Sword of The Lanterns

Chapter Thirty-Three- Let Those Who Worship Evil's Might...

OKAY I WAS ORIGINALLY WRITING THIS TO SEND GOOD VIBES TO CARRIE FISHER AFTER HER HEART ATTACK BUT NOW SHE'S DEAD SO I HAVE FAILED AND I AM SORRY.

RIP Space Mom. My favorite princess. Leader of the Rebellion and the Resistance. Second Chief of State of the New Republic. 1976-2016.

And I apologize, but this chapter won't alleviate the pain much :(

The blood pounded in Jaina's head, roaring in her ears and throbbing in her veins. That was what woke her up, not someone standing at her side and waiting for her to respond to their frantic calls to wake up.

She shivered in the cold, her eyes nearly frozen shut. She felt helpless and alone, lost in space.

Thinking quickly, Jaina pulled her hands up to her face, blowing on them to shoot the hot air back at her face. That helped, but it wasn't until she'd rubbed at her eyes that let her open them.

"John? Zatanna? Lisa?" She called. She was surprised to see that when she had closed her eyes, the sun had been shining down and reflecting off the snow, but now it was almost pitch-black. She almost couldn't see the stars.

"They couldn't have left me...they wouldn't have..." She whispered, hugging herself for warmth.

"M'gann? Are you there?" She thought. No Martian telepathy took over her mind with the warm, soothing touch. 

She tried again. "Anakin?"  

Still no answer. What a surprise.

Her stiff fingers struggled to grip the snowboard enough to pick it up, and her equally stiff legs began the long trek through the trees to the empty mountainside.

"K-Karen! M-Mal! You guys out-t there?" She hollered through her chattering teeth. "Marv-vin! Wendy!"

No sooner had she made it through the underbrush than she tripped. Not on the snow, but on a pair of snowskis left on the mountainside. Jaina immediately recognized the black-and-yellow striped pattern on the skis Karen had been using earlier.

"Th-that's st-trange..." She muttered. "J-john wouldn't let them g-go inside w-without c-cleaning up." She fell on her knees, curling up to conserve her body heat.

"R-ring, where's m-my ring?" She whispered to herself, stretching out her hand. The familiar green object had been left in her bag back at the lodge. Groaning with the effort, Jaina shouldered the skis, adding to the snowboard under her arm, and headed in the direction she estimated the lodge to be. 

She reached it twenty minutes later, after a bit of wandering around and lots more shivering. One of the lights were still on, and the door was still unlocked because Mal didn't have a copy of the key for everyone.

"Hello? Connor? anyone?" Even without the heat on, the lodge was much warmer than being exposed outside. She turned up the heat, and then turned on the gaslight fireplace and the stove. the sooner she got warmer, the better. 

She curled up on the couch, unable to find any blankets, opening and closing her fist to stretch her fingers, curling and uncurling her toes to do the same. 

No one answered her calls. No one came in the front door. So she stretched out to the force, grasping for the presences of her friends. But she couldn't find their strings. She couldn't sense anything. 

After several tries, she reached out for the pillow on the other end of the couch, tugging at it through the force with all her might. It wouldn't budge an inch.

"What...what happened?" She asked. Now that she noticed the absence of the force, she also noticed that she felt a loss of confidence and support, something that had just always been there.