The Legend of the Jedi Queen

67. A True Jedi

As the Twin Suns began to rise over the horizon, Nellith's X-wing touched down in front of the Kenobi house. She leapt out of the cockpit and grabbed her lightsaber. She started running as fast as she could towards the fight. She could sense it already— so close, yet so far.

I have to stop it.

Pumping her arms and legs, Nellith sprinted across the desert, her vision flickering between time and space. In one stride, she was in the infamous vision with Tallis, a queen tied to the Throne of Balance. The next, she was in the present, trying to stop the Jedi Civil War.

She ran until she stopped on a cliffside, and ignited her lightsaber. Just like in her vision, she couldn't tell which side was which as the Jedi locked into battle with one another. All she knew was that she had to stop them, as a future leader and as a Jedi Knight.

She reached her hand out, acting on instinct.

Breathe. Just, breathe.

She didn't hear Jaina or Luke or anyone's voice in her head, just her own. When she opened her eyes, the scene was paralyzed. Everyone stood still, although their eyes and heaving chests showed time still progressing. Nellith loosened her grip enough so the Jedi could look to her.

"Enough," she declared, her voice carrying across the desert. "We cannot fight, not now! Not when the galaxy needs us. Maybe both sides are right. Maybe both are wrong. But both sides are falling to the dark, and we're all trapped, forgetting the real enemy! I'm not going to stand here and watch you kill each other! If we are truly Jedi and I am supposed to be the Jedi Queen on the Throne of Balance, then lay your lightsaber down— if not for your sake, do it for mine."

To her surprise as much as anyone else's, as she let go of her grip on all of their bodies in the Force, they lay their lightsabers down. All except Kiernan. Nellith felt his anger radiating off of him, and she felt her own bubbling and boiling at the surface. She raised her lightsaber just in time as he leapt up the cliff edge with the use of the Force, and swung at her.

She blocked, and took a swing herself, missing as he jumped over it. With a flamboyant twirl, she managed to block his next strike, and pushed the momentum of the blade so hard that the lightsaber went spiraling out of Kiernan's hands, landing on the button that turned it off.

Kiernan looked to her in horror, and knelt, as if it would suddenly save him. The emerald lightsaber of Luke Skywalker hovered inches away from his neck. Nellith's hands shook. Then she saw fractures of another image. Of the stupid Throne of Balance.

There were her parents, the same as before. But this time despite being tied to the Throne of Balance, she managed to exert one change. She turned off Tallis's lightsaber. It was a small change, but a change nonetheless. And that made all of the difference.

She was standing in front of Kiernan again. She thought of Andromeda Hux, of her first fight so long ago with the lightsaber versus a Bogan Squadron trooper. And even then, before all of this responsibility and destiny had been heaped upon her shoulders, she had made a choice.

She didn't want to be the kind of Jedi who killed. Not then, not now, not ever. Already she'd had to kill in the fights against the Second Order, but that was a necessary war. This was completely unnecessary.

Nellith turned off her lightsaber, clipping it on her belt.

"I'm not doing this for you," she snarled at Kiernan's relieved expression. "I'm doing this because I don't want to be like you. I might never forgive you. That doesn't mean I won't move on with my life. But I will never stop feeling angry when I see your face."

He blinked, unsure of what to do with this gift.

Nellith left him, and looked down at the Jedi. These would be her people that she would be responsible for.

Before, she was afraid of the responsibility. But now she knew that she could handle it. She was ready.