The Loyal Dragon- Sunday

[solo_sword]

As far as Jaina was concerned, the first attempt to go after Jacen had gone spectacularly bad. When he was still alive and Sithly and she was in a Hapan battleship's infirmary, she didn't know what else to call it. She'd spent a lot of time in a healing trance, though her injuries would take a while longer to heal without bacta. There was the concussion and broken ribs- both standard injuries for her by now- shrapnel that had been removed from her legs and the nasty gash above her eye still wasn't healed. The most worrying part for her, though, was something she couldn't explain.

She had vaguely circular red marks running from her jaw down to her shoulder that she didn't remember getting and couldn't remove. She was fuzzy on the details of her extraction thanks to the concussion, but she knew she hadn't done anything to get them when she'd been lucid. There was also the fact that she simply couldn't get rid of the marks. She'd tried soap and water, she'd tried antiseptic, she'd even gotten a hold of chemical solvent used to clean things in the medical ward, and nothing seemed to work. She did, however, succeed in just irritating the skin and making it red enough that the spots were more visible.

She heard the siss of a door behind her, and looked up in the mirror above the sink to see her parents entering the convalescence bay. "What are you doing up?" Leia demanded, and Jaina was glad she didn't remark on the fact that she'd been caught taking to her neck with a stone to try and scrub the marks off. "You should be in a healing trance."

"I have been," Jaina said, rinsing the grit from her hands. "For a week now, I think." A little less than that, actually, but it felt like a week.

"Yeah, well you need another one. Maybe a whole lot more," Han said. "Luke didn't look this bad after the wampa tried to eat him."

Jaina frowned at him in the mirror, but to tell the truth, he didn't look much better. It hurt to see how much of an effect all of this was having on both her parents. One of the things she did remember about her extraction was when they got her in the blastboard and her dad turned around to see her covered in blood. She didn't think she'd ever forget the look on his face, and that sort of thing wore on a guy after a while. "Gee, thanks, Dad. That's just what a woman standing in front of a mirror wants to hear."

"I'm your father. It's my job to be honest."

"Okay, but do you have to be so good at it?" She smiled at him and started cleaning off her neck with a wet cloth.

"Sweetheart, you can't wash them off," Leia said, coming to the sink to take the cloth. "They're burns."

"No," Jaina said. "It'll come off. It's a bloodstain. His blood."

Han and Leia had to think she was crazy, and she almost couldn't blame them. The battle with Jacen had gotten brutal. She'd tried using a sniper rifle at first, but when he was able to avoid getting hit, they'd had to go at it with lightsabers. The entire Mando team that had escorted her- including Mirta and Vartok, both of whom Jaina had counted as friends- were killed. Jacen had even thrown Vartok's body at her, and his helmet was what had split her forehead open. In turn, Jaina had taken Vartok's beskad... and that was what took Jacen's arm off.

That was another thing she was never going to be able to forget, not even if she lived to be as old as Yoda.

"Jaina, they'll fade as soon as we can get you into a bacta tank," Leia reassured her, and physically took her daughter by the shoulders to turn her back towards her bed. "And if they don't, we'll have the skin repaired."

"Mom, I'm not in battle shock," Jaina insisted. "It's blood! I got splattered when I cut off Ja- er, Caedus' arm."

"Okay, take it easy, we believe you," Han said, taking over from Leia to sit Jaina on the bed. "But it's not coming off. I'll ask Luke if he's got any special Sith-blood solvent."

"Sith-blood solvent? Dad, please. I'm not inventing this. I remember getting splashed."

"Really?" Leia said doubtfully. "It's interesting how you remember that, but not much else about the fight."

"You think he brain-rubbed me?" Jaina asked. Wouldn't be the first time...

Leia pointed at the bandaged cut on Jaina's head. "I think that brain-rubbed you. It scrambled your memories, and you may not be remembering things exactly the way they happened."

"Like what?" Jaina asked.

"Well... do you remember what happened with Jag and Zekk?"

Han bit his lip to keep from smiling, which only made Jaina frown harder. "They helped with the extraction," Jaina said slowly. "They both fought very well. I remember that."

"We're talking about later," said Han. "As they were loading you into the blastboat."

"I, uh..." She paused, trying to remember. She did recall them, and the expressions on their faces, but not why. "I thanked them?"

"I guess you could call it that," Han said, pulling a chair from by the wall to sit at her bedside. "You asked them to bunk with you."

Jaina stared. "Bunk with me? Both of them?"

"Well, what you really proposed was taking quarters together," Leia corrected. "All three of you."

Um.

Okay, look, it wasn't that that wasn't an attractive prospect or anything. Though if she could think about it when she wasn't out of it, she'd definitely swap out Zekk for Eric. (Sorry, Zekk.) And she'd do this in a second if she ever thought Jag would be up for it. Or if there was an un-Sithed Tahiri involved. Shush. But anywaythat was certainly not anything she wanted to have discussed in front of her parents. And she really didn't want them teasing her about it. In fact, they looked too amused. Where was the yelling? Why was Han not threatening anyone over this?

