Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Betsy/Star Wars) Fanged Butterfly 2: Knightcross 57/? (PG-15) From: Phil Hartman Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:29:53 +0000 will1@earthling.net Fanged Butterfly Vol. 2: Knightcross Chapter 57 by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Marvel's are Marvel's. LFL's are LFL's. Any original characters are mine. The rest belong to their owners/creators. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. WARNING: Violence, language, themes. -------------------------------------------------------- 40.8.17 ABY: Apartments of Jacen Solo, Galactic City District, Coruscant, Core Worlds Region: 01:00 hrs local: -------------------------------------------------------- It had been barely hours since Ben had been - stolen. That it had been by their family didn't make Jacen's agony any easier to bear. He sat, cross-legged, on a meditation mat in his bedroom, unable to focus - unable to stop crying. It was - unbecoming. Not at all Sith. #But Ben LISTENED. He was the only one who would - oh, I talk to Tenel Ka, but Ben accepted me without criticism. And THEY ....# Jacen thought, his lips curling in rage ... A vase went flying across the room and shattered under his telekinetic thrust. His family ... his family had BETRAYED him. Stolen Ben, fled Coruscant, vanished in some odd bird-shaped hyperspace warp. And for what? "Protecting" Ben? From HIM? #I'm not the weak one, conniving to kidnap Corellian prime ministers after failing to take more decisive action. I'm not the treacherous one, working with Fett,# Jacen thought. Shevu had no clues on where the Falcon had gone to. But as soon as it resurfaced, Jacen would be waiting. He might not make Ben a Sith, but he WOULD save the boy from their family's hypocrisy and paranoia. After all, Jacen had uncovered Skrulls infiltrating the Galactic Alliance. He'd rooted out Corellian insurgents, led internment drives. The threat was REAL. But ... what if that vision he'd had back on the asteroid - the one that had led him to ... remove ... Nelani Dinn as an obstacle, the one of Luke dying if Lumiya was captured - had been false? What if it was a Skrull trick? Or - was LUKE was a Skrull? #It'd make a huge amount of sense. Replace the most powerful Jedi of the age, slip in a fake who'd mindkriff the Masters and hobble the Order... but I'd have to be SURE,# Jacen thought, horrified and relieved at once. Horrified at the possibility that he might be wrong, and that he'd fulfill a prophecy of doom, much as his grandfather had about his grandmother's death. Relieved that he'd have an excuse to detain his family and get Ben out of their clutches. The boy had been MAGNIFICENT, dueling Jacen to a standstill merely with his telepathy - not even with the Force. #Except ... what if Ben turned against me not out of confusion, but by CHOICE? I know he wasn't a Skrull, I sensed that - but he sensed my approaching the dark side. I did scare him. And I'm certainly no Jedi,# Jacen admitted, sighing ... He'd risked Ben's mind - possibly his life - in that duel, when Ben hadn't wanted to hurt him. It had to have been frightening for the poor kid - and Jacen had to take responsibility. And face reality. #I'll never give up on Ben. He's like my son. But if I can't bring myself to make him Sith ... and I CAN'T go to Allana or Tace. The entire point of splitting them up was to protect them from Tenel Ka's Hapan enemies, and now from threats from the Skrulls or Corellians. Not to mention, they're little kids. I couldn't ...# Jacen shuddered at the very notion of forcing his children to become Sith - Allana was a bright-eyed little girl, and Tace ... well, odds were that Jacen would never see Tace in person. It was a sacrifice. It still hurt - and Jacen grabbed onto that pain, used it to strengthen himself. To focus on finding ... another. #Help me find me an apprentice,# he told the Force ... ---------------------------------------------------- 06:00 hrs EDT: Jedi Temple, Temple District: ---------------------------------------------------- "- no, I've checked ALL the sensor arrays! The Falcon just VANISHED, in some giant firebird!" Corran Horn - the de facto Grand Master in Luke's absence, not that he was HAPPY with that arrangement - rubbed the bridge of his nose as he finished listening to Kyp Durron, his philosophical opposite, complete his report on the search for the Skywalkers, Solos and Betsy Braddock. All of whom had fled Jacen Solo and a GAG detachment. Half the Council had strapped on their lightsabers and headed for the door until Cilghal and Tionne - the latter by hologram from Ossus - had pleaded for sanity; cutting Jacen down