Peace of the Jedi [Sequel to Sword of the Lanterns]

Chapter Twenty-Six- Above and Below

Maybe his lightsaber has been on for too long. It was so warm in his hands, and the air around the blade had that pungent smell, like something about to explode.

Still, he pushed forward. He would not be bested.

"Calm yourself, Zekk, focus," Kyp urged. His eyes lost track of the colors of the blades hours ago/ All they were now were two pillars of white light. It burned his retinas to look at them, but at the moment, they were criss-crossed in his field of vision.

He pushed forward just a little bit more, sending Kyp back a step as he spun around, coming up with his blade in front of him defensively.

Kyp turned his blade off and shook his head.

"Oh come on," Zekk grumbled.

"Enough, Zekk," Kyp said sternly. the Jedi was only a few years Zekk's senior, but he was a master. Zekk was just a knight, maybe a friend.

"You've been pushing yourself past your limits for the last three months, Zekk. I never saw you this way before the wars, or even during them." Kyp said. He folded his arms, facing Zekk.

Finally, he turned off the blade. "Fine. I just want a distraction." Zekk admitted.

"Care to talk about it?" Kyp inclined his head knowingly.

"Not particularly, no." Zekk said. He turned away from Kyp's prying eyes, choosing to look out over the view of forests and ruins that this particular spot provided.

Kyp held his arms up in surrender. "Very well. As you wish."

"I...I'm headed back to the Academy. Master Skywalker wanted me to supervise training with the stun sticks today."

"Good luck," Zekk grinned.

"Thanks. I'll need it." Kyp waved goodbye, slowly meandering his way through the ruins and back towards the New Jedi Academy.

A head covered in brunette curls popped out of the bushes growing atop the old ruin. "Is he gone?"

"Al- Amelia!" Zekk scolded in surprise, careful to use the secret Solo child's adopted name. Allana grinned, her nose wrinkled just the way her father's used to when he told a particularly bad joke.

"You were supposed to be having lessons with Master Skywalker."

"He wanted to talk to granma, so he left me with Ben," Allana made a face, "And Ben is boring."

Zekk chuckled and shook his head. Left unattended, Ben Skywalker was more likely to wander off to talk to the trainees his age rather than teach his baby cousin.

It was strange, Zekk could have sworn that yesterday, Ben was just Allana's age, starting to experiment with his Jedi prowess at the Academy on Yavin IV, with good old 'Nik to take his cousin under his wing.

"You miss her, don't you?" Allana rocked back and forth on the heels of her feet, her hands tucked behind her back.

"Miss who?" Zekk somehow knew that he couldn't play dumb with this child in particular, but it didn't hurt to try.

"Aunt Jaya." Allana said matter-of-factly. "It's okay, I miss her too. Granma and Granpa miss her, but they say she needs to have space."

Zekk nodded. "Your grandparents are very smart people."

Allana nodded, a huge smile on her face as her stomach grumbled.

"Are you hungry?" Zekk asked suspiciously.

"Yes," Allana said, turning slightly red-faced.

"Well, I just finished my last protein bar, so why don't we go see what they're offering in the mess?"