Second Chance

Prologue: The Offer

The afterlife was not what he had expected.

Darth Caedus, and that was his name not Jacen Solo, stared out at the empty gray expanse. He wasn't exactly sure what he had been expecting, but this was most definitely not it. After his actions the past few years he would expect something along the lines of torture. There was a lot of blood on his hands, he knew, and he doubted that his past actions as a "hero" would balance them out. No, he was definitely going to be punished in some way.

Honestly though, he expected something a little more painful than eternal boredom.

"Bored? We can't have that, can we?"

Caedus jumped out of his skin at the sudden intrusion. He whirled around to face the source, only to find himself freezing again.

Recognition dawned, accompanied by a rush of feelings. Shock, guilt, and resignation welled up within him.

"Anakin?" His voice cracked.

Anakin Solo nodded. Caedus stared at his long-dead brother, drinking in his image. Anakin looked exactly the same, from his dark and messy hair to the deep blue eyes filled with a steely determination to protect those he cared about. Even with the subtle blue aura around him that indicated he was dead, Caedus was struck by just how alive Anakin seemed.

And seeing that made the current situation all the more painful.

"Why are you here?" Caedus demanded, allowing the familiar anger to overtake him and mask his real feelings, "Have you come to tell me how much of a disappointment I am as well? Because if you are, you're wasting your breath."

Anakin's eyes softened with pity as he looked over the hollow shell that his brother had become and Caedus seethed as he saw it.

"I could say that," Anakin admitted, "But I'm not going to. That's not why I'm here."

"Here to announce my punishment then?"

"Not exactly."

Caedus frowned in confusion. "What do you mean 'Not Exactly'?"

Anakin smiled at him again, and Caedus really wished he would stop. That kind of smile had no place on Anakin's face. It was a smile that carried no joy, only sadness and was nothing like the Solo grin that Anakin had been so proud of.

"See, that's where it's complicated, Jasa." Anakin spoke softly and ignored Caedus' wince at his childhood name. "Whatever you were at the end, you were a hero once. Without you around looking so desperately for a more peaceful solution the Yuuzhan Vong War could have been a lot worse. And even as you fell you tried to keep the galaxy at peace."

Caedus snorted. "Yeah, I did a great job of that, didn't I?" Sarcasm dripped from his every word, his father would be proud.

Anakin barked a small laugh.

"I know, right? I mean, if you really wanted to unite the galaxy in hatred you could have just read your old jokes over the holonet."

Caedus glared as his younger self momentarily rose to defend his sense of humor. They weren't that bad, were they? He looked for a second like he was about to speak, but then angrily pushed that feeling down. Jacen Solo was dead, and Caedus had no interest in those feelings anymore. Anakin's face fell and the humor vanished.

"But that's not the biggest reason. Jacen, you know as well as I do that you could have won that duel against Jaina."

Caedus looked away. "The price of that was too high."

"Really? I thought you were prepared to sacrifice everything to bring about peace? Didn't Lumiya tell you that the Sith must be prepared to sacrifice?"

"I couldn't let Tenel Ka or Allana die." Caedus admitted quietly.

"And that, Jacen, is why you fail at being a Sith just like grandfather. A true Sith would have not hesitated, would have pushed everything aside until Jaina was dealt with before even thinking about saving others. It wasn't a large act, like Vader's, but it did speak volumes. At the final step down the dark path you stopped, and that makes a difference."

Caedus wasn't sure how to react to that. He wanted to fall back on anger, as he had for so long now but privately some small part of him felt a burst of hope of redemption, which he ruthlessly suppressed. There was no hope for a Sith to join the light. There was no way hesitating about one single act made up for Kashyyk or killing Aunt Mara, or corrupting Tahiri.

"You're right, it doesn't make up for that. Especially Tahiri."

Caedus almost jumped, and realized he hadn't had his shields up. There was no mistaking the anger that had momentarily slipped into Anakin's voice at the thought of what he'd done to Tahiri. Privately, now that he had restored his shields, Caedus allowed the guilt to return. The fact that Anakin was treating him like this, as if he hadn't twisted the girl that might have been his sister-in-law into a monster, as if he was still the Jacen he remembered burned Caedus. He could deal with anger and hate, he was a Sith after all, but this quiet disappointment hurt him in a way that he did not think possible any more.

He quickly rid himself of that thought. Of course it hurt, did he expect anything less?

"So, why, Anakin? Why bother telling me about this if it won't do me any good?"

Anakin smirked. Caedus gulped.

'I know that smile.' He thought. 'I'm not going to like this at all.'

"No krakana, Jasa, no krakana." The childhood reassurance did not comfort him in the least. "It's just that, with your case being so complicated I've been told to offer you something."

"And what is this offer?" Caedus asked warily.

Anakin just grinned wider and threw his arm around his brother's shoulder. "See, you're not the first case like this. When someone like you shows up, the Force can give something that very few people ever get."

Caedus did not ask, merely waited for his explanation.

Anakin stared directly into the dead Sith's eyes, "You have been offered a second chance."

Caedus' jaw dropped, and his carefully controlled image shattered.

"What?"

"I know you've gotten old, Jasa, but I didn't think your hearing has started to fail." Anakin drawled. From the twinkle in his eyes it was obvious he was very amused by Caedus' comical shocked look.

"What do you mean a second chance?"

"Well, that's where things get even more complicated. The offer's not quite as selfless and forgiving as it looks on the surface. There's a catch."

Caedus sunk to the floor and sighed. "Of course."

