Star Wars 1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_**Jedi Praxeum**_

_**Yavin 4**_

**26:09:11 ABY:**

It was early morning on Yavin 4, and as such, mostly quiet. In fact it was so early that light from the great gas giant of the planet it orbited, Yavin, was just starting to creep over the giant Massassi trees of the moon onto the courtyard and landing pad.

Standing alone on the edge of the landing pad beside the great temple of her uncle's Jedi Praxeum—or Academy as most of its inhabitants referred to it—was Jaina Solo. She had slept fitfully throughout the night and awoken before dawn to dress and make her solitary way to the landing pad. Her eyes upturned to the darkened sky, the only things she could see at the moment were a few darkened tufts of cloud that drifted lazily in an easterly direction. Being so early in the morning, it was cold outside, and even though she was wrapped up tight in a thick brown robe in an attempt to keep warm, she was shivering.

She sensed the approach of another behind her; heard the dull stumble-step of a half-awake humanoid, the rustle of a robe. She did not turn. She kept her eyes on the sky, ignoring the clouds that brightened little by little with the dawn, ignoring the shadowed whisper birds and their shrieking calls, ignoring the rustle in the trees of woolamanders rousing and fleeing from the sight of a human in the jungle.

Near the jungle.

When the person behind approached closer still, she allowed a microsecond probe of their mind to identify them, and restrained the sigh that threatened to escape from her lips. Instead, she allowed her eyes to drift with a solitary cloud until it passed her view.

Jacen Solo stopped beside her, looking back and forth from her to the sky as it brightened faster, the tip of Yavin pushing over the tops of the great trees into the sky. She said nothing, and neither did he for a great moment.

When she sensed that he could no longer contain himself, she dropped her gaze and waited.

"What are you looking for, exactly?" Jacen half-yawned.

Jaina turned her head just enough that she could shoot him an exasperated look. "Nothing for the moment," she said simply, "but the _Falcon_ should be here soon." And then her eyes went back to the sky, to watch the giant orange planet rise and rise.

Still nothing yet, not even a glimmer from the Force to let her know that the ship was nearby.

Jacen raised a quizzical eyebrow at her. "Are you sure you haven't been driven insane by the whirring and clanking of all those machines you keep around?" he said in jest. "Uncle Luke said that they wouldn't be here until midday."

"Yes …" Jaina said absently, allowing her gaze to drift with a flock of whisper birds that passed overhead. She looked back down at her brother when they passed around and behind the building of the Praxeum. "But you know what Dad's like. Since when does he ever make sure to arrive on time?" she added with a forced chuckle—forced because it was too early and too cold to be genuine.

"Well …" Jacen shrugged. "Never, I suppose."

He looked up at the sky briefly, then back down at Jaina. "I might as well join you while I'm out here. I couldn't get back to sleep now that I know you're out here in the _freezing_"—he emphasised the word heavily—"cold making an absolute fool of yourself waiting for them when they won't be here for hours."

An hour passed by in relative silence, an hour in which the two of them huddled close, arms around each other's shoulders in a vain attempt to share body warmth to stave off the cold. The sounds of the jungle were trancelike and Jaina allowed them to permeate her senses while she waited.

Another hour passed soon after, and dawn was well and truly over by this point. The day was bright now, the sun reflecting off the great gas giant far above them and in full view above the jungles of the moon.

The academy was in motion behind them. It was a scheduled non-study day, so many of the Solos' fellow students were to be found at this hour stretching as they left the great temple building.

An unexpected grunt from behind startled them both and they drew apart to turn around. Lowbacca, their close friend and nephew to their father's close friend Chewbacca, was standing behind them, his copper coloured fur and his syren fibre belt glinting in the morning light and his furry paws resting on his hips in what could have been misconstrued as a defiant stance.

The Solo twins grinned when they saw him and beckoned him to join them. Jaina noticed at once that the Wookiee had forgone activating the translator device that was uncharacteristically clipped to the belt.

The device was called M-TD, and was in fact a small complex droid that had been constructed by Chewbacca and programmed by the protocol droid, C-3PO, as a translator for the young Wookiee when he had let his uncle know his intent on becoming a student at the Praxeum several years ago.

It was of fairly basic design, oval shaped with a photoreceptor on each side separated by a speech module. The droid could speak sixteen—originally six—different languages, in comparison to C-3PO's six million, and had been upgraded a few years ago with an intricate system of small repulsors so that it could hover after Lowbacca in favour of being attached to the Wookiee's belt on a continual basis.

However, Lowbacca knew that with the Solos, M-TD's activation was unnecessary. All three of them had learned the language enough from their father, Han Solo, and Chewbacca to form a rough idea of whatever their Wookiee friends were saying, and what they couldn't understand straight off, they used the Force to assist them.

Lowbacca rumbled something low and guttural, provoking a laugh from Jacen in response. Jaina's lips drew into a hard line and she fixed them both with a dirty look, putting her hands on her hips.

"That wasn't funny," she said disparagingly. Then she narrowed her eyes at Jacen. "You're teaching him bad habits, you know that?"

"If having a sense of humour and pointing out the obvious at the same time is a bad habit; yep, sure, you bet-ya," Jacen said with a grin. He exchanged high-fives with the Wookiee before turning back to face his sister. "You should try it some time. You never know, you might actually like it."

She didn't respond.

An overhead distraction had grabbed her attention yet again. But this time, the distraction came not in the form of native wildlife or the brightness of Yavin or the drifting of overhead clouds, but in a sound all three of them recognised, and one Jaina had been waiting for.

She could not yet see the ship, for there were some clouds drifting by obscuring some of the sky from view. She knew, though, that if she could hear the engines of the _Falcon_ now, it meant that the ship had to be on final approach to the moon, which meant that it was behind one of those obstacles.

She was right.

Seconds later, the roughly-circular shape of the _Millennium Falcon_ punched its way through a thick tuft of cloud and changed course to a more vertical approach.

Jaina felt Lowbacca's furry paw come to rest on her shoulder and took the hint. She and Jacen turned around and followed him to the very edge of the courtyard. As they did so, she spied her uncle, Luke Skywalker, and youngest brother, Anakin, approaching them also; both dressed in sand-coloured tunics and dark brown robes matching hers and Jacen's.

Several others outside on the courtyard were putting a stopper to their own activities and standing around watching the _Falcon_'s approach, wondering what it was that brought Han and Leia Solo to the moon this day and at this hour.

Jaina took stock of Anakin and Luke.

Anakin was very much like the pictures recovered in Republic records of their grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, in appearance. His hair was close cropped, but dark brown like their father's, and he had the same youthful optimism that their grandfather had possessed at that age. He was a little shorter than Jaina and her twin, Jacen, with an even build, a strong chin and ice blue eyes.

Luke was taller than all of them, with slightly darker blue eyes than his young nephew, Anakin, with a crease down the centre of his chin and a kind demeanour. He was of strong build, his mannerisms confident and compassionate. Like Anakin, his hair was close cropped but was a little lighter than the former's, though still darker than Jaina's.

"Morning, you three," Luke said with a smile as they gathered at the edge of the courtyard.

Jaina chanced a glance at the _Falcon_'s progress before looking back down at her uncle and nodding with a return smile.

"So it is," Jacen said smartly from her left. Anakin was standing next to their uncle, his expression tired.

"It's gratifying to know that your razor-sharp wit has survived the early morning rise, Jacen," Luke said slyly. Jacen returned the smile then stifled a yawn that threatened to introduce itself to the group.

"Hey Uncle," he started when the yawn passed, "how many Mandalorians does it take to change a glow panel?"

"I'm pretty sure I've heard this somewhere," Luke said warily. "Oh, no, that was stormtroopers. I don't know. How many?"

"Depends how much you paid them." Jacen said, and then laughed.

Luke sighed. "Bit early for satirical humour, isn't it?"

All of them turned back to the landing pad to see that the _Falcon_ was completing its landing descent and that all three landing struts were extended in wait for the final contact.

When it did touch down on the courtyard, it stayed there, immobile, for a full three minutes, hull ticking audibly as it cooled, before Jaina heard the distinct whine of the engines begin their shutdown cycle. Even if she could not sense the shutdown procedure as it happened, she still would have known before the rest of them. As mechanically minded as she was, she knew every aspect of the ship as well as her father and Chewbacca did, including as the shutdown and start up procedure timings.

The landing ramp descended from the starboard underside of the ship from the midsection and touched down on the cold stone before the hatch at its apex opened to allow the ship's occupants to depart.

A whole party exited the ship, answering Jaina's unspoken question as to the reason for her parents' visit to them this early in the day. Judging from the reactions of the others, she could tell that her brothers and their Wookiee friend were just a curious, but that her uncle was no, and he was feeling rather … expectant?

At the head of the group were Han Solo and Leia Organa-Solo, hand in hand as they approached the group with broad grins. Jaina's mother was wearing a formal dress she reserved for Senate meetings; full white with an open neck and long sleeves to the wrists. Her hair was loosely tied back behind her in a ponytail, which Jaina could never remember seeing her mother do before. Contrarily, her father wore an open necked shirt with a leather jacket atop and leather pants to finish. His hair was slightly windblown, as if he hadn't bothered to check it since his last planetary visit.

Behind them was the protocol droid, C-3PO, gleaming bright gold in the morning light and shuffling along behind his charges as best his rigid form allowed. Next came a pair of young adults, around Jaina and Jacen's age—a boy and a girl—and they were followed closely by Chewbacca, whose dark furry paws rested gently upon their shoulders in a way that conveyed—what, familiarity?

"Good morning Mum, good morning Dad," Anakin called from behind Jaina, pushing past her and her twin to get to his parents first. Jaina and Jacen followed a second later and all three were soon caught up in one of those brief emotional moments they had the opportunity to come along.

The last time Han and Leia had come to Yavin 4 was almost a year ago, when they had dropped Lando Calrissian off at GemDiver station in orbit of Yavin. They'd taken the opportunity while they were in the system to drop by the small jungle moon to visit their kids and Luke and catch up before heading back to the Core.

"It's good to see the three of you again," Han said, planting a kiss on the top of all three heads. Jaina noticed Chewbacca and Lowbacca had already moved off to the side to have a quiet conversation of their own in one of their native dialects. She chose not to eavesdrop.

Luke coughed conspicuously to draw the attention of the others back to the reason for this visit.

"Oh, yes. Sorry about that," Han said quickly. Jaina and her brothers got the hint at once and backed away a couple of steps. She looked over at the two newcomers and instantly realised they were the main reason for her parents' visit; that they were dropping off a couple of Force-sensitives for training.

Though, Jaina thought, at their age, why they hadn't been identified as Force-sensitives before now eluded her. There were enough Jedi spread across the galaxy now to detect Force-sensitive individuals in half the known galaxy.

Both the newcomers were nervous, she could tell from their outward attitudes. The girl was staring around at everything with wide blue eyes; taking in her surroundings, staring at the temple Jaina had seen her uncle and brother depart moments before. The boy was staring mostly at his feet or the border between jungle and the stone landing pad, barely looking at anything else.

The more she observed them, the more Jaina got the feeling that she recognised them both; they both seemed so very familiar to her.

Jaina moved on from observing their behaviour to taking in their individual appearances. The boy had short dark brown hair which was ever-so-slightly curled and in a semi-messy state—as if he had tried to subdue it at some point and then given up on it—and brown eyes. He was of similar build to Jacen with broad shoulders and strong muscles showing through his sleeveless shirt. He was taller than her by several inches and Jaina had to admit that he was kind of attractive, in that roguish sort of way she guessed her mother found her father to be.

The girl was taller still, but only fractionally. She had long blonde hair which had been done up in a tight braid at the back, and blue eyes to rival Luke's. She was of a similar build to Jaina with a slender, shapely figure, and a tough feminine look about her.

It struck Jaina that several of their facial structures appeared to be very similar, like the shapes of their eyes and the set of their jaws. She assumed that they were siblings, but chose, out of respect for their privacy, to not probe their minds for the answer to that assumption.

"It's perfectly alright," Luke said dismissively.

"I picked up these charming young people on Sullust about a year ago," Jaina's father started, "and left them with Lando on GemDiver. I suppose you got his message?"

And then it hit Jaina where she had seen them both before.

The last time Jaina and Jacen had last been up to GemDiver Station, she had seen a couple of new workers, and seen them only once, in the storage bay stacking crates and taking inventory for a shipment that Lando had told them was going to Coruscant the next day.

"They've been giving him a hand up top with the operation, but Lando thought that they'd be better off down here with you, considering that they've both started to manifest Jedi traits," Han explained before anyone could ask. "He had no ships available to transport them down himself, so I volunteered to do it … for a price," he added with a grin.

Jaina noticed the way that her uncle was looking at the newcomers—it was with that same familiarity she could swear Chewbacca had shown upon their arrival. The only logical conclusion that she could draw was that all of the adults present knew the two newcomers, and that the feelings of kinship, if not outright friendship, she sensed from them spanned many, many years. Showing more patience than she usually was famous for, she chose not to voice her questions yet.

"I kind of figured that was the case. It's been a long time," he added to the boy and girl. He appraised them both with a slightly confused, questioning look, as if there was a question he so much wanted to ask, but didn't. He looked at the girl. "And if memory serves, only you were showing sensitivity to the Force at that time," he said.

She nodded in reply, meeting his eyes.

Jaina saw the twitch at the corner of the girl's mouth that preceded her broad grin. She felt her own curiosity build until it got to the point where she found herself fighting to keep from reading the thoughts of the newcomers. So, instead, she voiced the most obvious of questions.

"You know them?" Jaina asked politely, not just to her uncle, but to her parents as well. She could see the familiarity on all three of their faces. The odds were good that if her parents and uncles knew them, then it was a sure bet that 3PO and R2-D2 did as well. However, a droid's mind she could not scan.

"Yes," Luke replied thoughtfully. "To an extent, so do you. I'm sure I've mentioned the story of our trip to the living planet at least once?"

To Jaina's recollection, he had told the story _exactly _once. But before she could voice her confusion, her uncle turned his gaze from Jaina and her brothers to the newcomers and spoke again. "I'd love to hear more about what's happened to you both since we last met, but I think we should get you settled in first."

The boy spoke up in immediate response. Jaina had expected with his appearance that he would have a soft voice, with perhaps a slighter-higher-than-norm pitch. In fact, his voice was much different than that, and Jaina didn't miss that his eyes were appraising her as he spoke.

"Sounds good to me, Master Jedi," the boy said. When he noticed Jaina staring back, he shifted his gaze to look at her uncle instead and continued. "We don't have much in the way of … well … personal stuff. Most of it was lost—"

"What my brother means to say is that we've pretty much only got what Mister Calrissian was able to part with," the girl cut him off. "A few changes of clothes, reading material."

"I understand completely," Luke responded kindly. "In anticipation of such an event, I took the liberty of acquiring a few things according to what I remembered of your personal interests."

Jaina's patience was at tooth's-edge, and she coughed conspicuously to draw her uncle's attention. "Introductions?" she urged her uncle politely when he looked her way.

"Oh, yes!" Luke clapped his hands together and turned so that he could see the whole party in his field of view. "How rude of me not to have started with that. Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo, meet Zak and Tash Arranda." He turned to the newcomers. "These three charming young people are Han and Leia's kids," he explained as if that cleared things up. "And that young Wookiee over there is Chewie's nephew, Lowbacca."

"Pleased to meet you," Jacen said with a mischievous grin.

_Great,_ Jaina thought, _new victims for those tasteless jokes he's always coming up with. May the Force help them through that._ Jacen shot her a cheeky look at that last thought, which she pointedly ignored.

"They'll be completing their training here," Luke added to Jaina and her brothers.

Jaina nodded at the Arrandas with a polite smile by way of greeting. Lowbacca was still conversing privately with his uncle and didn't seem to notice that the introductions had been and gone. Jaina made it a point to be the one to introduce him to the newcomers later when an opportunity presented itself.

"Jacen, Jaina, could you show Zak and Tash to their quarters? Level three, rooms eight and nine respectively." Luke said evenly, gesturing to the boy and girl. "I'd like a few moments with the adults to discuss a couple of things."

Jaina nodded, and so did her twin, and she led the way, sensing her brothers both fall into step behind her, and the new arrivals a few steps behind them.

* * *

When they showed Zak and Tash to their rooms, Jaina concluded that her uncle had dealt with the matter of the new arrivals' most obviously expected arrival personally. Either that or he had received enough forewarning of their arrival to have sorted their quarters—or had someone else sort them out—for them.

Jaina and Jacen showed Tash to her room first; room nine on the western side of the level, directly opposite her brother's room and right next to the one assigned to the Solos' friend, Tenel Ka Djo.

The room was furbished to standard with a single, comfortable bed and a small bedside table with an adjustable night lamp sitting on the tabletop. Across from the room was a wardrobe, hanging open when they arrived to reveal a cleaned orange jumpsuit from storage as well as a trio of sand coloured tunics and dark brown robes. Three sets of boots sat on the floor of the wardrobe, straps undone. The drawers were also opened, but presently empty.

In the corner of the room—much to Jaina's pride to notice—was a small sink and a hook on the wall near it held a single fluffy white hand towel. Crammed against the only other available corner was a small durasteel work desk with a holo projector atop it and a couple of stacks of holo chips in a tray on the chair in front of it.

"Oh my," Tash said, her hand flying up to her mouth in either shock or awe. She rushed over to the holo chips and started examining some of the titles.

Jaina could sense through the girl that most of the titles were historical documents and records, maps of the galaxy and shifts of power over the past three decades—classic study material for someone that had been out of the loop for a while. The others were classic holodramas or novels written anywhere from a thousand years ago to the present.

Jaina left Tash in Jacen's and Anakin's capable hands to settle in while she escorted Zak across to the other room and let him in.

Similarly, his room had a bed, bedside table with lamp, sink, desk and wardrobe. The carvings on the wooden bed frame and wardrobe were, however, dissimilar to the ones in Tash's room, as was the case with all of the beds and wardrobes in the building. Zak's collection of holo chips consisted of the same historical information Tash's held, but without the fantasy literature. Instead, he had a couple of small stacks comprised of technical manuals and schematics. Half of his desk, however, was covered in neatly stacked mechanical devices such as console screens and datapads and a couple of holocams that had long since ceased functionality.

Jaina did a double-take, to make sure that she had seen it all correctly. When she was certain she had, she couldn't help herself but smile. Lowbacca was the only other Jedi in the facility that had shown as much interest and skill in the field of mechanics that Jaina had. It seemed now that there would also be this mysterious Zak Arranda. The three of them could possibly even collude on projects together.

The robes, tunics and boots in Zak's wardrobe were all much darker, black leather for the exterior of the tunics, with softer inner lining. And jet black nerf-wool robes. The boots were similarly made of leather and, unlike Tash; Zak had been supplied with three sets of black leather gloves. Jaina fretted about that. Sure, many at the Praxeum had gloves, but mostly they had had to acquire them on their own through their own devices—or credit account. Her uncle had seemingly gone out of his way to supply a few sets to one of his new students, and to Jaina that smacked of some sort of insight into the young man that she clearly did not have yet, or that he similarly did not know about himself—judging by the confusion in his mind at the sight of the gloves. Similarly, his wardrobe also possessed an orange jumpsuit and utility boots.

Zak said not a word as he took in the room and its furnishings, and Jaina decided that, while she itched to talk to him about his apparent mechanical interests, she could wait for another opportunity to do so. She backed out of the room quietly and closed the door, leaving Zak to his thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Zak spent most of the day in the room given to him by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker—a title which in itself shocked him—sifting through the mechanics on his bench, checking out the clothing he had been provided. He even chanced a look at some of the historical documents, starting with the Rebel Alliance's destruction of the horrific Death Star, marking the turn of the tide of the war.

Apparently, he soon found, people started to mark time by the Battle of Yavin. Beforehand, it had always been the Treaty of Coruscant that had been the time marker. But now everything was BBY—Before the Battle of Yavin—or ABY—After the Battle of Yavin. It would take time to get used to.

Before lights out that night, Luke had summoned both he and his sister Tash to meet him on the roof of the building. Zak knew why before he'd even left his room. It had been many years since he had seen Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia—Leia Solo now, he reminded himself—and he knew that the great Jedi would want to know all that had happened to Zak and his sister since they had last seen each other on Kiva. It wasn't a discussion that Zak was looking forward to, and he really didn't want to be reminded of what he and his sister had lost. He could tell by the amount of times that his sister choked on her own words that she was having difficulty with it as well.

He knew she missed their uncle as much as he did—not that he was _really_ their uncle. He was only related to them because his brother had married their mother's younger sister. But, still; if it hadn't been for that humourless, overprotective and often mysterious shape-shifter, they would have died when—

He pushed it out of his mind whenever it popped up.

But it was part of the reason that he could get no sleep that night, no matter how much he tried to exhaust himself. It was that, and Tash's last words to him before they both departed for bed plagued his thoughts.

_"I want you to promise me something,"_ she had said. _"I want you to promise me that for as long as we're here, you won't go looking for trouble."_

He snorted at the thought as he turned to his side and clamped his eyes shut again.

He couldn't quite bring himself to see what it was that she could have meant by that? In all of their years together running from the Empire, he had not once ever gone looking for trouble. Trouble had come looking for him. And when it came looking, it usually found them both.

Around midnight, or Zak's approximation of midnight, he decided that lying in bed staring at the ceiling or the wall was going to do nothing for him. He needed to exhaust himself somehow.

He decided then and there that a walk would do just that. Not an especially long one—a short one if at all possible—but a walk nonetheless. To hell with Tash's attempt to order him around, he thought to himself. It was a new life for them, and he felt that there was no place safer than under the protection of the galaxy's greatest Jedi.

Pushing himself out of bed, he hastily donned a dark tunic and darker robe from his wardrobe, tucking the gloves into his belt for the moment and tugging his boots on while heading for the door.

He opened it a crack and leaned close to the narrow opening to see if he could detect the sounds of sentries—humanoid or otherwise—nearby. There were none. In fact, he had the strongest sense that he was the only one awake at this time. Even the Jedi mentors had fallen into deep slumbers. It was one of those feelings of certainty he had grown used to on the run from the Empire.

But the lack of a sentry altogether only reinforced in Zak's mind the amount of trust that Skywalker placed in everyone there; trust that no one would go sneaking out at this hour—that trust was only slightly misplaced in Zak. He felt guilty about that, but he was sure that Luke would understand.

Zak moved quickly, drawing his robe tightly around him and holding it closed at the waist, throwing the robe's hood over his head. He dashed out of the room and banked an immediate right where he then dashed around the outer walls of his room and up the corridor past the mentors' rooms. He followed the corridor to the lift banks along the north-eastern corner of the level. He waited quietly, impatiently, for one to open at his presence and then ducked inside quickly, slapping the control that would take the lift down to the next level.

It would take more effort and sneakiness to escape this place at night than it ever would have taken him back on GemDiver. Whenever he found it difficult to sleep at night on the station, he often snuck out of the guest quarters assigned to him and made his way to the observation decks on the upper levels for some peace and solitude. The lift banks on GemDiver took him many levels. The difference here was that each lift bank only went between a pair of levels, instead of more than that. Maybe it had something to do with the stepped design of the building, maybe it was something else.

When the lift stopped on the second level, Zak peered out through the open doors, checking again for sentries, before stepping out and around into the northern corridor.

He looked down the adjacent corridor, running down the eastern side of the level in front of the row of rooms and strained his ears for even the faintest of sounds. Again, he heard nothing save the gentle hum of power from the lifts across from him. He darted forward to the next set of lift banks—one lift stood open, ready for him—and darted inside the lift. Catching his breath, he pushed the control to take him to ground level and closed his eyes for the duration of the trip down.

* * *

Less than five minutes later, Zak was outside in the cold air of the night time jungle. It was dark out, but not too dark. Light from the many stars overhead shone down upon the moon, giving him enough to make out shapes and shadows in the gloom.

He took several paces away from the outer wall of the massive stone building and opened all of his senses to the jungle.

A handful of sounds alerted him to the wildlife and movement in the nearby jungle. Whisper birds were quiet at this hour, as were those few woolamanders that dared to come this close to any area humanoids occupied. There was a faint, faraway buzz as a swarm of piranha beetles surged through the air in search of unsuspecting prey, and the slither of a crystal snake hidden somewhere in the underbrush of the jungle.

The thought of the crystal snake reminded him again of his uncle as he remembered the last time he had been bitten by such a creature and sobered his relative excitement. He did not care to repeat the experience, but did not fear it as he had no intention of entering the jungle at—

There was movement in the trees, distracting his train of thought and he squinted as he looked at the tree line. He thought he saw a shadow move, something human-sized, but thought that it was entirely possible that his mind was just playing tricks on him. At this hour in such a dark place where he had not been before, he wasn't willing to rule out the possibility.

A breeze had picked up, and he slipped his gloves on and wrapped his arms around himself as best he could in to keep the warm robe closed tight around his body.

Now that he was outside, he looked around at his surroundings; the temple walls stretching for many meters on both his left and his right, the tree line on the edge of the courtyard stretching around both the courtyard and landing pad and, probably, the entire Praxeum grounds as well.

Then he saw it again; the shadow.

It looked like it could have been a human shadow, and reassessed his assumption that he was the only one awake. He didn't know many people in this place, and therefore the sleeping habits of any of them could very well coincide with his own. Carefully, he took a few steps in the direction of the tree line, his pupils dilating to take in as much light as possible from the sky to identify the potential company.

When he got closer, however, the shadow ducked out of sight behind a thick Massassi trunk. He wished he could control his abilities, his connection to the Force, enough to send a deliberate probe outward to identify them. But he couldn't do that yet, much to his disappointment; his abilities were still infantile compared to those of the Solos. He brushed aside dense jungle undergrowth, defying his instincts to stay out of the jungle to investigate the strange shadow.

After a few minutes, he pushed through to a small clearing with many tree trunks that had been hollowed out from rot at their bases and decided that he'd gone quite far enough. However, he hadn't thought to get himself a holomap of the immediate area, so the only way he could get back was to double back on his steps and head that way. Unfortunately, he ended up trekking deeper into the undergrowth, leaves crunching and twigs snapping noisily under his feet.

When he finally stopped to take another look around, he saw the shadow again. He was closer now than last time, and he could tell that whatever it was, it was definitely humanoid in shape. He wondered if whoever, whatever, it was knew he was so close. Intent not to frighten it with his proximity, he did not approach it and, instead, called out to it.

"Hello?" he called in a low voice. The shadow straightened up and turned as if to face him, but Zak could make out no features, just the blot of black against the darkness of night. "Hello? Who's there?" he tried again. There was no verbal answer, but the shadow did turn again and take off in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" Zak shouted, taking chase.

Part of him was screaming in his head to turn right back around and continue trying to get back to the temple, to ignore this strange presence. It could be dangerous. And yet the adrenaline junkie in him was determined to find out who it was that appeared to be stalking him from the thick jungle, now that he knew it was definitely not just a specimen of nocturnal wildlife, and why.

But what was most disturbing about it was that he could _feel_ the other person. Though the shadow had since left his sight, he could still track it by some kind of instinct he could not explain. Was this the Force? He didn't know, and right now he didn't particularly care. He would listen to whatever it was that was telling him where to go.

However, it wasn't an entirely foolproof instinct. Without warning, he suddenly found himself at the top end of a very steep slope. He didn't realise it soon enough to stop and stumbled over a tuft of thick grass at its peak.

He stumbled a few steps, an uncontrolled few steps down the slope, and then tripped and hit the slope hard, tumbling down it end over end and hitting the ground with practically every part of him. It took less than half a minute before he hit level ground, and when he did he landed hard on his left arm. He felt, and heard, the crushing of the bones below his elbow, and the pain that seared up into his brain like a sharp arrow tip.

It took great effort to force himself not to cry out.

It was almost unbearable. He could recall no pain he had endured before like this in his life.

Bracing himself with his right hand, he looked around, still on the ground, and saw nothing but grass and shadows that were being cast by dozens of different things. Amongst these was the humanoid shape again, closer than before but still entirely cloaked by shadows.

He pushed himself to his feet, using his right hand as a brace upon the ground, and staggered for a few seconds as he regained his balance. His left arm hung useless and searing at his side and he winced with the fresh surge of pain that shot up into his brain as he stood.

He eyed the shadow for a second before stumbling after it. He cradled his useless arm with his right hand and gave chase again, eager now to find out who had caused him this pain and find out why.

He ran on, trying his best to ignore the pain in his arm that surged with each stride and the tears that threatened to burst from his eyes.

Again, because of the darkness cast by the giant trees, he didn't see another obstacle in his road and was tripped up again. After five seconds of unbalanced running, he fell to the ground again, crushing his left arm for the second time that night and falling from the realm of consciousness.

Zak awoke the next morning groggy and confused. Clamping his eyes shut, he tried to fight back the nausea from his gut and the pain in his left arm.

Hold on—pain? Left arm?

The last thing that Zak could remember was leaving his room in the middle of the night to go for a walk in the courtyard outside the Praxeum building. After that it was as if there was a gap, a dark place, a—

_Your memories will return_, a voice penetrated into his mind from somewhere in the dimmed room. Zak tried to reach out with his Force senses, forgetting that they were still mostly underdeveloped. The voice chuckled at his attempts. Whoever it was definitely had a connection to the Force, and a more developed one than he.

He opened his eyes and looked around.

He couldn't recognise the place he was in, but it was bigger than any standard room. He wasn't in the jungle anymore, of that much he was certain. He could see no trees overhead, nor any grass beneath him or bushes and scrubs around.

He sat up, awkwardly with only one hand to brace himself, and looked down at his left arm which was slung across his chest in a stable-looking sling made of what looked like woolamander fur. He tried to move his arm and felt the tug of a strap around his torso. Whoever had slung his arm had tied it around his body to restrict any attempt he made to move it.

This far away from the academy, and Zak was under no illusion that he had been _returned_ to the academy, he doubted that whoever it was that had spoken into his mind had was someone that he knew. And yet, despite that, _they_ had known _him_ well enough to predict that he might try to move the arm when he regained consciousness. Whoever they were, they were smart.

_Your complements are not necessary_, the ethereal voice said again. Zak could hear the smile behind the words.

But looking around, he could see no one in the … what? Where was he? He looked around again; taking inventory of the room he was in. His robe had been removed and had been bundled up as a pillow for his head as he lay, and the left sleeve of his tunic had been cut away in order for the stranger to be able to work on his arm.

Under him, several thick layers of bed coverings had been spread out in what was obviously a makeshift bed. To his left and right were banks of control boards, and a chair to his left that had been torn from the floor plates. More control boards flanked the sides of the room, but their chairs had been ripped out and removed from the room entirely.

The room, or chamber, or deck, was roughly twice his height, and easily four or five times that in length and width. It resembled half of an oval, a flat wall at the back with a trio of lift tubes; the walls curving around to meet at the front where he sat.

He got unsteadily to his feet and leaned back on the forward control boards for support as he checked out the broken light fixtures in the ceiling and walls, and the smashed control boards all around the room.

It was a ship. The idea popped into his head suddenly and unexpectedly that it irked him that he hadn't realised it sooner. This was obviously some sort of command module.

It looked like someone had turned it into a home over past years; almost everything was covered in dust or dirt. There were empty emergency ration packages torn open and strewn around storage container in the corner that looked like it had been used as a waste container—now overfull.

And still, he was alone.

Who was that voice?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_**Jedi Praxeum**_

_**Yavin 4**_

Zak was missing.

Tash was annoyed.

The previous night, before bed, she had specifically told him not to go looking for trouble, and it looked like he had once again ignored her and done just that. He'd been doing it for years, and it wasn't just Tash that he tended to ignore at these times. He'd ignored their uncle too, and his droid DV-9.

Already, Tash had enlisted the help of the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina, to look for her brother, but neither of them had been overly enthusiastic about it at first. They didn't know Zak like she did, and so his disappearance to them would look as if he had just gone for a stroll or his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had gone off to explore the jungle.

She knew better, well at least she was convinced that she did. There _was_ always that small chance that they were right and she wasn't. Zak _had_ displayed a little more maturity over the past year, and she was well aware—though he didn't know it—of his sneaking off to the observation decks of GemDiver late at night when he thought she was asleep.

"Tash!" someone called from behind her. She felt Jaina Solo's presence approaching before she turned around to see the dark-haired girl and stopped.

"Hi, Jaina," she said grimly. "Have you come across anything yet?"

Jaina frowned, but not disapprovingly. It was almost as if she was annoyed that she hadn't found something. "Not yet, I'm afraid," she said. "Jacen's in Sensor Analysis now checking out the readings from last night's scans. If Zak left the building, the sensors picked it up."

"What's the range they carry?" Tash inquired.

The other girl stopped to think about that before she answered. "The external, long-range sensors can sweep up to thirty-five kilometres from the building. The internal sensors should be able to map any movements he made up to the tree line around the courtyard."

"What if he's gone beyond the thirty-five?" Tash wasn't even sure if she wanted to know the answer, but she knew she had to ask anyway.

"If he left _before_ midnight, it's mildly possible," Jaina said honestly. "But that would depend on how fast he can move through thick jungle terrain." It was almost a question, and Tash felt obliged to answer it, if only to prove a point.

"We've both grown pretty good at adapting to terrain changes. It might slow him down a bit at first but if he was able to pick up growth patterns, or if the Force was guiding him somehow, he could move pretty quickly." She wrung her hands together in worry and bounced up and down on her toes.

Jaina nodded. "But, if he left after midnight—and in both cases I _am _allowing for at least an hour for him to stop, grab his bearings and recover strength and breath—then there's no way he would have made it beyond sensor range even by now. Not unless he was running flat out with Force-given directions. In either case, Jacen should have an answer to us soon, in any case."

She paused, and Tash knew what she was thinking wasn't going to go over well. "There's something else you should know too," Jaina added carefully. Tash sensed the rest before it was spoken and shook her head. But Jaina continued anyway. "If he had the presence of mind to dress, it's more than likely he wasn't under duress. If he had been snatched by someone, they would try and get off-world as soon as possible to avoid discovery. We would have been contacted by GemDiver about unauthorised or unidentified ships in the system."

"I don't believe my brother would walk out on his own in a strange environment, knowing the risks," Tash said vehemently. Deep down, she tasted the half-truth in her statement. But she refused to let it near the surface of her thoughts, knowing that Jaina would pick up on it and use it to bolster her argument.

Jaina didn't respond but she did turn around to walk back the way she came. Tash got the impression that she was expected to follow, so she fell into step behind the other girl and followed her in silence until they reached the lift tubes in the north-western corner of the level.

They waited in silence until a lift arrived and they had stepped inside. Tash turned to face Jaina as she slapped the descent button on the control panel next to the door, and the lift began its ascent.

"I know my brother, Jaina," she said convincingly. "He wouldn't just walk off in a place like this." Jaina gave her a sympathetic look that she read as uncertain disagreement. There was doubt in her theory, but Tash was too polite to seize on that.

"Maybe … maybe not," Jaina said.

The lift opened again and they stepped out onto the third level and proceeded south down the corridor between student and mentor quarters and then turned left and into the open space in the middle of the level. They followed the wall on the western side to the door to Tash's quarters and Jaina opened the door with a Force-nudge before they approached it so as not to hinder their momentum.

"What new theory are you about to spin," Tash questioned.

Jaina hesitated when they stopped inside, and waited for Tash to pull a robe over her tunic before following her back out and across the space into Zak's room.

"Jaina?"

"You say Zak wouldn't have walked into the jungle on his own," Jaina said plainly when they entered Zak's room; the door had been left slightly ajar from Tash's inspection of it earlier.

Tash sat down on the edge of the bed as Jaina stood in front of the sink, flicked the tap on for a moment and splashed water into her face. "And yet he does not appear to be on the premises, and we have not been informed about any fast-fleeing ships in the area. It stands to reason that he must have gone into the jungle. Might I be out of order in saying that he would have at least roamed the complex at such a late hour?"

"Not at all." Tash thought about how much of a concession she could make without disproving her arguments thus far, and then she said with a frown: "Sounds exactly like the kind of thing Zak would do."

"Then might it not stand to reason that he …" she paused. Tash looked at her, tried to probe her thoughts with her feeble Force powers, but was shut out before she could get anything. She watched Jaina shake her head and blew out an impatient sigh to urge the other girl to continue. "Perhaps he did such a thing. Perhaps even to the degree that he would even go to the hangar and maybe the courtyard … just for a little fresh air," she added hastily, seeing the mounting dislike on Tash's face.

"Maybe," Tash conceded.

"And maybe he didn't go any further than that on his own steam?" Jaina pressed.

"Kidnapped?" Tash shot up from the bed, now face to face with the other. "Here? Under Luke's protection? Hardly likely, don't you think? Especially considering you have now twice pointed out that GemDiver would have warned us about any fleeing star ships or shuttles."

"Hardly, but not impossible," another voice said from the doorway.

Tash shifted her gaze just enough to look over Jaina's shoulder to see her twin, Jacen, leaning against Zak's doorway with his brows furrowed.

"Hey Jaina, how many Corellians does it take to change a glow panel?"

"Jacen!" Jaina hissed at him. "This _really_ isn't the time for bad jokes, OK?"

"Whoa, whoa," Jacen said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was just trying to lighten the mood a little. Sorry." He paused, and Tash saw his expression change to one more serious. "If he _was_ kidnapped, then the kidnappers _may_ have chosen to hide out in a thick, but shuttle-accessible, part of the jungle until the moon was on the far side of Yavin from GemDiver. Then they could launch and pass themselves off as a regular shuttle outbound from the station."

"That's … actually likely," Jaina said with a frown. Tash mirrored the other girl's expression more because she hoped that it wasn't the actual scenario they were dealing with.

"But it's a false assumption, nonetheless," Jacen added flippantly.

"You have something?" Jaina said.

"Yes … and no," Jacen admitted.

"What is it?" Tash asked quickly. She didn't like the tone or the look on his face. While true that she had not known the Solos very long, she was familiar with many looks and, for the most part, they looked the same on most people, and meant the same.

"Internal sensors mapped Zak's trek through the grounds. He left his room a little after midnight, and made a beeline straight for the courtyard. He paced around for a bit, and then started back inside," Jacen said. "

"If he started back and didn't_ make_ it back, how does that not automatically implicate a kidnapping?" Jaina said impatiently.

"Because the external sensors picked up another life form," Jacen said. "Whoever they were, they were in the jungle, but just outside of the range of the internal sensors. It seemed to be pacing him from beyond the tree line. Zak must have picked them up with his ears, or eyes, or something, because he then turned and _followed_ it."

Tash chewed over this information in her mind. She had been wrong. Zak _had_ taken off, but not for the reasons that Jaina and Jacen had postulated. He'd found something and gone to investigate. Now, it seemed, whoever—

Wait.

_Who_ever?

As if reading her thoughts, Jacen Solo blinked and redirected his gaze to his twin sister. "Jaina," he said softly, "the life form that the sensors picked up in the jungle—it was human."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_**Cruiser wreckage**_

_**Jungles of Yavin 4**_

Zak was on his feet later in the day. His arm hurt a little less, and actually felt less stiff. He didn't know if he was imagining it or if his phantom keeper had provided him with some kind of medical treatment when he wasn't conscious. Whatever it was, he was thankful for it.

He hadn't sensed the stranger's presence nearby for the past couple of hours. Knowing full well that it could simply be because his Force senses were still majorly underdeveloped, he assumed that the strange entity was either at the far end of what he had recently learned was a very large, very ruined cruiser, or they were out in the jungle again looking for food or supplies or checking the perimeter.

Whoever it was that he had chased through the jungle last night, whoever his keeper was, they were most likely the same person. Of that he felt supremely certain. They were definitely human, but with his limited skill with the Force thus far, he couldn't tell if they were male or female, young or old, friend or foe. All he knew was that he had chased them, had gotten hurt, and that they had brought him here and treated his arm as best they could.

How could he argue with that? It seemed like a friendly thing to do. But an enemy could do it as well if they intended to attempt to extract information out of him at some point.

It wasn't like he had anything of value to tell them, though.

Since the other's departure in the later hours of the morning, Zak had amused himself with a brief tour of the ship. While he couldn't access any of the systems on the bridge without a toolset and a small portable generator to power them, he did work out three things himself.

Firstly, he was on a ship that had once belonged to the Rebel Alliance. He recognised its interior layout from schematics he had been provided by Luke Skywalker. That and he came across a storage locker with several fighter pilot flight suits with the insignia of the Rebel Alliance printed upon the helmets, not the New Republic standard which he had grown familiar with aboard Calrissian's GemDiver station.

Secondly, there hadn't been much in the way of a crew aboard. Most of the quarters—on decks he could access—had been converted into sensor or communications stations. Their exact purpose, without the aid of the ship's logs, eluded him. The medical bay was completely destroyed and like most of the ship was most likely grown in with vines and fungi from the jungle.

Thirdly, they had been boarded.

After almost an hour of prying at the blast doors separating it from the rest of the deck it was on, Zak had gained access to the primary hangar to find a couple of dismantled unlaunched X-wing snubfighters, a destroyed rebel transport ship, an Imperial Sentinel-class assault transport and a decimated Lambda-class shuttle on the far side. The deck had been strewn with the bodies of what Zak could only guess by their uniforms had been the Rebel crew trying to fight off the boarding party, and failing—their corpses forgotten and decayed in the decades since.

There was evidence of the stormtroopers all over. He found a small group of three, only recognisable by the armour covering their skeletons, outside the infirmary, and another group of about seven nearer to the operations centre near the middle of the ship.

Systems around the ship had been gutted to worthlessness, some shorted or singed by blaster fire from either the troopers as sabotage or the Rebels defending their ships with poor aim.

The only consolation Zak got from the knowledge that the Imperials boarded the ship was that little, if any, of them made it off. He couldn't be sure of the carrying limit of a Sentinel but the Lambda was limited to twenty passengers and he had found roughly forty bodies amongst the ruins.

But for all of that, he still could not find a way back out into the jungle.

He wanted to get back to the academy. He wanted to let Tash know he was alright. He knew she would have discovered his disappearance by now, and knew further that she wouldn't stop until she found him.

It had become a habit on the run.

Now back on the bridge of the ship, he stood in front of the forward-most control boards, gazing out through the muck covered viewing port at the jungle.

When the ship had crashed, it had slammed into a thick growth of Massassi trees, some of which had cracked and splintered under the impact and fallen upon the hull.

Others were still standing upright, but the extent of any damage they had received from the impact was unseen from where Zak was standing. He would have to get to the jungle floor to inspect them. But until he found a way down there, there was nothing he could do for now.

Movement suddenly caught his eye and he looked down through the viewport corner to see a rustling in the undergrowth; something moving towards the ship. For a fleeting moment, he allowed himself to believe that Tash, and possibly Luke, had found him and were rescuing him.

As he watched, someone stepped out of the underbrush, a large, leather sack tied off with rope at the neck and gripped tightly in the approaching person's right hand.

His keeper was a woman; a young woman. He couldn't make out many features through the muck on the outside of the viewport but from what he could see, the long, dark hair, the distinctly feminine figure and gait, it was clearly a woman.

She turned her head upward to look at him before looking back down and disappearing out of sight.

