Author's Note: This fic, unlike my other stories, will not be a single narrative; it's what I hope will be a series of vignettes taking place after The New Jedi Order, of what I think should have happened instead of the overarching travesty that was Dark Nest to Fate of the Jedi.

Special thanks to Jedi Carpet for the name of Jacen's ship. I felt that it was incredibly appropriate for the character.

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Five years have passed since the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War. The galaxy is now at peace, and Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order has become stronger, not only in numbers, but also in its knowledge of the Force. The rigid ways of the Old Jedi Order have come to their end.

In the meantime, Jacen Solo, hero of the Galactic Alliance in the last war, has traveled between worlds inhabited by various Force sects. From these sects, Jacen has enlightened himself on the differing views of the Force in his search for once again achieving oneness with the Unifying Force.

But even amidst an age of peace and enlightenment, hidden threats and dangers continue to lurk in many corners of the galaxy, ready to spring up for the Jedi and their allies to fight against...

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He knew that when he entered this state of being, he would never achieve it again. And yet, he would spend the rest of his life trying to do so.

That thought came back to haunt Jacen Solo as he watched himself become one with the Force to defeat Onimi, the true Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong. The feeling of knowing that he had achieved a state of being that could not be replicated until death came was what drove Jacen to what many would call a futile endeavor.

Jacen knew that with oneness with the Force came death. He had felt that happen in others in the war; Miko Reglia, Daeshara'cor, Ganner Rhysode, and, of course, his own bother, Anakin. Jacen would never forget when Anakin sacrificed his own life fighting off a horde of Yuuzhan Vong warriors to destroy those voxyn specimens for the good of the Jedi Order; no one could ever imagine that one did not need to die to achieve oneness with the Force, and Anakin's death was a prime example as to why that was.

And then there was Vergere, the very being who opened Jacen's eyes to the idea of the Unifying Force. She had given her own life on Ebaq 9 for Jacen, his sister Jaina, and all their comrades from an army of Vong, and she had left behind a legacy of opening up the rest of the Jedi Order's collective mindset; she made sure that the likes of Jacen's Uncle Luke Skywalker and the other Jedi Masters that there was more to the Force than simple light or dark sides. There was a rainbow in the Force that had a far range.

And nowhere else was that more apparent than here, on the homeworld of the xenophobic Aing-Tii. They taught, mostly to themselves, that the Force was not a black-and-white thing, but rather as the multitude of colors that it truly inhabited. The Force had a complexity and dimensionality that even the most skilled and educated in it could not hope to understand; which, again, was what drove Jacen to seek out that knowledge.

As it were, the Aing-Tii's more broadening view of the Force allowed them certain abilities that Jedi could rarely achieve, if ever. And one of those abilities was in being able to, in a sense, travel back in time, which was what Jacen did right now.

He watched as his past self aged five years from the sublime energy coursing from his body to blast Onimi away from him. After his parents, Han and Leia, and the late Nom Anor entered the bridge of the Supreme Overlord's escape vessel, the angelic glow around Jacen's past self faded to leave a much more matured young man in its wake; and Onimi's deformations were reversed only for him to die, melting away into a pool of foul hydrocarbons that the yorik coral of his vessel absorbed like a sponge.

Jacen ended the flow-walk there, leaving the forest of the Aing-Tii homeworld before him. His guide to this world, a male Aing-Tii by the name of Tadar'Ro, sat patiently as Jacen left his flow-walk.

Jacen took a deep breath and exhaled in what amounted to euphoria before he said, "Thank you for teaching me that, Tadar'Ro."

"I am glad that you are grateful for this experience, Jacen Solo," Tadar'Ro said through the voice of Jorj Car'das. The Aing-Tii guide wore a small vocal device around his neck that translated his language to Basic via the programmed vocals of Car'das, one of the few non-Aing-Tii that the species have welcomed in their past. "Because I feel that I must remind you that teaching you this technique, among others, is an incredible risk, not only in my society, but to the Force itself."

"I will be careful if I ever have to use it again," Jacen assured the alien. He understood that if one mastered the technique of flow-walking - the ability to travel back in time to observe certain events - one could theoretically and potentially alter time and the Force. Jacen knew that the knowledge that he obtained from the Aing-Tii - an ability that very few in the aliens' society even knew about anyway - was as dangerous as it was enlightening. And one must keep in mind that even if the Force were to correct itself in due time - to correct whatever alterations that a master of flow-walking would make - that irreparable damage can still be made on the fabric of reality itself.

"It is good to hear that," Tadar'Ro replied. "It will, at the very least, calm the major worries that my people will have over this matter. Sharing this precious knowledge with outsiders distresses many of my people greatly, Jacen Solo."

"I understand," Jacen stated. As enlightened as they were to the near-incomprehensible nature of the Force, the Aing-Tii were just as xenophobic of other species. Very few outsiders, such as Jacen, Jorj Car'das, and even Master Yoda of the Old Jedi Order, were ever welcomed to the homeworld of the Aing-Tii.

"And, again, thank you, Tadar'Ro," Jacen continued with a respectful nod. "For everything. I will take my leave now. Goodbye, and may the Force be with you." He prepared to turn away from the Aing-Tii guide.

"I have something to say before I say goodbye to you as well, Jacen Solo."

Jacen stopped and nodded. "Yes?"

"Your sojourn is an interesting one. You seek to understand what no one, not even your own uncle, can ever truly hope to understand. And I, too, understand why; you have explained in great detail to me about what you just saw, about your experience of achieving oneness with the Force. But, tell me, Jacen Solo, if you ever do achieve this state of oneness again, even if you believe that you will not achieve it again anyway, what do you think you will learn? And what do you think, or hope, to become?"

Jacen mulled over Tadar'Ro's question for a moment. "That's the thing. I don't really know; just as I never knew where the Force would take me after my education under Vergere. I can only ever hope that the Force will lead me down the right path."

"I hope the Force does the same for you, indeed, Jacen Solo," Tadar'Ro said. "As I do for everyone else in the galaxy, Aing-Tii and non-Aing-Tii alike. Good luck on the rest of your travels, Jacen Solo; goodbye, and may the Force be with you, as it always is, with all of us."

Jacen nodded again, turned, and then simply disappeared; he had used the Aing-Tii ability of teleporting other objects to other places onto himself, and he had agreed with Tadar'Ro that this would be the last time he would practice this technique on the Aing-Tii's homeworld. And he had done it to return to his ship, the Solo Quest, a modified YT-1300, which he began powering up to launch for other worlds.