Jedi Adept: A Path in the Dark - Ch. 8

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Noelani ran around the corner; her heart pounded in her chest, a constant thudding that worked in time with the shallow gasps of breath that were all she was able to take, and the throbbing of pain that had appeared in her side. She tossed another glance over her shoulder and saw the six ferals still chasing after her, moving almost as fast as her Force enhanced speed allowed her to move.

Slipping in a puddle, she darted down a side alley and stretched out with the Force. This was the first time in over a week that she had actively used it in this way, the first time since leaving the Temple, and she hoped that the Jedi wouldn't feel her use it. She did not want to alert them to her location; she did not want them to find her.

As she grasped at the Force, awareness flooded into her. She could feel the frayed, damaged existence of the ferals, and she could feel small pockets of regular beings. The regulars were close, and Noelani could feel them huddled in their darkened rooms; feel their fear at the ferals' moans and cries.

What she couldn't feel, was a way to escape the creatures.

She could feel her lightsaber hanging heavily on her belt, but did not want to use it on the ferals. After all, they had not asked to be turned into mindless creatures by the Yuuzhan Vong.

Turning another corner, she found herself in yet another alley. To the right was a series of open doors. She glanced behind her, and noticed that for the moment, she was out of the sight of the ferals. Instantly making up her mind, she dove through one of the open doorways. Her chest heaved as she gulped air, and struggled to calm the stitch in her side.

A scampering noise attracted her attention, and she lifted her head to find herself staring at a group of children; the youngest barely at an age where it could attend school, the eldest roughly her own age.

Her eyes flicked out over the ten or so children; their scared, dirty faces stared at her. She turned towards the doorway, instantly deciding that she couldn't hide here; that there was too much of a risk of bringing the ferals to these innocent children.

She refused to have their deaths on her conscience.

Yet, as she faced the gaping hole through which she had entered, she saw one of the ferals stumbling into the room. It groaned an almost subsonic sound which caused the children behind her to whimper.

Sighing, knowing she had no choice, she pulled out her lightsaber and thumbed its activation switch. Its harsh, white light threw the room into relief, revealing the horrendous caricature of a face which the feral sported.

She raised her blade and put herself between the children and the feral. It moaned again, and ambled into the room. Over its shoulder, Noelani could see more of the creatures coming in her direction.

Muttering a curse she would often catch Tahiri using, Noelani darted forward and slammed her saber into the shoulder of the first feral, aiming it down and across its chest. Sawing through the protrusions of coral, she finally succeeded in creating a diagonal slice through the creature.

The two halves of its body rolled away from each other, and Noelani turned her attention to the next feral in line. Raising her blade to a midguard, she prayed to the Force that she would be able to destroy them all before even more of the creatures appeared.

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Tahiri clutched at the edge of Jacen's cloak, twisting it into her fist, as she stared hard at her younger self. She was all of 12 years old, and knelt over Anakin's form. He was still, unmoving; a long gash from whatever had attacked them was on his forehead, blood flowing freely onto the dusty ground.

Her body hitched with a sob. Indistinct memories of this event flickered through her mind. Though she could not recall what it was that had attacked them, she knew without a doubt that it was at this moment. At this single eye blink in time, that she had realized that she loved him.

It took her another two years to garner enough courage to admit that, and even then, it was his courage to kiss her that spurned her to action.

Her younger self, knelt lower, pressing her tear streaked face against Anakin's chest, and the elder Tahiri could feel her body convulse through the pain.

She could feel herself growing more in tune with this time plane.

It had always been his courage that spurned her to action.

Jacen hissed into her ear. "Concentrate. Don't let the past affect you so that you don't become a part of it."

Biting back a scathing retort, she nodded her head, and slowly exhaled; struggling to keep her emotions under control. Not wanting to become a presence in her own past, and not wanting to break down in front of Jacen. He had enough control and power over her as it was.

Sniffling back tears, she turned to him once more. "Now what?"

Jacen smiled at her, causing her heart to jump into her throat once again.

"Now," he replied. "You try to take us forward in time to where we belong."

"All right," she said, and then closed her eyes, stretching out to feel the flow of the Force and time around them. Their little bubble in the past seemed different from everything else; unnatural somehow.