* * *

The strange woman entered the bridge from somewhere behind Zak a couple of minutes later, the sack hanging over her shoulder now. She swung the bundle off her shoulder and dumped it on the deck next to her feet.

Zak turned to face her.

She couldn't be much older than he was, with dirty blonde hair—actually dirty, now that he was close enough to notice it, not brown—and green eyes shining like gems from behind the dirt and muck on her face. She was wearing what looked like the remains of a once-orange flight uniform that could have belonged to a member of the ship's original crew. Her fingernails had either been bitten back to the quick or broken off and bleeding as if some of the damage was recent. Her green eyes looked at him wildly, both curious and confused by him.

"Hello?" Zak said carefully. He had to take the chance that this woman, whoever she was, was friendly. Perhaps she would even let him go back to the academy now that he was up and moving around on his own.

She jumped in fright, but did not shy away from him as he took a step towards her. She did, however, whip a blaster pistol from the sack on the floor and brought it to bear on his chest.

Instantly, he stopped, and frowned. Even if she was friendly, he'd had enough blasters pointed at him over the years. He contained the anger that threatened to bubble over inside him, and reminded himself that the stranger was probably just defending herself from what she perceived as a threat.

"I won't hurt you," he said, throwing his good hand up in surrender. She blinked and jerked the gun to the left, not saying a word. He followed the hint and sidestepped the control board. She jerked the gun tip down and Zak sat down on the floor without further insistence.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

_Making sounds? Why are you making sounds?_ Zak heard the words in his mind. He frowned again, confused. To the best of his knowledge, the two of them were alone in here. There was no need to be silent, so why would she not reply to him in words? _What are words?_

"Words are—"

_No more sounds!_

Zak shrugged, defeated. He knew that with his pitiful Force abilities he might not be able to communicate with her using just his mind. He considered the possibility that perhaps she could read his thoughts anyway.

_Words are sounds_; he thought, hoping that she would sense his intent and trying to find the best way to word his explanation. _Most people communicate using words. There aren't many people who can _think_ a conversation to someone else._

_Waste of time. Ineffectual. Waste of time._

_ Maybe, but not everyone can do what we are doing now_, Zak said. He could feel the strain of maintaining the telepathy, and decided to try his luck again. "Do you understand me?"

The girl's eyes went wide with disapproval, but she nodded in reply, never lowering the blaster. "Then let me speak instead of think. I'm … not too skilled with the Force, so I can't really maintain a telepathic connection. I'm still getting used to the fact that I have abilities beyond what other people have. I'm used to communicating in words."

_Very well. Who are you?_

"I asked first," Zak replied challengingly.

_I have a weapon,_ she replied, jabbing the blaster in his direction to punctuate her point. _Will use._

"My name is Zak," he said quickly to dissuade her. "Zak Arranda."

_Where are you from?_

Zak hesitated. Was she asking him what planet he had come from, or was she asking how he had come to be in the jungle? He couldn't tell, and he desperately hoped for the latter. The former wasn't something he liked to be reminded of.

_Found you in the jungle. Where are you from?_ Ah, so it _was_ the latter.

"The Jedi Praxeum," Zak said. The girl's confused expression grew impatient, as if she didn't understand. "A school," he clarified. "You were watching me, so I followed you into the jungle."

_Know nothing of any school,_ the girl replied. _First time I saw you was in the jungle, when I found you in the night_.

Zak started, stunned for words.

If this girl wasn't who he had chased into the jungle the previous night, then it was obviously someone else. Who else could it have been though? Were there other people out there living like hermits? Could this girl have friends out there? Could she have enemies?

_Enemies?_

"People who want to hurt you," Zak explained.

_You! You want to hurt! You came here to hurt._ The tone in her thoughts was accusatory, angry, and at the same time scared. _I've not seen anyone else in jungle until you. You're an enemy._

So, if she had no friends or enemies, who was it that Zak had chased into the jungle last night—another hermit?

He hoped Tash would hurry up and find him. He could do with some answers. If the academy had sensors, and those sensors had picked him up last night, then they had probably picked up whoever it was he had been chasing. Maybe the sensors had more data on that other person than Zak did.

He sifted through his thoughts from the previous night. He still didn't remember it all. But bits and pieces had floated to the surface over the course of the day. He remembered dashing into the jungle, and he remembered some parts of the chase through the trees. He still couldn't remember what had happened to his arm though.

The girl was still watching him carefully, the blaster still aimed at him. It was lower now, but still dangerous. Perhaps she trusted him just that little bit more. Or perhaps she just perceived him as less of a threat than she had earlier.

"My sister will find me," Zak said, trying not to make it sound like a threat.

"Sis … ter?" the girl responded. She sounded like she had an Alderaanian accent, but Zak considered that it might have been because she had mimicked him saying the word.

"Yes, sister," Zak said. "A sister is a girl whose mother and father are the same people as my mother and father. Her name is Tash, and she'll be very upset right now."

"W-w—"

"Why?" The girl nodded vigorously. Zak pitied that she wasn't very good at verbal speech. "Because I'm not where I'm supposed to be; I'm supposed to be at the … at the school. But I'm here instead. And she doesn't know that."

_Why?_

"Because I didn't expect to be here," Zak said grimly. A thought occurred to him. "Will you let me go back?"

_No_.

"Why not?" he asked.

_Cannot trust you. You want to hurt me. You'll bring more hurting here. You'll bring others to hurt. Cannot …_

"No one wants to hurt you," Zak said, shuffling forward only a fraction. The blaster came back up for a moment before she lowered it again. Zak shuffled forward another fraction. "Honestly. No one here wants to hurt you," he said. "The school I go to is very nice. Everyone there likes everyone else."

_Cannot trust._

"Can't trust who?" Zak implored. "Who can you trust if not a Jedi?"

_Jedi?_

It was not a question of curiosity, but one of surprise. Zak knew from her response she had heard the word before; mostly by the look in her eyes and the rigidness of her shoulders. She dropped the blaster entirely and Zak lurched forward and shoved it as far away from them as he could.

"See?" he said. "If I wanted to hurt you I could have taken the weapon and used it."

The look in her face was impatient again, a little bored. It was a look that plainly said "prove it if you can".

"Je … di," she said again, struggling to wrap her tongue around the syllables. Zak wondered how long it had been since she had last used spoken language, rather than telepathic. How long had she been alone—how many _years_? Where were her parents?

"Yes," Zak said. "The school I go to is for young Jedi to learn. To acquire new skills and abilities."

_Parents often spoke of the Jedi_, the girl said. _Spoke of one called Sky_.

"I think you mean Skywalker," Zak said with a small smile.

_Yes! You know him?_

"He's my teacher. He's at the school now."

The girl stopped frantically shifting her eyes all over the place and looked at him—really looked at him—for a moment. And for that moment, it appeared that he was getting through, that he had made her understand that he meant no harm.

But it was only for a moment. Her defences went back up in an instant and she wrapped her arms around her legs and drew them against her chest, rocking slightly on the deck.

"What is your name?" Zak asked her.

_Name?_

"What are you called?" Zak clarified, pressing for information. "What did your parents call you?"

She didn't answer at first. But she did push herself up and pace back and forth across the deck in front of her, scratching at the back of her hands absently, as if distracted. Could she sense something he could not? Quite possibly. But why would she not tell him, if it was danger that she sensed? Or was she agitated because of his questioning? Zak wished his ability with the Force was refined enough to find out. Tash might have been able to sense it; she'd known a good while longer than he that she could touch the Force.

_Rebekah,_ she responded, not looking at him. _Parents called me Rebekah_.

Zak watched her intently. She went from scratching at her hands with nonexistent nails to tugging at the sleeves of the borrowed uniform. At one point, he thought he saw the flash of a chronometer around her wrist, but doubted that it would work. Every piece of equipment on board was way beyond functionality. Maybe it had some value to her, or perhaps she was just unaware that it wasn't functioning.

He made to stand up but Rebekah turned and shot him a challenging glare meant to discourage him. Instead, he settled for crossing his legs and turning slightly so that he could lean back against the underside of the control boards.

"How long have you been alone?" he asked.

"How …" she started. Zak's Force-senses granted him a small favour, and he found that he could sense the feelings coming from her; emotions, a sense of time … a long time. _A long time,_ she replied, echoing his thoughts._ Many days … many, many, many days._

"Then all the more reason to come back to the school with me," Zak pointed out. "You'll never be alone there. You'll have friends, and classmates to talk to all the time. And I could help you integrate, if you wanted."

_Too many voices,_ she said, pressing her hands to the sides of her head, pacing ever still. _There are always too many voices. Many more, you ask—many more. Won't do it. Can't make me. Can't hurt me. Stronger than you._

Zak frowned. He resented that last statement, but the truth of the matter was that she was obviously more connected to the Force than he was. It was evident by the fact that she could maintain such communication with him telepathically, whereas he had to resort to verbal speech to communicate with her. He didn't have the concentration, the discipline, the training.

Her parents had probably recognised her potential years ago and encouraged her to explore it as much as they could. Maybe they had also been Force users; not Jedi in every sense of the word but Force users nonetheless.

Zak had always contributed the luck he, his sister and their uncle had seen during their run from the Empire to just that … just dumb blind luck. They'd faced insurmountable odds time and time again, and yet they'd walked away from most of those experiences unhindered, unscathed, virtually intact. The decisions that they had made had been based on what they thought was instinct at the time.

Tash had been able to read most people like a book. It wasn't until their trip to Nespis 8 that they had discovered that she had a connection to the Force, the potential to be a Jedi. They'd suspected it for a while, but it hadn't been for sure until then. Zak had been very jealous of that. She had something he wanted.

But then they had met a Jedi Master from the old order, and he had told them that they both had it. Everything they had been through and escaped had not been due to luck, but due to an innate instinct imbued in all Force-users that many _attributed_ to luck.

Looking back up at the frantic girl, he saw that she was still pacing the deck, still pressing her hands against her temples as if trying to numb some kind of psychic pain.

Zak quietly sprang to his feet and took a couple of steps over to her.

Rebekah stopped, glared at him, threw out her hands in his direction. And before he could stop it or realise what it was she was doing, he flew backwards and slammed into the inactive control boards, losing consciousness again.

* * *

When Zak came to, it was dark and Rebekah was squatting next to him, pressing a cool rag against his forehead. He felt bad. His arm was throbbing again, and so was his head this time, and he couldn't move his legs. He could feel them, though, so that meant he wasn't paralysed—a good sign.

When Rebekah noticed his eyes open, she took her hand away and scooted back to what she thought was a safe distance. Zak could only manage to look sympathetic for the amount of distrust she had for him.

True, he had shown up in the jungle at or near wherever it was that she was hiding, but he had done her no harm thus far. In fact he hadn't even _tried_ to harm her.

He replayed his last memory to recall why there was a pain in his back and sighed.

_Sorry._

"It's alright," Zak said apologetically. "I should have known better than to come at you like that. It won't happen again, I promise."

_Is there much pain?_

Zak chuckled. "Yes, a lot of it," he said. Even without the Force, he would have seen from her face that another apology was on its way, and he waved his hand at her dismissively before she could. "I said it's OK," he insisted. "The pain will fade."

Rebekah nodded and shuffled forward to remove the cloth from his face. She dipped it into a small, shallow storage container filled with a clear liquid. Zak's nose recognised it immediately as rain water, fresh off the canopy of the jungle. It hadn't rained last night, to his waking knowledge, so he assumed that it had later in the morning, or she had a supply somewhere.

_Water is good,_ Rebekah's thoughts assured him. _Cool. Good. Makes your head smaller._

Zak had to stifle a chuckle at the last comment as she wrung the cloth of excess water. She looked at him curiously as he put a hand to his forehead to feel the large lump forming from where his head had caught the corner of the control board. There was a small gash on the lump too. It would need to be treated. He removed his hand and Rebekah replaced it with the cloth.

_Be back soon._

"Where are you going?" Zak said, trying to push himself up on one elbow. She shot him a dirty look and he ceased the attempt right away. "Where are you going?" he repeated.

_Check outside. Jungle is not safe. You were chasing someone. They must be bad. They hurt you. I can feel others in the jungle, coming to us. Make sure they don't find us. Not good people. Can't let them._

Zak tried again to prop himself up and hissed at the fresh surge of pain that shot through his arm and down his spine at the same time. He lay back down again, intent not to repeat the futile gesture another time.

She spoke of two different people; someone he had chased who had hurt him somehow, and someone coming their way. Could the ones coming their way be Luke, or one of the Solos, or Tash? If they were looking for him this far out in the jungle, then the sensors definitely extended out this far, or close enough to have mapped a likely trajectory. And because Rebekah didn't know them, she would think that they were bad. She had thought he was bad. And despite her attitude to the contrary, Zak sensed that she had reassessed that assumption. After all, in the state he was in, what kind of harm could he bring to her?

"It's probably the others looking for me," he groaned. He closed his eyes and focussed on ignoring the dull throb in his back and arm.

_Do they know where we are?_

"The school has … electronic eyes … that can tell them what's in the jungle around them. They might have been able to use those to follow us here." OK, so "electronic eyes" wasn't really an accurate description of sensors. But he had no idea if she would have understood "sensors" or "scanners". Zak cracked an eye and looked at her. Her eyes were frantic again, darting all around the bridge.

Zak finally recognised the reason for it. She was assessing dangers, escape routes, access to weapons.

"They won't hurt you," he assured her. "They are only looking for me."

_Why?_

"Because I go to the school. The Jedi don't leave their friends behind if they can help it. They would want to know what happened to me."

_Must not let them find._

_Take me to them_, Zak thought to her. She locked her gaze onto his, surprised that he was_ thinking_ and not speaking. _Take me to them. In the jungle. They won't have to know that you are here._

_Dangerous. No. Stay here. Rest. I will return soon._

And with that, she was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_**Recon skiff above treetop level**_

_**Yavin 4**_

They left the academy early the next morning. After a full day searching through the sensor logs, Jacen had reported that Zak had indeed not returned to the academy grounds at any time since his disappearance. He was still in the jungle, possibly held captive by whoever it was that he had chased into it—possibly hurt.

At least she knew that he wasn't dead. Jaina and Jacen had assured her that, while they couldn't locate him, they _did_ feel his presence in the Force.

Jacen had tracked Zak's bio-signature to a point of dense growth before losing it. It was still well inside the long-range sensor sweeps, but there appeared to be some sort of localised disturbance causing nil-readings in a large area. That much spiked Tash's suspicions. A localised sensor disruption hinted strongly at the possibility of kidnappers.

It was Jaina that suggested they go out into the jungle to look for Zak, but her twin was the one that pointed out that there was no way that their uncle, Luke Skywalker—whom Tash had once adored and worshipped for his Force abilities—would let them go out into the jungle alone. Especially when they had no idea what was causing the sensor block, and when they weren't entirely sure of Zak's location or even if he was being held against his will.

So the Solos had gone and told Luke Skywalker everything they knew, Tash by their side forcing herself not to show her panic, forcing herself to believe that Zak was unharmed, that they would find him, that he had simply gotten lost. It was entirely possible.

It was as if Luke Skywalker, too, remembered exactly what Zak was like. Without delay, he had led the three of them down to the hangar level and ushered them all aboard a small skiff transport. Once strapped in to the seats, he piloted it out of the hangar and over the jungle's canopy.

It was midday when they called a temporary halt to the search—much to Tash's dislike. The skiff had been brought down to rest on a thick, sturdy branch shooting out from one of the great Massassi trees and the four of them had broken out rations for a brief lunch before they would continue the search—Luke had given Tash his word he wouldn't stop until they found Zak.

She believed him. He was Luke Skywalker, his word could _not_ be called into question.

"He's done this before," Skywalker pointed out after taking a swig from a water bottle. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and continued. "He always came out in one piece, too. You have to remember that, Tash."

"I'm trying to," she said solemnly. Her own food lay untouched in her lap. Only the water bottle had been of any use to her.

She felt Jaina, sitting next to her, and Jacen, sitting opposite his sister, both staring at her, gauging her, and fought to keep the emotions raging within her from reaching her face and giving away the turmoil she felt.

Caught up in the memories of her brother, one surfaced that she didn't necessarily want to remember …

* * *

_I looked to my brother pleadingly, but got nothing from him. The look on his face was completely blank, entirely neutral. Whatever had happened to him yesterday had shaken him to the point of silence. Anything he had to say would be left unsaid, or assumed by me. I didn't like it._

_ I slipped her arm around his shoulders and led him through the open blast doors into the building, away from the heat of the open shuttle landing._

_ We were greeted almost immediately by our host, Fenb Peub. He was an elderly Sullustan male with dark, flabby dewflaps and hot breath that I could feel on my face even across the several feet between us. He blinked at seeing the two of us there and then stepped aside as I pushed my way past him and sat my brother down at the table in the living space._

_ I got down on my knees in front of him, my hands on his shoulders as I searched his face imploringly. All I could see in his eyes was horror; a cold horror that played itself over and over in his mind. I tried to read his mind to find out what it was that tormented him so, but I couldn't. The Force was being stubborn, or otherwise respecting my brother's desire for privacy. In either case, I was denied the access I so dearly wanted … needed … to help him._

_ It made me feel so sad._

_ Not only sad for him, but for myself. It was less than a standard day since our mysterious uncle had died. Murder, they'd told me. Zak had been found at the scene, exactly the way he was now. He refused to talk to anyone, refused to even acknowledge the presence of me, his sister, at his side, it seemed._

_ Fenb Peub had called in a favour at the local law office and had Zak released. I was ever-so-grateful for that. Zak wasn't a suspect, after all, but when they realised that they stood no chance of getting something from him on their own, they allowed me to take him away._

_ I didn't want to return to the unit that Uncle Hoole had rented for our stay on this miserable scorcher of a planet. It would only serve to remind me of what we had just lost; all those years under his care, come to a violent crash on a planet they thought would offer safe harbour._

_ Instead, I'd thought to comm. Peub and ask if he minded putting us up for a couple of days until the ship that Uncle Hoole had bought arrived and was readied for us. I wasn't going to stay here. It wasn't safe for the two of us anymore. And I didn't want Zak to stay here anymore than I wanted myself to._

_ If Zak had witnessed Uncle Hoole's murder, then he was going to be a target now, for he alone would be able to identify the killer. I hadn't heard from our other new friend either. We would gladly have wanted her to be there for us through this, perhaps even take us as her charges until we were a little older. But there was nothing. Her apartment was cleaned out and she wasn't answering her comm._

_ Zak suddenly twitched under my hands, and, for a moment, I thought that he was coming out of his stupor. Instead, he slumped sideways against the table and went to sleep._

_ I released a heavy sigh and pushed myself to my feet, turning my head to see that our host was watching us keenly, looking ready to jump up and fetch anything that Zak or I needed during this difficult time. He was a good man. I shot him a resigned look before I stepped around the chair and started to hoist my brother out of it to take him to the guest room …_

* * *

Tash shook herself out of the memory to see Luke and the twins looking at her with fresh looks of worry on their faces. She hitched a smile on her face to placate them, but knew right away that it didn't work. They were better at reading her than most people, and they were obviously no strangers to seeing underlying pain.

Tash noticed that the others had finished their lunch rations by now and that hers still lay untouched in her lap. Her water bottle was in her hand, the cap unscrewed and the water sloshing slightly as her shaking hand refused to keep a steady hold on the bottle.

Luke Skywalker scooped the rations from her lap and packed them away into the food storage container he had brought along. He let her keep the water bottle.

He released the skiff's brake, engaged the repulsors once more, and they rose from the branch to the treetops again and began cruising over them in search of her brother.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_**Cruiser wreckage**_

_**Yavin 4**_

Rebekah hid the moment she returned to the bridge. Zak tried to communicate with her, both mentally and verbally, but she would not respond. And to top it off, he hadn't even seen where she'd disappeared _to_. She could have been in any of a dozen recesses on the bridge, hidden, ready to strike, and he wouldn't see it coming.

Not that she perceived him as anything akin to threatening anymore. But he was sure that those outside the ship that she had mentioned before disappearing were Tash and the others looking for him. He would feel terrible if Rebekah attacked and hurt any of them, _especially_ Tash, when he didn't have enough information to give them fair warning of what was to come.

He himself knew someone was coming, that someone had followed her into the ship. He could hear the faraway sounds of movement, if not identity; the dull _thud, thud, thud_ of booted footsteps, and the sounds of obstacles being thrown or shoved out of the way.

What Zak didn't know, and wished that he did, was intent. The blaster was gone from the deck, no doubt snatched up by Rebekah on her way out of the ship. She probably had it with her still. If she did, Zak would be safe, for he still could not move.

His back hurt too much as it was just to turn his head to keep an eye on the entrance. But it was a pain he was willing to bear if it meant that he would see the intruders when they appeared.

He could hear the footsteps getting closer, and that the sounds of obstacles being removed was growing less and less frequent.

_Do you have a second weapon hidden somewhere?_ he asked Rebekah desperately.

Cold fear of the unknown intruders was starting to creep into his veins and he suddenly didn't like the idea of being unarmed. Raising a blaster might hurt his spine more than current, but again it was a pain that would turn out to be worth it if the intruders were hostiles. Part of him was still sure they weren't hostiles, but he couldn't be one-hundred-percent on it. Not now that he knew that it _hadn't_ been Rebekah he had chased into the jungle.

Rebekah didn't respond to him, and he clamped his eyes shut in concentration as he tried again, assuming he just hadn't gotten through to her the first time.

_Rebekah!_ he shouted. _I need a weapon! Give me _something_!_

He heard a scraping sound and something bumped into his side. Looking down at it, he saw that it was a Merr-Sonn Q4 holdout blaster. It was capable of ten shots at most, by his recollection, but it was at least something. He'd grown proficient in blaster use during his and his sister's run from the Empire—unknown to her and their uncle—and even more so during their stay on GemDiver over the last year. Lando Calrissian had taught him to respect the power of a well-hidden holdout blaster, and to, if possible, keep one on his person at all times for security.

He reached for the weapon with his good hand and hissed at the spike of pain spreading from his spine outwards and down his broken arm.

_Quiet!_ Rebekah warned him.

He grasped the little weapon tightly in his hand, wrapped his finger around the trigger button and aimed it squarely at the doorway, breathing heavily as the pain subsided. He could feel Rebekah's eyes darting over to him every few seconds as his breath drew steadier, quieter.

The intruders were close now. He could feel them in the Force, which was being generous to him in his crippled state. There were, three—no, four—of them.

Didn't Rebekah say there was only one bad person out there in the jungle? Maybe his hopes had been answered. He began to lower the holdout, but raised it again when Rebekah started to shout into his head not to be so damned stupid.

He heard the hiss of plasma being ignited, and his heart skipped a beat. If it was who he thought it was, the sound would be expected when heading into an expected trap. But if it was who _Rebekah_ suspected … then it was an unwelcome sound, the sound of someone trained in the arts of lightsaber combat that could, potentially, be hostile to them both

A Dark Jedi perhaps, like the blind Jerec that Zak and Tash had met once.

Zak fired the holdout a split second after Rebekah fired her own blaster and both shots converged on the doorway as a figure in a dark tunic appeared. He blurred the couple of steps onto the bridge to intercept the blaster fire, slashing his weapon around in front of him—a green-white blade of plasma energy.

Rebekah fired again, and Zak called out for her to stop.

It wasn't a Dark Jedi at all. In fact, it was the complete opposite. It was exactly what he had been expecting for the past day and a half, and he felt utterly ashamed that he'd even doubted himself.

It was Luke Skywalker.

He slashed upwards, sending the second and third bolts from Rebekah's weapon into the ceiling above them where they scorched the dulled plating, the sounds echoing loudly. Zak dropped the holdout at once and shoved it hard across the deck.

But Rebekah wasn't finished. She jumped into sight from a gap in the far wall that Zak had missed and tossed the blaster to the deck at her feet in disgust. Without hesitating, she drew something else from her belt; something that made Luke Skywalker pause and Zak's eyes widen in surprise.

She depressed the grimy button on the grim-covered shaft, igniting a yellow-white blade of plasma that she didn't hesitate even a second at swinging at the elder Jedi. Luke blocked it and took a step back to get into a more defensible stance. Rebekah paused only long enough to shoot a glare in Zak's direction and then across at the entry way where Zak could see that Tash and the Solo twins were standing, watching with mouths open and eyes wide.

_Told you! You brought others to hurt me! You all must die!_

"They're not here to hurt you, Rebekah!" Zak insisted so the others could hear. If Luke knew this was a misunderstanding on the girl's part, he might find other means to temporarily incapacitate her. "They're here for me. You don't have to fight."

"Zak?" Luke asked uncertainly, not taking his eyes from Rebekah. She struck out in two arcing lances which he expertly deflected. However, he did not attempt to strike back. "Mind explaining to me what's going on?"

"Long story," Zak said. "She thinks you're here to hurt her," he added quickly as she lunged again.

Luke sliced left, bashing her lightsaber away before he ducked around and behind her. Zak gauged by the strength of the strike that the Jedi Master had been trying to batt the handle out of Rebekah's grip entirely. However, her grip was strong and she didn't release it. Luke kicked out at the back of her leg, but Zak saw that there wasn't much force behind it and she only stumbled a step before she recovered.

When she turned around to face him again, her face was twisted in an expression of purest confusion. She had enough experience in fighting, it seemed, to know that the older man hadn't meant any harm in the move. And she was starting to realise that he was not striking back, but merely defending his own ground.

"Who …" she started.

Zak saw his chance at once to diffuse the situation, and he pounced on it. "That's Skywalker!" he pleaded. "He's good. He won't hurt you."

"Sky … walker?" She lowered the lightsaber only a little, but kept it activated, as if unsure if this was a trick to get her to lower her defences.

Luke seized the opportunity and deactivated his own lightsaber, lowering it but keeping it in hand. He held both of his hands out to the sides in supplication and waited for her to make the next move.

Zak saw the Solo twins start to panic at the gesture, but he could see that Luke Skywalker wanted her to think that she could strike him down if she was so inclined, and he wouldn't try to stop her. Zak knew he would, but knew that he wouldn't do anything to harm the girl. He himself could probably sense the goodness and frightened nature buried deep beneath the grubby skin and tattered clothes and wild eyes.

"My name is Luke Skywalker," he said calmly, taking a single step forward.

"Uncle Luke!" Jaina and Jacen both hissed.

Tash's hand went to her mouth. Zak took in a breath and waited.

"I wish you no harm, young lady," he said, unsmiling but not unkind.

"Want?"

"What do I want?" Luke asked. He hadn't bridged the gap Zak had with her, and Zak sensed that she had closed herself off to the elder Jedi. He must have used his own intuition to discern what it was that she had intended to ask.

_It's OK to let him in_, Zak said silently to her, unsure if she even heard him. He was hurting anew all over from the strain of trying to communicate telepathically.

She nodded, but not to him. "I came here for Zak," Luke said softly. He gestured to Zak with his free hand. "That is his sister there in the doorway. She has been very, very worried about him."

"Ugh, _stang_,"Zak groaned and winced at the look his sister shot at him.

"Will you let us take him back?" Luke asked.

Rebekah's eyes were frantic as they darted over every inch of Luke's form, assessing potential threatening twitches. She narrowed her eyes and pointed at Zak, her ignited weapon still clutched tightly in her left hand as if she was afraid he would try to disarm her again.

"Fixed him," she said slowly and with great difficulty. "Was hurt."

Tash made a pitiful whimpering noise from the door and Luke nodded at her. She raced between the two of them and knelt at Zak's side, resting a hand gently on his good arm as she eyed off the pair with the weapons.

Luke extended a hand towards Rebekah. "It's OK," he said calmly. Zak felt the pain ebb from his arm and his back completely. In fact, he felt all of his senses go numb as the elder Jedi continued. "Thank you for taking care of him," he said. "We will take him back now, if you will let us."

There were more voices, but they were muffled as Zak's eyes fluttered closed and he drifted off into a deep slumber.

* * *

_**Infirmary, Jedi Praxeum**_

_**Yavin 4**_

When Zak woke, it was to find his vision blurred, unclear and murky. He blinked several times to clear his eyes, but nothing worked. As his other senses slowly came back to him, he felt something clamped over the lower half of his face, held in place by a strap around the back of his head and supplying his lungs with oxygen fed through a tube that extended outwards and upwards above his head.

He looked around himself, and saw that he was naked except for a pair of tight, white shorts that clung to his skin, and there were harness straps under his arms and across his bare chest, suspending him in the liquid he soon realised he was submerged in.

It took him several minutes of adding all of those observed factors together to realise that he was submerged in a bacta tank.

Outside the tube, he could see his sister looking back at him, a relieved smile on her face and her hand pressed fully against the plexiglass of the outside of the tank. She was wearing a pair of plain, dark blue slacks with an equally dark blue blouse buttoned all the way to her neck—the clothes she had been wearing when Han Solo had discovered the two of them on Sullust. Behind her was Luke Skywalker in a dark top and darker slacks, his hand resting on Tash's shoulder as he too smiled at Zak.

He turned his head and nodded to someone out of Zak's line of sight and in seconds, he lost consciousness yet again.

* * *

When he woke again, he was in a room he recognised, though he had never been in it before. It was the Praxeum's recovery ward, clearly identifiable by the sterile ceiling and walls, and the steady bleeping of nearby medical scanners.

He heard the gentle thrum of a medical droid hovering nearby and pushed himself up onto his elbows—both of them. All pain in his left arm was gone and he could move it freely now. The pain in his spine was also gone. He tilted his head back and sighed loudly.

Zak loved bacta. And though he assumed it had been some time since he had been in the tank, he felt tingly all through his body as the residual effects continued to permeate. He'd never been in a bacta tank before, but he'd had bacta injections and salves and mists applied, and so he was fairly familiar with the after-effects of the substance.

"How do you feel?" the calm, digitised and yet almost human voice of a droid said from his right. He turned his head to look at the droid and saw a familiar, artificial face from back on his home world staring back at him.

The GH-7 medical units were very efficient, the most efficient design of medical droid he had come across to date. It had a largish, elongated head lit with a pair of frontal photoreceptors glowing blue and a speech slot between them where a humanoid mouth would be. Its torso was a little smaller than a humanoid would have for a head that size, making the unit bear some resemblance to the Columi, the race that had designed it. Its main arms were humanoid standard with three mechanical fingers at the end and a single elbow join at the midpoint; the right side bore two arms. The second arm on the right side was attached to the shoulder above the main arm and had a single elbow join again but with a pincer-finger like end. The lower body, which somewhat resembled a pelvic bone, supported a tray that was at present empty but Zak recalled could be used to hold medical equipment for surgical operations or vials and beakers of substances for various analyses.

The thrumming sound was coming from what Zak knew to be a single repulsor unit on the droid's undercarriage that kept it afloat and enabled it to move around the infirmary freely and quickly.

The unit tilted its head, waiting for a response from Zak, its photoreceptors winking out for a split second as if the machine was blinking.

"I … um … I guess I'm OK," Zak said uneasily. A droid that could blink? Couldn't be.

The GH-7 reached out with its left hand and gently pressed its fingertips against the wrist of Zak's right hand, holding them there for a minute before taking the hand away and nodding.

"Your vital statistics would seem to corroborate your claim," it said, 'blinking' again. Zak blinked back. "But I would like you to remain here until the master sends someone to take you to your quarters."

Zak nodded. "How long …" he started.

"You were suspended in bacta treatment for two days to recover from your injuries," the droid replied, correctly interpreting his question. Zak opened his mouth to speak but the droid again anticipated his intent. "You have since been asleep for the better part of a third day in what the master assured me was a recovery trance."

He closed his eyes and rubbed at them to force the bleariness from his mind. He knew it wouldn't really work, but it was worth a shot rather than just stand there in the uncomfortable silence waiting for his escort. When he opened them again, his gaze drifted over to the second bed against the wall, a few feet from his own.

Atop it lay Rebekah, still unconscious and breathing steady under the thin sheet covering her otherwise semi-naked form.

He stepped over to her bedside and looked down at her face, noticing the thrum of the GH-7 as it followed him. He brushed a few stray strands of her hair from her face.

Without the dirt, she looked a lot prettier than he had originally thought. Her hair, which was now grime free, was lighter, almost like Tash's in hue and the hair at the front on her left side was darker like Jaina's. Somehow, it looked … natural. Her eyelashes were of even length and curled just right, framing her eyes. And her lips were full, yet hardened.

When Zak had seen her on the ship in the jungle, both of her ears had been pierced in a way that looked self-done, and from each lobe had dangled a thin metal wire threaded through a polished onyx stone at the end. Now, her piercings had sealed, probably due to the bacta treatment, if she had undergone any, but her piercings lay innocently on the bedside table.

He turned his head just enough to keep both her and the GH in his view.

"How is she?" he asked.

"She will recover," the unit said, plucking a fold from the covering sheet. "The master induced a recovery trance in her as well to keep her docile until he was free to speak with her. He would like you present for that, I do believe," it added, tilting its head to look at him.

"I'll make a point to request the date and time," Zak said with a nod. "Thank you …" Zak trailed off inquisitively.

"Medical android model GH-7, unit 421," the GH replied, blinking again. When the only response it received was a continued stare from Zak, it continued. "But many here have affectionately dubbed me 'Geesev'."

"Geesev?" Zak clarified with a cocked eyebrow. The machine dipped its head in a way Zak was sure was its equivalent of a nod of confirmation. He returned his gaze back to the sleeping young woman on the bed beside him and stroked her cheek gently.

"You have an attraction towards this female?"

"Not beyond curiosity or respect," Zak explained. "I mean, if she wished me any harm I wouldn't be here now talking about it. The fact that she's survived alone in the jungle for who-knows-how-many years … well," he started. He paused and turned full on to the medical unit. "Well it's worthy of respect that she's survived on her own this long, I think."

"And that she has manifest Jedi traits does not aid her survival at all?" Geesev replied. Zak narrowed his eyes. "Rhetoric, Master Arranda. Of course it is worthy of a deal of respect. The master believes that the young lady taught herself most, if not all, of her abilities."

"I wouldn't be surprised, actually. If her parents weren't Jedi or Force-sensitives, then she must have done just that," Zak said.

He sighed just as he saw the doorway to the recovery room open. Through it stepped Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo, who both smiled kindly as they crossed the room to him and the GH-7.

"It's good to see you have woken up," Luke said cheerfully.

Zak smiled but said nothing at first, looking over his shoulder at Rebekah. He felt an intrusion onto his thoughts and snapped his gaze back to the two Jedi.

"She'll be fine, Zak," Luke said. "Geesev will take good care of her. Of that you have my promise."

"That's not what I was worried about, Luke," Zak admitted grimly.

"Oh?"

"She's been alone for a long while;" he clarified, "in the wild no less, with no technology or civilisation to draw from. How she reacted to me initially, and then to the arrival of you and the girls …"

"You're concerned about her reaction when she realises that she's been moved away from the place she's considered home for so long?"

Zak nodded.

Jacen's brow creased in concentration as he considered something slightly beside his uncle, and Luke's face took on the look of quiet contemplation as he ran through the various scenarios in his mind at the same time.

"I think I would like you here for when she wakes," he said with a nod. Zak opened his mouth to ask when that would be but Luke answered him. "Midday hour tomorrow, can you manage that?"

"I'll be here," Zak promised.

"Good," Luke said with a smile. "In that case, Jacen will escort you back to your room. You need some _actual_ rest after these past few days. I gather that you wouldn't have gotten much proper sleep in the jungle, what with your injuries and all. And a bacta-induced sleep followed by a recovery trance is hardly restful; restorative to a point but not enough."

Zak nodded and followed Jacen out of the ward without another word, and a single parting glance at Rebekah's prone form.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

A month had passed since Zak had returned from the depths of the jungle with the newcomer. After a week of Zak and Luke working together to develop her speech and basic social behaviours, Rebekah Jordan had been given a room of her own and had been permitted to join the general populace of the academy. Luke still wasn't ready to include her in lessons until her social skills had developed more and she became more at ease, more comfortable with her surroundings.

Zak couldn't fault him for the decision.

For the most part, Rebekah still had not entirely adapted to life at the academy. She didn't turn a corner without first gluing herself to the wall and peering around it, looking for dangers and threats. She jumped in fright when groups of people travelled near her, or when there were loud discussions. At meal times, she simply grabbed her food and took off to the nearest dark corner she could find to consume it in privacy.

But Zak was confident that they would make progress. She seemed to trust him more than anyone else, and he sometimes caught her sneaking around behind him wherever he went.

Recently, Zak had made an unusual request of Luke Skywalker. Since returning to the temple, he had been unable to shake the thought of fixing the Sentinel he had seen in the hangar bay of the cruiser. He had no way to justify the intense desire, just a need to do it; something to do in his free time. Possibly even give him something to work on with Jaina Solo, and the others if they so pleased.

Putting the request to Luke, he had expected to be denied outright. It had come as a slap in the face when the elder Jedi had agreed with the idea and transmitted a request to GemDiver on Zak's behalf to see if Lando was so inclined to retrieve the Sentinel shuttle and deliver it to the temple. A second slap in the face was incurred when Lando had agreed to do it without debating that he didn't have the manpower to spare for such a foolish request.

It was delivered the next day and Luke himself used the Force to relocate it to the hangar, and from there down into the underground bay, showing off the power of the Force to Zak and Tash that they could one day possess themselves. It was more than enough to whet Zak's appetite to learn the ways of the Force … more than enough.

So exactly a month after they had brought Rebekah back to the academy, Zak was to be found in the underground hangar. He wasn't alone either. Jacen and Jaina Solo had both made an appearance, as had Tenel Ka, Lowbacca and his own sister, Tash. He knew that they weren't all. Whether they knew it also or not, Zak had seen Rebekah skulking after him, watching them as they huddled in a small group near the foot of the loading ramp and discussed the assignment. He was inclined to let her play spy if she wanted to; it was all about gaining her trust and making her feel comfortable.

Zak was so excited about working on the shuttle that he didn't put up any argument when Jaina asserted herself as co-project-leader. In fact, he welcomed it. Two tech-heads were better than one, he thought. It might even speed up the repair work.

After discussing it for at least a half hour, the group split into two. Zak, Jacen and Jaina took a pair of toolboxes from the supply shelves and started up the ramp into the ship to start on the internal repairs while Tash, Tenel Ka and Lowbacca would remain outside with another pair of toolboxes to start on the outer hull. Rebekah, naturally, stayed exactly where she was hiding and watched from there.

The plan was that in two hours, the two groups working on the project would swap over, but if Tash and the others had finished the hull work before then which wasn't exactly likely, they would all work on the internals.

Zak didn't want to spend too long on the assignment for the day. He still had Jedi study to be getting to. He and Tash, while fast learners and readers, were still well behind the Solos and their friends in terms of training and knowledge. They had much to catch up on, and Zak wasn't fond of being so far behind, even though it wasn't really their fault.

Zak and Jaina started by working together on the helm and navigations controls. It was a two-person job and Jacen hadn't been shy from admitting that he didn't have the slightest clue how to assist without getting in the way. Instead, he went to work on the life support systems in the back, retrieving a schematics pad from the stack Luke Skywalker had provided—courtesy of New Republic Intelligence.

"Micro-wrench," Zak said, holding his free hand out towards Jaina. His other hand held a bundle of wires in place above his head so that they wouldn't drop from the underside of the control board and hit him in the face. Jaina slapped the tool into his hand and he flipped it around to grasp the handle tightly before pushing the tip into the open panel and sealing the bolt for the brace that would keep the wires up themselves.

"OK, I think that's about …" he grunted, holding the wrench out for Jaina to return to the toolbox and feeling the anticipatory, cold slap of a hydrospanner. "Yep, that's done. Sealing it up now and we can give it a test power-up."

"You're not too bad at this," Jaina said. Zak wasn't sure what to make of the tone she'd used. It wasn't quite proud, but it wasn't quite mocking. He decided to take it as it was worded: a statement of fact.

"Kind of a hobby," Zak replied.

He closed the panel above his head and covered the bolt in one corner of the panel with the end of the spanner. He turned it on and drilled the bolt back into place, sealing that corner and moving on to the next to do the same.

"Hey, Jaina," he heard Jacen's voice call from somewhere to the rear of the shuttle.

"What?" Jaina called back, sealing the second corner and moving on to the third.

"I'm done with the environmental controls," Jacen shouted back. Zak directed his gaze from the sealing job above him to Jaina beside him, who looked as sceptical as he guessed he did. "I think," Jacen added uncertainly.

"I'd better go take a look," said Jaina. Zak nodded with a sigh as she pushed herself up to her feet and trudged off to join her brother.

Zak finished sealing the panel shut and then grabbed a satchel of micro sealer from the toolbox and tore open the pack with his teeth before pulling the lump of gelatine out and tearing a strip away. He pressed the strip of sealant against the crack of the panel above him and watched as it crept into the crack and hardened. Smiling, he tore strip after strip until he had sealed all four sides.

Only after he had sealed the panel completely did it occur to him that he'd just wasted good sealant strips if his rewiring job hadn't done what he'd hoped it would. He grimaced and grasped at the faint hope that he had done it properly. He probed with his pitifully developed senses. It _felt_ right to him.

The Solos returned noisily; Jaina was giving Jacen a telling off for having crossed a wire wrong and almost shorting the system he was supposed to be fixing. Zak chuckled when they stopped at his midsection on either side of him, still bickering.

"Jaina, you got to it before there was any serious damage," he pointed out. She glared down at him and he held his hands up in a defensive gesture. "I'm not taking sides; I'm just saying that there was no harm actually inflicted."

"Jeez, Jaina," Jacen started, "you're acting like a Wookiee that just had her butt handed to her in djarik.

"Could have gone much differently, though," Jaina said, shooting a dirty look sidelong at her twin. Zak shrugged and turned his hands so they could help him up. Jacen grasped his left hand while Jaina grabbed his right and both pulled.

And suddenly he wasn't in the shuttle anymore.

* * *

Colours flashed before his eyes in so many shades and contrasts that he couldn't keep up, and it almost made him want to vomit from the dizzying sensation. When the colours finally settled into shapes and forms, he steadied his nausea and chanced a look around.

He was in a city, but what city he could not tell. He'd never been to this place before. Stormtroopers marched through the streets escorting civilians to curfew zones. He looked around him at the dark buildings, the tall skyscrapers that reached for the stars above. It was night, and the streetlights were on to light the paths beneath them.

He thought it best to hide. His history with the Empire was sketchy at best, and to be caught here, wherever here was, would do him no good at all.

But of all the things bothering him, he could not shake the sense that he shouldn't be here. And it took him a few minutes standing in the open thinking about it to realise that he wasn't, not really.

The last thing he remembered slammed into his mind like a wave of water and he recalled Jaina and Jacen Solo, reaching down to help him off his back. When they had touched him, he'd ended up here. But that still didn't explain where he was or how he got there.

He heard footsteps behind him and whirled on the spot to see a pair of stormtroopers headed his way. Both were facing ahead but as they got closer, he could hear the conversation between them. They were talking about the shifts that they had been stuck with; not their usual shifts, he guessed. Before he could move out of the way, they were upon him. They passed right _through_ him, as if he wasn't even there.

