The Path of Dreams

~Chapter 6~

Bothawui Orbit

She felt the tension build within her causing her to fall into her nervous habit of bouncing her foot of the floor of the X-wing cockpit. Syal Antilles never liked waiting and, as she waited for the orders from her commanding general, she really didn’t like it. She looked out her viewport and watched as the big ships took up their positions around the planet of Bothawui. The Fifth Fleet was the defender against the slightly larger fleet that was made up of Corellian, Bothan, Kuati and Imperial forces. The Bothans were given the privilege of attacking first since this was their home they were fighting to regain control of. Then the rest of the fleet opened up on the GA.

She watched as the Mon Montha spewed more fighters and wondered again if Valin was among any of them. Sighing, she silently hoped that she wouldn’t have to face him again like this in battle. She had known Valin Horn all her life. Her father and his mother were like brother and sister, Booster Terrik was as much a grandfather to her and her younger sister as he was to Valin and his sister, Jysella, but oddly Syal and Valin never really considered each other family. They had always just been friends—until he saved her after she crashed on Drall.

Valin somehow used the Force to keep her alive. She assumed he had put her into a healing trance, but he never would share the specifics with her. She eventually was taken back to Coruscant to recover and Valin somehow managed to get leave to escort her back. She was to stay with Winter and Tycho Celchu, but something had come up and she ended up staying with Mirax and Corran Horn while she convalesced. Valin also stayed with her for a while and then one day he finally admitted that he had fallen in love with her. She had never been happier than when he told her of his feelings that first time and then he kissed her. She would never forget the fire of that first kiss. Of course, it would have been better if his mother hadn’t caught them.

Syal had always loved Valin, ever since they had been children and spent almost every waking hour together on the Maw installation, Shelter, during the Vong War. However, Valin hadn’t always loved her. His first love was a Melodie Jedi named Sannah. However their relationship became doomed more than it already had been, when Sannah finally began to change into an adult after the war. Valin rushed her back to her home planet of Yavin 8 and remained there for nearly a year, until they finally admitted that they could never be more than just friends. Valin came back to Ossus where he finished his Jedi training in the early days of what would become the Swarm War, and eventually Syal and Valin reconnected their friendship.

But now they were on opposite sides of this stupid war. She wished he would see things her way. The GA was turning into the Empire, which she had find ironic despite the circumstances, for Corellia’s biggest and most supportive ally was the Empire.

Suddenly, her comm came to life, jarring her out of her thoughts. “Mynocks, you’re next. Follow the Falcon in. Mix it up.” As Syal clicked her comm to acknowledge her commanding general, Han Solo, she realized she wasn’t the only one facing someone she loved on the side of the enemy. Han and his co-pilot could be facing their daughter.

Syal sighed and hit the squadron frequency, “Okay, Mynocks, we have a go. Lock S-foils in attack position. Now let’s convince the GA we mean business.”

She received eleven clicks and kicked up her sublights as the Millennium Falcon shot forward from their position of relative safety behind her father’s Dreadnaught, Revenger. As she painfully watched the all too familiar oncoming X-wings of Rogue Squadron, her heart broke and she whispered, “Oh, Valin, I’m so sorry it has come to this. Please forgive me. I love you.”

~

“Here they come!”

Valin heard Zekk’s call over the comm and he watched in growing horror as the Insurgent Squad came closer. He recognized the Millennium Falcon and he felt Jaina’s growing sorrow and fear grow within the battle meld the three Rogue Squadron Jedi naturally fell into. He sent his understanding and his reassurance back to her, and felt Zekk do the same. Then he sensed another presence, that of Leia Solo. She was on the Falcon with Han, no doubt.

Suddenly, another familiar presence softly brushed against his senses, like getting a whiff of light perfume. It wasn’t strong and it didn’t even feel as if it came from another Force-sensitive. It was more akin to the knowing that someone was out there thinking about him. Then he recognized it, as he would her perfume, and he panicked as the distance was closing. “Sweet Force,” he said, “no. Syal—”

He never got to finish his thought as a laser blast hit his forward shields and he was forced to bank hard onto his port S-foil. He came around and instinctively got a shot off, answering the blast that jarred him into reality. Syal may be out there facing him, but that didn’t matter. If he didn’t fight, he would be killed, and then they would never have a chance at a future.

~

“Han, that’s Rogue Squadron coming at us,” Leia softly said from the co-pilot’s chair. Han instantly turned his attention to his wife, and stared at her as she continued to gaze out at the battle that they were heading into.

