solo_sword | Coruscant- Friday Fandom time

Jaina wasn't going to the funeral, which she had mixed feelings about. She wanted to be there, for Luke and Ben and her parents, but the same little part of her that had tried to skip out on her own brother's funeral just wanted to get away. That wasn't why she was missing it, though. After killing Lumiya and learning afterwards that there was no way that she could have killed Mara, Luke gave the task force new orders to find Alema, because she had to have done it.

Alema had to be found, yes. She was a threat, a Dark Jedi, and crazy as all get out. But the trail didn't make sense, and while Jaina couldn't voice or even admit to herself what she feared... she knew deep down that Alema was no real match for Mara.

Between that and the thought that she had to buckle down and be (even more) serious about what they were headed into, she'd had a little Talk with Jag and Zekk when she told them what happened. She would like to say that she handled it like a mature adult, but in reality she'd snapped something like "I'm not sleeping with anyone and that's final." Then they'd sat down and decided as a slightly uncomfortable team what their game plan was, which meant leaving immediately.

She had a few hours on Coruscant now. She'd made time to find Ben already, before calling the one in Fandom. It wasn't long enough, but she'd really felt the need to reassure him that it'd be all right, and that he'd be all right, because she knew he would, and he knew she knew. And then she had just enough time to regroup and pack up for another trip that would take an undetermined amount of time and head on out.

She was starting to feel like a pro at that.

[Open, as this is the last chance to talk to her for a bit. Not that she knows this yet.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Juliet peed on the dog last week.

Hello to you too, Anakin.

Well. That certainly succeeded as a momentary distraction.

...How?

Turns out that potty training is hard

For a moment, Jaina let herself be glad that that was something she wasn't ever going to have to deal with.

Sounds like... Make sure she doesn't do that twice.

Took two days to get Vladdie off the ceiling fan. How are you?

Things have gotten bad.

Remember when she used to answer 'fine' to everything?

And that would be the phone ringing.

"How bad?"

You know, it didn't get easier to say? Pretty much as soon as she picked up she was finding something to repack in her bag just to give herself something to do.

"Mara's dead," she said, and nope, it still didn't feel real, either.

"Shit," Anakin gasped. "Are you all right? You know, on a scale of when really crappy things have happened?"

"I could be better," she admitted, "but we're already off again on a mission so at least I can't dwell on it." Which, if you were Jaina, was a good thing.

Yeah, that was his family all right. "What sort of mission?" he asked a little warily. He remembered her the last time...

"Jag- ...right, he's back, I don't think you knew that- and Zekk and I have been on the trail of a Dark Jedi who might have had something to do with it," Jaina said. "We're off to find her before the trail goes cold."

"Be careful," Anakin said, and knew that Jaina would catch both meanings.

He was trying very hard not to get antsy and over-reactionary.

"I'm not going to do anything crazy," she assured him. "I'm good there. This is me just doing my job." It was Luke she worried about there.

"If you feel yourself getting too angry, step back," Anakin said, "and let someone else take the shot."

"I know. But I swear to you, that's not happening," she said, completely seriously. She didn't really want to get into what Luke had done, but that would have worried her right out of doing anything crazy. "I'm sad, but we're going after Alema because if we don't, more people are going to die. Plus there's no way the boys would let me do anything like I did before, and Jag's operating as my CO so there's a command structure to keep me in line."

She just really didn't want him to worry, okay?

"Good," Anakin said. "I don't want to lose you."

A sudden thought struck him. "Does this Ben know?"

"Yeah. I called him already," she replied.

"How'd he take it?" Anakin asked. "I'm at home, but I could head to the island..."

"Skywalker method of deflection, I think." Not that Jaina wasn't guilty of that sort of thing herself, but. "He took it better than I thought he might, but he still got to hear about his mom dying a second time."

From the cousin who had tried to influence events away from that and totally failed at it. Not that that was sticking with her or anything.

"Not your fault," Anakin said quietly. "Some events are just destined."

"That doesn't help," she said. She'd been worrying about too many things for too long and had way too much potential hurt ahead for that.

"Not all things," Anakin amended quickly. "Don't focus on potential futures, Jaina. Process what's happening now--and not in the 'find me something to smack until I feel better' way we prefer. Apparently that's not healthy or something."

He thought it was just fine, thanks.

"You know that's completely impossible in this situation, right?" she said. Knowing possible futures had been fine until they actually started becoming reality and she had to prepare herself for the possibility of them all happening.

"I do," Anakin said, "but I have to say it. Work out, hit things, try to get some sleep." He turned very serious. "And talk to people, my Jaina. Don't get locked up inside your head. That's how I ended up down a very stupid, lonely path."

She didn't know who she was supposed to talk to without feeling like she'd be calling Fandom just to whine. Her parents were on the run, Ben and Luke had bigger problems right now, and she'd just had to yell at the rest of her team to get their priorities straight.

"Yeah, I know," she said. "Trust me, I'm keeping that sort of thing in mind."

Well, the 'Let's not try to outright change the future and thereby cause it to happen and do way worse damage to myself in the process' sort of thing, anyway.

"Good," Anakin said. "My phone's always on, and I always want to hear from you. I don't care what time it is."

"I'll remember that. Apologize to Rory in advance for me."

She was sure there'd come a point where she felt like talking... maybe... but right now it was a little difficult to imagine.

Coruscant- Friday Fandom time

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