He whirled on the spot again to watch them walk away, patting his chest and arms to determine if he was real. As far as he could tell, he was solid. But stormtroopers did not pass through solid matter.

He followed them at an even pace, not gaining or falling behind as they rounded a corner and proceeded to the convergence ahead while he waited at the corner.

Stormtroopers and other Imperials were gathered around a statue in the city square far ahead of him. The city's inhabitants were gathered also, though it looked as if they had been forced to do so by the Imperial forces occupying the planet. Zak looked at the statue more closely and noticed that it was of a bearded man, staring up at the stars with one hand on his hip and the other dangling loosely at his side. But it wasn't the central statue that caught the attention of the masses. It was those that flanked it.

A pole had been erected on other side of the statue, and tied to each pole was a person. From the distance, Zak could not see their faces clearly, or make out any sort of identifying details, and his own underdeveloped Force abilities could not help him any.

It occurred to him suddenly, and without knowing what it was that made him think it, that what he was seeing was some sort of vision—either of events past or events to come. If that was the case, that even developed Force powers wouldn't be able to help him. He would have to use his own intellect and his other senses.

One of the figures tied to the stakes was a human, with a build that did nothing to identify himself to Zak, who had seen a few humans at the academy with similar builds, including himself and Jacen Solo. The human had hair that was dark but shone in the lights cast upon them from overhead, making any identification by that method difficult by the contradiction.

The other figure was a Twi'lek, blue-green skinned with heavy-set shoulders and torso—definitely an adult male. One of his head tails curled around his neck and the other ended in an ugly, scarred stump that looked none-too-recent. Both of them were Jedi. It was just something he knew without knowing how he knew. It wasn't even evident by their dress sense; they were both dressed as civilians.

Suddenly, Zak saw a figure in dark robes part the crowd as they walked towards the podium; stormtroopers and Imperial officers standing raptly to attention as the person passed. The person stopped just before the statue and lowered the hood from their robe, revealing a long mane of dark, almost black hair that was loose around the shoulders. The hair itself almost reminded Zak of someone from his past, but he forced himself with grim determination not to think of her, and stayed with the vision.

The dark-clad figure addressed the bound Jedi in front of them, but their words were lost over the distance it had to cover to get to Zak.

The two Jedi on the podium did not speak. They looked down upon their captor with fiery loathing sparking in the depths of their eyes. The dark-robed figure nodded, as if they had done as was expected of them, and pulled the hood back over their head.

When they turned, they nodded to the ranks of stormtroopers and disappeared into the crowd as the armoured soldiers formed a firing line before the podium and levelled their rifles at the pair of Jedi.

Then they fired.

* * *

Colours swirled and spun again, and Zak clamped his eyes shut as tightly as he could to keep the maelstrom from making him nauseous again. The sound of the firing squad blasting the two Jedi echoed over and over, and there was a sound that sounded almost like rushing wind before Zak felt like things were settling again.

He opened his eyes, expecting to be back in the shuttle with Jaina and Jacen, and was disappointed to see that he was not.

The scene had changed again, and again he found that he didn't at all recognise his surroundings. He was in a richly decorated room this time, furbished with finely-carved tables and unit pieces, and he knew immediately he wasn't likely to find it on Yavin 4.

The table in the centre of the room came to halfway up Zak's calves and was made of an exotic wood he could not recognise. It had four legs with feet carved into tight swirls that had been darkened. The tabletop had been covered with a thin cloth of shimmersilk and upon it sat a pair of cups of a dark, steaming liquid.

Surrounding the table where a pair of single comforters and a soft-looking sofa lounge. Zak made to reach out to feel the material but his hand passed straight through the back as if it or he was not there.

Another vision then, he thought to himself.

He looked around the room some more. There was a holocomm in the corner, and well as a regular comm. unit next to it. Two other corners bore beautifully tended potted plants of green and blue and orange.

A holoscreen was punched into the northern wall of the room, speaker units set evenly around it and a holo chip player beneath it, also set into the wall. The screen was on currently, glowing blue in its standby mode with a series of numbers upon it that Zak recognised to be the date and time. He memorised them and continued to look around. There was a trio of doors.

One of them was open and led onto a ferrocrete deck that offered a spectacular view of the countless buildings and skyscrapers around. Overhead, lines upon lines of shuttle and speeder traffic travelled in many different directions at an even speed, zipping along the speeder lanes oblivious to those below them.

Zak had never before been to Coruscant, and yet there was no way he would be able to stand here, now, in this vision, and say that he couldn't recognise that he was there. He was in awe. There was simply no other planet in the galaxy that was as industrialised as Galactic City that could possess such magnificence, such ability to render a person speechless the first time they ever set eyes on it.

Turning back inside, he walked through the second door, to the back of the entertainment room, and saw that it led down a short hall into a large bedroom. The room had a large bed set against the wall opposite him, flanked by bedside drawers. All were made of that same, unidentified wood with magnificent carvings etched upon them. Atop each drawer was a small lamp, both unlit at present. The entire eastern wall was made of transparisteel, lightly tinted to keep the sunlight from being too bright and open at the middle to lead onto another deck, with a two-step descent.

This deck was walled off around the edge with small flower beds full of exotic blooms that looked just as well cared for as the plants in the other room. A wardrobe was inlaid into the northern wall, shut and without the matching patterns on the bed and drawers, as if a part of the wall itself.

Zak backtracked to the main room to see that two other people were now in there; Jaina Solo and Luke Skywalker.

He opened his mouth to talk to them, but then stopped himself short when he noticed that it would do him no good.

This Jaina could not be the one that was with him in the real world. Neither could that Luke Skywalker be the one back at the academy. They both looked older; she, perhaps, in her mid-to-late twenties. Her uncle, Luke Skywalker, looked older still, but still good for a man who was fast approaching his sixties.

To test his theory, he waved a hand between the two seated on the sofa and called out their names, but he received no response or acknowledgement from either of them.

Luke started to speak, and Zak stood there waiting, trying to think of a way he could stop the vision now and return to the real world. He wasn't sure he was ready to see this. Already, he felt a little queasy from having seen the two Jedi on that other world shot down in cold blood by a row of skull-white armour. What more could these visions bring? How much more pain?

"I'm sorry, Jaina," Luke was saying. "I'm so very, very sorry to have to be the one that brought you this news."

Zak snapped his gaze to the pair immediately. If Jaina was in her twenties, and this later turned out to be an accurate vision, perhaps he could see something now that he could forewarn them about in order to prevent it from happening. He knew Luke would disapprove of that, but if it saved a friend from the pain he could see in her eyes now.

Jaina's eyes were welling with tears that threatened to spill down over her smooth cheeks, and she sniffled. "So it's been confirmed? He really is dead?"

"The Council received the holo recording of the execution yesterday," Luke said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Zak balked. The two visions were related? "One of the locals that had been herded to witness it recorded it and thought that we would want to know. There's no mistaking who it was."

"But Zak said—" Jaina started, anguished.

"I know what Zak said," Luke said with a disapproving smile.

Uh-oh, Zak thought to himself. He _had_ tried to warn them, but whoever had been killed—he deduced from the first scene he had witnessed—had died regardless. They had not heeded his warning. And whoever it had been, they clearly mattered to both Solo and Skywalker. Luke wasn't quiet as upset as Jaina, but there _was_ pain in his eyes, and it wasn't pain from being the one to give Jaina the news.

"He saw it coming, and he did the only thing he could in the situation he was in," Luke said. "But the best we can do now is move on."

"Move on?" Jaina screeched. "Move on? How can you expect me to move on? He was family! _Family!_ I can't just _move on_—"

* * *

"Zak?"

When the colours and rushing wind subsided again, Zak found that was still on his back on the shuttle. He gulped heavily and opened his eyes to see Jaina leaning over him, her fingers pressed against the side of his neck, feeling for his pulse.

"Zak!" Jacen said with a cheeky grin. "Welcome back to the land of the waking. I was just about to run and grab Tash to wake you up."

"Uh …" Zak said, shaking his head. Jaina removed her fingers from his neck and rocked back onto her knees to give him space.

He shook his head again and rubbed at his eyes to drill the image of what he had seen into his mind. He needed to remember it for what he planned to do next. Someone had to be told, and he could think of only one person who would matter.

"Are you OK, Zak?" Jaina asked him. He looked at her, saw the worry on her face, the guilt, and he was glad that it wasn't the pain and anguish he had just seen.

Whatever had happened to him, she was afraid that she had set it off. And to some degree, she was probably right, but Zak wasn't about to tell her that.

"Yes," he said, gulping down more air and sitting up. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Someone fainted, methinks," Jacen said. Zak looked at him to see the cheeky smile was still upon his lips. He was teasing and Zak shot him a glare to let him know that it wasn't at all appreciated. "Perhaps … not, then," he added as an afterthought.

"Are you sure you're OK?" Jaina persisted. Zak nodded.

"What happened?" he asked them.

"You fainted," Jacen said, sounding serious this time. "No, seriously," he added when he saw the biting look Zak renewed in his direction, "you totally fainted … passed out … lost consciousness—whatever you want to call it, that's what you did. We went to help you off your butt and you went completely limp for a few seconds and then seized up and didn't move for like, I dunno."

Jacen looked to Jaina for help. "You were out for the past five minutes," she added. "Any longer and yes we would have gone to get Tash, or Uncle Luke."

"I'm glad you didn't," Zak said, relieved. "It was probably nothing. Probably just stress," he added. "You know, with everything that's happened and all."

"What do you—" Jacen started until Zak pushed himself to his feet and flexed his arms and legs to work the kinks out of them. "Everything in working order?"

"Working perfectly. All greased up and ready to go," Zak replied with a smile. Jaina got up beside him.

"Going where, exactly?" she asked cautiously.

Zak felt the gentle touch of a passive probe coming from her and he sealed himself off. It was the first thing he had dedicated his time to learning. It wasn't that strong of a seal, and he doubted that Jaina wouldn't be able to penetrate it, but he was holding onto the hope that once she knew it was there, that she would get the message and not try to probe any further.

"To see your uncle about this dizzy spell," he said, half-truthfully. "See if he agrees with my assessment before I stop by the infirmary for some sleeping meds."

The Solos looked at each other uneasily but nodded to him nonetheless. "Will you be back, or are you done for the day?" Jacen asked.

"I think I'm done for the day," Zak admitted a little ruefully. "But if you guys want to continue, go for it. I just need to get a little more rest, I think."

"OK," they both said in unison. "I think we'll call it for the day too anyway," Jaina added. "Would you like company?"

Zak smiled at her, catching her eye for just a moment longer than was normal. "I'll be all right," he assured them both, so that Jacen wouldn't get the wrong idea. "Really. I'll see you later tonight?"

"Sure." Jacen smiled back, biting on whatever remark he'd been about to let loose on them, and Zak turned and left them there.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_**Dusk Station**_

_**28 light years core-side of the M'haeli system**_

Far away from Yavin 4, a space station spun like a slow-moving, massively upscale spinning top in an otherwise mostly empty sector of space. The planets or moons were light years away in the M'haeli star system, and there no asteroid or debris fields, or nebula clouds. Orbiting the station protectively was an Imperial II Star Destroyer—the _Tantalus_—and above the station in a purely defensive position was the _Interdictor_, named after the class of destroyer it was.

The command deck of the space station was darkened by the absence of glow panels, and the only lights that could be found were coming from the readout screens to the port, starboard and rear of the deck.

Standing at the fore-end of the deck, looking out through the thick transparisteel at the stars around the bulk of the circling _Tantalus_, was a man in a tunic coloured the darkest of purples, a thick black cape pinned to the shoulders of his tunic and lined silver. His features were hidden from view by the darkness obscuring most of the deck, and even though he was close to the viewscreen, the pinpricks of light from distant stars, and the running lights of the nearby destroyers were not powerful enough to reach him and reveal his face.

He was more than just the commanding officer of the entire station, and his authority was enough that the commanders of the two destroyers and the Grand Admiral also on the station would follow his orders as if they were from the lips of Palpatine himself. The man had been summoned from his slumber to the deck by the subordinates on duty in regards to an incoming communication that had been put on hold. However, there was a delay in reconnecting with the communicating team due to an ion storm that had crossed the invisible line between the station and their location.

Under other circumstances, the man dressed in black and purple would have ignored the communication altogether and insisted that they call back at a time of _his_ pleasing. And under those circumstances, he might even have killed an officer or two in response to the delay. But he was the master of his emotions, and the team that was contacting him was leader of a retrieval squad he had sent out several weeks ago to the jungles of Yavin 4.

And the Yavin mission had the utmost priority.

There were, however, drawbacks to the mission that he was not impressed about; mostly regarding the officer in command of it.

A few of the people on the squad were mercenaries, guns for hire that had been asked to join the squad of stormtroopers because of their expertise in subterfuge and kidnapping. They had been paid many thousands of credits apiece to bring their expertise to the retrieval squad's commander, but the commander himself did not want such riffraff around, regardless of what expertise they could bring to the operation.

When the order had been issued, the lieutenant had argued with his superior regarding the logic of sending them on this mission.

He had been appropriately punished for his outburst.

The man in the darkness expected nothing less than unquestioning loyalty from those he commanded. His goal to subvert Luke Skywalker would not be jeopardised due to the inane attitudes and actions of one man, and in turn, the men and women under his command.

"Sir, we've got the signal back," the young man at the comm. station reported abruptly, tearing his superior away from his thoughts.

The man turned and strode across the blackened deck without needing to see where he was putting his feet and stopped behind the comm. officer. With the wave of his hand, the holoscreen flickered to life to show the face of the commanding officer of the retrieval operation on Yavin 4. His crisp, dark grey uniform contrasted strongly against the greens and purples of the jungle behind him, and from his superior's own time on the moon himself, he determined from the thickness of the underbrush and the composition that the team was not too far from the Jedi Praxeum, but far enough to avoid detection.

"Sire_,_" the lieutenant started, bowing his head respectfully. His face gave away the fear and uncertainty he felt as he spoke. He had been punished for his attitude before, and was obviously anxious of another such encounter. The shrouded man also noted confidence and pride. Dangerous commodities in a commodity.

"You are in position?" he asked the lieutenant.

"We are, my lord," the reply came swiftly. "We have had the structure under observation for the past month since setting up the sensor deflector net around the camp. I do apologise for the communications delay, but we could not broadcast while the _Millennium Falcon_ was still in the sector and there were some other unexpected instances that we had to account for."

"Very well," the shrouded man said with a sigh. He ignored the information about the "unexpected instances". They were secondary. "Have you gained confirmation on the target?"

"We have, your lordship," the officer replied after a second. "Though, obtaining the target may prove a little more difficult than originally anticipated."

"Difficulty, Lieutenant," said the shrouded man, reaching across the stars with his mind, "is what you will encounter if you fail in this mission, or if you fail to carry out my orders to the _best_ of your ability!"

On screen, the lieutenant gasped and reached for his neck. He clawed at it, gagging and spluttering, as if trying to pry away something that was choking him, depriving him of much-needed oxygen. His face turned an interesting shade of red, and then darkened to purple, and started to turn blue. But there was nothing there; nothing save the power of the dark side of the Force.

"Am I understood?" The man at the other end of the transmission nodded and relaxed as the Force user released his hold and allowed oxygen to rush down the man's throat into his lungs. The lieutenant doubled over and started to take in deep, rasping breaths. "So be sure that you do _not_ fail me."

Ignoring the comm. officer altogether, the man waved his hand to shut off the holoscreen and turned his back on it.

"We have a second transmission already awaiting you," the communications officer said steadily. "It's coming directly from Bastion on an encrypted frequency with an Alpha-one-Theta clearance requirement—keyed for your eyes only, sir."

The dark man glanced over his shoulder at the young man before heading for the lift banks to the rear of the deck. "Route it through to the holocomm in my quarters and secure the line," he said.

He stepped into a lift tube and dropped down out of sight.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_**Jedi Praxeum**_

_**Yavin 4**_

It was late into the evening the day after Zak's visions. He was in his own room now, sitting at his desk rewiring old data consoles and computer boards so that they would function again as spare part replacement pieces. He checked his chronometer and was stunned to realise that he had missed the dinner he had been planning with his sister and friends only a few hours ago.

Then again, he knew that he could be like that when he got to work on something. It was what set him apart from Jacen Solo, whose main concern was always to make sure he had the right meals at exactly the right times.

Jaina had dropped by to see him after the midday lunch to see if he was OK after his episode the previous day. To tell the truth, he didn't know how he felt. While he was sure it was important to keep it from her, lest it prove to be just a dream he had had while unconscious, he had shared what he had seen with Luke Skywalker, who he knew would be more open to his assumptions.

He could help thinking about his conversation with Luke the previous day, right after having his visions.

* * *

_I walked into Luke Skywalker's office, half-dazed that he had even been expecting me. Just how powerful _was_ this guy anyway?_

_ The older man sat there in his soft padded chair, looking up at me kindly and gesturing to the not-as-soft seat opposite him and to the left. I couldn't just refuse such an invitation from the Jedi Grand Master, now, could I?_

_ I closed the door to the office to guarantee our privacy and sat down in the indicated seat, shifting my weight only slightly to get into a somewhat comfortable position._

_ "Now, Zak," Luke started, leaning forward in his chair. He laced his fingers together in front of him on the smooth tabletop and gazed straight into my eyes. The look he fixed me with was somewhat unnerving, and I had to fight the squirming tendency. "You sure took your time coming to me. I have been waiting."_

_ "You—you know?" I stammered, in a state of shock. If I thought that seeing what I had seen in the shuttle had rattled me enough, then clearly I hadn't been expecting this._

_ "I do," Luke said kindly. It was hard to think of him as anything but the young Jedi he had been when they'd first met, and I found myself suppressing those memories before they distracted me._

_ "How?" I tried not to make it sound like a demand._

_ Luke dodged the question, but I could just _tell_ that he would answer it eventually. I could wait, if what he said first was of more importance._

_ "Zak, in your studies so far, have you read anything about Seers?"_

_ I wracked my brain. There had been a mention of the word in one of the texts about the Jedi Order that had served the Old Republic, but I hadn't read much about them yet. Perhaps there was more information about these Seers in other texts that I had yet to read. I shook my head._

_ "I've come across the term, yes, but only in passing," I said honestly._

_ "I see," Luke said. He paused, but didn't sit back in the chair, and kept his eyes locked on mine. I wanted to look away, not out of shame, but because I was uncomfortable with the constant eye contact. It made me feel like he was drilling into my thoughts and taking everything. I knew he wasn't, but it felt like it._

_ "Seers have always been … rather uncommon in the Jedi Order, both old and new. I don't recall a Jedi in the new Order that could have been classified a Seer._

_ "A Seer is a Force user who is strong enough in their prescient abilities that they can actually _see_ events from the future play out in their mind's eye. Strong Seers can accurately predict the future, while lesser skilled Seers can only predict _possible_ futures."_

_ "So whoever wrote that prophecy about the Chosen One …" I started, "He would have been a strong Seer?"_

_ "I'm proud of you, Zak," Luke said with a smile and an affirming nod. "You've done your homework."_

_ "I noticed that you provided me and Tash with a full account of Darth Vader's life, including his apparent role in the prophecy of the Chosen One," I replied. Of course, Luke would have done such a thing. He knew that his father had personally hunted us down._

_ Then it occurred to me why Luke had brought up Seers. "You think I'm a Seer?"_

_ "I know it," Luke said with absolute conviction. "I had a vision of this exact conversation before I even knew that you and your sister were coming here. Needless to say, I was shocked at even seeing you again after so long, but I knew that I would have to prepare myself for your arrival, even if it was only _possible_."_

_ "Prepare?"_

_ "Your gloves." Luke nodded to my waist where I taken to tucking my gloves in under the belt I wore. "At this stage of your Force development, your ability is mostly triggered by touch. Those gloves should limit your contact with anything that may trigger a vision. Eventually, you'll master enough control over it that you won't have to wear them. Until you do …"_

* * *

That was only advice Zak had been given regarding his strange ability. He had taken to it with little enthusiasm, and started wearing his gloves any time he was handling something or going to be around other people. He didn't want to trigger any more of disturbing images like he'd seen in the Sentinel. Seeing Jaina the way he had, and seeing the pain in Luke Skywalker's eyes as well, had been too much for him. Just remembering the sights brought him almost to the point of tears. He didn't want to risk a vision of his own sister like that. It would only shatter him.

The twentieth hour in the night ticked slowly into the twenty-first, and then the twenty-second as he worked on console after console and when he stopped, it was twenty-two thirty hours and he had seven consoles or boards in relative working order. He felt proud of himself for that achievement, as well as the secondary achievement of distracting himself.

Zak pushed himself up from his chair, tucked it back under his desk and flicked off the holo projector on the table top. He rubbed at his eyes to fend off the sleep, but knew he was losing the battle. So he allowed himself to lose. After the past couple of days he had, he felt that he could use a decent night's sleep.

He tore off his robe, gloves and tunic, folded them, and deposited them in the laundry basket by the door before donning his bed clothes and falling atop the bedspread. It was chilly out, and raining, and the stones that made the building housed the cold a little too well, but he couldn't muster the strength to peel back the covers before dropping down, nor to cover himself after. And for the first time in as long as he could remember, he was asleep seconds after his head hit the pillow.

* * *

He was awoken some time later by the opening of the door to his quarters. He cracked his eyelids open to see who it was, determined to be annoyed if it was Tash. It could very well have been, as far as he knew; whoever was standing in his doorway looking back at him from the unlit hall was clearly a woman.

"I know you're awake," a voice came from the darkness. Zak's eyes shot open upon recognition and he propped himself up groggily on his elbow, yawning.

"What time is it?" he asked, still half asleep.

"A little past midnight," Jaina Solo replied just as quietly. Her tone was patient, perhaps even bored. It piqued Zak's interested and he stifled another yawn. "Did I wake you?"

"As a matter of fact, you did," Zak said, injecting a little admonishment into his voice. He sat up on the bed and blinked several times rapidly until his eyes became more accustomed to the light. Jaina took a step forward, crossing the threshold and closing the door quietly behind her. "What can I do for you at this ungodly hour?"

Jaina giggled briefly and then became serious. "I was wondering if you would like to go for a walk?" she said.

"A walk? At this hour?"

"Yes," Jaina said plainly. "An official tour of the entire complex. I know you've been here for a while already but it's not like you and your sister were actually given the official tour." She paused, and there was something in her change of tone that struck Zak.

"You do realise that this is the first decent night of sleep that I would have been able to have since Tash and I were on GemDiver?" Zak asked rhetorically.

"Well," Jaina replied, sounding a little disappointed, "if you would rather sleep, that's fine. I can show you around some other time."

She turned to go, and had the door halfway open again when Zak stopped her. "Wait," he said.

He thought about his options here. He could either go back to sleep—a dreamless sleep like the one he had just been roused from. Recover completely from the stress he had been feeling for the past couple of days and the anxiety of beginning private lessons with Luke Skywalker to further explore his potential as a seer … if indeed he had such potential. Then again, who was he to doubt Luke at his word?

Or he could take Jaina up on her offer and walk with her. For some reason, he found himself doubting Jaina's reason for waking him. It was a feeble excuse. But her motives couldn't be that far off. Perhaps she just wanted to get to know him better. He considered that the fact that they shared a few common interests—such as their mechanical knowledge—would give them ample topics of discussion.

Perhaps she already knew much more than he or Tash wanted others to know about them and she was just looking for a little confirmation.

If she brought such things up, Zak was sure he could deflect the topic. In the month that he had been at the Praxeum, he had noticed that there were very few of his peers that were persistent in their search for answers. The Solos were only a little like that. They were persistent only to the point of not violating another's privacy.

"Why not," he said, planting his feet on the cold stone floor and hissing as the chill slipped up his legs and back, temporarily freezing his muscles in place as they became accustomed to the temperature of the stone.

Jaina smiled and nodded before she pulled the door open fully and stepped outside to wait while he dressed.

It only took him a couple of minutes to don a pair of black slacks with a dark maroon button top, which he tucked into the waistband of the slacks. He pulled his socks and boots onto his feet and pulled another black robe from his wardrobe hanger to throw over the top to keep him warm. Then he pulled his gloves snugly over his hands and, picking his room key up from his bedside table, he left the room and locked the door behind him.

Jaina smiled again when she saw him and he smiled back as he drew the robe as tightly around him as he could. He shivered.

"Movement will warm you up," Jaina promised him.

Zak nodded and gestured for her to lead the way. If Jaina was earnest in her offer of a proper tour, she did not start it here; he already likely knew everything that was on this level already from having spent a month living there. When they entered the northern-most lift on the west side of the level Zak took a moment to examine his tour guide.

Jaina had her hair loose around her shoulders, no doubt in an effort to keep the cold from the back of her neck as much as possible. She was wearing a dark blue blouse buttoned all the way to the neck and matching slacks. Her boots had been pulled onto her feet snugly, and a dark brown robe covered the lot like a crude attempt at a blanket.

But there was a slight bulge under the left side of her robe at the waistline.

He looked up into her eyes to see her looking back at him. "If there's one thing I've learned in my eighteen years, it's that you can _never_ be 'too safe'," she explained grimly, patting the lump. "Lightsaber," she added.

Zak nodded and the lift door opened onto the next level. They both stepped out into the corridor and waited as the lift doors closed behind them.

"Wait here a minute," Jaina said. Zak didn't argue with her and waited, leaning against the wall with his hands in the pockets of his robe as Jaina disappeared from sight. She returned a minute later and tossed something at him, which he caught and examined.

"What's this for?" he asked her, holding the object up in the dimmed light. He saw that she'd tossed him a whole fruit, and was watching him expectantly.

"You skipped dinner tonight," Jaina reminded him. "This is it. Moving on." She ushered him to follow her west along the northern corridor to the lift tubes and he did, stepping into the central lift behind her.

The door closed and after Jaina slapped the controls the lift descended to the next level, where they stepped out and it closed again. There were two doorways ahead of them, which Jaina promptly ignored as she led the way south into a large, cavernous chamber.

"The hangar," she said as Zak looked around.

He realised that on previous excursions through the hangar to get into and out of the Praxeum, he had never actually taken the time to look around, to take everything in. He'd just taken for granted that it was there, and that was it.

Now, he took the time to check it all out. He could see the starship lift in the centre of the bay, a great and massive platform on a set of retractable arms that could transport ships and shuttles between the main and underground hangars. The wall along the west, and the far wall across from them on the east side of the hanger, was divided into slots, five total on each side.

Jaina led him past each slot and each one he passed he saw housed a star fighter rack supporting a pair of star fighters. There were a couple of X-wings on this side, as well as a pair of A-wings, a Y-wing and a B-wing. All of them looked snug and sound in the bay.

Half of the fighters were supported higher on the rack, several meters safe above the one below it. A long ladder went up the side of each rack close enough for the pilots to get into the cockpits of the fighters.

Along the far wall, Zak saw another pair of X-wings, and another A-wing. He saw two more Y-wings and another B-wing fighter. But in total, only three of five bays on each side were being used for ships.

The fourth slot on each side held an empty rack, the walls of the slot lined with benches piled with tools, datapads, diagnostic screens and other equipment.

"Repair stations for the fighters," Jaina explained, reading the confusion in his expression, or in his thoughts. Zak nodded and as she led him back to the northern end, past the lifts into the northern corridor, he noted quickly that the final slots on either side were dark and noisy—power generators, he guessed.

She gestured to the doorway at the western corner. "That's the system and equipment diagnostics lab, and here is the astromech maintenance lab," she added as they paused in front of the next room. "Half of the room is actually devoted to the actual maintenance. The other half is used to house the astro droids during their recharge or inactivity cycles. Next room is for post-flight analysis. Boring stuff really. Only Striker Squadron would have any reason to use this room, and they never have." She chuckled and they moved on past the armoury and machine shop, past the storage shed and the technician break room and the mission modelling lab.

In the eastern corner was a temporary sickbay for the pilots. A place they could go for a quick bacta injection if needed or a pre-flight physical.

Jaina led Zak down the eastern side of the hangar past the second lot of fighters Zak guessed belonged to the aforementioned Striker Squadron.

"Striker Squadron?" he asked her out of curiosity.

Jaina stopped and turned to face him, then looked down. She frowned and Zak followed her gaze to his hand, which still held onto the slowly warming fruit she had given him that he had not started eating yet.

He took the hint and brought it to his lips, tearing a chunk away with his teeth and proceeding to chew it into pulp with a grin.

"Striker Squadron is a group of us selected by Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara," Jaina started, her expression softening. "While all of us undergo rudimentary flight training as part of our Jedi instruction, about fourteen of us at any one time receive advanced flight training in case of an Imperial incursion into the system. Twelve for the squadron and two backups in case they're needed."

"Like the Shadow Academy's assault a while back," Zak said after swallowing the destroyed chunk of food. Jaina cocked an eyebrow. "Tash isn't the only one of us that knows how to read," he added with a grin.

"Uncle Luke doesn't really want to resort to us fighting experienced Imperial fighters," Jaina continued, "but he knows that there may come a time where there won't be much choice in the matter, so he wants us prepared."

"And when one or more of Striker Squadron are transferred out or assigned as an apprentice to a more experienced Jedi?" Zak asked.

"Then replacements are chosen from the rest of the students that aren't members of the squadron," Jaina replied. "Usually the highest scoring."

"Who exactly is in the squadron at the moment?" Zak tore another chunk from the fruit and chewed it, slower this time as he awaited a response.

"Well there's Uncle Luke, as squad leader, of course," Jaina said, ticking him off on her index finger. "Then there's Jacen and myself," she began ticking off names. "Tenel Ka, Catoxle." Zak recognised the last name. It was the Praxeum's resident Shi'ido—a shape shifter species, as was his and Tash's Uncle, Mammon Hoole.

"And a few others you might not know by name-to-face recognition, so I won't bother mentioning them. Currently, there's a spot open because Erid Fallon was assigned as a padawan to Jedi Master Uric Whitor at the end of last year. Uncle Luke hasn't had the time yet to choose a suitable replacement to take his place and undergo the advanced training."

Zak nodded and swallowed again. He brought the fruit back to his lips and was about to clamp his teeth upon it again when he stopped.

Something in the back of his mind was setting off an alarm. He recognised the warning. It was the Force, but it wasn't his new Force senses. It was one that he had had since he and Tash had been on the run from the Empire; a warning of danger, imminent danger. And it was close enough to trigger the alarm in such fierceness that his eyes were darting back and forth as wildly as he had seen Rebekah's. Jaina saw the distress, and he sensed that she could feel the same thing he did.

Then there was the screeching.

It wasn't a voice or an alarm that screeched, however. It was the distinctive sound of durasteel grinding against durasteel.

Both Zak and Jaina whirled to face the heavy durasteel blast doors to see that they were sliding apart slowly. Soon the overlap would part and a gap would form. They had a choice to make; run and hide or stay and confront.

Jaina chose the latter. Her hand darted under her robes and returned to sight gripped around the cylindrical hilt of her lightsaber. Without a word of warning, she tossed it over her shoulder to Zak.

He caught it at the midpoint, his thumb brushing accidentally against the activation switch and igniting the weapon. A bright violet-white beam of plasma shot out of the end and extended for just over a metre in length and he used split-second reflexes to twist his wrist so that the blade didn't slice through his face.

"What—" he started. "This is yours!" he hissed desperately. "I have no training using one of these!"

"I'm more adept in the ways of the Force, Zak," Jaina whispered. The doors, meanwhile, continued to grind open slowly. "I can use the Force to defend myself from whatever hostility might become of this. You need some way to protect yourself, so use that."

"_I have no training using one of these!_" he repeated emphatically.

"Then use your instincts," Jaina said calmly. "Let your connection to the Force, however limited it is presently, guide your movements. I guarantee that your survival instincts will, even temporarily, open you up to the Force that much."

Zak felt uneasy, but at the same time exhilarated. While they were about to face off against whatever it was that was about to come through the door, a fact that scared him to no end, the feel of the lightsaber thrumming away in his hands sent thrills down his spine. He had never held such a device before, let alone an active one.

He liked the feel of it, the feeling of safety it left him with. He saw the corner of Jaina's mouth pull up into a smile as she sensed these thoughts in him.

A crack of light appeared as the blast doors parted. It was natural light, reflected from one of Yavin's many other moons, and it lit a scene neither of them had actually expected to see. Though, just because he hadn't expected it, it didn't entirely surprise Zak.

Stormtroopers.

They filed into the hangar in dual-file, fanning out around Zak and Jaina and training their blasters on the youngsters. Jaina hissed a curse under her breath and, with the seriousness of the situation; Zak restrained a chuckle of amusement. He turned on the spot, keeping his eyes on a particular stormtrooper with an orange stripe across his shoulder as he fanned out around them and came to a stop.

He kept the violet blade of the lightsaber raised defensively in front of him.

"Jedi scum," an arrogant voice with an Alderaanian accent slandered from behind him. Zak gathered that Jaina was looking at the speaker, for she replied with an equally insulting slander of her own. The troopers surrounding them all took a step closer, closing the circle around them. "I thank you for not inconveniencing us with a search of the entire facility for you. Drop the weapon and surrender yourselves as prisoners of the Second Imperium," the Imperial commanded.

Jaina hissed. "The Imperium was destroyed!"

"And that, young lady, is where you are mistaken," the Imperial replied with a sweeping gesture that took in all of the surrounding troopers.

Zak stepped left and Jaina did the same to keep her back to him. Both of them now had the Imperial speaker in sight now and Zak recognised the standard grey cut of an officer. He glared at him out of the corner of his eye, twirling the lightsaber in front of him.

"I said," the officer said, "lower the weapon!"

"Come over here and try to make me," Zak taunted. He counted the pips on the officer's uniform—four blues. "Lieutenant," he added mockingly.

He thought he saw the look of unexpected surprise on the officer's face after he spoke—possibly noticing the similar accent—but the look disappeared so fast Zak wasn't sure he _had_ seen it. "Don't let wielding that weapon get to your head, Zak," Jaina warned him in a tone just audible to his ears. "Be smart. It doesn't make you invincible."

He nodded imperceptibly and waited for the Imperial's response.

"Troopers, take aim," he said callously.

Zak gritted his teeth and gripped the lightsaber in his hand tightly with both hands. He tried to open his mind and his feelings to the Force, but wasn't sure if he was successful. He didn't feel any different.

"This is your last chance to surrender peacefully," the lieutenant said, tilting his head to the side as if he expected the answer and was amused. Zak decided to play on that.

"You could have been a Jedi," he teased, "because you look like you know exactly how I'm going to respond to that."

The Imperial snapped.

"Open fire!" he shouted, the command echoing off the wide walls.

Worried that the Force wasn't going to guide him as Jaina had guaranteed, Zak was surprised when some core instinct inside him told him to slash left with the borrowed lightsaber. He obeyed the instinct without thinking, and deflected the bluish-hued stun bolt from a nearby stormtrooper back into his chest armour.

He heard more blaster fire, higher pitched than the standard "kill"setting and slashed twice more to the left and sweeping around behind him, inches from Jaina's face, shifting his feet with each movement, twirling the violet blade of the weapon into the path of each oncoming blast.

That the Imperials were using the "stun" setting on their blasters gave away that they were expecting to take Zak and Jaina alive, and he found himself wondering why, and then hissing an admonishment for almost allowing the thought distract him from clearing a bolt away from Jaina's legs and sending it scorching into the stone.

He chanced a look over his shoulder to see Jaina's hand outstretched to her left, creating a Force barrier to block a set of incoming blaster fire while she launched her other hand out in front of her to use the Force to throw a few of the enemy troopers out of formation.

Again, without thinking, he arced the blade of her weapon over his shoulder, over her shoulder, and deflected an incoming stun blast back at the stormtrooper that fired it. It sizzled a hole through his armour and struck him in the chest. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

He brought the lightsaber back around in front of him and swung it around his head once before slashing down and across at two more stun blasts, deflecting the first into the stone beneath them and the second into the stormtrooper flanking the Imperial officer.

He smiled and thought to improve his aim for the next shot.

The officer was not so useless himself, it seemed. After the near-miss, he drew a blaster pistol from his belt holster, flicked the setting on it to the "stun" setting and opened fire as well.

Zak deflected the first couple of bolts away, and then deactivated the lightsaber before ducking and rolling towards the lieutenant. He bowled the officer over and then jumped back to his feet, flicking the lightsaber back on and swinging it over his shoulder again to deflect another stun bolt back at a stormtrooper.

A sharp gasp drew Zak back to reality, and when he turned to look over at Jaina, he saw her hit the ground hard, her eyes closed and her mouth open in shock. A stun burn smoked from the centre of her back, and instantly Zak knew that it was his fault; if he had stayed where he had been, he would have been able to protect her from such a sneak attack.

Angry, both with himself and with the stormtrooper now swinging his rifle away from Jaina and onto him, Zak charged forward, ramming his shoulder hard into the armoured stormtrooper. Both of them went spinning in opposite directions and Zak slammed side-on into the partition between fighter bays.

He recovered just in time to turn and slash again and again with the lightsaber, deflecting bolts of blue rings in every direction away from him. But his thoughts were still on Jaina and how he had failed to protect her. It was his downfall.

He missed one of the stun bolts and felt it impact his left shin. He dropped like a sack, weakness creeping steadily into his every muscle. Both arms dropped useless to his sides, going numb, and the lightsaber rolled out of his right hand along the stone floor, deactivated.

And now out of reach.

As if he could use it. He couldn't feel anything. When he looked up, the last thing he saw was the butt of a stormtrooper's rifle slamming into his forehead.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Again, Tash Arranda was in a state of panic, and Luke Skywalker was happy to oblige her concern. Zak Arranda had gone missing again.

Luke himself had awoken early from a dreamless sleep for an early morning stroll around the perimeter of the Praxeum before the eventual rise of the rest of the buildings inhabitants. When he had finally gone back inside, to see about class preparations, he had been intercepted by Tash Arranda and Jacen. This time, however, Jaina was not by their side.

Luke was aware that Zak had missed dinner with the rest of his peers the previous night. He also knew that it was because the young man had been steadfastly preoccupied with repairing the stack of consoles and control boards Luke had had supplied for him for his spare time.

He knew the reason Zak was losing himself in his mechanical tinkering was because he was still entirely uncomfortable with his newly discovered potential as a Seer. There had been many ways that he could have eased the young man into the knowledge, and telling him that he, Luke, had known since before the younger man's departure from GemDiver had probably been a little easier than a sucker punch to the gut. He should have taken him aside at some point after his initial arrival and talked to him about it then.

But, despite all of that, it was now apparent that Zak had not shown up for breakfast this morning either, and when Tash and Jacen had gone to investigate, they found his room locked.

Every resident of the Praxeum was issued with their own key to their own room for security or privacy reasons. But few ever really used them. Zak, it seemed, would be one of those few.

So Luke retrieved the master from his office and gone back to Zak's quarters with the pair and unlocked it, only to find it empty. There was no note, no recorded message on recording flexiplast on his desk.

But he did find that the bed had been slept in and two sets of day clothes and a set of bed wear were missing from his wardrobe. Assuming that the bed clothes and one of the sets of day clothes had ended up in the laundry unit via the caretaker units, the logical conclusion was that Zak had donned a second set of clothes and, again, gone walking about.

This was what had Tash in a state of near panic. In the month that they had been here, this was now the second time that her brother had seemingly wandered off on his own and gotten himself lost.

The trio's next stop had then been the sensor analysis station on the building's second level to see what they could pick up from there.

It was a futile attempt. The sensors had been disrupted by some unknown EM interference throughout the night, which Luke said he would have R2-D2 investigate further. It struck him as odd that at the most likely time of Zak's disappearance, the sensors were unable to give readings. He knew of no natural phenomenon in the system that could produce an EM signature strong enough to disrupt the Republic Naval standard sensors that they had in the building.

And their final stop had been to Jaina's quarters to enlist her in the search—though it struck Luke as odd that Tash and Jacen hadn't already taken this step before coming to him.

When they got to Jaina's quarters, however, they found those empty as well.

Jacen hadn't been so worried about this fact. He suggested that perhaps she was on a morning run or in the machine shop on the ground level working on some gadget or another. But after a search in all the likely places, Jaina was still missing and Jacen too was beginning to worry.

The three of them, plus Luke's personal astromech droid, R2-D2, were in the hanger at present, huddled at the edge of the starship lift, discussing the next move in their investigation. Luke had already contacted his wife to request that she take his class today while he worked on solving this mystery.

Tash looked anxious, tense. Jacen was barely saying a word. R2-D2 wouldn't be silent. Luke admired the optimism of the little droid as it ran its sensor over every cubic inch of the hangar's interior, looking for clues.

"Both of them this time," Tash said quietly.

Jacen looked at her but said nothing, and Luke's mouth formed a tight line of tension. "Zak wouldn't go back out into the jungle," Luke said. "Not after last time. I don't think he's that reckless."

"Not that reckless?" Tash said, looking up. "If he wasn't that reckless, he wouldn't have gone out there the first time."

Luke conceded the point, and nodded by way of admitting as much. "We must assume that since Jaina is also missing, that she is with him. If this assumption is in earnest, and we must believe that it is, she wouldn't have allowed him to go back into the jungle. And she would have followed him in if he had somehow gotten past her, and therefore they would most likely both be safe from danger."

"Assuming they went in there by choice," Jacen said.

"You know something?" Luke said. "Or is that a guess?"

"It's a _feeling_, Uncle Luke," Jacen said grimly. "I just have this _feeling_ that something's happened and wherever they are, they didn't go willingly."

"If that turns out to be the case, there's bound to be evidence that points to it," Luke said, attempting to cheer both his nephew and Tash just a little. It didn't work. Both of them looked down at the stone and Jacen shrugged indifference.

"Have you tried to reach her, Jacen, through your twin bond?"

Jacen nodded. "Wherever she is, she's cut off from the Force by some means," Jacen said. Luke felt his nephew reach out again with the Force, and his distressed flinch when he felt nothing was visible. "It's a feeling I know, but can't quite describe."

"There are no Ysalamiri on this moon," Luke said. "So it couldn't possibly be that."

"Doesn't that lead to the conclusion that they're not even on the moon anymore?" Tash said frantically, almost on the verge of chewing on her nails.

Luke didn't want her to think like that. While true, Jacen and Jaina had once before been kidnapped by a Dark Jedi who was intent on destroying Luke and the Jedi Praxeum, that had been years ago and the man in question had since been destroyed. There was no one else he knew of that possessed the resources to kidnap a pair of Jedi students, one of which was a Skywalker by blood, from right under his nose.

And that's when R2-D2 bleeped at him. When he turned to face the little droid, he saw it rolling across the stone to the divider between two of the star fighter bays. He followed the little droid, Jacen and Tash less than a step behind him as he approached the fighters.

R2-D2 stopped and a flap at the front of the barrel-shaped body flipped open. A claw-ended arm extended from the flap to something cylindrical on the ground, just out of sight. When it returned to view, Luke saw what it was and immediately snatched it out of the droid's pincer. It warbled disapprovingly at him, shot a harmless electric jolt as a warning at his knees, and then rolled away, scanning again.

"Evidence!" Jacen said, clasping his hands together and locking his eyes on the lightsaber in Luke's hands.

