Return: Chapter 21

Danni watched as the Spiceman soared for the bright blue skies of Zonama Sekot. She stood outside Jacen, Onimi, and Randa's grashal with the trio, and Nom Anor, just behind her, also watching the sight of their vessel leaving Zonama. Her features were tinged with sadness and regret, but not the kind of regret that would make her want Tam back. Not with Jacen, the man she truly loved, also with her and grasping her shoulders in comfort.

"Well, there goes our ticket out of here," Randa commented. "How else are we going to get out of here?"

"You don't seem all that intent on staying here for much longer, do you?" Onimi asked.

"I'm just saying, it seems kind of awkward now that we don't have any more options but to stay here," Randa defended himself. "That's really all I have to complain about here."

"I still think you hate being here, all the same," Onimi replied.

"Well, it's not like I agreed to come here in the first place, you know," Randa said. "You took me here against my will, let me remind you."

"And where were you going to go?" Onimi retorted. "And would you really have abandoned the two guys you became best buds with in that interdimensional tunnel?"

Randa sighed. "No," he answered, defeated.

"That's what I thought," Onimi said. "Still, there is one other option of leaving this world."

"There is?" Randa asked. "What is it?"

"That interdimensional tunnel I just brought up," Onimi answered.

"I do not want to return to that, you know that, Onimi," Randa said.

"So you wanna stay here and not leave?" Onimi asked.

Randa sighed. "Screw you."

"I'd use that sexy Yuuzhan Vong chick joke again, but I don't feel like rehashing it," Onimi said.

"What?" Nom Anor asked.

"Oh, nothing," Onimi waved away.

Meanwhile, Jacen and Danni ignored the others as they had a more private conversation between them. "Hey, I'm here for you, don't forget that," Jacen said comfortingly. "If you need any help over Tam, don't hesitate to call for me."

"I know," Danni said as she lay a hand on one of Jacen's, which were still on her shoulders. "And I know I should be over him, but..."

"Hey, hey," he said, turning her around to face him. "I don't blame you for missing him. Quite frankly, I'd be downright suspicious if you weren't."

Danni smirked. "How blatantly honest of you."

Jacen smiled. "Hey, when have I been known to be deceitful?"

"Well, given what Tam told me about Caedus... sorry, never mind, forget I said that," Danni said, shaking her head and taking her gaze off of Jacen.

"No, no, I understand," he nodded. "But all the same, I'll be with you if and when you need me. Got it?"

Danni nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I got it."

"Good," Jacen said with a sincere smile. "So how 'bout lunch then?"

"Love to," Danni answered.

~o~

All of the now-dead bodies of the fighter squadron that failed to place a tracking beacon on either of the Skipray Blastboat or Seha Dorval'd escape pod dropped before Darth Krayt in his cabin. The only living being in the room to witness this event, and not perpetrate it, was Krayt's sycophantic Chagrian subordinate.

"Get them out of here, Wyyrlok, and vac their bodies out into space," Krayt demanded of the Chagrian as he used the Force to open the door that led out of his cabin. "I don't care who finds them. It won't matter in the long-run."

"Yes, My Lord," Wyyrlok nodded before lifting the bodies up into the air with the Force and sending them single-file out of the room before leaving himself behind the last body. The various Sith outside were slightly startled and caught off guard at this site, but no one commented about it or asked Wyyrlok what was going on; they just went on their way to attend to their duties.

Krayt used the Force again to close the door before walking over to his desk and plopping down in his chair with a figurative weight on his shoulders; with Zonama Sekot now aware of the One Sith's impending arrival, and the Jedi Order now aware of his organization's existence, Krayt new that he was in a rock and a hard place.

There was really nothing left to do, he thought, other than to continue forward to eliminate Sekot and kill Jacen Solo; the Force had brought back Solo for a reason, he thought, and whatever it was, for it was silent to him, he had the distinct feeling that it would be against him. The entire One Sith order could be at stake, and it was a virtual certainty now that the likes of Luke Skywalker and his narrow-minded subordinates knew of their existence. And while conquering a living world that had been known to bring about the defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong was, by definition, a bad idea, and even more so now that Sekot had been given time to prepare for a grand-scale attack, the One Sith had to continue on if they were to succeed in ruling the galaxy one day.

And when Sekot and Solo were gone, the Jedi Order would be next.

But surely, even if they were to win against the living world, engaging it at all would surely result in a depletion of the One Sith's forces; forces that it could use to engage the Jedi, an organization that most would say would be even more of a threat than a living world and resurrected Sith Lord could ever be. But Krayt was not so minded in the mundane and obvious; while the Jedi were, without a doubt, a threat to the One Sith, to think that Sekot and/or Solo were any less so would surely invite disaster to Krayt and his order.

That was what he believed anyway.

Krayt then pressed the button on the desk that allowed him to speak to all the units of the fleet on their universal comm transmission. "Attention, all forces," he said. "Prepare yourselves for our last hyperspace jump. Get some rest during that time. Because afterwards... we will be at war with a living world. Krayt out."