would only make enemies of the government, Corran had warned. But given the sudden clear-headedness of the Council, not everybody was so ... troubled at LUKE'S absence, either. "All right, we keep our eyes open for the Falcon, and this Force firebird. And DON'T harass Jacen?" Corran emphasized. "Agreed," Kyp said tightly, and Corran nodded; the younger man might argue like a gundark, but his word was his bond, or had been since Kyp's elevation to the Council. "Which brings us to the next order of business - the fact that we CAN decide so clearly, without Grand Master Skywalker holding our hands?" Octa Ramis, a Chalactan woman who once had supported Kyp but now was her own - often fierce - voice for action on the Council, demanded. "There isz no clear evidenze that Luke would mindkriff usz," Saba Sebatyne insisted - she was among Luke's most loyal supporters, and normally, Corran would agree. Except ... it WAS as if his brain wasn't wrapped in nerf-wool for once during a meeting ... "Well, we can't cross-examine Luke. I say we wait until he gets back, and deal with these rumors out of Coronet, that -" Kyle Katarn started to speak. "What? Thrackan Sal-Solo lives, and you KRIFFED UP?!" a voice SNARLED from the doorway - and Corran gasped. His 27-year-old son Valin, a Knight, stood there - fuming. Worse, there were about half a dozen other young Knights ... -------------------------------------------------------- Valin knew his limitations - and he was willing to throw away a LOT to get past them. He'd been pushing such things since he was 12, and had mentally commanded bugs on Yavin IV to attack Kyp Durron (maybe attack was a bit strong, but Durron HAD been giving Dad grief for no reason). Durron wasn't EVIL, per se, but ... Horns, and their Halcyon ancestors, had never let evil grow. But Dad seemed to have forgotten that - letting their native Corellia get taken over by that maniac Thrackan, who'd turned bigotry into a national pastime, an excuse to secede. Worse, some weird alien had taken Thrackan's place, until that man-schutta Jacen Solo - a freak, Valin felt in his bones - had killed the shapeshifter. But the new Corellian leadership weren't any better ... and then they'd heard the news: Thrackan was ALIVE. And then Valin's roommate and friend had awoken crying ... "This Council refuses to take action? Refuses to END this war and cut Jacen's rotten legs out from underneath him? We're JEDI. We have an obligation to STOP tyrants, and we have one returning in Coronet and another across town!" Valin spat - he could feel how hurt Dad was ... Well, truth hurt. So had the emergency comm from Aunt Iella. "And ... and Myri Antilles was picked up in a CorSec raid. For QUESTIONING. For asking why illegal detentions were going on in Coronet, the heart of what SHOULD be free thinkers," Valin said, his throat going thick as Dad gasped. His roommate - the Ewok Jedi Kettch, Myri's ... well, Valin had never asked, but ... well - said, in a scared voice, "Kettch see. Myri taken. Myri in danger. "Myri about to die." "A vision - Kettch - Valin, we CANNOT justify a strike on Corellia based on one Knight's vision!" Tresina Lobi called. Valin caught his father's eyes, where pain warred with duty ... "The Council can't. Well, Durron keeps slandering that Horns are poor Jedi anyhow," Valin said, throwing his saber down. "Come on, Kettch - and anyone else who won't let friends die." ------------------------------------------------------------ Galactic Senate Chambers, Senate District: 07:00 hrs local: ------------------------------------------------------------ "... these-a new security procedures be bombad strict! An' the regulation of trade routes no helpin' with relief efforts!" As annoying as he was, after ALL these decades, Jacen had to admit: Naboo Senator Jar Jar Binks had passion - and compassion. In this case, Jar Jar WAS arguing for - in Jacen's opinion, wrongly, but he respected the Gungan's effort - lifting the embargo to the Corellian system, due to complaints from Tralus escapees who'd gotten out before the now-forcibly-retired Admiral Klauskin had conquered the world and the shipping embargo had been put in place. "Senator Binks, your concerns for Corellia are noted, but we have to consider the security ramifications. Corellia has clearly stated their secession from and hostility towards the Galactic Alliance, and half a dozen other systems are rallying to its cause, not to mention the Hutts and their client worlds. If we back down now, we risk a secessionist movement that could bleed dry a still-healing galaxy!" Supreme Commander Admiral Cha Niathal - Jacen's putative superior, but in political reality, his equal - replied, just as