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| - The sound of repeating rifles and the screams of dying warriors echoed in Jacen Solo’s ears as he and Tenel Ka ushered the Queen Mother out the north side of her home and down an embankment into the forest. Teneniel’s thick skirts rustled loudly with every step, and caught in the briars lining their path. Tenel Ka ran beside her mother, her one arm helping the Queen lift her hem out of the mud and urging her to quicken her pace. The Force was saturated with murderous aim, the enemy so close that it felt like hot breath prickling the hair on the back of Jacen’s neck. He kept his mind attuned to the Baci presences behind them, tracking their movements. These invaders had easily broken through the line of Hapan defense and were closing fast. It would only be a matter of time before they were caught. If they didn’t reach help in time he and Tenel Ka would have to make a stand while the Queen kept on, and hope they could hold them long enough. Teneniel stumbled ahead of him, her slipper catching in the mire. The ground was becoming softer the closer the came to the bottom of the mountain, where the land flattened into a marshy plain. With every step the sucking sound of Jacen’s boots pulling out of the mud became louder. Tenel Ka was quick to haul her mother to her feet. “Leave it,” she instructed firmly after the shoe, and they pressed on. “Kriffing gowns,” Teneniel muttered, and Jacen frowned at the sound of her voice. Her accent had changed from the regal Hapan lilt to something primitive and thick. The Dathomiri witch was coming out in her. “In my youth I never would have been so hindered by my own clothes. A lizard skin was all I needed,” she eyed Tenel Ka’s attire in envy. Her fingers brushed the fallen loops of hair that had been so intricately placed on her head in disgust. The younger woman made no reply, but pushed harder. He could feel the exasperation rising off of her like steam. She was an excellent runner, especially at long distances. The pace she was forced to conform to for Teneniel was wearing at her. A little over two kilometers away, Jacen could sense the battle for Terephon raging. In the early morning light just breaking through the treetops he could even make out the occasional blast of a laser cannon. If they could get there, where there were allies, it would be all right. They just had to keep going. There suddenly came faint noises from behind him, and Jacen spun to face the threat that seemed so imminent. The warmth of the sun just risen had spread a dense fog over the moisture rich area, and it was rising up the hill behind him. He could make out nothing. Still, the Force sang in warning. “Jacen?” Tenel Ka called, continuing to drag the Queen down the mountain. “Go on,” he instructed. “I’ve got this.” It was a confidence he didn’t necessarily feel, but this was his job. He would protect the Queen Mother. A backward glance revealed her gray eyes boring into him. She didn’t look happy. “If you get yourself killed, and I am not going to forgive you.” He tossed her the best classic Solo smile he could offer. “I’ll just be a minute.” Her gaze narrowed, and she then she turned and disappeared after the Queen into the mists. Jacen turned back to the approaching Baci. They were still well out of reach, but it wouldn’t be that way long if he didn’t do something about it. Closing his eyes, he stretched out to the Living Force and tapped the energy flowing all around him. It was everywhere; beneath him, above him, in the air, in his very being. The Force was all consuming. He was a piece of the fabric in its tapestry, and one of the few able to bend his surroundings to his will using it. With careful meditation, Jacen reached into the soil beneath his feet and felt the plant life there. Vines. He grasped the ropy plants in his mind’s eye and infused it with the Force power around him. He pushed life into it and urged it with every aspect of his mind to grow. From behind closed lids Jacen could almost see the vines snaking up from the ground and wrapping around the tree trunks, crisscrossing. A broad webbing stretched across the path. Jacen opened his eyes. The way down the mountain, for at least a hundred meters to his left and right, the way was completely blocked. The Baci would have to cut through or go around. Either way, they would be slowed. Satisfied, Jacen turned and started to flee after his friend. He barely took two steps when he stumbled, and was forced to stop and lean one hand against a tree. His vision swam from exhaustion. The exerted effort had taken a greater toll than he had anticipated. He took a few deep breaths to calm his dizzy