Return: Chapter 7

"You know, Jacen, I noticed you haven't smoked any spice since we got here," Onimi said as he and his human companion continued to walk the streets of La'okio back to their grashal. "You've remained quite sober here surprisingly enough, and much more normal; you didn't act like a Qiiluran hippie at all recently. What's with that?"

"Well, there is the fact that I left all that spice back on the Spiceman, for one," Jacen answered, his tone lacking any of the bitterness that he had towards Onimi after they saved Nom Anor. "And, well, we're on a living planet enveloped in the Force. This entire world's got my Force senses making me feel like I'm already high. I don't need any spice to make me feel good. How 'bout you, still making yourself high by manufacturing marijuana in your system?"

"As always," Onimi said casually. "But at this point, I'm so high, I might as well be normal, if that makes any sense."

"No, no, it doesn't," Jacen said nonchalantly. "But you know, I think you may wanna lay off the inner marijuana and allow your Force senses to thrive on this world."

"And why would I wanna do that?" Onimi asked.

"Because, trust me, allowing your Force senses to run on this world is a million times better than getting high on spice ever could," Jacen explained.

"Well, you can't tell me what to do, you know," Onimi said. "So until I decide I wanna let my Force senses roam free here, I'll stick to my marijuana."

Jacen sighed. "Suit yourself."

"I always do," Onimi said.

They continued walking along in silence for quite a while before they stopped in their tracks to find two other humans walking toward them; one was a slim blond woman with green robes, indicating that she was the Magister of Zonama Sekot, and a tall, burly man who shadowed her like a bodyguard. Jacen had no doubt that that was what he was before coming here.

"Hi, Jacen!" Danni Quee waved before running over to him.

"Danni!" Jacen said with a smile, running up to her as well.

They met halfway and hugged each other. After a few seconds, they pulled back, their smiles still visible on their faces, and Danni said, "Oh, it's good to see you after so long! How've you been doing?"

"Oh, I'm doing all right now," Jacen said. "How 'bout you?"

"Eh, running Zonama is much easier than one would think, especially with Tam here," Danni replied, nodding her head back to indicate the muscular human behind her.

"Oh, what's he been doing?" Jacen asked.

"I'm Danni's consort," the man answered for himself sternly, his arms crossed and his face impassive.

Jacen then pulled away from Danni with a face equally as impassive and walked over to the big man. "I don't think we've met," Jacen said as he stuck out his hand. "The name's Jacen Solo."

"I know," the other man said, not sticking his own hand out. "The entire galaxy knows, in fact, especially after what you pulled on it years ago."

Jacen lowered his hand as his face became crossed with confusion. "I'm sorry?" Then he made a face of realization. "Oh, right, the whole Darth Caedus thing. Well, for your information, I happen to be from an alternate reality, so what happened then wasn't my fault."

"Alternate reality?" the man asked. "I find that kinda hard to swallow."

"You're on a living planet filled with the Force, and you find alternate realities hard to swallow?" Jacen asked.

The man didn't answer. "I'll be watching you, Solo," he said with an underlying tone of menace in his voice.

"Tam, stop it," Danni said, interposing herself between Jacen and the other man.

"No, it's fine," Jacen said. "I see what's going on. If... I'm sorry, what was your name? Tam something?"

"Tam Elgrin," the big man said.

"Tam Elgrin, if you think I mean Danni any harm because of what the version of me in this reality did here, you've got another thing coming," Jacen said with no hint of a threat.

"We'll see," Tam said before focusing his attention on his lover. "Danni, can we go now?"

"Tam, I've barely been able to catch up with Jacen at all, I'm not going back to the grashal just yet," Danni said. "But you can if you want to."

Tam looked back from Danni to Jacen, then back to Danni again. He sighed. "Fine, we'll have it your way. I'll stay."

Danni nodded before turning back to Jacen. The two of them chatted for a bit, and during the conversation, Jacen asked her, "You know, you didn't seem all this talkative back when I was in orbit. What was with that?"

"Oh, I still had my suspicions, given what Tam told me about the Second Galactic Civil War, but after Sekot confirmed to me that you were genuinely from an alternate reality, I knew I could trust you," she said.

The conversation carried on for a bit more time until Danni concluded it with, "So how about dinner with Tam and I tonight?"

"What?" Tam asked, a tone of anger evident in his voice.

"Uh, sure, I'd love to," Jacen said, ignoring Tam's remark.

"Great, I'll see you in three hours, at my grashal," Danni said. "Sekot will personally guide you to it."

"Can I bring Onimi-" Jacen indicated his head back to his deformed Yuuzhan Vong friend "-and Randa with me?"

"I don't see why not," Danni said with a shrug.

"No," Tam said simply at the same time.

Danni turned on her lover when he said that, giving him a glare from which he couldn't escape from until he said, "All right, fine, he can bring his friends."

"Cool," Jacen said. "Well, see ya later."