The Legend of the Jedi Queen

63. Balance of the Force

Rey was the first to rise, the name having just left her lips. Ben rose to follow her, and the two looked closer. Rey stopped, reaching her hand to her daughter's neck, her hand brushing over where the chip once was. Something dark and Sith flickered in Rey's hazel eyes. It was a promise.

As Nellith struggled to catch her breath, Rey's eyes met hers, an understanding passing through them.

Then Rey embraced her daughter. Ben wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter, and the Solo family sank to their knees, together after two weeks apart. It was only fitting they were reunited in a place full of memories all three of them would never forget.

For Ben and Rey, this was the place where their love began, where it truly sparked into the forest fire it would become, bringing life and light in the wake of its destruction. All that was old had died in their path, making way for the new and better.

For Nellith, this had always been a place of love. It was where her parents could love each other in the light, it was where her father had always been there. It was where she was loved the most for the light and the dark within her.

Damn the dark, damn the light.

Tallis's words echoed in her head. Nellith broke away from the hug and Ben reached out for his daughter's face.

"They will pay," he assured her.

"We've been gathering allies with the Force from around the galaxy," Rey said. "They should be here in two or three days. We were going to storm the Capricorn and end the Jedi Civil War once and for all."

"You were going to save me then?" Nellith asked, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that made it appear as if she was hugging herself.

"Of course," Rey assured. "We'd always come back for you sweetheart, we promise."

"And make sure they never touch you again," Ben growled.

"What else did they do to you?" Rey asked. "We need to know so we can help you."

Nellith looked down to her hand. It was the first time she'd really gotten a chance to think about it, to realize that her biological hand was gone. Only a prosthetic remained. Sometimes she forgot it was gone. Then she felt the phantom pain, the searing of Kiernan's lightsaber disarming her permanently and maiming her in the process.

"My hand isn't real anymore." As tears gathered in her eyes, her tone was serene and detached.

Rey took her daughter's hand, looking it over with not just the eyes of a mother, but of a mechanic.

"Decent workmanship," she admitted reluctantly. "I'll fix you up a better one, I promise. If you want, you can even help design it."

Nellith nodded, feeling Ben's eyes on her, waiting for her to confess more.

When Nellith looked into Ben's eyes, he was surprised how her shade of hazel was exactly the same as his. It scared him, sometimes, how much his daughter resembled himself in his younger days. He could only hope that she would never lose her way like he did.

"What else did they do?" he asked, his voice deathly quiet.

"I was locked in a cold room, only a hospital gown with only water, no food for two weeks," Nellith said. "They put the inhibitor chip in. . . Kiernan invaded my mind. He picked me up with the Force and would throw me against the wall."

Nellith then jumped, hearing an echo of mechanical breathing. She looked around for the source of the sound as her father took her small hands into his, a gesture of comfort and support. Then she realized, as she saw the dark expression on his face that it was a warning from the Force.

Ben Solo was teetering on the edge of becoming Kylo Ren once more.

For the first time since she'd met her father as both the light and dark sides of himself, she was afraid, not for herself, but for the havoc he could wreak upon the stars. It was infecting her mother, too, she could feel it. Both were being consumed by their own shadows, because of what Kiernan did.

It reminded her of Aquilae, when her mother made shadow puppets.

"The stronger the light, the bigger the shadow," her mother had explained when she showed Nellith.

Her parents had been beacons of hope in the galaxy for over a decade. Now they had cast their shadow, and it threatened to swallow the universe.

"We won't strike until our other allies are here," Ben said. "Why don't we greet my sister?"

"I'm already here, Ben," Jaina said, standing in the threshold. Her brown eyes reflected the fear Nellith felt, but were mixed with the horror of seeing history repeat itself within Ben Solo. "We can't just get revenge. This has to be about more than that. That's what the Sith would do."

"And so do the Jedi," Ben said. "Look at the Clone Wars, at the legendary Luke Skywalker, at Kiernan."

"Luke didn't just do it for revenge," Jaina said, striding forward. "He had other reasons. Kiernan is lying to himself. He believes in the old, corrupted Jedi doctrines of the Clone Wars. When Master Yoda passed on the torch to Luke, and then to you, Rey, he believed the Jedi should be reborn."

"And we'll do revenge," Rey said, her expression fierce. "No one hurts my baby."

Jaina inhaled sharply. "I'm not just fighting for my apprentice. I'm fighting because Kiernan is turning the Jedi into something they should never be."

Rey nodded, somehow finding sense, managing to calm somewhat. Ben, for all he tried, could not.

"If you're not with us, Jaya, stay out of our way," Ben warned.

"I'm trying to help," Jaina replied, her tone equally as sharp. "Push me away again, and history will repeat."

With that, Jaina exited out onto the terrace outside the temple, and started climbing down the cliffside.

Nellith looked back to her parents, more unsure than ever about what it meant to be a Jedi.