head, and then let the Force invigorate him. He would have to draw on it to keep going, but that’s what had to be done. Jacen started at a fast jog down the mountain to find Tenel Ka. It didn’t take him long, their pace was so slow. They had already entered the swamplands by the time he caught up. The heavy skirts of the Queen had hindered them even further as they trudged through the waist-deep water. It was like a whole other person to drag along, and the strain was easily seen on Teneniel’s face. “Jacen,” Tenel Ka gasped in relief when she saw him emerge through the fog. “Thank the Force you’re all right. What happened?” He waded through the murky depths to stand on the other side of the Queen Mother, and began to help untangle her dress from a branch under the water. “I just slowed them down a little bit. We still need to hurry.” “I know,” she agreed, frustration written all over her face. Jacen finally gave up and tore a huge swath of cloth off the gown to free Teneniel. “Sorry, Your Highness,” he apologized. “Remind me again why we didn’t call for reinforcements?” Teneniel gasped, her brow sweaty as she plodded forwards. The water sloshed around loudly from her struggling steps. “Because there weren’t supposed to be any reinforcements, it was ‘secret’” Tenel Ka answered bitterly. “We were supposed to have complete comm silence with the ground forces to keep up the illusion. I wouldn’t even know how to go about it.” She allowed an irritated sigh to slip between her lips. “And we weren’t supposed to need them.” “What about the Force?” the Queen pressed. They came upon the large root of a massive tree that completely blocked their way. Jacen leapt out of the water and onto its mossy surface, and extended one hand to help the Queen over. “I’ve tried with Jaina but she’s having difficulties of her own. And I can’t get a good read on Uncle Luke. I think he’s in battle mode.” Only after all three of them were safely over the latest obstacle did Jacen hear the victorious calls in an alien tongue behind them. They had been found. He shared a frightened glance with Tenel Ka. His panic was mirrored in her eyes. He saw her take a shuddering breath, and then she became Princess Tenel Ka, the Tenel Ka that would one day rule 63 worlds. “We stand here,” she said, and it was an order. “Mother, I need you to run north as fast as you can, and don’t stop until you find help.” “No.” The firm reply surprised her as much as it did Jacen. “What do you mean, no?” Tenel Ka echoed, scowling. Teneniel Djo splashed around in the water to stare directly at her daughter. “I mean, no, I am not going to run. I’ll never make it and we both know that. The two of you would have already been safely away if not for me.” “It’s just this dress,” Tenel Ka argued stiffly. “Take it off, it would be better than dying here. Just run. Hapes needs you, you have to go.” A spike of danger raced over Jacen’s spine, and his lightsaber was in his hand and batting away a blaster bolt before his brain caught up. A Baci warrior, a woman, was jumping over the root towards them. She wailed something in her native language, and swung the barrel of her weapon towards Teneniel. Jacen stepped bravely between them, smacking the bolt harmlessly into the trees. In one swift stroke he flicked the tip of his lightsaber through her weapon hand, then shoved it straight through her chest. The woman hadn’t even fallen completely away when three more troops were clambering towards them. He could feel the Force enhancing their movements, making them faster than normal humanoids should be. With one hand he gestured to Teneniel and Tenel Ka to keep going. “Go! Both of you, hurry!” There was no word response, only the distinctive snaphiss of a lightsaber. Tenel Ka stepped forward with her turquoise blade, raising it to high guard. One of the Baci did an agile flip off the tree limb, firing all the way. She cleaved him in half, the two smoking pieces falling into the water. “Mother!” she yelled as she advanced to face the next wave. “Run!” “I cannot make it. I am old and tired, and weak,” came the Queen’s reply from somewhere to Jacen’s right. He wasn’t exactly sure, his awareness was fixed on the growing number of armed Baci appearing all around them. It was quickly turning into a mess. “Come on, we have to get out of here,” he grabbed Tenel Ka’s arm and pulled her away, dodging the blasterfire and swatting away what he couldn’t. Teneniel was ahead, struggling towards the fight instead of away from it. “Your Majesty, this way!” he pointed frantically. She completely ignored him and took her daughter by the shoulders. “Listen to me close child, because I only have time to say this