Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Betsy/Star Wars) Fanged Butterfly 2: Knightcross 6/? (PG-15) From: Phil Hartman Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 08:19:44 +0000 will1@earthling.net Fanged Butterfly Vol. 2: Knightcross Chapter 6 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. NOTE: And now - finally - the light side gets their act in gear ... >) ------------------------------------------- 40 ABY: Dathomir: Singing Mountain Clan Fortress: ------------------------------------------- The shockwaves from Jacen's summons still rang in Ben's mind as the boy stirred. He fought back tears, as he curled up in the bed Master Kirana had so kindly provided for him - most males got a cot on the floor on Dathomir, if they were lucky. #I don't even deserve that,# the 13-year-old thought, hating himself for his weakness - No. Hatred was of the dark side, self-hatred most cunningly. If one hated themselves, they had nowhere to go for help. And that was what Jacen wanted ... for Ben to believe he was alone. #You tried to make me think I could only go dark, Jasa,# Ben thought, his heart wrenching when he looked at his reflection in a mirror across the room. He'd always kept his hair short, but the buzzcut ... with the braid ... was creepy , if he looked at it from his family's perspective. Ben finally understood why his Dad had been so shocked when Ben had visited weeks earlier, after the Guard troops had initiated him with his buzzcut. #I look so ... hard,# Ben reflected, grieving over how he'd pushed his parents away. Jacen was still lurking around his subconscious. Ben could sense someone - Aunt Betsy - reinforcing his shields, but Jacen WAS going to find them. Soon. And he knew his cousin well enough to know that even Betsy had no idea what Jacen could bring to a full-on Force battle. #And Tenel Ka and Allana are here - Jacen wants to get me. I can't let them get in the middle,# Ben thought, terrified at the idea that his innocent little cousin might fall into Jacen's clutches. Ben looked up when Aunt Betsy slipped into the room - the purples in the sky outside hinted at a Dathomiri sunset - and she sat by his bed. "Still in shorts," she gently teased, ruffling his red fuzz. "Better than a loincloth," Ben tried to laugh - the Dathomiri males REALLY had it worse. He hugged her, then, and said, "Thanks. But I can't put this off any longer." "Ben ... remember what I said. They'll understand," Betsy assured him. He just nodded, hoping she was right. He finally knew he needed help. #And boy, do I need it,# Ben thought, opening his shields. He grabbed onto his remorse, need and love, and poured them into the Force - into the bonds he had with the people he loved the most. Yes, even to Jacen. Even now. Ben had to at least try and help his cousin - just not alone. [Come, please,] Ben empathically called. [I need all of you ...] -------------------------------------------- Jedi Temple, Coruscant, Core Worlds: -------------------------------------------- "... latest moves by the Bothans indicate they're going after GAG spies -" Luke Skywalker stiffened in his seat, giving the Falleen Jedi who'd brought the Council the latest tactical report an apologetic glance - [Ben?] The Hero of Yavin, the founder of the New Jedi Order, felt his son in the Force, and was both glad to hear from Ben - and stricken by the plea his boy was sending. [We're coming, Ben. Please hang on,] Luke sent back, stunned and elated by the strength of Ben's love and gratitude when he responded. He looked over at his wife, who had obviously felt the cry for help, and Mara Jade-Skywalker shook out her still-red hair as she clutched her hand to her breast. "I thought ... SHAVIT!" Mara blurted, guilt and fear turning to determination. She'd been the only Council member who still thought letting Jacen and the Guard handle dissent on Coruscant was a good idea. No, Mara definitely wasn't going to mistake her little boy's plea for help as a sign of how much Jacen had "helped" him, Luke thought a little bitterly. #You're not being fair. Mara wanted Ben to be able to follow his own path ...