"Plan?" Zekk asked directed at anyone who did, but Tenel Ka answered.
"If we can get our lightsabers and kill the ysalamiri we can Jacen and see if he can help us." I rolled my eyes.
"It can't be that easy and we don't have use of the force with these ysalamiri around and even if we did manage to Yuuzhan Vong are bound to hear it, we wouldn't last very long weaponless, AND cortosis ore." I looked around at my friends so they would understand.
"Your depressing me, Tahiri." Kyp finally said teasingly, even though it was probably ture, even I wanted to believe Tenel Ka's plan would work.
"I know the Vong better than any of you, pantless." I retorted. It was a lame comback, but it succeeded in making him blush.
"Tahiri's right," Anakin sighed, "They thought of everything."
"Not everything," I pointed out, "we could kill the ysalamiri and hold off the warriors long enough to contact Jacen and get him to shut off the magnet." I nodded towards the magnet that held all our lightsabers and Kyp's pants. "Then we could kill off the rest of the warriors and be on our way."
Tenel Ka nodded. "This is a good plan."
"The odds of surviving are..."
"NEVER tell a Solo the odds." Anakin interupted Danni. He smiled at me, "Good plan, princess."
I smiled proudly, and everyone else groaned.
"But how do we get out of our restraints?' Jaina asked.
I stood up. "I'll untie you."
Zekk shook his head. "If you slipped out of your cuffs..."
"-which I did-"
"-then you don't know wether or not thet have alarms in them, No, first kill the ysalamiri."
I nodded, and walked up to the first ysalamiri. "So how does one murder a murderers weapon?"
Anakin groaned. "You sound like Jacen, and I always chopped them in half, so I dunno."
I frowned. "Well, I'm lightsaberless, so how do I..." I grinned mischeviously. "Anakin? Would a blaster shot kill it?"
"At point blank range, yeah. But where would you get a blaster?"
"Oh, I have alot of trickes up my....
sleeve. " I pulled a mini-blaster out of my left sleeve, smirking at my own joke. "A lesson I learned from Mara." I blasted all 14 ysalamiri without making a sound. At everyone's astoninshed faces, I smiled. "Sliencer. I thought it would come in handy."
With the help of the force, everyone slipped out of their restraints.
And now to find Jacen... Tahiri Veila
I limped as fast as I could towards Tenel Ka's presence, while I could still feel it. My landing off the tree wasn't so good, the tree/creature whacked me as I jumped, and I caught the blow on my leg. I guess since the Vong 'enjoy' pain they like to inflict it on poor tree climbers.
Tenel Ka's presence grew stronger and stronger, until I could see her, her hair practically bouncing as she ran towards me, and for that second, I felt like the most fortunate man in the world, unfortunately, only for that sencond....
Jacen Solo
I ran towards Jacen, happiness welling up inside of me, finally being able to be back in the arms of the man/boy I loved. But unfortunately, I never made it into his amrs, only the direct path of a voxyn, and it looked hungry.
Tenel Ka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I watched in horror as the voxyn leapt at Tenel Ka, it was almost like being back at Myrkr, accept this was Tenel Ka, and Anakin wasn't glowing. We would have come to her rescue, accpet we were each trapped in our own virtual cells, Jacen in his own, as well as Tenel Ka, but Jaina and me and Kyp and Danni were all seperated, each couple in one, and we all had hungry voxyn appearing from nowhere.
Tenel Ka was the first of us to be wounded, a claw slashed through her stub, and Jacen's shout of dismay rattled me. I had never really thought of Jacen caring deeply about someone. They would make a nice couple, wait... couple. Where is Anakin and Tahiri?
Zekk Ennth ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was begining to feel a routine coming on,
block, chop, slash, block, chop, slash. And then I felt myself falling. My knees, of all things, had given up on me. I heard a cry of alarm from Zekk and the next thing I knew I was on his shoulders, protecting his back, and it was probably better that way.
"Are you alright, Jaina?" I heard him shout over the crackling of our ligthsabers choping of voxyn heads.
"My knees gave out, that's all!" I retorted. I looked up and saw Tenel Ka's red hair disappearing through the floor.
Wait... disappearing, thruogh the floor? And then I felt my self dropping, for the second time that day, and this time I didn't stop, neither did Zekk. We just kept falling.... and falling.....
until
WHAM!!!!!!!! We hit the bottom of something, the breaths was knocked out of me and the last thing I remember was saying, "Owww..."