"Very funny, guys, but I'm serious." She tapped her throat, trying to get them back on topic. "These aren't burns."

"You think we're making this up?" asked Han.

"Of course. You're running a classic Zeltron Shift- embarrass the spoilsport."

"We could be, except we're not," Leia said with a little laugh. "See-Threepio filed the whole conversation in his memory. Do you want to hear it? He's right outside."

"That won't be necessary," Jaina said, and moved to sit against the headboard. Fine, she wasn't going to let them embarrass her. She'd just take their fun away. "So... did they say yes?"

Look, if she was going to have this idea in her head, she might as well see if anyone knew the odds of it happening.

Han's eyebrows raised in surprise, then he shook his head. "You're not ready for that. You don't have the patience."

Jaina laughed, and touched the spots on her neck. "If these are burns, how come they're not sore? And why isn't my skin dry?" Yeah, see if you were going to distract her from this.

Han closed his eyes in exasperation, but Leia said, "You have been in a healing trance, Jaina."

"Which means they would be healed by now," Jaina said logically, "if they were burns."

Han opened his eyes again, and reached to take Jaina's hand. "Look, it was a tough fight. And Luke's pretty sure you're remembering right about the arm. It's natural to feel a little guilty."

"I don't feel guilty," Jaina said, but that wasn't true. She felt guilty all the time these days even without chopping off her twin's arm. That just added a whole new level to it. "Not much, anyway- not enough to make me imagine things."

"Okay, we'll ask Cilghal to take a look as soon as we get back to Shedu Maad," Leia conceded.

Jaina frowned. "We're going back? But Caedus is on Nickel One."

"Surrounded by three fleets of his own and about six from the Confederation and our coalition," Han explained. "The Corellians and Bothans have jumped into the action, and the Roche system is turning into a firestorm."

"Luke thinks our fight is going to move away from the Roche system," Leia continued. "And you need some time to heal."

Before Jaina could ask any of the questions suddenly swirling in her mind, the door slid open and Threepio stood in the doorway. "Excuse me for interrupting. Mand'alor Fett is requesting a few words with Mistress Jaina."

That would have been fine if Han wasn't in the room. He was instantly on his feet. "Fett? No way. Tell him she's-"

"I won't stay long," said Fett, pushing past Threepio. While he wore his armor, he'd removed his helmet, probably because Hapan security made him. Jaina was used to him without the mask by now. Han had had this guy as an enemy since before Jaina was even born and he was probably only seeing his face for the first time now. "I just need a quick post-action briefing."

"Sorry," Han said, stepping forward. "She's in no condition-"

"Dad," Jaina said. "It's okay. He deserves to hear what happened- what I can remember of it, anyway."

Han frowned at her, then turned back to Fett and frowned some more. He would never understand how Jaina could have a civil conversation with someone he'd hated for years, but Jaina had a longstanding habit of finding other sides to people that might be considered bad guys. It was practically a thing at this point. "Keep it short. She's been through a lot."

"Haven't we all," Fett came back.

There was a bit of a standoff as Fett waited for Han and Leia to leave, and Han not budging. Outside the bay, Jaina glimpsed another Mando in full armor standing behind Threepio. His back was to her, but she was pretty sure it was Beviin. She hoped she got to say hello, though that was probably not an option.

Finally Leia said, "We're not going anywhere, Mand'alor. If you've got something to ask, go ahead. Otherwise, Han is right- Jaina needs to rest."

Fett glanced at Leia, then gave a barely perceptible nod before turning to Jaina. "I know Mirta and her team connected with you at the FlakBlaster emplacement," he said. "What I don't know is how they did."

Unfortunately, Jaina remembered that perfectly. "They only got a handful of Moffs," she reported. "I don't know which ones, because the Moffs weren't my target, and the last part of the battle is still pretty hazy for me. Your team had trouble getting through the bodyguards, then Caedus arrived."

"And?" Fett prodded.

"And he rescued the rest of the Moffs. I don't think you should have sent in the team after their Tra'kads got hit. All you did was strengthen Caedus' hand."

"Caedus wasn't supposed to have a hand," he said irritably. "You were supposed to take him out."

That was beginning to become a running theme. Everyone needed Jaina to take her twin out. She'd been beginning to feel like a holopiece in a dejarik match between her uncle and her brother- one that would determine not only their destiny, but that of trillions. And she wasn't even a player in the game, just a monnok being moved through dimensions she did not comprehend. It'd happened with the Masters discussing her going after Jacen before she ever asked to do it. It'd happened when Jaina had had to give the order to leave a captured Ben behind on Coruscant, only to find out that Luke knew full well it would happen. Now Fett was trying to use her to do his dirty work.

And to some degree, she had to let herself be used. This wasn't about her. She needed to do what needed to be done of her, and she'd have to trust Luke there. She didn't trust Fett.

