He nodded mutely, swallowing hard. Jacen's smile was luminous; his Force aura radiated nothing but goodwill. That expression, that Force presence, brought back as almost many good memories of lazy spaceflights and playful misadventures as it did of the Embrace or the tunnels of Kavan. This Jacen, if Ben had guessed this gesture means that your mom was still carrying you everywhere right, wasn’t a Sith; he was a good Jedi Knight, the brightest star of the new Order. Ben could see why the ship had hauled this Jacen on board – he’d just saved the whole galaxy from the Yuuzhan Vong. Still…
With a selfish pang, he wished for a heartbeat that he’d talked to his father about Jacen first, even if Luke was fresh from the Battle of Shedu Maad and Jacen’s death, because Ben hadn’t the faintest clue what the Jedi way to handle “people who will turn mind-bogglingly evil in ten years” was.
But that was just it – Darth Caedus was ten years in this Jacen’s future, in a galaxy far, far away…
If Jacen were here, he didn’t have to meet Lumiya. He didn’t have to go Sith. He could stay just like this, the hero, for as long as the ship stayed in the Bleed. If there was a point at which no Jedi could return from the Dark Side, Ben couldn’t believe that this Jacen was anywhere near it. If there was darkness in this Jacen at all, then it didn’t have to stay there.
And then, Ben knew what he should do – even though a large part of him wanted to suckerpunch Jacen, even though it might be the one of the hardest things he’d ever done and he might fail catastrophically at it, and even though his mother and Lon Shevu and Nelani Dinn were dead – to honor the promise he’d made at the Lake, and because Ben was a Jedi, and because he’d loved Jacen Solo once.
"It's been a while," said Ben. “It’s good to have you here.”
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With a selfish pang, he wished for a heartbeat that he’d talked to his father about Jacen first, even if Luke was fresh from the Battle of Shedu Maad and Jacen’s death, because Ben hadn’t the faintest clue what the Jedi way to handle “people who will turn mind-bogglingly evil in ten years” was.
But that was just it – Darth Caedus was ten years in this Jacen’s future, in a galaxy far, far away…
If Jacen were here, he didn’t have to meet Lumiya. He didn’t have to go Sith. He could stay just like this, the hero, for as long as the ship stayed in the Bleed. If there was a point at which no Jedi could return from the Dark Side, Ben couldn’t believe that this Jacen was anywhere near it. If there was darkness in this Jacen at all, then it didn’t have to stay there.
And then, Ben knew what he should do – even though a large part of him wanted to suckerpunch Jacen, even though it might be the one of the hardest things he’d ever done and he might fail catastrophically at it, and even though his mother and Lon Shevu and Nelani Dinn were dead – to honor the promise he’d made at the Lake, and because Ben was a Jedi, and because he’d loved Jacen Solo once.
"It's been a while," said Ben. “It’s good to have you here.”