The Children of the Stars

New Jedi Order

Nellith's head was reeling as they entered the desert night once again. She was numb and silent as they all walked through the desert like the undead in Sith legends. She had lost her sister to the ancient and powerful throne, even if it was only temporary. And she had gained another sister and her little brother again.

She was no longer the youngest left alive.

She was no longer the Sword of the Jedi.

Not one person spoke or looked at each other as they left the wastelands of Jakku behind them and entered the Millennium Falcon. Despite the urgency of the situation, the adrenaline of the impending battle with the Imperial Remnant over Centerpoint Station, there was still that disbelief of what exactly happened in the desert.

That is, until they entered hyperspace. That was when Ben and Rey swiveled their chairs and finally looked at their two children who had been brought back from the dead.

"Mum, Dad," Anakin said, as if he too were unable to believe it. "I—"

Rey threw herself forward and hugged her child. He was still eleven years old, as he had been when he'd died at his eldest sister's hands.

Still, now he was alive and there and—

Jaina smiled at Jacen sheepishly, the emotion finally coming to her face, too, as if she'd only just remembered that she was alive.

"Guess it's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"It has," Jacen admitted.

"And you've changed." Jaina's smile turned sad.

"So did you," Jacen pointed out.

"I guess so." Jaina still managed to smile as she swept away emerging tears. "I can't believe— I'm alive again and—"

She whirled around to see Kitri learning against the wall of the cockpit, looking remarkably like Threepio.

"Kitri!" She embraced him, but he was as rigid as a board, hesitant to touch her as if she were a ghost, ready to dissipate completely.

Nellith had to admit that she knew the feeling. None of this felt real to her, any sensations on top of that—

She was disassociating, she realized numbly. Not even her body felt like her own in this moment, because something that seemed so permanent, so final as death had suddenly and irrevocably changed.

She had grieved, she had fought to overcome that survivor's guilt she had when she first left that cryogenic box a little over a month ago.

But now the reasons for all of it were completely undone, vanished and erased as if they had never happened at all.

Of course Nellith would be grateful for her sister's divine gift to all of them, but. . .

"Is it really you?" Kitri whispered. "I always dreamed—"

"I'm real." Jaina's hands framed his face. "I'm here."

Nellith looked away as they kissed, her eyes meeting with Kyp's.

"Fresher," she mumbled as she stumbled out of the cockpit.

She made her way to the turret, where she could just watch all of the stars streak past while everyone reunited with Jaina and Anakin once again.

She had to regain her sense of reality, the connection between her mind and body. Of course the best place to do it was perhaps the most disorienting location on the ship.

It wasn't long before she felt Kyp's presence beside her.

"Mind if I join you?"

"It's kind of tight in here." Still, she turned her chair so she could talk to him.