Return: Chapter 28

When Jacen, Onimi, Nom Anor, Choka, and Harrar all ran outside the building, they all stopped dead in their tracks when they found all of the members of the four families - the Skywalkers, the Solos, the Antilleses, and the Horns - standing there, all of them taking out their blasters and aiming them at Onimi's direction.

"You may have been able to escape Ben and Myri, Onimi," Luke said, "but you can't escape us. And after we incarcerate you for what you did to my son and his wife, I won't raise an eyebrow if I find you dead some time later after Myri walks out of your cell."

"Uncle Luke..." Jacen said, stepping in front of Onimi.

"That's Master Skywalker to you, Jacen," Luke said. "And why are you taking his side? You say you're not the Jacen Solo who became Darth Caedus, yet you defend the actions of the one who's ruining your cousin's life?"

"Look, like I said so many times before," Jacen said, raising his arms up in a defensive position, "what Onimi did was pretty bad. But you can't just allow for murder to happen! It's not the Jedi way! Even I can understand why Ben and Myri would want to kill him, but are you really going to go this far and risk all of you, especially Ben, going to the dark side, even if it is just Myri doing the killing? Whether you allow Myri to kill Onimi, or if you allow Ben to kill Onimi, you're still committing murder for a crime that doesn't necessitate execution! And from what I heard, you didn't even allow yourself or Ben, Uncle Luke, into using the dark side of the Force when you had the chance to kill my Caedus version here during the Battle of Kashyyyk."

Luke sighed after a moment. "Very well. You make a good point, Jacen. But Onimi still needs to pay."

"Fine, let's settle this then..." Jacen trailed off as the shot of a blaster sounded from behind his group.

They all turned and found Choka now standing in front of Onimi. The former Warmaster then collapsed at the deformed Yuuzhan Vong's feet. The latter then bent down and collected him in his arms, observing the smoking hole in his chest.

While Jacen was reasoning with Luke, Choka saw Ben and Myri, who were standing at the entrance of the rundown building, exiting with Myri aiming a gun in Onimi's direction; Choka had moved in the line of fire and took the bolt.

"It was an honor to serve you..." Choka then sputtered out, "Supreme Overlord." And with that, his head plopped back against the ground and Choka was no more.

Onimi then looked up in anger at Myri.

"Wow, you actually care about someone other than yourself," Myri scoffed. "Well, you can't do anything to me now, can you? Not with that ysalamari nearby."

"You mean that ysalamari that's up there in that airspeeder?" Nom Anor asked as he pointed up to the floating hovercraft that was just on level with the floor of the building that Ben and Myri blasted their way through to get to Onimi and the others.

"How did you know that?" Ben asked, given how their point of view couldn't possibly allow Nom Anor to figure out that there was a ysalamari there.

"Just a guess," Nom Anor shrugged. "But now that you confirmed it..." He then swiftly grabbed Jacen's blaster out of his holster and fired a bolt in the underside of the speeder. It then spiraled to the ground in between the families and Onimi's group, crashing in a fiery explosion and killing the ysalamari in it.

Now all Force-users could feel its life energy again.

Ben then whipped out and ignited his lightsaber, rocketing towards Onimi as Myri let loose a barrage of lasers in the deformed Vong's direction. But by then, their target had already departed off to his right and was making a mad dash away from the parties intent on killing him. Jacen quickly joined him while Harrar lifted Nom Anor up in his arms and joined the other two who were running away.

"After them!" Luke declared.

The chase didn't last long as the fleeing group entered a building, and upon all of their entries, the floor beneath their feet collapsed and they all began to fall into a dark abyss below. When the pursuing mob, with Luke in the lead, stopped at the entrance and Luke tried to search through the Force for Jacen, Onimi, and Harrar. After he finished, he turned back to the families and said, "All Force-users, with me! The rest of you, stay behind. None of you will be able to survive the fall."

"I'm still coming," Myri insisted.

"Fine, Ben, carry her down for her," Luke said before he jumped into the hole with the Jedi members of his group following suit.

~o~

"How much longer is that going to fool them?" Onimi asked Jacen as he carried the human over his shoulder while he and Harrar, who was still carrying Nom Anor, leaped off the roof of the building they entered and to another nearby roof, traveling away from the group of four vengeful families.

"Just keep quiet until we're about a whole mile from them," Jacen said, focusing his Force-illusion up back at the building where Luke, Myri, and the other Jedi were believing they were still falling through a dark abyss. "I'm trying to keep the illusion up for just that long."

A few minutes later, after much roof-jumping, the foursome were finally a mile away from the families, and Jacen dropped his concentration.

"All right, c'mon, man, work your magic and get us outta here!" Onimi said as he set Jacen down while Harrar set Nom Anor down.

"Shut up, and I'll do it," Jacen said before he entered concentration.

"So we're just going to leave Choka's body behind?" Harrar asked.

"Obviously, he won't care," Onimi shrugged off.

"I thought you cared about him!" Harrar exclaimed.

"We'll talk about this later," Onimi muttered.

Harrar shook his head. "I honestly don't know why I'm still with you."

Then a white beam enveloped the four of them, and they were out of the reality.

~o~

Just after the Jedi and Myri exited the building that they were somehow duped into believing they were falling for several minutes, all of the Force-users among them suddenly stopped in their tracks and stood still for a minute. The non-Force users among them stared back at their comrades with wariness before the Jedi snapped out of whatever trance they were just in.

"Onimi, Jacen, Harrar," Luke said. "They left this reality, with Nom Anor no doubt."

While Ben fumed at this news, more so than anyone else in the group, it was Myri who actively yelled, "AAAAHHHH!" at the top of her lungs.