The Remembrance

[Rhianna]

As attuned to nature as the non-sentient creatures of the planet they shared, the nomadic Tincéir wandered their world from here to there, following favorable seasons, and the cycle of life. Although they crossed the same paths from year to year, they never dwelt in one place for very long. Just as the clann had no permanent residence in life, in death their remains were not interred in some hallowed place, as was the custom with some other races in the galaxy. Rather, the people of the Dhomanda A'lainn crafted funerary biers of whatever wood they found at their disposal, honoring their departed with some of their most important belongings from this life, that they may have use of in the next. Bows and quivers of arrows, staves, drinking horns, and simple tools that had belonged to the fallen were laid out with them. For a night and day, they stayed as they lay. It was called Cuimhne na Mairbh, The Remembrance. The close kinsmen, and in the case of a chieftain, often the whole clann would gather to celebrate. It was a time of loss, but also a time of remembering, of honoring. At the sunset of the following day, the nearest living kin would be the first to touch flaming torch to prepared kindling. The rest would follow, and within minutes the bier would be engulfed in flame, sending the soul and possessions of the deceased spiraling in smoky ascension straight to the Abhairt Saoil.

It was sunset of the second day of her elder brother's Remembrance.

Rhianna had lovingly laid out each of his treasured belongings alongside him the day before, keeping only one small token for herself, a dagger. She did not think he would mind. She could almost see him shaking his head at her in chagrin for defying tradition in favor of sentimentality. Their time together had been cut short by the tightening fist of the Empire. She had found him, only to lose him again. In the skirmish to release the enslaved Tincéir, many had been wounded, and a few had lost their lives. She should see it as an honor for him, to have died in defense of his people, but she could only feel that once again the Empire had taken something from her. Something irreplaceable.

The sun faded away behind the line of the mountain range, aptly named the Broken Knee. She lowered her torch, a single tear ran down her pale cheek. It was all she allowed herself. She was the daughter of one former chieftain, and the sister of another. She would not cheapen their remembered strength with a show of weakness. She stepped away to let the others of her family and clann speed her brother on his way.

That night she fell into an exhausted sleep. Her dreams were violent. Too much death. Too much sadness. Her unconscious mind tried to sort out the depth of such pain and put it to rights, but there was really only one way that she could ever make things right, and in the end she knew what she had to do. She awoke and found her clann already packing to move on. They had no reason to stay here now. Rhianna had only three things to claim as her own, save for the clothes on her back. Her beautifully carved wooden staff, the dagger, and one smaller object. She took the commlink that had been left with her by Serena and worried it between her fingers, not yet activating it. The Banfáith of the Tincéir, Serena Laran of the Jedi had known, even when Rhianna herself had not, that she would have need of it. She could no longer stay here. Everything that tied her here was now gone. She could best serve her people by completing her training and becoming the Jedi that Serena believed she could be. She said her farewells to her people, watching as they moved in their rolling homes deeper into the woods until they were out of sight. Only then did she activate the commlink, calling out to her teacher, her master..

"Sámh..? It's Rhianna.."

[Serena Laran]

Serena carefully folded her robes and put them away in her cabin on board the Gaoth. She had said her good-byes to the Whaladon and separated from the other ship an hour ago. The Wheel was due for another jump to another space between stars. She didn't know where. She wouldn't know where until she needed to rejoin the fleet.

And to be honest, she wasn't sure when that was going to be. Serena realized she was standing in front of her mirror, and slowly focused on her reflection. Her face was slightly paler than normal, and there were circles under her eyes. She touched her face hesitantly, fingers exploring the thin skin and smoothing out the light wrinkles at the corners of her mouth and eyes. The bloom of youth no longer shone from her cheeks, and where once everything had been strong and firm there were now signs of age.

No one lives forever.

Serena shuddered at the unbidden thought, her eyes suddenly awash with unshed tears. She blinked, dabbing her eyes with the edge of her sleeve, and walked through her freighter toward the cockpit. Sitting there, all alone once more, she watched the Wheel's components jump to lightspeed one by one. After a few minutes her ship was the only one left. Time to go. The navicomputer had already calculated the jumps needed to get to Generis. She reached for the controls...

The sound of an incoming transmission beeping through the comm system startled her. Serena stared at the console for a moment, and then thumbed the button to accept the call.

"Sámh..? It's Rhianna.."

She opened her mouth and then closed it again. "Rhianna? It is good to hear your voice. Tá sé ró-fhada."

[Rhianna]

Sinking onto one of the logs the had previously been used as a bench, Rhianna exhaled a sigh of relief. "Yes..", she agreed, closing her sky-blue eyes a moment. "..too long."

Holding the small device in her hands atop her lap, Rhianna spoke to Serena but seemingly spoke to the woods at large. "I found Rhiandar, but I was too late." There was regret in her voice now, but more, there was also a deeper sense of maturity. This time on Dhomanda A'lainn had forced her to shed the last of her youth quickly.

"There is nothing more I can do here.", she admitted in her heavily accented Basic. "I believe the best thing I can do is to return to my training, if you will still have me?"

[Serena Laran]

Her eyes tracked over to the navicomp and the waiting jump coordinates, but she said, "Of course, Rhianna. Of course I will still have you." Serena paused, contemplating the sound of her padawan's voice. "I am sorry to hear about your brother."

However good it was to hear from Rhianna after so long, it was worrying, too. Those who abandoned their training to take care of family or friends put everything they had been working toward in danger. It was part of the reason the Order had begun taking candidates for the Jedi as toddlers. The familial connection was broken early, and absolutely.

It does not stop us from making new bonds. Friendships.

There was no way to know if Rhianna's sabbatical on Dhomanda A'lainn had left her with the taint of the Dark side. At least, there was only one way to find out. And as Serena's padawan, it was her responsibility.

"I was just about to start a journey," she said, after a moment of silent empathy between the two women. "I will come and pick you up as soon as I can compute the jump." Her fingers were already moving, discarding the saved coordinates and setting the navicomp computing a new course.

[Rhianna]

Rhianna nodded, bouncing her fiery curls about. "Thank you..", she breathed another sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Sámh. I will be waiting. Go dté tú slán."

Setting the communication device down on the log beside her, Rhianna pulled her legs up and crossed them, resting her hands loosely on her lap. She closed her eyes again, but this time she left them that way. She listened to the sounds of the woods around her. The sound of the wind through familiar trees, and the call of birds she had heard since childhood. She let it all surround her, imprinting on her heart. After today she did not no when, if ever, she would experience them again. The sounds blended with her own breath and soon she was in a light meditation, reflecting on all she had experienced since first meeting Serena, while she waited for her master to arrive.

[Serena Laran]

The trip didn't take long from the Wheel's last location deep within the Outer Rim. Serena spent the time figuring out how to get past the Imperial ship she knew would still be in orbit. The Force would have to be on her side ...or perhaps Sol's higher Power. Serena's gut twisted painfully at the thought of Sol, so recently returned to her and so suddenly taken away.

She placed her hand over a locking compartment built into the console, and the tension in her body began to ebb, even though she dared not put into thought what caused her to relax. The reversion to realspace was in a few minutes and she needed to be ready in case things did not go according to plan.

Gaoth agus Domhain slipped out of hyperspace, and Serena craned her neck, looking out the viewport toward the ringed planet. Gealaí, the larger moon, was in front of her, and it's brother, Gealach, was occupying a space several thousand klicks to port. She did not see an ISD in orbit, as there had been last time, when she had visited with Morgan and...

She swallowed and piloted the freighter forward on sublights, keeping in the shadow of Gealaí while the sensors mapped the position of the planet beneath her. The Imperial installation was on the other side of the rotation, no doubt the support ship was in synchronous orbit with it. Serena set her ship on course for the planet, maneuvering past the ring, and accelerated for a few minutes before cutting all power.

The ship fell into a rapidly decaying orbit, and she waited until Gaoth was skimming the atmosphere before kicking the sublights back on and controlling her descent. Rather than entering like a burning meteor, the freighter slid through the sky, heading toward where she knew Rhianna would be.

[Rhianna]

She lost time that day, recalling events not only of the last year but of everything that she had seen and done since first leaving Dhomanda A'lainn. She thought long about everything that she had learned from Serena about the Force, what her Grandmother had once described as the Abhairt Saoil, the Life Giver. To her people, it was a divine being who watched over nature and kept all things in balance. Those touched by it became healers and prophets. To the rest of the galaxy they were called Jedi, but the principles were all the same.