“You sure?” he asked, even though it was an unnecessary question. He knew she could feel Jaina, if she was out there.

Leia met his eyes, and Han was stunned by the sadness he saw there. In all the years that they had been married, there was only one other time that he could remember such profound sadness in Leia’s deep sienna eyes. That was when Anakin had been killed and Jacen believed to be so. “Yes,” was all she said and turned back to stare out the viewport.

Han looked forward as well. Swallowing, he flipped a few switches and said, “We’ve done this before. She knows we’re here and we know where she is.” Then he glanced back to her and added with a forced lopsided grin, “So, we just won’t shoot at her and she won’t shoot at us.”

Leia glared at him and after a moment he got her point and conceded, “Okay, that might not be always possible but it has worked so far. This isn’t the first time we’ve faced her in battle.”

“No, it isn’t but someday your luck is going to run out, and either we will have to actually take aim at her or she will at us.” Leia stood and headed to her usual spot in the top turret, at the cockpit exit she turned and looked back at him. “Han, I don’t have a good feeling about this. And I’m getting too old for this.” Then her voice took on a faraway quality as did her suddenly moist eyes. ”I gave birth to three children, Han, and I never really got to know any of them. I wasn’t there when the twins said their first words; I not only missed Anakin’s first words but also his first steps. Do you realize that I never really knew what Anakin’s favorite color was? I don’t know what Jaina’s dream wedding would be like, or if she even has such a dream. And Jacen has become such a stranger that I am actually afraid of him.” She met Han’s eyes again and concluded, “I will not fail Allana as I failed her father, Han. I will fight this battle, I will support the Confederacy because I believe in it, but I cannot fight this war with you. It kills me a little each time I pull the trigger.”

She quickly turned and headed out the hatch, leaving Han to stare at the looming X-wings and knowing his baby girl was among them.

~

Jaina flew into the melee and shot at the oncoming leading green and white X-wing with her lasers. She watched as the green light flashed harmlessly off the shields of the enemy, and the pilot instantly banked starboard. Jania lost the fighter for a moment, until she realized it looped over her, and was now behind her. Her astromech screeched at her at the same time her lock alarm began to blare.

“Stang!” she exclaimed and immediately pulled hard on her stick.

“I got’em, Sticks.” She heard her wingman come over the comm, and an instant later, she watched as Zekk loosed a torpedo into the pursuing X-wing.

“Thanks, Lead,” she sighed, and then she focused on the next group of ships and cringed. The Falcon was coming right at them. Oh, Dad, why can’t you just retire?

She felt her mother’s spike of fear and profound sorrow as Jaina and Rogue Three neared the Falcon. She watched in horror as the ship, which was as much a home to her as any dirt-side dwelling ever could be, took a barrage of laser fire on the forward shields. She nearly hit the comm to order the offender to stop shooting at her father’s ship. Then she heard the familiar irritated voice of the shooter, Rogue Three, come over her comm as Jaina banked and flew away from the Falcon, never releasing a single shot. “Sticks, why didn’t you shoot? I can’t believe you had a chance to get’em and didn’t.”

“Stop the chatter,” Zekk’s voice commanded as he finished with the X-wing that had held him up from matching the rest of One Flight’s speed. The Falcon had looped away also leaving them alone with just another flight of four enemy X-wings. Jaina could still feel her mother’s guilt and grief at what nearly happened. She realized her mother couldn’t shoot at her any more than she could have fired at her parents. Presently, Jaina heard in her head through the bond she shared with her fiancé, You okay?

Jaina felt the unfamiliar sting of tears and shook her head; through her bond with the man she had grown to love, she cried, What are we doing? Zekk, I can’t kill my parents. “I can’t,” she whispered aloud for her ears only, and her tears began to fall.

“Get out of here, Rogue Two,” her commanding officer’s voice returned.

“Wh—what?” she replied incredulously and sobbed.

“You heard me, Jaina. You’re relieved of duty. I’m escorting you back to base. You can’t fight like this.”

As if to prove that she still could, she went into evasive maneuvers to rid herself of a tail that was quickly dispelled by Zekk. “Jaina, I’m ordering you to leave the field of battle now. Nine?”

Valin Horn, who was flying in the same position his father had occupied years before, answered Zekk’s call, “Nine, here, Lead.”

“Nine, you have the squad. I’m escorting Two back to base.”

Valin simply clicked his response, but through the battle meld Jaina felt his understanding and support.