# Luke reminded himself. He ran a hand through his greying sandy-blond hair and squeezed Mara's left hand with his cybernetic right one, before saying, "The Shadow?" "Fueled and prepped. Artoo's aboard," Mara said of her comfortable starship, before standing and giving the rest of the Jedi Council a warning look. "That Force-ripple - Masters Skywalker?" Kyp Durron - a former victim of dark-side influence himself, like many of the Council who'd faced and won out over the dark in their studies - asked, concern evident in his voice. "Yes, Ben needs us. Jacen's done something to hurt him - I GET it, Durron. Any `I told you so's' and I use you for blaster practice," Mara growled as she waited for Luke at the door. Luke knew his love well enough that she probably wasn't serious, that her anger was almost entirely directed at herself for trusting Jacen. He felt something similar, but for himself - for not being Ben's father, instead of Grand Master Skywalker. #That stops NOW,# Luke thought, continuing to projecting comfort and love to his son - who, to Luke's joy, kept the link open. Ben didn't resent him ... He still gave Kyp a wan smile and said, "I'll hide her power packs. We have to go - Ben needs us." "But - Mas - Luke. Can we do anything?" Corran Horn, the red-bearded Corellian Jedi Master who'd been almost as conflicted during the current crisis as the Skywalkers and Solos, asked. Luke gave his old friend a kind look - gave the entire Council a kind look - and replied, "Forgive me. I've been a terrible Jedi ... because I've been an absentee father." Mara stopped at the doorway, radiating disapproval - disagreement - in the Force; she thought Luke had done his best. They had BOTH agreed to let Jacen teach Ben - [But he isn't scared of you,] Luke reminded Mara, and she looked at him with rare tears. [He isn't scared of you anymore,] she pointed out, and Luke ceded the point. It still shouldn't have taken something like this for him to be Ben's father, instead of shoving it off on Jacen like asking another Jedi to handle some errand. "Luke ... you love Ben. We all see it. Jacen's the one who's been leading Ben down bad ends," Tresina Lobi, a female Chev, replied gently. "I appreciate that, Tresina. But Ben wants to trust us, and he's pleading that we'll trust him," Luke said, a little afraid of the truth in the statement. He felt sick when he thought of how distant he'd been to Ben during their few visits together in the month since the boy had joined the Galactic Alliance Guard. They'd fought at first, then Ben had grown cold ... and Luke hadn't opened up, fearing what he said might go into Jacen's ears. #I didn't trust my own son. No wonder he's afraid of me ... or was ... I HAVE to help him ...# "Farmboy. We have to fly," Mara called, and Luke smiled at her before he looked at the rest of the gathered Council members. "Corran, Kyp - you're in charge until we get back. And once Ben is OK, we're going to pick a new Grand Master," Luke said, noticing the shock of his fellow Council members. He joined Mara at the door, then smiled wryly and said, "I've been `trying' to be the best Jedi leader I can be - so much so I didn't even try to be a father. "I'd forgotten - `Do or do not. There is no try.'" The Skywalkers broke into a run for the Temple hangar, and Luke almost felt good for the first time in a while, Mara squeezing his hand in support. He was going to save his son. And then he was going to save his nephew, whether Jacen wanted it or not. #Watch out, galaxy. Luke Skywalker is BACK.# --------------------------------------------- Coronet, Corellia: --------------------------------------------- Leia Organa-Solo knew a little something about dealing with angry Force-strong teenagers. She'd had to balance her fight against the Yuuzhan Vong with the adolescence of her twins, Jaina and Jacen, and her baby, Anakin. By and large, Jaina had gotten over her bitterness at Leia being absent for large chunks of her childhood. Anakin was so easy-going where his family was concerned - at least toward his parents and sister - that he'd never shown any signs of bitterness. Jacen ... Leia had thought her middle child had come through his childhood all right. He'd saved her at Duro, had stood up to fight for the galaxy despite his fears of unbalancing the Force. And then Vergere had sunk her wretched talons into him, ripping his empathy out and replacing her caring "Jasa" with something ... intellectual. Coldly intellectual, as opposed to the compassionate Force-student who'd gone to Myrkr. Worse, he'd become *militant* when the