He looks down at his plate. Why did he volunteer for this mission? What drove him to do so?

His eyes flicker from one table to the next, as he wonders if any of them would die on their mission. Finally his eyes settle on the blonde girl sitting next to him. What would happen if she does? Could he survive?

She smiles, teeth and flashing green eyes.

Would he want to survive?

---

Enemies

Burning. Pain. Fire.

It settles through his gut, even as he dances around the warriors, slaughtering them as they advance. He glories in the Force, the way it feels, the way it reacts.

He can even feel the Vong.

Slash, push, parry. He nudges the thermal detonator away from Anor.

The Force is leaving him, his body giving away after the sheer amount of energy he pushed through it. A final desperate grasp at life, even as he falls to his knees. The last bits of the power to knit, to bind. Is it enough?

Darkness and he is gone.

---

Lovers

He sits up suddenly, his chest heaving. A bad dream. Calming himself, he looks down and sees her face, sweaty, a slight pout to her full lips. Her blonde hair glows slightly in the dim organic lights of the Vong ship. A grin slips onto his face as he remembers the night before. He lies back down beside her, and traces a finger along her chin.

Her eyes open. Bright, shining, happy. He nudges her with the Force, a playful, loving touch.

She responds by pulling his lips to hers. Claiming them. Claiming him.

I love you.

I know dummy.

---

Family

He stands between his siblings. Jaina’s anger and rage, Jacen’s distrust and despair. He caused this. This is all his fault. He looks down and sees nothing. Emptiness. A void. He thinks back. Remembers the detonator. Remembers falling. Then here. The blackness. He remembers dying.

Is this death? Is this hell? Is the Force condemning him for what he did to his family by not being there? And where is Tahiri?

“Hello?”

No echo. Nothing.

He reaches for the Force, and finds nothing. Alone. Deserted. He struggles to see something in the blackness around him.

And fails.

Where is this?

---

Strangers

Awareness comes slowly. A creeping touch. He looks up, and sees the metallic looking trees of Mrykr.

That explains the curious echoing feeling in his head.

He sits up, and sees the Vong surrounding him. They are shamed. They bow to him.

“Yun-Yammka!”

He frowns. That sounds familiar. A word he heard while rescuing Tahiri. He sits up from the cocoon thing, and focuses on the one he thinks is the leader of the group around him.

“Where am I?”

The Shamed smiles. A horrid thing of missing teeth and open sores. “You know Yun-Yammka. The better question is when.”

The Darkening: Chapter Fifteen

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.

Jysella slowly comes to, tucked between the crisp sheets, the clean antiseptic smell telling her that she is in a hospital. A dull ache in the back of her head makes it hard to think straight, but Jysella can't help but feel like something is missing, that some fundamental part of her is gone.

She lets out a small groan, and someone places a cool, moist rag on her forehead. She opens her eyes and finds herself looking at her mother. "Mom?"

Mirax gives her an abbreviated smile, one filled with equal parts happiness and pain. "Shhh. Rest yourself, and save your strength."

Jysella nods her head, and then the image of Ben screaming in pain flashes through her mind, and she sits up, the world wavering in and out as her body rebels at the quick movement. She grabs her mother's arm. "Ben! Is Ben okay?"

Mirax calmly pushes Jysella back down onto the bed. "Calm down Jysella. Master Skywalker will be here shortly to talk to you I'm sure. He'll answer your questions."

Jysella can feel the tears as they start to flow. "Please tell me that Ben is okay. Please?"

Mirax looks at her daughter for a second, and then turns from her, going to the door. "I'll send Luke in."

Then she is gone, leaving Jysella alone in the room. Then a horrible realization strikes Jysella, she could not feel her mother at all in the Force.

She could not feel the Force.

She reached out, but where once a great, warm rushing river of life, love, happiness and hope greeted her there was nothing but an echo of the Force, a dim reflected memory of what used to be. She slips out of the bed, steadying herself on the nightstand as vertigo grips her. Then she walks to the window, looking out at the grounds surrounding the medical center.

In the distance she can see the Jedi Temple, and notices the long blackened furrows scribbled down the side of the various towers. The sound of the door opening behind her drags her attention away from the temple, and she slowly turns to see Master Skywalker standing in the doorway.

"How are you feeling Jysella?"

"How's Ben? Please tell me."

Luke sighs, and closes the door gently behind him. Then he slips into the lone chair in the room. "How much do you remember since you returned from your trip to the Errant Venture?"

Jysella covers her face with her hands as images assault her. Her voice is a weak whisper. "Everything." She slides her hands down from her face. "Master, what is wrong with me? Why did I do those things?"

"Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Jysella starts crying once more, her entire body shaking with her remorse. "Please tell me he's okay. Tell me that I was able to save him; that I didn't destroy everyone around me."

Pain flickers across his face, and he takes a deep breath, slowly letting it out. "We're not sure yet if he's going to make it. He's not responding to Bacta, and Cilghal is trying everything possible." Luke glances at the wall for a second, and then back at her. "Can you walk?"

Jysella looks up at him, wiping away her tears, even as new ones appear. "I-I think so."

"Then follow me."

Luke stands, and leaves the room, Jysella walking behind him gasps as she leaves her room, the Force flooding into awareness again. She turns back for a second, and then once more follows Luke. The entire trip, she keeps her head lowered and does not ask any questions. They arrive at their destination, and Jysella starts to bite her lower lip. Fear grips her heart as she stares into the vault which once held the Dark Side artifacts.

Jysella rubs her shoulders, attempting to warm herself. "It's so cold."

Luke nods his head. "The Dark Side of the Force is strong in there. Into the vault you must go."

Jysella feels like Luke had just slapped her. "In there?"

"Yes."

"What's in there?"

Luke almost breaks a smile, but Jysella has the feeling that the almost smile is not meant for her. "Only what you take with you." Then Luke leans against the wall, and closes his eyes.

Jysella watches him for a moment, and then turns and steps into the room.

The dark feels palatable to her, like something alive crawling over her skin, clawing at her, trying to find a haven for its evil. Though she knew that the entire temple was climate controlled, the chill she felt in the hallway just grew stronger. The feeble light from the hallway, almost seems swallowed whole by the room, adding to the feelings of despair haunting her.

She finally makes it to the center of the room, and a dark shape emerges from the shadows. The shape glides towards her, and she notices that whoever it is, is wearing a heavy cloak with a cowl that obscures the face. Terror grips Jysella's heart and she reaches down for her saber, before realizing that it's not there.

The voice that comes from the cloaked figure is harsh, and barely above a whisper. "Peace is a lie. There is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."

Then the figure throws back the hood, and Jysella finds herself staring at her own face, except her features are twisted by anger and hate, and her eyes are yellowed and bloodshot. Jysella steps backwards as her shade steps towards her.

Finally she throws her arms up over her head and sinks to her knees. "No! Go away!"

"I can't I am a part of you, just as you are a part of me."

Jysella looks up. "What?"

The shade kneels down in front of her, taking up her hand. "Ben's sacrifice saved you from the Dark, from becoming me. Yet I will always be there, lurking just beneath the surface, ready and waiting to get out. Won't you let me out?"

Jysella nods her head in understanding. "And it is up to me, to make sure Ben's sacrifice was not in vain. To ensure that I keep you where you belong."

With a smile, the shade fades away, disappearing as if she was nothing more than a mist. Jysella stands up and walks back into the hall, her head no longer bowed. Luke is leaning against the wall, his blue eyes shining.

"I failed when presented with such a test. I am proud that you did not."

"What did it all mean Master?"

"It means that you have a lot of hard work ahead of you, as you finish training to be a Jedi. A lot of hard work as you fight daily with yourself to keep the Dark Side in check, to keep it from engulfing you."

Jysella bows in Luke's direction. "Thank you Master."

Luke turns and walks away and up the stairs. Jysella slowly spins around and stares once more into the dark, into that seductive room. Then she turns from it, and walks up the stairs and into the light.

The Darkening: Chapter Fourteen

Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.

Five minutes ago, the sun was shining, and there was not a cloud in the sky. As far as the eye could see, the blue expanse was unbroken except for the yellow-orange ball which is Ossus' sun.

In the space of that five minutes, the sky has darkened, the sun blotted out by rolling, dark-grey clouds. Every sentient that was outside for some reason in the city that surrounds the Jedi Temple, has stopped and watches the rolling mass of clouds, the vertex of which is the Jedi Temple itself.

As the first lightning strike rips from the clouds and smash into the side of the temple, a superstitious awe rolls across the sentients of Ossus. The crack of thunder that follows in the immediate aftermath of the lightning strike makes those who were unaware of the darkening sky jump in surprise and fright.

Even though the clouds look bloated and full of rain, no drops fall. The only thing that comes from those clouds are the bolts of lightning, striking the Temple again and again and again.

---------------------------------------

Ben is staring into the vault as the first lightning strike hits the Temple, causing the lights in the hallway to flicker. With the next strike, the lights die entirely. After a few moments, an eerie red glow starts to appear in the vault, and Ben steps forward.

As he looks around the walls, he sees numerous boxes, which are the source of the room's illumination. Jysella is floating about a third of a meter off of the ground in the middle of the room, her eyes closed, and an odd red mist writhing around her form, an ecstatic expression on her face.

A scuttle of movement behind him, and Ben twists, nearly screaming out in pain due to his stomach wound. As the blackness fades back, he notices that the door to the vault has swung shut.

"Jysella?"

Ben watches as she slowly lowers to the floor, and opens her eyes. He shivers at the fire that flashes in them, their reptilian, yellow tinge causing an instinctive fear to rise in his stomach.

"Hello again Ben. I'm sorry, but you already had your chance with me."

Ben shakes his head. "That's not why I'm here. I'm here to help you."

"I don't want or need your help Ben. The power is mine!"

Jysella throws out her hand, and lightning writhes down it, flying straight for Ben. In an instant he has his saber up and is deflecting the blast towards the ceiling.

As he focuses on keeping his blade up under Jysella's onslaught, a fork of lightning shoots out from a nearby holocron, it's tendrils wrapping around Ben, who screams and falls to the floor, dropping his saber.

As the lightning fades, Ben weakly lifts himself to his knees, and two different holocrons fire lightning at him. He collapses back to the ground, curling into a fetal position. Finally the lightning once more fades away, the scent of ozone hanging strongly in the air.