Then she turned her X-wing as Zekk shot his lasers at another green X-wing. It didn’t explode, but her sensors showed that the ship lost its shields. She got a lock on it and held her thumb over the firing stud, but she froze. She couldn’t shoot at the limping ship and, before Jaina had a chance to reconsider her actions, the ship pulled away in a series of twists and turns she instantly recognized as the same type of moves Wedge Antilles had been known to use.

“Syal?” Jaina’s broken heart only shattered further as she watched Valin Horn take aim at the X-wing of the woman he loved and fired.

~~~

Freedom Medical Center, Northern Coruscant

Jysella waited outside Room 2 and tried her best not to pace. Ben was being taken out of the bacta tank and she really wanted to talk to him. She didn’t like the way they ended things before he left her at the Temple over a week ago.

Three of the other GAG officers, who had been injured in the attack, were also coming out of bacta. The raid on the Commenorian community of Mullin had become as much a planet-wide story as the attack in Eastport and on the Senate Building. Hospital security droids and GAG officers were keeping the HoloNet reporters at bay in the distance. The noise from the crowd and her thoughts concerning Ben distracted her so much, she never heard, or even sensed, Jacen come up and stand beside her until he began to speak.

“I’m glad that you came along with Master Skywalker.”

She actually was startled enough that she jumped; turning to face him, she exclaimed, “Jac—I mean Master Solo, you scared me half out of my skin.”

He flashed her a smirking lopsided grin that Jysella thought never really reached his eyes as he said, “You may call me Jacen. But I’m afraid your Master needs to work on your awareness skills with you. If I had meant to do you harm, you most likely would never have known I was even here.”

She blushed and looked down at the floor between them. “I’m sorry. I am distracted. I wish I could be in there with my friend. I want to see him and I need to talk to him.”

Jacen gently laid his hand on her shoulder and, in a comforting voice, said, “I know. I was asked to remain outside also while he’s taken from the tank and brought to consciousness.”

She looked up and met his dark eyes again, surprised she responded, “I would have thought that they’d want you in there.” Then she looked back at the door and sighed, “I know Master Luke didn’t really want to bring me along. I don’t think he really approves of my close friendship with Ben.”

Jacen slipped the arm of the hand he had been resting on her shoulder around her, and led her over to a bench in the waiting area. She had to admit the familiarity made her feel slightly uncomfortable, but after sitting down he pulled away and, in his comforting tone, he said, “I agree with your assessment, and likewise Master Skywalker doesn’t necessarily like my closeness to Ben either.”

“Master Solo?”

He smiled sadly and went on, “I think Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara feel cheated that Ben would rather spend his time with you or me than with them. I know Ben doesn’t get along with them.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and it coming from Ben’s cousin surprised her. “You mean that you think they are jealous of us?”

He leaned back on the bench and folded his hands before him. As he looked down at them he slowly nodded, “Sadly, yes.” Then after a moment he met her stunned wide eyes. “But we can’t let that interfere with our friendship or our responsibility to Ben. He needs us as much as he needs his parents, maybe more so,” he added softly, contemplatively.

She reached out into the Force to get a read on the Master’s feelings. She was having a hard time grasping what he was claiming. Masters Mara and Luke were jealous of her? However, what she felt from him assured her that he really believed this. He was sorrowful that his relationship with his uncle and aunt had taken such a turn, and he was worried about Ben. Finally, she asked, “What do you mean by more so?”

Jacen held her gaze and responded, “His parents don’t understand him, Jys. But we do. They want him to be a holocopy of what they are now—the perfect Jedi. But Ben doesn’t want to be like his father or his mother. He wants and needs to find his own way, which means he will make mistakes. He isn’t perfect. But why we, and especially you—” Jacen gave a knowing smile and she looked away this time with a slight flush touching her cheeks, “—are important to him is because we accept his imperfections and love him despite them. Luke and Mara, regardless of their seemingly good intentions, can’t do this. They’ve forgotten that we all have made mistakes on our journeys to being good Jedi, including them.”

Jysella met his eyes again and softly said, “I just hope he can forgive me. I—I hurt his feelings before the mission and now I feel terrible.”

Jacen smiled warmly and responded, “Then I think it is important for you to see him first. I should go and check on Mrs. Shevu anyway, and make sure she and Major Shevu don’t require anything.” He grinned and added as he stood up, “She has had her hands full with the children. Those two youngest are quite rambunctious.”