It was Jaina's. He knew the look of every lightsaber that had ever been constructed by any student he had ever taught. And he knew his niece's unique style. It was simple, cylindrical, and most definitely inspired by the first Jedi to have taught Luke—Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was smooth with a studded end cap and a series of rings around the middle, roughly where her hands around the weapon would be. A thin neck connected the main shaft with the ignition cap which tapered in at the end and the box-like ignition switch was just below the grip.

He carefully looked over the weapon, for damage or misuse, and found none. But it was not Jaina's imprint he sensed upon it.

"Zak handled this," he said aloud for the other two, looking up at them. He saw the thought form in Jacen's head of brash young Zak, wielding a lightsaber for the first time, dragging the deadly blade across Jaina's chest, most likely by accident rather than design. He frowned and continued. "I can feel the imprint of its use as well as the user. For whatever reason, he felt that he had to defend himself from something. Defend Jaina too. In fact, it's why she gave him her lightsaber."

"Because if something were threatening them both, she knew they would both need to defend themselves, and Zak hasn't been training long enough to possess the skills necessary to do it via the Force," Jacen guessed, reassessing his fears. Luke nodded to let his nephew know that his assumption was correct. "But what could it possibly have been?"

"Of that, I am out of any credible suspects. The only person who has tried and would possibly try again is long dead," Luke said, shooting a knowing look at Jacen that he was glad to see that Tash missed.

He wasn't really in the right mood to have to explain the long, sad story of Brakiss to her. "And to my knowledge, no one else would be foolish enough to try anything along those same lines," he continued.

Luke summoned the Force and tentatively reached out to the weapon to see if he could get more from it; a sense of what Zak and Jaina had needed defending from. But it was too far gone; had happened too long ago now to form a coherent image.

He could see an image in his mind of Zak and Jaina standing where he was now, talking casually. Then he saw them turn to the blast doors, blast doors that were now closed, locked. He saw the blast doors start to open, and a crack of light reflected by another of Yavin's moons creep through the gap.

And then he saw no more. The only other image he got from the weapon was of Zak in a Shii-Cho opening stance, holding Jaina's lightsaber in front of him defensively with his eyes narrowed at something Luke could not see. Jaina was standing with her back pressed against his, frowning in concentration.

It frustrated Luke that he couldn't see more.

They were his students—one was his blood!—and he wanted to know what had happened to them, he _needed_ to know. And the only way open to him for the time being was not as forthcoming as he had hoped.

From the other side of the hangar came an echoed, shrill chirping from R2-D2, and the three of them darted over to see what the droid had found. Jacen got there first and bent low to pick something up from the ground that Artoo was just about to pick up. The droid gave Jacen the same shock treatment it had given Luke a few moments ago and then sat in silence as Jacen turned to Tash and Luke.

In his hand was a personal communicator, issued to each and every resident of the Praxeum. It was either Jaina's or Zak's.

"Jaina's," Jacen said in response to his uncle's thoughts. When Luke cocked a "please explain" eyebrow, Jacen flipped it over to show them the back of it.

The belt clip, which by standard was usually silver in colour, was gold and lightly dulled. Luke recognised the significance.

Jaina's clip had broken from her communicator two years ago and she had fashioned one from a tiny brick of gold Lando Calrissian had sold to her and attached it.

"Perhaps she recorded something of significance on it?" Luke suggested.

Jacen handed the communicator over and Luke flipped it over and gently pried loose the access panel on the back using the Force. He fiddled with a few switches and buttons and then pressed down on the transmitter.

"_Jedi scum,_" a voice came from the speaker of the device. Luke frowned, and the playback continued. "_I thank you for not inconveniencing us with a search of the entire facility for you. Drop the weapon and surrender yourselves as prisoners of the Second Imperium._"

Luke froze, and his grip on the device slackened. It dropped from his hand and clattered on the stone beneath his feet. The playback continued, but, for the shock that had frozen him in place, he didn't hear a word more.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_**Detention block, Dusk Station**_

_**28 light years core-side of the M'haeli system**_

When Jaina opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was the warm brown of Zak Arranda's eyes, very close to her, staring back. Automatically seeing that, her analytical side kicked in, and she took the chance to look the room they were in.

They were in a stark white and panel-walled cell, with a sink in one corner. Upon rolling over onto her back and allowing her eyes to travel some more around the cell they were in, she saw the lavatory cubicle in another corner; there was a flimsy steel door hanging from dulled iron hinges. The walls in the cubicle were not panelled like the rest of the cell was. They were smooth, flat, and seamless—the same could not be said about the floor.

There was a mirrpanel set into the wall above the sink in the other corner, and it didn't look at all fragile by conventional means.

She was still in the clothes she last remembered herself in: dark blue blouse and slacks covered in a brown robe and bottomed off with her leather boots. Zak was in his own black on maroon on black attire from the last time she had seen him.

And he was still staring at her. She turned her head to look back at him. He was lying on his side looking at her, his mouth pressed into a thin line, and he breathed steadily through his nose. He gestured upward with his eyes. Not upward toward the ceiling, but upward relative to his position—the doorway.

Jaina rolled over again and pushed herself unsteadily to her knees, and then furthermore to her feet. She rubbed groggily at her eyes and then dropped her hand to her side and looked up …

… and straight into the eyes of evil.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Zak watched as Jaina's eyes flew open to full when she set her gaze on the man outside the cell, and Zak saw that it only took her a split-second to make some sort of silent connection.

He pushed himself to his knees and then fell backwards onto his rump, leaning heavily against the wall for support.

He was still weak from the stun blast, and moreover he had a throbbing headache from the rifle butt to top it off. Today wasn't going to be one of his better days.

But through all that, he still recognised the look on Jaina's face. It was a look that he himself had often worn; a look he had seen on his sister's face more than once, on their uncle's, on their friends'. A look he had even seen on Luke Skywalker's face once or twice years ago. It was the expression of recognition, and complete and total fear of that recognition. Zak began to wonder what in the universe could possibly scare Jaina that much.

He had already performed a physical analysis of the man himself before Jaina had woken.

He was middle-aged with dark, close cropped hair flecked with spatters of stress-grey. He had a strong chin with high cheekbones and a hooked nose. His eyes were the colour of deep yellow, ringed in red and shadowed by darkness usually found on someone that had gone without sleep for many days consecutively.

But the most prominent features were the ugly burn scars on his left hand and down the right side of his face, accompanied by the scar of a long-healed gash crossing from the right side of his jawbone down to his neck and across to the middle where neck met chest.

The man was dressed completely in a purple tunic that was so dark it was almost black, and there was a black cape pinned to the shoulders of his tunic, thick and flowing and lined with what looked like silver shimmersilk.

Though he knew that he had never met the man before in his life, he couldn't get past the feeling that he was somehow familiar. The familiarity was subtle, not pronounced. If he truly did know him from somewhere, it was perhaps before the scars had been inflicted, and that because of the scars marring his features, he was unable to peg the man's identity.

"You're … you're …" Jaina stammered, taking a step back from the ray shield barring the cell in shimmering waves of white. She was clearly unable to articulate the word she wanted.

"Dead?" the man finished for her in deep, menace-filled voice.

Jaina nodded, swallowed heavily and tried to slow her beating heart, which Zak realised he could hear beating away very fast beneath her breast.

The man outside the cell laughed cruelly. "I thought so too … for a while," he sneered. "But there was one thing that kept me alive; one thing that drove me towards survival from the hell I had been cast into."

"Insanity?" Jaina suggested, both mocking and bitter at the same time. Zak sensed a little courage build behind her initial faltering as her heart slowed a little closer to its regular pace.

The other laughed again. Zak recognised the laugh. It was the same cruel, deep laugh that he had heard from Darth Vader whenever he or his sister had said something incredibly foolish in his presence. Though, it wasn't muffled by the presence of a full-body life-support suit, and thus possessed a little more malice behind it.

"No, my dear—the most basic of all human instincts: revenge," he corrected. "I wanted to exact my revenge on you … or, more accurately, that self-righteous excuse for a Jedi; your uncle: Skywalker."

"And how, may I ask, do you hope to accomplish such a feat?" Zak said, speaking up for the first time. By using us, I can only imagine."

The man's gaze shifted across to him. Zak, having been under that same cold stare from Vader more than once, did not falter under it now, though he might have years ago. The other's lips drew into a tight smile of realisation as he seemed to pluck the thoughts from Zak's mind.

"You are quite brave for a child of your years," he said simply—avoiding the question, Zak noticed. "And am I to assume that I have that incompetent excuse of a Sith, Vader, to thank for that?" Zak didn't reply, mostly because he recognised it to be a rhetorical question, but also because he didn't want to give their captor the satisfaction of getting an answer out of him so easily.

But he did feel something; a strong emotion bubbling inside Jaina—anger. He had never felt it emanate from her before, or even from anyone on Yavin 4 in the time he had been there, save his own sister. He knew why.

In the month spent catching up, he had learnt that Darth Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, father to Luke Skywalker, which made him Jaina and Jacen's paternal grandfather, since he also knew now that Princess Leia was Luke's biological sister.

And while Anakin Skywalker had descended down the path of the dark side of the Force and become the second most feared man in the galaxy, he had eventually redeemed himself with the destruction of the Emperor.

It was obvious that that one act had forever redeemed him in the eyes of the family, so much so that the youngest of the Solo children was named for him.

He knew that Jaina would not take kindly to his being insulted. But beyond that, Zak knew that Jaina had enough self-control and training behind her to suppress such emotions like rage and anger.

He considered the possibility that insulting her family was enough to negate such control, but he preferred to think that there was an outside influence at hand, rather than accuse Jaina of being capable of such anger on her own.

"Don't you _ever_—" she started.

The man flicked his wrist and Jaina's head snapped to the side as if she had been struck hard across the face by something invisible, cutting her off.

"Do what?" their captor mocked her. "Call your grandfather an incompetent fool? Well, the fact of the matter is that he was. Your grandfather was a failure as a Jedi, and he was a failure as a Sith. Any loyal and _competent_ servant of the Emperor would never have been responsible for his death," he growled.

Jaina turned and walked the few steps between her and the sink and spat out a small amount of blood from the strike. She turned on the tap to wash it down the drainage pipe and to clean out her mouth before she turned it back off and turned around again to glare at their captor.

"You had better hope I never get loose," she warned him. "Or so help me …"

"Aw," the older man cooed. He chuckled to the stormtrooper behind him. "The girl thinks that she can outdo me again. How cute. I really, truly, would like to see that happen, Jaina Solo."

"I think the expression goes … 'Third time's the charm'," Jaina snapped.

Another chuckle, amused as ever by her defiance. Zak reached out with his feeble skills, trying to get a sense of some sort of whatever was affecting Jaina like this, bringing out her anger so easily. He felt nothing out of the ordinary, and even discovered that he could feel nothing immediately outside their cell beyond the man's presence.

"I assume you have been made aware of me, boy." Though he spoke to Zak, the man didn't take his eyes off Jaina's.

Zak shook his head and shrugged. "Should I have?"

"You mean to tell me that your little … girlfriend here hasn't told you yet who I am or what I do?" He looked at Zak now, disappointment, feigned or genuine Zak couldn't tell, showing. "Oh, I'm hurt. I really am hurt." _That_ was most definitely sarcasm.

"She's not my girlfriend," Zak retorted quickly.

"And yet, you were captured—alone—together on the ground level of your feeble Jedi facility, after hours no less?" the other said, not acknowledging Zak's thought.

"And that naturally leads you to think that we're 'together'?" Jaina bit back. "Pathetic. Besides, what we do in our spare time isn't really any of your business."

"Quite the contrary, my dear; everything you do and everything you say from this moment onwards are _entirely_ my business. Once again, I find myself in the position of teacher of one of the Solos, and therefore it is my highest expectation that everything you, and young Zak Arranda here, do is my business."

He paused and picked at the scar on his neck idly for a moment. "To remove the introductions from the equation, I am Brakiss … but you will both address me as Darth Pravus."

Zak started, pushing himself up to his feet so quickly it made his head spin, and he remained leaning against the wall for support. "Brakiss?" he said, eyes wide. He knew the name. He'd heard it mentioned in passing once during his and Tash's stay on GemDiver and asked Lando about it. Lando had then sat both Zak and Tash down and told them the story.

Four years ago, Brakiss had assigned his second in command, a Dathomirian Nightsister by the name of Tamith Kai, to assault GemDiver with the interests of capturing Jacen and Jaina Solo, whom he hoped to be able to mould as his most promising students to overthrow the Jedi Order and install himself as leader of the galaxy.

This act had started a brief open war between Brakiss's Shadow Academy, where he trained scores of Dark Jedi, and Luke's Jedi Praxeum, a war that lasted the better part of a year and culminated with Brakiss leading an open assault against the Praxeum to force Luke's hand.

However, the attempt had failed and the Shadow Academy had been destroyed. According to Lando, Brakiss had been long thought dead.

He felt the now-familiar brush of another's mind on his own, and looked to Jaina to see looking out of the corner of her eye at him. There was denial in her eyes, as if something she had sensed in him had triggered contradiction or correction in her own mind. He opted to ask her about it when they were through with the introductions.

"You know of me?" the older man said, straightening up to his full height. Zak just looked at him, not saying a word. "Only good things, I hope."

"Not likely," Zak replied.

"Darth Pravus?" Jaina shrieked incredulously. "_Darth_? Since when in all of creation does someone like you get admitted into the ranks of the Sith?"

Their captor sighed in unhidden disappointment, ignoring Jaina's outburst entirely, and then scratched again briefly at the scar along his neck, as if it irritated him.

"Well, I suppose that's going to have to be rectified in our time together, isn't it?" He paused and clasped his hands together behind his back. "You, of course, I do know. Mister Zak Arranda; appears to be seventeen years of age. Home world: Alderaan. You _are_ quite the catch, now, aren't you?" It was another rhetorical question.

Zak sensed, and saw, the shock and disbelief etch itself upon Jaina's face at the mention of Zak's home world. It was something he and Tash had kept from their friends for obvious reasons. Now that it was out in the open, he knew that there were going to be questions. He was mildly surprised she hadn't started plucking the information from him there and then.

"Why me?" Zak demanded. "I thought your goal was to destroy Luke?"

Brakiss had implied by his statement that Zak had some measure of value. Did that mean that his abduction was not one of convenience, with Jaina being the primary target, and that he had been the intended target instead? If that was the case, he had unwittingly put Jaina's life on the line just by being with her when they had come for him. He thought about it as briefly as possible; conversation soon resumed.

He did resolve, however, that this man would _not_ use him to destroy the man he admired, even if he had to take his own life to stop him.

"Now, see, that's the first thing that you will find to be none of _your_ business," Brakiss snapped in reply. "My business is very much my own, and I'll thank you not to pry. Did Skywalker not include basic manners into your training schedules at that sorry excuse for an institution?"

Zak narrowed his eyes.

"I'm glad that we understand one another, Zak," Brakiss said, somewhat cheerfully. "And while your girlfriend may try to convince you otherwise, cooperation with me is definitely in your best interests from now on." He turned to leave, then stopped himself and turned his head to look at Zak. "The consequences for your defiance will be extreme," he added as an afterthought.

And then he was gone, along with the stormtrooper escort.

"Once again, Jaina is _not_ my girlfriend!" Zak called out as the door hissed shut behind the Imperials.

He glared at the door for several long moments before concluding that continuing to do so would get him nowhere. Instead, he decided that Jaina would be the next source of his attention.

According to Lando, the Solos and Lowbacca had spent some time under Brakiss's tutelage last time, and so that made Jaina the closest thing to an expert on the man that Zak could currently access.

"So … what exactly do you want to know?" Jaina asked him as he turned to face her, before the question was even begun.

He knew that the mention of Alderaan had brought up questions that she herself had for him, but it was a discussion best suited for another time, when they were not in such a dire situation. He reached out and wiped a trickle of blood that had seeped unbeknownst from the corner of her lips with his thumb.

"Everything," he said.

* * *

Zak squinted as he tried to see past the wiring in front of him. After Brakiss's departure from the cellblock, Jaina had given Zak a biographical speech on their captor, filling him in on everything he felt he needed to know about the man, including his second attack on Luke and the academy. Then the two of them had set to work attempting to affect their own escape plan.

Jaina, using her superior grasp of the Force, had pried loose a section of the wall panelling to expose what was beneath. Zak had then walked over to the exposed wires, supports and conduits behind the wall to analyse through what means they would put their combined expertise into action.

It was technically through Jaina's insistence that he participated in this plan. His technical knowledge was just a little out of date compared to hers, so most of what he was looking at he had no clue.

He reached out with his index finger tentatively and touched a bundle of wires bolted crossways in the wall, expecting to be thrown backwards by the shock. Nothing happened. He touched another bundle. Still nothing.

"The casing must be thicker than the norm to be able to prevent that kind of shock while the system's active," Jaina pointed out. She was adamant that the conduits and wires in this section of the wall directly affected the ray shield blocking their escape. "Try moving as much of the wiring out of the way as you can so we can get to the shield energy diversion conduit."

"Right," Zak replied.

He used his already handy index finger to push the two tested bundles of wiring out of the way. Behind them, he saw two conductor cables connected by three bracing fibres. Above that, he barely noticed the underside of a small energy converter and took note of it.

A section of the visible area was covered by a panel with a twist lock. He twisted the lock and slid it aside out of the way, jumping as he touched another wire and received a small static shock for his trouble. He shook it off, explaining what it had been to Jaina who was just as startled.

"Alright, I can see the ED unit, two of the three conductor cables and the undercarriage of what looks like an energy conversion reservoir," Zak said over his shoulder.

"What type of connection is there between the conductor cables?" Jaina asked.

Zak took another look. "Duel layer, tri-grip prongs. I don't know what make they are." He heard Jaina musing behind him and turned his head. "May I assume by your hesitation that you don't know either?"

"You'd be correct," Jaina replied thoughtfully.

"Suggestions?"

"Try disrupting the power converter," Jaina said. Zak sensed that she wasn't one hundred percent sure of her own suggestion, but he also sensed that it was the only one she had for the moment. He himself had none to offer. "With any luck, that'll deactivate the ray shield."

Zak shrugged and reached inside with his left arm, pressing his cheek to the cold durasteel of the cell wall. He reached past the wires and the conductor cables until he felt his hand on the warm surface of the power converter unit which was hidden from their external view.

"OK, I can feel the unit. Now … what do I do, exactly?" he asked. He hadn't worked with power converters for quite some time. Normally, he wouldn't have forgotten such a thing over any length of time, but the circumstances were beyond normal at this point.

"How many connections are there from where your hand is resting? Don't go looking for all of them," she added.

Zak felt around as far as he could move his hand.

"Two. One running parallel to the wall and the other comes out towards us for a few inches before …" He stopped. Then he felt around some more, following the second connection line. "Before hitting a bend and shooting up towards the ceiling."

"Pull that one."

"But," Zak started, "the other one goes straight for the ray shield."

"Amateur. Pull it."

Zak did as he was told with a sigh and pulled the connection leading to the deck above them. He turned his head to look at the cell's doorway to see that there was no shimmering white glow evident to suggest the ray shield was still activated.

Jaina didn't move toward it. Zak did.

Naturally, he assumed that it had been as a result of his tampering with the power converter, and he was going to take full advantage of the opportunity by grabbing the nearest weapon and getting the hell out. He should have known that it couldn't have been so easy.

His hopes were crushed the instant he crossed the threshold of the cell and ran smack-bang into the back of a black-gloved hand that shot out in front of him. The rest of his body continued on, while his head was stopped by the impact, and the dichotomy resulted in Zak falling backwards and hitting the floor hard.

"I … don't think so," Brakiss's voice said from above him. When Zak opened his eyes again and looked up, he saw that Brakiss had been standing just outside the cell, out of sight and out of touch with the Force, as if anticipating that they would try to escape and taking pleasure in watching their attempt.

Zak scurried backwards into the cell and Brakiss followed him casually, as if Zak had not just tried to escape. When Brakiss was also in the cell with them, he flicked his wrist and Zak flew sideways into the nearby wall. He slumped to the floor and heard the gentle thrum of the ray shield being reactivated.

There was a loud scraping sound and Zak and Jaina watched as the wall plating Jaina had pried loose flew through the air across the cell and snapped back into its original position with a loud clang.

"What do you want now?" Jaina hissed.

"As I said to your boyfriend earlier, young lady, that's not any of your business. If I want to come down and pester my two valuable acquisitions, I will do so," Brakiss replied before peering over Zak's shoulder to see if the wall had been sufficiently repaired.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Zak protested.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Jaina snapped at the same instant.

Brakiss smiled mischievously at them, as if he didn't believe them. "I would also very much appreciate it if you ceased your attempts to escape. You won't be at all successful. Over ninety percent of the facility has anti-Force protective measures, which you have no doubt already discovered. You must come to terms with the fact that the both of you are now … mine."

"Never," Jaina snarled.

Brakiss sighed and changed the subject. "Your father's ship," he said, looking directly at Jaina now. "Tell me about it; defences, weaknesses, normal space and hyperspace capabilities, unregistered modifications, communications equipment—something."

Jaina crossed her arms and remained silent.

"No?" He turned to Zak. "I _know_ you've spent time on the _Millennium Falcon_," he said matter-of-factly. "Would you care to volunteer any useful information?"

Zak too refused to give him what he wanted. He crossed his arms over his chest and just stared back into their captor's cold, dark eyes and held his gaze for as long as he could.

"I thought I warned you that cooperation was in your best interests?" he said, raising his hand in Jaina's direction.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zak saw Jaina's feet rise off the deck and her hands shoot up to her throat as if the older man had his hand wrapped around it. He still said nothing. Not even Vader had been able to get any information out of him this way, so this self-proclaimed Sith would not either.

"Unless you wish to see your pretty little girlfriend dead within the next few moments, you'll tell me that which I want to know," Brakiss snarled.

"If you know as much about me as you've let on, you shouldn't expect me to cooperate under such a threat. Vader never broke me," Zak pointed out, injecting as much venom into his tone as he could muster.

When it didn't look as though Brakiss was going to let his Force-grip of Jaina slacken any, Zak repeated his statement. He noticed Jaina's clawing and gagging was becoming more desperate; she was running out of air.

He had to do something. He could feel her need for oxygen becoming direr with each passing second, could see her face turning blue from the lack of it.

His own anger surged within him. If only he could land a hit, pick up some sort of weapon. Something!

Without thinking about it, Zak's right hand shot out in front of him and Brakiss's eyes flew wide in surprise. Zak's anger and panic triggered a connection to the Force so strong that he had caught their captor by surprise. A great deal of Force energies responded to Zak's will and the older man was thrown against the edge of the wall next to the ray shield so hard he fell to the deck and didn't get up right away.

The stormtroopers outside the cell responded immediately, lowering the shield and levelling their weapons at the two young Jedi. Zak reached out to them, but could not touch them with the Force.

For the moment, Brakiss's assurances that he wouldn't be able to use the Force in most parts of the facility were long forgotten, and Zak just wanted to crush the troopers within their armour against the walls and escape. The fact that he couldn't didn't register at first, and he snorted in frustration and tried again before it clicked.

Zak stood still and lowered his hand to his side, staring at Brakiss as the older man slowly pushed himself up from the ground to his feet and propped himself up against the wall. The look he returned was that of purest loathing and disgust.

"You'll regret that, boy!" he hissed before backing out of the cell. The ray shield flashed back into its activation cycle and Brakiss departed with his escort, his cape billowing out behind him as he turned to go.

When he disappeared from sight, and the door snapped shut behind him, Zak slumped to his knees on the floor. Jaina approached him carefully and put a hand on his shoulder. "What was that?" she asked cautiously.

"What was what?" Zak replied, wiping away the sweat that had beaded up on his forehead.

"When you called upon the Force and threw him like that," Jaina said. "I didn't think you had such a connection to the Force! How did you do that?"

Zak barely recalled the incident. All he remembered was the rage he had felt at Brakiss's callous treatment of Jaina, and then letting that anger take form. It almost mirrored the anger he'd felt in Jaina earlier. "I … I'm not sure," he replied honestly. "It just … when he had you like that … I got … it just happened," he stammered.

He fell back against the wall and sighed heavily, exhausted, before shutting his eyes.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Millennium Falcon**

_**On-route to Dusk Station**_

Tash was with Jacen in the main hold of the _Millennium Falcon_, talking sporadically. Luke Skywalker was in the cockpit with Chewbacca and Han and Leia Solo as the ship zipped through hyperspace to wherever it was that they had tracked those that had kidnapped Zak and Jaina.

Tash needed someone to confide in for the meantime, and Jacen was the only one going through what she was. While true that three of the adults on the ship were also Jaina's family by blood, and the other was family by long-standing association, there was nothing stronger than the bond between siblings.

Tash was somewhat surprised that she and Jacen had even been allowed to accompany the adults on this mission. Even though she didn't understand at first why Luke would bring them along, she wasn't going to argue with the choice. In fact, she might have hounded him until he'd agreed to it.

They had also been told that the Republic was sending a ship and Rogue Squadron to assist, which offered small comfort.

For now, Tash was silent. She couldn't help but dwell on the many instances that they had been together in which one of them had been in terrible danger and the other had had to save them just in the nick of time.

On D'vouran, when their troubles began all those years ago, they had both been in peril. On Necropolis, Zak was the one in need of saving. On Gobindi, it was her. Wherever they went one of them inevitably ended up in peril. It was a curse. What they had done to deserve it was knowledge that eluded her.

The one thought kept running through her mind over and over; would she ever see Zak again? She saw in Jacen's eyes a few times that he'd collected that thought from her and forgave her for thinking it. For if she doubted she would see Zak again, she doubted by extension that they would see Jaina.

They were interrupted by the arrival of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo. Tash and Jacen both stood up at once and rushed over.

"We're approaching the coordinates," Luke said, holding a hand up to silence both of their requests for an update on the situation. "The buzz the both of you are feeling is … our work," he added, gesturing towards the woman at his side. "We're using the Force to mask our approach for as long as possible."

"I was wondering about that," Jacen mused. Tash hadn't really paid much attention. "So you plan on using the arrival of the ship the Republic's sending as a distraction for us to get in and get Zak and Jaina?"

"That's the idea, yes," Leia said with a grim smile.

"Do you think it'll work?" Tash asked meekly.

The adults hesitated, glancing sidelong at one another, before Luke spoke. "It's got a good chance of succeeding. Not an excellent chance, but a good one. We'll soon find out, won't we?"

"Your father wants you in the ventral quad, Jacen," Leia said. "We'll be dropping out of hyperspace any minute now and there's a good chance there'll be resistance in the system."

"What about the ship the Republic's sending? What about Rogue Squadron?"

"They should already be there to cover our arrival. But we'll be going after Zak and Jaina alone," Luke said. "Now get going, Jacen. I'll join you from the dorsal turret in a second, I just want a quick word with your father first."

"OK," Jacen said.

He patted Tash gently on the shoulder and then took off down the hall. Tash turned to Leia.

"What about me?" she said. "What can I do?"

"Do you know how to use one of these?" the older woman said, holding up a lightweight blaster pistol. Tash looked at it in shock, then back up at Jacen's mother and nodded. "Good. We might encounter resistance on the inside as well, so we'll need the extra hand. Just stay out of sight."

Again, Tash nodded, and then followed Leia back into the cockpit.

* * *

The _Millennium Falcon_ dropped out of hyperspace in the middle of a battle. Though its crew had known not what to expect to enter, they had been prepared for it nonetheless.

When the sublight engines kicked in, the small ship slowed and dipped under the great bulk of a massive cruiser in its way.

The Republic's ships had arrived; they'd in fact sent two instead of one, and it was a good thing they had. They ducked under the large bulk of the Mon Calamari vessel and almost collided with a trio of TIE fighters making a strafing run.

In the distance, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer sat in defence of a large station-like structure. It was side on to the Republic ship, and both capitol ships had the turbolasers on the side of the ship facing the enemy firing constantly, both ships stationary as they launched wing after wing of star fighters against each other. More fighters were inbound from the Imperial station and from a smaller cruiser nestled just behind and above it.

* * *

"_That's an Interdictor,_" Luke Skywalker's voice came over the intercom. Tash jumped at the unexpectedness of it, and then looked to the adults for an explanation.

It came from Leia, who had her eyes shut in deep concentration at the same time. "Interdictor classes are support ships, Tash," she said quietly. "They're fitted with technology to prevent hyperspace jumps and mess around with torpedo and missile locks."

"Damned right," Han muttered from the controls with an accompanied growl from Chewbacca. "We came out of hyperspace sooner than I'd planned to. Damned Imperials!"

Tash nodded and looked out through the forward viewport. They'd passed under the Star Destroyer by now, avoiding most of the laser barrage aimed at the Republic ship and dodging several flights of TIEs that came after them.

Luke and Leia's attempts to hide the ship weren't total. To the best that Tash could understand it, the two Jedi were focussing their abilities to the point that anyone that actually saw them with plain, regular eyesight would in fact _not_ see anything there at all, and that anyone seeing the _Falcon_ on sensor sweeps would, similarly, ignore it. But it wasn't total. With Luke Skywalker busy in one of the _Falcon_'s laser turrets, he was concentrating more on that than on confusing Imperials.

The station structure was ahead of them now, and Tash noted that it was like none she had seen before. It had a central body which resembled a pair of large-headed mushrooms fused together at the end of the stalks. At the central point, there were eight, maybe ten support struts which angled out and ended in a loop. A thick ring surrounded the station, snaking through all the loops and in a constant state of motion, and yet never touching the main structure.

At the topmost point of each mushroom-like construct was an array of spires. There were two large hangar-like doors on each mushroom face that could be seen from the _Falcon_'s vantage point.

With her eyes locked on the structure, Tash hoped that if they were hangars, that Zak and Jaina wouldn't be too far from one of them.

"I hope so too," Leia said beside her.

* * *

Tash shot ahead of the rest of the group.

Together, there were five of them: Han and Leia Solo, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, and herself. Jacen Solo had remained in the ventral quad of the _Millennium Falcon_ to defend the ship from any stormtroopers that decided to attempt acts of sabotage in their absence. Luke had only let him remain behind because he was sure that they wouldn't be too long, and that if Jacen was in any danger, he was more than capable of defending himself.

Luke was just behind Tash now, trying to keep up with her, to keep her behind him. His lightsaber was in hand and activated to defend from stormtrooper fire in the halls. Leia was similarly armed with her own lightsaber and brought up the rear of the group defending them just the same. Han and Chewbacca were in the middle, where Tash was supposed to be.

But she was too anxious to be held back. She wanted to find Zak, and her bet was that he would be in the detention section. Even though she didn't know exactly where that was, following her instincts had worked for her in the past, and so she was willing to rely on them now to find her way. That Luke and the others hadn't corrected her path so far was evidence that she was on the right track. But the fact that she couldn't touch the Force at all to help guide her was disturbing.

She tried for the dozenth time to reach out with her mind to find Zak, to help guide her way through the stark white corridors of the space station directly to where he and Jaina were being held, but encountered emptiness again.

_I'm here!_ she thought, hoping that if her brother could sense her from wherever he was, he could also hear her. _Don't worry, little brother, I'm here._

"Tash!" Luke's hand came down on her shoulder again, but slipped off as she stepped around a corner …

… and froze.

A squad of Imperial stormtroopers had formed a dual-layer defence position from wall to wall in the hall ahead of her, completely blocking off the passageway at the other end. Over their heads, she could just make out three figures being escorted by quartet of stormtroopers, two of them forcefully.

She recognised those two right away, as they were turned facing towards her as if trying to resist the escort.

It was Zak and Jaina.

And the man leading them away from her, she could get no sense of. She reached out over and over, and yet she could not touch him. In fact, she could not even sense Zak and Jaina or the stormtroopers in her way, even though her eyes told her that they were right there.

"Tash!" Zak called out.

"ZAK!" Tash screamed.

The stormtroopers opened fire, as if waiting for that precise moment to do so; for some hidden signal that they should. And as they continued to fire upon her, Tash continued to stand still, staring across into the face of the man escorting her brother and Jacen's sister away, as he had now turned to see what the disturbance was about.

"Tash! Get out of the way!" She barely heard Luke's voice shouting at her over the sound of her own blood pumping furiously in her chest and the whining of continuous laser barrage. As the barrage of laser fire bore down on her, Luke jumped in the way, slashing his lightsaber in wide arcs to deflect them into the walls. She felt him shove her back around the corner they had come from and she did not resist.

When Luke followed her seconds later, his eyes were wide with either shock or horror she couldn't tell.

"What is it?" Tash asked him. "Who was that man?"

"I'll explain it later," Luke said shakily, peering around the corner to see if the stormtroopers were rushing down the hall to them.

Tash could not hear the sounds of jostled armour, so she assumed that the troopers were there as a defensive measure, with orders to follow their commander, rather than pursue the enemy.

"Is there any way through that?" Han Solo said from Tash's other side, nodding at the intersection.

Luke shook his head. "Under ideal circumstances, I could just push them out of the way," he started, "but as it is I can't even get a sense that they're even there. It's as if the Force has deserted me."

"I got that feeling too," Tash said. "When I saw Zak and Jaina there, but I couldn't even _feel_ them there. I thought it was just me."

"We've encountered this sort of thing before," Han said. "On Myrkr and Weyland."

"Of course," Luke said. "Ysalamiri. If a couple of those troopers are carrying nutrient packs on their backs that would explain their complete and total absence from the Force. But I can hardly believe that _he_ would allow himself to be so vulnerable," he added as a quiet afterthought.

"Back to the _Falcon_ then?" Han suggested.

Luke nodded. "That would be our best strategy at this time," he said plainly. "Now that he knows we're here, more than likely he'll take them somewhere else, somewhere we won't find them."

"Who?" Han inquired.

"Later," Luke said, avoiding answering. Tash frowned. Luke knew who it was that had her brother. She saw Han Solo mirror her look, but he said nothing as he led her away from the intersection.

Tash shot one more disparaging glanced at her mentor before following Solo away from the corridor.

* * *

It took them less time to get back to the hangar at a flat run then it did to get to the corridor where she had seen Zak and Jaina with the stranger. When they did, Han and Chewbacca crouched on either side of the short hall to the blast doors in defensive positions while Luke, Leia and Tash dashed across the hangar, then followed them up the ramp into the _Falcon_'s main hold.

From there, three of the adults had returned to the cockpit while Leia manned the dorsal quad turret. Tash followed the others into the cockpit and sat down on the chair at the back of the cramped space.

"Where are they?" Han Solo said aloud.

Tash understood his confusion. When she looked out through the cockpit's viewing ports, she couldn't see any sign of the Imperial troopers that had blocked them off in the hallway. Why hadn't they been followed back to the hangar by more stormtroopers?

"I don't think they were after us," Luke replied pointedly. "I think they were there to clear the way for Brakiss and to keep his prisoners secure from rescue." Han and Leia both rounded on Luke.

"I thought he was supposed to be dead!" Han snapped in reply.

"Yes, he _is_ supposed to be," Luke mused meekly. "I thought he was. It's obviously that I was mistaken about that. But how he could have managed it is _beyond_ my understanding. There's only been one person who ever survived what I saw became of him. And I'm pretty sure I didn't leave him in much shape to be the second person."

Tash had bristled at the name. She knew it; though clearly she had no personal history with the man quite like the Skywalker and Solo families had. And frankly, when Lando had told her and her brother about him during their stay on GemDiver, she had rejoiced that such a person had been reported dead. She didn't want to have the same entanglements with him and his scheming, his plotting, his using of other people to further his agendas.

But now she was. She was irrevocably tied to this man through the simple act of Zak's kidnapping. It was an injustice he would pay for, she was certain of it. And while she wished it would be her that would exact such justice, she knew it would not be so. But Luke Skywalker would not let her down. He would claim victory over this foe; of that she was also certain.

"Uh-oh," Luke said, swivelling in his seat to look out through the cockpit viewport. "Well, we finally have company. I'm bringing the deflectors online."

Tash saw them: stormtroopers; pouring through the now wide open blast doors and forming an arc around the front of the ship, bringing their rifles to bear. Some of them started firing.

Han nodded and flicked a few controls himself as Luke worked at the board in front of him. Solo held a hand to the earpiece on his headset for a moment.

"Blast those damned doors open, you pair," Han said into the mic on his headset. "The sudden depressurisation of the bay should suck the debris—and with any luck the Imperials—out into space."

"And us as well," Luke pointed out.

"Do you distrust my piloting skills that much, Luke old buddy?" Han said with a nervous chuckle. "I should be able to use the stabilisers and the thrusters to keep us relatively stationary while everything else gets thrown out of the hangar," he added. Luke didn't reply. "I take that as an approval. Hang on, I'm taking off."

"Retracting the landing gear," Luke said.

Tash felt the ship lurch beneath her as it left the hangar deck and began to hover. She heard a loud clang as the loading ramp and the landing gear all snapped into place snug and tight against the _Millennium Falcon_'s hull, the entry hatch to the main hold sealing on automatic.

She grabbed hold of the back of Luke's seat in front of her and held on tight as laser fire sounded from somewhere behind her and the doors blew forcefully open. The ship lurched in the direction of the gaping hole before stabilising and there was a loud rushing sound as the air and pressure from the hangar, and the connecting corridors through the open blast doors, was sucked out into space.

"See? I told you I could do it," Solo's proud voice sounded throughout the cockpit. Luke scoffed his reply, triggering a return laugh.

And then the _Falcon_ took off, leaving the hangar and almost immediately having to dodge down under a TIE fighter as it entered open space.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

_**Imperial Star Destroyer,**_** Tantalus**

_**Holding station near Dusk Station**_

With the failed rescue attempt, the Corellian freighter streaked away from the station and the surrounding battle, its pilots planning to get far enough away to enter hyperspace and return to Republic space where they knew they would be safe.

Captain Reyson of the _Tantalus_ and his aide stood at the fore end of the command bridge, watching the freighter flee the scene. He smiled to himself as he watched the ship disappear when it slipped into hyperspace.

By this time, the Republic ships had dealt severe damage to the _Interdictor_ and, after recalling their fighters, they also made separate jumps back into the heart of the Republic to report their failure

Reyson clicked his heels together as he promptly spun on his heel and walked down the centre of the command deck to holocomm in the comm. centre at the rear of the bridge.

Lord Pravus would want a report as soon as possible.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

_**Combat chamber, Dusk Station, undisclosed location**_

_**Five months later**_

Neither Zak nor Jaina had heard any word of what had happened to Luke and the others after the _Millennium Falcon_'s failed attempt at a rescue and subsequent retreat back to the Praxeum on Yavin 4. They doubted that they would be found now, though. Not any time soon.

Not long after the Republic's retreat, Brakiss had unleashed another surprise by ordering the space station to hyperspace to an undisclosed location. Once there it was soon joined by the ships that had been protecting it before, in addition to two smaller ships.

This much Brakiss had allowed them to know, with the reasoning that it would crush their spirits, their hopes of being rescued. Jaina never gave up, and it was her attitude, her zeal that kept Zak just as defiant and just as optimistic.

They had been expected to come to know the station as their new home, for they would go nowhere else until Brakiss so ordered them, and he would only do so when he was sure that they had been turned.

Of this, Zak knew.

And then Brakiss had started their training. Weeks after moving to the new location on the edge of the outer rim, he had decided that now that he would not be disturbed, it was the perfect time to start instructing his newest of students.

He had devised a brutal training program involving both mental and physical exercises to increase their performance, as well as structured historical lessons—Imperial propaganda, Jaina called it—and other lessons to fill in the gaps. They had both begrudgingly agreed to cooperate … for the time being. Refusal meant death, which Brakiss had not needed do more than hint at.

At present, the two of them were in the middle of a lightsaber training exercise. When they had first begun lightsaber training, Jaina had been adequately confident in her sabre skills; Brakiss had merely told her that they were unsatisfactory, again hinting at the incompetence of the Skywalker clan. He had been outwardly infuriated that the only experience Zak had had with such a weapon was on the night of his capture. That he didn't know that already led Zak to believe that the self-proclaimed Sith did not know _everything_ there was to know about him.

For this exercise, both of them had been provided with lightsabers to use. Neither Jaina nor Zak wanted to think about where Brakiss had obtained the weapons, as it became obvious that he hadn't constructed them himself.

The exercises they underwent varied from time to time. On occasion, they were expected to fight each other; trading blow after blow until one of them landed a hit. As the lightsabers were real and fused permanently to a realistic setting, neither of them was willing to actually land a hit, as it would result in a real injury. Medical facilities had, however, been made available to them both for their training.

On other days, they were provided with combat droid opponents that they were expected to fight solo or as a team, to improve their combat proficiency in environments where they would be alone, or have assistance from another.

While fighting the electronic opponents, they soon found that the skill of the droids would increase with each passing exercise that utilised them; new droids being programmed to adapt to previous strategies and occasionally given advancement or two over the previous model in order to force the young Jedi to devise new strategies in order to claim their victories.

Brakiss was using their imagination as a tool for their exercises, and it was no different with their mental exercises.

Zak swung the crimson blade of his provided lightsaber until it impacted the blue-white blade of the one Jaina held in her own hands.

As her lightsaber had been left on Yavin 4, she could not use it. She'd grilled Zak out when he'd told her that he'd dropped her lightsaber back at the academy.

Each of them looked up at each other, and then over to the combat droid that was headed towards them. Its lightsaber, also blue-white, was raised high above its head as it crept closer and closer to the young Jedi, its metal feet clanging noisily on the deck. Zak and Jaina glanced again at each other and nodded; their plan had been devised telepathically and each of them was ready for their own roles.

When the droid came within range, it brought its lightsaber down in a blue-white slashing blur, straight at Zak. Both Zak and Jaina repositioned themselves, keeping their lightsabers crossed, and raised their touching weapons up to catch the attack. Then they twisted and shoved it off to the side.

The droid's superior grip didn't release the weapon, but it was momentarily thrown off balance by the defensive move.

Then both Jedi spun on the spot, both coming around behind the droid.

In the split-second glance Zak was able to catch of the droid's back, he saw an access panel there that had not been present on any of the previous droids they had fought against thus far. He sensed deception, and filed it away for any sudden adaptations to their strategy they might have to make.

Too late to stop the manoeuvre that they'd planned out, Zak and Jaina both swung at the droid.

Jaina swung her weapon high to the brace connecting its chrome head to its tough torso, while Zak swung horizontally at its midsection. The droid had recovered now from its failed attack and brought its lightsaber up and over its head to defend from Jaina's attack.

Got you! Zak thought to himself smugly.

And then the trap was sprung.

Without warning, the access panel on the droid's back that Zak had seen slid open and a small clamp arm extended, holding tightly to a second lightsaber.

This was the advancement over the previous model, and Zak frowned when he realised that it threw out the plan he and Jaina had made.

The clamp hand opened and dropped a second lightsaber, which it had been holding, into the left hand of the combat droid, which had bent back to retrieve it. It activated the second lightsaber with a bright flash of green-white and blocked Zak's attack just as it had blocked Jaina's.

Zak ducked and rolled between the droid's legs to come up in front of it. As he rolled back onto his feet, he brought the lightsaber in his hands with him, hoping to cleave the droid in half. Instead, the mechanical monster had brought the second lightsaber back around to its front to defend and blocked the oncoming slice.

