Jacen snapped awake from the sudden, horrible sensation that told him that Jaina had just been hurt.

Beside him, his wife, Danni Quee Solo, had also awakened and said, "Lights." Their bedroom then lit up, and Danni sat up to place a hand on her husband's shoulder in concern. "Jacen, what's wrong?"

"It's Jaina," he said in worry. "Something's happened to her."

Danni's eyes widened in fear. "Is she-"

"No, no, the sensation wasn't that powerful," Jacen said. "But right now, my twin bond to her is incredibly fuzzy; I think she might be in a coma or something like that." He then looked directly into his wife's eyes. "I'm gonna have to go out there and save her myself, Danni."

"You?" Danni asked, still concerned. "Why can't you just send someone else to find her? I mean, Nelani can-"

Jacen waved his wife from completing that sentence. "I have to do this myself, honey. I'm the one who has the best chance at finding her with our twin bond."

"But what about your responsibilities to the Order?" Danni asked. "What about your responsibilities to Miko and I?"

Jacen grimaced. Miko, his and Danni's son - named after the late Jedi Knight Miko Reglia, who sacrificed his life so at the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War so that Jacen and Danni could escape the Vong-held world of Helska 4 - was barely a year old now, and didn't even see his father all that often even as a Jedi student in the confines of the modest Jedi Temple. And after Danni had given up her studies of Zonama Sekot so that she and Miko could be with Jacen, combined with the fact that Jacen really did have a lot on his plate in managing the Jedi Order, and he could see how he didn't have that much of a case in going after Jaina himself.

"Look, I'm sure that the other Masters can handle things right now," Jacen said. "At least for a little while, anyway, even with Tenel Ka informing me about that crazy Ducha Lorangal going vigilante out there for those sex criminals. I mean, Kenth Hamner's a good bureaucrat; if anything, I sometimes consider making him the Grand Master of the Order." His tone was half-joking; at times, sifting through datapads of information was something that strained even Jacen's patience.

"But your uncle didn't make Master Hamner the leader of the Order, Jacen," Danni pointed out. "He made you that leader."

Jacen sighed. It still pained him that Uncle Luke put this burden of leading the Jedi Order upon him bare moments before he died back on Korriban nearly a year before; as much as he was glad that he could organize the Order the way he wanted - so that if there were any repeats of fallen Jedi such as Garis Boric in the future, they would be few and far between - Jacen still felt somewhat overwhelmed with the responsibilities that the title of Grand Master conferred unto him. And that was especially so since he spent very little time with little Miko and even less time doing some soul-searching, as he once did during his post-Vong War sojourn throughout the galaxy all those years ago.

But it was evident from her tone that Danni wasn't concerned for Jacen's responsibilities to the Order as she was in seeing him again; ever since he became Grand Master of the Order, he had personally encountered no threats in the galaxy, and that made things easier for Danni to be with Jacen, knowing that he wasn't going out in the galaxy to fight the threat of the decade as he did when he was during the Yuuzhan Vong War and the times following his sojourn to the Battle of Korriban. Now that he was about to go back out into the galaxy to face a new threat that endangers Jaina's life, that certainty was gone for Danni, and she wasn't sure if she would see the man she loved again.

"Look, Danni," Jacen said, "I know full well my responsibilities, to you, Miko, and the Jedi Order. But Jaina's in trouble, and you know as well as I do that I won't be able to run the Order all that well unless I know for sure, firsthand, that she's safe. So, I'm sorry, my dear, but I'm gonna have to go on a leave of absence to find my sister."

Danni's frown lowered just a little bit, but she nodded in understanding. "Take care of yourself then."

Jacen smiled. Danni had always been very supportive of his decisions; even when he had considered not being with her when she told him that she was pregnant with his child, Danni never dissuaded him, even if she felt torn-up about it.

"I will," he said to her. "I love you, you know."

Danni's frown became a smile, and she leaned forward to reciprocate the kiss that he wanted to give her. It lasted for several moments before Jacen had to inevitably pull away; by that point, though, neither of them were smiling anymore, because in the first time in a long while, since Jacen had been given the title of Grand Master, he was about to fight again.

"I love you, too," Danni said. "Remember that."

Jacen nodded. "I will."

And with no further words, Jacen got up, dressed into his signature Jedi robes, and walked out of the room, leaving Danni completely alone and sleepless.

Now in the rest of the dorm that he, Danni, and Miko lived in, Jacen decided to stop by at his son's room. There, he carefully opened the door so as not to awaken the sleeping toddler, and just as cautiously approached the crib that Miko was starting to outgrow.

The darkness in Miko's room was offset enough by the dim light from the glow-in-the-dark starship toys that hung over the crib on strings set against the ceiling. So Jacen took a few moments to admire his slumbering child before leaning down and kissing Miko on the forehead. He then straightened back up with resolution, turned, and headed back out the door, quiet as ever even as he shut the nursery door behind him.

Following his departure from the dorm itself, Jacen headed down the corridor to his office, where he sat down in his desk and, from the desk's inset commlink, activated one of the Jedi Master's comm units.

"Hello?" the elderly, masculine - and quite tired - voice on the other end eventually.

"Master Hamner, I know it's a bit early in the morning, but could you please come to my office?" Jacen asked.

"Of course, Master Solo," Hamner replied evenly, stifling any further yawns from his voice. "I'll be on my way shortly."

Ten minutes later, Jedi Master Kenth Hamner finally arrived in Jacen's office, his robes pressed and his appearance otherwise clean-cut.

Impressive, Jacen thought. I can even smell his freshly-minted breath from here. This is definitely someone I'd leave to govern the Order.

"Please, have a seat, Master Hamner," Jacen said.

Once Hamner was seated, Jacen, right to the point, asked the subordinate Master, "How would you feel about running the Jedi Order while I'm gone?"

Whatever traces of sleep in Hamner's visage instantly disappeared as his eyes widened in surprise. "I beg your pardon, Master Solo?"

"My sister is in trouble, Master Hamner," Jacen said, his tone completely serious. "And I know for a fact that I'm the one who is most likely to find her. Now before you go on telling me that I have responsibilities to the Order, and that I can't simply abandon them just for a family member, first, my wife Danni already gave me that lecture, and second of all, this is only temporary. And since I find you to be the most reliable Jedi Master to run the Order in my upcoming absence, I feel that you would be a good acting Grand Master, especially since you did a good job running the Order while I was off with my uncle finding Zonama Sekot during the Yuuzhan Vong War.

"So, Master Hamner, will you agree to fill my place while I'm off saving my sister?"

"Yes, Master Solo, I agree to be the acting Grand Master of the Jedi Order," Hamner said simply.

Jacen's brow was raised. "Really? That easily?"

Hamner nodded. "Of course. As you said, you are the one most likely to save your sister, what with your twin bond. With that in mind, I would gladly take your place while you are gone, Master Solo."

"Oh," Jacen said, slightly stunned. "Well, in that case, Master Hamner, I formally confer my duties upon you for the time being of my absence from Denon."

"Thank you, Master Solo, I will not let you down," Hamner said.

"But before I go," Jacen said, "I'll have to leave a message for the rest of the Order so that they'll recognize your authority for the time being."

Hamner nodded. "You do what you have to, Master Solo," he said as Jacen activated his inset commlink and set it to record for the next day.