AN: Man this chapter was complicated. I'm having trouble editing grammar mistakes. I'm in the market for a new Beta reader. Mine has been overwhelmed by real-life busyness. If one of you is feeling helpful, let me know in a PM.

Chapter 12 Reviews:

Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay: I'm glad I'm keeping you on your toes. Jacen is complex, this is true. Or does he just act complicatedly? I wonder…

Kill Jag? Nah, the young ace is much too useful for that. And why go through the trouble of rescuing him from Tenupe. The young Fel was suitably stranded if Jacen merely wanted to be rid of him…

Loteva: I'm glad you think Jacen adequate at the whole real politic thing…

Anakin? No that was a scene I thought I could insert from Jacen's sabbatical. Canon established that he wandered the "Beyond Shadows" place on Sinkhole Station. If Luke and Ben truly followed in his footsteps in FotJ then he too would have wandered through the Lake of Apparitions. I assume he would have seen Anakin first and foremost in there. Those were the words I imagine they would have exchanged.

Lordban: Mara/Jacen talk coming right up!

As for Jacen as puppet master? Maybe yes, maybe no. He sure seemed bad at it in LotF. But he may have been meaning to be bad at it if you can believe the implications left by FotJ. So maybe he didn't lose 40 IQ points while on his sabbatical? I hear the Aing-Tii monks collect these habit-forming shrooms that wreck hell on your mind… apparently conducive to meditation, and boy do they make you feel gooooooood.

Captain of the Anakin Solo: Sir, should we open fire on Kashyyyk?

Jacen smoking some serious shit: Duuuuuuuude, totally!

Angeldoctor: Glad to see a new reviewer. Yeah, I did find it necessary to outline that, while most of the family survived the war, Jacen was very distant and cut-off from them nevertheless. I see you do have quite the heavily reviewed story written up. Keep up the successful work. Color me a little jealous of all those reviews.

the brown cow: gotta keep the readers coming back!

Onimiman: We will have some of that this chapter! Promise!

SiouxFan: Thanks for all the kind words. And don't worry so much about the Mara/Jacen thing. I'm only writing it as far as I feel it keeps character integrity intact. They are my favorite female and male characters in SW so I naturally wanted to try to write them as a pairing, but will not risk the story for it. It makes for unique drama, however, and some drama between action is good.

Yeshua25: Another new reviewer! Awesome! Thanks for the inspiringly positive remarks. Keeps me motivated to write! Thanks!

A million thoughts were suddenly coursing through Jacen Solo's head. Petulant, puerile sounding things were on the tip of his tongue: Do we have to? I don't wanna! Why? I'm tired… Wait, he used that last one recently, had he not? Maybe a smokescreen was a better approach?

"I've never told you this before," he said all at once, "But I saw Anakin on Sinkhole Station, beyond the shadows during my sabbatical. My brother I mean, not the asthmatic one." Mara's facial expression showed signs of confusion. "He said he wanted you to know that he appreciated your lessons greatly and that they gave him strength in his final hour."

Did he really just use those pseudo-holy words as a distraction? Jacen inwardly shook his head at himself. Sometimes he was sure that there was something seriously wrong with him. Mara looked stricken. The holocam did not transmit the exact details of a person's face but he could tell she was deeply saddened by his words.

"I should be angry with you for abusing your brother's memory like that, and truthfully I am, but I know it's designed to distract me. So I'm going to pretend it was a distracting comment in much better taste but equally as obvious." Mara said, inhaling shakily.

Jacen looked at the ground and grimaced. "You're right. That was wrong and disgusting. He did say those words however, and I hope they mean something to you. They came to my recollection a little while ago and it's only right that you should hear them."

"Another distraction attempt, this time wrapped in a genuine apology? Much better…" Mara acknowledged, humorlessly.

"I deserve that," Jacen said quietly. "Aunt Mara… what I did, in your apartment a few weeks ago… it was a lapse of judgment… I—"

"I was a lapse in judgment?" Mara queried, pulling Allana's bottle out of her mouth.

Allana had depleted the contents and Mara lifted her, holding her face to face. "If a man ever says that to you when you're older you be sure to slug him good, you hear me," she said in playful voice.

Mara placed Allana over her shoulder and proceeded to pat her gently on the back.

Jacen sighed, "Alright, fine. What I did, I did clairvoyantly."

Mara cocked an eyebrow. "Force, Jacen! What does that even mean?"

