Chapter Text
With all the space and galaxy available, debris and asteroids flying around ready to be destroyed, a laser shot still managed to hit the X-Wing’s last protective shield, directly and accurately, making it lose its stability.
“Shit-” Jade gritted her teeth and felt her neck make a little too violent movement with the overhang coming from the back of her spaceship. She made it turn immediately, disappearing behind a large asteroid, as her eyes flew over the various flashing lights on the control panel.
Beep-bu bip-bi-buuoop!, a high pitched noise tweeted behind her.
“This is not the time to be negative, DD-3” the redhead smiled behind her orange tinted visor, lifting small levers and clicking on small buttons to the right and left of her seat, checking the rear-view from time to time. Then she even turned her head. A bold move, that was, and yes, she would've definitely needed a fix from the orthopedist once back at the base.
Pinned head-down, her droid trilled again, frightened, making her laugh. “Don’t worry, we’ll be home for dinner, I promise. Hold on now, ‘cause mom is about to destroy those bad guys!” She smirked, feeling confident, completely ignoring one of the two main engines, about to give out.
The starfighter circumnavigated the boulder, appearing from where it had become invisible to enemy radars, only now flying in the opposite direction, directly against dozen tie fighters.
Wwhhheeeeeeee!! The droid cried out, flashing red from the big dark eye and starting to turn its head at anxiogenic speed.
“Have some faith in me, my friend!” Jade bit her lips, narrowing her eyes and taking a deep breath, then squeezed in a tight grip both hand levers.
Three, tie fighters got her in their radars.
Two, they prepared for a mass attack against one single rebel.
One.
“Let’s finish this.” She pressed her index fingers hard on the buttons of the sonic machine gun.
From there, it was only a matter of minutes before the young Jedi took out at least half the enemy ships and helped the others destroy the rest. After maximum ten turns of the hands of her wristwatch, in the quadrant of space occupied by Jedi and Sith armies, there were only remnants of enemy ships.
“Whohoo!” A scream thundered on the shared radio, making the redhead smile as she turned around and directed her X-wing to the ship of the generals.
“Jade, you were amazing!” Another one said.
“It was a little rash, actually,” the only other female voice said. “but it worked.” She eventually added with relief.
“ Well, bless her recklessness, 'cause I sure as hell didn’t want to stay a second longer among these scumbags! ”
Jade swallowed, blinking a couple of times; she was again about to fall into thoughts, when Airk’s laughter reached her ringing ears, removing her from the brink, as often happened.
“You’ll have to give DD-3 a nice reward when we get back on the ground. At least a week off.”
Despite his voice sounding hoarse and distant because of the small and short audio interferences, Airk managed to help her, as always.
The most feared X-wing pilot, the one with a Jade stone painted on its side, couldn’t help but smile.
“You’re right, he did good.”
Bip-bi bi peeeeep. Beep!
“Don’t overdo it, now. You were scared shitless.”
Beep whoo, be-b eep.
Jade snorted a laugh, shaking her head. She turned away from the droid with a smile, but as soon as she faced forward, her expression returned pensive. She raised one arm and waited with her thumb against the switch for the green light to turn on as she entered the ship’s orbit, checking that all of her mates were all in place: after Boorman positioned his fighter, they were all ready.
‘Cuirass green, ready’, echoed a voice in the radio. ‘Cuirass red, ready.’ and ‘Yeah, whatever. Ready when you are, Jade’ added.
Her right hand was ready on the lever, as well as the left thumb on the lightspeed button. She sighed, turning off the radio microphone.
“No, DD-3. I’m the second best pilot.” Her voice was too low for the droid to hear.
Their command spaceship turned the engines on propelling light speed and sent the coordinates directly to all the smaller ships surrounding it; Jade saw the stars elongate, the ship bounced forward and, within seconds, beyond the front glass of her X-wing appeared the immense blue form of what had become her home planet: Alderaan.
Its sky, its big clouds moving ever so slowly, the green forests. It was always magical to see it all from space, and this time it was no different. Jade’s gaze softened looking at it, her eyes suddenly crossed by a slight veil of nostalgia.
“We’re home.”
▬▬ι═══════
“Hey, well done up there.”
Jade heard Airk trotting towards her as soon as she touched the ground; the girl took off her helmet and held it under her arm, smiling at him. “Yeah? You weren’t so bad yourself.”
Airk started walking with her, placing his arm on her shoulders and exhaled a little laugh. “No, I’m not the good flying twin. I’m better with my saber. Always have been.”
Jade’s expression darkened; it was normal for him to talk about it, but he always used to warn her. This time he didn’t. Despite her innumerous tries to work on it, the only mention of her felt like touching a sensible, exposed nerve, even if years had passed.
After a second thought, however, Jade decided to change subject, she wasn’t in the mood to discuss with Airk about their well established opinions on the matter.
“All excuses. You’re good. I’m the one who should complain. They keep putting me on a spaceship when they know exactly where i excel. I’m a Jedi, damn it. I didn’t do all the training just to be in space.”