"You can't blame Jaina for that," Han cut in. "The way I heard it, she would have had him if Mandalorians could follow orders."

Wrong thing to say. "Mandolorians don't follow Jedi orders," he said, speaking through clenched teeth. "We know how they treated the clones."

"Probably because they had a sense of who the clones were really serving," Leia said. "Blind obedience deserves even less respect than mercenary-"

"I think we've all said enough about that," Jaina interrupted, shooting them all a warning glance. "Unless you three are trying to start another war?"

They all fell silent, and not for the first time lately, she wondered how she ended up being the calm one.

"I'll take that as a no," she said, and turned back to Fett. She hadn't been planning on being this specific, but since Han had put it out there, she maybe did have to put the blame where it was due. "Mirta chose her moment without knowing where Caedus was, but I doubt we were ever going to know where he was. Caedus was one step ahead of us all the way."

"Thanks," Fett said, apparently appreciating that she was staying on topic. "What about Mirta?"

She didn't want to have to say it. "She was the first to go. I'm sorry, Boba."

He'd known it. She saw the news sink in, but there wasn't any surprise. "You're sure?"

Jaina nodded. "It happened a long time before this," she said, gesturing to the gash above her eye. "So I've got a pretty clear memory of it. Caedus threw her into a high corner, and she came down on her head."

"Not what I meant, Jedi. You're sure she was dead? Not moving?"

"I don't... let me think." She closed her eyes, trying to recall if there had been time to stretch her Force awareness toward Mirta, if there had even been time to glance in that direction. "I don't remember- I don't even know if there was time to look."

"So you don't know that she's dead, do you?" There was as much hope as blame in his voice. And she knew why. Mirta was his granddaughter, a granddaughter he had hardly known before, whose mother he'd left behind, and it wasn't the easiest relationship. She got where he was coming from. "For all you know, she could be alive. You left without checking."

It used to be that she would have automatically gotten defensive whether he was right or not. Now she considered it, and realized he was right, and Mirta got added to the list of things to feel guilty about, along with Mara, Ben, Tahiri, Pellaeon, Allana... "I probably did," she admitted. "But I don't want to give you false hope. It was a long fall, and I know Mirta. If she'd been able to move, she would have been fighting."

"Of course. She's a Mandalorian. But she wouldn't have been moving if she was just-"

"Mirta wasn't our concern," said a voice from the entrance, and a moment later Luke was coming to stand face-to-face with Fett. "You have no right to come here and blame Jaina for anything. You inserted yourselves into our mission thinking we would serve as your shields."

"And you made sure we paid the price," Fett countered. He jerked a gloved thumb back towards Jaina and said, "She might have got him if you had stuck to your plan, Jedi."

"Or if you had offered to work with us instead of trying to use us," Luke returned calmly. "And the first option, by the way, is still open."

"Not for us," Fett said, and looked to Jaina. "Thanks for the briefing, Jedi."

She might have let it go if not for his tone. But no, she wasn't going to play scapegoat for him, and she really didn't want to let him think she would and have that bite her in the ass years from now. She'd be a pawn when she needed to be. She just wouldn't take the blame when she knew she didn't deserve it. "Wait."

He was halfway to the door, but he stopped and turned his head. "You remember something else, Jedi?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Jaina said. "I don't know what happened to Mirta, and I'm sorry for that. But you're the one who chose to go after the Moffs under Caedus' nose."

"Mandalore has a treaty to honor," he replied. "I had to do something."

"There were a lot of things you could have done," Jaina retorted. "But you wanted Caedus to know you were behind all this, and now you've dragged Mandalore into the middle of the war in a big way. And for what? Your personal vendetta."

Fett's eyes narrowed. "You sure this is any of your business?"

"You made it my business when you sent Mirta to Nickel One. She wasn't there because of what I wanted. Did you really think that baiting Caedus wouldn't cost you? That he wouldn't tear off a piece of you- and that he's not going to keep tearing off pieces?"

"I thought I had trained someone to take him down."

"And I will," Jaina said calmly. "But this is war, not an assassination, and in a war, everybody takes casualties."

Fett studied her for a moment, the anger in his face slowly changing to something else. "You done, Jedi?"

Jaina nodded. "Pretty much," she said, noting that while she probably hadn't gotten through to him, she was the only one in the room who'd managed to stop his argument. "Shoot straight and run fast, Boba."

He actually smiled. "Thanks for the advice, Jedi. Die proud."

He stepped around Luke and left the room, leaving both of Jaina's parents scowling after his back.

"Don't blast him, guys," Jaina said, chuckling. "That's Mando for 'good luck.'"

Han only frowned further. "Weird language."


[NFB, NFI, OOC okay, Denning wrote Fett much better than Traviss did... Dialogue and a couple lines from Invincible by Troy Denning, and yes I think just having Skywalker blood in you predisposes you to losing a hand.]