Jaina Solo
"Hello,Jaina. Welcome back to the ground. Or rather, the basement, if you wanna get technical." I blinked as my brother's voice floated through my groggy brain.
"Are you OK, Jaina?" I opened my eyes to find Zekk, green eyes filled with concern, bent over me.
"Kriffin' hole." I muttered as I tried to sit up.
"Yup, she's back." I looked over to see my brother Anakin, sitting in a cell beside mine and Zekk's. We were all paired up into separate cells, again, according to couple. Y'know, Anakin and Tahiri, Kyp and Danni, Jacen and Tenel Ka and me and Zekk. My gaze shifted to my cage bars. "Lemme guess, cortosis ore?"
Anakin nodded. "And durasteel."
I rolled my eyes. "Durasteel, why is it always durasteel?" Zekk agreed.
"So what's our plan of escape?" I turned to Tahiri, the creative one in the crowd.
She shrugged. "There is no plan."
"What!?" I was astonished, Tahiri
always has a plan, our situation couldn't be THAT serious! Could it? "here has to be SOME sort of risky shceme somewhere."
Anakin glared at me. "If Tahiri says there is no way, then there IS no way! Face it, Jaina. We're stuck."
I got the message.
Jaina Solo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I tried to send Jaina the message, Tahiri's plan was to wait until she could come up with something. She said she brought mini's, which are small detonators, so we were waiting to see what she could dig up, literally. Unfortunately, Jaina was pretending to not have gotton the message, but I guess she figured someone was listening in on us.
"We should just blast the place, get our lightsabers, and leave." She grumbled.
"Yeah..." I nodded. "But I dunno how we're gonna get a blast bif enough for durasteel AND cortosis ore."
Tahiri grinned 'evily'. "Done... and done." She pulled a detonator from her right sleeve. I paled, as did everyone else.
"Uh... Tahiri..." Jacen stuttered. "Where are you planning to put that?"
She frowned. "Yeah, I guess it is too big." She began searching herself again whileI and all my friends watched in dull silence. "FOUND IT!" Just kidding, she wouldn't have announced it to the world.
"I found it! or them...." She whipped out some mini's, just in time too.
"Place them on the lock." Once Kyp,Danni,Jaina,Zekk,Jacen,Tenel Ka,and Tahiri and I had one we timed it one click, 10 seconds.
"Guys protect the girls!" Kyp shouted, and Zekk, Jacen, and I were only too happy to obey.
Anakin Solo
Jacen covered me with his body and held me tight, I had the strangest feeling of not wanting him to let go...ever. "I'm glad you're safe, Jacen." I whispered, No one else could hear me, and it was just as well.
Jacen held on tight to me as the mini's exploded. "I love you, Tenel Ka." He whispered over the commotion of Tahiri's screams of joy, Anakin's cry of a sore back, and Kyp's dismay at the mini's.
I looked into his eyes, feeling a weight that I didn't even know was there being lifted off my shoulders. He did? "You do?"
He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. I was barely aware of Tahiri sighing, but we were in wonder-land. When we finally broke aprt Jacen stroked my cheek.
"Will you marry me, Tennie?" I normally would have tried to come up with a diplomatic answer to this, being a princess, but not now, not with him.
"Yes." I sighed. "I will."
Tenel Ka (Solo!)
I tried not to interupt their 'moment'...reall, I did! But I
had to sigh, It was sooooo lovely!
Plus, I've never seen Tenel Ka get that emotional. Anakin squeezed my hand and I knew what he was thinking, I'm not a mind-reader...really.
That could be us. But Anakin and I had decided to take it slow, even though there is NO way we'll ever break up, and it's for the better. I looked over at Jaina, who was looking at Jacen and Tenel Ka, probably thinking about her men problems. And Zekk looked absorbed in trying not to convey too muich about his hope that Jaina was thinking about him, the whole scene was quite amusing.
"Not to break this up, but the Vong are bound to have heard that." Anakin interupted, snapping them all out of their dazes.
"Right." Zekk leapt to his feet and offered Jaina a hand, but she was already up. Kyp offered Danni a hand up, Jacen helped Tenel Ka up, and I helped Anakin up, y'know, his sore back and all. I would be complaining too after clinging to me so tightly, I almost asked him, 'Do you think to be my corset?', but then he probably would have asked me if I wore one. (Which of course I
don't. ) Our lightsabers were once again attached to a magnet, (what is it with Yuuzhan and magnets?) and it was no problem for me to kill the ysalamiri again, (I hid my mini-blaster again so the Vong wouldn't find it.) and it took a little tugging to get our lightsabers back, but we got 'em. And Kyp was smart enough to leave his belt behond, sp the magnet wouldn't 'snatch' them away again, not that we planned on getting caught.
