Salvation To My Stars • Kylo Ren [2]

XXVI

Jude's Pov

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When my hand moves over the canvas it's almost like my mind is directing it without me, odd perhaps, but that's the way it is. My hand moves instinctively to the right spot, building a new picture, often one I have never seen before. In these fantastical worlds I see reflections of my own mind, the way I think, but there is something else there too. I don't know what, perhaps I just imagine it, but when I paint I feel closest to the force and it gives me a peace and mental calmness I cannot find another way.

I haven't found time to paint in a very long time. I haven't been able to since Corinthia was kidnapped. I usually paint pictures of my mother, fragments of what I can remember. She died young, so I paint her young. Her long brown hair, her gentle smile...anything that comes to mind. This time, I draw Corinthia. It's not the first picture of her that I've done but it has a lot more emotion to it.

"Knock, knock." Nalani interrupts me and I put my paintbrush down.

"Oh hey," I smile, wiping my hands on my pants. "I swear I would've told you I was back but this is the first moment of silence I've gotten."

She shrugs and walks over to hug me. "Next time, I want to be the first person to know you made it back alright."

"Alright," I let go of her to stick out my pinky finger. "I promise."

Her pinky finger wraps around mine and we make a deal. For the first time since she's gotten here, she's wearing clothes native to her planet and status. It's an unusual purple dress, connected to a lace hood that covers her sun-kissed brown hair. For a while, she studies the painting of Corinthia before turning to me. "How is she?"

"She's not saying much but the med droids said that was expected," I explain. "Her parents just arrived so she's with them."

"I hope she gets better quickly," Nalani comments, making her way back to the canvas. "Do you have anymore pictures?"

I nod my head, stalking over to a dresser near my bed. I reach into the bottomless artifact and pull out some old sketchbooks, handing them to Nalani. She takes them with ease and flips through them, her face studying each line and colour there is to offer.

"Is this your mother?" She questions, tracing the lines of a certain photo.

"Yeah, she is."

"She's very beautiful," She smiles up at me, noticing that this was a touchy subject for me. "My mother died when I was young too."

"What was her name?" I question, taking the sketchbook and flip through the pages, searching for a portrait.

"Madev, I'd ask who your mother is but I'm sure the entire galaxy knows."

"Elara Jane," I smile, handing her the portrait of my mother and grandmother. "I was born on Naboo, around the gungan territory actually."

"Technically you have both Nabooian blood and Royal blood flowing from your veins," She points out. "So does your sister."

"My sister let Rey, Corinthia and I escape."

"That's-" Nalain pauses. "Incredible! What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure," I stammer. "I think it means that her dark side shell is breaking and the light side is coming in through the cracks."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to do what I do best, save her."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Uncle Luke startled me and I dropped my sketchbook. "But I need to talk to Jude, alone." Nalani stood up and Luke bowed. "You look ravishing, as usual your majesty."

"Time has brought nothing but kindness to you Master Jedi." Nalani pressed a kind kiss to his cheek and walked out of my room.

"What is it?"

"Don't act like I only ever bring bad news," Luke crossed his arms. "I swear, you are exactly like Leia."

I give him a look and raise my eyebrow. "Then Uncle Luke, do tell me why you've interrupted my one chance at having a friend my own age."

Luke ruffled my hair before sitting down on my bed, after a long sigh, he told me. "There's been a disturbance in the force."

"I knew it."

He sent me the same look I gave him. "Are you going to keep pestering me or can I tell you?"

"Go on and tell me." I urge him.

"Sabellius and Gail Jane only had one daughter right?" He questions me.

"Right."

"Wrong."

My mouth opens and I swear my jaw hit the floor. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Before I brought your mother to the Jedi Temple, she lived on Tatooine as a slave to Geil the Hutt. Your mother had an older sister and her name was Kalila."

"How many unknown relatives does this damn family have?"

"Kalila was nothing like your mother, they only shared one common interest and that was adventure. Kalila wasn't force sensitive so I couldn't take her from Tatooine. By the time your mother was around nineteen, she noticed that her sister, mother and father were missing from Tatooine and we went to go find them. We found your parents but we never found Kalila, your grandmother that Kalila was nothing more than a disappointment."

"Let me guess, you're the only one who knows what happened to her."

Luke smacked me from the back of the head and I snorted a laugh. "Would you quit being smart?" He questions, a jolly smile on his face. "Kalila became a bounty hunter."

"We've got everything in this family: Queens, Jedi, General's, Sith's, smugglers and now bounty hunters!"

"She went under the name of Kal Ja, not wanting people to know she was related to the famous Elara Jane," He sighs, shaking his head as if the next part is the worst part. "Kalila is aboard the Finalizer ship and I fear she has been given a price on our heads."

If Uncle Luke wasn't watching me, I'd probably throw myself out the window.

Why is our family so screwed up?

Great grandfather was the almighty 'Chosen One' and great grandmother was the Queen of Naboo. Great grandfather accidentally strangled great grandmother and she died of a broken heart right after giving birth to grandmother and Uncle Luke, who were separated at birth. Grandmother became a princess and Uncle Luke really needed to go to Tosche Station to get some power converters. Grandmother fell in love with a smuggler and they had my scumbag of a father who fell in love with my mother who had a sociopathic jealous sister. My father and mother had Bellamy and myself and then my mother died because she was too damn good for this galaxy.