"It means—" Jacen attempted to clarify just as Ben stumbled into the room behind Jacen. He spun on his cousin, partially embarrassed, partially annoyed. "Go to bed or I'll force you to drink the slime from a Hutt's smile-trail for breakfast tomorrow!"

Ben stared at him wide-eyed and then turned and fled. When he looked back at Mara he found her looking at him aghast. "I think I just threw up in my mouth."

Jacen grinned. "He didn't dare argue with that one, though." Jacen's expression took on a more grave air. "Meaning," he said, returning to the thread that had been interrupted, "that what I did was something I truly wanted to do."

Mara looked at him silently; Allana's contented baby noises the only audible sounds that came out of the holocom.

"I suppose I knew that," Mara said quietly. "So why have you been avoiding this discussion?"

Jacen guffawed. "Do I really have to spell it out?"

"Definitely," Mara said seriously.

Jacen heard Allana burp and Mara returned Allana into her arms, rocking her slowly.

Jacen's eyes narrowed. "Fine, I will. You're my aunt. Luke was my uncle and Jedi Master. And our family—"

"Your family," Mara corrected.

Jacen's eyes narrowed, "Come now that's not fair. You know you're part of the family. And I know you've always appreciated your inclusion. Mom thinks of you as a sister and I know you love her as well."

Mara shrugged. "Truthfully, when I first met your mother I thought she was a frigid schutta."

"Did you really just say that?" Jacen was smiling as he got up and walked to the small cooling unit in the hotel room.

He grabbed a bottle of ale and returned to sit in front of the holocom. He drank from it greedily and then looked back at Mara who was humming soothingly to Allana who looked like she was falling asleep.

"You don't think that anymore do you?" Jacen asked.

Mara smiled. "No, but I always got along better with Mirax than with Leia, for example," Jacen wasn't even sure why he was frowning but he was. "Look Jacen, I love your mother a great deal but she's not at issue here."

"And I maintain that my family is. If you and I started seeing each other, and it came out, it would destroy the family. More than that, it would be a public scandal. And while that might not matter that much to me, or you, I don't want that for Allana…" Jacen explained.

"Careful Jacen," Mara said. "You might give away that deep down you're all warm and fuzzy."

"Shhh," Jacen put his index finger over his lips conspiratorially. "Don't tell anyone."

"Either way, I think your over-exaggerating any impact that would occur should you and I do… something."

"Why is this so important to you?" Jacen asked, placing the ale container against his lips and drinking the remaining liquid in one long draft.

Mara guffawed. "Important to me? Damnit Jacen! You kissed me. You tell me."

Jacen exhaled exhaustedly, "Mara you're not some teenaged girl that needs to be told things that she already knows in order to bolster her self-esteem. You don't need me to build you up here."

Mara remained silent, her facial expression impassive.

"Fine: you're a beautiful woman. Maybe the most beautiful woman I know. I'm pretty sure I said that and more when I was down a few liters of blood." Jacen said impatiently.

"Yeah you did. And all those things that you said… they aren't the kinds of things you say to a vacuous, pretty Twi'lek in a club on the midlevels."

"I see the Imperial humanocentrist isn't completely dead in you." Jacen interjected.

"They are the kind of things you say," Mara continued unperturbed, "to someone you feel something for. And when you kiss that person a moment later, that means those feelings are of a very specific variety."

"Fine, you got me. My cards are on the table," Jacen acknowledged. "But you kissed me back. I find it inconvenient that I'm sitting here spilling my guts and you're allowed to just sit back and interrogate me. You weren't suffering from any grievous injuries at the time. What's your excuse?"

Mara's eyes flicked to the floor and she did not immediately respond. Jacen permitted himself a tiny triumphant smile. It took a lot to unbalance Mara Jade, but he had accomplished it. And the results were actually endearing, given that she actually looked like she was blushing if the holocam was to be trusted. Force Jacen, don't start down this train of thought again, he chastised himself.

"I guess I get why you're so irritated now…" Mara said, laughing nervously.

"See it's hard, right?" Jacen said enthusiastically.

Jacen caught himself and frowned. What's wrong with me? Allana was sleeping by this point and he assumed Mara was shielding her hearing, since she seemed unaffected by his outburst.