"Well, it's a test for you so I can't tell you the details because that would reveal too much and ruin the test. Basically you're being sent to a place that's in a lot of trouble. If you manage to fix things there in the proper way, you'll have redeemed yourself. But, if you don't solve it or if you solve it in the wrong way, then that's it. Game over, thanks for playing."

Anakin stuck his hand out.

"So, what do you say?"

Caedus stared at the hand. Should he? There was no way that he could be forgiven, so why should he?

Unbidden, a memory rose to the front of his mind…

"Jacen?"

The little voice pulled Jacen out of his thoughts and he looked up.

"Hmm? What is it?"

Allana, his daughter a proud voice in his head whispered, fidgeted under his scrutiny. She was staring at her feet as one hand played with her red curls, clearly nervous. Jacen was struck by just how much she looked like her mother then. He had picked up on the fact long ago that when Tenel Ka was nervous, even though she kept her face completely straight, she would unconsciously play with her hair. On Tenel Ka, the act had been endearing and it warmed his heart to see his daughter taking after her.

"What is it?" He asked soothingly.

"Mama says you're a jedi." It was a question more than a statement.

"Yes, that's right." Where was this heading?

"What's a jedi?"

Jacen's eyebrows piqued as he mulled over the question.

"What brought this on?"

"Well, I was playing in the throne room, and I know I'm not supposed to but I heard these ladies talking to each other and they kept saying all these things about the jedi and they sounded really mean and they used bad words and I don't know and-" Jacen put a finger to her lips, bringing the babbled explanation to a screeching halt.

Warmth spread in Jacen's chest as he looked over his little girl. He chuckled, with how fast the girl was talking maybe he should check if Tenel Ka and Tahiri were related? Now the little princess was biting her lip and looking at him, waiting for an answer.

"A jedi is someone who protects people." He said finally, "We help people when they need it and try to make the galaxy a better place."

"So why were those ladies mean about you?"

Jacen shook his head and stroked his daughter's cheek tenderly. "Some people don't understand," he murmured, "People are scared of what they can't understand, and they don't understand the things we have to do to protect them." There was a sadness in his tone, as he thought what he'd done in the Swarm Wars. Nobody understood that either.

The little girl shook her head. "That's silly! Jacen's not scary at all!"

Jacen smirked. "Not scary? We'll see about that!"

He lunged at the little girl and immediately began tickling her. She shrieked in laughter and tried to escape. For several minutes, the two wrestled around on the ground, until they tired themselves out. Afterwards, Allana lay curled up on Jacen's chest, her eyelids drooping as exhaustion caught up with her. Jacen just laid back and allowed himself to bask in the far-too-rare moment with his daughter, not that she knew she was his daughter. To him, she was just Jedi Jacen, her mother's friend, and as much as it pained him that's how it would have to stay.

"Jacen?" The little voice whispered.

"Yes, Allana?"

"You'll always be there to protect people, right?"

Jacen looked down at her, and then up at the doorway to find Tenel Ka looking down on them. Her face was unreadable, but he could feel the warmth that slipped past her carefully maintained shields and he knew that she was waiting for the answer as well. He met her eyes, and answered.

"Yes. I'll always protect you, and all the people that I can."

Caedus clenched his fist at the memory. He had promised them he would do everything he could to protect them, to protect people he needed them and look where that had brought him. He'd become so obsessed with "protecting" the galaxy that he allowed himself to fall to the dark side, constantly made excuses to himself and finally became the monster he was now.

He couldn't protect anyone, and he was certainly beyond redemption.

And yet…could he really leave this place, whatever it was, to its crisis? Could he really turn his back on people that, according to Anakin, needed his help? He looked into himself and found that, no, he couldn't. He didn't think he could do it, and he didn't think that he could redeem himself.

But, Force help him, he wanted to try.

He had ruined an entire galaxy believing that it would protect those he cared about and here they were telling him to try again. It was a stupid, irresponsible, and reckless decision.

He grabbed Anakin's hand.

"I'm in."

And that's when the world exploded into light.

The first thing Caedus became aware of was that his head was pounding. The second thing was that he was feeling pain.

He was fairly certain dead people don't feel pain.

His eyes fluttered open, and his blurred surroundings carefully came into focus. He carefully pushed himself up and surveyed the area.

Wherever he was, it was clear that something terrible had happened here. It was an apartment, from the looks of what was left. The paint on the walls was peeling away and debris and trash littered the floor. There were blaster scorch marks on the walls as well, showing that someone had been here recently.

A glint of light caught his eye, and the Sith turned.

It was a mirror. But the reflection it held was not at all what he was expecting.

The first thing he noticed, and he wondered how he hadn't noticed it before, was that he had both arms. Secondly, he noticed his black robes and uniform were gone, and instead he found all he was wearing was a pair of tattered pants and ragged boots. His face and body were covered in scars, including a large burn-mark right above his heart.

Gingerly, he reached up and touched it. A sharp pain cut through his entire being as he touched it and, were it not for Vergere's training, he would have fallen to his knees in agony.

'Stupid.' He chided himself, 'What did you expect a lightsaber wound to feel like?!'

He turned away from the mirror. He had seen all he needed to, and while he would never admit it, not even to himself, he was disappointed by what he saw. His eyes were still yellow, and his Sith lightsaber still hang from his belt.

It seemed that the reminders were there to stay.

"You were expecting differently?" He asked himself.

Deciding to push this thought from his head, he decided to walk over to the room's lone window. Maybe he could get his bearings and get some answers about where he was.

And answers he got.

"Impossible." Caedus breathed, "This is…"

"The place where I died." A familiar voice finished.

Caedus whirled around to find himself face to face with the force spirit of Jacen Solo.

The ghost greeted him with a wry Solo grin.

"Welcome to Yuuzhan'Tar."