The Children of the Stars

The Imperial Library

"Hang on," Ben called, surveying the situation. "We're coming Rey!"

"Ben!" Rey shouted up, her features flooded with relief. "Nellith! Jacen! Even Kyp, oh, it's good to see all of you!"

"Mum." Nellith's voice was flooded with emotion.

"We should be able to drop down," Jacen said, fiddling with a device on his belt.

"Or there's been something I've been dying to try where we help each other fly down," Kyp said, looking straight at Nellith. "Could be fun—"

'"Oh, get a room." Jacen rolled his eyes.

"Like you and Tahiri weren't equally disgusting," Nellith teased.

"Can I please not hear this?" Ben grumbled. "Just a second."

Using the Force, the party jumped from the top of the precipice and were able to carefully control their descent. They landed softly, and when Ben hit the ground, he started running to Rey. She was running to him also, and they met in the middle. He picked her up and swung her around. They were both crying and grinning as they settled into each other's embrace once more.

Nellith hadn't realized it, but Kyp had taken her hand. She looked to him and smiled. She knew he was wondering the same thing she was: if maybe they could be like that, someday. Nellith gently squeezed his hand and smiled as if to say, I can only hope.

The two parted, but they still didn't speak, looking into each other's eyes. Nellith knew that they were communicating between their bond. After a moment, Rey stood aside, to show the girl and the young man.

"I suppose you were wondering who these are," Rey admitted. "Kitri? Carian?"

The young man looked away from a datapad and gently placed it inside a black duffel bag. His nervous gray eyes darted from Rey to Ben.

"You must be Ben Skywalker, I remember reading about you at the Academy on Coruscant." Kitri barely spoke above a mumble, but something about his voice carried nonetheless. "Of course, I didn't know that you and Kylo Ren were the same. Not until I joined your wife's crew."

"Did you now?" Ben looked back to Rey. "Brother and sister, you said—"

"We were looking for the Jedi two years ago." Carian also had that quiet voice of her brother's that still managed to dominate all other sounds. "Because of my abilities, the Remnant came looking for us."

"We don't need to get into the story now," Kitri added hastily. He then looked to Nellith and Jacen. "But your sister, she saved us from one of the Shadow Academy recruiters— and she told us she was looking for your mother. We went with her."

"Jaina?" Jacen's voice sounded so hollow, so fragile.

Kitri frowned and twisted a ring on his left ring finger. "I'm so sorry. You must be Jacen, I recognize you from the holos. You have your sister's eyes."

"Thanks." Jacen's tone was bitter. "So you couldn't save her, then?"

"Jacen!" Rey's tone was reproachful as she looked at the two young men— this reunion was clearly not going the way she would have liked.

"I couldn't, although I tried." Kitri bowed his head. "If there was any other way, I would have saved her. I would have given my life."

"You don't know the circumstances of what happened." Rey sighed, looking far older than Nellith remembered. "But we can talk about this once we're out of Bast. We've been mining the archives here for at least half a year to find information to stop Thea."

"And?" Ben asked, clearly eager to get away from the drama of interpersonal relationships.

"We can talk about it away from here— the Remnant ships have been coming and going, and they've amplified the security systems here." Rey picked up the black duffel bag. "I'm afraid they may have been waiting for me to call you here, but we needed a way off-planet and I needed to see you again, Ben."