Mara shook her head, a smile gracing her lips. She put Allana on the couch she was sitting on and put a pillow next to her to keep her from rolling off the side. She got up and exited the coverage field of her holocom. Jacen took the chance to get up as well, and went to get another Corellian Spiced Ale. It was with some chagrin that he had to acknowledge his preference for it. He would not let his dad know about his choice of poison, of course. That would give Han Solo too big of an ego burst, something that could seriously threaten the integrity of the space-time continuum. When he got back he found Mara sitting in her former spot already, nursing a much stronger drink of her own.

"You drink a lot these days," Mara said.

"Don't distract from the topic of discussion." Jacen said, turning her own words against her.

Mara grinned. "Alright fine," she said. "I kissed you back, because… you're handsome and—"

Jacen chuckled. "That shallow are you? But you're right, I am ruggedly handsome."

"You've always been that though . . . so it's more than that." Mara said thoughtfully, silently searching her feelings. "When everyone else in the galaxy was losing their minds and living from one battle to the next—in the most horrible war that ever struck the galaxy in recorded history—you tried to think in the long-term; think of the consequences of what we were doing. Then we lost you. I thought you were dead. I cried over you a few times."

Mara looked at him intently, searching his face for an indication of how her words affected him. Truthfully he was deeply touched by the admittance but habit was not permitting him to display his emotion.

"But you came back," she continued. "Dramatically, at the turn of the tide. You refueled our hope, once more. Even Luke's, though he'd never have admitted it. When he said those words: 'my boy' . . . well I felt his spirit return at that moment, his faith rebuild. I'm not saying I had given up, or that he had or anything but—"

Mara's voice was laden with emotion and Jacen felt awed by the depth of her feelings. She was sharing something with him that he knew she would be hesitant to share with most anyone else.

"I had Ben to think of at the time after all," she said explanatorily. "But Anakin had died and he had meant a lot to me. You and I had never been that close. And it's not that I didn't like you but it's that you were so different. Anakin—and my apprentice for that matter—where both doers. They liked to attack things practically. Like Luke. Like me. But you were . . . thoughtful. Something more refined. Something out of reach. Out of my reach."

Jacen almost laughed at how parallel her regard for him ran to that of his father. Han had always had such a hard time relating to his eldest son, as well.

Mara emptied the contents of her glass and poured more of whatever she was drinking, chocked laughter bubbling out of her, seemingly uncontrollably. She cut off her mirth almost immediately. "And then the war ended and you left again. For years. And I lived my happy invulnerable life with Luke. Nothing could touch us, right? And then you came back again. And when I saw you this time," Mara said carefully, "well . . . it was different then the time before that. This time you weren't just transformed into an adult, a man, with eyes too old for your age and untold suffering in your wake… no, this time you came back a man with dark secrets and knowledge that was haunting you, almost crushing you. If I didn't think you were too practical for the sentimentality of it all, I'd say you carried a death wish with you, or at least the knowledge that an early death awaited you."

If you only knew, Jacen thought darkly. The image of a purple lightsaber carving its way through his chest flashed behind his closed eyelids when he blinked.

"Then Luke died. And you were there for me: a pillar of strength that was there to support me when I was all too willing to crumble. And somewhere, in the midst of all those words you spoke to me to comfort me, I discovered the earnest, strong, good man that you are behind closed doors. So when you came to my apartment that night, the blood of that bastard warm on your hands…" Her voice drifted off as her eyes met his with more intensity than before. "You killed for me, to protect me from a vile fate—is it really such a surprise that I kissed you back when you kissed me?" Mara's gaze was gentle and passionate all at once. She was obviously unused to opening herself up in this way to him.

"When you put it that way . . . I guess not." Jacen acknowledged. Nothing was said for several moments as they both digested the implications of the words that had been exchanged. "You know what I hate about Hutts?" he suddenly asked, in an attempt to diffuse awkwardness.

"No," Mara said tentatively. "This sounds like a set-up for a bad joke…"

"Today, in our discourse, I realized that in order to convince them of something, there is no decency I can possibly appeal to. No way to charge my point with pathos." Jacen explained.

"You negotiated with them? I thought you're a security consultant or something?" Mara said, sounding distracted.

Jacen nodded. "That's what the Executive spokesperson announced on the holonews channels when I took the job and usually that's what I do. I kind of pushed my way in today, because I thought I had a good point in favor of our side of the discussion."

"I see," she said, a thoughtful look entering her eyes. "You know what Palpatine once said to me, regarding Hutts."

Jacen sat up straighter. "No, but I'd be really keen to hear it."

