There was a light rain drizzling down on the Jedi Academy, which matched the mood of the small group of people gathered together around the body of Hailee Talcyon. Cilghal was just finishing her examination, which was unnecessary because everyone could see what had killed her. She had a cauterized wound which stretched from her right shoulder, down through her heart, and all the way to her left hip. The lightsaber which had probably killed her was her own, and it lay a few meters away, locked in the on position, sizzling as the raindrops hit it.

Luke used the Force to bring it to himself and thumbed it off. The others gathered around seemed to be holding their breaths, waiting for Luke to say something.

After the silence had stretched on for minutes, Cilghal stood and rolled her eyes toward Luke. "Would you like my to prepare the body for transport back to her family, Master Skywalker?"

Luke nodded, still staring at the body as if perplexed. "Uh, dad?" Ben asked with concern in his voice, "do you want me to assemble everyone in the great hall?" Luke straightened as if just realizing there was someone talking to him. "No, Kyp can do that. I need you here. Everyone else.. don't you have better things to do?" He said, glancing around the growing circle of Jedi. they muttered excuses and trickled off. Once they were gone, Ben stepped closer to his father. "I'd offer my forensic abilities I learned with the GAG," He said, "but I think it's pretty obvious how she died."

"But not who killed her." Luke stated.

"Well, it could have been anyone."

Luke sighed, "That's what I'm worried about."

~O~

Jag awoke to find Jaina leaning over, her brow furrowed in worry. He couldn't think why she would be so concerned until her voice broke through the fog that surrounded his thoughts.

"Jag? Are you all right? Where's Davin?"

Everything that had happened came back to him in a rush. He immediately sat up only to fall back, his head swimming. From above and behind him, he heard his father-in-law's voice.

"Don't try to sit up, kid. Stun bolts are nasty. You're gonna need a minute."

Jag groaned. Leia spoke next, her voice kind. "Do you remember what happened, Jag?"

"All too well. It took me about twenty minutes of parenthood to fail and let my son get kidnapped."

Jaina grimaced, obviously trying to look tough, but Jag knew her well enough to see she was holding back tears. Han was muttering curses behind him, but Leia was already on her comlink with Coruscant security, ordering them to shut down the spaceports and check all ships. Jag heard the man she was speaking with reply, but couldn't make out the words. Whatever it was wasn't good, because Leia thanked him tersely and ended the transmission.

Jag managed to sit up, mentally cursing himself, as Leia sighed. "I just spoke with Coruscant security and they said that a small yacht was stolen from the yard and blasted past their orbital defenses about ten minutes ago."

"Did they manage to get a reading on where it was going?" Jaina asked, her voice filled with worry.

"Not a definite one, but almost ninety percent chance it was toward the Outer Rim, in unknown space."

Han swore again. From the corner of the room came Allana's shocked voice. "Grampa! My mother says not to say that word! And anyway, why would anyone want to kidnap Davin?" Her question was met with silence that seemed to stretch on for hours, until Jaina broke it. "Don't blame yourself, Jag. There was nothing you could've done." Jag wished he could learn how to hide his feelings better. The Solos and Fels sat in silence for a while longer as Jag let Jaina's half-hearted assurance linger in the air. Finally Allana spoke. "Well? Aren't we going to go and rescue him?"

Han glowered. "We sure are, sweetie. And when we do, we're gonna make that mud-sucking sleemo wish she was never born."

~O~

"I ask that you all remain calm and not jump to conclusions, but if anyone knows anything that might be of help in discovering the identity of Hailee's killer, please see me in my office after this.

Luke was wrapping up his speech to the somber assembly of Jedi and trainees before him, and as was custom, every voice lifted as in unison, to recite the Jedi code.

"There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no death, there is the Force."

The last line was said with a particular fervor, and the silence that followed was respectful.

Luke dismissed them, but he could see several people already heading towards the room he called his office, where he took care of the paperwork, that, while much-needed, was becoming increasingly tedious.

Huh. Give me a Sith Lord or a Death Star, fine. When it comes to deskwork, I'm completely hopeless.

~O~

An hour later, having seen several people, all with their own story, Luke was faced with an insurmountable pile of evidence, all pointing towards one person. He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

Time to talk to Ben. This should be fun.