She thought about every person she had met and how they had impacted her life. Most of them had accepted her readily, had taken care of her in sickness and been very near to family. She had realized some time ago that she missed them all, and wished to return to them, to her training, but was that not abandoning one family for the other? Why would the Abhairt Saoil want to test her with such a painful choice?

It had taken the shock of seeing her brother in death to understand. If she did not complete her training, she would continue to suffer loss. Only through total negation of conflict, total acceptance of peace, only through letting go.. could she progress. She still had much to learn, and she felt ready now, as she had not felt in ages.

She looked up at the fading light, and knew that soon Serena would be with her. No ship could land in the thick of these woods, but not far was a clearing that would suit that purpose. Rhianna collected her staff and her brother's dagger, tucked the commlink away in a pouch hung from her belt, and began walking without looking back. At the very edge of the wood, she stopped just within the treeline and smiled to no one in particular.

"Goodbye...", she whispered. All that was left to do now was await her master.

[Serena Laran]

Once the ship was solidly on the ground, Serena secured the systems, while leaving the repulsors and sublights on standby. These were the coordinates Morgan had given her of the tincéir clan's location, the carbhán having moved on. She walked down the ramp, and smiled at the sight of her flame haired padawan emerging from the tree line.

"Rhianna!" Serena held her arms out and the two women met in a hug.

[Rhianna]

At the sight of her mentor, Rhianna heart blossomed with the forgotten feeling of hope. She closed the distance between them and eagerly embraced her teacher, truly happy to see her again. With her staff clutched in her left hand, she caught Serena about the neck with her right arm, smiling. "It has been too long, Sámh."

Rhianna did not wear the soft material of a girlish dress any longer. In her time spent among her people she had earned her place as one of the tribe's protectors. As such, she had adopted the outfitting of one, tanned leather armor that covered her chest, leaving her midriff bared, and a skirt consisting of several strips of the same leather. Her hair was shorter than before and strung with several beads and feathers. She wore strong sturdy boots on her legs, and most notably, now stood with the posture of one willing to fight for their beliefs.

Backing up a step, she gave her master the honor and respect that was her due, bending at the waist into a bow. When she straightened again, she seemed eager for knowledge. "Tell me everything I've missed...", she asked. Her recent concern had been for her own people, but the rest of the galaxy and all of the people in it should also be her concern as a Jedi. It was time to prioritize.

[Serena Laran]

Serena smiled, a bit sadly. "Much has happened in your absence. You know the Jedi were forced from Cloud City." Rhianna nodded. That was when she had left also, Morgan bringing her back here.

"I was captured by the Empire before I could leave. It was... not a nice experience. And, unfortunately, it is the reason for the increased Imperial presence here." She sighed. "The other Jedi and Morgan put together a rescue mission. They plucked me from the very heart of Coruscant, the capital of the Empire."

[Rhianna]

She could feel the process begin, realization giving way to awareness. Awareness turning into growing horror of the situation, but it was this very emotional response that Rhianna had to learn to control. Inhaling deeply, she pushed back, asserting her will over the response. Choosing to act rather than react, though she didn't quite keep the sadness from reaching her eyes. Instinctively she reached a hand up to Serena's face to brush a strand of hair back behind her ear, as would a sister. "Are you alright..?"

[Serena Laran]

"Yes, yes, I am fine now." Mostly. Serena looked up at the sky, and gestured toward the freighter. "We should get going, however. We can catch up on the way."

She ushered Rhianna, so confident and changed from what she remembered, on board the ship. "Morgan helped me buy a new ship - I had to get rid of my old one." Serena looked back over her shoulder as she walked to the cockpit. "He has been made a Jedi Knight, as well. Just yesterday, in fact."

[Rhianna]

A slow, knowing smile spread across Rhianna's features. Morgan was the kind of person you could depend on, a truly good man. A hero. He deserved recognition for that. "That is as it should be then."

It was not so long ago that space travel had scared goosebumps out of Rhianna's skin, but now she marched up onto the ship like a veteran. She carefully stowed her staff where it wouldn't come loose and roll around, and took a minute to look around the interior of the ship, familiarizing herself.

[Serena Laran]

Serena settled herself in the pilot's seat, running her hands over the console and preparing the ship for takeoff. Since she had left everything hot, there was no pre-flight check to do, and she toggled the intercomm to talk to Rhianna. "You can join me in the cockpit, we're going to be leaving as soon as possible."

She double checked her own restraints, making sure the crash webbing was secure but not chafing. The navicomp was chewing through the data to generate the coordinates for a jump to Generis. Soon. Soon...

It was too soon, and not soon enough.

[Rhianna]

"Coming..", Rhianna called over her shoulder. She unstrapped the pouch from around her waist, not having any need of it's contents while on board a ship. A few memento's of her world for a few people, things that had made her think of them while they had been parted. When the time was right, she would present them.

Joining Serena in the cockpit, Rhianna sat and strapped herself in to the seat opposite her master. "You said before you were to start a journey..?, she asked, getting comfortable.

[Serena Laran]

"Yes," she said simply. "I am traveling to Generis." The freighter rose smoothly into the air under her control as soon as Rhianna was seated.

"It is a long story," Serena started, accelerating as steeply as she dared for release from RX-271's atmosphere. Her padawan looked at her, Rhianna's expression indicating she wasn't planning on going anywhere. Serena smiled bittersweetly, remembering when she'd first awoken from her captivity to find herself on board the Challenger. "After I was rescued from the Empire, I woke to find that..."

She paused and cleared her throat, Gaoth agus Domhain reaching for vacuum and letting the planet drop beneath them like an emerald on black velvet. The rings loomed, and she altered course to skim across the surface of them, headed for deeper space. "An old friend had returned to me. His name was...is Sol. We had a few missions together during the Clone Wars, before the fall of the Jedi Order.

"I had thought he was dead. And suddenly there he was - older, of course, but still the same. Solid. Real." Her voice cracked a little, and she was grateful for the distraction as sensors pinged a contact headed toward them. Imperial ship. Serena upped acceleration to maximum sublight, and the navicomp spat out the needed coordinates for the first jump. She plugged them into the hyperdrive as the Imperial picket angled toward them on an intercept course, and then pulled down on the controls.

The freighter slipped the bonds of realspace and stretched into hyperspace. Serena sat back in her seat a little, her tension easing.

[Rhianna]

Hyperspace still made her stomach roll into her toes. That much at least remained the same, she thought. When they were safely away from the Imperial ship and the threat it presented, Rhianna finally responded to the conversation, though now a little breathless. "That is a good thing though, that you found someone from your past?"

She had thought she had picked up on a tendril of something before the hyperdrive kicked in, but she had attributed it to the presence of an Imperial ship heading toward them, but perhaps it was something more. "Is it not?"

[Serena Laran]

"It is good," she smiled, turning slightly to face Rhianna. "To find an old friend meant so much to me. It helped me with my healing, to have such a joyful reunion."

Serena took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She was not as good at keeping her emotions in check as she had been last time Rhianna had spent time with her. Seeing Sol had changed so much for her - as had her time with the Empire. At her core she was still the same person, but... She closed her eyes and then opened them again. "Unfortunately we just received word that Sol has been killed."

She laughed softly, shaking her head. "I am sorry - there is so much going on. Good news, and bad, I feel that your head must be spinning." Serena tried to surreptitiously dab at her eyes, but her sharp-eyed padawan didn't miss a thing.

[Rhianna]

Rhianna understood, perhaps better than anyone else how this felt. She could not hold back the tremble of her own voice as she said so. "I know."

She knew the elation of finding her brother alive. Seeing hope that they would be reunited. For a while she had entertained thoughts of bringing him off world with her, he too could be touched by the Force. Perhaps Jedi training would be for him as well? The Force had decreed otherwise though. Freeing their clann had cost her brother his life. Their reunion had lasted only moments before he had died in her arms.

She knew the unfairness of such a loss. Grieving for the same person twice in one lifetime was too cruel, but it had given her insight into the way relationships had an effect on those chosen to serve the Force. Distractions. She finally understood what this meant to her training.

