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Chapter Seven Seven As
the two ships come to rest on the landing pad beyond the great walls of
Sanctuary, a small group of beings come to greet the arrivals. This is not a
joyous homecoming, but a returning home for those who have sacrificed greatly
for their movement. The tone is one of somber reflection and repose, and as the
being exit the ships, they are met with a dignified grace and a sharing of
grief. Each
one, meeting the others in the manner to which they are accustomed, one by one
they make their way towards the temple. However, there is a single figure left
standing on the platform, waiting silently for the last member of the party to
depart the craft. Soon, manning the controls of a hoversled, the figure of a man
can be seen as he comes out in advance of the two-man fighter he is pulling from
the hold of the freighter. Once his task is complete and he sends the hoversled
back into the hold of the ship, she approaches the man. At
first, he appears not to notice her presence, but as she nears him, he turns to
find her arms outstretched to him. He first hangs his head, slumping his
shoulders as though not sure of this gesture, but then, in an instant he falls
into her embrace and buries his head into her bosom as he begins to weep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The
grand hall of Sanctuary is once again filled to capacity with mystic beings from
across the galaxy. However, today is not a time of joyous celebration, but one
of solemn reflection and a time of deep gratitude. Today, they bear witness to
the sacrifice of a few of their members: the ultimate sacrifice. They have each
been shaken to their very foundations to learn that a practitioner of the dark
arts was able to overthrow an entire world and dispatch from this realm several
of their numbers. The galaxy itself was still reeling from this news, even
though they will never know the full extent of the evil that was allowed to grow
among them. Today
is not only about a ceremony to honor the fallen, but a chance to renew their
beliefs in the tenents of their newly formed order. It has become fatally
apparent to them all that they can no longer hide behind the wall of Sanctuary
and allow such evil to flourish. No, they must strike out, spread out, and act
as a beacon of hope to all that peace can be accomplished, when there are those
willing to sacrifice for its sake. At
the center of the grand hall are the only remains of the fallen, and as the
final words are spoken by the aged man on the dais and pair of young people
enter the floor bearing blazing torches. With grace and solemnity they lay down
their torches upon the edges of the pyre holding the remains of the fallen,
setting the entire pyre instantly
ablaze in a glory of fire. As the flames engulf the items, the crowd falls
completely silent in reverence for their sacrifices and for the grief of their
loved ones; their masters and their families. Standing
with her own family, Xana Tryashoenu is mesmerized by the dazzling glow and
leaping flames of the pyre. Soon, she looks away from the pyre and begins to
look around to see the affect all of this has taken on the inhabitants of
Sanctuary. And when she has seen the sincere grief in their eyes, she looks
onward, seeking out another face: a face in which she takes great comfort.
Finding the group of people with whom he should be residing, she finds him
missing. She then turns the other way, to find the family of her greatest
friend, but she does not find him there either. At
first saddened by his absence at this most somber occasion, another thought
enters her head. She then leans over to place a hand upon her grandmother’s
shoulder, looking into her eyes for her permission to depart. When she finds it
there, she bows her head to the matriarch of her family and exits the balcony in
search of the missing man. Walking
down a darkened corridor, her way is lighted only by the occasional glimpse of
light from behind a curtain. The breeze wafting in through the curtains parts
them to reveal the light, but the glimpses are short and they only act as a
distraction while she makes her way down the empty corridor. She is the only one
not at the ceremony, her and the man she seeks. After
a long journey to the outermost corridor of the western wing of Sanctuary she
can feel the deep pain of the man she seeks, long before she comes to the place
in which he has chosen to hide. When she reaches his hiding place, she takes a
deep cleansing breath before pulling back the dark, heavy drape. She closes her
eyes before stepping out onto the balcony, expecting to be blinded by the stark
sunlight usually found there, she is surprised to find an eerie almost darkened
pre-dawn sky. It is then that she remembers the dawn has yet to come. Sitting
on the edge of the balcony, she finds the man she been searching for this day.
His shoulders slumped over and his head hung low, she knows that his grief
weighs heavy on his soul. Cautiously, she makes her way closer to his side. Upon
reaching the edge of the balcony she touches her hand to his, gently. “Is
there anything I can do?” She asks him with as much serenity as she can muster
in voice, hoping to give him some relief from his pain. He
simply shakes his head, but does not speak. Deciding this is not going to be the
end of their discussion, she presses onward, “I hope you are not planning to
jump.” He
only shakes his head once more. Having
reached her wits end, Xana finally comes to the conclusion that she is going to
speak her mind this time, once and for all. She simply cannot watch the man she
loves grieve himself into a stupor any longer. “Well, I suppose if you shall
not speak, then you shall listen… Jae, I will not stand for this any longer.