Corellian crisis had erupted, and little Ben had mirrored his stiffness ... #I was afraid Anakin would imitate my father. But he's not the one wearing black and marching troopers down the walkways,# Leia mourned. She had given up almost everything to follow Han to his homeworld - his defiant streak, the hallmark of Corellians everywhere, had flared up when Coruscant had demanded the Corellians pool their military with the rest of the Galactic Allance worlds. He'd feared the Alliance was becoming another Empire. #'I don't want to live in a galaxy where someone like me couldn't exist,'# Leia remembered Han saying. #And Jacen's leading the charge to crush Corellia.# She wiped her eyes, checking the news feeds - Han had combined his efforts with those of Boba Fett, of all people, to kill Thrackan Sal-Solo, Han's twisted cousin and Corellia's oddly re-elected Diktat, or supreme leader. The Corellians were frothing over the assassination, which Fett's granddaughter, Mirta Gev, had completed. For a people dedicated to freedom and skirting laws, the Corellians had oddly loved Thrackan, a classic power-mad conniving tyrant. #Just goes to show you can't predict how a family will turn out,# Leia admitted. And she was an expert at reading people - decades in galactic government had honed her diplomatic skills, while she'd finally mastered her Force heritage in the past few years. She certainly hadn't foreseen Jacen beating Ailyn Vel - Fett's daughter and Mirta's mother - to death. Han had been livid - and, in private, horrified to the point of quiet shock, very un-Han-like. Leia still couldn't imagine her open-hearted son had used the Force like a club on an unarmed prisoner. #Stop trying to picture it. You saw the bruises; you heard how flat Jacen's voice was when you picked up Vel's body and gave it to Fett. Don't do this to yourself,# Leia told herself. The door opened, admitting Han - Chewie and Threepio were staying with the Falcon, in case they needed to leave quickly. A golden protocol droid and Wookie running around with a middle-aged human couple trying to stay undercover defeated the purpose. "Hey. Gejjen's up 50 points in the polls. Any sign he'll com Omas for a peace deal?" Han asked, setting groceries on the counter of their rented apartment - under assumed names, of course, a couple of ex-Rebels were more than a match for the legendary Corellian Security division. Especially when one was a surviving founder of the Rebel Alliance and a Jedi, and the other was Corellia's most famous favorite son in a generation. "Nothing yet. I've toyed with the idea of comming Anakin and asking him to see if there's any word out of Cal's office, but after Jacen -" Leia stopped; her heart ached at how Jacen had scarred even his own family. He'd gotten Anakin court-martialed when the younger Solo had refused to fire on a blockade runner at the blockade of Corellia by Alliance naval vessels. Anakin, usually a loyal member of the GA navy as well as a shining star of the Jedi's younger generation, had resigned his pilot's commission before a verdict could be handed down. He was running errands for Luke instead of fighting against his parents or his brother, even if Anakin had angrily lashed Jacen in front of the Senate building following the blockade runner incident. After the first wave of internments, Han and Leia had fled Coruscant - Jacen had been spouting off about "nobody being above the law," and if he'd court-martialed his own brother for standing up for rules of engagement ... Anakin still kept in touch by secure comlink. Luke called - or tried to; Han was frustrated with the Jedi not stepping on Jacen's toes. Mara and Leia were back on speaking terms, but things were ... chilled. Chewie, given the choice to return to Kashyyyk or fly with Han and Leia, had touched both his friends' hearts by passionately reminding them that he considered the life-debt an eternal bond. {Besides, Jacen is doing to Corellians what his grandfather did to my people - rounding them up for Force knows what reason,} Chewie had growled on the flight out of Coruscant. Threepio had been aghast about the internments, and he'd offered to try and negotiate with Jacen - but Leia had just hugged her loyal friend, and said, "If only, Threepio. Thank you." #And people say droids have no souls ...