Coruscant- Monday
Jaina had spent a lot of time in the bacta tank once she'd gotten back, and had finally been moved to a room where she could actually talk to her visitors. It wasn't ideal, as her area was tiny and thanks to the healing burns she couldn't actually have anything touching her yet, so she was levitating in her little spot with a modesty cover over her so no one saw anything while she had bacta mist sprayed on her bare skin. The bloodstains on her neck had faded after Jacen died, her face was healed, her concussion was getting better, bone knitters were hard at work on her ribs and her arm and neck... The lightsaber slice was going to take a while to recover from, but she'd live.
And she was always especially glad when someone came by. She didn't get much alone time unless she was resting, which she liked. It wasn't that anyone was worried about what she'd do if she was left alone, but they knew her well enough to know that leaving her alone to think was cruel. In a few days she'd probably be Force-throwing people out of the room for some privacy, but for now...
"Hey, kid," Han greeted her, leading Leia into the room and seeming better than he had in a long time. Not great, but better. "Good to see you up."
"This isn't really 'up,' Dad," she pointed out. "Unless you're comparing it with what'll happen if there's a power failure."
"At least you're out of the tank," Leia said. "Now we can actually talk instead of just smiling and waving."
"Smiling and waving wasn't so bad. It was good to know you were out there." Bacta tanks weren't fun, and right after everything happened, seeing that she had people around had been badly needed. "But I do have a lot of questions."
Han got serious fast. "Zekk?" he guessed.
Jaina nodded. "For starters. Any word?"
"Nothing. They've found a few StealthX pieces floating around, but there were several lost, so it's impossible to know whether any of it came off his," he told her.
"What about his rescue beacon?"
"There's no sign that it was triggered," Leia said. "But the Mists are pretty thick around there."
"And no sign of him in the Force, of course," Jaina assumed. "I sure haven't felt anything."
"Luke said they're going to keep looking," Leia said. It looked like she wanted to give some sort of physical reassurance by taking her hand or something, but couldn't with Jaina's current state. For someone who'd become a pretty serious hugger during the Vong War, this had to be killing her. "But Mirta Gev sends her thanks."
"She made it back to Mandalore okay, then?" Jaina checked.
"Not exactly," her father said. "She's safe-"
"And healing nicely," Leia added. "So is her husband."
"Just not on Mandalore. Turns out Fett can't go back there. Ever. Neither can his granddaughter."
Jaina didn't even try to contain her shock. "What? Why not?"
One of the things they'd been dealing with was an Imperial-engineered nanokiller, which would infect and kill certain people based on their genetic makeup, which the Moffs had been using against their enemies. Now her parents explained that after the raid that Jaina had participated in, the Moffs had designed a nanokiller for the Fetts. Another version of the nanokiller had also worked on the Hapan royal family. It had also been how Allana died. It was what Jacen had been trying to warn against when Jaina stabbed him in the heart. She could live with killing Jacen, she knew. It'd be hard, but she could do it. She didn't think she'd ever get over what happened to Allana, though.
"That's terrible," Jaina breathed. "Are you sure?"
Leia nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. Tahiri reported it during her first questioning, and the Moffs confirmed it."
"They claim there's no way to fix it," Han said. "A Mand'alor who can never set foot on Mandalore... kind of poetic justice, isn't it?"
"It might be justice, but I wouldn't call it poetic," Jaina said. "It's just sad, especially for Mirta." She'd been depressed for months when she'd been cut off from Fandom, and she hadn't even liked the place. She couldn't imagine knowing you could never go back to your homeworld, and there was no changing that.
A silence fell over the room just long enough for her mother to shoot her father a "be careful" look, then Leia said, "Well, we do have some good news."
"Jag is coming to see me?" Jaina asked hopefully. He'd been one of the people smiling and waving while she was in the bacta tank, but she hadn't been able to talk to him since they'd left the Anakin. And there were things they needed to talk about. Maybe not immediately, but... at some point.
"As soon as he can. He's pretty busy with the peace conference right now," Han said. "The Moffs seem to keep getting the idea that they're the ones who won this war."
That was one of the things Jaina did want to talk to Jag about, actually. She was fuzzy on the details since she'd gotten her information from a medical droid, but apparently Jag had been put in charge of the Moffs somehow. Which meant he had control over the Empire. Like, all of it.