"He said: 'at the bargaining table I can talk a Bothan into giving up key intelligence; I can talk a human into abandoning the cause he holds most dear; I can talk a Twi'lek into treating women with respect; I can even talk a Chiss into betraying the Ascendancy. But there's one thing I can't do, and that's talk a Hutt into parting with his credits.'" Mara quoted. "I think he said it more eloquently. But that's the general gist of it."

Jacen grinned. "What was Palaptine like? I mean in private when he wasn't cackling maniacally and murdering innocents."

Mara sighed. "That's the thing Jacen. He really didn't do either of those things very much. In one-on-one situations—such as a training session or when he tutored me—he was persuasive, intelligent, wise, and even kindly. You couldn't tell the evil within most of the time." Mara had a faraway look in her eyes. "I remember once, two Royal Guardsmen dragged two teenagers into the throne room that had been caught vandalizing the Imperial Palace's outer walls with some kind permapaint in protest of certain Imperial edicts. I half expected the Emperor to just kill them outright. Why they'd even been brought to the Emperor directly was surprising. I guess Palpatine had taken an interest in them." Mara smiled almost wistfully. "He didn't harm them. He talked with them for literally hours. I listened in as he heard each of their complaints and embittered protests, which they fearlessly voiced in the idealistic folly of youth. One by one he questioned them, or appealed to them with keen logic until they saw the error of their own ways. Then he let them go. Years later the boy became an officer in the Imperial Navy and the girl had married a high ranking member of Imperial Intelligence and was a regular at court."

Jacen nodded thoughtfully. "Palpatine was a complicated man, I think."

"He wasn't though," Mara replied adamantly. "He could have been . . . been so much more. It doesn't matter who you are, if Palpatine looked you in the eye and talked to you, you listened. He could have been an incredible force for good. But he chose to be one-dimensional. He wasn't complicated in the end. All his many talents and abilities were honed towards a single vulgar purpose: the attaining of personal power in all its forms and the achieving of immortality. There's nothing that complicated in that. It's pretty simple."

"You're probably right…" Jacen responded, in thought.

Allana was fidgeting again. Mara looked down at her, half concealed from Jacen's view by the cushion, trying to shush her. Mara's brow furrowed in confusion and then she looked back at Jacen in alarm. "Someone's trying to reach out to her."

"What?" Jacen asked in alarm. "Someone hostile?"

"I can't tell." Mara replied and then closed her eyes and fell silent.

Jacen watched, suddenly feeling very sober. He was unsure what was happening but he doubted it was good. No one should be trying to touch Allana through the force. Few enough people even knew she existed. Mara's eyes snapped open and she started to shake her head, smiling humorlessly.

"Guess who just entered Coruscant's orbit?"

Jacen grimaced. "Don't play games with me please."

"Tenel Ka," Mara said, guffawing bitterly.

Jacen grunted. "Of course," he said quietly.

"Well that's it," Mara whispered. "I can't keep her from finding Allana."

"You must," Jacen said half-panicked.

"Must I?" she asked. "I don't agree with your motivations to begin with. Why would I keep a mother from her daughter?"

"Please Mara, do something!" Jacen pleaded.

"WHAT can I do?" Mara asked insistently.

Allana was crying now. The tension rolling off of Mara was affecting her mood. She was keenly aware of Mara's distress due to her impressive Force granted empathy.

"I don't know what!" Jacen yelled. "Something! You're better at this subterfuge business than I am."

"Jacen, I can't. I'm sorry." Mara sounded truly apologetic.

"If you let Tenel Ka take her back then I'll have to do things that I don't want to, to get her back. But you can rest assured, that I will do whatever is necessary." Jacen's voice was firm and unwavering.

The implications of his words were clear. Mara's eyes narrowed angrily. "Your unspoken threats are putting me in an impossible position."

"Don't give up on me yet, Mara." Jacen said, pleading. "If you care about me even a little you will do this for me. I won't ask for anything like this, ever again. I just couldn't…"

His voice trailed off exhaustedly. Mara's eyes flicked to the ceiling and he could tell she was thinking. Jacen felt the urge to bite his nails nervously. He was leaning forward, anticipating her words, hoping.

A moment later her attention returned to him. "I'll think about it," she said quietly, and flicked off the holocom before he had the chance to voice a protest.