strongly. Jar Jar made a not-too-slobbery noise - he'd learned SOME self control over the decades - and said, "Tie a wound too tight, Admiral, and yousa riskin' gangrene `cause of no circulation. Yousa already angerin' the human Corellians. What `bout the Selonians an' Drall? What they done to deserve dat dere interdiction field?" Oh. Oh, he'd learned SUBTLETY ... Jacen could almost applaud the Gungan. Grandmother would be proud of her old friend, were she alive. The Selonian and Drall exile community observers in the viewing gallery cheered, and the Corellian Senator, Karmus Relavan, applauded - as, Jacen noted with mild concern, did the Kuati Senator, Raliq Ves. But Ves' dire glare at Jacen was nothing new - Kuat hated Jedi. The Kuati had been angry ever since Betsy butchered - and Jacen meant BUTCHERED, he'd SEEN the holos - Viqi Shesh aboard the Byrt for trying to kidnap Ben during the Vong War... as dark an exhibition of Force powers as Jacen had ever seen. Granted, it was Viqi; she'd deserved the lightning, then getting strangled with her own - well, Betsy had been ... inventive. But like most Jedi, Betsy hadn't thought past the moment. They were in the living Force, but Kuat was an important shipyard and mercantile world for the Alliance. And Viqi, a high-ranking Kuati noble, had been slain by Jedi - an affront her allies wanted blood for. But Kuati didn't KILL their foes - they waited to take deeper revenge. So it was up to a Sith to fix Jedi shortsightedness. "Admiral ... a moment, please," Jacen said softly in Niathal's auditory canal, and she shrugged, letting him drop a hint ... "That's a risky solution, Colonel," she replied. "Riskier than losing the support of the Kuati? We need ships, Admiral. And keeping Kuat happy, or at least not mad at US, means fewer keels and resources going to help Corellia," Jacen emphasized. Niathal had her buttons to push. She - rightfully - cared about the sentients under her command. Jacen sympathized; he had a similar bond with the GAG troops. It didn't mean they didn't order difficult duties, but they both had a duty not to waste their troops' lives. "Very well," Niathal said, uncovering the mike and coughing before she glanced at the Drall and Selonians in the gallery. "We will take under advisement Senator Binks' words - and, if the representatives of Drall and Selonia can provide proof of their neutrality in the current conflict, we will permit normal shipping to resume to THOSE worlds. Corellia, Talus and Tralus will remain under interdiction until hostilities cease," Niathal said, drawing surprise and applause from the nonhuman Corellians in the gallery. Even Ves nodded with a measure of respect, and Jacen allowed himself a tight, small, smile. It was a simple gesture - it'd mean more checking of ships to two of the Five Brothers in the Corellian system, but if it kept the nonhuman Corellian natives happy, AND kept Kuat off-balance, AND drove a wedge toward Coronet ...? #Like billiards. Line up your shots and take them,# Jacen thought. Maybe he had learned something from his wastrel father, after all. Jacen wasn't so sure that felt comforting ... ... or maybe, his danger sense was going off - and he flicked a poison dart from the wrist launcher he wore, toward Raliq Ves, who was reaching for something in his robes - and Ves gurgled, MELTED, grew chin wrinkles, pointed ears and green skin, and collapsed, as the Senate exploded. And Jacen saw a bank shot of epic proportions ... -------------------------------------------------------------- The new security provisions had been child's play - not even Binks had offered more than token protest, although Jacen had acknowledged the Gungan's concerns. SOME open dissent was safest. #Just as long as they don't take up arms,# Jacen reminded himself, slipping into his small office in the Supreme Commander's spacious allotment - at this level, Niathal and her staff needed access to the COS, and Omas was just a floor up. The blue-robed Senate Guards had been humilated by the revelation that Ves had been a Skrull, and getting funding for GAG troops to bolster the Senate patrols and install genescanners had been a simple case to put past the still-shocked Senate. The Kuati, for their part, were falling over themselves trying to prove that they weren't in collusion with the Skrulls ... so getting a funding boost for the Guard hadn't been that difficult an effort to ask Acting Kuati Senator Burvan Wiest to support. And it wasn't even NOON. Jacen almost smirked, taking off his cloak, then boots, and resting his feet on the desk ... then almost falling backwards - a Force-signature that couldn't POSSIBLY be present was outside his door, as a knock rang out. #TACE!?