Chapter Twenty-four Aura stepped into the Outer World from the portal on the Other Side, immediately and keenly aware of the proximity of her Knight. Forcing him out of her perception for the moment, she crouched unseen beside the inert forms of the Princess and her handsome Prince. Reaching for them, she placed a hand upon the brow of each and closed her eyes, tuning out the battle that raged before her. Silently she projected her healing powers into the heroes of her adolescence, pouring into them a measure of her life energy, and recalling theirs from dark dormancy. Barely discernible, the Sense of the Prince stirred, the beating of his heart steadily increasing in rhythm, igniting an instantaneous recognition from deep within the Princess. Aura sat back on her heels, keeping watch over her slowly recovering patients, while trying desperately to project her own Strength unto her Knight, now in mortal danger himself from the fearsome, yellow-eyed beast of her childhood nightmares. But she was no longer a child, Aura realized with a strange mixture of trepidation and resignation; the Beast had now come to life, and deep within her, Aura knew that this Beast was a reality she must confront, now on this forest moon - at the side of her Jedi. With a final mental check on her patients to be assured of their gradual recovery, Aura rose to her feet, took the first step toward Darkness and shouted with Sense and voice: "Hold!" Three heads, three Senses turned in the direction of the Tree. Luke drew a quick, startled breath at the sight of the flaxen-haired beauty approaching them, seeming to glide across the forest floor in her soft, homespun robes the exact shade of her sharp blue eyes. Instantly, protectively, his Sense reached for hers. Aura caught it and embraced it. For one shattering moment they were as one. Their Life-energies clung together with shared awareness, the force of their unleashed predestination kindling a fire to light the torch of resistance to the Darkness that encroached. "Sister!" the Dark Twins crowed triumphantly, converging upon the remaining Jedi, jubilant and gloating in their discovery. "So, we have a sister!" Left Twin approached Luke in a rustle of black robed malevolence, while Right Twin moved toward Aura. With the movement came escalation in their mental torture of Luke, and an immediate commencement of the same upon the young girl standing boldly before the Tree, placing herself between Darkness and her fallen heroes, still recovering on the ground behind her. Luke staggered as scenes of savage violation and anguished submission washed through his Sense with vivid, brutal clarity. He felt rather than heard the sharp intake of breath from Aura as her mind struggled to comprehend the words spoken to her, wickedness planting tendrils deep. Luke groaned with the heinous nature of the assault on her innocence, remembering with terrible clarity the profound horror he'd felt upon discovering his own Dark heritage. Dimly, through the barrage of psychic arrows being hurled into his mind, Luke easily perceived Aura's turmoil, and he turned his eyes toward her just as she was stopped short by the Enemy, her half- brothers, only now revealed to her. There she stood, trembling, stunned that she bore any relation to this embodiment of Darkness, horrified that their blood ties made no difference in their intentions toward her. Luke watched, sick at heart and stomach as Left Twin pointed in Aura's direction, the movement mirrored by his dark twin. Luke knew deep within that the projections to follow would rival those previously sent in such lurid, graphic quality, and his protective instincts cried out to shield Aura from the mental violation, or at the very least to temper its effects. Pointing warningly at the young woman, dark fingers shook in her direction, as if scolding. "Ah, ah, ah!" came the reedy admonishment. "Be patient, dearest Sister, fairest maiden of them all. Your time will come soon enough!" The Dark Twins laughed lewdly and each took another step toward the gentle Aura. "Your first time shall be with Darkness, little one. You are ours - as is your sister Jedi." Luke's protective instincts turned upon him in this time of mental torture. The vicious psychic attack quickened, savage images of Aura's brutal deflowering flowed through his Sense like hot magma, searing images into his brain, adding to the lingering memory of their lascivious intentions towards his sister. The emotional torment of the double threat to his loved ones was enough to send Luke perilously close to the Dark Side. He hung there, teetering on the edge of Darkness, his contempt for this filth that craved both violation and procreation throbbing painfully in the veins at the side of his head, his jaw set so hard it ached. His eyes were diverted to his sister, lying beneath the nurturing Tree, and Luke winced as he perceived her gradual