# Lando and his wife, Tendra, were still keeping in touch - their robotics/munitions company, Tendrando, was officially staying neutral in the conflict ... there were enough brush wars erupting while the GA navy was stretched for Lando to make a profit selling elsewhere. Han had been touched by his old friend's refusal to oppose Corellia, and he'd understood why Lando balked at selling to either side. "Better neither side than compromising himself. At least he's standing by his morals," Han had explained. And then there was Ben. The boy had been so ... alive, both in the Force and in his compassion for others, before the Jedi/Alliance raid on Centerpoint Station. He'd avoided Han and Leia afterwards. Han had, half-heartedly, muttered that his nephew should feel guilty for "backstabbing Corellia," but Leia had reminded him about the last time Centerpoint had fired ... about how the war effort against the Vong had been set back by the losses the weapon had caused the New Republic at Fondor. Then the GAG had formed, and Han and Leia had been horrified that Jacen was interning Corellians. Somehow, it was worse to see news footage of Ben dressed in black fatigues with his hair cut severely short. He'd reminded Leia of the Imperial Youth she'd seen marching in Palpatine's New Order. And she'd sobbed for her nephew - [Ben?] He was in the Force, suddenly - reaching out, in such PAIN - and he was pleading for forgiveness - he was calling all his relatives - and Jacen was hunting him, with such rage that Leia KNEW something terrible was happening before her son shielded himself from her. [Ben! We understand - don't be sad, we'll come,] Leia called, and Ben's attention to Luke - who greeted Leia - shifted, becoming even more remorseful - and grateful for Leia's understanding. Leia sobbed - for joy. The boy she'd rocked to sleep as a baby, who'd eaten at her table frequently when Jacen brought him over, who'd always hugged her even when he'd grown six inches in two months, wasn't gone. He still cared. Han kneaded Leia's tense shoulders, trying to understand - she felt for him, being one of the few non-Force-sensitives in the family. And how was she going to explain to her fiercely Corellian husband that Ben, who had helped yank Corellian dissidents out of Coruscanti apartments, needed their aid? "Anakin? Luke? Jaina?" he asked - Han knew that look Leia got when she felt a Force call. "... Ben," Leia broached the subject - it was Han, there was no good way to open this. "Hmm. And?" Han said, sitting beside her - he was terrible at trying to be diplomatic, but he wasn't giving up on Ben, either. "He's genuinely remorseful, Han. And Jacen's stalking him - Jacen's ... enraged," Leia said, as Han sat beside her. Han's cautious expression became beatific, and Leia arched an eyebrow. "The kid's ticking off Jacen? Stang, I KNEW Ben'd come around sooner or later!" Han whooped, leaping up to grab his jacket and pulling Leia to her feet gently. She smiled knowingly as Han looked guilty and said, "That was pretty cruel, wasn't it? The kid was caught in the middle between Jacen and us ... " "He knows you care, Han. C'mon - let's go," Leia said, kissing Han's cheek. "Uh ... coordinates?" Han asked, smirking. "Force navigation," Leia replied, and he shrugged - after 40 years of living with Jedi, Han had accepted letting his true love handle the directions while he flew the Falcon. "Ah. Beats stopping at the Deuterium-R-Us for another round of `Turn left at Nal Hutta' ..." Han joked. "We can pick up a carbonite paperweight if you want," Leia replied archly, savoring the brief pale color Han got every time someone said the "c-word." "Remind me again why you bothered with lightsaber drill? `Cause you're lethal as you are." "Flattery will get you everywhere, scoundrel." ---------------------------------------------- Nirauan, Empire of the Hand, Chiss Space: ---------------------------------------------- Jaina Solo-Fel was so very tired. She'd come of age during the Vong War, hiding her frustration at her mother's absences during Jaina's childhood by becoming one of the best New Republic pilots against the extragalactic invaders. Then Jaina had survived the Myrkr mission with her fellow "young Jedi Knights," and her twin - her heart, Jacen - had been captured and tortured by Vergere. What came back had been a cold mockery of the laughing, gentle boy Jaina had always called "Jasa." Anakin had matured in the crucible of the war, dedicating himself to becoming their generation's cynosure of Jedi-ness. Jaina had followed Luke's prediction of being the "Sword of the Jedi," mastering both piloting and lightsaber technique to serve as the first Jedi Sentinel in almost a thousand years. She excelled at finding and uncovering darkness. Jacen ... Jacen WAS that darkness. She'd warned everyone that "Jasa" had become manipulative, using the Force to his own ends ... And then he'd tricked her into attacking the Chiss, the adoptive society of her longtime love Jag Fel, to try and annihilate the threat posed by the Killik Dark Nest. Jaina had been ... ENRAGED. She'd gone to the dark side during the Vong War after she'd thought Jacen dead, but that had been a flirtation compared to what she put Jacen through once she'd learned how he'd tricked her; they'd actually dueled. It had taken Anakin and Jag - and Ben, crying for his beloved cousins to stop - to break up the bloody battle. The Vong would've applauded. Jaina had forgiven her parents and Luke for fighting against the Killiks - she'd been a Joiner with her Academy love, Zekk, so she knew how seductive the insectoid hive mind had been. Once their lost ally, Raynar Thul, had been captured and locked away, the Jedi Joiners had been freed of their link to the Killiks. Then, Jaina had awoken to the awful realization that her love for Zekk had been ... magnified by the hive mind, an echo of their Academy days. The breakup had been mutual, and she didn't resent Zekk for what had almost been. Jag had been there for Jaina in the wake of her agony over Jacen's betrayal, and she'd finally accepted that she needed to CHOOSE - SOMEONE, just as long as she stopped toying with the men in her life. The wedding had been quick, private - just their parents, his sibs, Luke, Mara, Chewie, Ben, Anakin and Betsy - and secluded. Nirauan was remote even for the Chiss. Then the Ascendancy had kicked Jag out for his falling for Jacen's conniving, and the Fels had had a choice: Accept exile, or Jag had to leave Chiss space. Nirauan counted as Chiss space. Jag' sparents, Soontir and Wyn, had been furious, but Jag had accepted the necessity with his usual detachment. Military school and Chiss-learned discipline did that for the former clawcraft pilot. He'd only vented to Jaina, agonized at likely never seeing his family again. "You have me," Jaina had reminded him, and Jag had never been quite so disciplined again. She loved the change, even as she grieved with him for his loss. The Solo-Fels had become bounty hunters - yes, the irony was NOT lost on Jaina, and yes, she'd bumped into Boba Fett on Mandalore. Nobody seemed to believe that the man really had bought her and Jag drinks without pulling a blaster. Fett might be a cold-blooded barve, but he was professional enough to let bygones be bygones. "No bounty, no hunt," Fett had said, flipping a 100-credit chit onto their table before heading out. The Sword of the Jedi was half of the Fel Blades, now. Jaina got home to Coruscant - more frequently Ossus, to avoid Jacen - and kept in touch with her family ... except Ben, since he was Jacen's companion. That hurt. Bennie had been a sweet kid, and Jaina hated to avoid him, but shavit, WHY had Luke and Mara ignored her warning about letting Jacen train Ben!? "They want to believe the best of everyone," Jag had patiently explained. That had been five years, a few million credits, and a well-earned reputation for scaring the kark out of scumbags from Core to Outer Rim ago. Then Corellia - and Centerpoint going down - had changed everything. Or rather, Jacen kicking down doors and flooding the twin-bond with occasional fits of rage, had changed everything. He usually shielded so well ... It was a sign of how frightened Csilla, the Chiss seat of government, was of Jacen, that they'd offered Jag a suspension of his exile if he'd do a job for them. The fine print of the deal was what was tiring Jaina. Formbi, the Chiss ambassador to the GA - his full Chiss name was one of those tiresome multisyllabic things that always bugged Jaina - had "run into" her and Jag at a bar on Ord Mantell. Chiss didn't do bars. They were too uptight - wine at fine parties? Chiss. Bars? Corellian. Formbi was Chiss all the way. Formbi in a bar set off all her alarms. That should've