We had Jaina, so now we could leave, be at peace and live happily ever after, right?
Wrong. First, we had to get out, and that -as it turned out- would become a problem.
Tahiri Veila
"OK, if the exit is here and we're here then we have only... almost 2 hours! Or 5 miles, or whatever." Danni stated matter-of-factly.
"Brilliance Danni,...really." Sarcasim oozed out of my voice and she stuck her tongue out playfully.
Tahiri laughed, but Anakin remained barely straight-faced. Personally, I don't see what was so funny...but they were amused. The things I find amusing is when Tahiri cracks a lame, Jacen-like Joke.
"The only trouble is, the only route TO the exit is swarming in Yuuzhan Vong, ysalamiri, voxyn and... magnets?" Tahiri wasn't even looking at the screen.
"How would you...know!" Jaina tackled me to the ground, barely avoiding a thud bug.
"Because we can see 'em!" Tahiri shouted at me as she drew both her lightsaber and blaster.
"Are you OK, Zekk?" Jaina asked me as she rolled of my chest.
"Yeah." but I wasn't, I had landed something, and broken whatever it was. Ah, my leg.
I almost colapsed several times when the Vong warriors figured out I was favoring my right leg. They kept trying to hit it with their amphistaffs, and it was all I coulod do to parry their efforts. I began to loose strength, at first slowly, then steadily decreasing.
The last thing I remember is hearing Jaina scream my name.
Zekk Ennth ________________________________________________________________________________________
Zekk colapsed and I screamed his name. It couldn't end like this! Not now, not ever! I ran to his side, and his leg began to swell and turned blue.
"Zekk's been hit!" I yelled, but there wasn't anything anyone could do about it right then.
I protected him for as long as the Yuuzhan Vong kept coming, and they did.
"Shouldn't they eventually run out of warriors?!" I could just see the cloning supervisor, counting all the 'baby' Vongs and then placing them in an aging unit or something.
But my mind didn't stray too far from reality, and by then the Vong had run out of their limited supply of voxyn, even the voxyn tissue - we later learned - was all used up. So we drove the voxyn to extinction without knowing it! hahaha...hmmm. Only about a dozen Yuuzhan Vong warriors, and unfortunately we were all about to colapse, and Zekk needed to get to a Med Kit soon, or he might die.
We barely finsihed them off, Tahiri recieved a nice,big,fat birthday present from a warrior, a long gash she insists that doesn't hurt, I guess it's the inner Vong shining through.
Danni Quee, Kyp's girlfriend, happened to have medkit handy, and I almost cut her hands off in my eagerness to help Zekk.
Aftre a looooooong time of rubbing some sort of liquid on his leg, he finally woke up, panting.
"Get him some water!" Anakin yelled, unneccessarily, I was already pouring him some of mine.
Zekk's green eyes were dull, and his breathing was shallow. "Jaina." he wheezed when he had the chance. He looked around as if he couldn't see me.
"I'm right here, Zekk." I stroked his cheek and he calmed down a little.
"How...bad...is it?" HIs breathing was getting faster.
"Just hang in there, you'll....you'll be fine. Just hang on." I stuttered. I had never seen Zekk like that before, pale and panicky, dying.
"I'm hanging on, Jaina." He gasped as Danni pressed a rag to his forehead. "That's cold."
I nodded. "You're burning up."
He forwned and shook his head, preventing a cough. "NO, please, no, I'm very cold." He shivered. I felt my heart sinking, no! He can't die, not now!
Not ever... or I would die with him.
"You need to cool off, Zekk." Tahiri warned him gently.
"I AM cooled off, I'm cooler than cooled off, I'm ICE COLD!!!" Was he going delerious?
"Zekk, try to calm down. do you want a blanket or something?" He nodded, prevoking yet another cough, this time blood came out as well. I covered him with my cape and tried to subdue his squirming.
"Jaina, am I going to die?" Finally, a SANE question.
"No, Zekk, no. You're NOT going to die because you're not going to let yourself die."