Jacen's eyes widened angrily. What the hell? He raised his hand to hit the redial button but caught himself, realizing she would not answer his call. He had to violently suppress the urge to punch the table or rip a chunk out of the wall with the Force. It took him minutes of internal dialogue to calm himself down sufficiently to lean back and think through his options clearly.

Cal Omas was speaking before a veritable bevy of press. Reporters from many of the Alliance' major news networks had assembled in the public foyer of the New Republic Conference Building. Borga the Hutt had already addressed the selfsame journalists and enumerated all the many benefits that both Hutt Space and the Galactic Alliance would derive from the new official partnership. Representatives from the press where permitted to ask questions once both Borga and Omas had made their official statements, although there were certain limitations in place in order to avoid a diplomatic incident.

Jacen had addressed the members of the press earlier. When he had briefed them on the various infractions that would see them removed from the premises, Jacen had noted several displeased glares and mutterings. He had noticed a particular spike of recalcitrance in one human female, working for the Coruscant News Network. Jacen was eyeing her anticipatorily as he stood behind Cal Omas, who was still addressing the members of the press. The woman seemed completely harmless now, more or less blending in perfectly with her attentively listening colleagues. Jacen allowed his attention to drift a bit towards what Cal Omas was saying, rather than scanning for security risks. He knew the Force would warn him if anything seriously threatening was afoot.

"It is with great joy and appreciation that I acknowledge the cooperation of our newfound Hutt confederates, who have been more than obliging regarding the concessions requested by this Administration. I hope that the integration of Hutt space within the Galactic Alliance will strengthen both governments and be conducive to the pursuit of mutual goals. It is my hope that this day will not only mark the beginning of new ties of friendship between the Hutts and the rest of the galaxy, but that it also initiate a wave of increasing interest in federation amongst the other independent clusters and hegemonies that are, as of yet, not members of the GA."

Cal Omas turned and walked to Borga's side. He took position there and waited for Jacen to approach the speaker's dais. Jacen walked up to it briskly and cleared his throat, silencing the mumbling crowd before him.

"Both the Chief of State and the head of the Hutt Grand Council are now available for questioning. Please address your questions in Huttese or Basic and refrain from asking anything purposefully inflammatory." Jacen's words were rehearsed and he spoke them automatically, almost thoughtlessly.

A moment later he returned to Cal Omas side and watched as various members of the press were allowed to ask questions that interested their viewers and readers. Jacen allowed his thoughts to wander again. Mara had remained completely out of contact the last day and a half. When he had awoken several hours earlier he had once more sensed that Allana's Force signature had closed in proximity to his own. However, The Hapes Cluster was in the Inner Rim and therefore, Tenel Ka returning to the Hapes Consortium with her daughter would make it seem like Allana was coming closer. So, whether or not Mara had betrayed him or whether she was escaping with Allana remained to be seen. One thing was for sure, and that was that Allana was no longer on Coruscant. This knowledge alone was not nearly enough to assuage his concerns.

He felt a shift in the mood in the room occur almost immediately. Certain members of the press where emitting embarrassment while Cal Omas was clearly upset. Borga the Hutt, however, was sensibly outraged. Jacen recognized, with some annoyance, that the CNN representative was speaking.

"… My sister hadn't committed a great crime. She was abducted from the lower levels of Coruscant by a local Hutt gangster who controls that territory and forced into prostitution just because she had incurred a gambling debt slightly higher than one she was able to afford. I have not seen her in two years." The woman's voice was angry but not particularly emotional. Jacen felt that she should have mixed her indignation with some visible signs of grief for maximum effect. "I could have paid the two hundred credits if she had just called me. How can the Galactic Alliance stomach the idea of allying itself with a bunch of glorified crime lords, wrongfully granted a sovereignty which by rights should be taken from them through military force."

"By what rights?" Cal Omas asked angrily.

Jacen took a step towards the assembled press and crossed his arms over his chest, presenting a more menacing image to the out-of-line reporter.

Borga started rumbling in Huttese, which a nearby translator droid promptly translated, preempting Cal Omas from whatever he was preparing to say: "I don't know how things work where the representative from the Coruscant News Network is from, but I am generally of the mindset that individuals are held responsible for their actions, exclusive from the species they belong to. After all, not all humans are racist and want to blow up planets with giant lasers. My business ventures are all 100% legitimate, and I welcome any investigation into my corporate assets that would attempt to prove otherwise." Whatever anger the gastropod was feeling was not visible on the surface.

Jacen smiled. An excellent rebuttal.