Ben has his eyes shut tight, fighting his body's desire to give into shock and the pain. He opens his eyes and looks up at Jysella. "Is this what you wanted? Is this who you want to be?"

For a second, Ben sees a flicker of indecision, a brief moment of humanity in her reptilian eyes. Yet it came and went so fast, that he has to wonder if he imagined it. A sneer flows onto her face, as she replies to Ben's questions. "It is who I asked to be. I wanted the power; I had to take the power. And then I had to punish those who mistreated me."

Horror once more fills Ben at those final words. "Kai and Keira. You killed them."

A laugh that sounds nothing like Jysella erupts from her throat. "Of course I did. And don't forget Corran and Merida. Oh wait, they've not found her yet have they."

Ben leverages himself up into a sitting position. "And Jacen?"

Once more that laughter rolls out, a deep masculine laugh. "Jacen thought there was no Dark Side, no Light Side. So of course I had to show him just how wrong he was."

Ben heaves himself to his feet, wavering slightly, before he is able to once more steady himself. Gingerly, he touches the lightsaber wound on his stomach, and pulls his hand away at the stickiness. He sighs as he realizes that the contortions his muscles went through under the lightning barrage opened the wound again.

"Yet, you never did answer my question; is this who you want to be?"

Ben watches as Jysella lowers her head. "No…Yes. Yes, it is who I want to be." Then she raises her head again, and Ben notices a lone tear running down her cheek.

"I don't think it is."

Jysella's clenches her fist, and her arms begin to tremble with the exertion which she holds them. She speaks through clenched teeth. "What you think is immaterial."

Ben takes a step forward, closing the distance between them. "I think you just wanted to be accepted and loved. The same as everyone else."

As he watches another tear escapes from her eyes. "No! No! No! No!" Each exclamation is punctuated by a swing of her long brown hair. "I wanted revenge and power!"

Ben finally closes the distance, and brushing through the red mist, which withers at his approach, he wraps her in a large hug. He places his mouth next to her ear. "I would accept and love you."

He pulls his head back slightly, and looks into her eyes, noticing they are now tear-filled and their normal green. Her voice is weak and watery. "Ben?"

He smiles down at her. "I'm here. I told you I'd stay with you."

Her body hitches with a sob, and then her eyes flicker yellow once more. "No! She is a child of the Dark! You do not get her back!"

Jysella places her hand against his chest, and pushes with the Force, throwing him backwards. Ben lands against the shelves, knocking various artifacts to the floor. As he once more gains his feet he turns towards Jysella. "Get out of her. She doesn't want you there."

"She no longer has a choice."

Ben steps forward once again, and a holocron sends lightning at him. Then another. Then another. Before long, he is writhing on the floor, trying to dispel the effects of the attacks. He looks up to Jysella and gasps out. "You can stop this Jysella. I have faith."

Then the rest of the holocrons start pouring their lightning into Ben, who opens his mouth and starts to scream.

-------------------------------------------------

The scream cuts through the fog that Jysella had been in for so long, and she looks around the dim room, and sees a picture from her nightmarish vision; Ben being attacked by various holocrons.

She reaches down and grasps her saber, and ignites it. She is startled slightly by the silvery-pink blade that comes forth. Then ignoring the color of her blade, she slams the saber into the closest of the holocrons. The explosion of the holocron buffets her, and showers her with shrapnel, but she pays no attention, but instead swings her blade at the next one. And then the next.

She quickly disposes of the holocrons, and then drops to Ben's side, lifting his still form into her arms.

"Ben? Please Ben, don't die. Please!"

She drags her eyes away from Ben, as the vault door once more swings open, the light shining from the hallway beyond momentarily blinding her. Then she hears the voices of both of Ben's parents as they cry out his name.

As his mother takes Ben from her arms, Jysella becomes aware of the multitude of pains and aches and wounds she has. She struggles to stand, but the exertion proves too much, and darkness claims her.

Themed Drabbles Set 3

Red

Red hair. Twisted tightly together in a braid. Even in the dim lights of her royal chambers he can make them out. The escaped wisps, the knotted braids. He smiles lazily, as he leans over and begins tracing patterns on her skin with his finger.

As soon as his finger touches her skin, her eyes pop open, staring out at him, shining softly in the dim light. Her voice is a whisper, reverent, loving.

“Friend Jacen.”

There is something there that scares him. Makes the flesh around his eyes tighten. He doesn’t know if he can handle what he sees.

---

Grey

Grey eyes. He dreams every night of grey eyes, shining softly in the dim light. Every night he feels the pain growing, the ache, the loneliness.

He knows who the eyes belongs to, but they still haunt him. Call to him over the distance. Begs him to return. To cut his sabbatical short. To return to the Jedi and to her.

He rubs his face, as he tries to figure out why they call to him so, why they haunt him.

He knows. But he doesn’t want to admit it. But deep down he knows.

The grey eyes are home.

---

White

White. The blinding white of snow. The cold steals his breathe away, burns his exposed skin, as he stumbles out of the burning wreckage. He sees a pale hand sticking from the wreckage.

He stumbles that way, and pulls the chunk of metal away, seeing Wyn’s unconscious form. He grabs her and pulls her close, wrapping his robe around her. He glances the way they came.

He brings her mouth close to his cheek, praying to the Force that she is alive. He sighs in relief as he can feel the warm, moist air coming from her nose and mouth.

---

Black

The depths of the mines. Inky blackness surrounding him. He can feel the hunger, the beasts coming for them. Approaching. A scream from Ben and Nelani. He twists in his seat, looking back, trying to find them. In the Force he can feel them getting further and further away, the tram rockets on.

He turns back and faces forward. Should he jump out and get them? A glance towards where he can feel the other person in the tram with him.

A shake of the head. They are Jedi. They will survive.

He has chosen. There is no looking back.

---

Blue

Blue. Ice. Water.

The soul shattering color of the Tatooine sky.

Even as he hanged in the embrace of pain, those eyes were what he sees, what haunted him.

The grief shatters through him again. He caused him to die. His doubts about his own brother. His grief. His concerns. And then he left him there to fight the battle all by himself.

Even though he knew that Anakin was injured, he dragged Jaina away.

Left Anakin to die.

He didn’t even take care of Anakin’s last request. He never even told Tahiri that Anakin’s dying thoughts were of her.

The Darkening: Chapter Thirteen

You have conquered, and I yield. Yet, henceforward, art thou also dead - - dead to the World, to Heaven, and to Hope! In me didst thou exist - - and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.

As she stands over the dead body, flashes of memory come to her, a series of nightmare realizations; ones which she wishes she could wake up from. Yet as the memories of killing Kai and Corran fill her head, all she wants to do is cry.

Glancing around, she notices that no one is around, and she quickly runs back to her room, back to the Custodian.

Once there, she notices the calm, smug expression on his face. "What have you done to me?"

"Merely what you asked me to do."

"I didn't ask for you to make me kill my father or the girls from school."

The Custodian lets out a laugh. "That is not what you asked for? You asked for the power to be liked, to be accepted. I taught you how to use that power, how to take that power for yourself. You killed those others yourself"

"I don't want power. I want my daddy back."

A gnarled finger points out towards her. "This is the life that you chose Jysella. There is no turning back."

As the Custodian speaks these words, Jysella finally drops the bloody knife and sinks to her knees crying. As she kneels there sobbing, she is unaware as yet another red mist starts to ooze from the holocron, slowly approaching her.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Ben sits at his desk, staring at a flat image of the burn pattern on Kai's head. He knows he recognizes that particular marking style from somewhere, but where just refuses to surface. Frustrated he tosses the images to the surface of the desk and stands up, just as someone knocks on his bedroom door.

He opens it to a Jysella who is smiling at him coyly. He looks her up and down, noticing that she is once more dressed in a short halter top, and skin tight pants. In her hands she is holding the puzzle box which she brought back from the Errant Venture.

He smiles at her, happy for the distraction. "Hey Jysella, how are you?"

She doesn't answer, just walks into the room, and closes the door behind her. He watches her as she carefully, almost reverentially sets the box down on his desk and then turns to him. As she stalks closer to him, he steps back, unsure of what is happening, of where this is going.

Finally she gets close enough, and tosses her arms around him, dragging their bodies together. She presses her lips against his, aggressively kissing him. At first he is surprised, shocked at what is happening.

Then he remembers that he likes this girl, and begins kissing her back.

Then he hears a ripping sound, and a sudden blast of cold air, shocks sense into him. He pulls away from her and looks down, seeing that she has ripped his shirt open. He looks up at her, as she once more has that coy smile on her lips, and she quickly lifts her halter top off.

Ben closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, calming himself. "Jysella please, put your shirt back on."

He gasps as she presses herself against him, and begins nuzzling his neck. "Don't you like me Ben?"

"Yes, I do, a lot, but this isn't how things are supposed to happen."

She moves from his neck to his ear. "If you liked me, then why wouldn't things happen like this?"

Ben takes a step back away from her, and once more closes his eyes. He takes another deep breath, focusing on that simple act. "No. This isn't how this should happen."

Then he can feel a flash of fire ripping across his chest. Looking down, he sees four long, deep furrows going down and across his chest, just beginning to ooze. He looks at Jysella's hand, still hooked into a claw shape. Then up into her eyes, and takes another step back as he sees the reds and yellows, where normally a beautiful green is.

"I thought you loved me Ben! I thought you accepted me and wanted me!"

Then she stretches out her hand, and a blast of Force lightning flows down her arm and sends him flying against the wall. Jysella lifts her saber, looking at the carefully polished silver handle. Then she activates it, and a silver blade shoots out, a silver blade with an odd reddish tint to it.

She steps forward, her face a mask of hate and pain, and stabs Ben in the stomach.

Through the burning fire in his gut, he can hear Jysella's words. "Why couldn't you love me Ben?"

----------------------------------------

Jysella comes to walking up the steps to the Jedi Temple. Odd flickers of a memory of kissing Ben in her head. She frowns at what it all means, and begins making turns through the building on instinct. Following some sense of where she should be going.

Finally she enters the archives, but instead of heading towards Tionne's desk, she turns down the stacks, and follows a hallway that is rarely used.