Grief is an appropriate emotion, but so is healing. If Meesahran was standing
here instead of me, she’d probably try to push you off the edge to put you out
of her misery, but I cannot do that.” She takes a breath when she realizes
from his mood change that he is listening to her. “Jae-Lee Reklaw, you simply
cannot continue on this path. If you do, you would be destroying not only
everything that have stood for your entire life, but everything that Meesahran
sacrificed for us all! How could you live with that?” Without
looking at her or even moving, he quietly begins to speak, “I couldn’t… I
couldn’t go in there and say goodbye… She’s not gone… Not to me, not
really.” Not
able to bear this distance between them, Xana carefully holds her dress and hops
up onto the wall, facing him as best she can. “Jae, what do you mean?” He
finally stirs from his stoic pose and looks into her eyes as he pulls out a
chain from inside his coat pocket, holding it in his outstretching palm.
Puzzled, she looks into his hand, finding two rings on the golden chain. Perhaps
it is her eyes playing tricks on her, but the bands appear to be glowing, almost
pulsing. “At first, it was just one of them, the larger one, but last night,
the other one started too.” Frightened
by his admission, Xana looks into his eyes, hoping to find an answer. When what
she finds there is almost as frightening, she searches her mind for an answer,
digging deeply into her studies of ancient culture to solve this mystery, she
finds her answer there, and it too is foreboding. “They look almost like
binding rings… Where did you get them?” Looking
away from Xana for a moment, not willing to speak directly to her eyes, he
answers softly, “They were Mees’, well, her parents’ at least… At least,
that’s what I thought.” His
words cause her more uncertainty, and she flips through the bits of data
surrounding Corellian binding rings stored in her mind. “Okay, that explains
the Corellsi inscriptions, but that pulsing, I am not sure-…” Cutting
her off, Jae tries to explain from his limited knowledge, “My father told me,
there was a legend that some ancient mystics from Corellia could fire metal
jewelry a certain way as to trap inside of it the hearts of those that bore
them.” He pauses, the words trying to catch in his throat, “But that when
they were binding rings, they would carry the heart of the one they were bound
to. And-…” Again his words are like razors in his throat. Xana,
sensing his extreme discomfort in relaying this tale, reaches out to him and
caresses his cheek. Renewed by her touch, he continues, “And when one fell,
the other’s ring would beat with their heart.” Once again, tears were
filling Jae-Lee’s eyes, tears that had been waiting for many, many years, and
now that the flood gates had been lifted, he did not seem able to stop them
again. Knowing
that he believes this ancient fable to have been a truth, a truth about
Meesahran’s people, she tries to fill in the blanks of his tale. “So, you
believe they are beating with the hearts of her parents’?” Looking
down from her gaze once more and wiping away the tears, he shakes his head more
a bit more vigor this time, “NO! Only one was pulsing when they fell from her
jacket when she died… Only one!” Xana
struggles to decipher what he has deduced from this phenomenon, but keeps
drawing a blank. “Do you think one of her parents is still alive, then?” Jae,
unable to contain his grief and anger any longer, shouts back at her, “NO!!!
They’re both dead, Xana! They’ve both left me here!” Xana
wraps her arms around his neck and hugs his head to her chest, “Shhhh, Jae,
please. You never knew her parents, how could they have left you?” Sobbing
now, Jae’s words are more like stifled cries, but he still continues, “Not
her parents… Vic is gone too… They’ve left me alone… My only friends…
My life…” The impact of his words thrust upon her consciousness like the
crushing waves of the Chandrillan seas during a monsoon. She searches
desperately inside her own heart, her own mind to answer these horrible
questions, but finds nothing there but shock and despair. Her closest friend,
unable to share with her such a deep secret shakes her to the very core. Sensing
that Jae is feeling much the same way, yet ripe with grief and confusion, more
than she could ever feel, she just hugs him to her and they gently rock in
unison. In
his life, Jae-Lee Reklaw has trusted so few, until very recently in his life.
And now, they are both gone. Both having sacrificed themselves to make a better
universe for him and many others. Both having left him without his touchstones,
without their bond to him, without their companionship, and without his past.