But there was another part of what Han said that caught Jaina's attention. "Won? The war is over? Completely?"
Leia nodded. "They're having the ceremony now." She retrieved the remote from its storage pocket in Jaina's hoverest cabinet and pointed it at a vidscreen suspended near the ceiling. "We might be able to catch the last part."
The broadcast was showing the hangar of a Star Destroyer on which a large dais had been raised, and a woman taking the podium to speak. The caption at the bottom of the screen read NEW ALLIANCE CHIEF OF STATE DAALA.
Jaina's heart sank. She'd been hoping her galaxy would be smarter than Ben's on this one. "We didn't."
"That's the only hitch with the peace deal," Han said, glancing nervously at Leia. "Bwua'tu wouldn't take the job. He said he's an admiral, not a liar-"
Dammit, Bwu'atu!
"What he actually said," Leia clarified, "was that he didn't think he was cunning enough to last in the job. And then he recommended Admiral Daala instead."
"I think the old goat's got a thing for her," Han said. Ew. So much ew.
"The admiral's feelings are speculation, of course," Leia said, in that sort of tone that said she'd be having a little talk with him about saying this stuff later. "But Daala turned out to be the only universally acceptable choice."
This just kept getting better. "Universally? Really?" Jaina asked.
"Well, some of the Moffs squirmed a bit," Han admitted. "But then Jag worked out a deal where Daala promised to let bygones be bygones- as long as half of the new Moffs are female."
The problem with this was that Jaina had information on Daala that the rest of the galaxy didn't. Again. Surviving Jacen meant that in a few years she'd be dealing with the same thing Ben had been dealing with. Not only was Daala going to turn against the Jedi and send Luke into exile, but it was already happening. And now she was kicking herself for not mentioning Daala's little alliance with Fett before.
She wasn't going to mention it right now. She didn't need another possible crisis right this second, her parents definitely didn't, and saying something as Daala was instated into office would do no good. And the funny thing was, as she watched Daala give her speech, Jaina didn't believe a word of it, but the crowd did. It'd come back to haunt everyone later, but Jaina knew how important it was for there to have that moment where things were over and settled, and then they got to have hope for something new, something better. This was that moment.
Weirdly, that's what Jacen had been working towards. He'd wanted to bring peace to the galaxy. He hadn't managed it in life at the end there, but he had brought the galaxy together and united them with his death. Maybe she just wanted it all to mean something, but she couldn't help but wonder if he'd succeeded after all.
"Hey, take it easy, kid." Han stepped in front of the vidscreen. "Daala's not that scary."
She shook it off as best she could when she was floating and couldn't move much. "Sorry, Dad. It's not Daala. I was just thinking of... of what Caedus sacrificed," she said, careful of her word choice. "At the end, there was a second when he just stopped fighting so he could warn Tenel Ka. I, um." She looked away, not wanting to see their faces when she said it. "I think he became Jacen again for a second before I... before I killed him."
"Jaina, it's okay." Leia started to reach for her arm again, then barely caught herself. "If you had hesitated, you would be the dead one."
She'd been okay until this point, but now the guilt seemed overwhelming. "I could have given him a second. If I had, maybe he could have made Tenel Ka understand in time to save Allana."
When she looked back at her parents, they looked... guilty. "Yeah, about that," Han said slowly. "There's something we haven't been able to tell you yet."
She really didn't know if she could take more bad news. "What?"
Leia went the door and opened it, then said, "Amelia, would you come in here for a minute?"
Jaina looked to her father. "Amelia?"
"A war orphan," he explained. "Turns out the kid's Force-sensitive. Your mother and I are going to be acting as guardians."
This sounded weird. Her dad's tone definitely had something to do with it. "An orphan?" she asked suspiciously.
"That's how it was explained to us," Leia said. "But it's possible the mother just felt the Jedi Academy would be a safer environment than she was able to provide." And then she ushered the little girl into the room. She was a black-haired girl of about four or five and looked nervous... and it fooled Jaina for a moment.
"Hello, Jaina," Allana said a bit shyly. "They tell me we're going to be sisters now."
Jaina thought she would have learned by now: if she didn't see the body herself, she should never believe anyone was really dead.
And that was her moment of settling, where she could really have hope that things would somehow be better.