The reporter was not deterred, however. "Oh please. Some biases are more well-founded than others. In point of fact, quite a few humans are racist, but an even higher percentage of Hutts engage or have engaged in criminal activity on a grand scale at some point in their lives."

Cal Omas was growing increasingly agitated. "These accusations, true or not, are being voiced in the wrong arena. You were asked here under the purview that you would adhere to certain rules. You are violating them and disrupting the peaceful nature of this conference."

"Am I?" The reporter asked stubbornly. "Or are you, sir, violating your mandate when you abuse your power to enter into a bargain with a known criminal element for the purpose of fluffing the bottom line of the Alliance's budget."

Jacen started walking down the stairs towards the woman who had pushed her way to the front of the assembled gathering of reporters. The reporters were busily filming the unfolding drama. Her eyes flicked to Jacen, and an obvious wariness entered her eyes. She quickly returned her attention to Cal Omas, and gesturing wildly she continued her rant: "You will regret that you signed this unlawful treaty, I'm warning you!"

Jacen grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her away from the speaker's dais. She resisted only slightly and Jacen looked back at Cal Omas a moment, a mournful sadness overcoming him almost suddenly.

Even more suddenly a flash of danger entered his awareness. It coincided with the reporter he was pulling out of the room pushing against him, catching him unawares. The move caused him to slightly stumble just as the Force given warning came to a screeching palpability.

He ignited his lightsaber in one smooth move, launching himself into the air to the sound of gasping awe and alarm from the onlookers surrounding him. His jump carried him towards the upper windows at the western side of the spacious hall. Almost in slow motion Jacen caught sight of the sniper bolt entering the window at a steep angle. The glass shattered in the wake of the tiny whole the bullet initially caused, the force of it causing fragments to follow the bolt momentarily before those shards began to fall downward. Jacen's jump was carrying him towards the blood red bolt at an intercepting trajectory. Suddenly time sped up again and Jacen watched as the bolt flew past the edge of his blade, which was but centimeters from placing itself between it and the bolt's intended target.

Jacen turned in midair, just as the bolt found its mark. By the time he had come to a sure-footed landing, his was not the only body hitting the floor with an audible thump. Cal Omas, a smoking hole in his head, was collapsing onto the floor of the hall. Most of the reporters were still focused on him, while some were beginning to turn their heads towards the fallen Chief of State.

The Executive Guardsmen were already jumping into action. They all pulled their weapons and pointed them towards the window through which the bolt had come. Jacen was unable to see along the path of the trajectory but one of the guardsmen pointed. "There's a ship. Someone shot the Chief from that ship."

The captain-on-call turned to the reporters. "Nobody leaves this room."

Several Hutt soldiers, or likely hired guns, came running into the room a moment later. Jacen turned to them and extended a hand, pushing back slightly against their intrusion. They stumbled back as though hitting an invisible wall.

Jacen turned towards Borga. "Tell your men to wait outside. We have to sort this out without outside interference contaminating the crime scene."

Borga simply nodded, seemingly shocked into speechlessness. Jacen turned his attention to the reporter from CNN who was under interrogation by some of her colleagues.

"…did you have the Chief assassinated?" one of the rival news agency's journalist queried.

"…the timing of your threat and the shot seem somewhat coincidental," another accused her.

She looked distraught and caught Jacen approaching her. She looked almost hopeful when she saw him. "Madame, in the name of the Galactic Alliance, I am placing you under arrest. I assume you know your rights?"

She nodded weakly. Jacen looked back at Cal Omas and the captain-on-call who was staring at him almost accusatorily as he was hunched over the Chief of State's body.

"I will alert space traffic control and try to get them to intercept the vessel that the shot seemingly came from. Cha Niathal is in orbit with a frigate. Maybe he can take the ship's engine out and board it before it can get away." The captain yelled over the clamor. "I'm having one of my men contact him now. I assume you're going to interrogate that woman?"

Jacen nodded in response. "I'm taking her outside where I can talk more freely," Jacen yelled back.

"I hope you can find something out," the captain replied.

Jacen pointed at one of the Executive guardsmen, a young man by the name of Joran. Jacen knew him to be a young firebrand who all but worshipped the Chief of State. Their common heritage had linked them to Alderaan and he was fiercely devoted to Omas' administration. "Have Joran meet me outside in a few minutes, in case we need to take her into custody."

