The New Adventures of Nomi Darklighter

Chapter 70 - The Aftermath of War

Nomi woke with a start, her heartbeat was increased and she was in cold sweat. Dash groaned and turned to the other side. His wife sat up and stared in the room's darkness unable to shake the eerie feeling. "Corran," she whispered. There was the short flicker in the Force when she felt her youngest son's presence. Then it vanished as if someone has extinguished a candle.
The Jedi shivered despite she knew that Corran was hiding in the Force she was pretty sure that something happened to their youngest son. The short flicker couldn't mean anything good.
Could she have lost one of her children to this damn war? She shook her head. No, please not Corran. He had suffered enough already in losing Sheila, his great love.
Nomi reached out with the Force, trying to locate her son wherever he might be. But there was nothing to be felt. She sighed silently to not wake her husband. But suddenly there was a clear sensation in the Force. It was strong and powerful. Nomi frowned, knowing this Force presence very well – Luke. Her old friend and Jedi Master's presence was shining like a homing beacon by night. But there was also another presence, dark, unstable, clouded and conflicted. This presence was full of hatred against everything and everybody, especially to itself. The Jedi knew only one person this could be after what her children had told her – Kylo Ren.
Nomi felt the emotions in the Force, not knowing what really happened. There were calmness and determination if it came to Luke, rage and hatred if it came to his opponent. She was pretty sure that somewhere a confrontation between uncle and nephew took place. But something felt odd. The Jedi Master got the emotions from different places. She frowned and tried to figure out what was going on. But Luke's presence suddenly vanished and Nomi felt the same as she had felt when her father died years ago. She gasped and bit in her own hand to suppress her outcry. Luke was gone; he became one with the Force.

Corran witnessed nothing of what happened on Crait between his Jedi Master and his former friend. He was still lying unconscious in the trench amidst his dead comrades. The small group of the surviving Resistance fighters had left Crait in the Millennium Falcon, leaving their dead behind unburied while barely escaping the First Order. Hours after the battle was over the young Rendar finally regained consciousness. His body and his head were hurting badly and around him was a puddle of blood built up of his own blood and that of his dead comrades. He needed all the strength he was able to muster to not faint again. Finally he tried to sit up carefully and fell to the ground again with a groan. He closed his eyes and still saw what he had seen the short moment he was sitting up. Brexon were lying at his side, the eyes wide open, but the man would never see anything. There were more of his comrades lying in their own blood. He tried to sit up again and fell again back to the ground.
He realized that it was calm. The battle noise was gone. There was only the wind to be heard. Corran was alone, left behind since they thought of him being dead. He tried again to sit and finally succeeded. The young Jedi closed his eyes and summoned the Force to heal himself how he had learned by his mother. His wounds began to heal.
After a while he was able to rise and limped over to the smoking gap that was hours before the gate to the former Rebel base. He still felt slightly dizzy, but he made his way inside.

The First Order troops had done a good job in destroying the equipment. Every comm unit was in pieces. Some of them were sporting cuts by a lightsaber and Corran was pretty sure to know who was responsible for this. He sighed and settled down on one of the few intact chairs. He was abandoned on a planet he knew nothing of, with no possibility to leave except the transports they came with. But those had only sublight engines, it would take years until he would reach the next inhabited planet or moon. He knew it was risky but he called in the Force for help, hoping that it wouldn't be Kylo Ren who would show up.