"I guess we are, Amelia," she smiled. "Welcome to the family."
[AND WE'RE DONE WITH THE CATCHUP. OMG. NFB, NFI, OOC more than okay. Dialogue and a couple lines taken from Invincible by Troy Denning and anything after this is aaaaaall original. OMG DONE. OMG.]
And she was always especially glad when someone came by. She didn't get much alone time unless she was resting, which she liked. It wasn't that anyone was worried about what she'd do if she was left alone, but they knew her well enough to know that leaving her alone to think was cruel. In a few days she'd probably be Force-throwing people out of the room for some privacy, but for now...
"Hey, kid," Han greeted her, leading Leia into the room and seeming better than he had in a long time. Not great, but better. "Good to see you up."
"This isn't really 'up,' Dad," she pointed out. "Unless you're comparing it with what'll happen if there's a power failure."
"At least you're out of the tank," Leia said. "Now we can actually talk instead of just smiling and waving."
"Smiling and waving wasn't so bad. It was good to know you were out there." Bacta tanks weren't fun, and right after everything happened, seeing that she had people around had been badly needed. "But I do have a lot of questions."
Han got serious fast. "Zekk?" he guessed.
Jaina nodded. "For starters. Any word?"
"Nothing. They've found a few StealthX pieces floating around, but there were several lost, so it's impossible to know whether any of it came off his," he told her.
"What about his rescue beacon?"
"There's no sign that it was triggered," Leia said. "But the Mists are pretty thick around there."
"And no sign of him in the Force, of course," Jaina assumed. "I sure haven't felt anything."
"Luke said they're going to keep looking," Leia said. It looked like she wanted to give some sort of physical reassurance by taking her hand or something, but couldn't with Jaina's current state. For someone who'd become a pretty serious hugger during the Vong War, this had to be killing her. "But Mirta Gev sends her thanks."
"She made it back to Mandalore okay, then?" Jaina checked.
"Not exactly," her father said. "She's safe-"
"And healing nicely," Leia added. "So is her husband."
"Just not on Mandalore. Turns out Fett can't go back there. Ever. Neither can his granddaughter."
Jaina didn't even try to contain her shock. "What? Why not?"
One of the things they'd been dealing with was an Imperial-engineered nanokiller, which would infect and kill certain people based on their genetic makeup, which the Moffs had been using against their enemies. Now her parents explained that after the raid that Jaina had participated in, the Moffs had designed a nanokiller for the Fetts. Another version of the nanokiller had also worked on the Hapan royal family. It had also been how Allana died. It was what Jacen had been trying to warn against when Jaina stabbed him in the heart. She could live with killing Jacen, she knew. It'd be hard, but she could do it. She didn't think she'd ever get over what happened to Allana, though.
"That's terrible," Jaina breathed. "Are you sure?"
Leia nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. Tahiri reported it during her first questioning, and the Moffs confirmed it."
"They claim there's no way to fix it," Han said. "A Mand'alor who can never set foot on Mandalore... kind of poetic justice, isn't it?"
"It might be justice, but I wouldn't call it poetic," Jaina said. "It's just sad, especially for Mirta." She'd been depressed for months when she'd been cut off from Fandom, and she hadn't even liked the place. She couldn't imagine knowing you could never go back to your homeworld, and there was no changing that.
A silence fell over the room just long enough for her mother to shoot her father a "be careful" look, then Leia said, "Well, we do have some good news."
"Jag is coming to see me?" Jaina asked hopefully. He'd been one of the people smiling and waving while she was in the bacta tank, but she hadn't been able to talk to him since they'd left the Anakin. And there were things they needed to talk about. Maybe not immediately, but... at some point.
"As soon as he can. He's pretty busy with the peace conference right now," Han said. "The Moffs seem to keep getting the idea that they're the ones who won this war."
That was one of the things Jaina did want to talk to Jag about, actually. She was fuzzy on the details since she'd gotten her information from a medical droid, but apparently Jag had been put in charge of the Moffs somehow. Which meant he had control over the Empire. Like, all of it.
But there was another part of what Han said that caught Jaina's attention. "Won? The war is over? Completely?"
Leia nodded. "They're having the ceremony now." She retrieved the remote from its storage pocket in Jaina's hoverest cabinet and pointed it at a vidscreen suspended near the ceiling. "We might be able to catch the last part."