once.” Jacen glanced behind them, realized neither woman would be budging soon, and placed himself and his lightsaber between them and the oncoming fire. “I can’t keep going. They want me, not you. But if they kill us both Hapes is completely lost. My time has come. You are the future and I the past. Become the Queen I know you can be. Go now and do your duty. Run, save yourself, and save Hapes. I am so very proud of you.” Tenel Ka’s eyes widened in surprise and horror. “No, I will never leave you!” “Ladies!” Jacen’s saber was like a cyclone of light, defending himself and the two women behind him. His arms ached and pulled with the strain of moving so furiously. “Someone better decide something quick!” “You have to!” Teneniel snapped. “Think not of yourself, or of me, but of what it is we are called to do. We are servants, we are leaders. Take my place and live up to your blood. You come from a noble line, Tenel Ka. You are a daughter of Dathomir, a warrior! Now go.” With that she pulled away, her gaze suddenly bright and fearsome. The Force shone in her in a way Jacen wouldn’t have thought possible a few moments before. She started to sway to the left and right and chant low under her breath. The wind began to whistle at a quicker pace through the marshlands. Rocks lifted slowly, tree branches tore off and began to swirl in a whirlwind around them. Thunder clapped overhead and the sky darkened ominously. Jacen felt a hand on his shoulder, dragging him away. “What’s going on?” he yelled through the gale. Tenel Ka’s cheeks were wet with tears, and her Force presence quivered with emotion. “This was her gift. The Spell of Storm.” He watched over his shoulder as the Baci began to duck for cover. “We’re leaving her?” he struggled with the notion, disbelieving. “We have no choice,” her voice trembled. “It’s too dangerous to stay, we’ll be killed. She’s made her decision, and forced it upon me.” “I don’t understand,” he sputtered. The Queen and the Baci were growing small in the distance. Still the wind was swift and loud. “She’s giving us a chance to get away,” Tenel Ka explained. “She’ll fail soon, she can’t maintain this like she used to. It will drain her. Then they will kill her,” he heard the strained inflection of her tone as her throat constricted. Jacen felt his heart drop somewhere around his toes. He gripped her hand more tightly, realizing the sacrifice both the Queen Mother and her daughter were making. She squeezed back, so tight he thought she might break his fingers. It was a few minutes later he felt the slight flash in the Force, and then a dimming. The storm clouds cleared, and he knew she was gone. Tenel Ka’s step hitched and a violent sob escaped her, but she never stopped, never quit. She just kept going. The unbelievable strength he felt in her heart shook him to his core. She might as well have been made of durasteel. They ran through the swamp in silence, and eventually came to the edge of the final skirmish between the main forces. He followed Tenel Ka wordlessly, and she led them to a Hapan shuttle swarming with female guards. They all saluted her when they recognized their Princess, and one brave commander stepped out to speak. “Princess, it is good to see you well. Where…where is the Queen?” Jacen saw her back straighten ever so slightly, and at the same time she closed down in the Force, shutting him out. “The Queen Mother is gone, Commander,” she spoke softly, but her voice didn’t shake. “We were ambushed, and she fell in the retreat.” There was a moment of tense silence, and then the woman executed a deep, formal bow. “Very well. Your shuttle awaits you. The fleet is now under your command, Queen Mother.” As if in resonance of the momentous turn of phrase, the forest erupted in flame about a kilometer to their left.
* * * Padmé’s small form was crushed against the passenger’s couch when the Millennium Falcon’s inertial compensator failed. She distantly heard a crash and shout from the rear of the ship, and knew instinctively that Leia was in terrible danger. Her mind reeled from the velocity, suddenly all too real, and the understanding that she had to some how get to her daughter. Chewbacca roared something into the ship’s comm system, his big furry hands holding tight to the controls. The Falcon immediately slowed dramatically, almost creeping through space. Han’s voice came back, muffled, “I’m okay! Hang on, I’ve almost got it stabilized.” “Leia,” Padmé managed, and somehow worked her small hands to the crash webbing buckles. Without thought, she flicked them loose. The big Wookiee in front of her bellowed a protest, but she paid him no mind. Her feet hit the deck unsteadily, but she pushed