warned Jaina right there that this was a bad, bad thing. "Emperor Fel. Empress Solo-Fel," Formbi had greeted them - the titles were honorary, since Jag was technically disowned, and Soontir hadn't stepped down as Baron-Emperor of the Empire of the Hand. Jag had shocked - pleasantly - Formbi by rumbling in Huttese that if his former boss wanted something, "get to it, schutta." Jaina loved it when her man - yes, she was willing to be someone's woman, as long as he remembered that she helped bring home the nausage - spoke dirty in Huttese. Formbi had managed to get past the unshaven, tight-pants-wearing Jag, and Jaina's Mando-style armor, and laid his cards out. "Jacen Solo has to go. We mean the Skywalker boy no harm, but his mentor is pushing the GA in directions the Ascendancy cannot ignore," Formbi had said. By "go" ... Jaina wasn't stupid. She and Jag didn't do assassinations. But Jacen was partially her problem. And Jag wasn't about to let Jaina face her twin without him. "You'll do all the heavy lifting anyway, ma bookie," Jag pointed out after they'd mulled over Formbi's offer in the crew quarters of the Shawnkyr. (OK, so Jag clung to some parts of his old life. Jaina was confident enough in her marriage that letting him name their freighter after an ex was OK.) And she kind of hoped she'd be able to save - [Ben?] Jag finished the pre-flight checklist, then gave her that knowing look - he could always tell when she was "Force-smacked." "Dathomir," Jaina asked, and Jag just shrugged as he reset the navicomp. "He likes strong women with spears, now?" Jag deadpanned. "You like a strong woman with a sword," Jaina replied, fighting a smirk. "You don't enjoy carving up people's doors with it." "I enjoy the credits from carving up doors with deserving rodders behind them." "Explains why you never fixed our honeymoon suite." "I thought maintenance was the man's job." "I'd never be so sexist as to deny you the pleasure." Jaina rolled her eyes, then told her astromech Shaker, "Let's go." To Jag, she replied, "Ben needs us." Jag actually looked shocked, then calmed - with a disturbing smirk - and said, "On Dathomir? The boy's starting early." "Jacen's hunting Ben, you kriff-head,"Jaina snorted. "Ah. Well, then the boy needs to learn not to hide on planets full of Force-using women with spears," Jag said, taking them out to jump distance. "You're really troubled by women with spears?" "Depends on which way the spear is pointing." "... and people said you were hotter when you were brooding and stiff." --------------------------------------------- Ossus: Jedi Academy: --------------------------------------------- [Ben?] "Anakin?" Tahiri Veila muttered, rolling over in bed. "We have to go to Dathomir. Ben needs us," Anakin Solo mumbled, getting up and grabbing his robes. "Dathomir? The kidlet gets his head out of his karkhole about Jacen and he runs to Dathomir?" Tahiri asked, shaking her head. "Hey, Ben never spouted off on HNE that he liked being Jacen's junior fascist. You didn't see the pain in the kid's eyes when he left Luke's the last time - Ben's not a monster," Anakin reassured his love. The Tatooine-born blonde Jedi kissed her hero's nose. "I believe you. And stomping Force-witches makes me happy," she said, bubbling in the Force as she dressed. Anakin sighed happily - he was being a JEDI, and not a tool of that overwrought stanging politico Omas, or Jacen's thuggish cruelty. #You never admitted that you can both listen to the Force and use it, Jasa. If you DID listen to it, you might not be the kriffing Vader Junior everyone feared I'd turn into,#Anakin grieved. He wasn't Jaina; he still saw hope where she hacked apart darkness. She did have a heart, at least - he could sense Jaya reaching out to Ben, and echoed the gesture. The boy felt so GUILTY - Anakin sympathized; he'd felt the same way after Centerpoint fired during the Vong War. After losing five of his friends on Myrkr. After letting Jacen get captured ... #Jasa's sleeping in his own poodoo pit. You can at least save Ben,# Anakin thought, returning Ben's gratitude and sensing his mother, Luke and Mara through the Force. A family reunion, at last. Anakin still stuck a few thud bugs in his bandolier, just in case Jacen wasn't up to playing nice. #Think outside the Force and in it ...# ------------------------------------------ tbc ...