wakefulness. He knew full well that it was only a matter of time before the Evil Menace renewed its ruthless psychic attack upon her. His instinct was to protect her, along with the delicate psyche of Aura. "Yes, we shall each have you," Right Twin predicted, moving closer, his own Dark Twin picking up the prophecy as he came up behind Aura. "One after the other, over and over again, and afterward, we shall explore the realms of Darkness together!" Luke's consciousness suddenly filled with the most nefarious of visions of Leia and of Aura at the mercy of the Dark Twins in the satisfaction of their twisted cravings, and this abomination was more than his studied Jedi calm could bear. Near mad with pure, unadulterated rage, the Jedi Master lunged for the Twin on his left, lightsaber blazing, his blue eyes fierce in a face reddened with anger and loathing. And as had happened all those years ago, when he confronted Darth Vader beneath Palpatine's watchful gaze, it was very nearly his undoing. He struck at the Dark Twin with his weapon, again and again and again, but was rewarded only by a mocking laugh as his foe easily parried his efforts, each futile blow bringing Luke closer to the Dark Side. The other's casual contempt and disregard, as Luke hacked and hewed to no avail, was maddening, and each failure stoked the Jedi's fury. Then, with a final laugh and a negligent flick of the wrist, his adversary disengaged, and sent Luke spinning and tumbling across the ground, until he finally came to rest at Aura's feet. All of this happened in the span of a dozen heartbeats, a frozen moment of time, and even as Luke was thrown back, Aura was reaching through the Force for Leia's fallen lightsaber. It flew into her hand as if it belonged there, and she ignited it with shaky but determined fingers, brandishing it before her like a seasoned pro. Aura's show of resistance was rewarded with a renewed barrage of Dark Side energy. In the next instant Luke was scrambling to his feet to aid her as she deflected the beams with careful maneuvering of her newly acquired weapon, both of them amazed that she had the skill to do this. She, who had never held a lightsaber in her life, now stood at the side of her Knight, wielding one like a veteran of the Lost Order. Again the forest was transformed into an eerie light show of wildly erratic green, blue, red and white flashes as Luke and Aura fought with the precision of long-time partners in fending off the double attack that battered them unmercifully. Strong in the Force was Luke, and with Aura fighting at his side he felt stronger than ever before -- stronger and supremely confident of their purpose in history. They were here to exterminate this noxious element of humanity from existence, and Luke cared not what manner of hell awaited Darkness once it had been expelled from this level of time and space. He knew only that they must effect the expulsion. One way or another. ****************** Han Solo woke with a start, his body spasming in delayed reaction from the Dark Side shock he'd received. He sprawled upon the mossy ground beneath the Tree, riding the wave of reflexive protest that shook his body, hanging onto consciousness with the tenacity that was uniquely his. Blinking hard, he struggled to make his eyes focus, automatically reaching mentally for Leia. He felt her subliminal presence beside him, and opened his eyes to see her lying prostrate on the ground, unconscious. Han moved to touch her and froze as memory slammed back hard. He turned wary eyes to the battlefield at the edge of the meadow, where his brother-in-law was locked in deadly contest with Darkness. In his line of vision was a young woman in robes of brilliant blue, her long, blonde hair in a thick, knee-length braid whipping about her as she fought beside Luke. In the thick of battle, she now brandished the brilliant ruby blade of Leia's lightsaber like an extension of her own arm. Leia stirred beside him and Han shifted his attention back to her. //Shhh!// His projection at once cautioned and soothed, as he placed a finger over her mouth to silence the protest that rose from her lips before she attained full consciousness. //They think we're out of it,// his Sense reminded hers. //Let's keep it that way until we figure out how we're gonna play this ace.