Onimi's spirit manifested itself in Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle's relaxation area, where Jacen and Nom Anor were sitting around the holochess table, staring back at their dead friend with expectation.
"We're gettin' the Jedi back, just as you wanted, Jacen," Onimi reported in an uncharacteristically neutral tone.
"Yes!" Jacen exclaimed, unable to help himself from slamming a fist down on the table in celebration. "Thanks for doing this, Oni. I owe you one."
"I don't like it when you call me Oni, you know," Onimi replied with more of a miserable drawl this time.
"I think I only called you that twice, including this time, both at the point that you're dead," Jacen pointed out with a curious tone. "You're already sick of it?"
"I think that he thinks that 'Oni' sounds too cute and childish," Nom Anor asserted with a mischievous smile. "Maybe he wouldn't want to be called Oni the Friendly Ghost or something like that."
"Nommy, shut up," Onimi said threateningly.
"Oni, the Friendly Ghost, the friendliest ghost you'll know," Nom Anor sung mockingly.
"You sing that again, Nommy, and I swear to nonexistent Yun-Yammka that I'll tear out your remaining eye-"
"Enough, enough," Jacen said, raising his arms to try to calm tensions. "Nommy, you can mock Oni later and worry about him ripping out your eye and doing whatever else later."
Onimi growled at Jacen's continued use of only using the first three letters of his name in addressing him now.
"Anyway, is there anything else we should know about with the Jedi and the Chiss, Onimi?" Jacen asked the dead Yuuzhan Vong.
Onimi raised an eyebrow - at least what could be an eyebrow since he was a ghost - and nodded in respect to his human friend. "As a matter of fact, there is. Considering that General Soontir Fel, who was holding the Jedi aboard his Star Destroyer, has a dirty little secret he doesn't want anyone knowing about, I figured we could use a little Chiss help in going up against Plagueis."
Jacen's face dropped in worry. "You're getting the Chiss involved in this? I think that might be a little much, Onimi."
"Don't worry," Onimi assured the human. "Fel's got an alibi that even the others in the fleet will believe. No one back at Csilla will suspect a thing."
"What alibi?" Nom Anor asked.
"A battle," Onimi said. "And considering my powers, I actually managed to ding up a few of the Chiss's Star Destroyers to make it look like they made contact with Yuuzhan Vong forces after Zonama; you know, to make things look convincing enough."
"Why a follow-up battle?" Jacen asked.
"Plausible explanation for how the Jedi could have escaped, which would give the Militant Explorer - that's Fel's Star Destroyer, by the way - a good excuse to come after us and their Yuuzhan Vong accomplices," Onimi explained.
"How are you so sure that no one else in the fleet will sell Fel out on assisting us and the Jedi?" Nom Anor inquired.
"I did what Jacen told me to do and scared them by haunting them," Onimi answered, as if it were obvious. "I sensed the universal fear in all of them. They're too scared to betray Fel."
"You know, I just realized," Nom Anor said. "With all your new powers thanks to you being dead, Onimi, it seems like you can take on Plagueis yourself and win."
Both Jacen and Onimi's eyes widened in realization, as if Nom Anor's statement didn't occur to them before. "Well, I guess I could go and try," Onimi said. He looked at the human. "You think it'll be alright, Jacen?"
The human thought about it, but shook his head in denial. "I don't think we can risk it. It'd be too easy, and I'm sure someone like Plagueis will have some way to counter the power of a Force ghost. If anything, Onimi should act as our ace in the hole in our coming confrontation with Plagueis, or act as a valuable help in either case."
"Never hurts to be cautious," Onimi agreed reluctantly.
"Yes, but the longer Plagueis is unimpeded when we have some way of confronting him, even if it's just one of us, the more likely he'll be able to take over all of reality," Nom Anor argued. "I say Onimi should go out, find out where Plagueis is, and take him on right now."
"You won't be doing that unless I say so, Onimi," Jacen declared. He returned his attention to Nom Anor. "Remember this, Nommy, I'm the leader of this group, not you. So if I say Onimi stays here with us and confronts Plagueis with us, he'll do just that." He looked back at his dead friend. "Isn't that right, Onimi?"
Onimi emitted a sigh that shouldn't have been possible, given his ghostly status. "You know what you're doing, Jacen. I'll do what you say. Besides, if Plagueis was even more powerful than Domina, who managed to kill me with my own toxins even after she died, I'd say you're right to be worried even about me."
Jacen nodded respectfully. "Thanks, Onimi."
"Fine, we'll listen to you, if only because the both of you can easily kick my ass with the Force," Nom Anor said with a defeated tone. "So are we lifting off this rock or what?"
Jacen nodded at the one-eyed Yuuzhan Vong and left his seat to head for the cockpit, with Nom Anor following along. Onimi disappeared, only to manifest again in the cockpit in between Jacen and Nom Anor, who were already in the shuttle's pilot and copilot seats respectfully. In almost no time at all, Jacen had the shuttle's engines up and running before lifting it off the surface that Onimi had set it down upon back when he was alive.
A few minutes later, after Onimi told his friends about which system he found Fel's fleet when he haunted them, Nom Anor set the coordinates for that system, and the shuttle was off into hyperspace.