Zak sensed the clamp retract and the access panel snap shut just as the droid threw a leg up behind itself and launched its clawed foot at Jaina's chest. She was sent flying across the room and Zak reached out with the Force to soften the impact as her shoulder slammed into the wall.

Both lightsabers were upon him now, with Jaina recovering. Zak swung his sole weapon up to defend himself from both at once, and then twisted the hilt of his weapon, releasing it only briefly and gripping it again a split second later in a backhand.

Zak lashed out with his free hand and exerted himself through the Force. He felt it channel through his entire being towards his outstretched hand, and the monstrous mechanical flew through the air away from him and crashed into the far wall near Jaina.

Jaina had managed to recover from her own flight and took over; she reactivated the lightsaber in her hand and swung it down at the recovering droid, severing its right arm from its torso at the shoulder support.

The arm fell to the floor with a clatter, the lightsaber in its grip shutting off after a Force-touch on the power dial from Jaina. The droid's second arm, brandishing the green-white blade, came down upon Jaina. She blocked several blows and then jumped backwards to land closer to Zak.

The combat droid had caught up with her by the time she landed, and Zak was surprised to note that he barely noticed the droid getting back to its feet and running.

When he realised it, Zak concluded that the extra arm hadn't been the only augmentation to this combat dummy. It had increased speed to the previous ones.

Its head lurched forward at Jaina's, sending her flying a few feet away and to the floor, unconscious, with the force of the impact.

Instantly, Zak was overcome with worry that it may had been so strong a hit that the machine had cracked her skull, or that she would suffer some other ill effects after a quick recovery.

He didn't allow himself to think about it for more than a second, les it become a distraction. Instead, he blocked the oncoming lightsaber with the one in his hand and held out his other hand in Jaina's direction.

Her lightsaber flew into his hand without resistance and he flicked the activator to switch it on after feeling the confirming slap of metal in his hand. While keeping his own blade in contact with that of the machine he faced, he swung Jaina's at the enemy's from above so that it would impact the droid's lightsaber a few inches from his own.

The offset between the two weapons caused the droid's grip to weaken and the weapon launched out of the mechanical hand and through the air to Zak's right.

Which his attention was thus divided, the droid brought its arm down on Zak's left wrist. He felt the bones in his wrist snap under the force of the impact, and his grip on the lightsaber slackened.

The droid caught it before the tip of the lightsaber's blade pierced the deck and brought the glowing weapon slashing straight up, trying to cleave Zak the same way he had tried to cleave the droid earlier. He skirted backward, letting his useless hand swing by his side while arcing his other arm around to swat the invading lightsaber away from him.

Zak traded blows with the machine for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only seconds at the speed they both moved. Every time he swung his weapon, every time they clashed and sparked, he looked for an opening. Every time the blue lightsaber passed too close to his chest or his arms, leaving angry welts on his skin, he adapted and spun around into a new series of movements that would repel the droid and prevent a repeat.

Finally seeing an opening, he braced himself on his left foot and kicked out with his right, slamming the sole of his boot into the forearm braces of the droid and knocking the lightsaber clean from its grip.

He let the recoil of the kick knock him back into a backwards roll along the deck and flicked the blade of his lightsaber off quickly to avoid accidentally impaling himself.

When Zak got back to his feet, hissing at the spike of pain from his wrist, he tucked his useless hand under his belt and then launched himself into a rapid spin with the reactivated lightsaber stretched out to his side. Once he reached a good speed, using the Force to propel him faster and faster, he slackened his grip on the lightsaber and sent it flying.

He brought himself to a stop at once and watched the spinning crimson blur shooting across the chamber and slicing clean through the middle of the droid's head before it slowed and then came shooting back to his outstretched hand, hilt-first, like a dart. He depressed the ignition switch and the blade switched off with a hiss.

With only the slightest of nudges from the Force, the still-standing, half-headless body of the combat droid toppled over backwards and hit the floor with a metallic clang.

Zak tossed the lightsaber in his hand to the side and raced over to Jaina's side, dropping to his knees and skidding along the last few feet to her. He pressed his fingers gently to the side of her neck to check her pulse, then, glad to note that she still had a steady heartbeat, began to check her other vitals to see if she was OK.

In their many months in captivity, Zak and Jaina had begun to grow closer to one another. Though neither of them spoke of it aloud, it was a connection other than Force-telepathy they could both feel. They had found that the connection was so strong that they were able to communicate telepathically, and yet knew that it wasn't the usual Force-telepathy. While they knew little of the connection, or the boundaries it had in place, they made sure that Brakiss remained unaware of it.

Zak seriously hoped that Jaina hadn't been seriously injured this time; she had been in other training sessions, but not nearly as much as he had.

A door hissed open behind him somewhere, but he did not turn to face it. In fact, he ignored it entirely as he bent over Jaina and put his ear close to her face. She was breathing, albeit unsteadily. He straightened and gently probed around her forehead with his fingers. Her skull was fractured, cracked, around where the droid had head-butted her, and just touching it made her whole body tense up as if he'd hit a nerve.

"Well done," Brakiss's cold, deep voice came from behind him. Zak half-turned to face him, and kept an arm under Jaina's shoulders to support her. Brakiss stopped just short of the pair and looked down into Zak's eyes. "I think that's the best strategy I have seen you use to date. It was a shame that Jaina was indisposed during its execution. I am sure she would have commended you for your ingenuity a lot more highly than I would."

"Take to the infirmary immediately," Zak said hotly, ignoring Brakiss's praise upon him. "Or allow me to do so."

"I'll do no such thing," Brakiss replied calmly. "You'll both go back to your cell, where you belong."

"She needs medical attention and I am _not_ going anywhere until she gets it," Zak corrected, glaring back up into the Sith Lord's eyes.

He knew he was taking a huge risk trying to demand anything from the older man. On numerous occasions, he'd displayed how little he cared for either of their well being—to the point of injuring them himself whenever they openly defied him. But Zak was sure deep down that while he didn't care about their health, he _did_ want them alive. He'd never denied them access to medical facilities, no matter how much he protested openly. That gave Zak just enough leeway to defy him a little, and to press his luck as much as he could until he found out where the line was between threat and act.

"And if I don't?"

Instantly, Zak was up and his training lightsaber slapped into his open palm. He flicked the blade to life and held it up, the red-white tip of the plasma blade an inch from the Sith's throat. His lips curled back to show all of his teeth to the older man, trying to inject as much hostility into his features as he could.

He had never before felt such hatred towards anyone or anything before; not even the Empire when his home world had been destroyed. Part of him wondered briefly what had come over him to feel it now, while the rest of him simply didn't care. He did not allow himself to lower the weapon.

"Do it," he ordered.

Brakiss closed his eyes and smiled in what Zak could swear was glee. He sighed, a long pleasurable sound snaking through his lips like a hiss.

"That's it," Brakiss said, his smile growing. He opened his eyes, staring back at Zak with those disturbing yellow irises. "I can _feel_ your anger. I can _feel_ your hatred. Use them. _Use them!_ Strike me down. Give in to your darker impulses, Zak. I'm unarmed. Already you are well on your way to serving me."

This sobered Zak. He knew then why Brakiss was content to returning defiance with some of his own, even under the threat of death. He was goading Zak, drawing him in. The more Zak gave in to his anger, to the hostile feelings boiling beneath the surface, the closer he came to playing right into their captors hands and becoming like him.

And when he realised that, he deactivated the lightsaber and, again, threw it to the ground.

"No," he said.

"So be it," Brakiss snarled. He struck Zak hard across the face, and the last thing Zak saw before he lost consciousness was the deck.

* * *

_**Cell block, Dusk Station**_

When Zak woke the next day, he was in serious pain. His head was pounding, from what he couldn't say, and his back had been jarred from what he could only guess was the careless shoving of guards trying to get his unconscious form back into the cell. The last thing he could recall was Brakiss backhanding him across the face and falling hard to the deck as a result.

Jaina was still unconscious next to him, which he worried about. Getting to his knees, ignoring the fact that she was half naked before him, he shuffled to her immobile form and began once again checking her vitals.

Her breathing was more even now, and her pulse steady. He gently felt around her forehead with his fingers for the telltale signs of cracked bone under the skin, but felt none.

His nose detected the familiar, pleasant fragrance of bacta coming from her.

Despite his cruel demeanour, Brakiss had once again had her taken to the medical facilities to be treated. Brakiss wasn't stupid, and he knew that Jaina's life was the only thing at the moment keeping Zak more or less in line.

Zak looked around, and spotted Jaina's clothes clean and folded into a neat pile nearby. Though he knew that there was no point in submersing her in a bacta tank while fully clothed, he frowned at the thought of Imperial guards taking perverse pleasure at the sight of her semi-exposed form as a medical droid undressed her.

He pushed himself to his feet, shaking the dizziness from his head and, out of habit, dusting off his slacks. His robes lay in a heap in the corner of the cell; Jaina's too. Hidden amongst the robes, away from prying eyes and—as far as either of them knew—unbeknownst to their captors, was Zak's greatest construction achievement to date.

When they couldn't help but talk about it amongst themselves around their captors, they referred to it as a "skimboard" and act as though they were talking about something he had been building back on Yavin 4.

Zak turned and checked through the ray shield to see if the guards were in sight, and then ducked over to the pile to check up on his construct. Positioning himself in between the ray shield and the corner, he dropped to his knees and lifted up his own robe to deposit it on the floor beside him.

During their time on the station, Jaina and Zak had been able to map out just how much of it that they had access to was off-limits to them in every way. Their cell, and the chambers they had their lessons in, were all opened up to the Force. As for the rest of the station, there was perhaps one more open area, but they didn't know what it was for as they had never been there.

Jaina had explained to Zak later that it was due to the presence of small reptilian creatures called Ysalamir, which could project a bubble of anti-Force around them at a minimal radius. While Zak had not seen any such creatures aboard, Jaina assured him they were there nonetheless, as it was the only way she knew of that they could have been cut off from the Force in so much of the station.

He reached out with his mind as far as he could; kept his other senses alert and attuned to disturbances so he would have warning before anyone entered the cell block. His hearing, thankfully, was not affected by the anti-Force of Ysalamiri, and since he could touch the Force inside his cell, he could use it to slightly enhance the range of his hearing.

Zak hefted the object in front of him and turned it over in his hands. It was still incomplete. It needed some vital components that neither of them had yet been able to steal without being noticed. Most of the metals and wiring had been lifted from combat droids they'd destroyed, and some of the other pieces had been stripped from training lightsabers.

Zak had been working on the device for over two months so far to get it just the way it was, far too long under ordinary circumstances.

The object in his hands was under a meter long, made of steel and other metal composites. In its centre was an open gap where a piece of cover panelling was still needed, and Zak could see the inner half of both of the object's power cells which would power it when finished. He ran his hand along the casing that was there, over all the grooves and bumps and buttons and the magnetic clips on the underside.

The device had four black buttons on it—two on each side of the centre of the shaft, spaced evenly apart; the two outer-most buttons were paired with a small power dial. The buttons were connected to activation circuits within the device, which in turn triggered the activation of the power cells. When triggered, the power cells would direct power straight through an energy gate into a pair of small crystals, which he was still missing, and then through a secondary crystal which focussed the energy through a channel and modulator circuits to the emitters at the ends.

Moulded to the ends of the device above the magnetic stabilising rings were a series of hooks—five in total on each end. Each hook was over an inch long, spaced equally from each other around the rings and was hooked inwards in a way that they would be bare millimetres from the stabiliser field of the device's energy blades when it was activated.

It was extremely well build, as Jaina had told him when they had last inspected it together. She had said that some of the concepts were commonplace, but that she knew of no Jedi that had considered constructing a lightsaber that was dual-bladed. In fact, she mentioned that even her uncle could not recall a Jedi that possessed such a weapon.

Looking at it now the way he was, he realised that it was not just a testament to his skills as a tinkerer and a mechanic, but it also reflected his growing competence and skill as a Jedi—or Dark Jedi as Brakiss would prefer.

He was proud of the fact that in the areas of the station that were opened up to the Force, he was able to keep the knowledge of the weapon hidden from Brakiss. He considered it highly probable that if Brakiss had known about it, he would have had it destroyed, and Zak severely disciplined.

He carefully wrapped the lightsaber back up in his robes before placing it gently back in the corner on top of Jaina's robes. He turned around to see that Jaina was still unconscious as he had left her and he crawled over to her side on his hands and knees.

* * *

An hour passed before anything happened, an hour of silence. He had spent that time sitting cross-legged on the deck next to Jaina with his eyes closed and his mind relatively open, meditating for all the good it would do him.

Mostly, he just wanted to do something that didn't involve staring at Jaina.

He had toyed with the thought of dressing her before she awoke to discover the horror, but couldn't bring himself to do it, lest she wake up mid-dress and jump to the wrong conclusion.

But now Jaina had awoken. He could sense it, not so much see it, as his eyes were still shut, and he hadn't heard her move a muscle as yet.

"I had the most peculiar nightmare," she groaned.

"What was it?" Zak asked her curiously, opening his eyes and looking down at her to see that hers were still closed. He, himself, had not dreamt when he had been unconscious. He found it mildly interesting that Jaina had.

"I dreamt that a madman had returned from the dead and kidnapped us from the academy, and that we had been held captive by him for months." She opened her eyes and looked around. "Oh _fierfek_!" she cursed. "Not a dream?"

"Afraid not," Zak clarified grimly. When she looked at him, he pointedly nodded to her and watched as she directed her gaze downward to see how little she was wearing.

Jaina swore again.

She scrambled to tug her clothes back into place, and Zak heard the distinct sound of the door to the cell block hissing open. Zak strained his ears to hear who it was.

The dulled thud of comfortable, non-military boots told him that it was Brakiss that entered the block, and the clustered thuds of military-issue boots gave away his usual four-trooper entourage. Brakiss paused for a moment before he strode over to their cell languidly and stopped on the other side of the ray shield to look down at them both.

"Well," the Sith started, sounding a little amused. He couldn't possibly have heard what Jaina had just said, Zak deduced. "It looks like the both of you are awake and still more or less in good health." He smiled at them, revealing a few chipped teeth.

"What do you want?" Zak hissed.

"To talk," Brakiss said calmly. "Just you and I, Zak. Without the … erm … negative presence and input of your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," Zak said through gritted teeth as Brakiss turned his head to the right and nodded to the grey-uniformed security officer still standing at the cell block security station by the door. The ray shield glowed and then snapped away.

Zak eyed the older man suspiciously and didn't get up from the floor just yet. "I only want to talk," Brakiss said. "You have my word."

With an almost apologetic look at Jaina, Zak got to his feet and walked toward Brakiss and the stormtroopers.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Jaina watched Zak follow the monster and his stormtrooper escort out of the cell, down the hall and out of the cell block entirely. Then, she was alone.

She was left to wonder what Brakiss could possibly have to discuss about with Zak that he didn't want her to hear, especially when she knew he knew that Zak was only cooperative enough to maintain their lives, but not to the point of subservience.

But she wasn't entirely alone. The security officer at the control panel near the entry to the cell block watched as the last of Brakiss's personal guard filed out of the cell block and then hit a couple of controls on the board in front of him. The door snapped shut and Jaina heard the distinct sound of locking mechanisms slotting into place.

This worried her a little. The cell block door was usually left unlocked so that Brakiss or those under his command could check up on the prisoners at random intervals. It was a negligible power drain, but locking the door _did_ still divert a tiny amount of power.

The fact that this officer had taken the time to lock the cell block door meant that either Brakiss wasn't expecting to be back to see her any time soon, or that the officer had something in mind that he wouldn't want his peers or superiors witnessing.

Jaina frowned, angry.

The security officer couldn't be that ill-informed that he wasn't aware that both she was a Jedi and that Zak was a Jedi-in-training. The only assumption she could make was that the man thought that the cell was blanketed by the effects of the countless Ysalamir they had dotted throughout the station to strip away the Force. If that was the case, then he was about to make a mistake grave enough to award Jaina the freedom she had been waiting for since their capture.

She could knock out this fool, snatch up Zak's lightsaber, such as it was, and hope that it was complete enough to slice her way to Zak, grab him, and find the nearest hyperspace-capable ship and leave.

Jaina snorted. She'd fought Zekk during the Shadow Academy's assault on Luke's academy years ago. It stood to reason that Brakiss would be at the very least ten times the swordsman that Zekk had been then. Jaina didn't have much hope of fending him off for very long while Zak got the hint and escaped.

The security officer approached the cell, and shot one last look at the locked door before turning to watch as Jaina buttoned up her blouse and tucked it neatly into her pants, mumbling curses to herself the entire time about the perverted nature of Imperials, not caring if the guard heard her or not.

She looked up at the Imperial and stared back at him through narrowed eyes, waiting for him to go back to his station and deactivate the ray shield.

Then, suddenly, the man's skin began to ripple subtly, as if made of liquid and responding to an object impacting it. It was an effect she had seen only in that of her friend from the Praxeum.

He too was a shape shifter, and the way this Imperial was changing before her eyes gave them away to be of the same species. When he finished, Jaina noticed that it wasn't even a man. The person that stood before her now, post-shift, was a woman.

And Jaina recognised her!

"No kriffing way!" she said in disbelief, approaching the ray shield to look the pseudo-Imperial in the face.

In fact, the person that stood there now was no Imperial. She was a Jedi Master, and a member of the Jedi Council. Her name was Kylia Okras.

She had once been a student of Luke Skywalker's, before Jaina's time, and Luke himself had said that she was one of his finest students. She had even assisted him with the teaching of the next generation of students after she had graduated and had remained there for a few years, only ever going off world when assigned a mission by the council. The council had then offered her a seat, and she had since been appointed their representative to the Praxeum on Yavin 4.

Her long white-streaked-grey hair was tied back and her grey eyes sparkled with what Jaina realised to be gratification to see her relatively unharmed. Though, Jaina noticed, she still wore the greys of an Imperial soldier. She smiled.

"It's good to see you again too, Jaina Solo," the Jedi said with a smile. "I only wish that it was under … uh … better circumstances?"

"What are you doing here?" Jaina asked. "How? I mean, I knew that the Jedi Council wouldn't have given up on us, but how the hell are you able to keep your identity safe from Brakiss?"

"Skinshifting helps," Kylia said with a sly grin. "As do the Ysalamir he has all around the facility," the older Jedi continued. "Alas, I am not here for you and Zak."

"What?" Jaina said at once. "Why?"

"I have been here for over a year, Jaina," Okras said. "The Jedi Council had heard rumour that Brakiss might still be alive, but they had no evidence to substantiate the rumours, or an idea of his motives if he truly were alive. I was dispatched to try and work my way into this outpost to see what I could find out."

"And Brakiss just let you?"

"He wasn't here," Okras said. "He arrived many months later, after the Ysalamir were put into place and the cell blocks re-engineered for holding Jedi, and took direct command. He claimed he was acting under a higher authority."

"Higher authority?" Jaina gasped. She was sure her hearing had failed her for a moment. "But … but Brakiss _is_ a higher authority. Mustafar would freeze over before Brakiss would ever allow himself to be subjugated by someone else."

"When he started the Shadow Academy, he was working for the last clone of the Emperor," Kylia reminded Jaina. Jaina didn't have anything to say to that.

Kylia Okras looked to the door again, and then, satisfied that no one was trying to get in, continued. "But, since his arrival, he has received several high priority communications through the holocomm system that I have been unable to trace, nor discover the contents of. And the clearance level required to even see the _records_ of those communications is ridiculous. There's no way I would be able to falsify that kind of clearance."

"Maybe he just doesn't want any of his inferiors getting into his personal business," Jaina suggested. But she could taste the desperation in her own words. "Well, can you break me out of here … while you're here?"

"I can't do that, Jaina, I'm sorry." Kylia shook her head apologetically. "It would only alert Brakiss that there is a spy on board, and he would call in everyone that's ever been in the cell block while you and Zak have been here. His office isn't cut off from the Force. He'll be able to interrogate all of us until he finds out who the spy is."

"Make it look like a faulty relay in the ray shield power relays and say I escaped. I can hit you on the head to make it look convincing, if you like," Jaina offered, compressing one hand into a fist and lightly punching her other hand.

"What of Zak? Would you just leave him here with that man?"

Jaina frowned. "No—absolutely not. I planned to go after him."

"And would you face Brakiss in a foolish attempt to retrieve Zak on your way off the station?"

"Well, when you put it that way …" Jaina started.

"I thought not. And even if you did, and survived, the two of you would need to secure transport and transport codes to get by the Imperial ships in the sector keeping this station secure from the Republic."

"Way to spur the positive thinking, Master Okras," Jaina said sourly.

The older Jedi chuckled. "Do not fret; youngling. I have a plan. My tenure here is almost complete,"—something about the way she said that spiked an alarm in Jaina's mind—"and rest assured, I will not leave without ensuring that the two of you had a way to get free."

She paused, and inclined her head in thought. "Incidentally," she continued. "How is Zak coming along with his lightsaber?"

"Very well, actually," Jaina started. "He just needs a few more pieces of metal to finish the coverings, and then some crystals to power it. I think he's planning on lifting the crystals from the lightsabers in our next training session."

"He's very lucky that Brakiss has a small collection of lightsabers at his disposal, and that he's gotten away with all the pieces he has taken so far. I'm personally finding it less than credible that Brakiss hasn't noticed yet."

"If he has, then why hasn't he done anything—" Jaina was cut off by a sharp bleeping from the security console by the door.

Okras whipped around instantly to face it, skinshifting on instinct as she strode over to the door. Stepping around behind the control board that had grabbed her attention, she looked down and pressed a couple of controls.

"I'm sorry to have to cut this rather pleasant reunion short, Jaina Solo," Kylia said sadly after a few moments. Her voice in her Imperial officer form was low, but not deep, and slightly gravelly. "But it appears that my identity may already have been compromised."

"What's going on?" Jaina demanded.

"My quarters are being searched. I should have expected that Brakiss would have everyone's quarters searched after I gave away the station's last location to Republic Intelligence. My lightsaber is still in there—hidden, but it might not stay that way."

He—she—looked up at Jaina, and nodded before opening the door and rounding the console. She stopped at the doorway, and turned back to look at Jaina.

"Goodbye, Jaina …"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

_**Observation lounge three, Dusk Station**_

Several hours later, Jedi Master Kylia Okras was alone. After seeing the blatant invasion upon her privacy from the detention block, she had rushed to her quarters, just in time to beat the search team to her lightsaber, and disposed of them quickly and … less than quietly.

She left the bodies in her quarters, knowing that she without the Force to use on anyone she might encounter, she couldn't carry them to the nearest waste disposal chute. But she knew she was already busted.

After dispatching the search team, she'd pride the helmets from each of the stormtroopers to determine if any of them had sent any warnings. One of them had, which meant that more security teams would be heading to her quarters right away to apprehend her.

So she retreated to one of the observation lounges in the upper dome of the station and waited for them. She knew that it wouldn't be long before the security hub in the core of the upper dome discovered by holocam where she was, and dispatched the forces to apprehend her there.

Kylia had her lightsaber with her now, hanging from a clip on her belt loosely. She was still dressed in her Imperial officer greys, minus the cap, in her natural shape, staring out through the massive transparisteel bubble into space at the orbiting Star Destroyer.

There was no way that she would get aboard that ship now. She knew that Brakiss would have affected a lockdown the second his troopers reported that they were under attack from a Jedi. Her own escape plan, had she been able to implement it, had been to shuttle over to the Destroyer, find out if there was a scheduled shuttle going out, and board it under another assumed form and identity—all impossible now.

The doors hissed open behind her in the middle of her musings and she waited for them to close again before she turned around to face her adversary.

When she did, she saw that there were two of them there to confront her, something she might have seen coming if not for Brakiss's Force-lockdown of the station via the use of Ysalamiri. She _had _actually been expecting a squad of stormtroopers, and was mildly surprised, but not disappointed. There wouldn't be any unnecessary loss of life this way.

But Brakiss would be just as vulnerable as she, due to the lack of Force connections they could make. They were both, however, still adept at the use of lightsabers without the aid of the Force, enough to counter the inability to touch the Force.

Of the two men facing Kylia Okras now, one of them was the station's ranking military officer, Owan Desal, born on Fondor and formerly a Captain in the first Empire's fifth fleet. He was in his late sixties with white hair spread thin over a balding scalp. A small scar ran under his left eye and across his nose; an affectation that could have otherwise been prevented via the use of bacta healing. His chin and cheeks bore the telltale prickles of regrowing facial hair, and his moustache, as white as the hair on his head, had been trimmed to a small stub under his nose.

He was dressed formerly in the gleaming white uniform of a Grand Admiral with his rank insignia and commendations securely fastened to the left side of his breast. The shoulder pads and braided aiguillettes were gold and elaborate, and the belt was as black as the gloves on his hands, with a silver buckle fastening it. Desal's arms were crossed over his chest and the look he shot Okras was that of deadly, disgusted hatred.

The man beside him was quite different. He wore a dark tunic, coloured deepest purple, with a flowing, black cape clipped to the shoulders of his tunic with silver clips. His hands were clasped behind his back. The skin was stretched thin over his high cheekbones, and his nose had been broken in a couple of places. His grey-stained dark hair was perfectly in place; his eyes matching the smile upon his lips that gave away his amusement, which she could not actually sense. But she still could not quite accept the horrible burn scars along one side of his face, and the healed gash that went down to his chest from his jaw.

"Jedi Master Kylia Okras," Brakiss started, taking a step sideways away from the Grand Admiral beside him, who continued to glare menacingly at her.

Kylia said nothing.

"I suspected that there had to have been a Republic spy on board. There was no other way that the Republic could have learned of the station's presence near M'haeli otherwise? So once I'd determined that there was a spy on board, it became a matter of … weeding you out."

"Brakiss," Kylia said with a nod. The man frowned momentarily, but it was only for an instant before the smile returned to his lips.

"Would you like me to take the trash out, my lord?" Desal asked.

"Now, now, Admiral," Brakiss chided, "you are speaking of a Jedi Master, servant of the Republic. Your distaste for non-humans can be put on hold for the moment. Courtesy, Admiral, always courtesy."

Desal's eyes narrowed further, shooting daggers at her. He was none too pleased at having been rebuked in such a fashion, but was too afraid of Brakiss to challenge him. He huffed and took a step back, looking from Kylia to Brakiss and then back again.

"So when I got an alert from the security hub that the troopers I had specifically assigned to weeding out the identity of our spy had reported that they were under attack from a Jedi, I knew that I was right," Brakiss continued, speaking to her again. "And quite interesting still that at that same time, the lieutenant that was supposed to be on duty in the detention block had gone missing as well.

"Naturally, it was far too coincidental for me, and so I set out in search of said officer. I find myself genuinely surprised now to find that the officer did not in fact exist, and was merely a fantasy concocted by New Republic Intelligence to sneak a Jedi into this facility."

Kylia said nothing, but continued to look her foe in the eye defiantly; snubbing the dangerous looks she was getting from the Grand Admiral.

The more Brakiss spoke, the less he acted. She could, perhaps, catch him off guard and disarm him before he could do much about it. Without the aid of the Force, he would have to be expecting an attack at every second to be ready for her. She didn't dismiss that he might _actually_ be expecting an attack at all times.

"It's quite impressive that you were able to conceal your identity from me for this long," Brakiss continued, rocking back onto his heals. "Very impressive indeed. Somehow, you managed to keep all of your skinshifting off the holocams, which means that you've been here long enough to have mapped out every single one of them and determine their exact blind spots. And here I was thinking that Skywalker was completely incompetent as a teacher."

Despite the control she had over her emotions, had always had since before ever training to be a Jedi, Kylia reacted at those words, drawing her lightsaber and activating the cyan-white hued plasma blade in a split second and holding the tip inches from Brakiss's throat. He smiled back at her, otherwise motionless.

Admiral Desal, mere feet away, took a couple of steps back, his eyes wide with surprise and fear.

Had he been fool enough to assume that she would accept this confrontation unarmed?

"You missed," Brakiss said softly.

"If I'd been aiming to kill, I assure you I wouldn't have," she said stiffly.

He inclined his head to the side slightly. "Desal; get back to the command deck. I will deal with the Jedi. I want all ships in the sector to be on high alert."

"I thought you said you had personally ensured that all outgoing signals were blocked?" Desal challenged.

"That's not to say that she didn't send one out before she was discovered, you idiot. Never underestimate your enemy. Now go. I will deal with her. Or do I have to make my meaning plain?"

Desal nodded and, with another hateful glare at Kylia, turned sharply on his heel and left the observation deck. The doors snapped shut behind him, leaving Kylia alone on the deck with Brakiss.

He sidestepped again, and then again, staring into her eyes. Kylia ensured that her lightsaber's tip remained the same distance from his throat with every movement.

"Now, where was I? …" Brakiss mumbled to himself.

His hand became a blur and a red-white blade of plasma swatted her lightsaber aside. She spun on the spot and turned to face him, holding her lightsaber's hilt backhand, the blade parallel to her outstretched arm.

"Why?" she asked him simply.

"That one word covers so many topics for discussion, Kylia. Why don't you narrow it down a little bit for me, hmm?"

"We both trained under Master Skywalker," she reminded him. "I remember you back in those days. You were such a promising student with so much potential. You were better than the rest of us, though you were so reserved about it. Obviously, Master Skywalker saw _something_ in you that could be saved. Why are you doing this to him?"

"You hold your precious Skywalker in such high regard, Kylia!" Brakiss spat. "Has it ever occurred to you that he could be _wrong_? Has it ever occurred to _any_ of you feeble-minded, self-righteous Jedi brats?"

"How is a respect for life wrong?"

"Respect for life?" Brakiss retorted, his voice pitching higher with disbelief. "_Respect for life?_ You need to wake up and see the man for what he truly is."

"The last of the Old Order, is what he is," Kylia pointed out.

"The _Old_ Order—emphasis on 'old'. Did any of you stop to think that maybe there was a reason it was wiped out by the Emperor?"

"It was wiped out because the agents of the dark side are always after total power and control." She backed away a step, twirling her lightsaber around her fingers and returning it back to the backhand. "The Jedi stand against such immoral behaviour and the Emperor knew that he would have to eliminate them and brand them as traitors to the Republic if he was going to obtain that control."

Brakiss shook his head in a way that displayed that he was sure that Kylie had missed some vital point. "You don't understand history, do you? The galaxy _needs_ control. It _craves_ it, screams out for it, desires it. Without that control, we all descend into chaos, anarchy, war. How many wars were fought in the name of peace in the Old Republic, and compare that to how many wars were fought during Palpatine's dictatorship."

"You're right," Okras admitted. "But that's not because of a lack of control. That is because the galaxy is home to dozens, hundreds of different sentient races, each of them having their own say on how the government should be run. There needs to be room to disagree, or you take away the very thing that makes life worth living."

She paused, and frowned. "I don't understand one thing, though. How could you? Not be here; I find it quite easy to believe that you're still alive after so many times being reported as dead. You are very … resilient. But how could you be a _Sith_? There have been no Sith in the galaxy since Palpatine, and I doubt that just claiming the title for yourself would have made you worthy."

"You understand so little. If you think _I_ am resilient, then you underestimate the Order of the Sith. They will never truly be extinct," Brakiss said with a smile. "I was forced to make the most personal, most horrific, most unthinkable sacrifice ever to be made by one who would become Sith."

"And what was that?"

"Life itself," Brakiss said. He was standing still now, out of reach of Kylia's lightsaber with the tip of his own an inch from the deck beneath their feet. "My own life, as a matter of fact."

"I don't understand."

"Of course you don't! You're too narrow-minded!" Brakiss said gleefully, twirling on the spot almost gracefully, as if in celebration of some hidden feat.

"You see, I _did_ actually die that day I fought Skywalker on Tatooine. Your precious Skywalker made sure of that. He could see that there was no other way to defeat me, and that I would rather have my flesh peeled from me by a sandstorm before submitting and allowing the likes of him to _redeem_ me. So he threw me into the belly of the beast, into the maw of hell. And there it was that I saw no more. There it was that my life came to an end."

"A Sarlacc monster!" Kylia gasped, half in disbelief, and half in shock of what she had heard. Surely, he was lying. Luke Skywalker would never willingly cause someone to endure so much pain, so much suffering.

"It wasn't the monster itself that killed me," Brakiss went on, oblivious to Kylia's silent dilemma. "See that's the beauty of its digestive system. The Sarlacc consumes its prey slowly, alive and whole. Well mostly alive and whole."

"Then what was it that killed you?"

"The shock," Brakiss admitted. "That one moment in my life when all the hatred and all of the anger disappeared and I looked up at Skywalker's face, knowing that I had so gravely misjudged him. I couldn't believe he'd actually done that to me. But he had.

"Finally, after so many years of searching for my redemption, he inevitably gave up. He did what his father would have done from the first—albeit more dramatically. It was that shock, combined with the shock my body underwent when the digestion began, that killed me. My heart, my mind; my entire body just ceased to function.

"I don't know how long I was in there. Enough to come away from it with this"—he gently stroked the burn scars along his face with his only gloved hand—"and a new outlook on the nature of the universe and the Jedi that seek to control it. It was my faith, my devotion to the true nature of the Force that brought me back to life. You see me as I am, fully resurrected with all the glory of the Sith. And with that sacrifice, I was deemed worthy to be the Dark Lord of the Sith, with no one to challenge me and a single mission in mind."

"But I still cannot believe that you could go so far," Kylia pleaded. "The last time I saw you, the last any of _us _saw you, you had such a burning hatred for yourself and what you had allowed others to turn you into. How could you say that that was a lie? Brakiss—"

"I do not go by that name anymore, Jedi!" Brakiss hissed dangerously at her. "You will address me through my proper title, _only_."

"I'm sorry, but to me you will always be Brakiss," Okras said.

"Then before you die, you will realise that I am not that man anymore!" And he lunged.

Kylia brought her arm up, bringing her lightsaber with it into the path of Brakiss's weapon. The two clashed, sparking wildly. She shoved him off and slashed a figure-eight in front of her with her own weapon, forcing him to back off a couple of steps.

He did; dodging the first two strikes and swinging his lightsaber into the path of the rest, trying to shove her back away from him.

Their duel had just begun, and he was already losing ground to her. She knew it wouldn't be long before he performed a reversal and put her at the disadvantage, but for now she had to try to keep him from doing that.

As she backed him closer to the wall, Kylia deliberately left him an opening, hoping that he would attempt to exploit it to get inside her defence. He tried, predictably, and she slashed straight down at his blade, driving the tip of it into the deck where it sizzled and melted the steel. Then she spun on her left foot, kicking out with her right. She felt her boot connect with something hard, and heard the rush of air leaving Brakiss's lungs in a soft "_oof_."

When she completed the spin and faced him again, Brakiss had pushed himself up from the floor and was charging her. She dodged right and slashed at his legs as he flew by.

As if anticipating it, Brakiss's legs coiled and then sprang, launching him over the blade. He landed flat on his feet again after a flip and kept running as if he hadn't left the deck at all.

Kylia gave chase without delay, dashing after him with her lightsaber in hand and her arms pumping. Brakiss glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled. She frowned back and swung uselessly at his legs, slowing down only slightly in the attempt.

He hadn't needed to jump it that time. He was already out of reach.

As they neared the wall, she realised that she didn't need the Force to see the plan he had in mind and her defences went up at once.

She skidded to a halt as Brakiss planted his left foot on the wall-floor brace and ran a couple of steps up it before coiling and springing again over her head in a tight somersault.

He landed behind her, and her lightsaber sprang up behind her to defend from the otherwise fatal blow. She turned, pushing against his weapon to shove it out of the way to give her room. She wouldn't be able to use the same trick to be able to get away from the wall. It _was_ possible that Brakiss would not see it coming, but it was infinitely more likely that she would end up a limbless torso awaiting the finishing blow.

Besides, she knew she didn't have enough of a run-up, and she couldn't use the Force to stick herself to the wall.

She switched her grip to the forehand and jabbed forward with her blade, pulling back quickly as Brakiss slashed down at it and then jabbing again at a higher point. He swung his blade back upwards, batting hers away.

She saw a small opening and shoved again, her foot catching him squarely in the chest and pushing him away. He fell to the floor, gasping for air, but was quick to get what he needed before batting away her follow-up attacks.

"You're slipping, Kylia," Brakiss snarled, glaring at her as he pushed himself to his feet. "Already you have had ample opportunities to kill me, and you have chosen not to. Has old age made you feeble?"

Kylia did not reply, for she knew that Brakiss was only baiting her. She brought her lightsaber up in a defensive backhand and took the briefest second to look around. She had plenty of room to move now—at least for the time being.

"Perhaps I choose not to be the instrument of a friend's demise," she responded as her adversary took a step back and raised his lightsaber high above his head, ready to strike.

"Ky, we have not been friends in many, many years," Brakiss said curtly. He swung down, the red-white of plasma blurring in the air towards her, and she swung upwards to meet him. Lightsabers clashed, sparked, sizzled in the cool air of the deck.

And then Kylia felt Brakiss's foot hook around her ankle and tug towards him. She fell to the deck hard, and rolled sideways just in time to avoid the downwards stabbing motion Brakiss had followed up with.

Again, his lightsaber plunged down into the deck and melted steel. He hissed angrily at her and tugged it free, twirling it around his fingers as she rolled onto her feet into a crouching defensive posture.

She looked up into her adversary's eyes as he approached her and dived left. Intent on finishing her, he slashed down at where she had been, hoping to catch her before she was entirely away. He missed, but she felt the heat of his weapon as it came within inches of her leg, burning the material of the uniform and bringing up angry welts on her skin.

She hit the deck again in a ball and rolled away, coming to her feet and turning around to face him.

Brakiss advanced on her quickly, swinging his blade from left to right, and she countered it, switching quickly into a defensive frame of thought and altering her grip to a Soresu forehand.

Brakiss swung again and again, and Kylia blocked each blow, shoving him away each time.

Kylia was frantic as she assessed her available options. She had started out gaining an advantage over the Sith, but now neither of them had the advantage they each wanted and needed to survive. She knew that she would have to get one soon, or Zak and Jaina's chances of getting away from this place alive and in one piece were slim. She had promised Jaina.

But she couldn't help that sliver of fear that crept into her mind when she looked at Brakiss each time they traded blows. He was a lot more powerful than she had anticipated, than even the whole Council had anticipated, and she didn't know if she could beat him. She knew that she could, at least, hold him off. Perhaps she could even catch him off guard a little, but she wasn't entirely certain how long she could do that for.

And then, Brakiss opened another weakness for her to exploit, and exploit she did.

Concentrating hard on her left leg, Kylia swung her lightsaber at Brakiss's left side, allowing it to cut half an inch into his leg, cauterising the flesh as it went. Brakiss howled at her.

She pulled it away quickly and kicked out at his head. But by now, her left leg had transformed into the heavily muscled and hairy leg of a Wookiee—ripping through the pant leg of the uniform. When it impacted, it hit hard, and Brakiss toppled backwards and slid across the deck away from her, clutching at his leg.

Smiling to herself for the ingenuity, Kylia plunged her lightsaber to the hilt into the deck at her feet, and then pulled it sideways in a large arc while concentrating again on transforming her leg.

She kept her eyes on Brakiss for as long as she could, only looking away for a brief second as she turned to continue the cut.

When she was done and her leg was back to normal, she deactivated her lightsaber and stood up straight. She looked over at Brakiss as he struggled back to his feet as fast as he could, then held her hand up and saluted him—a mocking gesture—before she jumped on the spot and the section of the deck she was standing on fell away from the rest, taking her with it.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Darth Pravus howled with rage as the impudent Jedi trollop fell away out of sight and dropped down into the hangar bay below.

Immediately, he picked his lightsaber up from the deck beside him and flicked the blade back to life. Then he dashed over to the hole and dropped down, catching the deck with the fingers of his free hand and ignoring the pops of his knuckles as his body swung under the lip. The toes of his boots made contact with the underside of the deck and he used the brief contact as leverage and launched himself, not straight down where Kylia waited for him with her own weapon ready, but angled away so that he would land several feet from her.

He landed swiftly, but without the Force to slow his fall, his hit the deck on a knee and grunted at the spike of pain that shot up his lightly injured leg and along his spine.

He whirled around, his cloak flapping with the movement, and glared at the Jedi standing a few feet away, waiting patiently.

The impudent smile upon her lips made him wish he could kill her now, but he needed a few moments to recover from the fall, and the earlier strike against his leg. He fed on the pain, channelled it through every muscle through sheer force of will, rather than the power of the Force. He allowed his anger and his physical pain to make him stronger. He was master of his emotions, not the other way around. That was what made the Sith strong.

He stood up straight, holding his lightsaber out in front of him to show the Jedi that whatever pain he was in was nothing to him. They began to circle each other slowly, both waiting for the other to make the next move.

Darth Pravus made the first move.

With his back to the blast doors, he coiled the muscles in his legs and launched himself into a backward somersault until he landed on the deck raised above the door.

There were stairs on either side of the upper deck leading onto it from the shuttle deck below, but he knew Kylia enough to know that she would not choose either of those. He knew, that she knew, that the journey up the stairs would buy him enough time to rush to her and begin his attack anew.

And what was one of the first things Skywalker had drilled into them all those years ago? _"Always make sure you can take advantage of the high ground."_

"Come to me, Jedi," Pravus hissed, "if you have the courage to muster."

It seemed as though she did.

She ran forward a few steps and jumped, catching the edge with the fingers of her left hand while holding her lightsaber away from her with her right.

Pravus prepared himself to slash down to sever them, but caught himself when she flung herself up into an elegant somersault over his head. Her feet connected again with his chest—both feet this time—with the same power they had on the upper deck, and sent him sprawling away from her as she pulled herself up and reactivated her lightsaber.

When he recovered enough to whirl around to face her again, he saw that she had changed her entire form into that of a great, hulking, dark-haired Wookiee; the Imperial uniform hung from her, stretched and torn.

"I'll grant you this;" Pravus said, "you are quite the gymnast." Then he lurched forward, bringing his lightsaber around to cleave her in half at the waist.

Wookiee-Kylia batted his blade away and launched into a three stroke attack of her own, at his legs, his midsection, and at his head. He deflected the first two, ducked under the third, and then spun on the spot and kicked out at her leg.

His foot connected with hairy knee and the Jedi stumbled backwards to recover. But he wasn't done with her. He pressed on, pushing forward and stepping around her before jabbing backwards with his lightsaber. He felt no resistance, and when he turned to face her, saw that she had dashed forward to escape him.

He cursed, watching as the Wookiee jumped back down to the lower deck, landed with a hard thud, and ducked around behind the craft sitting there.

"You cannot hide forever, Kylia," he called out to her, taking the time to walk ahead to the steps.

He took them two at a time, pausing for a second after each step to glance around and assess the situation. "You are on my terms here. There is nothing the Force can do for you. You may only claim victory from me by proving your superiority with the blade, and we both know that that is not likely to happen."

He heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber flicking back to life as he touched down on the main deck again.

"That's much be—" And then he heard the repeat sound of plasma eating through steel again and swore. "Oh no you don't, you Jedi filth!"