Finally she comes to a heavy door, set into what appears to be the bedrock of the planet itself. Yet for all that this area of the temple appears to be rarely used, for how heavy the door appears, even though there is an advanced cipher lock attached to it, the vault door hangs open.

Jysella steps forward and pulls the heavy door towards her, throwing it open wide. Something in this room beckons her, calls to her, needs and accepts her. Without bothering to turn on the light, she steps forward, and is soothed by the glow of the numerous red lights that appears along side the walls.

She focuses on one of them, and sees a holocron with markings similar to hers. She smiles and caresses the device, feeling a surge of power as she does so. She lets out a laugh, and sits in the midst of them, allowing the power and the darkness to fill her.

----------------------------------

Ben wants to scream, yet he knows that will take too much energy. Energy he desperately needs if he is to save Jysella. He pushes himself up, the wound to his stomach sending waves of agony through him.

He staggers forward, catching himself before he falls. Finally he achieves balance and carefully strides from the room, picking up his saber on the way. As he slips into the speeder he closes his eyes and stretches out with the Force, trying to find Jysella.

A flash of Hapan marble fills his mind, and he turns towards the Temple, noticing the spire of Hapan marble as it stands shining in the afternoon sun. Nodding to himself, he turns on the landspeeder and pulls back on the stick, launching the speeder into the air.

Driving recklessly, he swings around traffic, not caring about his own safety, just about getting to the Temple as fast as he possibly can. Yet even as he speeds around others, he can't help but feel that he is already too late. That something irreversible has occurred.

Finally he arrives at the Temple, and he parks the speeder right in front of the steps, ignoring the looks he receives from other Jedi standing nearby. As he jumps out of the landspeeder, and the pain of his landing sends him to his knees, he finally realizes where he had seen that particular burn pattern before.

Jacen.

Most specifically, he had seen them on Jacen's head after Jysella had lobotomized him with the Force. Muttering a number of curses as he once more gets himself into a standing position, he closes his eyes, trying to sense Jysella.

After a moment of searching, he finds her presence, a silvery-line, with red highlights and a black core. Nearly crying at what he fears those colors mean, he traces the line of where she has been, and slowly walking the halls, taking what appears to be random turns.

Finally he stops and opens his eyes, his heart dropping in his chest as he stares into the black interior of the Dark Side Objects vault.

Yub, Yub

As he moved through the cold inky blackness of the room, he tensed at the realization that he was not alone. He is not entirely certain how he knows that he is not alone, but he feels it deep within his bones. It could have been something as simple as a shuffle of a foot, or even just the fact that the ambient temperature is higher than he expected. He pushes those concerns from his mind. Distraction can get him killed. He reaches down his hand resting on the handle of the blaster, his fingers touching, playing with the snap for the strap holding the blaster.

His eyes ached at the strain of trying to see, and he takes a few steps backwards. He brushes against the door, and frowns when it does not open. The slap of flesh against the control panel rings loudly in the silent room as his hand punched against the light switch. When the lights refuse to come on, his frown deepens.

His hands drift towards his holster once more, unsnapping the strap holding his blaster in the holster. He strains his eyes even more, as he slowly slides the gun out. The sound of the metal blaster sliding out of the leather holster sounds strangely loud in the dark room.

The sound of scampering feet comes to him out of the darkness, and he slides to the left, making himself a moving target, while keeping his back against the wall.

He sighs, as he realizes he’ll need to get into the middle of the room to get to the windows controls. He takes a step and stops, listening.

No sound.

Another step.

Scampering feet again and he can feel something furry and about waist high brushing against his leg.

He spins, and twists. Trying to figure out what it was that brushed his leg.

Scampering feet, and that something furry against his leg again. Then stubby fingers grab his flight suit and pulls, and he stumbles forward. He aims his blaster where he thinks it is, but the hand disappears, and the sound of scampering feet rings loudly.

Silence. Interrupted only by the pounding of his heart.

He takes a step towards, the windows again.

A voice, guttural, deep. “Goopa! Coatee yub nub. Glowah-doo.”

Ewokese? He growls, as he spins again.

The voice again, this time saying “Beecha wawa!”

Wedge aims in the direction he heard the sound from, and pulls the trigger. The blaster bolt flashes bright red in the black room, slamming against the wall. Sparks highlight the room for a second, before it plunges into darkness once more.

“Karvak!” Wedge grins as he recognizes the ewokese curse.

The acrid smell burnt metal stings his nose, as he glances left and right, color spots dancing in front of his eyes.

He walks the rest of the way to the windows, and punches the button to open them. The bright light of midday on Coruscant shines in, and he winces. The sound of scampering feet, and Wedge twists and drops, his blaster tracking the sound.

His eyes narrow as he sees what it is. A droid. One side covered in short wiry fur. It’s grasping arm wearing a ewok glove. Attached to the front of the droid is a datapad.

Wedge’s eyes narrows, as he steps towards the now immobile droid, and grabs the datapad off the metal chest. As soon as he pulls the datapad away, the droid reactivates and bolts from the room. The droid’s voice drifts back to him from the hallway. “Begoopa.”

Wedge glances that way for a moment, his face dark. Then he turns his attention back to the datapad. He activates it, and hears a growl as Wes’s face appears on the screen of the datapad. Looking around, he realizes that he is the one growling.

On the video Wedge watches as Wes throws a salute, a sloppy grin plastered on his face. “Yub, Yub General!”

The image disappears, and Wedge throws the datapad, causing it to sail across the room and shatter against the far wall. He reholsters his blaster, and walks back to the door. He walks through it, going down the hall to the room assigned to Wes. He pounds against the door, and Wedge hears a giggle from the other side.

The door slides open, revealing Wes standing there. Wedge looks in and sees a blonde sitting on the bed.

Wes grins at him. “Hey boss.”

Wedge grins, and Wes takes an involuntary step back. “You’re entertaining I see.”

Wes glances at the blonde behind him. His reply is hesitant, “Yes.”

“Not anymore.” In a smooth motion, Wedge pulls his blaster and triggers a blast, the blue rings of a stun bolt slam against him, as the blonde screams. He crumples to the ground falling backwards into the room. Wedge smiles down at him for a moment.

“Yub, yub Wes.” Then he looks at the blonde, and smiles at her. “Have a good night Miss.”

He turns around, and lets the door close behind him as he returns to his room, a bounce returning to his step.

The Darkening: Chapter Twelve

Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harms we do, we do to ourselves.

“Ben, get up.”

Ben wearily sits up in his bed, and gives his father the glare that his Uncle Han taught him last year. Luke ignores it.

“Come on son, there’s been another murder.”

Ben glances at the chrono, noting the horrid hour it reads. “Corran was only six hours ago.”

A sad look crosses his father’s face. “I know. Now come on.”

With that the Jedi Master stands up and walks from the room, his shoulders hunched as if he’s bearing a horrid burden on them. Ben watches for a moment, then gets dressed and follows his father out of the room. Together they walk out the door, and get into Luke’s speeder.

A short trip made in tense silence follows, and Ben considers it none too soon when they land in front of the Academy’s Dormitory. He jumps out of the speeder, and walks to where the crime scene technicians have already set up the ultra-bright field lights.

He frowns slightly as he looks at the shattered form of Kai Andur. Bending down, he closes his eyes and sinks into the Force. When he looks at the body through the Force he is surprised to see how twisted it has become around the body, blackened and corrupted. He opens his eyes once more and notices the slight amount of blood coming from the girl’s nose.

He turns towards the technician and gets a sterile glove, and slips it on his hand. Then he reaches over and brushes the bangs off the girl’s forehead, and sees the blackened burn. “Dad what do you make of this?”

Luke kneels down, and his eyes narrow as he sees the burn. “It looks almost electrical in nature.”

“Something about this just seems so familiar.”

Ben stands back up and looks around the area again; trying to find something, anything that would clear up the confusion he is feeling. Sighing, he walks to the dormitory entrance and makes his way to Kai’s room, hoping to find some clue there.

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Jysella rolls over and looks at the chrono, noting that it is now the time that she should get up to head towards her first class. Instead she rolls back over, the pain of her father’s death slamming into her. She lifts her head and glances at the blanket covering the window where Ben threw him out just a few hours ago. After a second, she plops her head back down on the pillow, closes her eyes and let’s sleep claim her once again.

What feels like moments later, someone is shaking her and telling her to wake up. She rolls over opening her eyes in the process and sees her mother standing over her. When he mother sees her open her eyes, she lets go of her shoulder.

“You have a visitor.”

“Who?”

“Ben.”

Jysella sits up and looks around for her robe, spying it on the chair she quickly gets out of bed and wraps it around her. Then she walks into the other room, wincing at the sun shining through the windows. Ben sensing her presence turns around, and walks over to her.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like death warmed over.”

Ben nods his head and looks down at the floor. “I just wanted to stop by and tell you that I’m sorry about your dad.”

Jysella feels that cold anger grips her again, and pushes it down slightly. “Thanks Ben.”

After an awkward second, he speaks again. “We found Kai dead this morning.”

Jysella covers her mouth with her hand and sits down on a chair. After a second, she starts rubbing her face and then stands up again. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll, I’ll see you later.”

Then she spins and walks away, leaving a confused Ben staring after her as she disappears into her room.

As soon as she latches the door behind her, the Custodian appears. “Does something trouble you?”

“Just my dreams.”

The Custodian nods his head again. “Yes, dreams can be troublesome. Of course I can teach you the power to fulfill your dreams. To ensure they come true, to ensure that you reach and take whatever your desire is. The power to rule everything could be yours.”

Jysella looks at the holocron, a sinking feeling in her chest. “I never wanted power. I just wanted to be liked.”

Then the holocron flashes a deep burgundy and Jysella sees Ben lying on the ground, a lightsaber wound to his stomach. As she watches he struggles to get up, and then limps into a second room. She follows, dragged along by the vision itself. To her horror she sees him surrounded by multiple holocrons, all shooting lightning out at him. He writhes under the onslaught from the devices, his mouthed opened in a scream that she can’t hear.

It seems to her that the attack goes on for hours, but finally the last holocron stills, leaving Ben’s burnt and twisted body smoking slightly on the ground of the room.