# Jacen thought, shielding - his SON, hidden at birth, was outside - with a non-Force-user whom Jacen knew well ... "Come in," Jacen said, slipping his feet back into his boots, and a white-haired woman his mother's age walked in, troubled yet regal, in a white dress that probably hid lethal weapons. Winter Celchu. Jacen's nanny and his mother's dearest friend. And - although it could never be revealed - the adoptive mother of ... the small figure behind her: a little boy, with buzzed brown hair and bright green eyes, wearing a formal black jumpsuit, if such a garment could exist. Tace had Tenel Ka's eyes ... and Jacen's facial structure. "Jacen. It seems you've managed to cause quite the stir. And won more rewards for your followers. This is my son, but I suspect you already know that," Winter began, once Jacen motioned her to a seat and Tace sat beside her - not on her lap. Trying to be his own man, even as he worshipped the only mother he'd ever known. Jacen was exceedingly proud, even as he struggled not to show recognition - and to shield himself from Tace's FORCE PROBE ... Oh. Oh, his little boy was strong. Amazing. It was all Jacen could do to keep from shattering. He drew a deep breath, focusing on his reluctance toward war - really, Jacen didn't WANT to unleash carnage, preemptive surgical strikes were so much less wasteful and cruel - and said, "Winter, I'm not in this for glory. You have to have seen the holovids -" "Yes, I know that Kuati Senator was a - Skrull, I believe you call them? - Tace and I certainly had to undergo enough tests to see you. Blood and DNA sampling? Caution is admirable, but this is excessive. Like so many of your efforts," Winter insisted, building toward - "Winter. If this is about the Falcon, I'm NOT going to lock up my family and throw away the key. There was a terrible confusion last night, and Ben got scooped up by his parents - I just want to find them all and clear the air," Jacen managed to interject, his head whirling - The Guard had DNA samples from TACE? As necessary as that was ... Jacen would have to code-lock those files. Winter looked doubtful, continuing, "And Tycho's access to secure files is restricted? Jacen, he's LOYAL." This was trickier - Niathal had been the one to push for restrictions on files accessible by former Rogue Squadron members, such as Tycho Celchu and Gavin Darklighter, based on their bonds with Wedge Antilles ... a Corellian, formerly leading Corellia's armed forces until Thrackan had threatened Wedge's family. "That ... you'd have to address Admiral Niathal about that. I'm primarily responsible for finding Skrulls and securing Coruscant, not high-ranking data access," Jacen replied, calmly. Or as calmly as he could, given Tace's attention. The boy was ALERT. "But don't'cha check files re-dun-dant-ly, to make sure bad guys don't hack `em?" Tace asked - Winter blushed, but Jacen beamed. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Yes, Tace, we do check file access logs, but we don't go into the files ourselves. I'm sorry I can't help your - daddy," Jacen said, fighting down the lump those words caused. He felt Winter's eyes boring into him, and Tace smiled a little - then Winter stood, taking Tace's hand, and said, "Thank you. "For ... many gifts. Of your time. And more." When Jacen dared to meet her eyes, he saw - gratitude, mixed with protectiveness, and a bit of confusion, as she left with Tace. The little boy waved, and Jacen returned it - then, once the door slid shut, he laid his head on his desk, sobbing. And he'd thought BEN'S vanishing hurt? --------------------------------------------------------------- INTERLUDE THE FIRST: Bast Castle, Vjun, Outer Rim Territories, Galactic East: --------------------------------------------------------------- He awoke in darkness. #Where am I?# he thought, coughing - he was DROWNING - no. Not drowning. Floating in warm liquid. Almost naked. But able to breathe, even with tubes in his arms and legs and one attached to some kind of briefs he was wearing - he blushed. Then he sensed the pressure at the base of his skull - ran a hand over his head, feeling his usual curls, just damp, then feeling more afraid as he felt some kind of cable, attached at the back of his head. He was being programmed ... ?! The Force flooded back into him, and he PUSHED - the door to the container he was in exploded, dribbling fluid onto the floor as he coughed up the liquid, wheezing and drawing breath. Whatever was attached to his head came free, with some kind of sucking sound, but not real pain - just the feeling of a vacuum seal being broken. He pulled the tubes from his arms and legs, then took off the