I won't let you die."Oh,good. Cause you've been acting like I'm on the brink of death or something." I choked down a sob. We were on the Millenium Falcon on our way home. Anakin, Tahiri, Jacen, Tenel Ka, Kyp, and Danni are all cleaning the freighter from top to bottom, cause dad is going to go through the ship with a 'fine tooth comb'. Normally, I would've found it funny to see Anakin on all fours scrubbing the deck, but not now, not with Zekk on the verge of death.
"Jaina?" Zekk asked a bit loudly.
"I'm still here,Zekk." I took his hand, it felt hot and cold at the same time. "Please try to put yourself into a healing trance."
"I can't, my body is squirming too much." I tried to send im calm,sleepy thoughts, and to my surprise it worked. I never knew he snored.
"Night,Zekk." I told him uselessly, he was SO out. I placed my hand on his chest. I wasn't the healer, but maybe I could help him. I could try...
No. There is no try,only do.
Jaina Solo
I woke up and immediately felt better again, no fever, no cold, and there was only one Jaina,and she was asleep beside me, a smug smile on her face, which meant she thought she had done a good job.
So SHE was the healer. I leaned my head against hers. "Goodbye,Jaina." I murmured. It had to be done, she didn't love me, she loved Jag, and I had to accept it.
I could still love her from afar, and that's what I resolved to do. I kissed her good-bye and got up slowly, trying to not look back. But my heart wouldn't let me go without one last look.
I turned my head far enough to see her out of the corner of my eyes, sje was rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Zekk?"
I walked briskly out of the door before she could say anything more. I felt her prodding at my mind, but I kept a sheild around me.
"Where are you going?" she called out to me as I walked/ran towards the ramp. We had docked, which meant she had chosen to stay with me. I hesitated, but didn't stop. I spotted the
Lightning Rod ready to take off, I ran towards it, blinking back tears from my eyes.
I hopped in and set a course, I didn't know where I was going, because tears were creeping into my eyes faster than I could wipe them away. A Jedi makes a sacrifice, a big one, and this one was tearing me apart. Only when the computer informed me that the destination was locked and I felt the G-Forces of hyperspacem did I break down and cry.
Zekk Ennth __________________________________________________________________
Zekk turned his head just a little bit as he walked out of the room, and he saw me. I rubbed my eyes. "Zekk?" I asked sleepily. He turned and walked, OK, make that
ran out of the
Falcon. "Where are you going?" I shouted after him, and I stood up, as quickly as a Bantha, and ran to the ramp. Zekk was already halfway across the hangar, headed towards the
Lightning Rod . I gazed after him in bewilderment and tried to peek into his feelings, but he shut me out.He wiped something off his face and boarded his ship.
The sheild around his emotions flickered and, just before he disappeared into hyperspace, he let his emotional sheild down completely, and I caught greif,remorse, anger (uh-oh),and..love? But then he was gone.
Jaina Solo
~One Year Later~ Why,oh,why did Zekk HAVE to disappear RIGHT before the wedding? Now my logical-minded fiance insists that we find him before the wedding. Something about 'it wouldn't seem right without him'. Frankly, she hasn't spent much time WITH me and when she does she seems... resigned.
Jacen,Mrs. Solo and Mr. Solo agree, so...why go against future family, huh? I hope they find him soon 'cause I don't think I can take any more time off.
Jagged Fel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Jagged Fel is such a jerk!" Jaina exploded. "The only reason I agreed to marry him was in hopes that Zekk would show upa nd I could cancel. But now Jag is insisting we get married WITHOUT Zekk and..and.. it's just so frustrating!" I reached out my hands.
"Jaina..."
"Shut up,Kyp! I can't hear myself think." Oh really? I can.
"What have you done to advertise the wedding?"
"Everything I can without letting the Vong know, probably even the dark side knows!"
I grinned. "Well, you could just tell Jag the wedding is off the day of the wedding. That way Zekk might be there-"
"-in disguise,maybe-"
"-and everyone invited will know that Jag's a jerk."
She stared at me. "That actually sounds sane,Kyp. Thanks!" She ruffled my hair (dang! now I hafta comb it again) and catapulted out of the meditation room.
I smiled. "Buh bye." As I exited, slower than Jaina, Luke Skywalker stopped me.
"What's this about you loosing your pants?"
"HaHa, rub it in." He makes a point of showing off his knowledge EVERY SINGLE DAY. Where'd I put that brain-washer?
Just kidding. "I've learned not to wear metal buckles on missions." I tried not to sound sheepish.