"Do not worry for me, Master. ", she smiled sadly and reached over to give Serena's arm a fond squeeze. "I'll find my balance. Tell me what I need to know."

[Serena Laran]

Serena smiled, feeling Rhianna's own loss through the Force. The story behind it she did not know yet, but she knew that the padawan understood. "He had gone out to the planet Generis to confront another Jedi. Loklorien s'Ilancy. He knew her too, from the Temple before the Purge, and I suppose... he had to know, first hand. Because Alliance Intelligence told us a week or so ago that one of their generals was a suspected Sith, and that he had another working with him.

"The general in question is the one Master s'Ilancy has been... married to." Serena frowned lightly, not exactly sure if they were married or not. No matter. "We all suspected she could be the other dark sider, but she has been so intricately involved with the Jedi since we have been brought together. I refused to believe it could be so.

"But," she said softly. "It is true. She fought him at their meeting and there was a triggered transmission from his ship to the Council. In it he said that she was a Sith and must have killed him." Serena sighed. Two friends lost in one little message.

"I am going to ascertain if this is true. And to collect his remains if it is." She squeezed Rhianna's hand. "I do not know what we will find on Generis. I wish I had another lightsaber for you, because this could be a trap set by the Sith."

[Rhianna]

Rhianna had tested herself against Imperial troops, but never against a Sith. Even if she had a lightsaber, it was not a weapon she had devoted much time practicing with. She had her staff, and Serena, and the Abhairt Saoil to guide her. It would have to be enough.

Perhaps the transmission had been mistaken? Might they arrive to find Sol still alive? Or could it all be as Serena had suggested, one elaborate Sith trap. Only time would tell. She would keep her thoughts to herself until then, letting her Master focus. She would not wish to cloud her judgements with her own theories, since she knew even less than Serena did.

"Whatever we find, I will stand by you." Perhaps they would have another Remembrance before the journey was complete.

[Serena Laran]

"I know you will, Rhianna." Serena reached over and squeezed her hand. "Are you hungry? We have some time before we will be getting close."

[Rhianna]

If she were honest, Rhianna was working on an appetite after all the energy demanded by such an eventful day. "I could do with something.", she agreed.

The mention of food gave her the opening she was looking for to present Serena with one the items she had brought along with her. Unfastening herself from the seat, she rose and made her way to the locker where she'd left her satchel. She brought it with her as she followed Serena in the general direction of food.

[Serena Laran]

The general living area of the freighter was set up for padawan classes still, cushions on the floor in a circle, but Serena merely stepped over them and continued on to the small room that housed the kitchen. On most ships this would be called a mess, but she didn't believe in leaving things messy.

"I don't have much more than ration bars, but..." Serena opened up a secure slow cooker and the beans she'd started cooking just before leaving the Wheel filled the air with their delicious odor. "Simple food is often the best." She dished the beans into bowls, and brought them out with a loaf of bread under her arm.

The two women sat at the table together for the first time in many months. It was something to be thankful for.

[Rhianna]

"Agreed, the clann will be surviving on less than this come the next winter." Her people were a hardy folk. When the meat rations and last of the harvest fruits were consumed they would make it through until spring on flat breads and cakes made of ground acorns and seeds.

After a few spoonfuls of food to fill her belly, Rhianna pulled the satchel into her lap and rummaged about in it. "Is it not a tradition to bring a hostess gift to a dinner party? I think I recall reading that in one of my lessons transitioning me to standard galactic life."

With a smile, she pulled an even smaller pouch from her own bag. Soft leather, beaded and tasseled. Within, it contained a few stoppered bottles of some of the most precious healing herbs and roots from her world, which Serena as a Healer would know how to use. More importantly though, wrapped in soft cloths were seeds of each specimen, ready to be cultivated should they ever find a new home..

[Serena Laran]

Serena carefully opened the pouch as Rhianna cut the bread, and drew out the small bottles, setting them in a row on the table. She recognized each herb, but when she came to the seeds she lit up. "Ah, to be able to grow them! Thank you Rhianna, this is the perfect gift."

She looked around the living area, already wondering where a hydroponic growing station could be placed. Perhaps in the cargo bay? It was slated for use by the Wheel but surely growing plants... and food... Her mind raced ahead several steps, seeing the Jedi growing and producing their own fresh food. Not in her cargo bay, though that could be a start.

Serena smiled at Rhianna and put the herbs and seeds back into the leather pouch. "What made you decide to return to your training?" She reached for a slice of bread and dunked it into her beans before taking a bite.

[Rhianna]

Using her spoon she pressed into a heel of the bread, making a bowl of sorts. She scooped a portion of beans into the cavity and let the flavors soak into the bread as she spoke. "I did not mean to abandon my training. When I saw my brother imprisoned, I thought I could help him. That perhaps he would come with us when we left. It was a selfish wish on my part. I know that now."

Growing quiet for a moment, she laughed at herself. "He never would have. It would have offended his honor to suggest he leave his people."

"I'm sorry I let myself become distracted. I only wanted to help them escape. It breaks my heart to see the Empire among forests I walked as a child."

[Serena Laran]

"There is nothing to ask forgiveness for," Serena said softly. "You have returned to your training. But," she added, "Is it because with your brother gone there are no more distractions... or for some other reason?"

She looked at the other woman, her eyes compassionate. "I am not trying to be harsh, or callous about your loss. I am more than willing to resume your training. The thing I must know is why you have returned, not why you left."

[Rhianna]

"I have returned...", she pressed her lips together and set down her spoon. "..because it is what I am meant to do. I did not mean to leave at all. I did not want it to be a choice, my people or my training. I always wished, through my training, to help my people."

Rhianna tried make herself clear but to this day when she felt strongly about something her Basic became.. not so great, and her words even more accented than normal. "I still wish for this, but to be of any real use to them I feel I must continue the path of my training first."

In a humbled tone, she shook her head. "By myself I cannot hope to drive back the Empire single handed. I do not have the answer to that problem. What I can do is learn, and grow. Like those seeds..", she nodded to the pouch she had brought her master.

"Not so impressive yet, but someday with the proper caring and attention they will help to save lives and heal wounds."

[Serena Laran]

Serena nodded as her padawan spoke, pleased with the other woman's reasoning. "You will be a great Jedi, Rhianna. I have seen it." She smiled. "We will drive the Empire back together."

[Rhianna]

Believing it with all her heart, Rhianna smiled and resumed eating her bread, now thoroughly soaked up with flavor. "So how long will it take us to arrive on Generis, and what sort of place is it?" She'd been to many new worlds. One with grass that could cut and winds that could bowl you over. Ones that had no land at all, just great floating cities in the clouds. It was impossible to guess what this next world would be like.

[Serena Laran]

"It will take about twelve hours - we will have to stop and make a second jump in eight." Serena ate a spoonful of beans and washed it down with a sip of water. "As far as what the planet is like, I have never been there before. From what I've read it is a beautiful world, warm and humid, and barely populated.

"The gravity is higher than what we are used to, but it should not prove to be burdensome." She paused with her spoon midway to her mouth. "There are many ruins on the planet, from a previous occupation by the Rataka, a now extinct race." Serena took the bite, and chewed thoughtfully.

"I do not know exactly where we will be landing, yet. I am hoping to be able to get a signal from Sol's ship, Exodus, and go from there."

[Rhianna]

The mention of ruins intrigued Rhianna. How fascinating those would be to spend some time exploring! The somber reasons for their trip to Generis did not seem like the opportune time to stroll about sightseeing though. However, if the opportunity should present itself, she would gladly seize it.

"How are the others? I've thought of them often. I'm sure Wyl's grown like a tree, right?", she sipped down some water and was suddenly homesick, but for a different home.

[Serena Laran]

"He hasn't hit his growth spurt yet," Serena said, the thought of the young one warming her heart. He had been a great comfort to her during her convalescence. "He is away from the Wheel at the moment, visiting a friend in the Alliance fleet."

Daria was worried about him, she knew, even more so in light of the news Sol had sent them. Still, Wyl was a child, and was most likely in no physical danger. Serena could worry about him after this mission was over. "The other Jedi are safe and well, and our numbers have grown since you were last among us. More young padawans have been brought to us for training, and even some Knights have been found, although in strange places. There has even been one who was found frozen in a block of carbonite on a derelict ship by the Alliance.