// Leia opened her eyes and looked deeply into his, projecting her understanding and concurrence. They lay together upon the damp ground, surreptitiously watching the battle that raged before them, pondering their next move, waiting for their moment. ********************* "Uncle Luke!" Jaina cried from her vantagepoint within the Tree. She watched with horrified eyes as her uncle was battered with bolt after blistering bolt of Dark Side energy. Turning to her brother, she tugged desperately at his arm. "Jacen, Jacen, we've got to do something!" she urged. "Mama and Daddy are hurt, Chewie may be dead!" She turned back to keep a wary eye on the battle that raged before the Portal. "Uncle Luke is in trouble!" she warned her twin. "Come on, Jacen! We've got to hurry! We've got to help them!" Jacen hesitated a moment only. As elder son, he had always felt it his duty to watch over his siblings. In his ten-year-old mind, he was the man of the house when their father was away. Over the years, Jacen had stored away his own little treasure trove of ingenuity, gained in his late night forays back home on Coruscant, as he knelt in the hallways, listening to his father's stories, hungrily absorbing every exciting detail of his family's exploits. Perhaps now was the time to put what he had learned into practice, all that he'd learned from his parents, insight gained by their lessons on life and death and love and hate...and the Force. He turned to his little brother, and quickly placed their tiny sister carefully into the smaller boy's arms. Anakin held tightly to the squirming bundle as his Sense reached for and clasped the infant's mind, and Arcadia settled, instantly calmed by her self-appointed protector's touch. Anakin turned his blue eyes up to Jacen, looking at his older brother with admiration, reminded of his own sense of duty. "Take care of Cady," Jacen said grimly, sounding exactly like their father whenever he left on a mission. Anakin accepted the directive, nodding seriously, acknowledging his instruction. His Destiny, Anakin knew, was charged with protecting his baby sister...for now and for always. Jacen turned to Jaina and held out his hand, brother to sister, twin to twin, Jedi to Jedi. Linking hands and Senses, the Jedi twins shone brightly with their own vibrant light. Suddenly the path was clear for them both, the only path that could lead to victory. With a deep breath, Jacen and Jaina reached deeply into the Force. //Help us Obi-Wan Kenobi,// Jaina projected, reaching for the Spirit of the old Jedi, her uncle's hero, her mother's would-be savior. //You're our only hope.// //No,// Jacen corrected her, his Sense drifting to someplace far away, his eyes closed. //There are others...many of them.// The twins reached with all of their abilities, embracing the combined inspiration and empowering strength of the Jedi who had come before. Obi-Wan and funny little old Yoda...and Anakin Skywalker, their grandfather, before he had become the evil that had been Vader, and again after he had returned to his true self. Connecting with the combined Sense of their Force-heroes, Jacen turned to his sister and grinned lopsidedly, obviously now with a plan of action. "C'mon!" he urged, and gave her a wink. "We've got a battle to crash!" Jaina smiled at him with just a trace of uncertainty, and grasped his hand a little more tightly. With a simultaneous nod, the Junior Jedi ran toward the Portal. Together they leaped through its opening...and together they disappeared. ********************* Aura staggered with the force of the malicious assault upon her faculties, upon her morals, her innate sense of right and wrong. This, her mind struggled to convince her Self, this was not the way Oneness was meant to be, the way it would be, for her and her Jedi. Unity of body and Sense with one's Life-mate would not be like this, this hateful, hurtful attack upon mind and body and soul. It would be wondrous and magical and brilliant with Light, a testament to the Good Side of the Force. Consciously blocking out all other mental images, Aura let herself relax through the Force and concentrated instead on the talismans that had sustained her for so many years: the strength of her love for her Knight, the fealty she had felt since childhood toward the Princess and her handsome Prince, and her starstruck fascination with the long and sometimes complicated story of their love, and of their growth, together entwined with the Force. Aura took a deep breath, continued in her pursuit of deliverance from the Darkness that taunted her, tempting her with hatred - and with fear. She thrust the dark images from her consciousness. //We will prevail,// Aura thought fiercely. //We cannot know defeat.// With a shrug of her slender shoulders, Aura began to reject the dark images mentally hurled toward her by the enemy. She instead projected the goodness of all of the Light Side spirits she now felt joining them, together in the Force, those who had come to aid them in the defeat of their foe. Around her she felt the combined enlightenment and comforting embrace of all of those spirits who had once traveled the galaxies as Jedi Knights, Jedi Masters. Their previously slumbering souls now rose together and formed a unified Fortress of Light to withstand and combat the Darkness that loomed before them. The Dark Side lightning that had been attacking them suddenly could no longer strike them. Luke and Aura stood their ground within the unseen Force field, Luke's