Jaina stood on the roof of a large steel building and watched the unfamiliar star constellations in the sky above her. Much had happened the week before. Some of the events that had transpired had been good, much needed victories. Others had been heart-crunching defeats.
The Vong had somehow genetically altered a vorksner, a canine-like creature native of Myrkr, to be a bloodthirsty Jedi killer. The beast was force sensitive, and was loaded with enough toxins to put down a heard of banthas. Seeing that their spawn was as perfect as it was going to get, the shaper in charge of the project decided to clone the voxyn. The only way for the Jedi to destroy the species was to eliminate the voxyn that they were cloning, the Queen. A team of Jedi Knights had infiltrated a Vong warship, seeking to destroy the voxyn queen. Many Jedi went into the worldship on the mission, and only six survived. Jaina's brother was on the 'casualties' list.
A single tear rolled down Jaina's cheek. Suddenly, she felt someone coming towards her. When she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, she wiped away the tear and turned from the door to the roof to hide her red eyes. The footsteps came closer, and then stopped.
"Jaina? What are you doing up here?" Jaina turned at the familiar voice. She came almost face to face with Jagged Fel.
"Nothing." She answered. "Just looking at the stars. There's a really good view of the sky from here, don't you think so?" Jaina was trying to hide her discomposure, however she could sense that he knew she had been crying.
"I suppose." He answered. The wall on the roof of the building came up to the middle of Jag's chest, and he leaned forward onto it. The young colonel folded his hands and looked out towards the horizon. He stood that way for several minutes. Jaina could sense that his mind was occupied, and while her good senses told her to just leave him alone, her curiosity got the better of her.
"What are you doing up here?" She asked. Jag jumped, startled at her words, as if her had forgotten that she was there. If this man before hadn't intrigued her, he certainly did now. Something was definitely on his mind.
"What?" He asked her. Jaina hesitated. He didn't seem angry that she disturbed his solitude, and he wasn't jumping to talk to her either. He seemed…tired. His voice was weary and his posture was sluggish. It was as if something was weighing heavily on his mind.
"I was just wondering why you were up here." She stated, shrugging her shoulders. "It's no big deal really."
Jag half-smiled and raised his hand, brushing aside any further comments from her. "No, I'm sorry. You just surprised me. I'm waiting for my father's squadron to come into the atmosphere. He due back within the hour."
"Do you watch him come in every time?" Jaina inquired.
"Yeah. It's kind of a tradition in my family. I'm the only one that comes up here anymore though."
"Oh." Jag sighed, and turned his back on Jaina, then hoisted himself up to sit on the wall, so his feet were dangling off the building.
"I'm sorry, Jaina. I have no right to burden you with my problems." Jaina frowned, and walked over to him.
"It's alright, Jag. Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes it helps to talk." Jag looked down at her for a moment, and then once again focussed on the horizon. Jaina sighed, and was just about to walk away when she heard him speak, almost inaudibly. Jaina boosted herself up onto the wall and sat there, facing the opposite direction that Jag was. She strained to hear him.
"I remember when I was very little, my mother used to take us up here. Me and my two older brothers and sisters. She started doing it because my brothers did not know how to fly starfighters yet, and dad never had time to take them down to the base, or to teach them in simulators. They wanted to see the fighters in action, and she figured they could do this while they were watching the squadron enter the atmosphere. We all loved seeing the ships so much that she ended up taking us to the roof every time Dad went away on a mission.
"When Jimmy and Robbie, those were my two older brothers, turned sixteen, they joined the navy. So my mother and my two older sisters would come up here after every mission to watch all three of them come in. One day, when I was twelve, only ten fighters entered the atmosphere. Both of my brothers had been killed in combat. Somehow, my mother knew that they were the ones missing. I still remember her screaming, and the look that was on her face. We ran down to the base; I was still hopeful that it was not them, but two other pilots. I even hoped that only one of them died. But it was no use. They confirmed the deaths as soon as we got to the base." Jaina reached over and took Jag's hand in hers, giving him friendly support as he continued his story.
"My mother still doesn't go up here. She says it's too hard. Sometimes I wonder why I even go up here anymore. My sister said she thinks I'm trying to honor their memory by keeping our tradition alive. I think its more about my father. That I'm keeping him safe or something, being up here. I don't know."
After that statement, Jag stopped talking. The pair sat in silence for a long time. Jag was quiet because he had nothing left to say and Jaina because she was not quite sure about how to respond to the narrative that she was just told. How was she supposed to respond to something like that? Yeah, she had lost a sibling, but she was there when it happened. She had a chance to try and help, to try to stop the inevitable. Jaina didn't know what she would do if she had to sit around, waiting for news, for most of her life. To be unable to do anything but wait. She had committed herself to listen to Jag, and offer her words of encouragement, only now that she had heard what he went through, she had nothing to say at all. What was she supposed to do? Jag answered all of her unspoken questions when he spoke.
"I really needed someone to listen to me, so I could get that off my chest, Jaina." He said quietly. "Thank-you."
Jag looked down at her then, and Jaina's heart leapt into her throat. The colonel's face was streaked with tears, a site that Jaina never thought she would see. His emotion moved her so much, that she raised her hand to his rough cheek, and brushed the tears away. They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment and then Jag caught her by surprise with a soft kiss.
He let his warm lips linger on hers for a moment, and Jaina could feel his shed tears against her cheeks. When Jag pulled back, breaking the kiss, he placed another on her forehead, and then squeezed her hand. Jaina smiled up at him, and flipped around on the wall, so they were both facing the same way. Jag lifted his arm in the air over her, and Jaina snuggled against his side. Jag wrapped that same arm around her, holding her tight.
"I'm sorry about Anakin, Jaina." He said. " I don't think I said that earlier."
"Thank you. I'm sorry about your brothers."
Any reply that Jag was about to voice was cut short by a low rumbling in the distance. The couple turned their attention towards the horizon. Jaina smiled as she saw Jag's face brighten when twelve undamaged starfighters roared into the atmosphere.

*FIN*