Title: Dawn
Author: Lionchilde
Summary: You can't go home again.

Rating: PG
Length: 770 words
Category: um...awww?
Characters: Truen/Sky/Jaen
A/N: Set like 20 years prior to the events in the Knight Command RPG board.

Well, I wrote this for scifi_five, but someone forgot to post the challenge over here...so....it gets its own thread.

Dawn

The sun hadn't risen outside the blackened husk of the Jedi temple, and Truen felt suddenly grateful that Liruun had wanted to set out so early. He offered the Wookiee a faint smile as the speeder came to a halt, then shucked up his hood and started out. Shaggy fingers gripped his shoulder, halting him, and she whined a soft question.

"You really want to do this?"

"No," he said, leaning back in the seat with a slow, deliberate shake of his head. "But I can't sleep on a cot in your storeroom forever."

"I'll put you upstairs," she offered, and though her demeanor made it a joke, Truen didn't need the Force to tell him that she meant it. He reached up, closing his hand around hers for a moment, and then stepped out, walking slowly toward the stairs.

Memory whispers began as soon as his foot touched the bottom step, and though the acrid smoke of the present filled his nostrils, he found himself standing in another time. The temple was immaculate, bustling with life, and his own heart ached at the reality of leaving it. Part of him wanted to turn around, to find Kestry and apologize--at least not leave things on such bitter terms. She was his mother, whatever rift might be between them now.

"Is this really what you want?" Skynia asked quietly beside him.

He frowned thoughtfully, considering how to answer. She knew his heart better than anyone left here, and as a Jedi, she could well sense his conflicting feelings through the Force. "The trouble is that for a long time now I've just been forcing myself to do this. Trying be what Kianna wanted; what my mother wanted; I think sometimes even what you wanted. This is the only home I've ever really known…but you can't fake your way through life as a Jedi."

She nodded sadly, drawing a reluctant breath. "So, this is…it, then?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

Truen swallowed hard, cupping her face in his hands. "You could…but you couldn't come with me, could you?" he said finally, shaking his head.

"I'm a Jedi," Sky replied. "And I think you have someone waiting on Dlarkei."

He smiled a little, bending to press his lips to her forehead. "If you ever need me…" he promised as her arms slid around him.

"I know where you'll be," she nodded.

He held her for a long time, loathe to break the contact and take that final step. Eventually, though, she stepped back, and he turned to sling his bag over his shoulder again, hurrying down the steps.

Another mind touched his as he went, full of both worry and sad resignation. The Force will be with you, son.

Reaching the top of the steps, Truen laid his hand on what was left of the massive doors and pushed his way inside. It had turned out, of course, that Kestry was right, whether he'd wanted her to be or not. Tardin was still out there somewhere, undoubtedly plotting the resurgence of both the Empire and the Sith. The Senate preferred to think him no longer a threat, but Truen knew better than to so underestimate the Dark Lord. There would be a Jedi waiting for him when he made his next bid for power.

Three days after the battle, the temple halls were still rank with stale smoke and the stench of burning flesh. Truen closed his eyes in concentration for a moment and tapped the Force, directing its energy inward to dull his olfactory sense and ease the sting in his eyes--at least, the part that was caused by airborne soot.

He didn't know how long he'd worked by the time the last of the funeral pyres were lit. He lowered himself numbly to the ground in the courtyard, hugging his knees to his chest, and watched the flames swirl and stab upward at the Coruscanti sky.

"Mother, I can't do this alone," he said, the words almost a prayer as his hand slipped beneath his collar to pull out his half of the old Phoenix charm. Almost before the words were even out of his mouth, he sensed another presence in the temple and turned toward it, quickly getting to his feet.

He hurried back to the entryway, where his younger brother stood with huge eyes and a dazed expression. "Tru?" he almost whimpered.

Truen knelt, gathering the boy in his arms. "Jaen, you were supposed to stay with Liruun," he said, his own voice shaking now.

"But you needed me," came the reply.