"Apparently he was put into the carbonite over a hundred years ago. I fear his adjustment to our way of life will be hard."

[Rhianna]

Smirking at her own uniqueness, Rhianna laughed. "He probably still has more knowledge of the galaxy at large than I do. He should consider himself ahead of the game."

Then she thought about it... Being trapped in stasis for a hundred years. Everything familiar and loved either changed or gone. Suddenly she didn't feel like laughing anymore. "That's awful." Compassion for someone she didn't even know flooded her senses. Were there none of them that hadn't suffered some calamity or loss?

Appetite gone, she picked up her bowl and started to clean up. "I look forward to meeting them all."

[Serena Laran]

She could sense Rhianna's sudden change in emotion, and couldn't help but agree with her. "Soon enough," Serena said softly. "We will all be together soon."

Perhaps only once they were all one with the Force. What a reunion that would be. She scraped the last bit of food from her bowl and joined Rhianna in the kitchen. "In the meantime I think I will be taking a nap. It was evening, convoy time, when I started my journey." She watched Rhianna load the small dishcleanser, and added, "Feel free to pick one of the cabins and make yourself at home. This ship is much larger than Serenity was."

[Rhianna]

"That sounds wonderful.", she said, finishing up.

"I'll see you in a little while." She watched her master head to a cabin, and shortly thereafter, Rhianna found an empty one for herself. She had not realized how tired she actually was until she lay down and instantly began yawning. She said prayers to the Abhairt Saoil before sleeping, asking for strength for what they might find on Generis and for the Jedi both lost and found. She said one for her brother, and one for herself. All of them deserved, and were due for, a bit of happiness. With that thought in mind, she fell into a restful sleep.

[Serena Laran]

Generis loomed in the viewport of the freighter as Serena sat stiffly in the pilot's seat. Rhianna sat beside her, watching with interest as the ship scanned for anything that it could recognize as being the Exodus.

"There," said Serena finally, pointing to a small holographic overlay that covered the planet in the viewport. A blue spot grew bright and blinked. "His ship is in orbit - geosynchronous over the northern continent. Looks to be only ruins, no nearby inhabitants." She flew closer to the medical ship, close enough to scan it with Gaoth's sensors. "No life forms on board."

She wiped away the holographic interface and set a course for the indicated area on the planet below, her heart thudding loudly in her chest.

[Rhianna]

It was not a disturbance, so much as it was a tangible tension that seemed to radiate from her normally so composed master. It was not really so much a lack of composure, Serena was as steadfast and capable as she always was, but beneath the surface she was still human. Human emotions were fallible. It was all in how you chose to act despite their influence, Rhianna thought. She could only conclude that her master's friend, Sol, meant a great deal to her.

"Then let us be about it. We will find him, Sámh." One way or the other. She did not say it, but the thought drifted unspoken through the air.

The northern continent. The location seemed to imprint itself in her mind. She could not say why, but the words to a Tincéir ballad about the North wind occupied her thoughts. Rhianna found herself softly humming, as they approached the unfamiliar planet, wondering if Serena knew the tune. It was one of wishes for favorable winds to blow to you what you wanted most. The Will of the Force be good, it would bring them luck.

[Serena Laran]

It did not take long to reach their destination; Gaoth agus Domhain, the Wind and Water, hovered on repulsors for a minute before she set it down nearby.

Serena sat for another minute in silence, reaching with the Force out beyond the freighter, out into the silent planet. She sat, her hands held loosely in her lap, her mind touching the trees outside that rustled in the breeze, the grasses that bent under the feet of the local fauna, the cold stones of a cathedral long since abandoned. Where are you, Sol...? I came... Please... His message to her had indicated he had found a path to walk in the Force beyond death. A way to become one with the Force as a spirit.

She reached and expanded and strained, and then Rhianna touched her arm lightly, bringing abruptly back into herself. Serena opened her eyes, and sighed. "I do not sense him. We should walk..."

[Rhianna]

"I agree." So far her master had not sensed the path to the one they were seeking, but Rhianna could not shake the feeling that they were on the right track of something. She did not sense immediate danger, but she found herself hurrying from her seat to retrieve her staff, sensing she was going to need it before the day was out.

Waiting for Serena to lead the way, Rhianna took in the surroundings, adjusting to the weighty feel of this planet. It seemed almost magnetic the way it pulled at her. She knew it was only the change in gravity, but she still felt... drawn and pushed at the same time. It would take a while to acclimate to this sensation.

[Serena Laran]

Serena stood at the end of the ramp, and then slowly stepped off, the weight of the planet settling on her shoulders. It was enough to make her feel heavier, almost as though she could take root in the soil if she stood still for too long.

"We should split up," she said softly, taking another few steps out into the world. "Keep in contact with me. There aren't many signals that could disrupt communication, but if you see or feel anything suspicious, call me immediately." Serena placed a hand on her padawan's shoulder. "I do not sense any darkness, but she could be cloaking herself. There is no need for you to try any heroics."

Rhianna nodded, and headed off in one direction (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22695). Serena faced another, and started walking.

[Rev Solomon]

The Cathedral of Stars lay scarred and smoldering in the wake of the cataclysmic duel (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22060) it had witnessed. Its massive, iron-banded front doors had been wrenched from their hinges and tossed aside. The stately rows of wooden pews inside had been decimated, the flagstone floor gouged and cratered, the ornamented altar split down the middle and lying in two huge, crooked slabs, the figures of saints and angels scattered in fragments across the dais. Elsewhere the stonework was scored by plasma and lightning, and shards of stained glass gleamed like crystals in the passing sunlight that fell in hatches through gashes in the roof. The entire east wing of the sanctuary was obliterated, buried when the bell tower had collapsed in on itself in a heap of stone and mortar.

The mountain wind played a sepulchral tune through the broken body of the cathedral, which would join the countless ruins that littered the surface of Generis as another forgotten relic to be slowly reclaimed by the creeping forests.

But its story wasn't over yet. The Force was still alive and active, swirling in turbulent eddies of light and dark, the aftershocks of the conflict that had reached a shatterpoint only days ago. If one had the ears to listen, one could almost still hear the hiss of and crackle of blade on blade, the shriek of lightning, the roar of telekinetic fury scouring through the broken walls. Nothing living had ventured into the battle zone.

But something still moved through the cathedral, waiting, and watching.

[Serena Laran]

Serena walked up a slight incline, still casting about with the Force for a familiar presence, or a stir of life. Anything to indicate she was on the right track.

All she could come up with was a feeling that she was headed in the right direction. She followed the feeling until she came upon a stone cathedral which certainly looked like Something had happened there. The closer she got the greater her certainty that she was in the right place.

Serena touched a large door which was laying out in front of the building, it's hinges bent and twisted. No natural disaster had -

Two figures battled, the doors bursting off the cathedral as lightsabers clashed.

She shook her head slowly, pushing the vision away as she removed her hand from the iron banded door. "Sol," she whispered, and then she walked forward and stepped over the threshold of the cathedral.

[Rev Solomon]

The sanctuary was in ruins. The wooden pews lay in jagged shards like a nexu's lair full of splintered bones amid piles of fallen masonry. The floor was marked with craters where flagstones had been pulled up or pulverized, and the tattered rags of tapestries fluttered in the mountain breeze like the banners of a vanquished army left to rot in a battlefield grave.

At the fore of the sanctuary lay the shattered altar with its solemn saints and angels, and beside it, in a pool of blinding sunlight, a high-backed chair stood covered in dust, and in the chair was a tall figure bent over an open book on his knee, his lips moving silently.

He turned his head, saw the visitor, and rose to his feet with joy in his eyes. "Serena!"

[Serena Laran]

Her heart leapt at the sight of Sol, and she broke into a run, crossing the length of the battered sanctuary in a few seconds. She slowed as she neared him, her heart thumping while her brain processed everything the Force was telling her. Something was not right.

"I got your message," she said, drawing up just short and resisting the urge to reach out to him. "I came as quickly as I could."

[Rev Solomon]

"I know," Solomon replied. "I know you did."

He stepped forward out of the beam of light, but the brightness didn't leave him altogether. It faded, slowly, into a pale, ghostly shade of blue.

[Serena Laran]

She stared at him, confused, but the joy she'd felt upon seeing him started to curdle in her heart. Serena took a step back, away from him.

"I don't understand..."