The captain nodded slowly, and took a com unit from his pocket, immediately barking orders. Just then a medic, a Chadra-Fan, came running into the room, making a B line for the dead executive. Jacen knew by the wound that it was hopeless. He grasped the reporter's arm and began to herd her through the crowd of crying, shouting, and debating press. She seemed completely absent, not resisting him in the least. Jacen pushed out of the door and past the Hutt mercenaries who were increasingly gathering around the door.

Jacen looked at one of them, whose insignia seemed to designate her as the leader. She was a no-nonsense looking female Twi'lek with a hard edge to her otherwise attractive features which indicated her to be anything but a woman to be trifled with.

"If you push past that door before the Executive Guard grants you access it could be construed as an act of war. That would be in no one's best interest, least of all in that of your employers." There was more than a hint of threat in his tone.

The mercenary captain eyed him appraisingly, meeting Jacen's eye firmly. Jacen's gaze was equally unyielding and she finally just nodded once, militantly. Jacen inclined his head in return and kept leading his prisoner outside the conference building. As Jacen pushed open the door and the heady air of Nal Hutta struck him in the face he allowed himself a deep breath of air, not caring that the air was barely breathable. He suddenly felt weary. He pushed his compliant captive a few meters further and pulled her to a sudden stop. She spun on him, almost in surprise.

"You told me that I just had to cause a scene in front of the press!" she hissed accusingly. "Now I look like I'm a conspirator. I'll be accused of conspiracy to commit murder!"

Jacen stepped closer to her and narrowed his eyes. "Keep your voice down Karin or being charged will be the least of your worries."

His tone brooked no room for negotiation. Her eyes widened and Jacen's features relaxed. "What happened in there was tragic . . . and an unforeseen miscalculation. But you held up your end and I will see to it than your brother gets the care he needs. He'll be taken care of."

"But what about the guardsmen in there? Won't they arrest me? Even if I'm acquitted I will lose my job. CNN won't keep me on as a reporter if I'm a suspect in an assassination." She said quickly, almost babbling.

Jacen shook his head reassuringly. "If I tell them I can sense you're not guilty they will let you go once they ascertain why you made the scene you did. Just stick to your story and you'll be fine."

She nodded weakly, marginally comforted by his words. Just then the door behind them opened and Jacen sensed Joran exiting the building. The righteous anger rolling off him made him instantly recognizable.

"You must run," Jacen said intently to Karin, drawing heavily on the force, just as her eyes met his. "When you hear him yell for you to stop, pull the hold-out blaster I gave you on Coruscant—the one that I told you can be smuggled past any security sensors—and aim it at him."

Her resolve was weakened enough that she slowly nodded, her eyes vacant. A moment later she turned and started to run. Jacen extended a hand and yelled for her to stop. Joran ran up next to him and echoed Jacen's words, crouching with his blaster rifle in his hands. Karin came to a halt and stood still. Jacen saw her hesitation and worried for a moment that she had not been sufficiently weakened by the ordeal to be susceptible to his Force suggestion. But then her hand rose and she pulled something from her jacket that he could not see. When she turned she had the hold-out blaster extended in her hand.

"No!" Jacen exclaimed.

Almost immediately, Joran's years of precise training caused him to squeeze his trigger and shoot Karin center mass with two shots. The bullets perforated her heart, killing her instantly. Jacen spun on Joran and glared at him accusatorily. "I could have subdued her!"

Joran's eyes were dangerously obstinate when they met his. "Like you protected the Chief?"

Jacen's nostrils flared angrily. "You saw me. I tried!"

Joran inhaled heavily, his breathing shaky, and then nodded briskly. Joran raised himself to his feet and shook his helmeted head. The two of them walked up to Karin's body and Jacen placed his fingers on her neck, checking for her pulse. There was none. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He came to his feet and looked over at Joran whose expression began to take on a worried air. Jacen knew what was going through the young man's head.

"Don't worry. You did your duty. Regardless of what I could or couldn't have done, you acted as any Guardsmen would and should. I'll be sure to tell the captain as much."

Joran nodded gratefully. "Thank you. I—I think I acted right, but…"

"You did," Jacen said, reassuringly placing his hand on the man's armored shoulder.

Jacen turned towards the New Republic Conference Building just as two guardsmen came running out with a stretcher, atop which rested Cal Omas' body. As the guard captain came walking towards him, glancing at Karin's body behind Jacen in surprise, Jacen felt a heart-wrenching sadness grip his heart.