Jysella doubles over trying her best to not throw up. She looks towards the Custodian. “I don’t want this to happen.”

A downcast expression crosses the Custodian face. “Nothing can stop that now Jysella.”

Jysella turns to look at the Custodian a sense of disbelief filling her. As her eyes fall on the holocron, she notices the red glow is brighter than normal. She steps forward slightly, and a red mist starts oozing out of the box, and sinuously wraps itself around her legs, crawling up her body.

She shakes her head and starts stepping back, drawing the mist with her. Some slips up under her tunic, burning her skin where it touches, the rest moves along the outside, until it reaches her face at the same time Jysella backs herself into a wall.

When she opens her mouth to scream, the mist darts in, and she is lost to unconsciousness.

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Once more the hunter finds herself looking for prey. This hunt is more dangerous as it is in the midst of the day, the bright sun will reveal her to those who wish to stop her. She calmly walks through the streets, trying to find her prey.

She smiles a feral grin as she sees the arconian girl who is her prey this time. As she watches, she thanks the Force as the prey separates from the group she is with and heads towards the smaller houses on the outskirts of the temple grounds.

The hunter follows, closing quickly, yet with such stealth that most never notice her past. She pulls out the long bladed knife as she nears the girl, and quickly slams it to the hilt in the girl’s side. It is an expertly placed cut, sliding between ribs and severing the heart and lungs.

She smiles as the girl drops to the ground, dead before her knees even began to buckle.

This time Jysella does scream as she wakes. Yet the bright sunshine, and the fact that she’s standing tell her that she’s not in her room. Not wanting to look down, but needing to know exactly what she is holding, she lowers her head and sees the knife from her dream clasped in her hand.

A hand covered in blood.

Themed Drabbles, set Two

Hours

Dead.

She sits beside his body, this shell of who he was. Her face is a blank emotionless mask, betrayed by the steady stream of tears.

She touches his cheek, disconcerted at how warm he still feels.

His hair has been combed, and his body scrubbed. The signs of battle and death gone, washed away while they prepared his body.

She reaches out, and gives his hair a tussle. That looks better.

Her face contorts as she can no longer deny her emotions, a wave of grief and anguish, her serenity dashed by a single, inconvertible fact.

Anakin is dead.

--------------

Days

Breathe.

She has to keep reminding herself that yes she is alive. The hole is there in her heart, and grows bigger every time she checks.

She wraps his robe tighter around her, comforted by the smell of him.

Then there is the crackle of flame on wood, and she opens her eyes, as tears flows once more. She pulls her eyes away to watch the motes as the wind lifts them away. A bright pinpoint against the night sky, which fades so quickly. They are like him. Bright. Dead.

A burning in her chest.

That’s right, she must breathe.

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Weeks

Pain.

Grief.

Despair.

She fights them daily, often by running in these woods of Borelias. Teasing the Yuuzhan Vong that are hiding in them. They strike at the oddest times, triggered by the strangest things and she can never predict it.

But what scares her the most, is the fact that each time it hurts less. She’s healing. Moving on. Getting over him. She hates it, and hates herself. She wonders why she has to be so strong, why she can’t give into the despair.

End it.

End herself.

She hates that he is dead.

But she likes the pain.

----------------------

Months

“Anakin is trying to kill me.”

She can’t believe she just said that. Anakin wouldn’t try to kill her. He loves her, and she him. She wonders why she would say that, what would make her say that about her love, her life. Then she remembers. He is dead. And by his death, she is dying. He is trying to kill her, just by not being here.

She screams into that Anakin shaped hole in her consciousness. “You’re supposed to be here for me.”

No reply returns to her.

So yes, in his silence, Anakin is trying to kill her.

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Years

She stands in a clearing on Hapes.

Early autumn. Just cool enough where an oversized, ratty old Jedi cloak can keep her warm.

She can almost believe that it’s his arms, in his cloak, wrapped around her chest.

Dirt. Ash. All that remains of a funeral pyre from so long ago. No body, no grave. Just a small mound of ash. Any reminder long since reduced in nature’s inevitable cycle. There are no tears any more. Just a melancholy ache, of what might have been, but no tears.

She grieved. She raged. She despaired.

Today she accepts, and she stands.

The Darkening: Chapter Eleven

Darkness devours every shining day.
Darkness demands and always has its way.
Darkness listens, watches, waits.
Darkness claims the day and celebrates.
Sometimes in silence darkness comes.
Sometimes with a gleeful banging of drums

Corran's first blow staggers Ben backwards. As he pulls his saber away, Ben lunges forward, swinging his blade low at the older man's feet.

Corran catches the blade, and then kicks Ben. Ben stumbles backwards, and then grabs the chair he was sitting in earlier and throws it at Corran. Corran slices the chair in half, and begins walking towards Ben.

Ben takes a step back, and readies himself for another attack. He glances over at the bed and sees Mirax holding Jysella, both of them with terrified expressions on their face.

Corran rushes Ben again, his saber coming in from a wild overhand attack. Ben sidesteps, and grabs Corran in the Force, flinging him through a window and out into the yard.

Ben steps out through the broken window, walking towards Corran, anger clouding his features.

"What's your problem Master Horn?"

Corran looks up, a trickle of blood coming from his nose. "You."

Ben watches as the older man struggles to stand, and once he gets to his feet, he ignites his saber. Ben steps forward quickly, swinging his blade from left to right.

Corran parries the blow, and ducks down picking some dirt up and tossing it into Ben's eyes. Ben lets out a low growl of frustration, and ducks as the Force directs.

Blinking the last of the dust from his eyes, Ben stomps forward, his blade moving lightning fast; a flurry of strikes going from left to right and then back.

Corran deftly catches each attack, and steps away from Ben slightly. The two fighters assume mid guards, slowly circling one another, their blades silver and blue beacons in the night.

Suddenly a third figure lands in between them, his green blade shining brightly. Luke looks between the two fighters, anger coating his voice. "What are the two of you doing? I thought I broke this up earlier today?" He then rounds on Corran. "And you where supposed to show up at my office for a discussion on your actions."

Ben glances over his shoulder, noticing Mirax and Jysella standing on the porch still holding one another. He glances back towards his father, shutting down his blade.

Luke speaks up once more. "Ben, your side of the story."

"I brought Jysella home, and she asked me to sit with her until she fell asleep. I was getting ready to leave when Corran walked in and attacked me."

Luke turns towards Corran. "Corran?"

"I got home, and went to check on my little girl and found him kissing her. I don't want him around my little girl."

Luke raises an eyebrow. "Corran, are you drunk?"

Corran looks away. "No."

"And just how much have you had to drink today?"

"What are you my nursemaid?"

Ben takes a step back, his eyes widening slightly as Corran steps towards Luke, his saber rising in an attack. Luke calmly looks at him, and then yanks the saber from Corran's hands with the Force. Luke opens up the saber, and removes the focusing crystals. Closing it, he tosses it back to Corran, who fumbles the catch and drops the lightsaber to the ground.

"I'm keeping this until you've sobered up and came to talk to me."

Corran turns from them both, and stalks into the night. Luke looks on sadly as the man walks away and then turns to his son. "Come on son, we're going home."

Ben nods his head, and then walks back to Jysella, taking her hand in his. "You going to be okay?"

She mutely nods her head and looks up at him, her eyes once more showing her pain. "I, I think so. Will you come by tomorrow?"

Ben smiles at her. "Yes, I'd be happy to."

Then he turns back towards his father, and follows him home.

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She is tracking her prey this time. The scent of numerous fermented beverages is strong and getting stronger as she closes in on her prey. She smiles as she finally creeps through a set of trees, and spies her prey.

The smile quickly dies as she realizes just what sorry shape Corran Horn is in. He is leaning up against a building, a bottle of cheap whiskey clutched loosely in his hand as he snores lightly. Anger and disgust explodes in her at the sight of him. He is supposed to be a hero, a protector and flawless. Yet what she sees now is a sorry drunk, unfit to be around.

She steps up to him, not bothering to remain silent, yet he is so drunk he doesn't even notice. When she gets close enough, she leans down and rakes her nails down the side of his face. The shock of pain is enough to cut through his drunken stupor and his eyes shoot open.

As he focuses on her, she feels disgust at the perceived lust that flashes in his eyes. She slaps him harder across the same cheek she had just scratched and he calls out in pain. Finally recognition dawns in his eyes and she smiles at him.

Making a short tsking noise, she reaches out and places her hands on either side of his head. He looks at her, an expression which almost makes her laugh. He is talking and she hears his words, but does not understand them, but she can tell that they are questioning.

Her smile broadens as she realizes that he's trying to ask her what she is doing.

Then with a flash of lightning, she lets her hate and disgust rush out of her hands as Force lightning. She feels an odd sense of pride as he doesn't scream out or curse, just shakes slightly and then collapses into a heap, black wisps of smoke coming from his temples.

She leans closer to him, a twisted smile tugging at the corner of her lips. An odd chirping noise attracts her attention.

And then she sits up in her bed, yet another scream on the tip of her tongue. She looks around the room, her eyes wide and the fear pounding in her heart, as the door annunciator lets out a loud chirp once more.

She slips out of the room, and stands in the dark hallway and watches as her mother invites Master Mara Jade into the house. Part of her wants to return to her room and bed, but the look on the woman's face causes her to stay where she is at and eavesdrop on the conversation between the two women.

"What can I do for you tonight Mara?"

"It's about Corran."

"Did he attack someone else?"

Mara pauses for a second, causing Jysella's heart to drop even further as she remembers the dream she was having when she was awakened.

"No, someone or something killed him. A large electrical current through the head."

Mirax's cry of grief cuts Jysella to the heart, and she quickly retires to her room, the pain and anguish engulfing her.

As she enters the room, she once more picks up the holocron, and taps the top, allowing the hologram to flicker into existence. "What is it my child? What has caused you such grief and pain?"

"My dad. He was killed."

The Custodian nods his head. "I see, yet this is a good time to put some of what I taught you to use. Gather your pain and grief, your hate at who killed your father, and keep them close to your heart as a source for your power. Such emotions will make you invincible."

Sniffling back her tears, Jysella nods her understanding and begins meditating on her hate.