weird briefs, and stood - free - then wobbled out of the cylinder, shivering as much at his nudity as at the chill. There was a shower nearby; he stepped inside and cleaned off, finding a towel hanging on the outside. A locker, with undershorts, a jumpsuit and boots - all a good two sizes too big, but it was SOMETHING - was nearby, and he dressed. He looked in a mirror, then, and gasped - still-damp brown curls, brown eyes, in a pale face - like he hadn't seen sunlight forever ... But he looked the same otherwise. Except ... he couldn't feel - SHE was missing - or so far away ... they all were. And there was some weird echo in his head ... "No. I won't be afraid. I'm Jacen Solo, Jedi apprentice - I'm 14. I can handle escaping ... whatever this tube was," the boy insisted, starting to explore ... wherever he was. He didn't sense the green-eyed observer who'd accidentally freed him. -------------------------------------------------------------- Queen Mother's Palace, Hapes, Hapes Consortium, Inner Rim Territories: -------------------------------------------------------------- She'd called; they'd come. Allana played happily with her stuffed tauntaun - the one "Jacen" Tenel Ka could truly trust these days - as her mother watched, Major Espara and DeDe, Allana's Defender Droid and nanny close by ... and a gathering of old friends, Jedi all, in the sitting room near the patio. "Thisz one would be honored to help protect Allana, Your Majesty," Tesar Sebatyne vowed, and Tenel Ka kissed his hand in gratitude - the Barabel had never lacked for courage or honor, and was a true friend. "The same for me, Your Majesty," Tekli, a small Chadra-Fan healer and another of the Myrkr mission survivors, promised, bowing. "And you don't even need to ask where I stand," Ganner Rhysode - Hero of the Well of the World Brain, almost-slain executioner of a thousand-plus Yuuzhan Vong, who'd risked everything to let Jacen and Betsy Braddock get to Shimmrra and end the Vong rule of Coruscant - vowed, dropping to one knee - a true Knight. "Thank you all, my dear friends. I cannot say whether there WILL be an attack ... but Hapes is being pressured to join the systems speaking of confederacy. I will NOT betray the Galactic Alliance, not unless Hapes is so severely wronged that it would put my people at risk ... but to stand puts Allana at risk, also," Tenel Ka worried. "Then we won't let anyone harm Allana," a fourth voice - familiar, surprising, and welcome - called, and Tenel Ka smiled as Zekk walked in, bowed and kissed her hand. "Zekk! You old gundark - where've you been?" Ganner chuckled, all politesse gone - he and Zekk had been good friends, Tenel Ka recalled. They all had been, once. Before ... before she'd lied about ... She missed Tace. But she had Allana, and her friends ... and doubts about Jacen. And now the Skywalkers and Solos had vanished ... ------------------------------------------------------------ GAG Headquarters, Coruscant: 13:00 hrs local: ------------------------------------------------------------- Well, THIS was unexpected - Jacen was almost getting used to it. A brown-haired girl - young woman - with her locks in a bun, almost regulation, wearing a GAG jumpsuit, was lightsaber dueling a modified YVH droid in the main training chamber. And she wasn't half-bad, Jacen admitted. She was ... handicapped, but her OTHER ability made up for it ... and lightning shattered the droid. Pragmatic, direct ... Orderly. Jacen smiled, leaving the shadows, and clapped. The girl tried to hide her surprise - her shielding wasn't bad. "Sir," she said, saluting - well, THAT was odd. Jacen didn't recall requesting, or getting, any Jedi recruits. "I don't recall the Council agreeing to send me a liasion. As I remember, Master Durron replied in most colorful language - something about `kissing a mynock's nether regions,'" Jacen tried to joke, reading the girl's aura ... Shavit. She HAD enlisted. And her parents DIDN'T KNOW. She assumed an at-attention stance, and said, "SIR! Guard Cadet Jysella Horn, at your service, SIR!" "At ease - Cadet. You are observing the forms. Very good. Very admirable. But I must confess a certain degree of confusion - as much as I admire Corellians for serving the greater good in this current crisis, why enlist with US?" Jacen asked, genuinely surprised ... and touched. Jysella had to be sacrificing a LOT - her parents' feelings, her own loyalties, maybe even her Jedi status - to do this. "Sir. Because no matter what my feelings for Corellia, this war is a dissident action, sir. And - request permission to speak freely?" Jysella asked. "Granted," Jacen said, smiling a little as she relaxed a bit. "Sir - Jacen - Valin's betrayed