As if his son had heard his thoughts, he chose that moment to poke his head through Luke's open door, followed by the rest of his body, his arms awkwardly trying to juggle two datapads, a comlink, and a piece of flimsi. He could tell from Ben's Force-aura that something, possibly several somethings, were bothering him. Luke gestured to the chair, and Ben, after unceremoniously dumping the items on Luke's desk, sat.

"Shall you go first, or shall I?" He asked with a wry smile.

Ben didn't even crack a smile. "Probably me." Luke gestured him to go ahead, and ben picked up one of the datapads, which Luke recognized as his own. "Message from your sister. Apparently you haven't been answering your comm."

"I had it turned off."

Ben gestured to the other datapad. "Observation by orbital control. Earlier this afternoon a heavily armed vessel took off from the jungle three klicks away from the temple. It refused all hailing signals, and OC was gonna open fire, but it zipped off into the Mists, destination vector unknown."

"No guesses at all?"

"The Mists screw things up, and anyway, if they went to that much trouble not to talk to us, they wouldn't be stupid enough to jump right to their destination." Ben sighed. "Well, at least that narrows the chances of it being anyone in the Academy."

"No records of the vessel previously?"

"None. So, the question is, how did it land?"

Luke shrugged. "What's on the flimsi? More bad news?" Ben blushed and shoved it onto his robe pocket. "Nothing. Just personal stuff." He said, a little too quickly. Luke decided to let it go. "So, what does Leia have to say?"

Ben's face drained of all color, making his red freckles stand out. "You'd better see for yourself. It isn't good."

"Is anything good today?"

"Lunch was." Ben said, a poor attempt to lighten the mood. He handed Luke the datapad.

Luke,

Don't know why you're not answering your comm, but I hope you're okay.

As you might have sensed Jaina had her baby this morning. He was kidnapped shortly thereafter. The only lead we have is that the ship was headed towards the outer rim, at least on the first jump. We could really use your help, if you're not to busy.

Leia.

"Stang." Luke whispered. "This just gets better and better."

"Think they're connected?" Ben asked.

Luke was puzzled, "No. Why would they be?" Ben just shrugged, and Luke sighed. "Is there anything you're not telling me, Ben?"

"You haven't told me your bad news yet." Ben said nonchalantly.

"That's because I know you're not going to like it."

"I already don't, because I know you're going to say it was Vestara."

Luke sighed. "All the eyewitness accounts match up, no one was lying, and unless I'm mistaken, you've already looked for her, and you can't find her. And the only reason you would know who I suspect is because you've run into evidence of your own."

"No, I know that because the timing does match perfectly, and the eyewitness accounts are true, and I can't find her. which makes whoever did this a master at framing people."

"Ben? Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now? You're letting your emotions rule you! If you would listen to the facts-"

"No, dad! You listen!" Ben interrupted his voice rising. "Vestara wouldn't do this! Even if she did want to kill someone, which she didn't, why would she kill a simple apprentice? And why would she be so stupidly obvious as to run away? That screams 'guilty'!"

"Well, let's see," Luke said, his voice matching Ben's, "Maybe because she hated Hailee."

"What?! I don't think they've ever even spoken with each other!"

"Well, obviously you don't know her as well as you thought, because two of Hailee's best friends say she bullied Vestara almost constantly!"

Ben snorted, "Right, 'cause I wouldn't have noticed that."

"That's my point. She didn't tell you! Do you think there might've been other things she didn't tell you? Like how she was planning her revenge? Now, why don't we both calm down, and discuss this reasonably."

"She's innocent, dad! And I'm going to prove it!"

"How?! You don't even know where she went."

Ben pulled the flimsi back out of his robe. "I do, actually."

"She wrote you a note? What does it say?" Luke demanded.

"Why do you care? In your eyes, she's already guilty." Ben stood. "But she's not, and when I get back you'll see that too."

"So you're not even going to tell me where you're going? What happens when she tries to kill you, and no one can help you?"

"She wouldn't kill me! And I think you know that. Is this all it takes to change your opinion of someone? If that's the Jedi way, I don't think I want anything to do with it anymore!" Ben stormed out of the room, almost punching a hole in the wall when he closed the door.

"Ben! Get back here! You're not even thinking properly!" Luke shouted after him. He picked up his comlink to call Orbital Control.

This is going to be fun to explain.