Jade sat alone. In a home she acquired some time before, she sat in the living room tweaking her droid. It was offline and the only other thing in the house besides her. Even then, its presence annoyed her. But it was the only thing she could stand. Without the presence of the Force, she couldn’t bear to sit beside another living thing. She could no longer sense the Force pulse through it.

A creak echoed through the house on the second floor. Her eyes shifted towards the incline up to the other level, a brow arched. Instinctively, she reached out with the Force, yet it remained silent to her.

Her heart scampered a few beats, the feeling of the unknown surprising her with fear. The droid wasn’t anywhere near being ready to be activated. She was supposed to be alone. She insisted to stay alone until she sorted things out.

Maybe now wasn’t the best time to be kicking herself.

She rose slowly, head tilted to the side as she peered up the dark stairs. A floorboard squawked near the top of the steps, causing her breath to catch. She called for her lightsaber, but without the Force, it too, ignored her. She reached down and picked it up off the table a few steps away from her, moving cautiously out of the sight of the steep flight. She swallowed hard.

I’m a soldier, she reminded herself, Force or no, I can take anything that comes at me.

She was sedated momentarily, calmed before a clamper of falling items filled her hearing. She bolted towards the steps, stopping just below them and looking upwards.

“Hello!?” Right, because if someone was in her house, they would answer. At least she knew that, if silence continued, there was a very real threat. And silence did follow. But it was hard to tell if there were any more sounds as her heart raced and her ears rang.

“H-hello?” she tried again, stepping onto the first step. “Show yourself!”

Thump, thump, thump. Jade’s mind reeled at the possibilities of the sound. So much so, she didn’t realize the sound was coming closer until the item hit her foot. She looked down, expecting to see a grenade.

Instead she saw a severed head.

Jade bolted upright, springing from her bed and charging the door. She stopped at its threshold, gasping, her forehead against the metal and her hands flattened across its surface. She beckoned the Force and it answered her. That gave her comfort. At least sometimes her dreams weren’t memories.