They were the foundations of his past, and without them, he no longer had a path
back to those days. Where was he to plant himself now? His foundations fading
away into the ozone, he feels completely ungrounded… Except…
Except for Xana. If it were not for the woman rocking him in a rhythmic
motion at this very moment, he feels as though he could simply fade away
himself. As
he makes this revelation, he once again feels a strange glow coming over him.
Before another moment passes, he instantly realizes that the truth, the answers,
had been blindingly staring him the face for days. Smiling, for the first time
since the death of his dearest friend, Jae-Lee Reklaw begins to feel a sense of
peace again. He is free from the past, from the bonds of guilt, of shame, of
duty and of debt. He is free to live his life without the shackles those things
had been to him, that his past had been to him. He was free to be the man that
each of those that had sacrificed for him had known he could someday be. Each of
those sacrifices had made him the man he is at this moment: the man that could
be a friend to seemingly heartless assassin, the man that could devote his life
to the memory of his father, the man that could see past the defenses of an
infuriating young girl to make her the greatest friend he ever had, the man that
could be loved by such a gentle and caring person as the woman who now hold him
to her breast, the man who could treasure those that gave to him all that they
had, while never forgetting to live his life to the fullest in their honor. As
the warmth of these revelations fill his soul Jae-Lee Reklaw’s sobbing ends
and the tears cease to fall. He grabs hold of this delicate creature, who has
comforted him like no other and spins her into the air as he plants his feet
firmly onto the floor of the balcony once more. Surprised by his sudden change,
Xana looks into his eyes with amazed astonishment, searching for some clue as to
this sudden turn of events, when he begins to laugh. Not just any laugh, but a
deep laugh, coming all the way from his toes. Stooping down, he takes her knees
into his arms and spins her around and around, until the air has dried the tears
from her eyes as well, all the while laughing. His laughter becomes infectious,
and soon Xana is joining him in his mirth. When he places her gently back on her
feet, she cannot bear the suspense any longer, and asks him, “Have you finally
lost your mind?” Still
laughing, he takes her into his arms and holds her close, “No! I have finally
found it!” He lays a gentle kiss upon her forehead before he continues.
“Xana, I was right… Well, partly right, just or the wrong reasons.” Her
puzzled expression causes him to wrinkle his nose at her, and wrap her up in
another embrace before continuing, “Mees isn’t gone… No one is… They are
always with us, in the Force.” Holding her back, so that he can look into her
eyes and see if she is understanding him. Not finding that spark of
understanding, he continues, “See, the Force is in all of us, and all of us in
the Force, just like Master Mussiri keeps telling us, but I never got it until
now. It’s like this, everything I have done, and everything everyone has done,
is what I am today. If my father had not taken me from this place, I might never
have truly appreciated, and might have even grown to hate what it stood for to
my parents. If Mees hadn’t had to go through the terrible things she was
forced to endure, you might never have become her dear friend. If your mother
hadn’t been killed on Chandrila, you’d have never been with your brother to
have met Mees in the first place. All of those terrible things, though terrible,
were what brought us here, right now at this very moment.” “Nooooo…
Sacrifice is what allows us to become what we can be. What we are is much more
complicated than that. We are choices, events, circumstances, environments,
lineage, culture, and… Xana, we are the Force.” His last words pierce
through her brain like a bullet through a pane of glass, shattering all of her
preconceived notions of life and philosophy into those simple words: We are the
Force. Seeing
that his discovery has reached her by her trembling, Jae simply wraps his arms
around her and waits for the weight of those thoughts to sink in and her
trembling to cease. When she does become still, she looks up into his crystal
blue eyes, dancing with a sudden light, “Jae, it’s just so…” Smiling
down at her with that dazzling glow of his, “I know, it’s a lot to take in,
but we have the rest of our lives, Xana. Just take your time.” She
smiles back at him and she can feel his heart warming to her smile, but she can
feel another warmth as well: the warmth of the rising sun. She turns to face the
source of the warmth and finds the dawn fast approaching them on the balcony.
They both turn, looking out onto the dawn, and Jae breaks the silence for only a
moment, “I’ve been told the dawns from this balcony are simply amazing.” Xana
nods her head, knowing where he got his information, she just stands closer to
him, reaching her arm around his waist for support. As
the sun continues to climb in the sky, slowly they are transformed and engulfed
by its dawning light.
THE END!
Creator: PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
*SPECIAL NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the rest of the story will be written by PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
©2004 Rocky
Mountain Fan Force |