Making a mental note to ask Jacen about that feeling, she gripped the Flow, and imagined paddling a boat upstream; using that mental construct to control her movements up the Flow.

After what seemed an eternity, she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Looking around, she saw that they were on the same plain that they had been standing; only now there were no longer the younger versions of Tahiri and Anakin on the ground.

She looked up at Jacen, her breathing still heavy. "Did I do it? Are we back in the present?"

Jacen's stony face looked down at her, and he closed his eyes. She could feel him reaching out in the Force around them, and then he slowly nodded. "Yes. Or near enough to not matter."

She looked around them, not wanting to look at Jacen. "In the past, when I reached out around us, there was a bubble of… of, wrongness around us."

"Yes," he replied. "That was because of our presence. We're not supposed to be in the past. It's forcing our will upon the Flow. That is why it feels so unnatural."

"Ah," she said, and began chewing on her lower lip.

She sat there for a few more minutes, before Jacen spoke again. "So, have you made your decision? Will you help me? Will you do what I need you to do? What I demand you do?"

A small part of her winced inwardly at the demanding nature of his request, yet she knew that this was the only way that she could learn how to Flow Walk; that this was the only way that she could possibly go back in time and change the past to fix the present. To fix the present so that Anakin was alive and she would be able to raise her daughter with him by her side.

She would pay any cost to be able to have those two simple things.

Nodding her head, she focused on him once again. "Yes. Yes I will."

His smile was cold and hard, and sent a shiver racing down her spine.

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The Millennium Falcon floated in space a parsec from Coruscant. A dozen new burns adorned her mottled hull from their narrow escape from Coruscant security forces.

Inside, a thin greasy looking smoke hung at knee height throughout the various corridors, seeping from a crack in one of the orange coolant lines that ran the length of the ship.

Leia stepped gingerly through the mist, not wanting to stir it up, because she knee that the coolant was poisonous to humans. She was just thankful that this particular coolant was heavier than air, and so it sank to the ground.

She still remembered Han cutting a coolant line on a replica of the Falcon so many years ago, and the plume of noxious smoke that it had created.

Sighing, she turned a corner to find Han leaned over into one of the many maintenance panels. Odd bangs sounded from the depths of the ship, and she lightly touched his back.

He jerked, and a stream of curses erupted from his mouth as he extricated himself from the panel.

Scowling, he looked at her, "Yeah?"

She smiled at him, and his expression softened. "Are you all right with everything that happened on Coruscant?"

Turning away from her, his shoulders slumped. "No. No I'm not ok with things. Where did we go wrong? What happened to him? The Jacen that we raised would have never used Mara's funeral in an effort to have us arrested."

"And Luke?"

"I don't want to talk about Luke until I get to talk to Luke. His betrayal of Tahiri, and us, still smarts."

Leia watched her husband for a moment, wondering when he had gotten so bitter about her brother. Knowing, deep down that she was just as bitter and heart broken.

Sighing, she turned away, and continued around the curve of the corridor until she stopped in front of the entrance of the cockpit. With a moment's hesitation, she stepped into it, and dropped into her chair. First she allowed her gaze to flicker over the co-pilot's station, once she was certain there was nothing wrong, she lifted her gaze and just stared out into space.

Her heart was heavy and hurt. It seemed like since the start of the Vong War a heavy blanket has covered the galaxy; a shroud which blanketed joy and happiness, which stifled life.

First faithful Chewbacca, then her own son Anakin, and now Mara; all were dead, each a painful cut into the heart and soul of her family.

Now her remaining son had gone Dark, and her own brother had hidden her grandchild from the girl's mother and her and Han.

The galaxy was painful and dark, and she saw no way she could fix it. She saw no way she could help it. Her family was scattered, broken. She feared they may be damaged beyond repair, that Mara's death, the discovery of Luke's betrayal and Jacen's fall had finally severed the bonds that held them together.

She longed for a way to repair things, a way to make things right again.

Yet she could not think of anything. The Force was silent and uncaring. Her own heart was cold and hard.

Her family. Her galaxy. Her heart. All were breaking. Broken.

And she could fix none of them, which she realized was what pained her most of all.

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