through the lightheadedness. Even at the sluggish speed Chewie was taking, it felt like a ferrocrete wall bearing down on her back. She extended her arms to full length, holding tight to both bulkheads as she hurried towards the quad turrets. She could feel her heartbeat in her stomach, and couldn’t tell if it was from the physical strain or the emotional fear. The Falcon was rocked by another hit, and Padmé pitched forward just as she arrived at the access ladder. Thankfully, she hit the wall with little damage. In the back of her mind she could hear Han and Chewie conversing in loud tones over the comm, but she ignored them. Her attention was fixed on the terrible scene just beneath her feet. Leia was caught in the ladder, hanging upside down as one leg entangled itself with a rung. The leg itself looked bent at an odd slant, and Padmé knew immediately it was broken. Her daughter was unconscious but breathing, and for that she gave thanks to whatever gods there were ruling the universe. The old woman dropped instantly onto her stomach, reaching down to try and grab hold of her child. She grunted with the effort, her fingers just brushing the fabric of Leia’s sleeve, but not able to take hold. She cursed, stood, and yelled, “Han! Get up here, Leia’s hurt!” The Corellian ship took another painful hit, and suddenly she was spinning away from the ladder and back towards the cockpit. Padmé tripped, and fell hard onto the deck. Her fingernails dug into the surface, straining against the g-forces as the Falcon made a wide, slow turn. “I got it!” her son-in-law’s voice echoed from somewhere deep inside the ship. There was a slight tremor, and then the huge weight that had been sitting on Padmé’s chest lifted. She gasped, able to breath normally at last. The damper was back on. She struggled to right herself, and by the time she had stood Han’s footsteps were loudly approaching. He rounded the corner to face her, his countenance flushed, and she pointed desperately at the quad access tube. He took one look down inside and turned a pasty white color. “Sithspit,” he growled, and lowered himself to his knees. His longer reach easily found purchase, and a few moments later he had hauled Leia’s upper body out of the hole. “Padmé, come help me with her leg,” he instructed. She shimmied forward and squeezed into the small space. With her lower lip bit tightly between her teeth, Padmé eased Leia’s booted foot out of the ladder as gently as she could. Han pulled her the rest of the way out, and cradled her limp body against his chest. “Princess? Come on, Leia, give me a sign.” Almost as if on cue, her daughter moaned softly, and her body began to tremble as she started to go into shock. “Not the reaction I was hoping for, but I’ll take it.” He stood with her in his arms, and jogged towards the medical capsule. Padmé followed closely, tears of dread gathering in her eyes. Once there, Han lay her on the bunk and turned to Padmé. “Can you take care of her? I have to go help Chewie get us back to the Pillory. We need to get her into a bacta tank fast.” “Of course,” Padmé sat down on the bed beside Leia and began to hook her up to the stabilizing equipment. The shaking in her fingers as she worked was barely noticeable, thankfully. “Now go, and hurry.”
* * * The Baci soldier facing Jaina was tall and muscular, and he brimmed with the Force. She could easily sense his untrained powers guiding him like impulse, keeping him a split second ahead of her lightsaber. She circled him carefully, crossing her feet left over right under the cold swamp water, true to form. He mimicked her movements but was unarmed. She had relieved him of his blaster from the start. He acted first, charging low at her midsection in an attempt to bowl her over. Jaina sidestepped and swung her weapon down towards his back. He twisted impossibly, caught her sword hand, and tried to throw her over his shoulder. Unluckily for him, she had spent the majority of her life sparring against the man who was possibly the greatest swordsman in recorded history. He jerked her forward, and she thrust her elbow up to slam him in the face. Blood spattered everywhere, he dropped into the water, and she spun to face her next foe. Her eye focused on Anakin, who was facing off with two Baci soldiers. She ran to assist him, stretching out in the Force to touch his mind. They coordinated the next move precisely in a split second, and then burst into action. Anakin leapt from the swamp and soared over their heads. For the instant their attention was diverted by his unexpected move, Jaina stepped forward and cut them down. Immediately she rolled forward, under the water and back up again, having