The broadcast was showing the hangar of a Star Destroyer on which a large dais had been raised, and a woman taking the podium to speak. The caption at the bottom of the screen read NEW ALLIANCE CHIEF OF STATE DAALA.
Jaina's heart sank. She'd been hoping her galaxy would be smarter than Ben's on this one. "We didn't."
"That's the only hitch with the peace deal," Han said, glancing nervously at Leia. "Bwua'tu wouldn't take the job. He said he's an admiral, not a liar-"
Dammit, Bwu'atu!
"What he actually said," Leia clarified, "was that he didn't think he was cunning enough to last in the job. And then he recommended Admiral Daala instead."
"I think the old goat's got a thing for her," Han said. Ew. So much ew.
"The admiral's feelings are speculation, of course," Leia said, in that sort of tone that said she'd be having a little talk with him about saying this stuff later. "But Daala turned out to be the only universally acceptable choice."
This just kept getting better. "Universally? Really?" Jaina asked.
"Well, some of the Moffs squirmed a bit," Han admitted. "But then Jag worked out a deal where Daala promised to let bygones be bygones- as long as half of the new Moffs are female."
The problem with this was that Jaina had information on Daala that the rest of the galaxy didn't. Again. Surviving Jacen meant that in a few years she'd be dealing with the same thing Ben had been dealing with. Not only was Daala going to turn against the Jedi and send Luke into exile, but it was already happening. And now she was kicking herself for not mentioning Daala's little alliance with Fett before.
She wasn't going to mention it right now. She didn't need another possible crisis right this second, her parents definitely didn't, and saying something as Daala was instated into office would do no good. And the funny thing was, as she watched Daala give her speech, Jaina didn't believe a word of it, but the crowd did. It'd come back to haunt everyone later, but Jaina knew how important it was for there to have that moment where things were over and settled, and then they got to have hope for something new, something better. This was that moment.
Weirdly, that's what Jacen had been working towards. He'd wanted to bring peace to the galaxy. He hadn't managed it in life at the end there, but he had brought the galaxy together and united them with his death. Maybe she just wanted it all to mean something, but she couldn't help but wonder if he'd succeeded after all.
"Hey, take it easy, kid." Han stepped in front of the vidscreen. "Daala's not that scary."
She shook it off as best she could when she was floating and couldn't move much. "Sorry, Dad. It's not Daala. I was just thinking of... of what Caedus sacrificed," she said, careful of her word choice. "At the end, there was a second when he just stopped fighting so he could warn Tenel Ka. I, um." She looked away, not wanting to see their faces when she said it. "I think he became Jacen again for a second before I... before I killed him."
"Jaina, it's okay." Leia started to reach for her arm again, then barely caught herself. "If you had hesitated, you would be the dead one."
She'd been okay until this point, but now the guilt seemed overwhelming. "I could have given him a second. If I had, maybe he could have made Tenel Ka understand in time to save Allana."
When she looked back at her parents, they looked... guilty. "Yeah, about that," Han said slowly. "There's something we haven't been able to tell you yet."
She really didn't know if she could take more bad news. "What?"
Leia went the door and opened it, then said, "Amelia, would you come in here for a minute?"
Jaina looked to her father. "Amelia?"
"A war orphan," he explained. "Turns out the kid's Force-sensitive. Your mother and I are going to be acting as guardians."
This sounded weird. Her dad's tone definitely had something to do with it. "An orphan?" she asked suspiciously.
"That's how it was explained to us," Leia said. "But it's possible the mother just felt the Jedi Academy would be a safer environment than she was able to provide." And then she ushered the little girl into the room. She was a black-haired girl of about four or five and looked nervous... and it fooled Jaina for a moment.
"Hello, Jaina," Allana said a bit shyly. "They tell me we're going to be sisters now."
Jaina thought she would have learned by now: if she didn't see the body herself, she should never believe anyone was really dead.
And that was her moment of settling, where she could really have hope that things would somehow be better.
"I guess we are, Amelia," she smiled. "Welcome to the family."
[AND WE'RE DONE WITH THE CATCHUP. OMG. NFB, NFI, OOC more than okay. Dialogue and a couple lines taken from Invincible by Troy Denning and anything after this is aaaaaall original. OMG DONE. OMG.]