lightsaber pulsing its clean green light, his blue eyes alert, ever wary of the next move of the Enemy. Aura held Leia's lightsaber in a hand that no longer trembled, standing her ground beside her protector and her love. Together they felt the unexpected strength of untold numbers of lost Jedi, those who had come and gone long before. Luke opened his Sense to the friendly mental handshake, and with a short gasp of pleasure he recognized the Sense of Obi-Wan, of Yoda - and that of his father, Anakin Skywalker. Luke drank deeply from the strength of his peers, merging it with the connection that he already shared with Aura and Leia and Han, and now Jacen and Jaina who, he realized with a start, were emerging from the Tree, creeping around its base and reaching for the Senses of their mother and father. Leia gasped, her mind paradoxically crying out to welcome them into her Sense and into her arms, while simultaneously warning them to go back, back into the Tree where they were safe and Darkness could not reach. But, the concentration of Force that shone from her twins could not be hidden for long, certainly not from an entity with the Force-driven might of the Dark Twins. //It's okay, Mama!// came Jaina's sweet assurance, her radiant smile playing across her face as she approached her mother. //We brought help - lots of it!// Darkness reacted to the sudden appearance of the young ones with jubilation. The Jedi Master and their half-sister became a mere pittance beside the potential of the malleable young Jedi, a potential that must be tapped by the Dark Twins, quickly and voraciously, accepting no less than total subjugation. Roaring with exultation, the Enemy converged on the family from either side, reaching for the children with clawing fingers from which flashed tiny bolts of Dark Side lightning. Han and Leia reacted as one, joining psychically to project their own barrier against the Darkness that continued to approach unabated. And then the unthinkable happened: Jaina, in her headlong dash for the safety of her mother's embrace, passed too close to the clutching arms of Darkness, and Leia watched in horror as her daughter was snatched up in a black-robed arm and passed end over end between them, while they laughed, holding the screaming child high overhead. Leia's protest resounded throughout the forest, a blood-curdling shriek that seemed to shatter the very fabric of time and space. The inheritance of both her parents drove her in this most grievous of moments, and her mind went blank as instinct took control of actions. In one swift movement she rose to her feet, extending her hand to call and receive her lightsaber from a horrified and frozen Aura. Igniting the blade upon contact, Leia rushed at the Evil holding her daughter, slashing through his torso and extending a Force-grip to catch Jaina as the child slipped from the mortally wounded Dark Twin's grasp. Shutting down the blade as she rushed to her little girl, Leia enfolded Jaina in quaking arms, and quickly withdrew to the relative protection of the shadow of the Tree. She could feel the rage that was building in the remaining Dark Twin as he watched the two halves of his brother fall. Bright red blood gushed upon the ground where their mother had been violated. Now the blood of that violation returned, slowly draining back into the desecrated ground that had seen its conception. Long moments passed, the Jedi watching as the standing Dark Twin approached his now very dead brother, looming above the macabre spectacle. Dropping to one black clad knee, the Enemy knelt, reaching with a sickly white hand to touch the contorted face of his brother. A horrendous cry of rage and pain and fear exploded from the dark shapes, reverberating through the forest. The kneeling black-clad figure on the ground seemed to retch, a great shudder taking possession of his body. Suddenly a great wind blew up to whip around both Dark Twins as the life essence drained from the fallen Twin into the remaining one. When he finally raised yellowed eyes to the Jedi, there was no mistaking the vengeful thirst that would be slaked by nothing less than total annihilation. Sensing the imminent Force-storm, Leia reacted without thought. Panic, coupled with instinct, overrode all else. Her Sense and voice cried with a mighty sob: "Mother, help us!" Instantly, from a pinprick of light buried deep within the Tree, a brilliant illumination began. Now, as before, the Mother Tree offered shelter, for all of the children, as She had done for millennia. Light erupted all around the family, forming a protective dome about them, shielding them from the Dark Side ravages of the remaining Dark Twin, now stirred to a howling, frenzied fury by his lust for vengeance. Hurtling toward the Jedi, the Dark Twin struck the invisible Wall of Light and bounced backward. Roaring, arms raised and fingers extended, bolts of