[Rev Solomon]

The confusion in her eyes was nearly enough to break his heart. He turned up both hands and gestured to himself in a manner of apology.

"Knight Hicchoru revealed to us that the Masters of old had learned how to manifest themselves from..."

Solomon swallowed before he continued. Old habit. He didn't exactly have a throat to wet.

"To manifest themselves from beyond the grave. I saw them myself, aboard the Whaladon. Master Yoda, Master Kenobi, Master Jinn. Even Anakin and Luke Skywalker. And you know me. I've always been a quick study."

[Serena Laran]

The hope she'd allowed herself to feel that had flamed into life at the sight of him, despite his message, now sputtered out and died. Her legs gave out, and she crumpled to her knees in front of him.

"I did not truly believe him," she admitted, her voice raw. She didn't attempt to get up, but sat there on the shattered floor.

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon stepped forward and slowly lowered himself to sit on the remnants of the altar steps, reflecting Serena's sorrow in his pale eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry to bring you here to find nothing but a tomb. I'm sorry to leave you when we had just found one another again."

There were words to say now. Words from the wisdom of the Jedi as well as the pages of the Book of the Faith. That death was another kind of birth. That all life found unity in the Force. But as a preacher, and as a lover, he knew better than to say them. Grief must have its place.

"Did the Council receive my message?"

[Serena Laran]

She nodded mutely, her eyes on his. After a moment she managed to speak.

"We are taking action to protect ourselves from the threat." The threat. Loklorien s'Ilancy, a Sith. Her first friend since coming out of exile had murdered... had murdered...

The tears came, and she buried her face in her hands, all sense of propriety gone as she sobbed quietly.

[Rev Solomon]

Every instinct Solomon had told him to go to her, to hold her, to offer her the comfort of another sentient being who shares in all the pains and injustices of life. He thought back to Loki poking an inquisitive finger through Master Yoda's forehead - he didn't rightly know what would happen if he touched her, but he felt compelled to try.

"Serena--"

He rose from the steps and reached out with his right arm, but something intervened. His breath caught, and he stumbled, grasping his arm at the elbow as if stricken by an old wound.

[Serena Laran]

She looked up at her name, her cheeks wet, and her breath caught in her throat as he reacted to some unknown pain. "Sol -"

[Rev Solomon]

He looked down at the arm hanging dead at his side, brow creased in confusion. His other hand traced a straight line just above the elbow.

"I lost this arm," he said. "Darth Acera's saber gauntlet took it off clean. But why..."

He tried to flex the stricken arm and gasped in pain.

[Serena Laran]

She pushed up to her feet, a measure of calm overtaking the emotion she'd given into as she focused. "The dead do not feel pain," she said.

Serena walked toward him and then around him, casting about with the Force and learning all it would tell her about her environment.

[Rev Solomon]

"I couldn't tell you. I've never been dead before."

Solomon followed her progress around the sanctuary, probing as he could with what sense he had left. This manner of being was unfamiliar to him, and not at all as he expected. He didn't feel like he was communing with the eternal Force, but until now he hadn't really questioned it.

"What are you looking for?"

[Serena Laran]

"I don't know," she said honestly.

She climbed over a tumbled section of roof that had fallen to the floor, years or days ago she didn't know, and carefully let herself down the other side. There was something...

"Sol," she said, her voice breaking again and making her pause to collect herself. "Your arm..."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon rubbed around the joint of his elbow. "It's all right, it doesn't feel so bad now," he said. And then he looked up to see where Serena was looking.

He stepped up behind her and saw it lying in a mess of shingles and broken mortar where it had fallen through the roof, gray and lifeless. "Oh."

Solomon settled back, hands on his hips. Such a thing didn't really interest him anymore.

"Any chance you could find my lightsaber?"

[Serena Laran]

She stared at him, his ghost, incredulously. Kneeling down she touched the cold limb, forcing herself to examine the stump. Cauterized and cut cleanly, it was definitely severed by a lightsaber blade. Judging by the odor and mobility, it had been a few days lying on the ground in the cool cathedral. Rigor mortis had had time to set in and then loosen.

"Find it yourself," she said finally. "You are the one connected to the Force in a way I could never ... never imagine." Serena stood up, his arm held carefully in her hands as she crossed to a pew and laid it on the dusty seat.

[Rev Solomon]

"I'm not so sure that I am," Solomon replied. He could see the question in her eyes, and he found himself stumbling for answers. He spread his hands and looked down at his ghostly form.

"I don't even know what I can rightly call myself. A ghost? A spirit? According to scripture, I should be facing the Judgment now. By the wisdom of the Jedi, I should have faded into the Unifying Force. This goes against all the teachings of the old Order. A Jedi is not to form such attachments to the material world."

[Serena Laran]

She still wasn't sure what to make of the religion that Sol had embraced in the years since they'd seen each other, and to be honest their time together since had been much too brief for a conversation that was long overdue. She found herself feeling frustrated and irritated with his existential crisis while she was trying to find. His. Dead. Body.

Serena took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth for two more breaths until she was calm again. "It is my understanding that no one knows for sure what happens after death. By the law of conservation of energy a person's spirit must go back into the Unifying Force, into the universe from where we all came. Judgement... Life after death... Being absorbed into the Force... It is all taken on faith."

She turned from her search to look at Sol as he stood there, glowing blue. "Anbira brought such tales that I assumed him quite insane, but the testimony of others, including yourself, that you had seen and talked to the spirits of those many years dead..." Serena shook her head. "It does not require faith to believe what you have seen. You saw Master Yoda. I see you now. The old Order," she paused, the coming admission was painful, "was mistaken on many issues. Our rules against attachment...

"You know that we broke that rule ourselves, many years ago." Her voice was a whisper.

[Rev Solomon]

"So we did," Solomon agreed. "And I've never regretted it. Not even now."

Against his better judgment he crossed toward her, making no sound against the ruined cathedral floor, and slowly raised a hand as if to cup her cheek. But something stopped him, a sensation he couldn't quite categorize, and drew his eyes down toward the satchel tied around Serena's waist.

"You didn't come here to bury the dead. You have something with you."

[Serena Laran]

Her hand dropped to the leather pouch on her belt almost guiltily, the crystals within vibrating through the Force as she thought about them. "I thought perhaps... if you were..." He was so close to her, yet so very far away.

Serena untied the pouch and dipped her hand in, withdrawing some of the contents. "The Healing Crystals of Fire (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?22025-The-Gift-%28Serena%29), once thought lost forever." Just as I thought of you, once.

[Rev Solomon]

"You brought them here for me?"

Solomon's spirit stared at the adamantine shards in Serena's hand, glowing with an internal fire, almost painfully bright for his incorporeal eyes. Part of him rebelled at the idea that she had taken this priceless treasure away from the Wheel, where surely they could do more good. Another part swelled with pride that she had gone to such extreme lengths to save him. And a third part mourned that her efforts would be futile.

"Thank you, Serena. I only wish--"

His left hand had moved to close her fingers over the glowing crystals, but when their flickering light hit his ghostly flesh, he gasped and fell to one knee. The index and small fingers of his left hand crumbled away.

"I was just somewhere else," he said. "I was... lying on a slab of stone, looking up at at a ceiling of crystal. There was water reflecting off the ceiling."

[Serena Laran]

She snatched her hand and the crystals away from him as he stumbled, and carefully replaced them into the pouch as she joined him on his knees. Serena searched his eyes, and then dropped her gaze to his hand, or what was left of it. "This place, is it familiar to you? A... tomb, perhaps?" Her voice trembled despite her efforts to calm it.

She looked up. "I am not ready to say good-bye, Sol. I brought the crystals because if... if you were - are - still alive, then I will do all I can to help you."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon winced as he inspected his hand, maimed just as it was when he'd closed it over the end of Darth Acera's saber gauntlet. The pain he'd felt was receding, and he couldn't say if it was merely a memory or something more corporeal.

"I've seen places like it before," he said. "In the catacombs under the monastery here on Generis."

Shielding his eyes, he looked up to the ceiling, where sunlight fell freely through the broken roof. "The last thing I remember is falling from the roof. I don't remember hitting bottom."

There was a gouge in the far wall as well past the galleries of columns, where the masonry had collapsed and tumbled into the valley below. Solomon crossed toward it and leaned out over the gap where the base of the cathedral joined with the sheer cliff, which plunged down for hundreds of meters, until the swaying pines looked like moss on the mountainside.