Themed Drabbles, set One

Beginnings

He holds onto the thin steel cable with his bare hands. Every whip turn of the speeder, it burns worse as he slides further down. He glares vibroblades at the driver, a Devaronian smuggler, who he was assigned to capture. The Devaronian smiles, all pointed teeth and malice as he pushes the speeder down and to the left.

Ben is tossed away, the friction too much, and flies through the transparisteel window of a mid-level Coruscant apartment. He rolls to a stop, and closes his eyes, cursing his luck.

When he opens them back up, is when he sees her.

Middles

With a resounding thud the door closes in his face. Startled Ben watches it for a second, unsure what to do. He takes a step away and despair washes over him. No this is not how it ends. He knocks on the door.

“Go Away.”

He frowns, and punches in the code to open it, and walks in. She is on the couch, her arms curled around her legs. “Get out Ben.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not going to happen, Noelani. I love you to much too just walk away.” He knees before her, grasping her hand. “Marry me?”

Ends

He holds her hand gently, lovingly, careful to not disturb the tubes in the back of it. The steady metronome of medical equipment provides white noise for his thoughts, a symphony for his tears.

Even here at the end, he finds her beautiful. He cracks a smile for her. “I remember when I first saw you, do you?” He pauses, not expecting an answer. “I had crashed through your window. You came running out in that night gown.”

With his free hand he wipes away a tear. “I loved you even then.”

The beeping subtly shifts into a solid tone.

First

He escorts her to the door, her hand in his having claimed it while helping her from the speeder. She turns and leans against the door, a coyness playing on her lips.

“Do I get my hand back?”

Laughter shines in his eyes. “Do I get a kiss?”

She darts forward, her lips briefly caressing his, an electric shock of touch and sensation.

Then she pulls away, and her hand slips free. The door opens, and Ben sees the patched window.

“Can I see you again?”

She enters her apartment, and as the door closes, he hears her reply. “Tomorrow.”

Last

He watches her still form, as it lies on the pyre. His firstborn son stands ready with the torch. He grasps her hand, wishing once more to hear her part of their banter.

It doesn’t come, he supplies his.

“Do I get a kiss?”

He leans down, and his lips gently press against hers.

A tear falls on her face.

He stands, and steps back, as his son steps forward. The yellows, oranges and reds of the flames caress and kiss her, and Ben sobs. His turn again.

“Can I see you again?”

In reply is the crackle of flames.

The Ride

“Dad!”

Ben rushes down the street, sliding to a stop in front of his foster-father. He presses his hands against the bullet wound in the old man’s chest, and looks at the man slowly walking away from them. With a growl erupting from his chest, he starts to stand, but a sharp cough attracts his attention.

Abandoning thoughts of immediate revenge, he turns back to his father, to the man who raised him ever since himself and six others were dropped off on this backwater planet. He had argued with his dad about taking this position, becoming the sheriff of this scum-infested town, but his father had not listened, had told him that if good people did nothing, then they supported evil.

The other six who came here with him, all became deputies at that point, or shortly thereafter. When Ben turned eighteen, he dutifully became one as well. Not because he believed his father’s statement, it was just that Jysella did.

Another cough drags Ben’s focus from the past to the here and now. “Dad?”

He is greeted by silence, and he lets loose a scream into the afternoon sun. A hand drops to his shoulder, and he looks up through tear-rimmed eyes to see his cousin, Anakin, standing there over him. “You can’t help him Ben, especially if you give into your hate and rage.”

Ben’s face hardens, as he stands. Keeping his eyes on the still form of his foster-father, he speaks to Anakin, “Gather the others; it’s well past time we cleaned this town out.”

“Ben-”

Ben spins towards his cousin. “I said gather the others. We’re cleaning up this town.”

Anakin tersely nods his head. “Don’t give into hate Ben. That is not the way.”

An hour later, he walks into the Sheriff’s Office, glancing once at the closed door where his father spent so many hours. He looks at those gathered, the six others who were abandoned on this planet along with him.

Jysella Horn, a dark-haired woman, a few years older than him, walks to him, and wraps her arm around him. “I’m sorry Ben.”

He looks down at her, and nods his head, and then he allows his gaze to travel to each of the others: Valin Horn, Myri and Syal Antilles, and Anakin and Tahiri Solo.

“Do any of you have any questions?”

They all shake their heads.

“Good, then we start with the scum who killed my pa. We don’t hold anything back, we are here to clean up this town, and make sure that none of these scum are around any more to inflict pain and suffering on the citizens around here. That’s our job. Now let’s ride.”

Ben walks out the back of the office, to a stable. Within it are seven horses, which Ben and the others quickly saddle up. When they are done, they ride out of the stable, the hoofs thundering against the hard packed dirt which makes up the road.

As they near the edge of the town, Ben pauses closing his eyes, deciding which way to go. After a moment, his eyes pops open and he takes off towards the south again, at a full gallop, heading towards the Illiko Mountains, and their numerous caves and caverns and Ullaso Pass.

As they near the pass, Ben pulls back on the reins, an unsettling feeling causing his stomach to clench. He reaches for his pistol, drawing it as he scans the mountains and hills on either side of the pass.

A cold sweat appears on the back of his neck as he glances towards a darkened overhang.

Something dangerous is up there.

He frowns, wondering how he knows that.

The crack of a rifle shot rings out on the still air.

He pulls down on the reins as his horse rears back, and as he looks around he growls in anger at the sight of Myri on the ground, her hand grasp protectively around her stomach. Ben can see blood flowing from her back as Syal screams out her name, and another rifle shot rings out.

Another name is screamed out, but his time it is Valin screaming Syal’s name.

Yet Ben saw where the shot came from, the darkened overhang. Aiming his pistol, he lets it drift to the left, and pulls the trigger.

A rustle of rocks and that sickening knot disappears from his stomach.

He turns back to the group, and sees Valin down next to Syal, who is bleeding profusely from a bullet wound to the shoulder. Valin looks up at him, an angry scowl on his face. “I’m taking them back to town.”

Ben nods his head, and starts down the pass once more. As he nears the end, he closes his eyes again, quieting his mind, trying to make up his mind.

Should he go on forward? No. He his instincts tell him to go to the west, further up into the mountains. Slowly.

Opening his eyes, he looks at the four that are left with him, and slides off his horse, and begins walking slowly up the trail leading higher into the mountains. Without looking behind him, he knows the others are following.

Two hundred meters up the mountain, Ben kneels on the path, looking at the footprints, and then he lifts his head and scans the hills around him. Frowning he stands back up and once more starts walking down the path.

As he slowly climbs upwards, that sickening feeling once more appears in his stomach, a knot of worry which causes his hands to become damp. He stops, and looks around; frowning as there is nothing within sight where a rifleman could be hiding.

He once more advances, and with every step that knot grows larger.

The explosion takes him entirely off guard, tossing him up onto a small ledge hidden from the path. He tries to lift himself up, but a wave of vertigo washes over him. He gives a quick glance over the edge, and sees Jysella on one side of the pile of rocks, and Tahiri and Anakin on the other. Then darkness claims him, and he rolls away from the edge of the ledge.

He comes to, in stages. The first thing he’s aware of is the thirst which burns his throat. Then it’s the myriad number of aches and pains.

The finally he is aware of the stone beneath him.

He opens his eyes and lets out a curse as the sun hammers down at him. He lifts himself up, fighting the vertigo, and looks down at the pile of rocks. He sees Anakin and Tahiri there, Tahiri fussing over him, as his leg is trapped beneath some rubble.

Then he looks to where Jysella was laying, and lets out another curse as the only thing there is dried blood. Slipping and sliding he gets off the ledge and back onto the path. As soon as he is down, he starts once more, hunting not only for the man who shot his dad, but also for Jysella.

Ben follows the occasional drop of blood, until he nears a copse of trees. The smell of burning wood and cooking meats tells him that he’s near a campsite. Slowing down, he creeps closer, and hears the deep laughter of men who are drunk and planning something they shouldn’t.

Looking around, he walks back down the path, and then climbs up a small hill so he will be able to look down onto the overlook. Once he gets into position, anger and disgust flares in his chest. He sees five men surrounding a fire. Off to the side is Jysella, her arms and legs bound, and a gag in her mouth.

Ben aims for the first man, and pulls the trigger. The man twitches backwards, and slams into the dirt. Then Ben starts slipping and sliding down the hill, and lines his pistol up with the second man. As the crack of return fire reaches him, he pulls the trigger and a second man flies backward, and lands unmoving.

The crack of the pistol again, and Ben can feel a brush of superheated air flash by his cheek, as a burning sensation takes up residence there. Then he pulls the trigger a third time, and a third man drops unmoving.

Ben reaches the bottom, and pulls the trigger again, but the Ben’s landing throws his aim off slightly, instead of the fourth man being killed, he twists around, screaming at the wound in his arm.

Ben walks over and fires his gun again, killing him as he looks for the fifth man, the important one, the leader of the gang.

He sees him, hiding behind Jysella, his pistol pressed against her ear.

The man smiles. “Howdy boy.”

“Let her go.”

“Now, I can’t do that. Her pretty little body is the only thing keeping you from killing me.”

“Then you realize that if you hurt her you’re dead.”

The man shrugs. “That won’t mean much, because she’d be dead as well, and then where would you be?”

Ben narrows his eyes, his lips tugging downwards.

The man’s smile grows larger. “Why don’t you drop your gun?”

Ben hesitates, and as the man presses his gun harder against the soft point beneath Jysella’s ear, she lets out a muffled squeak.

“All right, I’m dropping it.” He lets go of his gun.

“Good, now kick it over here.”

Ben complies, kicking it halfway between himself and the man.

Ben is amazed as the man’s smile grows even larger. “I don’t think I’ve ever killed a Sheriff, the Sheriff’s son and the Sheriff’s son’s girlfriend all in the same day before.”

Then time seems to slow down for Ben. He can see the man move his arm, and point the gun towards him. The puff of smoke from the barrel, and the bullet as it heads towards him. Ben is already twisting trying to move away from the bullet, but his body feels sluggish, as if it’s under water.

Then the bullet strikes him, spinning him around and dumping him to the ground. Ben lets out a growl of frustration, and closes his eyes wishing his pistol was still in his hands.