barely eluded a sonic rifle blast. Friendly fire was beginning to become a real nuisance in their situation. She and Anakin had pushed the Baci line back towards the downed shuttle they were retreating to, and the fire from behind them was just as deadly as that in front. More so at times, because the sonic blasts had to be dodged, not repelled. Anakin landed beside her with a splash, his purple blade bright and sizzling in the moist air. “Uncle Luke’s coming,” he said simply. They both were already moving forwards, pushing, always pushing. The Baci were hiding in the fog of the swamp, but for a Jedi that wasn’t much of an issue. Jaina could feel little pockets of sentience all around her, all she had to do was decide where to strike first. “I know,” she replied. The Jedi Master’s presence was a beacon, and his approach was easily felt. She pulled her comlink to her lips and said, “Commander, bring the troops another twenty meters forward. And watch the left flank,” she added, noting the concentration of enemies in that area. “Copy that,” the rebel leader’s voice crackled back. “Where next?” Anakin asked. His icy blue eyes were scanning the mists, but she knew he wasn’t looking with his eyes. Jaina took a deep breath and said, “Let’s move on the ship. I want to end this.” “Agreed,” he nodded. “It’s time.” They opened their sibling bond and joined minds, awarenesses. Together, as one, they charged. It wasn’t a stealthy move, Jaina was sure even the deafest of Baci could hear their splashing stampede. But it was a fearsome one. The hulk of the wrecked freighter had just become visible when the first responsive attack came. A dozen warriors dropped from the trees around the two Jedi, firing wildly. Jaina found herself pressed back-to-back with Anakin, her lightsaber spinning in a furious circle of defense. The Force flowed through them, and as a combined team they felt nigh unstoppable. Anakin switched tactics unexpectedly. A surge of Force energy shot from him and hit the water, spraying a surprisingly sizeable wave straight at the Baci on his side. At that moment he leapt forward to the attack, and Jaina jumped straight up and into the trees, disappearing from sight. For a moment she vanished, and then with a start landed in the midst of her enemies. A power outside herself guided her motions, and in a few quick moments she was surrounded by a mass off bodies, floating on the surface. Still they kept coming, appearing out of the fog as if from nowhere. The fight was vicious and brutal, and seemed without end. Distantly she sensed Anakin in the same sort of predicament, as well as the rebel troops steadily gaining ground. Something had to break. That something came in the form of a slash of a blue lightsaber through the chest of a Baci just lifting his rifle to put her in its scopes. On the opposite end of that blade was Mara Jade Skywalker. “Aunt Mara!” Jaina exclaimed with relief, but never quit the death dance enveloping them both. Mara placed a beauty of a snap-kick right on the jaw of a male attacker, cut through the midsection of another, and said, “We thought the two of you might need a hand.” “No, not at all. What’s a murderous duel with a couple dozen Baci in a day in the life of a Jedi apprentice?” Jaina rolled her eyes, and skewered an opponent ruthlessly. “We need to get out of here,” Mara thrust one hand forward, tossing five warriors ten meters back. “Why, I thought we were just getting started?” Jaina scoffed. “Well Kyp had to go and ruin our fun and plant a detonator on this ship. We have to get out before it blows,” Mara explained, already backpedaling. Jaina deflected three blaster bolts off her lightsaber and yelled, “He did what? When?” “He and Ganner were coming to help you from the other side. They found out Luke and I were coming and decided what was the best way,” she gave up fighting and turned into a full retreat. Jaina broke into a run beside her. Twenty meters later Luke and Anakin emerged on their left, both looking as battered as Jaina felt. “How long?” Luke raised his eyebrows at Mara, falling into step beside her. “Five seconds,” she whispered. She was a second off. A blast erupted in a fiery discharge behind them. The concussion drove Jaina to her knees, and she got a mouth full of foul swamp water. The heat on the back of her head was intense. Anakin grasped her forearm and pulled her to her feet. In front of them, the rebel soldiers had just materialized out of the fog. A commander stepped forward and asked, “Orders, Master Skywalker?” “Round up your men,” Luke gestured broadly, “and tell them to stand down. This fight is over.”
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