He dashed around the ship and saw that Kylia had reverted to her normal form and had her lightsaber half-buried in the deck, and she was carving a large arc around her feet. She was only half done when he descended upon her and she had to stop herself in order to defend from his renewed attacks.

"Stop vandalising my station!" he snarled in her face when they had managed to lock themselves together, their lightsabers pushing harder against each other for supremacy.

Pravus shoved her away with a hand to the chest and she turned and dashed across the deck. He followed her until she stopped and spun around, and then renewed his attack again.

She swung wide to block him each time, and on her third swing her lightsaber passed through the power conduits lining the wall.

"No!" Pravus gasped.

Though it hadn't been his intention, that one word proved to be just the distraction he needed.

Kylia Okras half-turned to see what it was that she had done, and Pravus took the opportunity that had suddenly presented itself. He plunged his lightsaber deep into her lower abdomen without a second's hesitation, driving it up through her chest cavity until it stuck out from her shoulder.

She gasped in pain, in surprise, and tried to bring her lightsaber around for her own finishing strike, but it lacked strength and purpose, and Pravus grabbed her wrist in his free hand and held it immobile. Sliding his hand up into hers, he snatched her lightsaber from her grasp and plunged it straight through her chest before withdrawing it.

"Sith … Lord …" she breathed, barely able to say the words as her life drained away from her.

Pravus smiled, victorious in both mind and body. He had won, had beaten a Jedi Master. He was exhausted, and pain flooded him from his chest, the lower half of his face, and from his damaged leg, but he forced himself to remain standing, forced himself to lean close to the Jedi and whisper five words to her.

Her eyes shot wide in realisation, and then fluttered and closed as the last of life bled from her.

Pravus had won.

But his victory did not last long. The power conduits on the wall hissed and erupted and the ray shield keeping the bay pressurised flickered as it was deprived of its power source.

Pravus turned and ran, deactivating both lightsabers and clipping them to his belt before he reached the nearest shuttle.

He pressed on the comm. clipped to the collar of his tunic. "Control! Seal off observation lounge three and the hangar just below it!" he ordered.

He didn't wait for a reply, merely slapped the controls when he reached the top of the loading ramp, retracting it and sealing him inside.

Then he heard the loud _whoosh_ing of rushing air as the ray shield's life failed completely. Atmosphere and oxygen flooded into space from the hangar, sucking every loose object—or ship—out with it.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

_**Detention block, Dusk Station**_

Zak watched the Sith carefully, sealing off his mind in an instant when the man entered the cellblock.

It might have been just Zak's wishful thinking, but he thought that Brakiss looked almost exhausted, even depleted. They themselves had felt the tremors of the station not too long before, but neither had been able to come up with a logical reason as to why it had happened, and none of the Imperials had seen a good enough reason to tell them.

He and Jaina glanced sideways at each other quizzically—she had noticed it too—each of them trying to determine for themselves what could possibly have caused such a dishevelled appearance in their captor.

It had been nearly five hours since both of them had felt the unholy sickness in the pits of their stomachs and the clenching in their chests, which had coincided with the station's tremors. Zak had never felt space- or motion-sickness before, but he couldn't help from hanging his head over the sink in the corner of the cell and vomiting violently until the sensation passed, and then collapsing against the wall to recover.

By the time that Brakiss had made his appearance, both Zak and Jaina had forgotten about it; unable to explain it they had simply let it be for the moment.

Seeing their eyes upon him, he straightened up and drew his cape around his left side haughtily. He stopped before their cell, eyeing each of them carefully with darkened eyes, before he spoke.

"I have such wonderful news," he said with the barest trace of genuine glee. Contrary to his apparent condition, whatever it was, he seemed positively uplifted, and there was no trace of any pain or discomfort in his tone.

Zak highly doubted that it was what they were going to consider good news, and sensed that Jaina thought along the same lines.

"It looks like the two of you are going to be guests of this facility for just a little while longer than you expected," he continued. He grimaced suddenly, as if smiling hurt, and because he was outside of their connection to the Force, Zak could not do more than guess that he was in some measure of pain. "The Jedi's attempt to rescue you has failed."

"What have you done?" Jaina demanded at once.

_Jedi? There are Jedi here?_ Zak thought across his link to Jaina.

_ Not now,_ she shot back.

"What have you done?" she repeated angrily when Brakiss did not reply.

"We discovered a spy on board the station"—Zak couldn't exactly tell, but Jaina didn't look too surprised to hear that—"and I dealt with her accordingly," Brakiss said with a nasty grin. "Jedi Master Kylia Okras died honourably, and quickly. She fought extraordinarily well … for a Jedi."

Jaina lost it.

Before Zak could react to stop her, she rushed forward at the ray shield separating them from Brakiss and started banging furiously on the shimmering wall with both fists and ignoring the singeing shocks it rewarded her with, trying to break free so that she could avenge whoever it was that had died.

_Jaina!_

Brakiss frowned first at Jaina, and then at Zak. "However, I think that if Jaina continues to act in this manner to such uplifting news, I shall put her to a slow and most painful death by comparison," Brakiss replied calmly, looking down his hooked nose at Zak as Jaina continued to beat on the shield.

Zak reached out with his mind to touch hers. It was something he had openly avoided until now due to the intimacy of such an act. But he needed to calm her somehow, and if he tried to do it physically at this moment, she might well turn her rage onto him and start beating upon him.

His eyes were glued to Brakiss's. "That's not the reason you have come here," he pointed out, continuing to feel his way through Jaina's mind, looking for something in her memories to distract her from the rage and anger and desire for vengeance. He found something and used it.

"You're a very astute young man. There is much promise in you, as I expected," Brakiss praised. "I wanted to let you know that your training in these past months has progressed far better than I had expected, considering your … handicap."

"What handicap?" Zak's efforts had paid off by now and Jaina had zoned out, and Zak continued to gently probe and caress her thoughts to calm her as she dropped to the deck, leaning heavily against the ray shield and sobbing.

"Let's see …" Brakiss started, putting up the fingers of his left hand. "Being a Jedi, having had no formal training—or, in Jaina's case: unacceptable training—being fed the propaganda and lies of the Jedi and the Republic. Need I go on?"

"Get to the point," Zak snapped testily.

"You are both being assigned to assist the station technicians on the operations decks. From examining several of your attempts at escape, I have noticed that the two of you both favour mechanical workings as a sort of hobby. I am interested in reports of the extent of your knowledge and practical applications of that knowledge and I believe that the current situation has provided an ample opportunity for that."

"Explain," Zak said.

"Are _you_ giving _me_ orders, young man?" Brakiss snapped.

Zak smiled at his own continuing defiant behaviour and drawing out the older man's anger even for a second, and the Sith muttered something he missed.

"Several station operations have been suffering from malfunctions of late, and I would like them repaired. While I could always get my own technicians to do it, technicians that can be trusted, as I said I am interested in seeing what the two of you can do with your culminated knowledge base, as it will one day serve me."

"And what do we get in return?" Zak demanded. Jaina still sobbed quietly at the floor against the ray shield.

"I wasn't aware that I opened the topic for negotiating terms," Brakiss replied, an eyebrow cocked in mock amusement. He caught the exasperated look on Zak's face and continued. "Although, if you do insist—"

"Oh I do," Zak interjected.

"Then name your terms."

"Jaina goes free," Zak said simply. Jaina looked up at him from the floor at once, pleadingly, awareness sparking in wet eyes that quickly narrowed in obvious disapproval. He ignored her gaze pointedly.

"Excuse me?" Brakiss said.

"My condition for cooperating with you is that you give Jaina a ship with an auto-piloted flight plan for the nearest Republic world and make sure that there's no way she can tamper with it to come back," Zak restated. Then, considering, added: "_Short_ of her death!"

"Do you honestly believe that I'll agree to such outrageous terms?" Brakiss chuckled.

"No," Zak replied. "Did you honestly think you could just come in here, fresh from killing a Jedi, and ask us to do something for you—a _favour_?"

"I wasn't giving it to you as an option."

"And if we refuse?"

_Don't!_ Jaina's voice screamed at him across their silent bond. He ignored it and waited for their captor to answer him instead.

Brakiss stepped forward into the small area in front of the cell that could be touched by the Force, and held his hand up to display the small arcs of electricity dancing from finger to finger. "You will not enjoy the alternative," he said softly.

_Zak, agree to it! AGREE!_

Zak and the Sith stood there in silence for a moment, glaring into each other's eyes with the hatred they shared for one another. Zak knew that Jaina was right. He would have to agree. Her life was at risk if he didn't, and it mattered to him very much that she continued to live. But there were other considerations, concessions that he was going to hold out for.

"Tell you what," Brakiss said, apparently thinking along the same lines. "I'll give you my word that neither Jaina nor yourself will be harmed by me. Does that sound fair and persuasive enough to get the two to do as you have been instructed?"

"We haven't been seriously harmed by you yet," Zak pointed out. "And when we have been harmed at all, you've always had medical aid administered."

"That can change very, very easily, you know?" Brakiss smirked.

_Zak!_ Jaina screamed at him, glaring at him. She didn't know what his intentions were. _DO IT! He's giving us virtually unlimited control of the station's systems!_

Zak took her words under advisement, and made his decision appropriately. He already knew he would have agreed. He needed Jaina around for the company. Imperial or Sith company just would not do. He needed someone to keep him sane through this whole ordeal. He looked down at Jaina, taking in her puffy eyes, wet from crying; her hair, mussed, and dirty, and knotted from irregular use of the showers.

And since the Sith was absolutely refusing to make the concession, Zak demanded it; "Top it off with daily access to the 'freshers and then we'll cooperate," he said, still looking at Jaina.

"Agreed," Brakiss said quickly.

Zak held up an open hand, feeling Jaina slip slowly back towards that mindless void she had been in moments earlier. "And I expect your word sealed by blood," he added.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

Jaina was on the primary engineering deck of the station the next day after enjoying a long, hot sanisteam and donning the tech overalls that had been provided her. Zak was by her side after having done the same.

They had been escorted to the deck by a half dozen stormtroopers, who had since placed themselves at the four entrances and then the two lift banks to the lower engineering deck.

Brakiss had no intention of personally supervising them, but he had warned them that the troopers guarding them were elite guards, specially trained in Jedi combat techniques, and that the tech crews themselves would be keeping a close watch on them for suspicious behaviour.

Out of their cell, they were once again unable to feel anything through the Force, and Jaina was chagrined that she could not communicate privately with Zak via that manner. Jaina knew that the telepathic bond that had formed between them was beyond ordinary Force-telepathy, but the bond itself had been formed through extensive use of the Force, as well as their continual proximity. For that reason, even that psychic link was unavailable to them.

Thinking on it brought her back to what had happened in their cell.

Jaina couldn't believe that Zak had done something so … intimate. In her burning rage and desire to kill, he had reached into her mind and probed around for something to distract her, and had pushed and pushed until she was so absorbed by the memory of her family on Coruscant during the festival week several years ago.

It was inescapable that over the time they had spent together, they would become close. Jaina didn't really think it was such a bad thing. She had been close to Zekk in the past, but what could have been turned to dust when he took off for the far reaches of the galaxy, imposing exile on himself. But the way she felt toward Zak Arranda now, especially after what he had done for her, was … different. He had brought their closeness to new levels with that one simple act.

Every time she looked at him she was reminded of what he had done and the feelings and emotions he had triggered and quelled. It sent thrills up her spine, and she found herself longing for his mental touch again to bring those feelings back, and then silently cursing herself for that longing.

Shaking her thoughts from the distraction, she clicked her tongue at the tech in front of them.

While most of the crew on duty on this deck at this time were going about their usual duties, two had been assigned to Zak and Jaina's discretion—discretion had been the word Brakiss had used. A different kind of thrill coursed through Jaina at that. How often did she get the chance to order an Imperial around?

Their assignment seemed simple enough, Jaina thought.

Apparently, a number of systems throughout the station had been suffering a sequential series of malfunctions. Several decks had lost life support while others had lost artificial gravity or lighting. At least two decks had been evacuated due to the extreme temperatures from the thermal regulating systems. The bay doors for the fighter hanger in the lower dome of the structure were opening and closing almost rhythmically. And finally, the short and long range sensor pods were both offline.

The techs had been about to ascertain why the sensors were offline when Brakiss had told them that Zak and Jaina would be taking over. They weren't too pleased at the idea of being assigned to assist a pair of young Jedi who they considered less than nothing, but it wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter.

From what little that had been shared with them thus far, Jaina and Zak had learned that the short range sensor grid was the only system aboard that had a triple redundancy bypass circuit. The techs had said that it should have compensated for any foreseeable malfunctions in the module.

The techs were now engaged in their own private conversation, conferring with each other on possible diagnoses amongst themselves. A third tech nearby had stopped his own work and was leaning against the wall a few feet away casually watching them. Jaina leaned close to Zak in order to privately discuss their own theories about what the problems were.

"I'd say you did a better job than you realised," she hissed quietly.

"It wasn't me," Zak whispered back, shaking his head. "Think about it, Jaina … I've never been here before and it's closed off from the Force. I'd love to take credit for it, but I can't."

Jaina frowned at the rebuke. "Then who—" She stopped herself. Who else had been on board the station long enough, who did she knew might have done such a thing deliberately? "Kylia!"

Jaina saw the realisation spark in Zak's eyes. "A backup plan in case she was unable to get us out herself. She left an opportunity for us to formulate our own escape plan if we were still here, and if we weren't then it would still distract them long enough from sending a retrieval team after us."

"Less chatter over there!" their lone watcher shouted at them. "You're supposed to be working, not having a casual little conversation."

"How do you expect us to work if we still haven't agreed on a diagnosis of the problem?" Zak pointed out, turning to the offending techie.

The tech bared his teeth, annoyed at the logic. Zak went on, for their benefit now that the other two were looking on as well. "Jaina thinks that it may be a shorted fuse in the unit itself that shorted out other systems throughout the network, while I'm more of a fan of faulty software leading to glitches in the hardware."

"Nice one," Jaina mumbled next to him, barely moving her lips.

Zak turned back to her and his expression softened. "Thank you," he said. "I'm pretty sure that the problem is a short somewhere, actually. But we may have to fabricate additional damage to some of the redundancies if either theory is going to hold up under inspection."

"Give me a cutting torch, a weld pack and five minutes," Jaina replied with a grin. Zak nodded and Jaina waited while he rummaged through the nearby toolbox for the requested equipment. She saw him pocket a smaller cutting tool and a second weld pack, but didn't question him on it. It was obvious he wanted them to add the final touches to his lightsaber.

He turned around, handed her the torch and slipped the welding pack into her other hand at the same time, unbeknownst to the nearby technicians.

Jaina slung the torch strap over her shoulder, grabbed hold of a ladder rung at about shoulder height, and began to climb up the maintenance shaft that had been opened before their arrival.

"Hey," she heard one of the techs call out from below. "What's she doing up there?"

"She's going to check out the unit, since none of you have actually gotten around to it yet," Zak replied calmly. Jaina hoped to herself as she climbed that Zak could bluff well.

"And …"

Zak sighed exasperatedly. "There's no "and" about it. If we're going to find out what's wrong, we're going to need to pull the unit and perform a proper analysis. Unless you all would like to leave it plugged in so we can see what else it'll cause to go wrong?"

She found herself smiling at the pureness of the defiance in his voice.

Jaina stopped. She was in position now. In front of her in the narrow shaft filling the space of a gap in the ladder was the short range sensor unit. The access panel had been pried off some time before, and sat in a slot in the wall beside the unit, no doubt by one of the Imperial techs below now questioning Zak on her activities.

Upon inspection, she saw that many of the connective conduits around the device were already charred, including a few of the backup conduits. She wouldn't have to fabricate much more damage for their story to hold up, but she would have to do some work.

"If one of the backups caused this problem," one of the techs below pointed out. "The other two would have compensated and taken its place. We would have been alerted to the problem much sooner."

"Not if the primary backup fused the safeties in the unit so that it fried the other two backups _as well_ as the primary. Jaina should be able to report the extent of the damage when she comes back down."

Jaina smiled as she slipped the welding pack out of her sleeve into her open hand and flicked the tiny device on. A bright purple flame shot out of the end for about a half inch, reminding her in hue just how intense the flame was; at this setting, very few metals could withstand it.

She grasped the device in her whole hand and directed the tiny flame at one of the three unaffected conduits, following along its path back to its source and melting all of the surrounding wires in the process; all the while keeping her eyes shut and her face directed away.

"Blaster bolts!" she shouted loudly, continuing the burn until it began to crackle and snap around the flame. She switched the welding pack off and opened her eyes to inspect her handiwork.

"Jaina!" Zak called up frantically. "Are you OK?"

"I'm—" She deliberately cut herself short for no reason other than to make it sound like she'd been interrupted and swore loudly in feigned frustration. "I'm fine. That hurt my eyes though."

"What happened?"

"I was just about to start cutting the connection braces free when a power spike surged through the remaining conduits. They're completely fried now," she replied. "I'm going to start cutting."

A pause, then: "I thought you said the power to that unit had been severed!" Zak hissed at the technicians as Jaina slipped the strap of the cutting torch off her shoulder. "You could have killed her with your recklessness!"

The tone in his voice was flattering, even if it was put on; that he cared so much for her safety was something she was sure of, but of which it wasn't harmful to be reminded of.

The technicians stammered responses, insisting the power had indeed been severed and that they had no explanation for the power spike.

Jaina flicked the torch on and turned her face away again as she began to cut into the supporting braces clipped to the top of the unit. She heard the hiss and crackle of the flame as it burned through the metal, melting it away, creating hairline seams in its wake.

When she heard the third connection point melt away, she turned the torch off and waited a few seconds for the metal to cool before opening her eyes again to inspect.

The cuts weren't as level as she'd have liked them to be, but without the aid of the Force to guide her hand, and without a protective mask, she had no way to keep track of her movements. To look upon the torch's flame as it was cutting would burn the sight from her eyes permanently, and she very much liked her sight.

Again, she looked away and switched on the torch to finish the job.

When she had severed the final connections, she switched the torch off again. "Catch," she called down the shaft before dropping the torch. She watched as it fell and saw Zak's hands zip out from where he was standing out of sight and grip the handle of the tool, snatching it out of the air.

Nice catch, she thought to herself, and reached out tentatively towards the edges of the sensor unit. When her fingers brushed against the edge, she pulled them away sharply, hissing in pain. Too hot.

She reached down to her belt and yanked her gloves free, slipping the thick bantha hide material over her hands and flexing her fingers.

"Problem?" Zak called.

"Not at all," she replied. "Just about to yank it out now. Stand back."

She reached out again, slipping her left hand fingertips along the top edge of the device, and her right hand along the bottom, and pulled. There was a slight grinding sound, and it moved an inch, but did no more than that.

"Oh, for the love of …" she muttered under her breath.

She braced herself with her back against the wall of the shaft behind her, her feet on the rungs of the ladder, her hands gripping the unit in the wall. She took a deep breath, and then tugged hard on the unit.

It resisted her at first; doing nothing more than grind in its alcove as if someone on the other side were pulling back, trying to keep it in its place. Then finally, with a loud grunt of exertion, it gave way, and she yanked it free of its alcove with a sickening screech.

"Try not to break anything," Zak called up the shaft. "Somehow I doubt that this place is insured for damage-by-Jedi."

Jaina rolled her eyes and, with the unit clutched tightly in her left hand, began to make her way back down the shaft. When she was out of the shaft, she pushed off from the ladder, letting herself fall the last couple of feet to the deck with both hands cradling the sensor unit.

The nearest tech, a man who could be no older than thirty, reached out towards her and she obliged him by handing over the unit and pulling the gloves from her hands. She tucked them back under her belt and stood there with her hands on her hips, waiting.

"It's fried," she said. Then she turned to Zak and smiled. "I was right. And I could have made credits off of that."

"When we get back home, I promise compensation," Zak replied sulkily. He turned back to the tech holding the sensor while his partner fussed over a couple of broken conduit lines coming from the back of it. Jaina noticed that they bore signs of tearing and snapping, rather than burned out.

She grimaced.

"Have you got a spare unit around here somewhere," Zak began, "or am I going to have to go to the machine storage locker and look for it?"

"Not here," the younger-looking tech replied. "There are a dozen spare units in the storage locker. However, you will need highest level authorisation for access, and you will _not_ be going unescorted."

"Oh damn," Jaina said, her words drowning in sarcasm. She clicked her fingers. "There goes our chance at sabotage or escape, Zak. How ever will we get away from this place now?"

"Sarcasm does not become you, Jaina Solo," a deep voice said before the tech could mount an equally sarcastic response. Turning, Jaina saw Brakiss standing a few feet away from them. He had obviously entered the deck via the lower level and used a lift tube to reach their level.

As if struck by an electric current, all the Imperial troopers on the deck straightened their backs and stood at utmost attention. Their deathly skull-like helmets looked dead ahead, their feet were together, their shoulders were squared and their rifles were held tightly across their chest plates.

The techs stood likewise at attention, with their arms by their sides, all of them facing their leader, but not really looking at anything. The tech that had taken the sensor unit from Jaina stood at as much attention as he could, with the device still in his hands.

"I see that you have discovered a problem," Brakiss pointed out.

"Way to point out the obvious," Zak muttered under his breath. Jaina stifled the laugh that threatened to surface. "Following us, are you? It'd be naive to think you just happened to come down here for an inspection _while_ we're here."

"I don't entirely trust either of you. Despite months of my regime, you both seem stubbornly adherent to the Jedi way," Brakiss said. "And while you are, at the moment, working repairs, I cannot help but wonder what damage you might try to inflict in the process."

"We had an agreement," Zak snapped, holding up his hand with his open palm towards the Sith. Jaina eyed the blood stained bandage wrapped around his hand and suddenly it clicked how he had cut himself: deliberately.

She hadn't seen it happen, hadn't even heard them discuss such a thing. At least not that she could remember.

"Sealed by blood; and I did amend the agreement to give us more freedom from your constant presence. How do you expect us to work with you breathing down our necks the entire time?"

"Quickly, I should think. I am just making sure that you _are_ indeed working on what I assigned to you," Brakiss said. "Like I stated; I don't trust either of you."

He turned towards the tech.

"Do you confer with Miss Solo's diagnosis of the problem, engineer?" he asked.

The young tech nodded. "We examined the damage ourselves before the children were brought down here"—Jaina bristled at being called a child—"and we've determined the same thing for ourselves. Something shorted out this system, and its primary redundancy node, which in turn shorted out the secondary and tertiary nodes."

"It is quite conceivable, my lord," said the older tech beside him, "that this malfunction, be it a power surge or an act of sabotage, made its way through the power conduits to the distribution node. If so, and the surge was strong enough, the node would have shorted out like the sensor unit and its redundancies, and surged onwards to other systems."

"But," began the first tech. "For that to happen, a few safety protocols would have had to have been disabled first." Brakiss said nothing. "My lord, there are emergency buffer protocols that are supposed to stop such a thing from happening. Under normal circumstances, this sensor unit would have shorted, but the malfunction wouldn't have spread to other systems while those protocols were in place."

"And the disabling of those protocols would not have been a malfunction," Brakiss guessed as the rest of the explanation fell into place. "So sabotage it is. And the culprit of the sabotage has already been dealt with. Estimated time to repair the system?"

"If it was just the sensor unit," the older tech started. He paused to think about it. "Five hours. All we'd need to do would be replace the sensor module and its redundancy systems. But since there are other systems affected, it could take a while longer than that."

"Two words," Brakiss began impatiently. "How long?"

The techs looked to each other and spoke quietly. Coming to an agreement, they looked to Jaina and Zak, who nodded in confirmation.

"Four days," Jaina spoke up.

"Unacceptable!"

"If you want all of those systems up and running in their proper order," Zak started, "you give us those four days. It would take half that time if we went without sleep, food, or other amenities. Fortunately for us, you won't deprive us of those necessities, as per our agreement."

"Unacceptable!" Brakiss repeated in a hiss.

"OK, let me ask you this," Jaina said. Brakiss turned to face her and, despite her better judgement, she stared into his cold eyes, fighting the rage building inside her at the thought of the next words from her mouth. "When you discovered that there was a spy in your midst, and you … dealt with her; you would have gone over every last system looking for any way she could have alerted the Republic or the Jedi about the new whereabouts of this station. Yes?"

"Correct," Brakiss snarled.

"And I assume that you found nothing?" she continued.

Brakiss nodded again, and Zak picked up where Jaina was going. "And, well I won't assume because you would be downright barvy if you said no, but there are several Imperial ships protecting this station, right?"

Jaina saw Brakiss's hand clench at Zak's implication and readied herself to stand between them if the man made to strike him.

"I'll take that as a yes. So, as I see it, we have plenty of time. Four days you'll be without long range and short range sensors, as well as station defences and life support systems on a few decks. The ships in the sector can relay their sensor data in whatever fashion possible and defend you from any unlikely Republic attack launched within that time. As for the affected decks, most of them are unused, and those that are being used can have the occupants temporarily relocated to unaffected vacant decks or one of the nearby ships."

"Eriksen and I will continue working in the absence of the children, your lordship," the younger tech spoke up behind them. "Three days at the least; three and a half at most, maybe."

Brakiss bore his teeth, clenched and unclenched his fist again. "Very well," he snarled. "Three days."

"We'll need access to all the decks affected by the life support problems," Zak said, pushing the limits of the Sith's patience, "as well as the central control and regulation centre. And we're going to need detailed schematics on all the systems that we're going to have to work on."

"Is there anything else I can provide—a refreshing drink perhaps? Personally made by yours truly?"

"Sarcasm does not become you, Brakiss," Jaina retorted.

"You will contact me each and every time you are relocating to a new sector of the station. You will be escorted to each sector by no less than you have been escorted here. You will be escorted from your cell at the beginning of the day, and back into it at the end of the day after you have made use of the 'freshers. You will be under guard at all times, and a tech will be with you every step of the way unless I otherwise order it. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Zak saluted.

The Sith hissed at both of them, and then turned around and went straight back to the lift tube.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

_**Jedi Praxeum**_

_**Yavin 4**_

Jacen was contemplative the next morning, and it made his head hurt.

Five months. Five agonising months had passed in which his sister and their new friend Zak had been captured by Brakiss. Five months they had been his prizes, dead or otherwise—trophy captures; captures to taunt Luke Skywalker into action against him.

And acted he had tried. Their attempt to rescue them those five months ago had failed, miserably. The only victory was that of the Second Imperium, whose Imperial Star Destroyer had been responsible for the deaths of many crew members aboard the _Falcon Flight_, and its pilots responsible for the deaths of many Republic fighter pilots.

Worst of all, Brakiss had then gotten away. The entire station had been flooded with anti-Force that Luke had deduced was due to an increased presence of captivated Ysalamir. It was not news to Jacen. He had felt their effects on him before. They had been forced to retreat from the station, leaving Zak and Jaina behind to suffer whatever Brakiss had been putting them through since.

After returning Luke, Tash and Jacen to Yavin 4, his parents had then rushed straight back to Coruscant in order to see what the Republic was going to do about the situation. After all, the Jedi Order and the New Republic were tied together, and therefore, he thought, they would surely assist in whatever manner they could.

The senate voted on the issue—a quick vote. They were reluctant to assign more Republic forces to the task when the first attempt would surely have alerted the Imperium. It was assumed that more Star Destroyers would flock to the sector to protect Brakiss and his prize. They had, however, agreed to send a cloaked scout ship to the sector to ascertain the defences there.

There were none.

In fact, the station and its guardian destroyers had completely disappeared. A thorough scan revealed that they had not cloaked themselves, but had moved to a new location.

It wasn't the first time Brakiss had retrofitted a space station for hyperspace jumps to avoid destruction or capture. His original Shadow Academy had possessed the same capability, once even appearing over the skies of Coruscant in a threatening move of terror against the Republic.

Tenel Ka was his primary source of comfort in this trying time. Though, it only served to distract him with feelings of guilt of the incident a few years previous where he had accidently been responsible for the loss of her left arm. It was something that he would always be reminded of—due to her refusal for prosthetic replacement—and would never ever forgive himself for despite how many times she assured him she had forgiven him.

But it wasn't that, or Jaina and Zak's captivity that troubled him now. It was the HoloNet. It was proving useless to him at the present time for the information he desired.

A dream the previous night reminded him of words his uncle had spoken when he and his siblings had first been introduced to Zak and Tash six months ago, when they had first arrived on the moon.

_ "You know them?" Jaina asked politely._

_ "Yes," Luke replied thoughtfully. "To an extent, so do you. I'm sure I've mentioned the story of our trip to the living planet at least once?"_

The exchange played over and over in his mind until he made the only logical conclusion that he could.

Zak and Tash were not who they appeared to be.

He had then decided to see Tash, to demand some sort of an explanation. He could think of no way that they could be who Luke said that they were. But now that he found himself outside of her doorway, facing the closed wooden blockage, he couldn't bring himself to knock, nor could he bring himself to just turn the handle and walk right on in.

She might not even be in the room, a miniature voice whispered in his mind. She might be curled up in a corner of the Praxeum somewhere, anywhere, trying to seclude herself from everyone else with only one thing on her mind: her brother.

But he had tried everything else.

There was no record of either Zak or Tash in the New Republic census records, nor were there records of them in what records they had left over from the Rebel and Imperial databases; though, admittedly, what they had of either was limited and mostly corrupted.

He had a burning curiosity to know what it was that he wasn't being told; what it was that they had deliberately kept from him and the others. And while he reflected that it could just well be an invasion on their privacy, as a friend he thought he deserved to know.

Connecting with the Force, he could not even predict how she would react to someone, even a friend, questioning her about her past. He got a sense that there was a perfectly good reason that they had kept it from him and his sister, and that out of respect to them, his parents, Chewbacca, Luke and even Threepio and Artoo were keeping it from him as well.

Finally working up the courage, he reached out to knock on the door. It opened before he could.

Tash stood there before him, her blonde hair tied back and her blue eyes shining with fresh tears. She had indeed been crying over the thought of Zak, just not secluded as Jacen had thought. He closed off his mind and refrained from probing hers, respecting her right to privacy at this time.

"Jacen?" she said, surprised to see him there.

"Hi, Tash," Jacen replied uncomfortably. "Perhaps I could come back another time. Now doesn't seem to be the best time for it."

"Don't be silly," Tash said, wiping the tears from her eyes and sniffling. "Come in, come in."

Jacen nodded as she stepped aside and crossed the threshold, entering her private room for the first time since he and his sister had shown her to it. Almost immediately, his eyes found their way to the other person in the room, sitting on the edge of the bed and looking up at him.

"Oh." Jacen stopped. "You already have company. I really_ can _come back another time."

"Don't be silly, Jacen Solo," Rebekah Jordan said as she got to her feet and smiled weakly. "I was just on my way out. Tag; you're it."

Jacen couldn't stifle the laugh as Rebekah slipped past him and out through the door, closing it behind her. Jacen looked around the room, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the shining metal object on her tabletop.

"Oh, you finished it!" he said, picking the lightsaber up from the table and turning it over in his hands.

The device was just over thirty centimetres in length, tapering off at both ends and truncated at the top by the stabilizer ring. The hand grip was striped with inlaid dark-grey rubber, and the activation switch was inbuilt with a black rubber covering protruding from the shaft only a few millimetres.

Jacen turned the weapon over and over and upside down and right way up, taking in every facet of the design.

The blade modifier dial was level with the activation switch, closer to the magnetic ring with a nick from the middle to the edge upon it as a marker.

Holding it upright, he depressed the activation switch and a brilliant silver blade sprung forth from the emitter.

"Oh my," he said with a gasp. "This is truly beautiful." He passed the hilt from one hand to the other, feeling how light it seemed in his grip compared to his own lightsaber, revelling in the brilliant rarity of the blade's colour.

He switched it back off and placed it down upon the support she had build from wood and placed upon her desktop for it.

"It's light," he said. "And the colour … Where did you get the crystals from?"

"Master Skywalker," she replied, fussing with the rotation of the lightsaber in its cradle until it was just as Jacen had seen it before picking it up. "He had some stored away with the rest of the crystals, but as yet one had thought to use them. I thought I would."

"It's a great choice," Jacen praised. "I know of only one other Jedi with a blade that colour, so it's pretty rare."

"It's unfinished," Tash replied. Jacen blinked confusion, resisted the urge to pluck the explanation from her thoughts. "I was planning on attaching a magnetic clip for the belt. But there's none in storage so I have to wait until we can get some in. Master Skywalker gave me the contact details of someone on Corellia he thinks might be able to help me out, as well as supply me with a more permanent solution for a power supply—that one's only temporary for testing purposes—and assured me that all expenses would be paid for."

She blushed at the final addition to her statement and Jacen knew why at once.

It stood to reason that since there were no records of Zak and Tash, then it was only reasonable to assume that they had no financial situation other than what Lando _might_ have been paying them for their help up on GemDiver.

"But that's not the reason you came to see me," Tash said. "Sit."

Jacen did as he was commanded and sat down upon the edge of her bed.

Tash closed the door to the room and made her way to her desk. She turned the chair before it around to face him, and perched herself upon it, her hands clasped together in her lap; wringing each other in fact.

"You have questions," she said simply. Not a question, not a guess; a statement of fact. He did have a few. "Starting with the most obvious, I can tell you right here and now that Zak and I _are_ who we say we are, and that we _are_ the same people your uncle and parents knew from their days in the Rebellion."

"How is that even possible?" Jacen asked calmly. "Not to be rude or anything, but for that to be the truth, you would be more than twenty years older than you appear. Zak too."

"And we are." Tash looked up at him briefly, and then back down into her lap. "Both Zak and I were born on Alderaan twelve and thirteen years before its destruction, respectively that is."

"What?" Jacen exclaimed. He couldn't quite believe it.

"We were on a field trip when it was destroyed. Our aunt married a Shi'ido, and his brother was an anthropologist. Our parents yanked us out of school for a couple of months to travel with him to other worlds and learn a few things from him and his droid, DV-9. When we returned, there was nothing left of home other than dust and rock, and no sign of what had happened to it.

"Then we heard the rumours. People were talking about it in all the surrounding systems; the Empire's new super weapon. A space station that could destroy entire planets, they said. We didn't want to believe it at first because, well, who would want to do such a thing? What could the Empire have gained by the destruction of a world so peaceful all forms of weaponry were outlawed on the planet's surface?

"We were on our way through a seemingly empty sector of space on our ship, the _Lightrunner_, when something pulled us out of hyperspace. We saw that it was a planet, but there was not supposed to be a planet there according to all the most recent star charts. We crashed on the planet, unable to break free from D'vouran's gravitational pull on the ship. The inhabitants—they called themselves the Enzeen—were ever so helpful and happy to help fix the ship for us. And one of them watched over us for a time. That's when we met your parents and uncle. They were on the planet as well investigating some rumours they had heard but wouldn't go into detail about. Eventually, the planet was revealed to be alive, and it sustained itself by feeding on those that had been lured to it. And the Enzeen provided that food in exchange for nourishment from the planet. Some form of symbiosis. We managed to escape … barely. And we lost the _Lightrunner_ in the process. But your father was able to give us a lift.

"That only started our string of misadventures, though." She paused, wiping a tear from her eye as the unpleasant memories of her passed surfaced.

"I can leave," Jacen offered sincerely. "Come back another time, when you're ready."

"I'm OK," Tash assured him with a bob of her head. She continued.

"Our next stop was a planet known as Necropolis. Your father seemed as though he had more important matters to attend to, so we asked to be dropped off at the nearest planet where we could procure a new ship, since our last one had been eaten by a planet." She chuckled nervously at the thought, and even Jacen had to admit the image of a planet _eating_ a ship wasn't entirely easy to picture. "We met some people there and while our uncle was busy negotiating credits for a ship, Zak was off making trouble. He got caught up with a man named Evazan and a bounty hunter named Fett. Apparently Fett was after Evazan because he had the death sentence in a few systems for some … unsanctioned science-medical experiments he was performing on people. As it turned out, he was messing with undeath, trying to bring people back from the dead to serve him. And it was his own creations that stopped him in the end. In a hurry to flee the scene, we took his ship, the _Shroud_, and left.

"Soon, it became apparent that Zak was not at all well. We later found out that he had in fact been killed by Evazan and infected with the serum he had created to bring the dead back to life. It had a few side effects and we made a hyperspace jump to Gobindi to seek the opinion of the medical experts there. And Uncle Hoole wanted to investigate the ruins on the planet, too. The medical people there took Zak in and started to treat him, and meanwhile I was exploring the city. I came across a man named Antilles … although at this moment I can't remember why exactly he was there. I'm sure there was a good reason for it."

"Wedge Antilles?" Jacen asked for confirmation. It was a long shot, though. Antilles was a common name.

"Yes, that's him," Tash replied. "Do you know him?"

"Only about everyone in the galaxy knows him," Jacen scoffed. "He was a pilot in Rogue Squadron during the days of the Rebellion. After Uncle Luke decided to devote his time to training Jedi, Wedge took over as commander of the squadron. It's Jaina's dream to one day get on that squad. They're legendary."

"He was in Rogue Squadron back then too," Tash said with a small smile.

"Go on," Jacen urged.

"While we were on Gobindi, I discovered what I believed to be an Imperial plot to unleash some sort of virus upon the various worlds in the galaxy. I tried to tell people, but no one believed me. Not even my uncle. I thought then that if he said there was nothing going on, that nothing was going on, and I left it. But then a brown lump appeared on my arm, and I panicked. I thought maybe he had lied to me; that he was working with the Empire and was lying to me so that I wouldn't get angry with him. I was determined to discover what was going on. And while I was investigating, the lump was getting bigger and bigger. It almost entirely consumed me. I would have ended up as nothing but a parasitical … thing. I'd seen some in the lower parts of the ruins earlier in the visit, but I'd dismissed them as natural life forms or some such thing. I had no idea at the time that they could have been people subjected to this virus. I got passed it, with some help from Zak and Mister Antilles.

"Finally, we thought we had some time to ourselves. We could relax. Our uncle dropped us at Hologram Fun World with Deevee, the android he had tasked to continue tutoring us during our stay with him. He wanted to continue his work while we had a break from it all. That's where we first met Lando. He was inspecting the facility as a possible future investment, and offered to take the facility tour with us in order to gain a child's perspective on the place, since children were the main intended clientele. We got caught up with a new attraction there called the Nightmare Machine. It got into one's mind and scanned it, so that it was able to project to you your most hideous of nightmares. Zak and I were trapped inside the machine and Lando went to see the park's administrator to demand an explanation. Apparently he was told it was a simple glitch and that we would be fine momentarily. He chose not to wait, however, and stormed into the machine with a weapon drawn to get us out. When he roused us from our nightmares, we saw that there was a creature … I … I couldn't describe it if I wanted to. It was controlling the machine, feeding off of our nightmares. Hell, it was what was getting into our minds and _showing_ us our nightmares. But when we were free, we found that the place was swarming with Imperial stormtroopers. We were brought to face a man who we had come to realise had ill will towards us for some time. His name was Gog—Borborygmus Gog. He was another Shi'ido scientist, one working for the Empire on _Project Starscream_. We escaped with the help of our uncle, and left on the _Shroud_ as quickly as we could.

"We ended up on the Nespis 8 station after someone I had considered a friend on the HoloNet offered us sanctuary. His 'Net name was ForceFlow, and he had been discussing with me for some time the myths of the old Jedi Order. When we got there, we ran into a group of treasure hunters who were there plundering the station for all its valuables. I, meanwhile, was more interested in the lost Jedi Archives on the station. But I was advised against exploring that area as it was said to be cursed by the spirit of a dead Jedi Knight. Aidan Bok, I later found out. He saved me when Gog again ambushed me, planning to use me. _He_ was ForceFlow. He admitted it all. He had been using that name on the HoloNet, surreptitiously planting rumours and hearsay about the lost Jedi Archives in order to lure all Force sensitives to Nespis 8. He planned to try and extract the living Force from people in order to harness it for his Project Starscream. But Aidan saved me from him. We thought we had killed him.

"But we saw him again on Kiva. On Kiva, we saw the culmination of all the other horrors we had encountered to date. The living planet that needed to feed, the army of the undead Evazan had created, the virus from Gobindi that changed a person's form, and the Nightmare Machine from Hologram Fun world; all thrown together into one genetic experiment. When we first encountered it, we were foolish to believe that it was just a human infant. But we soon found out that the child was not normal at all. He began to grow faster than any human baby I've seen. And soon, he began to change. We'd met up with a group of Rebels on the planet that had decided to investigate _Project Starscream_ themselves. But they started going missing one by one. According to Gog, his last experiments, on Nespis 8, were supposed to be incorporated into the final product, making it completely immune to the effects of the Force. Thankfully, he had been stopped before he'd finished his work.

"Gog destroyed his experiment to save himself when it turned on him. Even Vader could not stop it. It was my first real use of the Force. Until then, I hadn't suspected I had it in me. Until then I thought that all I could do was sense, but not use.

"From there, we were a wanted trio. We had been responsible for the destruction of the Emperor's Army of Terror and all had huge bounties on our heads. We travelled the galaxy still, figuring that being in plain sight would be discouraging. And it worked for a while. We stopped by Jabba's palace on Tatooine, where I had the unfortunate experience of being housed in the glass head of one of those brain spider things."

Jacen shuddered. He couldn't himself imagine having his brain removed from his body and put into the body of a machine. It was a distasteful thought, and he felt pity that Tash had undergone such a procedure.

"Then we had a run-in with an Imperial captain by the name of Thrawn. I remember him well because it surprised us that a non-human would have been permitted into the military when the Emperor was such a determined racist."

"Thrawn?" Jacen blurted out, interrupting her again. He sensed that she wasn't irritated, but curious as to Jacen's reaction. "Blue skinned man with glowing red eyes—that Thrawn?"

"Yes?"

"You haven't read up on all of your historical information, have you?" Jacen asked. Tash shook her head and shrugged. "Five years after the battle of Endor and the deaths of Vader and the Emperor, _Grand Admiral_ Thrawn successfully rallied the Imperial Remnant against the Republic, resulting in many successful planetary campaigns, and an almost successful sacking of Coruscant. Jaina and I were born during the siege."

"Really?" Tash said. "Aside from his strict adherence to Imperial propaganda, I wouldn't really have expected something like that of him. He was absolutely polite and the perfect gentleman."

"That's how he's always been described. Even Republic historical information on him doesn't condemn him. He's recognised as a tactical super genius throughout the entire galaxy. And though he couldn't foresee that my mother would manage to turn the Noghri—a race of people to which his personal servant belonged—against the Remnant, his campaign against the Republic could very well have seen the second rise of the Empire."

"Wow," Tash mouthed.

"What else did you encounter?"

"Um … we went to Ithor after that to gather supplies and try to get a hold of some kind of mineral the _Shroud_ needed for the engines. We encountered a Miraluka Dark Jedi during that encounter. I don't remember his name. And an ancient alien entity called Spore.

"After that we ended up on the Star of Empire: a luxury liner. That, too, ended up being a mistake. The AI core of the ship decided to sound a false meltdown alarm to force the guests and crew to evacuate. Zak and I were trapped onboard during the evacuation and had to fend for ourselves. Clearly the AI didn't want anyone on board. We managed to shut it down though, with the help of a handsome pilot called Dash.