He hears a footstep at the same time he can feel a thump in his hand. Opening his eyes, he sees his pistol once more in his hand, and he turns, and sees Jysella on the ground staring at him with fear in her eyes. He sits up and points his gun towards the man, who was coming over to see if he was dead or not.

Fear widens the man’s eyes. “How’d you get your gun back?”

Ben smiles. “Magic.”

Then he pulls the trigger.

The Darkening: Chapter Ten

In darkness one may be ashamed of what one does, without the shame of disgrace

Luke Skywalker is standing over the prone body of his nephew. He leans down, and peers closer, getting a close look at Jacen's features. His blue eyes taking in the trickle of blood that still slowly drips from Jacen's eyes and nose. He slowly blows his breath out, and stands up turning around the room, closing his eyes, stretching out with the Force, Luke tries to get a feel for what occurred here.

All he can sense is Jacen's desire, Jysella's fear and then the sudden burst of energy that is tinged with Jacen's pain.

"Hey Dad, you have any questions for Jysella or can I take her home now?"

Opening his eyes, he turns back to the doorway, where his son is leaning against the jamb. "Yes, I want to ask her a few questions."

He follows his son into the living room, and sees Jysella sitting on the couch, wrapped up in Ben's robes, her arms clutching her legs as she rocks slightly, resting her chin on her knees. Luke drags a chair over in front of her, and sits down.

"Jysella?"

Jysella raises her head, and looks at Luke, not saying a word. Luke hesitates a second, and then asks his first question. "Why did you come here?"

"I wanted to apologize to Jacen for what my dad did."

"Why do you think Jacen did this?"

As he watches her face, more tears start flowing from Jysella's eyes. "I don't know. I thought he was nice." Her body hitches with a sob. "I thought he liked me."

His son steps forward at this point. "That's enough Dad; I'm taking her home now. Any other questions can wait until later."

Without giving his father a chance to respond, Ben effortlessly picks Jysella up and cradles her gently in his arms, walking out the door. Luke frowns for a second, and then standing up, returns to Jacen's bedroom, wondering once again what would make Jacen act in such a manner.

Slowly circling the room, he starts looking at the various objects on the shelves, mementos of Jacen's five year journey of self-discovery. Most of these things Luke has never seen before, but one catches his eye. It is a book, bound in the skin of a falleen. Picking it up, he opens the cover, reading the title written in a unique rust-colored ink. The Weakness of Inferiors. Luke frowns, remembering the Emperor reading to him from this book, when he became the Emperor's apprentice.

Tucking the book underneath his arm, he turns back to his catatonic nephew. "Just what were you learning during those five years, and what have you been teaching my son?"

He doesn't receive an answer, and was not really expecting one. Sighing, he once more takes to scanning the artifacts on the shelves.

"Master Skywalker?"

Luke turns, and sees two medics standing in the doorway. "Yes?"

The closer of the two speaks again. "If you're finished, we'd like to take him to the medcenter for some tests."

Luke nods his head. "Yes, take him there, and thank you. I must go tell my sister now." With a heavy sigh, Luke walks past the medics and out of the house, nodding to the crime scene technicians as they walk past him, heading inside.

Luke starts walking towards the Jedi Temple, intent on putting the book into storage with other Dark Side artifacts. As he arrives at the special section of the archives, he slowly walks down the long hallway, and opens the door to the vault.

He frowns as red pulsing lights flow out from the closed vault. Pushing the door the rest of the way open, he sees the five Sith Holocrons he has recovered where all pulsing with that weird red glow. He throws up a shield as a wash of Dark Side energy flows over him. Quickly placing the book on a random shelf, he swings the door closed, and leans against it, wondering what has happened to activate those holocrons.

He closes his eyes, immersing himself into the Force, trying to wash his presence of the spiritual filth left over from the flow of dark energy; he can suddenly feel a sense of alarm from his son. Cursing, he runs from the vault, unaware as the door slowly creeps open behind him.

-----------------------------------------

Ben walks out the door of Jacen's house carrying Jysella. He looks down at her, noting the way she has cuddled her face into his shoulder. Once outside, he looks around at the slight crowd that had gathered with the arrival of the medics and crime techs. Frowning as he spots Kai and Merida in the crowd, he carefully puts Jysella into the passenger seat of Jacen's speeder.

A few minutes later, he lands the speeder in front of the Horn house. He rushes around to help her out, but by the time he gets to her side, she is already standing there, holding his cloak tightly closed around her. She glances up at him, a pain filling her eyes; to Ben she looks like a wounded whisperkit. "Can you stay with me for a little while?"

"I'd be happy to."

She gives him a weak smile that does not reach her eyes, and opens the door to the kitchen. Sitting there at the table is her mother, who has obviously been crying. As the door opens, Mirax looks up and sees the two teenagers standing there. She jumps up and rushes to her daughter, hugging her tight.

"Where have you been?"

Jysella ignores her, and walks past, keeping her head bowed. Ben watches as the door to the hallways closes, and then turns towards her mother. "Apparently Jacen tried to rape her this evening."

"What?"

As Mirax returns to her seat, Ben sits down heavily in the chair next to her. "I know, I'm having a hard time believing it myself. I knew he was interested in her, because we had an argument about it, but I-" Ben stops here for a second, then resumes speaking on a different tangent. "To protect herself she used the Force to basically lobotomize him."

A few minutes later, Jysella returned to the kitchen, dressed in a nightgown. She walks over to Ben's side, her voice barely audible. "Please come and sit with me."

Ben stands up, and follows after her. They arrive at her room, and Ben slips into the chair by her desk. Nearly as soon as her head touches the pillow, she is asleep.

After about a half hour, he reaches out with the Force, and feels how deep of a sleep she is in. He walks to her bedside, and brushes the hair from her face. Then he gently kisses her forehead and starts to turn around. As he faces the nightstand, he notices that there is a box sitting there, emitting a red pulsing light. He pauses for a second looking at the box, and then completes his turn, running straight into Corran Horn.

"Why are you in my little girl's room?"

"She had a rough day, and she asked me to sit with her until she fell asleep."

Ben watches as Corran's hand tightens on his saber, and allows his own hand to slide that way. He sees Mirax appear in the open doorway. "Corran! Where have you been? I've been trying to get in touch with you all day."

Corran ignores her questions, and keeps his focus on Ben. "I told you to stay away from her. She's mine." With that said he ignites his lightsaber and attacks.

The Darkening: Chapter Nine

To know the darkness is to love the light,
to welcome dawn and fear the coming night.

She finds herself moving through the woods once more. The power of her anger and hate fills her, makes her strong. Tonight she moves slowly, because her prey is not on the move, but sitting in a single room. She stops and looks into a window of that room, confident in the fact that her prey will not see her, due to the darkness of the night, contrasting with the brightness of the room the prey is in.

As she moves closer, she recognizes the prey. It is a student at the Academy named Kai. She smiles, and raps on the window and then steps back into the night. As she expected, Kai opens the window. Then she darts forward and reaches in, dragging the girl out through it, quickly slapping her hand over Kai's mouth, to muffle the scream.

She can taste the girl's fear, savors it. Then she places her hand on Kai's forehead, and pushes with all of her anger and hate. She smiles as Kai's eyes roll back up into her head, and blood begins to dribble from her nose.

"Jysella!"

Her mother's voice cuts through the fog of sleep, and Jysella sits up, blinking in the harsh glare of the afternoon sun as it streams through her window. She looks towards the doorway and sees her mother standing there. "Yes ma'am?"

"Dinner time."

Jysella gets out of bed and follows her mother to the kitchen. As she enters, she notices that her father's customary place at the table was empty. She nods to her brother and then sits down and eats. As she finishes she stands up, and looks outside noticing that it is nearly dark. "I'm going for a walk okay?"

Her mother looks at her warily. "I'd prefer it if you would change into clothes that are a little more respectable."

Jysella hesitates for a moment, and then nods her head. "Okay." Then she returns to her room. As she walks in, she presses her palm to the top of the holocron, smiling as the red hologram flickers into existence. The Custodian gives her a slight bow. "Good evening child."

"I'm going to take your advice, and test Jacen."

She turns away and starts looking for an appropriate article of clothing in her wardrobe. From behind her, a red mist seeps from the box, and floats towards her, wrapping around her legs as it flows up. When it reaches her bare midriff, it is slowly absorbed into her skin.

After a second, Jysella steps out of the clothes she is in, and then slips into a light green tunic and a darker green pair of pants. She glances into the full length mirror, and as if she is on autopilot, reaches up and rips her tunic down the middle. As she slips into her heavy brown overcloak the yellow light fades from her eyes.

-----------------------------------------------

Jacen is sitting in his chair, going over some notes regarding his investigation. This is the third time that he has had to read them, as his thoughts continue to drift to Jysella and Corran at lunch. He frowns as he remembers the sheer anger and hate that rolled off of Corran. A far cry from the usual calm competence the older Jedi Master usually exudes.

Giving up, he tosses the datapad onto a table, and slips onto the floor, assuming a traditional meditation pose. Just as he closes his eyes, the door chime rings. Standing up, he walks over to the door and opens it. He smiles as Jysella is standing there looking up at him. "Hello Jysella, this is a pleasant surprise."

He steps aside, and waves her in, and she silently walks in, looking around the room. He watches her as she slips out of her cloak, dropping it on the couch, and then silently walks into the bedroom. Frowning he follows her. "Are you okay?"

She nods her head, casting a glance over her shoulder at him. Then she shrugs her shoulder, causing her tunic to slide off her arms, leaving her chest bare. She reaches the bed, and then shimmies out of her pants, slowly pushing them down her legs with her thumbs. Stepping out of them, she walks over to him, and he can't help but notice the way her hips move as she walks, then she's there pressing herself against him, and wraps her fingers into his hair.

He can feel as she tugs her face towards him, and he flows with her demands, lowering his face to meet hers. As she kisses him, she pulls him towards the bed in the center of the room, twisting around and then pushing him down onto it. As he lands on his back he looks up at her. "Jysella, I don't know if this is a great idea."

Anger flashes in her eyes. "What? I'm good enough to take to dinner, but not good enough for other things? I thought you liked me. Don't you like me?"

"Yes I do."

She climbs onto the bed, straddling his legs, a pout coming to her mouth. "Don't you find me attractive?"

