The Legend of the Jedi Queen

81. The Throne of Balance

She clipped her deactivated lightsabers on her belt and reached out for Tallis's hand, and without speaking, he understood what she wanted him to do. He clipped his lightsaber and commlink on his belt, and accepted. Then, accentuating with their new Force powers, they jumped.

With the Force, they were soaring over the battle, over meters of desert, and landed in the sand perfectly. For the first time, Nellith was seeing an upside to her new godlike powers. Upon landing, she let go of Tallis's hand, and the two lightsabers flew off the belt and into her hands, turning on without her even touching the buttons.

She and Tallis cut through Acolytes of the Beyond to get to Ben and Rey, who fought with the grace and synchronization of a ballroom waltz.

Nellith was so focused on saving her parents, she didn't notice that an Acolyte had gotten behind her until Tallis used the back side of his saber-staff to stab the Acolyte through her helmet.

Nellith turned for a second to briefly leap out of the Acolyte's way before slicing through another just as he clashed blades with Rey.

"Nice one," Rey said, looking around for more Acolytes rushing out, still locked in combat. "Get on that damn throne right now, end this!"

Nellith nodded, and she ran onto the throne from her dreams. And everything changed.

She turned around, hesitating for one second. As she tossed her dark blonde hair over her shoulder, she saw just in time Abeloth's spirit enter Tallis.

"No!" Nellith screamed.

Rey said nothing, staring her former apprentice down.

"This is your last chance," Rey said.

Tallis slowly looked up, eyes red and full of hatred, with no whites to them, with a smile that was too long and too sharp for a human. Nellith could see Abeloth's tentacles in the Force reaching out towards her—only to seize her, inches from her throne,

It was a fight between two ancient powers coexisting in one body, and a woman who had always been the source of her own. They were masters, and Nellith, paralyzed by the tentacle, could only watch.

From Tallis's hands, lightning spewed, and Rey blocked it with the two blades of her saber-staff as the sand solidified and rose beneath them, levitating them in the air in a slow revolution. The energy coursed through the dual blades on the staff, as Rey managed to push Tallis with the Force into the mound of solidified sand in midair.

Ben turned to see Nellith floating in midair, trapped by the tentacle and struggling against it.

"Hold on!" he shouted. "I'm coming, Nellith!"

As he extended his hand out, Nellith could feel his presence in the Force, that tidal wave, reaching over her head, beautiful and familiar. It barraged against the tentacle, and Nellith was focusing on building up the light within her, to make an explosion.

She looked up to the sky to see as Rey let out a yell similar to the scream Nellith had unleashed on Yavin IV. Tallis fell to the mound, and the mounds froze, no longer spinning. For a moment, he looked dead.

That was when Nellith unleashed her light. All at once, Nellith was blinded, floating in the air. When she opened her eyes, she gracefully descended to the ground. The two mounds of solid, packed sand dropped, and Rey rose to her feet, holding her saber-staff like her trusty quarter-staff. The second the tip of Nellith's boot touched the ground, however, Tallis jolted awake, and scrambled to his feet— and it was clear that Abeloth was still in control.

"Run!" Rey yelled.

Nellith didn't hesitate. She could feel the dark tentacles' presence as they reached for her— so she ran, right to the Throne of Balance. Just as she turned to sit, she saw the lightning emanating from Tallis's hands. Rey dug her heels in as the lightsaber began to rock and vibrate violently in her hands. She screamed as the lightsaber split into several pieces, and she went flying several feet across the dunes.

"Mum!" Nellith screamed.

"I'll help her!" Ben promised. "You need to end this, Nellith— it'll be alright, I promise!"

Nellith somehow found it in her to nod, and did the easiest thing she could do. She took her throne at long last.

The effect was instant. Time stopped, and she observed the frozen scene, realizing all she could do right then and there. She could fix everything. A smile extended on her face, of long-awaited relief.

"Take away the influence of the Font and the Pool," Nellith ordered. Immediately, she felt the difference. In the short time she had briefly been a deity, she had forgotten that she could be comfortable in her own skin. The texture of her clothes was soothing and light again, but not something that drew her attention constantly.

"Please, save Mum," Nellith said. "Don't let her die, not now. Now is not her time."

There wasn't a perceptible shift this time. Nothing told Nellith if her command had been accepted— but she was confident it was, nonetheless. She was the Jedi Queen, and she knew for so long her responsibility. The Throne would not fail her now. Not after all the sleepless nights, not after everything.

"Make the balance towards the light," Nellith said. "We need a lot more light in a galaxy like this."

One last command lingered on her lips.

"Kill Abeloth," she finally said. It wasn't the kind of person she had ever wanted to be— but hopefully this was the last of all the killing. This would be it.

The world resumed in full speed. Nellith rose to her feet as Tallis stumbled forward, before slumping into the sand anticlimactically. Nellith ran to him, and shook his shoulder. But he wouldn't wake. She turned him over, and was relieved to at least see his chest rise and fall.

Hopefully he would wake someday. That was all she wanted. And as she looked up, she saw the tide of the battle had turned completely. The Jedi were stronger, now that the Force was more strongly aligned towards the light.

Then she looked over her shoulder to see Ben pick up Rey the way he did on the day they met. Unconscious, with singed marks on her hands, Nellith knew the encounter had left scars. But most likely, Rey would recover, just like Tallis.

Nellith couldn't help it as she smiled, looking to the setting sun on Jakku. "It's over."

Ben got to his knees beside his daughter, still cradling his wife in his arms. The ground rumbled once, and Nellith looked around.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I don't know," Ben admitted.

Then she saw it, little sprouts of grass and other plants shooting out of the sand, right in-between her fingers, and under her feet. Nellith scrambled to her feet, watching as plants grew, starting with grass and slowly melding into bushes, trees, and so much more. Clouds formed instantly in the sky, and rain fell down on the former desert, creating roaring rivers and leaving new creatures and new life in its wake.

"It's true," Nellith murmured. "All of it."

"I know."

Nellith looked to see her mother's fluttering eyelids under the rain. Ben set her down on the grass, and she slowly sat up, taking in the rain and the grass. She looked up to the sky. Then a childlike look of wonder dawned on her face.

"So this is what Jakku looked like," Rey said. "Things would be so different if it had been like this when Keera and Skylar left me here."

"It would've been easier," Ben said.

"Probably," Rey admitted. "But we don't know. The planet feels different. No longer cold, and like death. It's warm, bright. I almost can't describe it."

"You don't have to," Ben assured her as he wrapped an arm around her. "We're here, seeing it now. That's all that matters."