"Then we went to Dantooine. There was a cloning facility there that started taking samples from all of us and cloning us, with a minor exception: the clones lacked any connection to the Force. _I_ could feel them. They had a dark aura about them. But they couldn't feel the Force themselves. Vader was on our trail personally by this point and even his clone failed to be able to touch the Force.

"And then we ended up on Dagobah. Not our intended destination. We were headed somewhere else but Fett had been on our trail due to the bounty on our heads, and he shot us down. We lost the _Shroud_. Two ships in one year. Aren't we good?" Jacen chuckled at the attempt at humour and allowed her to continue. "We headed out with a team to investigate Dagobah and came across a group of mutated humans in the swamps—descendants of an Old Republic survey team that had been sent to the planet years ago. That's where we met Master Yoda, and found out that it wasn't just me, but Zak too that had a connection to the Force. He said that we both had great potential, but that it was not his destiny to train us. He was awaiting the arrival of his true student."

"Uncle Luke," Jacen pointed out.

"I know. He told me when we first arrived. I was a little jealous, actually." Tash sighed. "And the story concludes shortly after.

"Three years after that, I was seventeen, and Zak was sixteen. We were on Sullust trying to barter for our _fourth_ ship. Uncle Hoole had his eyes on a nice looking Corellian freighter called the _Starchild_. When he was bartering for it, he was killed. And I know what you're thinking. Shi'ido aren't that easy to kill. Hell, they're that skilled at Skinshifting that they can hide objects inside their own bodies. But a rocket propelled explosive canister is still deadly to a Shi'ido.

"Zak was the only witness, the only one to see who had killed him. And he's never said a word about it. Not one. After it happened, the man who would have sold us the ship said he wanted nothing to do with us. We were minors, and ineligible to purchase property legally. He disappeared, and with nowhere left to go, we sought out the Sullustan that had befriended us upon our arrival.

"Our biggest mistake was to trust him. After a week under his care, we were betrayed. He lured Zak into a sub-basement on the pretence of helping repair a few damaged systems down there. When I went down to see what was taking him so long, I saw that he had been shoved into a stasis tube. I tried to free him, but the controls weren't accepting any input from me. And I tried to leave but the Sullustan grabbed me and threw me into a second tube, locking me in and activating both of them.

"The next memory I had was of waking up some time later to see the aged faces of Chewbacca and Han Solo. Apparently in the years we had been in stasis, the entire building had been covered by a molten cave in. The building's shield had protected it from the initial cave in for years before it failed, but our captor had no way of getting back to us. He died, we figured, at some point, or he would have eventually come for us. We assumed he had put us in stasis in order to collect on our bounties.

"Solo and Chewbacca were on a treasure hunting mission, it seemed. They and a few opportunistic friends had scanned a secret chamber over the layers of hardened rock and dug their way down hoping to find some kind of treasure. Instead, they found three stasis pods; two of which had occupants and one of which had been smashed.

"They figured out how to trip the release circuits without killing us, and after some recovery, told us exactly how long we'd been out of circulation."

"That's …" Jacen paused. "Quite the story. I'm so sorry for you both." And it was true.

He _did_ feel sorry for them both. Compared to the trouble-laced lives that he and his brother and sister had had, Zak and Tash's lives had been full of so much more pain and strife. They'd been on the run from _Darth Vader_ himself. How could Jacen's life compare to such stress?

"It's perfectly alright," Tash said. "It's not as if any of it was your fault. You should have seen the look on your father's face when we saw him again, though. 'Surprised' doesn't quite describe it, unfortunately."

"I would gather as much," Jacen said with a smirk.

Tash sighed, looked up into Jacen's eyes. "So now," she started, "you see why it is so hard for me to just sit back here now while Zak's in trouble."

"I understood it before I heard your story," Jacen assured her, patting her knee gently. "My sister is with them; my _twin_ sister. Not to sound insensitive, but we share a bond quite unlike the one you share with your brother. It's as painful for me to be apart from her as it is as painful for you to be apart from him."


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

_**Darth Pravus's quarters, Dusk Station**_

_**Undisclosed location**_

Darth Pravus was in his quarters halfway across galaxy, completely oblivious to the tale Tash had just recounted to Jacen. He was alone in his personal suite on the station and was preparing to meditate.

He hadn't had a decent meditation cycle since Luke Skywalker's failed attempt to rescue Zak Arranda and Jaina Solo five months earlier. When he had just begun to feel as though he could be guaranteed a successful and full meditation cycle, he had then been forced to deal with the Jedi spy, Kylia Okras. And then there was the continual, persistent defiance of Zak Arranda and the annoyingly optimistic personality of his girlfriend.

However, he felt that, somehow, tonight would be different. He felt that tonight, he would finally be able to meditate.

He was partly right, he soon found.

It took him less than five minutes to fall completely into the trance. He had intended for a quiet meditation, one full of feeling and revitalisation, but without imagery or sound. He wasn't in the mood to put up with them, nor did he wish to waste precious time trying to discern their meanings, unlock the secrets within their depths.

The Jedi Council's attempt to subvert him—and he had to consider that the true mission was actually to have him assassinated—had failed, true. But the fact that a Jedi Master had been so close to his person and he had not sensed her was unnerving to say the least.

While also true, the increased presence of the Ysalamiri did shroud almost the entire station, shielding Master Okras from Pravus whenever he was near her, he felt disturbed that he hadn't even had the instinctual warnings of danger that were primal to humans. Those instincts had always served him well in the past, separate from the Force.

He considered that perhaps the lack of any warning had been because Kylia Okras was Shi'ido. Older, more experienced Shi'ido like Kylia were so adept at their skill that the best of them could immerse themselves in the role deep enough to lose themselves in it and sometimes even believe in the lie themselves.

He felt he was losing his edge.

His private suite was one of the very few sections of the station that was not shielded from the Force by the Ysalamiri. He wanted to be able to meditate, and could not do so if he could not touch the Force. Uncharacteristically generous of him, he had also shown Zak and Jaina the same consideration with the cell they shared.

Thinking on it briefly, he wondered why he even allowed them to share a cell. Surely it would be much safer, much less of a risk to all concerned for them to have been separated the moment they had been brought on board. But he considered that there was much more between the two youngsters than either of them was willing to admit, and he revelled in the perverse pleasure of one day seeing the proof.

Besides, if they happened to pool their knowledge and resources into an escape plan, there wasn't much they could do. Security teams patrolled most of the corridors between the detention block and the hangars. Without the Force, they would have to resort to orthodox methods to incapacitate those security teams.

Before Pravus could predict that it was coming, an image flashed into his mind, as clear as if it was on a holoscreen, or a real scene playing out in the real world in purest daylight. He studied the image as it took form, shape, movement, and smiled.

It was of himself, clad in his almost-black attire—purple tunic, silver-edged black cape—standing on ferrocrete down in what was unmistakeably Coruscant's ground levels. And he was not there alone.

Luke Skywalker, in dark slacks and a white button shirt, stood feet away, the green-white of his lightsaber glowing beside him, contrasting with the red-white glow of the weapon in Pravus's hand. They stared into each other's eyes, neither seeming to pay attention to the other two people nearby.

Pravus paid particular attention to them, while the image of him did not.

Zak Arranda was kneeling on the ferrocrete in the dark slacks and top he had been captured on Yavin IV in. He glared up at the vision-Pravus with loathing and hatred seeming to seep from every pore on his body. The irises of his eyes had changed from a dark brown to a deep dark yellow, very lightly bloodshot around the edges and his pupils had contracted, as if too keep out excess sources of light, though Pravus himself thought it was rather dark.

Resting across Zak Arranda's knees was Jaina Solo. She was also in the clothes she had been captured in, cuts and tears present along the abdomen of her top and the left leg of her slacks, revealing a charred mark, undoubtedly left by a lightsaber. She was unconscious, half of her face covered by her hair, and her upper body and head supported carefully by Zak.

Luke Skywalker turned to speak to Zak, but his words were silent, drowned out by the Force; Pravus could not determine what it was he said. But Zak's hateful gaze never left Pravus, though he seemed to listen to what the Jedi had said to him.

He stood, picking Jaina up, and turned to walk away as Luke Skywalker raised his lightsaber high over his head and lunged forward. He slashed his lightsaber on a diagonal path down to the left of the Sith, the blade blurring behind itself, and then spun on his foot to swing horizontally as a follow up. Both of his attacks were deflected by vision-Pravus.

The Jedi kicked out with his right foot, catching the Sith in the chest and shoving him away. Vision-Pravus recovered quickly and dashed forward, slashing his lightsaber again and again at the Jedi. The Jedi and the Sith traded blow after blow for moments, neither of them getting an advantage.

Pravus watched on in interest, convinced now that what he was seeing was a possible future ahead of him. It seemed that his putting Zak and Jaina together would most definitely result in them escaping—but their escape would lead Pravus straight to Skywalker.

It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up; damned the consequences.

He shook himself free from the vision and stood in one smooth, fluid motion that was almost graceful, save for his still-aching leg. He smiled to himself and pressed on the comm. attached to his collar.

"Admiral," he started, "ready my ship."


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

_**Detention block, Dusk Station**_

_**Undisclosed location**_

On the third day of their repairs, Zak found that he and Jaina were struggling to come up with stalling tactics. They had been rather busy in the past few days, but neither of them wanted the station in full working order, despite the threats made against them if it wasn't.

They started the day after Jaina had pulled the sensor node from the maintenance shaft and made their report to Brakiss on the cause. Zak and Jaina had gone with petty officer Nathanial to the fourteenth deck above the operations decks to work on the life support systems for that deck. While there, they had gathered quite a working knowledge of the deck's layout and what they could do to vital systems to cripple it further.

While Jaina worked on the actual tech work—as her knowledge of modern day systems far outweighed Zak's—Zak had quietly worked his way around to the control boards under the pretence of monitoring power output into the related systems and then program in the new subroutines once Jaina installed each replacement part.

What he had in fact been doing was writing his own subroutines into the mainframe, with some pre-work help from Jaina, and then hiding those subroutines in a sealed file and storing it in a data packet that would be released into the station's programming mainframe when triggered from his next assignment.

When they finished there, and the tech had triple-checked everything they had touched for signs of sabotage—and obviously found nothing—they checked in with Brakiss. They informed him that Jaina was returning to the operations deck to test out the functionality of the repaired life support system while Zak headed to the deck above to work on the malfunctioning antigravity unit.

After strapping on magnetic boots in the turbo-lift, Zak and Nathanial had proceeded down the deck's central hall with the troopers in tow to the station responsible for the deck's gravity settings and power. They set to work on fixing the device with the two spare parts they had brought with them. It was simpler to fix than life support, and as this deck wasn't essential—as it was not used for any purposes whatsoever, they took their time working on it.

Meanwhile, what Jaina was actually doing on the operations deck was triggering Zak's first hidden subroutine's entry into the mainframe and writing a second batch of subroutines that she would send through the stream up to the station Zak and Nathanial were working on where Zak would modify it and stream it back down to her.

When Zak and Nathanial had finished there, they had moved three decks above where the deck was experiencing both life support—in the form of extremely chilly temperatures—and gravity—in the form of three times standard—problems. They spent as little time there as possible, and Zak made sure that he worked on the repairs there as quickly as possible. With Nathanial under the control board finishing the installation of a spare part, Zak watched the control board's topside for the signal that Jaina had sent another subroutine to him.

When she did, he quickly punched a couple of commands to accept and hide it, and then ducked under the board to assist in the resealing of the access panel.

Then Zak and Jaina had been allowed to make use of the sanisteam and the kitchens before being escorted back to their cell.

Zak had recently taken to hiding his unfinished lightsaber under a loose flooring panel behind the plumbing of the lavatory. It was just large enough to fit the device in diagonally, and Zak and Jaina were able to use their robes as cushions for their heads when they slept.

While they were unrestricted from conversation of any kind while in their cell, neither of them could muster the strength for it after a long day's work, and instead they curled up and slept. Jaina woke up first some hours later and had woken Zak, only to ask him personal questions he was hoping to avoid answering … ever.

Apparently, in her sleep, she had been able to read her brother's mind across the vastness of space. In doing so, she was able to glean his distrust of the lack of information anywhere about the Arrandas. She was also able to see his intent to question Tash about it as soon as he got the chance, and the idea formed in her mind to question Zak.

As the guards were outside the cellblock door this shift, Zak shared with her the horrors that he and his sister had been through over the past two and a half decades, leaving out only that he had witnessed their uncle's murder. It was something he would discuss with no one. Not even his sister. Regardless of how close he and Jaina had become, how much closer they might become, he knew that if he couldn't talk to Tash about it, then he didn't think he would be able to tell Jaina.

Then they had gone back to sleep. Only to be woken again a few hours later and introduced to the second day of slave labour by a six-trooper escort to the operations deck.

While there, Zak swiped another welding pack and a small square of metal that matched his lightsaber's casing material and pocketed them both before anyone could see him. He doubted that even Jaina had spotted it, but then he couldn't be entirely sure.

They decided this day that they would separate and cover more ground at a faster pace. Each of them had a three-trooper escort in addition to the one tech helper.

Jaina had Nathanial, while Zak had been stuck with the more aggravating and nosey Eriksen. It was a real chore for him to get any of his own secretive work done with Eriksen looking over his shoulder every five seconds, but he managed it.

They started in the long range sensor relay station three decks below the operations deck. Zak had not expected to get to it until the next day, but Eriksen had insisted that it be made fully operational that day. Zak guessed by how insistent he was that Brakiss was none too fond of relying on his defenders' sensors to warn them of dangers.

So he acquiesced. It was a slight alteration in their plans, and once down there, he took longer shutting down the station than was needed so that he could send a discreet message to Jaina twenty decks above them in information storage five.

The station had seven such sections scattered across the station, and they were going to need access to at least four of them for their plan to work. They planned to at least get to two or three on the second day, and the rest on the last.

Then he shut down the station and set about working the repairs with Erikson while Jaina wrote subroutines on her end and Zak mentally formulated the next set to write out for her end when they were done.

The troopers patrolled the hall outside the room at regular intervals. Each of them patrolling alone and each no more than five minutes behind the last in passing the doorway, pausing just long enough to ensure they were both working, and moving on.

When they had made the necessary repairs to the long range sensors, Zak jumped up right away and started the control board back up while Eriksen finished sealing the access panel. He entered his new subroutines, leaving gaps he couldn't think of considering the speed he had had to think of it, and sent it to Jaina with a personal note for her to fill in the gaps before accepting and merging the routine with the info storage mainframe.

By the end of the second day, they had done all four of the storage stations that they'd planned, as well as the long range sensor nodes and the subspace communications array.

Then they hit the sanisteam and the kitchens again before being returned to their cell for another night of wordless sleeping. It occurred to Zak during this time that perhaps that was one of the reasons Brakiss had tasked them with repairing the station—because it would take up most of their day and exhaust them to the point that they couldn't discuss their own escape plans at the end of the day.

If that was so, he was in for a rude awakening; they still had their silent bond to communicate.

And now, on the third day, having just woken up, Zak found himself face-to-face with their captor. He was crouching on the other side of the ray shield, watching them intently with a smile on his face, as if amused by what he saw.

Zak pushed himself up, careful not to jostle Jaina lest he disturb her early from her sleep. He walked over to the ray shield, looked over his shoulder to see that she was still asleep, then turned back to glare at Brakiss.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed.

"Not your girlfriend, eh?" Brakiss said, ignoring the question with one of his own. "By all the stars, I can see that now, can't I?" The sarcasm dripping from his every word was thick and nauseating, and Zak fought the gag reflex in the back of his throat.

"She's not," Zak said.

"Well it certainly looks that way to me," Brakiss said with a grin.

"What? That?" Zak said, indicating Jaina with the bob of his head. "That was for warmth, you perverse, voyeuristic monster. It's not like you've supplied us with proper beds or blankets, have you? And it's cold in these cells!"

"You have until the end of the day to complete your repair work. As I understand it, the only remaining systems left to be fixed are the hangar doors for the lower pod, the ray shield power conduits for hanger three on the upper pod, and the short range sensors and internal communications."

Zak nodded to confirm the assessment.

"End of the day. And being uncharacteristically generous of me," Brakiss said, turning to go, "after the two of you are done, your lessons for the rest of the week will be rescheduled."

Zak suspected a catch, but didn't bother to voice his suspicions as the Sith walked away.

Jaina stirred and woke moments later. "Come on, Jaina," Zak urged her. "We have a lot to get done today."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

When they had finished all the repairs, and all the modifications to the station that they felt were pertinent to their escape plan, Zak revealed his second secret to Jaina.

He had been swiping parts every time they had gone to operations or to the storage lockers and had finally fashioned himself a crude handheld device that he assured her would be able to remotely trigger the effects of any of their modifications, each modification tied to a specific three-digit code. He'd also built in a communications relay antenna into it, which would relay any communications through the station's communications arrays out into space on a unidirectional vector.

They were using it now.

Jaina and Zak were both huddled in the corner, out of sight of the ray shield, using their bodies to shield the device in Zak's hands.

Jaina watched as Zak spoke into it.

"My name is Zak Arranda. I am a student of the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin Four, under Jedi Master Luke Skywalker," he started. "I am here with Jaina Solo. We have been taken prisoner, abducted from Yavin Four itself, by a man known as Brakiss, but who now fashions himself Darth Pravus, Dark Lord of the Sith. We know of the Republic's attempt to rescue us from the Second Imperium five months ago," he continued.

"Date. Give the date," Jaina urged.

"Oh, date," he said. "Uh …"

"On date twenty-seven, oh-five, thirty-three," Jaina filled in for him.

"What she said. We also know of the Jedi Council's attempt to either assassinate Brakiss, spy on the Imperium, free us, or all of the above. We regret to inform you that the subterfuge was discovered rather recently as of the recording of this message and that Kylia Okras was killed.

"The station has been moved via hyperspace to a new location, but can be found by tracing the source of this distress call. It will be left on a repeater, and we are tying it in to the spatial stabilisers to filter it out as galactic background noise. With luck, whoever hears this will expect that, or have a protocol droid on standby to decipher it for them.

"We don't intend to wait for another rescue attempt to be mounted. We've had enough access to this station in recent days to be able to plan what we believe will be a successful escape. Because of our doubts that the Republic will commit to another rescue attempt any time soon, we plan to enact our own escape plan on the first day of the new month, sooner if help does arrive by then. If not, then I guess we're on our own. During our efforts here, we've also rigged a way to remotely sabotage several systems on board the station so that if the Republic decides to send ships to these coordinates, the station will not be able to provide support for the no-doubt numerous Imperial ships guarding the area.

"If Luke Skywalker gets this message, and we hope that he gets it soon, we will be waiting …"

Zak trailed off and looked to Jaina for suggestions. There was no way they would make it back to Yavin 4 before they were intercepted. And he didn't have a working knowledge of which worlds were loyal to which governments.

"If Uncle Luke gets this message, we request that he tell Jacen that his lightsaber is by far the best design I've ever seen."

Zak clicked off the remote device and turned to Jaina. "What was that about?"

"Jacen will know what I meant," Jaina assured him. "And just in case we're being monitored I don't think I want to say just now. I'll explain later."

"OK," Zak said with a nod.

"Now what?" Jaina asked him.

"Now," Zak said, pulling a small weld pack out of his pocket. "Now I finish _my_ lightsaber."


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

Three days later, on the last rest day that Brakiss had granted them, Zak and Jaina were free. It was as yet unknown to the rest of the station, as far as they knew; one of the subroutines Jaina had written into the station's mainframe blinded the security stations on the command and control deck from registering the lowering of the ray shields in all the detention blocks.

Their plan started with the most simple of actions: Zak plunging his newly finished lightsaber's blade hilt-deep into the wall. He struck roughly where they had worked out—from the station's schematics they had been provided for the repairs—the ray shield circuitry lay.

Then he'd taken out the guards outside the cellblock with the swiftest of strikes, knocking them both unconscious. Jaina picked up one of their dropped blaster rifles and, after checking its power reserves, followed him down the corridor to the lift tubes at the end.

The rest proved to be a little more difficult. Using the remote device when needed along the way, they triggered a series of temporary changes, such as opening doors and conveniently arriving turbolifts that would otherwise hinder their progress. Behind them, they secured doors and blast doors alike, and on several decks they had cut off all access to the lift tubes.

All the while, they had to keep a constant vigil, lest they run into security patrols that would report the escape straight to the command deck. They didn't want Brakiss to know.

The sooner he responded to their disappearance, the less time they had to make the escape, and the more mistakes they would make under the pressure.

Zak suggested blanketing internal communications entirely, but Jaina pointed out that if the command deck lost contact with its crew, suspicions would rise instantly and Brakiss would go to the detention block to check on them.

Both of them had memorised the plans of the station in their analysis during the repairs, and both had agreed on the easiest route to take. Their plan was to reach the nearest hangar—upper hangar three—and steal a ship from the bay, if there was one there. If not, they would find their way to the next, and the next, until they did find a ship. Zak chuckled internally at the thought that there might be none; just his luck.

Zak peered around the corner ahead of them and saw a pair of stormtroopers walking down the hall away from them. Jaina was behind him, pressed against the wall hugging the blaster rifle to her chest. Zak kept his lightsaber in hand, ready to use should the need ever arise.

He was surprised in fact that Jaina's patch to disable the ray shield activation sensor on the command deck had actually worked. He had thought that they would have a redundancy somewhere that _would_ pick up on the deactivation of the cell's shield and that the escape would have been alerted to the Imperials right away. That there was little resistance thus far had them both a little on edge.

Jaina had refrained from using the blaster when they had come across patrols that needed elimination. Both of them were hesitant to kill, even though the stormtroopers were the enemy. Zak himself had never taken a life before, and he planned to keep it that way for as long as possible.

It was entirely possible, he reasoned, that there were stormtroopers or officers within the Imperium that had been mislead into service, and that given different circumstances they would prove to be decent people, and potential allies.

Certainly, Jaina's story about the Imperial TIE pilot—relic of the Battle for Yavin—that had held her and Jacen captive on Yavin 4 years ago while they fixed his fighter then turning around during their incarceration by Brakiss on his Shadow Academy and letting them go proved that _some_ Imperials were capable of some good, regardless of motive.

Zak turned his head and nodded to Jaina and they both skipped around the corner and padded silently down the corridor after the patrol. They were gaining ground on the troopers, and when they had caught up, Zak and Jaina raised their weapons and brought them crashing down hard into the back of the troopers' heads, knocking them unconscious.

The double doors ahead of them were closed shut, and the keypad on the wall next to them indicated that a pass code was required to open it.

Easily rectified, Zak thought to himself with a grin of triumph.

Jaina crouched low to check the consciousness of the troopers as Zak stepped over their immobile bodies. He glanced back over his shoulder at her to see her pull a couple of thermal detonators from their belt packs and a second rifle which she slung over her shoulder before he pressed on, forcing his legs into a dead run.

He wanted to get to a ship quickly. The quicker he and Jaina got to one, the quicker they could leave the station.

He could visibly make out the keypad halfway down from where they left the troopers, and he started to slow down his approach. The footsteps he heard behind him were careful, but an uneven shuffle, as if Jaina was running backwards to keep an eye on the corridor they were leaving behind.

When Zak reached the door, he stopped aside it and tried the control pad. Nothing happened, and he tried it again, attempting various codes with the same lack of results. He pulled the remote device from his pocket and tried that, touching the wireless to the keypad.

Still nothing.

"We've got company!" Jaina hissed beside him. He could hear it too; the steady shuffle of stormtrooper armour somewhere behind him.

"Blaster bolts, that means casualties!" Zak hissed. "Here, take—" Zak started, reaching behind to hand his lightsaber over to Jaina.

"I don't need it," Jaina hissed. "Use it to open that door. We haven't got time to waste on the keypad."

Zak nodded and thumbed one of the activation switches. A red-white blade of plasma shot out of the stabiliser ring at the end, and without hesitating he plunged it straight through the middle of the blast door, just above head-height. He brought the blade down in a wide arc around the left side and down to ankle-height, fighting against the resisting metal as the plasma burned through it, ignoring the sharp sounds of rapid blaster fire behind him.

Then he withdrew the weapon, and plunged it back into the door where he had started the first cut, dragging it down and around to the right to meet the end of the last arc.

When he took the blade out, he switched it off and shoved against the cut-out section of the door with his shoulder. It budged a little, grinding against the rest of the door around it. He stepped back and rammed his shoulder against the door again, shoving it further out of place.

"Again!" Jaina shouted at him, firing her blaster again and again, and then stopping. "We're fine for now; they've retreated, but they'll be back with more. So much for a clean getaway, huh?"

"Give me a hand," Zak said, and got ready to try again. He and Jaina pressed their shoulders against the door and, after a quiet countdown, both of them shoved as one.

The door fell away and Zak dived through it almost instantly, rolling across the deck to trip up anyone that was waiting inside for them.

But there was no one there, and Zak came up on his feet, looking around for signs of resistance that just weren't present. He looked to Jaina, who was getting to her feet from her own diving-roll, and shrugged to convey his confusion and suspicions.

Temporarily free from pursuit, they took the time to look around the hangar for the most accessible ship. There was only one there, and it caught his interested immediately, though not because it was alone.

It was on the far side of the hangar deck, the nose facing the closed hangar doors and the ray shield just inside it. He pointed it out to Jaina and they both raced over to it as fast as they could.

Zak kept his eyes on the ship, examining it closely as they approached, while Jaina took the time to look around their surroundings for possible threats. Without the Force, they both had to rely on their natural human senses to warn them of trouble.

The ship was quite different from the typical Imperial transports that Zak had come across decades ago, and different still to the New Republic's data on current Imperial Remnant shuttles which were not much different now than they had been back then.

The Empire, and the organisations that had sprung from it since it's fall, had been quite fond of the Lambda-class and Sentinel-class shuttles.

This one was nothing like that. In fact, its design was very much Naboo-like.

He saw the transparisteel wrap of the cockpit's viewport forward viewport near, but not at, the front of the ship. It was long and streamlined with six small engine pods attached to the rear. Fins jutted up like those on a marine animal back along the top and sides of the ship and a series of short, nondescript antennae jutted from a shallow crevice at the midpoint of the ship. A landing ramp had been lowered and was touching down on the hangar's deck.

Zak felt the deck become uneven under his next step and he backtracked to look down at it.

He saw the undoubtedly familiar sight of melted durasteel beneath him; the evidence of a lightsaber. He looked around for any other such evidence of a battle here, and saw the damaged power conduits on the wall near the closed doors, bearing the same markings as those on the floor.

They had never been brought here to complete the repairs on the bay that Brakiss wanted done. All of the necessary work had been done from the operations deck, rerouting power through other, temporary, conduits that techs had set up for the job.

When his gaze drifted over Jaina, she was looking up at something, and Zak followed her gaze to see a circular slice in the ceiling above them, a temporary seal welded to the topside.

Kylia Okras and Brakiss's duel had begun there, he assumed, or at least on that deck. One of them had cut through the deck to escape the other, landing here in the hangar where they had attempted to, unsuccessfully, try it again.

Zak felt Jaina's pang of horror and sadness at the thought, though not through any means of the Force. He could only guess that Jaina had known her well.

He shook the thought out of his head and clasped Jaina's hand, pulling her closer to him. He squeezed her hand gently. "Let's go," he said, forcing a smile.

They unclasped their hands and approached the landing ramp and quickly boarded the ship. Zak stopped at the top of the ramp, just for a moment, and hit the retraction controls. The ramp slid up into the deck of the ship, and a double-hatch sealed shut behind.

"Zak!" Jaina called from somewhere above him.

He looked to the left and saw a tube laden with ladder rungs leading to the upper decks and began immediately to climb it. He climbed all the way up to the topmost deck, and then made his way down the adjacent corridor to the cockpit to see that Jaina had already initiated the pre-launch start-up sequence.

He noted that the cockpit was more like the bridge of a very small cruiser, large enough for maybe eight people at various stations with twice the space of the _Millennium Falcon_'s. Each station had a comfortable chair behind it, and there was an equally comfortable one bolted to the middle of the deck.

"Jaina …" he started. "Have you noticed—?"

"Yes, I did," she replied, deducing the rest of his sentence instinctively. "No time to talk about it now," she continued hurriedly. "Look."

She continued with the sequence as Zak glanced through the transparisteel viewport. He saw a number of stormtroopers rushing into the hangar through the hole in the door, dropping to their knees and training their weapons on the ship.

"What do we do about that?" he asked Jaina.

"This ship has weapons." Jaina pointed to the control board near the rear wall of the cockpit on the starboard side. "Initialise the starboard lasers," she added.

Zak nodded and stepped around the central chair to the station she indicated. He slipped into the chair behind the console and glided his hands back and forth in the space above it. "Weapons … weapons …" he muttered quietly to himself. His eyes darted from corner to corner, looking for some indication of what he was looking for. "Aha!"

He flipped a switch and heard a single-chime alarm, followed by a confirmation of the command popping up on the status screen in the middle of the board. The message indicated that the weapons were charged and ready.

He looked up at the targeting screen on the wall in front of him that had lit up when he'd initiated the weapons system and grasped the control sticks in front of him. At his touch, a pair of crosshairs appeared on the targeting screen, one on either side. He moved the stick in his left hand, and the crosshair on the left moved in accordance with it.

He moved both sticks around until both the crosshairs were positioned under the feet of a pair of unsuspecting stormtroopers. Then he pressed down on the firing buttons on the top of both sticks.

Looking up into the screen again, he watched representations of the weapons fire impact the deck under the troopers with concussive force, sending the entire group flying backwards away from them. He fired again as several troopers started to push themselves back to their feet, and they were knocked down again.

"Shields?" Zak asked her.

"Um," Jaina replied hesitantly.

"I'll find them." Zak abandoned the weapons station for the one next to it and started pressing buttons randomly. Eventually, he hit the right one and he heard a static sound, followed by a gentle hum. "I'm good," he said, self-praising.

"Now see if you can blast the hangar doors open," Jaina instructed. Zak dashed across the deck to the station opposite the starboard weapons station and slipped into the seat. Then he turned in the seat and opened his mouth to speak. "I've got remote access to the ray shield. It'll be down in a second," she cut him off.

"Right," Zak replied. He nodded and used the same method to activate the forward lasers.

When they were on, he positioned the crosshairs so that they were only just overlapping one another and waited for Jaina's signal that the ray shield was down. When she gave the signal, he hammered down on the firing controls. Again, he saw the representations of the weapons fire. On the targeting screen, they seemed to dissolve into the door, but were soon followed by a flashing section of the door Zak knew to mean the weapons had blown a hole for them to escape.

Furthermore, he heard the explosion and saw the bright flash from the corner of his eye.

"Hang on," Jaina said.

Zak understood and released his hold on the weapon sticks for a superior grip of the console instead. Jaina hadn't activated the stabilisation thrusters in time, and the ship was sucked out into space with no further warning.

He turned his head to look out through the viewport to see stormtroopers and debris zipping past them as they too were sucked into the vacuum.

The ship tumbled for some time, with only the inertial dampers keeping them stable within the ship. But Jaina soon regained control and fired the stabiliser thrusters, and then the sub-light engines.

And then Zak could feel again. It was like someone had let the air back into the room. Now that they were in open space, some distance from the effects of the Ysalamiri, the Force was open to them both again.

Zak closed his eyes and let it wash through every fibre of his being with a content sigh.

"We can't stay like this for long," Jaina pointed out, looking over her shoulder. Zak nodded. "I've set the autopilot to take us out of range of that Interdictor"—she pointed through the viewport at the distant Imperial ship—"but we're still going to need hyperdrive capability."

"Why not just fire up the engine then?" Zak suggested.

"Amateur," Jaina said with a smile. "I want to check the drive systems first—make sure that Brakiss didn't tamper with them in anticipation of an escape."

"Fair enough," Zak said. He pushed himself out of his seat and approached her. "Want me to come with you?"

"No, it's OK," Jaina said, waving him off. "I need someone up here to pilot the ship."

"I thought you had it on autopilot?"

"Minimal autopilot," Jaina corrected. "The basic course is preset but we can still perform evasives if we come under fire from one of those monstrosities," she added, nodding her head to the ships past the viewscreen. "And it shouldn't take them too long to react to—"

The ship shuddered around them and they braced themselves against nearby consoles for support. "OK, so they've worked out that we're not supposed to be here. I need to check the hyperdrive, so keep us from getting hit as much as you can. And set the weapons stations to automatic targeting in case of pursuing TIEs."

"How do I do that?"

Jaina sighed. "OK, OK, so I forgot that you're a couple of decades out of date. Follow," she ordered.

He followed her back to the portside weapons command console and watched as she entered a series of commands on it. Zak, who had the Force to guide him again, used it to keep track of her movements, as her hands flew over the controls quickly so that she could get it done and out of the way.

"Do the same thing on the other controls and it will set the starboard weapons to automatic targeting," she said. Then she kissed him on the cheek and darted down the corridor.

* * *

"_Maybe I underestimated the determination and stubbornness of the Jedi_," Brakiss's voice came over the comm. lines.

Jaina was still down below working on the hyperdrive engines and Zak was alone in the cockpit, sitting behind the navigational controls. So far, no TIEs had been sent to apprehend them, but the Star Destroyer nearest them had opened fire with a fierce barrage of regular laser and ion cannon fire. Obviously, Brakiss wanted them both alive.

"How so?" Zak asked, diverting his attention for but a second as he dipped the ship under a laser blast and looped over the blue of an ion discharge. He didn't even know why he was bothering to respond to the Sith—it wasn't as if Brakiss could force him to.

"_I predicted that you would have surrendered or been captured by now,_" the Sith replied, amusement colouring his tone. "_Jaina is not with you?_"

"She's busy," was the only reply Zak would give.

"_No doubt trying to ascertain if I've sabotaged my own ship,_" Brakiss guessed. Zak didn't reply. "_I have no desire to damage my own ship, Zak, for I had not truly expected an escape attempt to succeed—though the method of your escape does … merit praise._"

The hesitation indicated that Brakiss thought differently. Or maybe he didn't, but was not pleased to admit it. "_And incidentally, I had no idea you could fly so proficiently._"

Either did I, Zak thought quietly to himself. He assumed that touching the Force had something to do with it, just as it had back on Yavin 4 when he'd had Jaina's lightsaber in his hands.

Jaina returned at that moment and Zak slipped out of the seat to allow her to take his place. She slapped her hand down on the controls to shut the comm. unit off and stepped over to the navigation controls to sit down.

Zak smiled inwardly to himself. Jaina had as much gall and defiance as he did, although she had not shown much during their time on the station, no doubt in fear of her life.

"Watch this," she said to him, smiling.

She settled herself into the pilot's seat and flipped a switch.

Nothing happened.

"Watch what?" Zak said smugly. Jaina looked down at the controls in front of them, and then back up through the transparisteel as the ship barely avoided a laser blast, the deck shuddering beneath their feet.

"There was nothing wrong!" she exclaimed. "Nothing!"

"_I'll_ go see what _I_ can do," Zak said. He turned and started towards the back of the cockpit.

"Piece of junk!" Jaina cursed behind him, and Zak heard her hit the controls in frustration.

Suddenly, the deck lurched beneath his feet, the sudden jolt sending him off-balance and crashing into the rear wall of the bridge. He hit hard and slumped to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Ow!" he complained as he forced himself back to his feet.

"Are you alright?" Jaina asked apologetically. Zak threw a sarcastic look at her. "OK; that was probably a stupid question."

"Uh," Zak started, his eyes going wide as he looked past Jaina and out through the viewport. Cradling his shoulder awkwardly, he stumbled to the front of the cockpit and leaned over the consoles to take a protracted look around. "Jaina …"

"What's up?" she replied behind him. He felt her turn around, heard the gasp of shock. "That's not possible!"

Zak nodded as he looked down at the spider's web of lights and the heavy traffic travelling to and from planet of Coruscant.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

_**Jedi Temple, Coruscant**_

The _Lucky Day_ landed gracefully on the landing pad atop the western section of the Jedi Temple, and Luke Skywalker, who had borrowed the transport from Lando Calrissian, stepped out of it the second the loading ramp touched down, Jacen Solo less than a step behind him.

Days ago, on Yavin 4, the orbital sensors around the moon had picked up an irregularity within subspace which had made no sense. Only C-3PO had been able to decipher what they had all thought to be subspace static into a discernable message.

The message had been short, addressing no one in particular, and from Zak and Jaina. They acknowledged that they were aware of the failed attempt to rescue them, and that the station had indeed moved to a new location. They had said that the station's new location could be found by tracing the source of the signal. And they had also said that a Jedi was dead.

The Jedi in question, Kylia Okras, was a Master, and one of Luke Skywalker's earlier students; someone who had trained under him at the same time Brakiss had.

She had duelled Brakiss and lost.

While neither Zak nor Jaina had actually said as much, it could have been the only way for her to come to such an untimely demise. Luke was aware of her infiltration mission into the Second Imperium, and he knew that Kylia was too skilled a 'shifter to have had to identity compromised by anyone other than Brakiss.

The message had ended with a message for Luke, requesting that he pass something along to Jacen. When he had, Jacen had come to conclusions quickly, and the two of them had boarded a transport sent down from GemDiver for them—courtesy of Lando Calrissian—and set a hyperspace jump course for the Galactic Capital.

Here now, Luke found that he was in no mood for ceremony. He scowled when he saw the delegation of Jedi approach them from the landing pad lift tubes, and he sensed Jacen's impatience at his side. Though when he saw who it was that came to greet him, his mood lifted just slightly.

"Calm, Jacen," he said quietly. "I'm just as eager to get started on locating the whereabouts of Zak and Jaina. Let's get through the ceremony as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Uncle Luke," Jacen said with a defeated sigh.

Luke put his hands on his hips as they waited; drawing his robes away from his middle enough to reveal the lightsaber that hung from his belt. Jacen was similarly armed, but neither of them actually expected to use their weapons while on Coruscant. Especially not at the Jedi Temple, where there were so many Jedi that no man or woman in their right mind would think to attack it.

The delegation stopped a couple of feet from them and bowed with respect. "Greetings, Grand Master," the man in the middle said with a smile. "It's good to see you again. The Council is expecting you."

Luke examined him in a fraction of a second. The man was only fractionally taller than he, with dark hair tied back tightly behind him. His dark brown eyes never left Luke's gaze, but they were full of only respect and admiration. He had a tight jaw with even cheeks and lips. He had a little more than average of a build, with muscled arms and chest the likes Luke had not seen on a human Jedi before, but not so much that it made him ungainly.

His companions were entirely different.

To the man's left was a young woman with sweeping red hair loose over her shoulders, and eyes that Luke could swear changed from blue to green as he watched her.

She had a thin build with a cute face and an earring on each ear that was disc-like with a chain that looped down and then back up to a clip at the top of each ear and was studded with brightly coloured gems.

To the older man's left was a young man with white, close cropped hair and brown-blue eyes, built not too dissimilar to the young lady opposite him.

"Thank you, Keyan," Luke said politely. "We're in a kind of hurry, I'm sure you understand. So let's get these pleasantries over with so we can get down to the business at hand." He gestured past them.

The lead Jedi, Keyan Jace, smiled in return and nodded. "Of course," he said. He turned to lead the delegation back to the stairs on the other side of the landing pad. Luke and Jacen followed them quietly.

* * *

Moments later, the pair stood in the circular chamber of the Jedi High Council. Of the twelve council seats, only five were occupied.

Luke knew one to be dead, from Jaina and Zak's transmission, and felt sadness as his eyes drifted over the seat that would have been occupied by Kylia Okras.

The other missing members of the council were easily accounted for. The Barabel Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne was most likely on an assignment somewhere in the galaxy. Corellian-born Corran Horn was probably still on Corellia, overseeing the training of younglings there. Kam and Tionne Solusar were at the Ossus Praxeum, training younger Jedi there, and Mara was still on Yavin 4. One of the seats was his own, though he rarely had the opportunity to sit in it.

Of those in attendance, only three were human—Jedi Masters Kenth Hamner of Corellia, Kyp Durron of Deyer, and Kyle Katarn of Sulon. Then there was the Mon Calamari—and, most notably, the niece of Admiral Ackbar—Cilghal, and the Chev, Tresina Lobi.

All five of them were seated in chairs that were placed evenly spaced around the room in a circular fashion, with an open gap at one end for the turbolifts. The centre of the floor was adorned with the golden pattern of the New Jedi Order.

With Jacen and Luke in the centre of the circle, all five sets of eyes were upon them.

"Grand Master," Cilghal started, bowing her head with her fingertips pressed together in front of her. Her large eyes blinked rapidly as they focussed on him. "It is good to see you again."

Luke nodded. "I only wish it was under better circumstances, Cilghal."

"Indeed," Tresina Lobi replied solemnly. "We are to assume you are here in response to the situation regarding Jaina Solo and Zak Arranda?"

"We are indeed," Luke replied, a spark of hope erupting in the back of his mind. "Have you heard, or seen, anything from either of them since the last transmission?"

"Not a word," Tresina replied. "I'm sorry. But if they did affect an escape as planned, then perhaps they will be here as soon as they can, but travel time would likely depend on how far from the core they are."

"Can I assume, from your presence here, that Coruscant is their destination?" Kyle Katarn asked, stroking his bearded chin. Luke nodded. "How did you come to the conclusion that they would come here? Why wouldn't they return to Yavin Four?"

"Jaina wouldn't want to put the Praxeum at risk. It's true that Brakiss knows where we are and could attack at any time, but he knows that the last time he tried such action it resulted in the destruction of his Shadow Academy, and almost killed him in the process. We have a defensive fighter squadron station at the Praxeum now, but Jaina, and I daresay Zak, wouldn't want to put them at risk if they was followed."

"Why Coruscant?" Kenth Hamner queried.

"You heard the message?" Jacen replied before Luke could. He turned his head to look at his nephew as he continued. "Jaina made reference to my lightsaber, which uses Corusca gems from the GemDiver mining station at Yavin. She knew that I would immediately think of that because Zak mentioned a place to meet, and the gems are the only part of my lightsaber that are more or less named after a planet. It's not a well-known fact, even amongst the Jedi—only myself, Jaina and a few others know it."

"I see," Kenth mused.

"Well," Kyp started, "since your shuttle began its landing procedures, we've had all _our_ orbital and system assets put on high alert looking for other new arrivals, and Ackbar has leant us access to data from the military's assets as well."

"And nothing?" Luke asked, a little crestfallen.

"Not as yet. The most that we've seen are a couple of small transports slipping by the customs patrols in orbit, within a few hours of each other, but they could just be smugglers or pirates."

"I'm sure that when they arrive, they will open communications to identify themselves at once?" Tresina put in.

"It stands to reason that if their escape attempt succeeded, the only ships they would have access to would be Imperial." Luke thought about it. "I think Jaina would most definitely announce their arrival."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

Jaina had a rough time of pulling the ship up. They had dropped out of … whatever subspace they had been travelling in—for there was no way it was normal hyperspace—far too close to Coruscant's atmosphere and now found themselves hurtling through layer after layer of outbound traffic, dodging transports and shuttles as they flew towards the planet itself.