Jysella never got the chance to reply before he moved away in the direction of Major Shevu’s room. Finally, her attention was brought back to the door of Ben’s room as it slid open revealing a medical droid. It floated toward her and said in its tinny female voice, “You may go in now, Jedi Horn.”

Jysella greeted Luke and Mara with a shy smile as she entered the room where Ben had spent the past two days in bacta. Then she saw him. He was wearing a dark blue-green, loose fitting, hospital gown as he sat on the edge of a medial cot-like table with his bare feet dangling.

He flashed a weak smile and said as she came closer, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Jysella glanced back at his parents, and then said after meeting his eyes again, “I couldn’t stay away. You scared me half to death, for the second time in only a week.”

Mara smiled and patted Luke on the arm as she stated, “Come on, Skywalker, let’s leave these two some time to visit. Ben, we’ll be right outside.”

Ben nodded, but didn’t take his eyes from Jysella as she smiled at her Master. Mara at least wasn’t as against her relationship with Ben as Luke was. “Thank you, Masters.”

Once his parents had gone and the door closed again, she looked at Ben and smiled. “You know that’s a good color on you.”

He grinned and held out the skirt of the gown, saying, “You really think so? I was thinking that I’d begin wearing this instead of my Jedi robes.”

She stepped over and sat down on a chair beside the cot. “Of course, you never wear robes. I rarely see you in anything but your GAG uniform.”

He didn’t respond for a moment, and when he did his frustration came through. “Well, I know if Dad and Mom have anything to do with it, I won’t be wearing GAG black for much longer. They want me to give up my commission.”

Jys suddenly remembered what Jacen had told her outside. “Ben, why are you really part of GAG?”

He furrowed his brow with suspicion and declared, “Don’t you start on me too.”

His tone surprised her. “Ben? I mean, is this something you really want to do? If it is, I’ll support you all the way, but if you are only doing this to get back at your parents…” she let the question hang.

He slid off the cot and stood up. He wavered a second and Jys jumped up to catch him if he were to fall, but he soon regained his balance. He turned away from her and said, “Jys, I never wanted to do anything else in my life. I feel like I’m actually contributing to something.” Then he turned and his eyes were intense as he went on, “I save lives, Jys, and I help keep the peace. Dad, I think sometimes, has gotten so big that he forgets that this is what Jedi are supposed to do. We aren’t monks who sit and meditate all day. He forgets that he wasn’t much older than me when he blew up the first Death Star, nor did he have as much training as I have. And Mom was doing Palpatine’s dirty work when she was my age.”

She swallowed when she realized how close he had gotten during his speech. She was held captive by his fiery blue eyes and, as she noticed the red jagged scars on his face, she reached up to gently trace the one on his cheek with her finger tips. “That’s all I wanted to know, Ben. I only wanted to make sure that this is what you want to do…” she paused as her heart began to pound from his closeness, “…and to let you know that I will support you always.”

He brushed his fingers over her braid and whispered, “You really should wear your hair down more. You are so beautiful when you do.” Then as if he realized what he said, he blushed and glanced away. Jysella felt her breath catch, and thought he had never looked more handsome. Then he met her gaze again and quietly added, “Not that you aren’t always beautiful, like a mythical angel or a goddess.”

“Ben—” she breathed. She couldn’t even look away from him, she was so mesmerized. She felt his other arm snake around her waist and her breath caught as he pulled her closer with a strength that surprised her.

The hand that was on his cheek found its way into his thick coppery locks, and her other one pressed against his chest over his rapidly beating heart. For a moment time froze as they lost themselves in the other’s eyes, then he leaned forward, and she didn’t fight what was coming. She wanted it as much as him.

Ben’s lips were soft and his kiss was unsure at first, but their passion soon took over. Jysella moaned and opened her lips to let him tentatively explore her mouth. The kiss became surer and more passionate as it deepened. Finally, the need for air forced them apart, but not far.

“Oh, Jysella.” Ben’s voice was husky and it nearly cracked as he said just above a whisper, “I love you so much. I always have.”

Her heart sang at the sound of his words, and she encircled his neck with her arms, pulling him even closer. With a hair’s breadth between their lips, she finally allowed herself to give name to the emotion that had been haunting her dreams. “Ben, I love you too. Force help me. But I don’t know what I’d do if I’d ever lose you.”

He smiled broadly and, although Ben Skywalker may have lived and felt like a man, his words were like the happy excited ones of a child being told of a grand surprise. “You do!?”

She smiled at his exuberance. Her own voice was deep with passion and growing forbidden desire, as she nodding and whispered, “I do.”

Before she had a chance to say anything else, he captured her lips in another fiery kiss.