[Serena Laran]

Serena followed him cautiously, taking care as she stepped through the rubble of the cathedral, and looked down the cliff. There is no grief, there is the Force. If his body had fallen all the way down the cliff there would be nothing but a gooey paste filled with shattered bones somewhere among the trees. Her stomach flip-flopped at the thought.

"Where is the monastery?"

[Rev Solomon]

"Almost fifty miles from here," Solomon replied. "But the catacombs run throughout these mountains. There are tens of thousands buried there."

He looked down into the vast gulf. "I thought this area was abandoned. That's why I chose it. But if I am buried down there, someone must have found me. Do you sense anything? I'm not sure my senses can be trusted."

[Serena Laran]

She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, exhaling softly. Sol was beside her, a bright Presence in the Force; familiar and yet unknown. Serena extended her senses with the Force, down the cliff face and into the valley.

It was a living, breathing forest, and the threat of rain was high, but ambient life was not what she was looking for. "There is someone in the valley. I... I do not think it is you."

She opened her eyes. "Do you happen to know a safer way down than falling?" She smiled faintly.

[Rev Solomon]

He did, but it was the long way around.

Solomon led Serena down a narrow path that hugged the border of the cliff. Sometimes it dissolved into steep slopes of gravel that could be slid down, and sometimes there were gaps that only a mountain goat or a Jedi could safely attempt to cross. After a tense descent of about a hundred meters, the ground leveled to a degree that could support trees, and progress became more of a hike and less of a climb. The pine forest was bright with life - blue-shouldered blackbirds flitted from branch to branch marking their territory with song, and shy, slender deer loped between the trees.

The ghost that was Solomon kept pace with Serena, but when they passed through a beam of direct sunlight he nearly disappeared in the glare. His feet moved but made no sound on the carpet of pine needles.

"Serena, there are things I learned in my duel with Darth Acera that the Council must hear. I may not be fit to tell them myself."

[Serena Laran]

Looking over her shoulder Serena saw thunderheads boiling up to the sky beyond the cliff and shattered cathedral, in contrast to the sunlight filtering through the trees. Concern for Rhianna creased her brow, but Sol's words were another blow to her heart. She turned to him, dappled light confusing the outline of his body, and nodded.

"Tell me of Loklorien." The life she had sensed from the top of the cliff was still ahead of them, and stationary.

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon took no notice of the clouds. He had seen enough storms for a hundred lifetimes.

"It is worse than I feared," he said. "She has committed herself fully to her master's teachings. In return he has promised to help her restore the Lupine people to glory, and to grant her immortality so she can witness their rise to power."

[Serena Laran]

"I will tell the Council," Serena said softly. She turned away from him, biting her lip. "She was the first Jedi I made contact with after my exile." What more could she say but that?

She walked on, soft boots quiet on the plant life as she continued toward the life sign ahead of them.

[Rev Solomon]

"She was the first for me, too."

There was more. It pained him to think on it, even from beyond the grave, but all accounts needed reckoning.

"The younglings and padawans we've lost... she admitted... no. She boasted that she had murdered them. Merran Threl. Lucentia Pavan. Zyani Astaroth. And others."

He could not look at Serena. Could not bear to see the news reflected on her face. Many of those children, she knew, were among those he had personally brought to the Wheel, or those he sought to bring - lambs snatched out of the fold by a wolf among the shepherds.

"I had wondered how she could have become so strong in the Dark Side so quickly. She has walked the path that Vader walked before her."

[Serena Laran]

Each name was a stab in her heart; she stumbled but managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. They were very close now. Lok's master had been Mace Windu, famed for dancing on the edge of the darkside, and she had learned his lessons well...but apparently not well enough. Serena couldn't imagine how she had lived among them, one face to the world and in the darkness a murderer of children. How had she not seen Lok's true self?

She should have known somehow. Should have seen it - prevented it. Serena's heart beat faster as she kept walking, as though a momentary hesitation would bring her to her knees. It well might, and she feared she would not have the strength to get up again.

Movement in the leaves before her; someone moving away. She called out, "Please wait -!" and her voice cracked, and Serena finally stood still, her feet solid on the forest floor as though she herself were taking root. There is no passion, there is serenity. In that long still moment she steadied her soul, soaking in the Force and letting it flow through her and the planet around her and for a brief moment she was still.

She was still there.

[Rev Solomon]

Again Solomon longed to be able to touch her, to comfort her, and this time he could not resist the urge to try. He moved behind her, reached for her shoulder with his right hand -

It crumbled before he reached her. His arm continued to dissolve up to his elbow, and he could feel the sharp sting of the lightsaber blade hewing it away. He looked to Serena, her eyes still closed in meditation. She had not seen his affliction.

The wind plunged down from the mountaintop, tossing the trees above and stirring the pine needles at their feet, and bringing with it the heavy smell of rain. Solomon straightened up and looked past Serena to where a stranger had stood just a moment ago.

"I know that man," he murmured, and he stepped around Serena, through the trees and out of sight.

[Serena Laran]

The wind swept around her, flyaway hairs from her braid whipping into her face while her skirts billowed. Serena opened her eyes, smoothing her dress down. The air promised rain, and she looked around. Sol was nowhere to be seen. Another gust of wind followed the first, and she gathered her skirts in her hands, walking on toward where she felt the life force, the weather doing it's best to propel her forward.

The branches waved around her, and she ducked between two trees to emerge in a small clearing. A small wooden shack occupied most of the space, the roof covered in peeling tarpaper, and a cloudy window staring out at her. Serena walked around it to find the door. "Hello? I am looking for... for a friend of mine."

[Brother Jan]

Serena's challenge was met with several seconds of silence, and then the timbers of the shack creaked as someone moved about inside. The latch on the door rattled free, and in the doorway appeared a pitted, weatherbeaten face, tanned from long exposure to the sun. The man himself was not tall, but solidly built, poised and powerful despite his advanced age, as if he'd been born for action. In fact, as Serena knew very well, he had been.

"A friend?" he repeated, with an accent that wasn't common to Generis. His keen, dark eyes darted across Serena's robes, and the lightsaber clipped to her belt, and he put his hand against the doorframe, barring her entry. "You're not likely to find 'im here. There's no one else for miles."

[Serena Laran]

Serena blinked at the unexpected familiarity of the man's face, and paused. "My friend used to live with the monks here." Thunder rolled overhead and she pulled the hood of her dress up, her loose braid draping over her shoulder. "I ...I'm try-" The clouds opened up, and big fat drops of rain filled the air, the sudden sound drowning her words as they splashed down into the carpet of pine needles.

"He means a lot to me," she continued, water dripping off her hood, her overdress getting soaked. She'd left her Jedi cloak on her ship. "He may be dead?"

[Brother Jan]

The man appeared to be in a battle with himself over the sight of her soaking in the rain. But when another peal of thunder crashed over the mountains, he stepped back from the doorframe. "You may as well get in out of the rain."

It was dark inside the small shack, but he lit an ancient kerosene lantern, illuminating a space filled with the clutter of an uncomplicated life. The walls were lined with pegs holding tools for woodworking, gardening, and cooking; a table with a small stool stood in one corner stacked with books and writing utensils; the ceiling sagged with nets full of vegetables; shelves around the ceiling held various dried goods that might make a bland meal more palatable. The only other furniture was a military cot and a metal cabinet holding a hotplate, on which a kettle was beginning to steam.

The man closed the door and motioned Serena toward the stool as he tended to the kettle. "Your friend. What's he like?"

[Serena Laran]

She stepped over the threshold gratefully, letting her hood drop. The interior of the hut felt like home, down to the smell of the onions and potatoes hanging from the ceiling, and she felt her soul start to relax. Serena took the offered seat, folding her hands in her lap but arranging her skirts so her lightsaber was within easy reach.

"He is a good man," she answered. "A Jedi Knight of the Republic." Serena watched the old clone carefully.

[Brother Jan]

"There aren't many of those left."

The kettle began to sing, and he switched off the heat and reached into the metal cabinet to produce two old ceramic teacups. He poured a measure hot water into each and dropped in a pair of sachets of dried red tea. The scent of cinnamon began to spread through the small shack.