"So, how'd your and Jaina's meditation go?"
"It was interestingly eventful." I walked away, let him guess.
Kyp Durron ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My husband walked into our apartment, sighed and plopped down beside me, mindless of our baby daughter.
"How was your mediatation,hon?" I asked him not knowing what to expect.
"It was interesting." Was all he said. "So!" he sat up. "Have you decided on a name for her?" He nodded towards our sleeping daughter,and I sighed.
"Unfortunately,no. But I think Jacen,Tenel Ka,Anakin and Tahiri might have good ideas." He raised his eyebrows.
I laughed softly. "Don't worry, they're coming in about half an hour, and then I'll tell them the name I decided."
"And what was that?"
"Jaina Veila Durron."
"When you caal her by her full name you'll have Jaina,Tahiri,and Me respond."
"That's the point."
"Ah..I see." The doorbell rang. "Company."
He opened the door and was almost trampled by the excited young adults.
"She's SO cute!"
"What's her name?"
"Can she talk?"
"No,duh..."
"I thought newborns..."
"She has her mom's hair!"
"I thought she had her dad's hair!"
"PEOPLE SHE HAS NO HAIR!" They all chattered at once. I smiled and winked at Kyp.
"Her name is Jaina Veila Durron, and she is 3 weeks old."
"It took you THAT long to decide on a name?"
"She was named for me? Wow, I feel special." Tahiri tweaked lil' Jaina's nose.
"Jaina will be proud I'm sure." Anakin said, smiling broadly. He still walked with a limp from the Myrkr battle.
"I wish she were here, my friend." Tenel Ka Solo said solemnly.Jacen took his wife's hand.
"So do we all."
So do we all... Danni Quee Durron
I stared out at the stars, wishing Zekk to come back to me.
"I brought our drinks." I was getting tired of seeing Jag down brandy after brandy. I personally favor hot chocolate, but I couldn't let it show.
"Thanks." I mustered as big a smile as possible, but when Jag turned his back I dunked it onto the bushes, then hid my glass.
"So..." Jag put one of his arms around me. "Ready to say 'I do'?" I had a momentary,satisfactory vision of me dunking his brandy all over him,screaming 'NO!' and running away. I grinned mischeviously without knowing it.
"What?"
"Oh...nothing."
WIPE THAT SILLY GRIN OFF YOUR FACE BEFORE SOMEBODY SEES YOU! I commanded myself. "Yes, I'm looking forward to the wedding."
So I can dump you and leave you forever! I barely avoided adding. He kissed me on the cheek and I tried not to wince.
"'Night,Goddess." He said, then walked back to the pre-wedding party. I whipped an imaginary blaster from an imaginary holster and shot him in the back. For a minute I thought I had heard someone laughing, but it could have been my evil twin... triplet. I already have an evil twin [face_devil] . I turned around and gazed out at the stars.
Zekk, come back to me... Jaina Solo * * * * * *
I watched silently as Jag put one of his arms around Jaina's shoulder. "Ready to say 'I do'?"
He asked. Jaina smiled mischeviously and looked about ready to laugh.
"What?" Jag mistook her smile to be thoughtful instead of mischevious.
"Oh...nothing." The rest was drowned out as I recieved a vision of Jaina chucking Jag's brandy all over him screaming 'NO!' and waltzing away. Had Jaina sent me that?
Jag kissed Jaina -on the cheek- and then walked away. I was getting ready to turn around when Jaina took a fighting stance, whipped her arm around as if she were drawing a blaster and pretended to shooot him. I laughed and then covered my mouth so no more could be heard.
Jaina sighed and leaned against the wobbly railing again. Then I was hit with a wave of emotions, all coming from Jaina, directed for me.
Zekk, come back to me. She sent me.
I am here. I sent her, Jaina grasped the railing, but it gave way and she almost tumbled 30 feet, but I caught her with the force and set her down. I got ready to step out of hiding, but Jag Fel and half a billion people ran out the back way towards her.
"We heard the crash..."
"What happened?"
"Are you going to pay for that?" (That was the owner of the building.)
She looked around, looking for an escape no doubt. Now was a good time for me to slip away, so I did,but Jaina sent me a message.
Don't do this again, not to me, not again. I looked back at her, she saw me.
I love you. She added.
I smiled.
I'll stop by your room tonight. Don't worry. I slipped away while it was still possible.
I love you, too. Zekk Ennth