“I know, but we serve there, too. Since the last attack...” He scratched his forehead, letting some cadets walk by. “We lost many ships. It was terrible.”
“I know, Airk. I was there.”
Maybe it came out too aggressive, because Airk looked at her as if he felt attacked. What did he expect? She couldn’t be patient and understanding all the time, especially when they ended up talking about this.
“Look, Jade.” They entered the base of operations between soldiers and flight companions, Elora ran past them to the kitchen and greeted both with a wave of her hand. They reciprocated, getting out and in of their topic very fast.
“I’m not saying it’s... her fault, that’s it. But she had all the information, all our maps and flight strategies. She knew what is your role in our offensive maneuver-”
Jade stopped and turned to stand in front of him, feeling anger mounting inside her. Again.
“Airk, just say it.” Crossing her arms, she looked harshly into his eyes, so terribly similar to hers. Or at least, similar to those the girl had slowly lost, year after year.
The young man let his shoulders drop a little, as well as his act. He barely whispered. “She is evil, Jade. She made her choice.”
“She didn’t do it.”
“How do you know?” His voice raised slightly.
A few months earlier, their ships had been attacked in unusual conditions: the resistance had decided to attack a key Sith resource point to put them at a disadvantage of at least a couple of weeks compared to them. Their plan was simple: get to the planet, tamper with the engines of the power plant and leave, silent and efficient. Useless to say, with all Jade’s squad working on site, it had been a success, easier even than expected. Only, once back on the ships and back into orbit, a tie silencer came out of nowhere and hit Jade’s spacecraft directly with its body, metal against metal, glass against glass, steel against steel. Luckily, Jade was still wearing her helmet and gravity suit, otherwise she would have died compressed from space nothingness.
Surrounded by chaos -because after that collision, Sith battleships appeared out of nowhere and attacked them, she had managed to hold on to her seat with all her might, probably connected with the Force, and the ship’s emergency mode instantly activated: the pilot unit unhooked from the debris that was now the spacecraft, bound for the nearest ally ship.
At first, the enemy Tie seemed controlled by remote, but that type of ship could not be controlled by anyone but a pilot, there in the cockpit. In fact, Airk, who had managed to hook Jade and pull her into his ship, had sworn he had seen a dark figure emerge from the remains of the spacecraft as it fell at full speed into the planet’s atmosphere. He thought, or rather, was convinced, it was-
“It wasn’t her. I simply know.” Jade blurted out, brought back to present from her memories by a cadet who ran next to her, lightly hitting her shoulder.
“You just know?”
“Exactly. She would never do it.”
“And what makes you think that?” Airk spat in the midst of personal doubt, emphasizing every word by placing his index finger on Jade’s chest, careful to keep his voice at reasonable volume after a few first angry words.
“She left us, Jade. My sister made her choice years ago, when the paths were two.” They stared at each other, intense. “She chose darkness, the Sith, when I was on the other side.” He pointed at his own chest, pursing his lips, evidently trying not to let himself feel too much.
“When you were there, too.” His eyes circled red, as if he were on the verge of tears.
And how could she reassure an abandoned brother? How could she tell him that she felt, deep down, that there was a reason? Could she trust her feelings, when they seemed to be so lonely in their rightfulness? Or was it just a mere hope, and he was right, and she was just a stupid kid, clinging to an idea that was cold and sterile and could have never been confirmed, and possibly be very well false?
Jade didn’t know what to say. She looked down, shaking her head slightly, staring at the head of her droid, that had joined them after post-battle maintenance. He tilted its metal head in a way that reminded her so much of the dog she had as a child, on Naboo. It almost made her cry. The dog she had with...
“I’ve stopped believing there’s any good left in her a long time ago.” Airk’s voice cracked, it made Jade lift her head and look at him with sad eyes. “And I think it’s time you do, too.”
He pressed his lips together even more, giving her a last, hurt look. Then, the young Jedi passed her and continued down the corridor at a brisk pace, leaving Jade alone in the middle of it to stare into nothing. Every trace of comfort and happiness they shared that day disappeared in the damp air of the metal passage in which all the soldiers were walking, some towards the kitchens, some towards the medical area.
Jade didn’t even had the strenght, or hope, to think.
Beep-beep-bwoo? Gee-dw e ?
The girl lowered her heavy lids, feeling unexpectedly tired, passing the back of her hand under her nose and sniffing. Both forearms, as well as every nerve in her hands, ached when she tensed and relaxed them. All she took was a moment, a handful of seconds to regain some composure, then she opened her watery eyes and gave her attention to the little droid who was gently pushing his big wheel against her boot. She smiled at him.
“Yes, DD-3. I haven’t forgotten about my neck. Would you mind coming with me?”
With a light and friendly caress on its painted red head, the two walked -and rolled- towards the infirmary, with heart and gears a little more rusty than when they were both younger and life was simpler.