"The last I saw a Jedi was in a battle," the clone said, sitting down on the cot. Then he pointed through the wall and up. "On the mountaintop, a few days ago. A Jedi came there, and a woman came to meet him."

He nodded down toward the weapon dangling from Serena's belt. "A woman with a lightsaber."

[Serena Laran]

Serena looked down at her hands, taking a calming breath. "I know her also. Knew her. I ..." She looked up, her eyes wet despite her efforts. "I need to find Sol. I feel that he needs my help, and that you can help me find his body."

[Brother Jan]

Again the clone appeared conflicted over how far to let a stranger into his confidence. He looked down at the teacups on the edge of the cabinet and watched them steep.

"I knew the man as Solomon," he said at last. "A strong brother in the Faith. A week ago, I saw a ship land over the church on the mountaintop. Went up to find him praying in the sanctuary. He said he was waiting for a friend who had lost her way. For the next three days, I brought him food and water, asked him if she'd come yet. He said no, that I'd know it when she did.

"On the night of the third day I was woke up by the storm, and I heard sounds up the mountain I en't heard since the War. Hissing sabers and crumbling stone, lightning that lit up the sky like daylight. The two of 'em demolished the church around 'em, and only one ship left the top of the mountain."

He took one of the steaming cups and passed it to Serena. "So you see why I hesitate to take another Jedi to see 'im."

[Serena Laran]

"I understand," she said, accepting the cup and letting it warm her hands. The tea smelled good. "The one who met him is no Jedi. She is a darksider, twisted by her beliefs to do evil." Serena took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Calm. "I feel it is urgent that I see Solomon," she repeated, her voice a little more tense than she preferred, and she paused, gathering herself.

"Apologies, I fear I have been rude. I am Serena Laran, a Jedi Knight, you are correct in assuming that. I knew Sol during the Clone Wars. If you cannot help me I will continue my search alone." She got up from the stool, cup still in her hand, the tea untouched.

[Brother Jan]

The clone stood as well. "You'd be going the wrong way, then, Miss Laran."

He took a sip of his tea and set it aside on the cabinet. Then he turned and folded up his cot, bedding and all, and leaned it against the wall, and shoved aside a box of old clothing to reveal a trap door cunningly hidden in the floor. He pulled it up by a rusted steel ring, revealing a narrow wooden staircase descending into a dark pit. Cool, damp air rose out of the entrance.

He took the kerosene lantern in hand and held it over the pit, illuminating stone walls slick with runoff from the rain outside. "I'm called Jan, brother of the Faith. He said you might be comin', but I had to be sure."

[Serena Laran]

She nearly sagged with relief as Jan spoke, but she managed to keep it as an internal reaction. "Thank you," Serena replied sincerely. She couldn't help but look around as if Solomon's Force impression was in the room with them, but he was nowhere to be seen. She adjusted her satchel carefully, one hand on it at all times as she followed Jan down into the dank tunnel. The lantern cast crazy shadows on the walls, a natural formation which forced the traveler to pay attention to where they were putting their feet.

Serena opened herself fully to the Force, an instinctual map of the catacombs beginning to form in her mind. A cavern with crystals in the ceiling and water... she couldn't find Sol's presence or get a sense of the surroundings he'd described.

[Brother Jan]

The narrow passageway continued on for another hundred yards or so before it fed into a larger tunnel, broad enough for two to walk abreast. Here and there the uneven walls were pitted with alcoves and shelves, many of them containing shards of what looked like aged pottery, or perhaps bone. Others held miniature urns of unassuming earthenware, and a few others held skulls in various states of decay.

"These catacombs date back to the days of the Rakatan Infinite Empire," Jan said. "Political and religious dissidents would hide here, store food and supplies, and bury their dead. There are tens of thousands of people buried in the mountains, including brothers and sister of the Faith."

They passed by an opening that seemed to glow with a pale blue light. The clone paused to shine his light into the aperture to reveal a small chamber like a mausoleum. There was a pool of water that covers most of the floor a little more than knee-deep, fed by a spring that issued from a crack in the wall; the glow came from patches of luminescent algae that clung to the bottom of the pool, casting shimmering patterns of light on the crystalline ceiling. On a stone slab submerged in the water was the ancient figure of a man in brown rags with a long white beard and a bald head. His liver-spotted skin was pale and taut, as if it had shrunk over his bones, but there was not a hint of decay nor stench of death about him.

"There are microbes living in the water that feed on disease and discourage decay," Jan explained. "In the living they can induce a state of hibernation. In the dead they serve as natural embalming agents."

He turned away from the tomb of the old man and continued down the passageway. "What do you mean to do for Solomon?"

[Serena Laran]

The watery tomb was fascinating, and had the visit been under any other circumstances Serena would have wanted to study the microbes and the bodies, but at the moment all it did was make her feel nauseous. The thought of Sol drowned in death...

She blinked, and looked at Jan's back as they continued on. He'd asked her a question. "I intended to heal him, or recover his body. I have encountered his imprint in the living Force, talked to him. He told me he was dead." Serena's voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. "Then he said perhaps he was not dead after all. Do you have him in hibernation, or is his body embalmed in one of your pools, Brother Jan?" The not knowing felt like it would kill her.

[Brother Jan]

"He's in one of the pools," Jan said, "which is enough to keep in the state he was when I found him. If he's alive, he's on the very edge of it."

They came to a fork, and without slowing he took the left branch, which descended deeper into the mountain.

"Lightning struck the cathedral, and in the glare I could see something falling. I tracked its descent and found him lying in the forest. No broken bones, no open wounds, save for a gash in his neck and stumps where his arm and two fingers had been burned away. He had a thready pulse and shallow breath, but no light in his eyes, and I couldn't wake him. I treated his wounds as I could, but my skills are limited."

They passed by two more pools, but at the third, Jan stopped, stood by the opening, and pointed inside. It was much like the others they had seen, but the slab was built up at one end so that it supported the man's back and held his face secureily out of the surface of the water. His eyes were closed in such peaceful repose that he might have been asleep.

[Rev Solomon]

At the head of the slab, invisible to Jan, stood Solomon's spirit, looking down at his own supine form as if it were a puzzle that needed to be solved. He lifted his eyes as Serena entered.

"Well, that's one mystery solved."

[Serena Laran]

She nearly laughed with relief at the sight of him standing there, and quickly moved past the old clone to kneel beside the pool. Serena reached out and touched Sol's face, a thread of the Force telling her all she needed to know. His heart still beat, and his lungs drew breath. Slowly, but still. Life remained.

Serena loosened the laces at the front of her overdress and took off her belt, stepping out of the heavier cloth but leaving her shift on. Boots came next, and then she retrieved the Fire Crystals. They fit into her cupped hands, their radiance splashing faint orange light on the cave walls. She looked up at Sol's ghost, his imprint in the living Force, but said nothing, turning back to his actual body as she waded into the pool to kneel at his side. She rested the crystals on his chest, her hands covering them, and took a deep breath, opening herself further to the Force. Sensations flooded in, sharpened and enhanced, the warmth of the water as it lapped gently against her torso, the coolness of Sol's skin through his shirt, and the Force, the Force wove through it all, connecting her to him, and to the cave and Jan and the plants growing far overhead, even the storm was part of the Force, it's power crashing over the planet.

Serena reined in her gaze, focusing not on the macro, but the micro, the minute interactions between cells beneath her hands. She closed her eyes, delving into Sol's comatose body, weeping at the damage, but resolute as she repaired it.

[Rev Solomon]

The process took hours. Methodically, painstakingly, Serena chased every hurt down to the cellular level, binding membranes and synapses that had been shredded to ribbons by lightning, healing brain cells bruised by shock and hypoxia, even soothing the cauterized edges of the saber wounds on his hand and his arm. Where tissue was irretrievably damaged she cut the dead cells away, relieving their neighbors so they could breathe and begin to grow again, like embers freed from a pile of ash.

Brother Jan left her to her devices and returned an hour later with a tray bearing a glass of water and a cup of steaming broth, but when Serena did not acknowledge him he left the tray by the side of the pool and disappeared again. Overhead, the storm scoured the mountainside as if washing away all the day's sins.