Jacen glances down at her breasts, and then back up, and nods his head. "Yes, yes I do."

She leans down to kiss him once more. "Then what's the problem?"

As she raises herself from the kiss, he shakes his head, trying to dispel the confusion. "I'm not sure, this just doesn't seem right."

"But it feels right." Then she once more leans down and kisses him, as he wraps her in his arms. She pulls him into a sitting position and quickly removes his tunic, tossing it back towards the living room. Then they're kissing again, and he flips her over, pushing her down onto the bed, never breaking the kiss.

He can feel her fingers as they start rubbing his hair, and notices a small niggle in the Force. He opens his eyes, and pulls away as he sees hers staring at him, their normal color subsumed by a storm of yellows and reds. He has a second to fear, as she smiles at him. "You should have turned me down Jedi."

Then he can feel an outpouring of Force energy flowing through his brain. He recognizes what she's trying to do, and attempts to stop it, to redirect the energy. When that fails, he grabs her arms, trying to pull her hands from his head, but for all his strength, he can't get her to let go. The last thought that flows through his brain before the hemorrhage destroys his higher brain functions is to wonder when she became so powerful.

----------------------------------------------------------

Ben is doing his nightly jog, every night four kilometers around the outskirts of the community surrounding the Jedi Temple. It is one of his favorite activities, just the simple act of moving, the clean joy of exercise.

As he rounds the corner, coming into the last stretch of his circuit, he can see the quarters where his Master stays, and a few houses down from that, the one he shares with his parents. As he begins to run past Jacen's house, a strong surge flashes through the Force, causing Ben to stumble. Ignoring the spike of pain, throbbing in his forehead, Ben rushes to Jacen's house, pushing open the door.

He looks around, noticing an overcloak on the couch. Picking it up, he frowns, as he realizes that it is too small for Jacen, after a second he recognizes by the style and cut that it is Jysella's. Turning around, he sees that the door to Jacen's bedroom is open, and there's a piece of clothing on the floor between him and the door. Walking to it, he reaches down and picks up the light green tunic. As he looks it over, he notices that whoever opened it did so by ripping the front apart. Again, the tunic is too small for Jacen, and is a female's garment. A deep feeling of unease settles into his stomach, as he decides that the tunic is probably Jysella's as well.

Dropping the tunic back on the floor, he enters the bedroom, and can hear a muffled sobbing. He flicks the light on, and looks around the room. The first thing he sees is Jacen laying prone on the bed, a touch of blood coming from the ear that Ben can see. Then another sobbing hitch attracts his attention, and he turns and sees Jysella huddled in a corner, her bare arms wrapped around her bare legs.

He walks over to her, and places his hand on her shoulder. With a start, she looks up and tries to press herself further into the corner. Ben kneels down beside her, so he can look her in the eyes. "What happened?"

He watches as her lower lip trembles. "H-he tried to r-r-rape me." She swallows hard, and presses her head back onto her arms.

Ben sits down beside her and gently wraps an arm around shoulders, drawing her into an embrace, noting the large bruises on her arms. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"I came over to apologize for how my dad treated him at lunch, and he grabbed me and ripped my shirt off, dragging me into the bedroom. I-I didn't know what to do. I-" She once more lowers her head crying.

"What did you do Jys?"

Her words are muffled, but Ben is able to figure them out. "I fried his brain with the Force."

Dinner and a Show

Anakin Solo grins as his speeder twists and turns, weaving in and out of the lines of traffic. He is late. He had promised his wife Tahiri that he would pick her up for their dinner reservation at 1730 hours. Glancing at the chrono, and noticing that it is already 1805, he utters a curse, and pushes the accelerator further down, allowing the speeder to jump ahead, as he takes even more reckless and daring maneuvers in an attempt to get to their apartment on time.

With a squeal of stressed metal, he brakes to a stop on his landing platform, jumping from the speeder, and rushing to the lift. A glance at the chrono on the lift’s wall reveal it’s 1815. He mutters another curse again as he steps off the lift and rushes down the hallway to the apartment.

He opens the door, and finds her standing there, her arms crossed over her chest, her foot tapping slightly, a perturbed expression on her features. He allows his gaze to travel up and down her form, noting the shimmersilk gown she wears, form- fitted with a slit up the thigh. Then his gaze lands on her neck, and the tiny golden chain which disappears beneath the collar of her dress. His eyes continue to move up, following the braid of hair draped over her shoulder. Finally he allows his eyes to fall down, to see her perfectly manicured toes as they tap in her irritation.

“Um, hi.”

“You’re late, hero-boy.”

He walks the rest of the way in, holding his arms open in a conciliatory manner. “I know. I’m sorry.”

She doesn’t move, except for a single eyebrow which quirks slightly. “You can kill Dark Jedi, stop rogue Yuuzhan Vong, and even come back from the dead, but you can’t make it home on time for a dinner date?”

He lets his arms fall. “I know – I had trouble getting away from the Council meeting.”

She makes an odd noise. “Well the dinner and the show we were going to is off now, as it’s already started, so where are you going to take me to eat? And you better not say that greasy diner down in the Senate District!”

“I like Dexter’s!” He pauses and thinks for a minute, and then a light appears in his eyes as he starts to smile. “I know the perfect place, and I think you’ll love it!”

Five minutes later, Anakin is driving through the Coruscant traffic at a much more sedate pace, exhibiting none of the wild and reckless maneuvers he took in getting to his apartment. As he drives back towards the Jedi District, he glances at his wife, admiring the tiny wisps of blonde hair that the wind has pulled from her braid. She catches his stare, and gives him a small pout, and he can’t help but smile at her.

Finally he stops at the restaurant, and helps her out of the speeder. She glances up at the sign, and her eyebrow quirks again, twisting the three scars on her forehead slightly out of shape.

“The Baanu Miir?”

Anakin nods his head. “Yeah, it was opened by a former shamed warrior named Kunra. Supposed to be the best Yuuzhan Vong food on this side of the planet.”

She leans over and gives him a kiss on the cheek. “It had better be.”

Hand in hand they walk into the restaurant, and look around, noting the décor, and the sounds of various insects and small game animals. Situated around the room, are grill biots, with a table built around three sides, and a number of low chairs around each of them.

A Yuuzhan Vong walks up to them, a warrior by the tattoos and scar patterns. His right fist slams against his left shoulder with a meaty thunk, and his tattered lips twist into a grin. “Will it be just two tonight?”

Anakin nods his head, and they’re lead to one of the table-grills. He notices the warrior glancing at the scars on Tahiri’s forehead, and a frown creases his own features for a moment.

The warrior pulls out her chair. “Would you prefer a ha vi?”

Tahiri graces him with a small grin. “No thank you.”

The warrior nods his head and retreats, leaving the two of them alone. Anakin leans over towards her, whispering, “Whats a ha vi?”

She laughs. “It’s a form of Yuuzhan Vong chair. Has a number of spikes which dig into the flesh and consume the blood.”

Anakin grimaces. “Sounds painful.”

She leans over and nibbles on his ear. “It is.” Her voice is low and breathless, and is enough to startle him slightly.

As they wait, two more couples are sat at their shared table. Finally, a Yuuzhan Vong walks up. The tattoos and scars identify him as a member of the intendent caste, and he is followed by a cart-like biot.

He smiles at the group of diners, and nodes his head. “I am L’lav Tavor, and I will be your chef today.”

With that said, he pulls out a long coufee, and a second item with appeared to be a Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a spatula.

With a flash of his teeth, he begins twirling and spinning the items, occasionally smacking them together or slamming them down against the burn surface of the grill-animal.

Through out the entire display, he keeps up a story about Yun-Cuito, the Yuuzhan Vong deity of cooking.

From beside him, Anakin can hear Tahiri give a little giggle at the theatrics of it all.

Finally he stops, and reaches into the a basket of the cart, after a moment, he removes his hand, and Anakin can hear the one of the other diners gasp as the L’lav displays his hand, with a dozen or so bloated clip beetles attached to it. With a skill obviously borne of long hours of practice, he teases them off him, and cracks open their bodies, tossing the small bits of flesh to the grill.

And that is how their dinner progresses, a steady stream of banter, the occasional hyperbole about Yun– Cuito, the mounds of grilled meats and vegetables, and finally, a selection of coufee eel and grilled villip stalks. The dessert is a chilled fruit, which Anakin recognizes as the precursor for the lambent.

As L’lav begins to clean the workstation, Anakin leans towards Tahiri.

“So, did you enjoy the dinner and the show?”

She glances at Anakin, an odd light in her eyes, and turns her full attention towards the chef.

“L’lav?”

He looks up from his cleanings, and nods his head.

“Would you mind if I seasoned your coufee before you put it away?”

A hesitant expression crosses his face as he looks from Anakin, to her, and his eyes finally linger on the three scars across her forehead. Finally he nods his acquiescence. “I would be honored, She-Who-Was-Shaped.”

He holds the coufee out to her, and Anakin notices the other two couples staring at her intently. He almost chuckles because he knows what she is about to do, and he knows the others at the table might not like it.

She takes the blade, and spins it in her hand twice, and then lays the long cutting edge on her palm. Anakin watches as a ghost of a smile crosses her lips as she slices the blade down and across, leaving a long gash in her palm.

She squeezes her hand into a fist, and Anakin has to subdue the desire to laugh as the lady sitting closest to her gasps in surprise at the blood that drops to Tahiri’s plate.

Tahiri closes her eyes as she hands the coufee back to L’lav, and then takes the healing patch he holds out for her. Anakin takes her hand before she can put the patch on, and briefly floods the wound with the Force, stopping the blood flow, and ensuring that it would heal cleanly and with minimal scarring. He looks into her eyes as they open, bright green emeralds framed by the tan skin of her face, he allows a grin to creep onto his features. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

She smiles at him coyly. “Take me home, hero-boy, and I’ll show you exactly how much of one it was.”

He stands, helping her from her seat, his grin changing into a full-fledged smile. “It would be my pleasure.”

Becoming An Adult

Jaina leaned against the bulkhead of the Jade Shadow, her eyes dark, and a scowl on her face, as she watches her Master and her little brother duel. The hum of the sabers, followed by the occasional crackle when they actually connect, soothes her nerves, calms her thoughts. Which is good, because everything else about the situation does the opposite to her thoughts and nerves.