Zak was somewhere to the rear of the cockpit, restarting the other systems and routing power back to them that they had routed to navigations for Jaina's effort to stabilise their decent.

Now that the hard part was over, they took stock of their position. High above Galactic City, they could see the various space ports and landing decks around. In the distance, they could even see the massive mushroom structure of the Senate building and the eerie, sparkling green-gold pyramidal Jedi Temple.

But they could not land near either one, they had decided. They'd commandeered a ship that, while bearing resemblance to Naboo starship design, was probably registered Second Imperium transport, and with the comm. system shorted by the rough atmospheric entry, they had no way of communicating who they were to the customs patrols, or the officials at any of the spaceports.

"How about down there?" Jaina suggested, pointing to a steep drop between a pair of high-rises.

Zak directed his gaze where she had pointed and saw that it dropped down pretty far. She smiled at the uneasiness she felt in him.

"It goes all the way down to the lower levels," Jaina told him. "Not somewhere that any Republic security teams will be looking for us."

"Uh … Jaina … isn't the point that we _want _them to find us? I actually had intended to keep this ship once we were through all of this," Zak sulked from behind her. "And now you're planning to just leave it down there and let it get stripped down by all the unsavoury types?"

"_You_ wanted to keep the ship?" Jaina said, turning in the seat to look at him. He panicked and swivelled her chair back so that she was looking back out through the viewport. "Relax!" she commanded. She felt him relax, only slightly, and then slip into the seat beside her. "What do you mean _you_ wanted to keep it? I found her."

"We both did," Zak corrected.

Jaina grimaced, he was right about that. "We'll talk about it later," she offered as a compromise. Zak nodded beside her and she began the ship's downward descent into the lower levels. "The point to going to the under-levels is that we're not going to be arrested on sight for being Imperial insurgents, without identification to say otherwise."

Zak patted the lightsaber hanging from his belt. "I think this is all the confirmation of our identity that they'd need," he said.

"Jedi aren't the _only_ lot in the galaxy to carry those."

* * *

The ship landed, the ramp touched down, Jaina and Zak left the ship and took the chance to breathe in some unfiltered, natural air.

Jaina couldn't tell what it was like for Zak. From what she knew of him, he had spent a lot of his life on planets or moons, but that had been so long ago in his life. In recent years, he had spent more time on a space station—either GemDiver or Brakiss's prison station—than he had on any planetary surface.

Perhaps he was more used to the recycled, sterilised air of stations and ships.

To Jaina, however, the putrid smell of the lower levels was home. Well not _exactly_ home, in that she had been born in one of the more prestigious areas of the city, up in the higher levels, but it was the scent of her home world.

She ignored the scurrying in nearby shadows. Near-humans, mutants and criminal elements around them, she knew. But they would see the lightsaber on Zak's belt and immediately, they would know that these two were not people to be messed with.

And then it all changed.

Somehow, the air around her became thick and cloying and cold. She couldn't shake it, couldn't shake the chills it sent almost continually up and down her spine. There was danger abounds, and it was not the danger posed by the common criminals or mutations of the lower levels. It was the danger of something even those things were afraid of.

She reached around and plucked Zak's lightsaber from his belt, flicking one of its deadly blades to life and holding it up as something approached them from the shadows. She felt Zak reach out with the Force, and then felt his probing recoil in horror, in fear.

Jaina took a few steps backward, back toward the ship, as the shadows gave way. Zak followed suit.

Brakiss stepped out of the parting shadows, his disturbing yellow eyes flashing with anger and his black cloak billowing out behind him in the breeze from a vent under his feet.

Zak hissed behind her. "How did you get here so quickly?" he demanded.

"Do you honestly think that I would equip only one of my ships with the 'slip drive?" Brakiss chuckled. "I knew that you would both escape, and I knew that you would steal that particular ship. I'd left the station before you'd even left your cell. But why bother tampering with the hyperdrive to prevent your escape when I could simply follow you, knowing that you would lead me to her uncle?"

"Luke!" Jaina gasped. "Never!" She raised the red-white blade of Zak's weapon higher in defence as the Sith took a step closer to them.

"My Darkest Knight might have been less than a match for you, Jaina Solo," Brakiss said, indicating the weapon in her hands with the nod of his head. "But I assure you that should you bring that weapon against me, you _will_ die."

"All mouth and no credits," Jaina snapped.

Brakiss snarled as he snapped his lightsaber from his belt and pressed down on the activation switch. A crimson blade hissed from the end of the weapon, pointed straight down at the ferrocrete at his feet.

Without warning, he lurched forward. The red-white of his blade crashed against the one in Jaina's hands there was a flash and sparks that forced Jaina to look away for an instant. She forced him back with a Force-shove and spun herself into a counterattack—made awkward by the length of Zak's lightsaber's hilt.

"Zak! Get out of here!" she screamed over her shoulder before ducking under a beheading slice from Brakiss. She swept her leg out to kick his feet from under him and felt her strike connect with his ankles.

Brakiss fell backwards and arched his back, planting both fists against the ferrocrete and flipped back to his feet.

Jaina slashed out again with the lightsaber, cursing Zak's decision to make such an ungainly handle, and then spun into another kick. Brakiss jumped back away from her, and then danced forward again, lightsaber blurring to her waist.

As Jaina blocked the strike and flicked it out of the way, she reached out behind her to see where Zak was.

He was nearby; too close nearby, actually. In fact, he hadn't even moved since Brakiss had shown himself. He was being stupid, putting his life in danger like this.

Why hadn't he listened to her and gotten back inside the ship? Didn't he understand that the only reason she was fighting the Sith now was so that her friend would escape? Why wouldn't he see that?

"Zak, NOW!" she screamed at him, turning to face him.

But it was a bad move for her.

She felt the heat of the lightsaber passing very close to her chest, heard it sizzle through her top and the pain of the heat bringing welts up on her skin. Then she felt the searing pain as the enemy's lightsaber bounced off her leg.

She fell to her knees, holding the lightsaber up vainly to defend herself. Brakiss kicked out hard with his foot, and everything went dark.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

Zak felt useless as he watched Pravus's—he couldn't remember the moment he had stopped thinking of him as merely Brakiss—boot connected hard with Jaina's face. His lightsaber rolled out of her hand; the glowing red plasma blade sucked back into nothingness. He looked back at the Sith just as he was about to slash down with his lightsaber to finish the unconscious Jaina off …

But was stopped!

A green-white blade had hissed to life inches from Jaina's immobile form, blocking the Sith's strike and shoving it away.

Luke Skywalker stood there, beside his niece, his lightsaber in hand and pointed down to the ground at his side. He was in dark slacks and a white button top, and to Zak it looked as though he fought not to scowl at the Sith that had almost killed his niece.

Zak didn't hesitate. Quicker than a manka cat's pounce, he raced over to Jaina and dropped to his knees beside her. Carefully, he pulled her limp form into his lap, preparing to lift her entirely and take her back to the ship.

"Brakiss," Luke started, his tone calm, despite what he had just interrupted. "I believe you are supposed to be dead."

"You know, everyone seems to be saying that," Pravus hissed dangerously, twirling his lightsaber around his fingers in an impressive display.

He screeched, enraged, and lunged forward, swinging wildly with his lightsaber in a vain attempt to land a hid. Calmly, Luke deflected each blow with a single-handed grip on his weapon, throwing the Sith off balance with each strike battered away from him.

Luke turned to look at Zak, who refused to take his hateful glare off Pravus. "Take Jaina back to the ship," he said.

Zak looped his right arm behind Jaina's knees, the other under her shoulders, and lifted her. He stood in the same movement, and then forced himself not to look back as he darted back up the ramp of the ship they had commandeered.

He knew that Luke expected him to leave, expected him to get Jaina to safety and forget about him, expected him to have faith in the older Jedi's ability to hold off the aggressor.

But Luke didn't know Zak as well as he once had. Those months in captivity had fostered a ferocious beast of rage and hatred in Zak. Though he had been able to contain those feelings more of the time, and blanket them with the feeling of comradeship Jaina's presence had brought about, that anger was now starting to surface.

And Zak was determined to get revenge on the Sith for all that he had put them both through. Though he knew that revenge was not the way of the Jedi, he found himself not caring.

Damned be the Jedi, if they would deny him his thirst for vengeance, for _justice_.

And before he knew it in time to stop himself, he had lain Jaina on a bunk in one of the cabins inside the ship and ran top speed back down the ramp and thrown himself atop Pravus.

He threw his entire weight against the Sith hard, knocking him off his feet and sending him sprawling to the ferrocrete some several meters away.

The Sith's lightsaber came inches from spearing him in the chest, and he clubbed at Pravus's wrist with both hands. The lightsaber flew from his grasp and clattered to the ferrocrete far from them, shutting down the instant it left its master's hand.

"Zak! No!" Luke shouted from behind him, sounding horrified.

Zak ignored the warning and thrust his closed hand with terrible force into the Sith's gut, winding him. Pravus's eyes widened in shock as he gasped for air beneath him, and Zak planted his knees on the ground on either side, winding his arm back for another strike.

He slammed his fist hard into the side of Pravus's head, slamming his face into the ground.

A hand clasped down on his shoulder and pulled him away, forceful enough to take him off of his prey, but gentle enough to indicate the lack of threat it posed.

Zak didn't care.

He reached out to his right and a second later, the cool metal of his lightsaber slapped into his hand.

He twirled the device once around his fingers, and then snapped both blades to life, whirling on the spot to face the person that had tried to stop him.

On instinct, he swung at Luke Skywalker, watching as the red-white of his weapon clashed and sparked against the green-white of Luke's.

He snarled and spun, swinging backwards with the second blade and feeling the recoil as it slammed against Luke's blade again.

He kicked out behind him, felt his foot connect, and looked over his shoulder just enough to confirm that the Jedi had been temporarily taken care of.

Then he charged forward at Pravus.

The Sith was back on his feet again now, and having seen Zak's weapon spring to life had drawn his own from the darkened street back to his hand and activated it.

Zak swung left and right at him, high and low, battering against a simple defence that, in his state, he could not think clearly enough to strategise against.

* * *

_It was our first lightsaber instruction under Brakiss, and my first ever. I mean, the only time I had actually even touched a lightsaber before was the night that the rude lieutenant and his cohort of stormtroopers had ambushed and kidnapped us back on Yavin 4, so naturally I was really looking forward to it. It didn't matter to me at the moment that our teacher followed the dark side of the Force._

_ I could use him; gain the knowledge from him that could help me become a better Jedi without giving in to that darkness. At least, I hoped I could. With Jaina's help, I was sure I could pull it off._

_ We'd been told that we'd be fighting each other._

_ At first, neither of us wanted to cooperate. But then Jaina pointed out that we could use it to our advantage, to build my skills with a lightsaber in the arts of both Jedi and Sith._

_ I'd seen the potential in time wasted—or well spent, as we liked to think of it._

_ I'd had to rely heavily on Force-given combat and survival instincts when he'd been using Jaina's lightsaber back on Yavin 4. And that hadn't been good enough. If it had, neither of us would have been captured, and Master Skywalker would no doubt be interrogating the Imperials to find out what it was they wanted and why._

_ But what if I ever had to fight in a situation like on this station, where the Force was just gone. I needed the skills; I needed to learn how to use a lightsaber properly._

_ For hours, the two of us sparred in the combat chamber, trading blow for blow, duck for jump, and dodge for parry. And for hours, I knew that Brakiss stood silently in a nearby observation room, watching us._

_ For hours he watched Jaina help me with my movements, verbally assisting me whenever I needed it._

_ It had been foolish of us to assume that our ruse would go unpunished._

_ When Brakiss had eventually realised what it was that we were really up to, wasting his precious time, he stormed into the combat chamber and drew his own lightsaber, heading straight for Jaina._

_ I made to intercept him, but an invisible force seized me by the throat and pinned me up against the wall before I'd even taken a step. I struggled uselessly to get free, trying to touch the Force to rip the invisible chords of Brakiss's Force away._

_ I watched in horror as Jaina successfully dodged and blocked and parried the first few strikes. But then Brakiss caught her off guard in the end; the seasoned duellist._

_ His lightsaber bounced off her left upper arm. She dropped the lightsaber to the floor and scampered away from him to avoid further injury, and we'd been escorted back to our cell, where they remained for the rest of the week with the barest minimum of meals as punishment._

* * *

Zak struck out again, forcing Pravus to back away, giving himself ground.

He felt another presence behind him—Luke Skywalker again—coming back at him to pry him away again.

Just as he turned to fend him off, the Jedi jumped high over his head, high over Pravus as well, and landed on the other side of them both.

Luke swung out with his weapon, sweeping towards Pravus's legs. Pravus's lightsaber sprung forth to defend the attack, just as Zak swung high from his other side. The Sith ducked under the second strike, rolled to the side to get out from the disadvantageous position between them.

Zak shoved towards Pravus with his lightsaber hand, and a wave of the Force slammed into him and sent him flying.

With him out of the way, Zak had clear access to Skywalker again, and he charged forward. Luke's eyes widened in shock; obviously unable to comprehend why Zak was attacking them both.

Zak swung out, in a series of violently rapid moves that almost connected with the Jedi. But Luke expertly deflected each and every blow with close-quartered parries that left little or no room for error. Both of his hands now gripped his weapon as Zak's strikes soon proved more powerful than Pravus's.

When their lightsabers locked together, he pushed out with the Force, shoving Zak far from him. He hit the ferrocrete and tumbled end over end towards the ship.

Slamming hard into the starboard landing strut, he opened his eyes to see starbursts flashing before him. He closed his eyes tight and tried to push the pain to the back of his mind as he got back to his feet.

* * *

_Where was this place? I'd been to the medical facilities before from combat- or Brakiss-sustained injuries, but this could not be it. I knew that it was a surgical bay of some kind, there was no doubt about it._

_ I tried to move my arms—they felt a little stiff and sore—and found that I couldn't. There were tight leather straps across my chest, arms and legs, restraining me to a bio bed._

_ I struggled again, but to no avail. Nothing I tried even loosened the straps, let alone broke them._

_ So, knowing I wouldn't be free unless my captors allowed it—I still couldn't touch the force, _Stang!_—looked around, taking in as much detail of the room as I could in order to determine if I'd ever been here before._

_ A pair of stormtroopers stood at straightest attention by the doorway, rifles clutched to their white-clad chests and staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. Another one stood similarly at attention at the head of the bed, near my right shoulder._

_ Brakiss was also in the room; dressed entirely in black and standing on one side of the bio bed with a malicious grin on his lips._

_ The dimmed light in the room made it hard to notice any discernable features around the edges of the room, but a single overhead light threw everything near me into sharp contrast—next to Brakiss was a 2-1B medical droid, and on the other side of the bed, I saw an FX-7._

_ The 2-1B turned its head and said something to the Sith, but it was in medical terminology he I didn't understand. Brakiss simply nodded in reply, looked down at me and smiled wider at the look of growing concern, even panic, that was no doubt on my face._

_ "Will he remember anything?" the 2-1B asked._

_ "Not when I'm through with him," Brakiss said whilst looking me squarely in the eye. "Proceed at your discretion."_

* * *

Zak stood up quickly, the pain from his fall finally locked away in the back of his mind, replaced by the renewed rage he now felt bubbling again to the surface.

Pravus had done something to him on the station; had _had_ something done to him, something medically-related. Something that he then had made sure Zak would not remember; which meant that it was not something that was likely to be any good for him.

Some distance away, he saw the glowing green and red blades of Luke Skywalker and Darth Pravus slashing through the air at each other, clashing and sparking over and over.

Zak noticed that Pravus was making less and less errors in his attacks, and if he kept that up, it wouldn't be long before he overpowered the Jedi Master. It was something that he could not allow; not out of any concern for Luke, but because he wanted to kill Pravus in an even fight, not when he was worn out and distracted.

He also didn't want to think of the random chance that Luke would find a way through Pravus's defence and cut him down. He most definitely could _not_ allow that to happen—no one else, save perhaps Jaina, had the right to kill the Sith, had the right to enact justice.

He charged forward again, leaping in between the pair and aiming a fresh kick at Pravus's chest. The Sith flew through the air away from the two Jedi, and Zak took that moment to turn back to Luke and take care of him.

He swung hi at the elder Jedi with both blades of his lightsaber, and then jumped and spun before landing solidly behind Luke. Then he thrust forward with his empty hand, calling upon the power of the Force.

Luke toppled forwards, cushioning the blow with his own power, and tumbled into a collection of metal waste bins on the side of the street.

Zak nodded to himself—sure that Luke would, for now, pose no problem—and then turned slightly to his left to meet the oncoming charge of Darth Pravus, who had recovered.

He positioned his blade carefully, drawing on the defensive movements Jaina had drilled into him, and not a single pass of the Sith's lightsaber penetrated past his blades. When Pravus slashed high at his neck, Zak slapped the blade aside absently, then spun the handle of his own weapon around his fingers, batting away a follow-through swipe before counterattacking and closing the distance between them.

"You will _pay_ for what you have done!" he spat.

"We'll see, impudent whelp," Pravus replied, batting away Zak's lightsaber and kicking out at his knees. "I don't care what the _schutta_ wants—you're dead!"

The blow connected and Zak stumbled backwards while regaining his balance. But Pravus was upon him again, swinging the deadly weapon in his hands at Zak's neck.

Zak ducked under it, batted up blindly to send it out of the danger zone, then stood up again and spun. Mid-spin, he slashed his lightsaber in a downward arc, attempting to cleave the Sith in half. The manoeuvre failed its intended purpose, but did succeed in pushing Pravus back a couple of steps to avoid the blow, giving Zak more room to manoeuvre.

Zak darted to the left quickly, and he sensed Pravus's second of confusion before he followed him more than a dozen strides behind.

He switched his lightsaber off and leapt over a large crevice in the ferrocrete, landing hard on the flats of his feet on the other side and continuing to run.

Using the Force to guild his course, he glanced over his shoulder just as the Sith made the jump himself. He directed his gaze ahead of him again and ducked left and then right around the wreckage of a pair of speeders and then continued onwards towards the ruins of a burnt out building in the distance.

"COWARD!" Pravus screamed behind him, and he heard the sound of a lightsaber being reignited.

An added burst of speed was all Zak needed to reach the building. He smashed through the crookedly hung wooden doors, ignoring the pain of splintered wood piercing his arms and torso and legs, and continuing onwards toward the staircase to the left.

He raced up the stairs, skipping over the ones he sensed were broken or weakened by whatever calamity had taken the building.

When he reached the eleventh floor, he stopped and hid behind a large round container against the wall behind the bank of turbolifts.

Minutes later, Zak heard footsteps resounding off the walls in the darkness, alerting him to the approach of his adversary, and he forced himself to control the impulse to run at him with his weapon swinging wildly.

He fought the urge to run.

Both urges were strong, and fought within him for dominance over his will. But he wasn't going to let either of them win.

He waited; the footsteps drew closer, and closer, until at least they reached the level he was on and stopped.

He heard an intake of breath.

"I know you're here, Jedi," Pravus sneered at the darkness. "I can smell your fear."

_Then know that it's hatred, not fear_, Zak thought aloud. He didn't want to speak, lest he give his position away before he could see an advantage he could exploit.

A sudden movement, as if the Sith had spun suddenly on the spot to look at something. "Smells more like fear to me, boy," he snarled. He took a couple of steps in whatever direction he was facing.

Zak knew he needed to hide more effectively. He focussed on himself inwardly, withdrawing his presence in the Force as far as he could.

"Why don't you show yourself? Why do you hide like a common coward … like a Jedi?" Pravus whispered into the darkness.

Zak's anger flared again and he almost lost control of keeping his presence minimised. He forced the anger down with reason. He was being goaded into revealing himself.

He peered around the container and saw the red glow of his enemy's lightsaber barely lighting his features. Pravus was facing away from him, taking slow, careful steps towards a stack of crates he thought Zak was hiding behind.

Zak darted out from his actual hiding spot quietly and slipped in behind a large divider, catching his breath and waiting for a response from the Sith.

"Though I can't imagine what kind of a Jedi would attack another Jedi," Pravus said, attempting to goad him again. He grunted as he shifted a crate aside, then swore loudly when he found nothing. "How very much like him you are. Did you know that in the final battle with his father, he, too, hid himself to avoid the confrontation? Can you believe it? He actually hid?"

Zak bit down on his tongue to stop the acerbic remark that threatened to burst forth.

"So much for the bravery of the Jedi, if he was so unable to stand facing a Sith …" Pravus continued. "Even one as disgraced and useless as Vader was."

Controlling his anger was becoming more and more difficult, and Zak found himself almost stepping out and engaging in battle again.

"Jaina, on the other hand … now _there's_ a fine specimen of courage. Obviously, cowardice doesn't come from the blood of the Skywalker line, but in the upbringing. Though, where she obtained that courage is another question. Her father was always on the run, first from the Empire, and then from the Hutt. Her mother was raised on a world that abhorred violence and weapons."

There was a pause, and Zak squeezed his eyes shut tight and clenched his teeth. Controlling his anger was becoming physically taxing. Already, he could feel the control he had on his masking technique slipping, and he couldn't stop it.

"I'm going to enjoy squeezing the life from her when I'm through with you and Skywalker."

Zak snapped.

Before he could rein his anger in, it exploded into an invisible shockwave, launching the containers in front of him flying across the empty space and into walls, and crumbling the divider he was hiding behind into a dust cloud that scattered everywhere.

There was an exerted grunt behind him, and he whirled around and flicked his lightsaber back into his palm and snapped both blades to life, charging at the red glow that was the only sign of Pravus's presence.

He slashed wildly with his weapon; left and right, high and low, fore- and backhand. Pravus, whose temper was under more control, simply swatted Zak's strikes aside as though he were nothing more than an annoying pest. He pressed harder, batting over and over again to knock the lightsaber out of the Sith's hands.

Suddenly, Zak deactivated his lightsaber, and brought it swinging around wide until it crashed into the side of Pravus's head. He followed through with a powerful uppercut to the older man's jaw, empowering the strike with as much Force energy as he could muster on such short notice.

The blow connected, sending Pravus sprawling to the floor and his lightsaber rolling away from him, deactivated once more. Zak jumped at him, his knees slamming into the floor when the Sith rolled away to escape him.

Zak belted his lightsaber and went after him.

He felt Pravus's fist connect with his gut and he stumbled backwards, winded, away from the danger. With no light now from either of their weapons, they were completely in the dark, relying entirely on the Force to guide their movements.

He backed up against a wall, gulped down a few deep breaths and then charged forward again to retaliate. He let fly with both fists, but hit only air as the other man dodged his blows.

Again, he felt the Force flow through him strongly, and allowed it to guide him without the need to think about his movements.

He kicked out, low and left, and felt it connect against the Sith's leg that had been put out to block it. He kicked out again with the same foot, higher this time, and met the Sith's forearm which blocked it. He punched, punched again, hitting air or blocked movements from his adversary. He wasn't getting the ground he wanted.

He felt a fist slap against his jaw and his head recoiled with the impact. Again, he stumbled a few steps from his adversary to recover, and then fired himself into a counter-move.

He spun around to face Pravus again, planting one hand on the ground and pushing off with his feet. He felt his boots connect with flesh, and heard the pained "_oof_" from Pravus that signalled he was hit. Using his hand as a bracing point, he arced his body and legs higher, and then kicked again and again from the other side.

He felt the confirming thuds of impact, heard the surprised sounds of Pravus's pain, and heard him hit the ferrocrete floor a few meters away before flinging himself into a cartwheel to get back onto his feet.

He rushed the Sith again, and the two of them engaged in another pointless melee, each trying to hit the other in a vulnerable spot, and each of them unable to do so.

And then Zak felt the danger—something flying through the air past his head.

Purely on instinct, he reached out and grabbed at it. He felt his fingers wrap tightly around the cool hard metal and the soft rubber grip of a lightsaber—Pravus's lightsaber. It became clear to him that instant that the Sith was ready to end it. He had called his weapon to him to launch a surprise strike against Zak, possibly killing or grievously injuring him.

Well that just wouldn't do.

Zak depressed the activation switch and the blade erupted from the rear end, extending straight back behind his hand, almost parallel to his extended arm. He allowed the forward momentum of the weapon's flight to pull him into a spin, and lowered himself to a knee as he went.

There was only soft resistance as the lightsaber's blade cleaved through solid matter. When Zak stopped, he was facing away from Pravus, staring into the dark.

A scream erupted from behind him, followed by the thudding of a pair of somethings dropping to the floor; one heavier than the other.

Zak rose.

He turned to face Pravus, only to find him flat on his rear on the floor, clutching at the cauterised stump of his left leg. The remainder of the leg lay motionless less than a foot away from him, severed just above the knee with a diagonal swipe. He looked down at the lightsaber in his hand, still ignited, and hissed with disgust.

Switching it off, he threw it with as much force as he could at the wall far right of him, watched it hit and spark as a wire or circuit within the weapon was shorted.

He then clenched his hands into fists at his sides as he glared down at the man who had held him and Jaina hostage for months.

The hatred was back in full force now, and so was the rage; seeping into every fibre of Zak. He even found himself enjoying the bitter taste they brought, and the power they infused into his aching limbs.

Pravus looked back up at him, still clutching the stump, his eyes burning with the same hatred that looked down upon him. Except that the yellow had darkened to black; a disturbing sight that made Zak shudder when he realised how it looked as though the Sith's eyes had been gouged from the sockets.

"I would kill you with my bare hands," Zak snarled.

"But you'll take me to your Jedi Council," Pravus replied, breathing heavily through his nose. "It is—ugh—it is your duty as a Jedi to bring me before them to face the 'crimes' I have purportedly committed. Your order is weak. They will spend weeks, months, debating whether to execute or redeem me. And if they chose to attempt to redeem me … well, let them try!"

Zak shook his head, and took a step closer to the man. "Why should I hand over to them the right to punish you for what you have done to me?"

"And Jaina," Pravus reminded him with a half-grimace, half-smile.

"And Jaina—_especially_ Jaina!" Zak took another step forward and put his foot down on the stump of the Sith's leg. The man hissed in pain, in discomfort, but did not take those black-hole eyes from Zak. "For what you did to her I should kill you slowly!"

* * *

_I watched as Brakiss walked into the chamber, so full of himself, so haughty and arrogant that it made me sick to my stomach._

_ Jaina and I had been practicing our ability to move objects by use of the Force for four hours that afternoon. Well actually, I had been practicing, and Jaina had been instructing me as well as polishing up her own technique. Eventually, we'd begun to feel the exhaustion creep up on us._

_ So we'd decided to take a break for a while, and spent the next hour sitting and talking about other things instead._

_ How foolish it was to think that we weren't being watched._

_ We jumped down off the desktops we'd been sitting on the second he stepped into the room and turned to face him, waiting for the typical anti-Jedi propaganda tirade we had come to expect from him—except that this time, it didn't come._

_ "There is a limit to the insolence I will tolerate from the pair of you!" he hissed._

_ Then, without warning, he lashed his hand out in Jaina's direction and a stream of electricity leapt from his fingers and crashed into her chest, enveloping her in bright arcs for a time._

* * *

Zak applied more pressure with his foot, and ignored the pained gasping of Darth Pravus beneath him. "But there is a limit to my patience!" he hissed.

"_You_ cannot kill _me_!" Pravus exclaimed in disbelief.

"Oh, believe me; thanks to you, I'm quite capable of it," Zak said matter-of-factly. He took his foot off the Sith's leg and placed it flat on the floor. "And I'm more than willing."

"What of Jaina, then?" Pravus snarled. "You speak of your right to bring justice upon me for my crimes. What of my crimes on her? Does she not get the chance to avenge them? Do her parents not get the chance … or her brother? What about your sister?"

"YOU DO NOT SPEAK OF HER!" Zak stepped down on the stump again, heard and felt the cracking of bone beneath his foot, the tearing of muscle and sinew. "YOU DO NOT SPEAK OF ANY OF THEM! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!"

"You would deny them all the chance to kill me?"

"Yes," Zak said with a nod, "I would."

"You would? You would damn their rights to the fiery pits of Mustafar just so that you could kill me yourself—out of pure hatred and a desire for vengeance, no less?"

"Yes," Zak said matter-of-factly, not even hesitating to think of the answer.

Despite his obvious discomfort, and his disadvantaged position, Pravus's lips formed a large grin. "Then my mission is complete: you are one with the Sith."

Without warning, both of his hands shot forward, and arcs of electricity leapt from his fingertips and slammed hard against Zak's chest. He felt his feet lift up from the floor as he was thrown through the air away from the Sith and across the room.

His experience was quite different to that which Jaina had talked about during their captivity. He did not feel the burning pain she had described as the electric arcs snapped and crackled over his clothes and skin. In fact, he felt energized, recharged.

The exhaustion he had been feeling from the duel with both Skywalker and Pravus was gone, replaced instead by a new energy that kept him going, pushed him onward. It was as if any pain he _should_ have been feeling was being numbed by the Force, and focussed into his every muscle and thought.

Then it stopped.

He scrambled to his feet to see the Sith scooting backwards on the floor toward the wall behind him. Zak guessed right away that he was going to use the wall as a brace to get himself back to his own feet, and he felt determination to stop that surge through him.

He darted forward, but covered only three quarters of the distance between them before he was struck again.

This time, however, he was prepared for it.

He braced his every muscle, his every nerve, and dug his heels in to the floor, rooting himself in place. Of course, he used the Force to keep him stationary as well, as the Sith assaulted him with his Force attacks.

Then he began to push forward. One slow, steady step at a time, he drew nearer and nearer his adversary. He could smell burning flesh, burning cloth, and looked down to see holes being burnt in his top and slacks, burn marks and angry welts appearing on his hands and forearms.

The attack stopped, and Zak dashed the remainder of the distance in an instant, wrapping his fingers around Pravus's throat and watching the Sith's eyes for any spark of fear. He began to squeeze with his hands, depriving Pravus of air. But the Sith, seeing this distraction, placed his hands flat against Zak's chest and let loose with another surge of electrical current that knocked the wind clear out of his lungs and almost stopped his heart.

Zak flew through the air again, soaking the energies of the attack like a sponge absorbing water, and somersaulted involuntarily once before landing flat on his feet several meters away.

The assault stopped prematurely, and Zak knew it was because Pravus's energy reserves were running low. He might have been using his pain to fuel his connection to the Force, but that pain was lessening, and therefore becoming a weaker fuel.

Zak took advantage of it and lanced out with his own; launching a thicker, stronger, brighter stream of current back at the Sith. Pravus howled in pain and Zak stopped, taking a few steps forward.

"You don't like it, do you?" he said quietly. He let loose with another deadly stream of energy, holding it against the Sith for no more than a handful of seconds before he released it.

"No! No, no, no, no, please! Not again!" Pravus said weakly. Zak raised his hands again to continue the assault. "Please! No! No, no, no, NO—AHHHHH!"

Electricity danced forward again, snapping and popping as it arced back and forth from the Sith's face to the tips of his fingers and the boot at the end of his only remaining leg, singeing and burning.

Simultaneously, Zak mustered his mental strengths and launched a second assault on him.

He plunged into the Sith's mind, weaving and slipping through his thoughts as if they were made of water. As he went, he made sure to enhance the man's senses, especially the nerve receptors in the brain that registered pleasure and pain. He weaved through every thought, every memory, plucking and digging violently and without remorse for anything he wanted. All the while singeing and burning.

Singeing and burning.

He stopped, only briefly. "THEN WHY SUBJECT OTHERS TO IT IF YOU KNOW IT'S SO UNDESIRABLE?" Zak screamed at him, letting loose with yet another, briefer, assault.

"Please!" Pravus begged. "I'm sorry! Just please!"

"What's this?" Zak scoffed. "Is this an apology from a _Dark Lord of the Sith_? I don't believe it. And you have the nerve to call _Vader_ the disgrace to the title!"

"Vader w—"

"VADER NEVER APOLOGISED FOR THE ATROCITIES HE COMMITTED!" Zak screeched, cutting off the vain attempt to again slander Jaina's grandfather. "Not even when his son redeemed him. He didn't say sorry not once before he died for any of the horrible things he did while apprenticed to the Emperor! And look at you!" He scoffed again in disgust. "The all mighty Darth Pravus, self-proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith, apologising for putting a pair of young adult Jedi through a few short months of hell. You make me _sick_!"

"Take me before your council," Pravus said desperately. He reached out beside him for something and Zak shot a single arc of electricity at his hand to discourage him. It was so intense a bolt that it burned through his hand and smashed through the only remaining window on the level.

Pravus called out in pain, subduing it quickly into a low groan. "I will take execution."

"Yes," Zak said with a nod. "You will. And your body will be delivered to the Jedi Council as proof of _my_ awesome power!"

He turned his head just a little, thinking of appropriate last words to depart to his foe. "And now," he started, smiling just slightly, "Darth Pravus … you _will_ die."

And then he ended it.

* * *

When Zak was done, he avoided breathing through his nose as much as possible. The smell of charred flesh and wool and bone was enough to make him sick. His stomach was already beginning to turn from watching the flesh melt away under the electrical onslaught. He didn't need anything on top of that to push him over into full-blown queasiness.

Satisfied now that the Sith was dead, the threat gone, he reached out with the Force to find his lightsaber, and then called it to him from where it had flung from his belt clip and landed on the floor. He performed a cursory examination to ensure that it was intact and operational, and then clipped it back onto his belt, giving it a slight tug to check it was secure.

All alone in the darkness, he dropped lightly to his knees, pressed his hands together, and began to mutter silent a silent chant. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion," he started. "Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power—"

"Zak?" he heard Jaina call out from behind him.

His lips broke into the broadest, most sincere grin he could remember baring for quite some time and then he rose again to his feet and turned around to face the speaker.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

Luke was almost to the building when Jaina caught up with him. He stopped dead and turned to face her, allowing his face for form the deepest look of disapproval that he could manage.

"Back to the ship with you," he warned her.

"Not a chance," Jaina said, shaking her head vigorously. "Where's Zak?"

"Jaina—" Luke began. He knew it was futile to argue with his niece in this matter.

He had already sensed that she and Zak had formed a bond—if not as passionate … yet—very much like the one he and his wife shared. He couldn't say he was surprised.

Five months in captivity with only each other for acceptable company and support, and at least two failed attempts to rescue them, feelings were bound to arise in some shape or form.

Twenty years ago, if there had been the chance of them being together, Luke might have objected. Zak had been too wild back then, too prone to attracting trouble in one form or another. Too … childlike? But it seemed that in the years since their last entanglement, and the year spent on GemDiver, he had grown up quite a bit. So much so that Luke had nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for what he could one day become.

"Where is he?" Jaina demanded again.

Luke sighed. "The last time I saw him, he was heading towards this building, with Brakiss in pursuit."

Jaina directed her gaze at the building they were headed towards and her eyes shot open. "Isn't that the old Tarvon building? The one that was bombed by Imperium spies when the Shadow Academy came to Coruscant?"

"It is," Luke replied with a nod. Seeing as he wasn't likely to convince Jaina to return to the ship, he continued onwards, allowing her to follow beside him. "I gather that Zak was planning to use the building's current condition to his advantage."

"To hide?"

"I would entirely doubt that," Luke said grimly.

While still at a loss to explain why the young man had turned on him, had shown such open anger and aggression against him, he had felt the power behind his attacks. Zak was not yet an expert duellist, but he had the potential to be great, and he had become very skilled in his time in captivity.

The raw strength he put behind every blow had knocked Luke off balance more than once, and he doubted very much that Brakiss would have any better luck. "I would guess that he plans to ambush Brakiss."

Jaina nodded.

Something shattered above them, the sound echoing down towards them and out into the street.

Luke looked up to see falling glass and debris, and a streak of electricity zipping across the sky. He followed it with his eyes, watching as it slammed into the next building harmlessly, then raised a hand to put up a Force shield above them to stop the debris.

He reached out with his senses, trying to find out who it was that had done that; Zak or Brakiss? His first immediate thought was Brakiss, but he could not deny that Zak's expressed aggression could very well give him access to powers of the Force he should not have.

"That can't be good," Jaina said.

"I agree," Luke said. "Get back to the ship, now. No arguments, please."

"I'm not going back to the ship until I know Zak is safe!" Jaina said heatedly.

"Jaina now isn't the time to be playing the concerned betrothed," Luke said. Jaina started, clearly taken aback by the accusation. "I'll ensure his safety," he added.

In truth, he didn't know what he could do. With Zak so angry and wild, and out for vengeance, Luke couldn't be sure that he wouldn't again become a target. If he got in the way again, when all his senses were telling him at the moment that Zak was calm and collected and in control of himself, would he attack him again? He couldn't be sure.

"I'm coming with you!" Jaina insisted, and then stormed off into the building's lobby.

Luke followed her with a frustrated sigh, letting the shield down when he was under the safety of the building. The glass and debris smashed against the ferrocrete floor harmlessly, spraying off in multiple directions.

As they ascended the stairs, Luke's instincts kicked in and he pushed in front of his niece and activated his lightsaber, allowing the comforting glow light their way as they took each step slowly, carefully, quietly.

At last, they reached the level where he could sense Zak's presence, and they stepped off the stairs and into a large open room. The room was mostly dark, save for the glow of his lightsaber lighting his and Jaina's features.

At the far end, against the outer wall under a recently smashed window, lay a corpse. He knew it to be a corpse for it was humanoid in shape, and yet he could sense no life force emanating from it. The life had already drained from whoever it was, though the Force could not tell him how recent it was, so he could not assume that it was Zak.

In front of that corpse was the silhouette of a person on their knees, as if praying. But Luke couldn't tell from the distance who it was, and his attempts to find out through the Force were meeting nothing but empty space.

"…Through strength, I gain power," a voice said in the darkness. Luke recognised it. It was Zak. He found this very unsettling; the words Zak spoke were not words he _should_ be speaking … ever! "Through power—"

Jaina who took a chance and cut him off before he could finish his—what … mantra? "Zak?" she called out.

Zak got to his feet and turned to face them both. In the dim light from Luke's weapon, he could make out Zak's youthful features, seemingly hardened by months of captivity. And yet, that hardness was somehow less from the smile on his face as his eyes came to rest on Jaina; eyes that glowed dark yellow and red in the dark.

Zak's eyes were usually brown.

"Jai—" Zak started. He looked at Luke, and the smile was gone, the cheerful expression turned to one of loathing and hatred.

Jaina tried to take a step forward, but Luke threw his arm out to bar her way. He knew then that Zak was still not quite right. He was still going to attack the elder Jedi, even though he was no longer in the way of his vengeance. But what could he be obstructing the young man from—

And then it hit him, like a slap in the face. He turned his head to look at his niece, who neither tried to resist his restraining arm nor looked happy about the fact that it was there.

"Stay right there," he warned her harshly. He knew that despite what she felt for Zak, the tone in his voice would emphasise that he expected to be obeyed in this instance.

He took a few steps forward, holding his lightsaber semi-defensively, uncertain of how events were going to play out from this point. "Zak?"

"Master Skywalker," Zak replied, his voice dripping with the same loathing that etched his face.

"Where's Brakiss?" He took another step closer and began to circle slowly to the left.

Zak turned with him, watching his every movement like a terrahawk watching its prey. But he did incline his head to his right, at the corpse against the wall.

Luke chanced a look at it, but even lit as much as it was by the glow of his weapon, there was no resemblance to the man he knew as Brakiss. The body had been charred beyond recognition; all clothing stripped away by fire—or electricity, now that he thought about it—and the flesh melted away. The muscles and tissue beneath were burned beyond anything that could be called human.

"Oh, Zak," Jaina gasped from nearer the stairs as the realisation hit her.

Zak's hand dropped to come to rest lightly on the end of the lightsaber that hung from his belt, a lightsaber that Luke saw in both his and Jaina's thoughts had been constructed in secret by Zak while in captivity. If the situation weren't so precarious, he would have praised Zak for the feat. He hoped that he would still get the chance.

"Don't do it," he warned the young man.

But he did.

Zak yanked his lightsaber from his belt and activated both of its deadly plasma blades. He brought his own lightsaber up in defence and stood still, ready for attack.

"Zak!" Jaina exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Jaina! Get back to the ship!" Zak and Luke both said to her. Zak glared at Luke, and then jumped forward.

Luke brought his lightsaber around to defend, but not to injure. He saw that while Zak's strikes were imbued with much strength, it left weaknesses in Zak's defensive circles. He found himself unwilling to take advantage of it and hurt him.

While he could sense nothing but rage and self pride in the young man, he mistrusted it. They were traits of the Sith, traits of the Dark Jedi. Zak possessed neither naturally. He was incapable of it.

From what he had been told by Tash when they had first arrived, Zak was the only witness to his shape-shifter uncle's murder on Sullust, and even then with how close the children had become with the man, he had not sought revenge.

Despite what feelings he harboured for Jaina Solo, their captivity could not be enough to set off such a drastic change in him. He was sure something else was at fault here.

But the one thought struck his thoughts over and over like a repeating chord; he had repeatedly failed Brakiss, he would not fail Zak—not even just once.

He battered Zak's lightsaber away harmlessly and ducked around a second and a third strike to manoeuvre himself into a better position, putting himself between Zak and Jaina.

He sensed Jaina back away from behind him, urged on by his silent insistence in her mind that Zak was in a dangerous state right now and his actions couldn't be trusted.

Zak charged forward again, and Luke did the same to meet him, batting away again and again at Zak's attacks to keep himself from being harmed, but in no way trying to harm the young man in the process.

They both spun, reversing positions.

Luke frowned. Zak was now closer to Jaina, and he further away. It was an unacceptable situation and he thought of ways to reverse it again while slashing his lightsaber backwards and forwards against Zak's unrelenting attacks.

Zak spun, and Luke kicked out at his back, his foot landing squarely and hard. Zak stumbled forwards, dropping his lightsaber, and crashed hard against the closed door of the non-functional lift tube. He stayed down for several moments, breathing hard and fast, and then stopped, clutching at both sides of his head as if he were in the throes of some other pain.

"Zak?" Jaina said.

Luke kept his defences up, expecting deception. Jaina ignored his silent warnings and rushed over to Zak, dropping to her knees in front of him and resting her hands gently against the insides of his arms.

"Jaina …" Luke warned her.

"Zak? What's wrong?" she asked Zak, ignoring her uncle entirely.

He stepped closer, lowering his lightsaber but not deactivating it.

Zak lashed out at her. Not in the form of a strike, but in the form of clutching the sides of her head much as he had been clutching at his.

Luke bent low, scooped up Zak's lightsaber, and rushed over to pry the young man's hands away from Jaina. Jaina's hands shot up to his wrists and she tried to pry him away, but to no avail.

Luke deactivated his lightsaber and dropped to his knees beside them, attempting to lend Jaina some form of aid. Zak's right hand shot out and clubbed the side of Luke's head, sending him crashing to the floor a few meters away before the hand returned to its spot on Jaina's head.

When Luke recovered, he looked over at Zak and saw him open his eyes, the familiar dark brown eyes that belonged to him, and looked up into Jaina's, which were now threatening to overflow with tears she fought back.

"Help … me," he breathed.

And then he collapsed.


End file.