all of us. He's taken a squad of rogue Jedi to bust Myri out of prison and kill Thrackan. I'm scared he'll blow the war wide open - it's RECKLESS, and I don't want the Horn name tarnished for all of history, either by my brother's suicide or Dad's ... weakness," Jysella said, hurt and shame and strength warring in her ... Jacen placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, and smiled. "History often judges those who act with swiftness and surety. Your willingness to come to me with this information may well help save lives. You'll find a place here, I promise," he assured. "And - you're wasted as a cadet. I have a lieutenant's position that just opened up. If you want a real sparring partner, I've got time on my hands until the next crisis ..." That was when his comlink went off - and Jacen paled. #NO! How - NOW, of all times -?!# he thought, giving Jysella an almost apologetic look - she smiled, saluting, and said, "Sir. I'll await your return, sir." "Thank you, Lieutenant Horn. Feel free to let Captain Girdun know of your promotion," Jacen said, racing for his shuttle ... Why, when one crisis resolved itself, did another flare up? -------------------------------------------------------------- Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban, Outer Rim Territories, Galactic East: -------------------------------------------------------------- The shuttle - a primitive thing, Wyyrlok judged contemptuously, belying the power its occupant wielded - landed, and disgorged ... a tall human woman, clad in a black bodysuit, shiny black boots, some kind of riding crop in her left hand, a lightsaber at her hip. But it was her hair ... brown with a white streak ... that made one of the Sith acolytes sneer, "A ... Fel -?" The riding crop slapped the arrogant boy across his mouth, and the ... Dark Lady snapped, in Adumari accented Basic: "Watch yoah mouth, sugah. Ah come bearing the holocron of Darth Malak." A rumble behind Wyyrlok - familiar - made the Chagrian Sith bow, as did the rest of One Sith, and the newcomer also knelt. "You do well to show obesiance, daughter of a distant world," the TRUE Dark Lord rumbled. "Come. Bring the holocron to me. Share your discoveries. "The House of Vader will PAY at last for their crimes ..." ------------------------------------------------------------ INTERLUDE THE SECOND: Bast Castle, Vjun: ----------------------------------------------------------- There were some stores, Jacen had found - flash-frozen food, a water recycler. He could last for a while. But the comsuite was really hard to figure out ... #Jaina's always the mechanic. How come I got kidnapped and stuck in some dumb tank to get brainwashed?# Jacen thought, kicking a stone wall - not too hard. It was immature, but ... #but I'm 14. Why does this stuff happen to ME?# he thought, sitting and trying to meditate, to find ... No Jaina. That was scariest - the twinbond was so STRETCHED. And ... sometimes it was like HE wasn't part of the twinbond, like he was dialing a comlink number that was already owned by someone else. Or a villip bonded to someone else ... huh? What was a VILLIP? Jacen shook his head - weird memories, maybe part of the brainwashing - him as some older guy ... him and Tenel Ka - Then the Force yelled a warning, and he knelt, panting, afraid, someone was trying to grab his BRAIN - /Not exactly. Not precisely. You came out of the tank too soon,/ a voice - HIS voice ... older? ... tried to soothe - Jacen tried to shield - and another Force presence - DARKER - was in the shadows nearby. Jacen looked up, not ashamed to be afraid - Uncle Luke had warned him about going off alone, somebody must've jumped Jacen at the Yavin temple and brought him to - this place, full of darkness. He knew, suddenly - and was SCARED: He was in Bast Castle on Vjun. His granddad's - Darth VADER'S - fortress. /You are NO Darth Vader. You are a biological specimen, decanted too soon - an accident,/ the closer darkness - a woman - said, angry. She slid from the shadows - a cyborg, with a triangular headdress, and Jacen's blood chilled ... Lumiya. A SITH. "What he was thinking, creating you?" she hissed - Jacen PUSHED, with the Force, throwing her BACK - And he ran. Ashamed. A guy should stay and fight. But the Force was yelling if he stayed, he'd DIE. So he ran. Trying to stay alive long enough to be a Jedi - even if a Jedi would stay and fight a Sith ... But ... if that wasn't who he was ... then ... who WAS he? #Stay alive. Figure out the rest later,# Jacen told himself, running. A hiss of something like a lightsaber split the air, and he sped up. -------------------------------------------------------------- DEFINITELY tbc ....