It was nearing evening, and Serena, exhausted, lay across his chest, still hunting, still healing, when Solomon's eyes fluttered open. He saw the crystal ceiling as a pale blur above him, and he felt a steady weight resting across his chest, but above all he felt powerfully thirsty. He moved his eyes, which felt like boulders of dry stone, and saw a reddish smear that might have been a head of auburn hair. He moved his lips, but it was only on his third try that any sound came out.

"Seh... re... na."

[Serena Laran]

She stirred at the sound of his voice, slowly lifting her head. "Sol..."

Serena pressed her lips to his cheek, and then pulled away. "Don't try to move yet, I'll get you something to drink." She turned to the side of the pool and retrieved the bowl of broth, warming it gently with the Force. "Here, small sips." Serena put the bowl to his lips and he obediently drank.

She replaced the broth next to the water, and put both hands on his chest where the Crystals of Fire were glowing. "How do you feel?"

[Rev Solomon]

The broth was rich and heady on his parched tongue, so hard to swallow it almost seemed solid, but he got it down, and he felt its warmth sink deep inside of him and slowly spread to his core. His arms and his legs still felt worlds away. His vision was still a mess of indistinct colors, nothing to focus on.

"I feel," he croaked, and then he struggled to fill his lungs with another breath. Serena's hands moved across his chest, strengthening his heart, stirring the blood in his veins, teaching his lungs how to breathe again. The air itself was heavy, sharp, as if it were filled with razor blades, but he forced it down, filled every nook and cranny of his dry and shrunken lungs until they bloomed again with life, burning and painful. He breathed out like a great set of bellows, and just as quickly inhaled again, shuddering, just to make sure he could.

"I feel," he said again, and now some of the resonance had returned to his voice, "newly born."

[Serena Laran]

Serena smiled, and as she smiled she wept, tears rolling down her face. She was almost too tired to talk, but she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, her head pressed to his chest.

"Welcome back," she said huskily.

[Rev Solomon]

He breathed again for the sheer pleasure of breathing, and the air was full of Serena's fragrance, the smell of the rain and the forests of Generis, with something sweeter underneath. When he let his breath out again, it caught and spasmed in his lungs. It was trying something new now: laughter.

"You see how far I'll go to get your attention," he rasped.

Slowly, tremulously, he lifted his left arm from the water. He couldn't rightly feel his fingers until they carded through her hair.

"Thank you, Serena," he said. "Thank you for coming for me. I'm sorry... sorry it came to this."

[Serena Laran]

She brushed aside his apology with a shush, and studied his face. "Always, Sol. I will always come for you."

Serena put her hand on his cheek, smoothing the lines that age had placed there. Beneath the few extra pounds and added maturity, he was still Sol. Still hers. Wasn't he? She leaned closer to him, hesitated before her lips brushed his, and then she kissed him. Softly, testing to see if their feelings for each other from so long ago were still valid.

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon's vision had not yet cleared, and when Serena leaned over him he opened his mouth to ask what she was doing. And then he got his answer.

It was a breathless eternity before they parted. Even though Solomon could not see the questioning expression on Serena's face, he could feel hope and trepidation twisting up inside her, and it took him straight back to another waterlogged cave nearly thirty years ago where they had first broken their Jedi vows and discovered something new, something forbidden, something wondrous. And now, here, all things had been made new.

Carefully, laboriously, Solomon lifted himself from the slab where he lay, trailing water from his saturated clerical tunic, gripping Serena's hand for support. Then he unsteadily rose to his feet, nearly stumbled, like an eopie colt finding its legs for the first time, and stood towering over Serena. Slowly, steadily, he felt his strength returning to him.

And the first thing he did with it was to lean down, embrace her, and return her kiss with the passion of a long-lost lover.

[Serena Laran]

Her heart skipped a beat as he drew her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. They stood knee deep in the pool beside his death bed, steam rising from their wet clothes as they got lost in each other. Serena felt as though she might burst, her hands on either side of his face, fingers curling in his thick hair as they kissed. It was as though no time had passed - and as if she had been waiting her whole life for this moment.

She broke away first, almost apologetically. "You need to rest. And..." she blushed, "I have a padawan wandering this planet also. My comm does not get reception down here."

[Rev Solomon]

Above the surface, the storm blew away as quickly as it had appeared - such was the weather in the mountains, as changeable as the seas of Kamino. With Serena's help, Solomon emerged squinting into the sun, and he used her communicator to key in an automated landing sequence for the Exodus, which settled in the clearing beside Brother Jan's shack. There Serena laid Solomon out in one of the exam beds and didn't let him rise again until she had performed all the diagnostic examinations she could think to do with the medical shuttle's depleted supplies. But she had done her work well. Solomon was whole again, if a bit weak and in need of a good meal, with Jan provided in the form of a bowl of thick, hearty runyip stew.

"I suppose I'll have to get used to this for a while," Solomon remarked as he carefully lifted a steaming spoonful in his maimed left hand.

[Serena Laran]

She watched him eat, settling back into a caretaker role and leaving any messy feelings behind for the moment. It was easier that way. "You can be fitted with prosthetics almost immediately," she said. "In fact, the sooner the better, from an integration point of view."

Rhianna had made contact and said something about meeting a new friend. They were at the Gaoth, cleaning up after being caught in the thunderstorm. Serena got up and put away some of the equipment she'd used double checking that Solomon was doing all right.

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon ate slowly so as not to upset his stomach, which was still weak from hibernation. The stew, simple as it was, tasted as rich to him as a nine-course Twi'lekki dinner, and it deserved to be savored. He scraped some errant broth from his lips with the edge of his spoon as Serena's voice rousted him from the company of his own thoughts.

"I don't know if I'm ready for that yet," he murmured. "Actually, I feel I still haven't made sense of the whole thing."

His eyes grew distant, as if he were struggling to remember something from a dream or some other inaccessible realm of consciousness. Whatever he saw there troubled him.

"What happened between us... Loklorien and I... I don't believe it's over yet."

[Serena Laran]

Serena nodded. "Can it be over while she still rages with the dark side? We have a responsibility to the galaxy, Sol. After Palpatine, Order 66 - the Jedi are barely recovering and again someone rises up from right under our noses."

She shook her head, looking away, her long hair draped over her shoulder but hiding her face. Loklorien and Sol had a more extensive history together than she shared with him. She took a deep breath and gave the budding jealousy to the wind, allowing it to float away.

[Rev Solomon]

"I had hoped to bring her back," Solomon said. "As I was brought back. As Anakin Skywalker..."

His eyes lost their focus his faith and his doubts waged a war inside him. Sentiment was easy prey for the Dark Side, but hope remained his greatest defense against it. He refused to believe that Loklorien was gone forever.

"Anakin was redeemed because of the love of his son," he said. "I had hoped to remind Loklorien of her love for her daughter. But I've discovered there is another child as well. Loklorien is still carrying him. I couldn't... I couldn't strike her down while she carried an innocent life. I believe it is a sign, Serena. There is still good in her. But bringing it again out may cost her life."

He set his bowl of stew aside. He still felt weak, and it was too much for his system to absorb at once. "I have much to meditate on."

[Serena Laran]

She put a hand on his shoulder as she took the bowl of half finished stew from him. "And you will have time to do so on our way back to the Wheel."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon reached with his maimed hand to cover hers, and when he met her eyes, she could see the conflict storming inside him fade into clarity and resolve.

"Serena, I have seen the other side of death. I need more than a hyperspace flight to unpack that. And once we reach the Wheel, there will be too many questions... too many preparations for the battle to come. What I've experienced here... the visions I've seen... they'll be gone. Forgotten."

He squeezed her hand with what strength he had, his eyes pleading with her to understand.

"Somewhere in there is the key to bringing her back. And then there will be only one Sith to defeat. But to find it, I need solitude. Serenity. What I need is here."

[Serena Laran]

She wanted to argue, to make him see things from her point of view, but said nothing at all. If Loklorien could be salvaged from the creature the dark side had made her, then of course Sol should take the time and make the effort.

"You should do what you feel is best," Serena said quietly, squeezing his hand back gently. After a moment she released him, folding her hands into her sleeves. Was it always to be this, between them? A moment of passion, followed by a separation - either forced by the Order, or by other circumstances?

"I must return to the Wheel and the rest of the Jedi. As a council member I need to be there to guide them through this time of turmoil." She took a step back, hands reappearing to continue cleaning up the area, though there was little enough left to do.