Dark Side energy fired against the Light Side barrier. Luke's sudden vision of the level of devastation that was about to take place moved him to react without thinking, letting the Force guide his actions. He charged the Enemy, vulnerable from his preoccupation with his dark tantrum. Lightsaber raised and ready, Luke reached his distracted foe in short measure and swung his blade fiercely, slicing downward with all the strength he possessed in his body and in the Force. He stepped back, breathless, feeling a hollow pain deep inside as he observed the result of his own surrender to darkness, the darkness he himself carried within. In that anguished moment, as he stood watching yet another life form crumple before him, Luke was staggered to realize the degree to which his own inherent anger could and would carry him. The very darkness that he so abhorred, nonetheless at times found an outlet, and during those times instilled him with power otherwise difficult to tap. As frightening as this level of hatred was for Luke, he was glad at this moment that he had tapped into that power. Sometimes the only way to battle darkness was with darkness. The trick was in evicting that blackness once the need for the rush was over. Luke took a deep breath, and forced himself to watch as the Enemy died on the ground beneath his feet. He felt the tentative touch of Aura's mind and turned his eyes to meet hers on the other side of the battlefield, the fallen Dark Twins between them. Cradling her Sense lovingly in his mind, he projected gratitude and reassurance. //It's all right, now,// he told her. //They're beaten...and they will soon be gone.// Luke looked again at the Enemy, lying in twin pools of blood that now mingled to bind them as they had once been joined in Darkness. An anguished howl rent the fabric of the night, echoing through the forest. With a blast of Dark Side energy that shook the very ground on which the victors stood, the bodies of both Dark Twins disappeared. When all had calmed, Luke lurched forward to the site where the Enemy had lain, probing at the lifeless dark cowls that lay in gruesome pools of blood, searching with eyes and Sense. Had they simply vanished into that Other World where all souls traveled upon death, that Other World into which Ben and Yoda and his father had retreated when corporeal life was taken from them? Had their dark souls escaped to the purgatory from whence Exar Kun had gathered his power, that same tortured level in which the fallen Jedi in the Imperial Palace had lain dormant for so many years before awakening to be part of the eternal battle of Dark versus Light? Leia was first to react to the disappearance of the Dark Ones. She caught her breath in a huge sob of relief, clutching Jaina to her desperately and covering the little girl's face with grateful kisses. Han, holding his son protectively against him, moved toward Leia with Jacen, and together they huddled, arms about each other, all panting with exhaustion now that the battle was done, the Enemy defeated. Luke turned to look at Aura and she smiled shyly up at him. She had waited her entire lifetime for this moment, dreamt of it, created a hundred different fantasies of what it would be like to be safe in the arms of her Jedi. And now the moment was here. Without a word, they moved toward each other, stood mere inches apart, neither finding words to express themselves. Instead, they simply looked at each other, deeply, the delicate blue of Luke's eyes blending with the more dazzling sapphire of Aura's, and the touch of their joined minds was as tender a caress as any lover could wish for. Luke moved to put his arms around Aura's shoulders, and she leaned against him, her blonde head resting against his chest, her arms going around him shyly at first, then with more assurance as she felt his Strength flow into her being. Luke Skywalker held his lovely Aura tightly to him, beneath the Tree that had sheltered his love and had protected his sister and hers. Han and Leia huddled on the ground with their twins, all of the weary warriors now weak with relief that the Enemy had been dispatched, however strangely accomplished. Unseen by them all, young Anakin emerged from the Tree, his baby sister in his arms, and made his tentative way toward his mother and father. Leia looked up with a little cry of joy, reaching for her youngest and pulling them down to her. She eagerly took baby Arcadia from Anakin's arms and cuddled her against her heart with one arm, hugging Anakin with the other, alternately kissing the downy blonde head and burying her lips in her little boy's dark curls. She wept openly, as did Han, as did all. The children were back, with Leia and with Han, as Aura was with Luke. All of them were where they belonged, safe from the Darkness that had haunted them for so very long. It was over, the battle won. They could all go home. [End Chapter]