She doesn’t want to see what she is seeing.

There are some things that should never be.

Of course, part of growing up, of becoming an adult, of becoming a Jedi Knight, is seeing those things which you never want to notice.

The first of those things for Jaina Solo is the fact that her Master, her mentor, her aunt, has replaced her.

With her brother.

A flip, a lunge, a parry, a thrust.

The blindingly fast movements of two Force empowered individuals. It is a mosaic of blurred lights and harsh sounds. Jaina’s eyes narrow slightly, as the duo’s sabers slam into each other, their bodies centimeters apart.

She feels like an intruder, an interloper. The tension in the room is worse than when she was around that pilot back on Ithor. It’s not the bad type of tension, such as when Master Horn and Master Durron show up at her father’s house on the same night. It’s the other type of tension, the one she felt with the pilot, the tension she felt from Jacen when Jacen rescued that scientist.

It is a tension that is equal parts lust and self-control.

That is the second of those things which Jaina wishes to never see, that tension between her Aunt Mara, and her little brother. It is an underlying aspect of everything the two of them do together.

And if Jaina is brutally honest with herself, if she would ever truly admit such a thing to herself, she wonders if her aunt has betrayed her uncle.

How can she not wonder that, when she feels as if her Master has replaced her with her brother? She has to wonder if she is not worthy enough to be Mara’s apprentice, or does Anakin just have something to offer Mara which Jaina herself cannot. She wonders if her Aunt could, would, replace her uncle with her brother.

The crackling of interlocked sabers once more intrudes on Jaina’s awareness, as she looks around, and finds the pair of them. She notes that Anakin is on one knee, with Mara standing over him, forcing him down at an odd angle, overpowering him.

She lets a small curl twist her lips, as the uncharitable thought of Mara accidentally wounding him slices through her brain.

Then Anakin is spinning, and Mara is on the ground. With flair, Anakin pounces, straddling her legs, and slipping his saber next to her throat.

“Kill point.”

Mara smiles and her eyes flash with amusement. “You expect me to be impressed?”

Jaina snorts at Anakin’s sudden discomfiture, attracting the pair’s attention. She can feel her annoyance flare, as Anakin suddenly jumps up, and turns away from her, barely acknowledging her presence. “Hey sis.”

Jaina walks over and helps Mara up, looking her up and down. “You know, we haven’t sparred in months. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t want me as your apprentice anymore.”

Mara quirks an eyebrow. “Then shall we?”

“But you just had a duel.”

Mara barks a laugh. “Afraid you’d lose to me?”

“No. Fine, we’ll duel.” Then Jaina slips out of her robe, throwing it to the side, and ignites her saber.

Mara steps forward, her blade held unlit and at her side and she starts to bow. Jaina doesn’t give her a chance; she just pushes forward, her blade slicing in towards Mara.

With the crackle of released energy, Jaina’s blade is halted against Mara’s. Mara smirks for a second, before speaking. “That’s not playing nice.”

Then Mara pushes the blade away and goes on the offensive. Jaina falls back under the onslaught, unable to find a way to turn the tide, unable to once more gain the upper hand.

Their blades lock, each struggling to overpower the other. Mara’s voice intrudes on Jaina’s single mindedness. “So, what is really bothering you?”

“You and Anakin.”

The quizzical look that crosses Mara’s face irks Jaina, and she slips out of the lock, dumping her aunt to the floor. Before she can get her saber over the older woman for the point, Mara is back on her feet, and once more attacking, pushing Jaina backwards.

“What about me and Anakin?”

Jaina takes a second to glance around, ensuring that Anakin has left the room. “You know!”

“No. I don’t know.”

“He loves you.”

“Of course he loves me, I’m his aunt.”

Jaina barks a harsh, bitter laugh. “No, Aunt Mara, he’s IN love with you.”

Mara’s jaw goes slack, her mouth forming a silent ‘O’ as she steps back and away from Jaina.

For her part, Jaina frowns at the older woman. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know. The tension in here could have been cut with a knife.”

Jaina watches as Mara’s mouth works, as her mind tries to wrap itself around the proton torpedo that Jaina just slammed into her. Jaina can feel her own mouth tighten down into a thin line as she extinguishes her saber.

Then without another word, she spins from Mara, and walks out. Her heart crushing, breaking at the fact that Mara never denies it.

The Darkening: Chapter Eight

It lies to her. It tells her things only a child can understand. To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is The Beast.

Jysella is sitting on her bed, her tears flowing freely down her face, as she talks to the Custodian. "And then he hit me!"

"And it made you angry, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then use that anger, convert it into raw power. Reach for the Force with your anger and hate, and it will come to you readily."

Jysella looks away. "I don't know. That seems to fly in the face of what Master Skywalker teaches."

"Is it? Is it really? Consider what you told me of the fight between your father and this Ben. Was not your father using his anger?"

Jysella nods her head slightly, and focuses once more on the sigils that are on the box, their red glow pulsing slightly. "Yes, I could feel his anger as he struck me."

"Then does that not tell you that you can use your anger to fuel your power? That your teachers tell you otherwise just so you will not have access to your full range of abilities?"

Before she can answer her comm unit chirps. Pulling it out, she flicks it on. "Hello."

Jacen's voice comes from the small device, making her smile. "Hey Jysella, I was just wondering if I could take you to lunch."

"I'd love to."

"Great, meet me at the Temple entrance in about fifteen minutes, okay?"

"I'll be there."

She turns off the comm and looks at the Custodian. "I'll think about what you said." Then she walks from the room, not seeing the twisted smile that appears on the Custodian's face.

-----------------------------------------

Corran walks out of the medical center, the bacta patch on his leg an odd bulk. He glances towards the Jedi Temple remembering Luke's words to go there and have a talk. Frowning he takes a step in that direction, and then wonders why he needs to go listen to the farm boy as if he's still an untried, untested trainee.

"I'm a Jedi Master; I don't need to go have a talking to from Luke."

Glancing around, he sees a tapcaf and walks that way. Entering the dark room, it takes a moment for his eyes to adjust. When they do, he heads towards a booth in the darkest corner, and slips within it, ordering a bottle of whiskey from the droid as it rolls past.

A few minutes later, the droid drops the bottle and a glass off, and takes the credit chit from Corran, rolling away, leaving him to his thoughts and whiskey. About an hour later, Corran has finished half of the bottle, and he hears a laugh that he recognizes.

Looking up and around, he sees her sitting there with Jacen Solo. As he watches her laugh, a red flame ignites in his thoughts.

She's yours. Take her away from him.

Startled he looks around for who had spoken. I'm part of you. Now, take her. If the boy complains, punish him.

Corran nods his head, and then stands shakily to his feet. He stumbles over to the table that Jysella and Jacen are sharing. The two look up at him, and he notices as Jysella shrinks back slightly. He stares at her hard. "First Skywalker this morning, and now him for lunch? Is it a different boy for every meal?"

Corran feels an intense glee as she starts to blush. As Jacen lays his hand on his arm, he turns towards the young Jedi Master. "And you! Have you no shame? You're old enough to be her father!"

He reaches out and grabs her arm, dragging her from the tapcaf. He growls in frustration as the sun pounds against his eyes, and ignores her pounding on him, trying to loosen his grasp.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jysella feels her tears of frustration and embarrassment as they flow down her face. She stumbles slightly as her father pulls on her arm once more dragging her towards their house. Finally, he stumbles and she is able to twist free from his grip. She turns to run, and Corran grabs her hair, pulling her to a stop with it. She can feel as he twists his hand into her hair, drawing her closer to him.

As she turns to look at him, she can feel her anger building at his treatment of her. She knows he is her father, but she doesn't understand why he has started acting this way. He pulls her close, and she winces at the smell of alcohol. "You need to stay away from them. Am I clear Jys?"

Jysella hears the words, but all meaning is lost in the red haze in which she finds herself as he slaps her again. The anger is a palatable thing, coiled within her, ready to strike, begging to be used. The Custodian's words about anger bounce around in her head.

Sniffing back her final tear, she looks up, and reaches out with her anger, with all those years of being left behind as her father went off to be a Jedi and her mother went out to run her business, her anger at all those years of being the outsider of the academy.

She smiles as the Force burns away her concerns about anger and hate, filling her with power. For a second, fear flashes in the drunken eyes of her father, as she reaches out with the Force, and smash into his pain centers, setting every nerve he has on fire.

He screams, releasing her hair and falling to his knees. She leans down close to him. "Never hit me again." Then she pulls back her booted foot and slams it as hard as she can into his stomach, enhancing her kick with the Force. She walks away to the sound of him retching, in the dust of the pathway.

She reaches her home, and rushes upstairs to her room, closing and locking the door behind her. She climbs into the bed, buries her head in her pillow and begins to cry.

"What is wrong child?"

Jysella looks up from her pillow, and tells of her father's actions this afternoon, and of Jacen's inaction. The Custodian nods his head. "And you felt the anger, it helped you."

"Yes. Yes it did."

"It made you powerful, it saved you from his grasp, gave you the power to overcome."

"But I worry about it, what if Master Skywalker is right, what if his anger is why my Dad is acting this way?"

"But why would your father be angry?"

Jysella looks out the window, and asks herself the same question. The Custodian is quiet for a few minutes and then attracts her attention with a soft noise. "Now, about Jacen, do you still wish to test him?"

Jysella hesitates a moment, and then nods her head. "Yes, I want to know."

"Then this is what you shall do. Go offer yourself to him; if he turns you down, he is honorable. If he does not, then he does not love you."

Jysella ponders the Custodian's words as she reaches out and once more traces one of the sigils on the side of the box, smiling as the icon glows slightly where her finger runs. After a few more minutes, she looks up from where she's tracing to stare at the red hologram. "What else do you know about?"

"I am a repository of arcane and forgotten Force lore."

Jysella sits up in her bed, suddenly very interested in the box. "So you really are a holocron."

"I never said I wasn't."

Jysella opens her mouth, and then quickly shuts it as she remembers that particular conversation. She thinks for another moment, before opening her mouth to speak once more. "Can you teach me what you know?"

The Custodian's smile is large and happy. "I thought you'd never ask."