As the Heavyload traversed through hyperspace, Tahiri and Alema seized up in the pilot and copilot seats respectively at the same time that Tesar let out a pained shriek from the passenger cabin. However, the two women seized up not from the sound, but from the feeling of agony that Tesar radiated throughout Gorog's hive-mind.
When Tesar stopped shrieking, his individual presence retreated from the hive-mind, prompting Tahiri and Alema to step up from their seats and check on their fellow former Jedi. They found him curled up on his seat, rocking back and forth and whimpering like a frightened little child.
"Tesar!" Alema exclaimed angrily. "Why have you retreated from Gorog?!"
"My mother!" the Barabel cried out. "She iz dead! I felt it! I felt her go!" He went back to whimpering.
Alema approached Tesar and reached down to shake him by the shoulders. "Let go of your mother! You belong to Gorog now! We are as much your mother as we are your sister, your brother, your friend-"
"Get away from me!" Tesar cried out as he swiped Alema's arms off his shoulders. "Leave me alone! Let me grieve!"
"No!" Alema said as she brought up her right hand so that her palm faced the Barabel.
Tesar immediately unfurled himself as he reached both hands to his temples before he began groaning in pain.
"You are no longer Tesar Sebatyne!" Alema announced. "You are Gorog now! We are Gorog! The woman who birthed you, who raised you, ceased being your mother when you joined us! Leave your past behind! Embrace your present and future!"
As Alema spoke aloud, Tahiri felt the pressure in her mind again; if she didn't help Alema into helping Tesar remember what he was a part of, she would suffer through the agony of this mental correction, too.
Without hesitation, Tahiri lifted up her right hand toward Tesar and contributed to his correction.
The Barabel hissed in agony as he began rocking from side-to-side in his seat. He then let out a battle-cry as he tore his hands away from his head and looked at Alema with deathly intent.
He sprung up from his seat with his lightsaber in hand and ignited. Alema had her own blade out to catch the strike but had to backpedal toward Tahiri as Tesar's attacks were fierce.
"Tahiri, help us!" Alema cried out without turning away from Tesar.
Before Tahiri could do anything, she had to jump out of the way before Alema's back collided with her; only after she turned to regard the duel that was gradually reaching the cockpit did the pressure come into Tahiri's mind again, becoming just as fierce as it was down on Hlest.
For all of her tolerance for pain given her implanted Yuuzhan Vong upbringing, this was not the kind of agony that even a member of that species could find pleasurable.
Hurriedly, and with the knowledge that the duel leading into the cockpit would not only damage the controls but also lead them unprotected into hyperspace, Tahiri ignited her own weapon and went to strike Tesar down from behind.
She pivoted out of the way of his tail, but when she moved to slice at his weapon-wielding arm, he blocked her attack before positioning himself to take on both opponents simultaneously. Now that the women had the Barabel forced to stand his ground, it was taking all of their effort to keep him there and away from the cockpit's threshold two meters away.
The duel went on for half a minute before Tesar got past Alema's defenses and kicked her in the sternum, which propelled her into the cockpit where she landed between the pilot and copilot seats. That left Tahiri to fend for herself against Tesar, but since he had just been slightly tired by the duel already, the human was able to stand her ground against him.
That lasted for a quarter of a minute before Alema's lightsaber flew in from the cockpit and skewered itself through both of Tesar's legs. The blue-bladed weapon then flew back into the Twi'lek's hands just before she stood up; at the same time, Tesar collapsed in pain, though, this time, it didn't radiate through Gorog's hive-mind.
Do it, Tahiri felt Gorog say in her mind; Alema's voice was the most dominant there.
She looked over at the Twi'lek, who glowered at her.
All it took was just the slightest bit of pressure for Tahiri to turn back and decapitate Tesar without giving him a second's worth of a look at him.
Good, good, Tahiri once again heard in her head.
After Alema turned back to return to the cockpit, Tahiri was left alone to look upon Tesar's beheaded corpse. It took all of her individual effort to keep herself from weeping; she only knew that she would share Tesar's fate by Alema's hands if she broke down here.
. . .
Not long after Jaina escaped following her murder of Saba, Corran and the Chiss troops heard explosions from where their speeders had been parked. When they went to investigate by peering over the roof, they found that three of the speeders that they rented were in flames while the foremost one was being stolen by Jaina.
Immediately, the troops began opening fire down upon the stolen speeder, prompting Corran to yell, "No, wait!" at the same time he grabbed the charric of the squad commander.
The commander, however, swung the butt of his rifle to smack right into Corran's chin, knocking him on his back. When Corran recovered, he saw the charric's business end pointed directly at his face.
Seconds later, the shooting stopped, and one of the troops said something to his commander in Cheunh.
"What happened?" Corran asked.
The commander was silent for a moment before he said in Basic, "She got away. Why did you try to stop us?"
"She's a Jedi!" Corran exclaimed. "She's my responsibility!"
"And she just wrecked our ride back to the spaceport," the commander countered. "She's an enemy now."
"Then you let me handle her next time!" Corran argued.
"That's not how it works here, Jedi," the commander growled. "You do that again, and I'll have no problem reducing you to charred meat. Is that understood?"
"Perfectly," Corran said reluctantly.
A tense moment passed before the commander hefted his weapon across his chest; Corran took that as his cue to stand up.
"Now how did she get there so quickly?" the commander asked Corran.
"She most likely used the Force to enhance her speed," the Jedi Master explained hurriedly. "Can you send down a shuttle to pick us up so we can intercept her?"
"On it," the commander said before he brought up his commlink and said something in Cheunh in it.
As the Chiss spoke, Corran turned back to regard Jacen and Lowie; the latter was already receiving first aid from a couple of the troops as he was lulled into unconsciousness by a sedative that was administered by one of the soldiers. Jacen, meanwhile, had been ignored, prompting Corran to rush over to him and bend down to lightly slap him on the cheeks.
"C'mon, Jacen, wake up," Corran muttered.
A few seconds later, Jacen's eyes flashed open and he sat up quickly to take in his surroundings. His eyes widened further when he saw both halves of Saba's body right next to him. When he looked back at Corran, he asked, "Master Horn, what happened?"
"Jaina killed Master Sebatyne unnecessarily, Jacen," Corran explained.
"Unnecessarily?" Jacen asked.
"Jaina used the dark side to blind Saba. Then, when she was at her mercy, she did that." He pointed at the Barabel's remains. "She's escaped; and she took out all three of the other speeders when she did."
"That can't be!" Jacen replied incredulously.
"I know, Jacen, I know. But it's what happened!"
"By the Force, Jaina, she... she..."
Corran placed a hand on his shoulder. "We can help her, Jacen," he said confidently. "I believe we still can."
By that point, a Chiss shuttle parked itself toward one of the roof's edges and its side door opened; a medical team hurried out with a stretcher for Lowie. When Jacen saw the two men struggling to lift Lowie up, he used the Force to help lighten their load, allowing them to head back into the shuttle with their Wookiee charge.
At the same time, Jacen hurried with Corran and the other Chiss into the shuttle. Once its door was closed by one of the troops, it rocketed into the sky.
When Corran saw this through one of the viewports, he looked over to the squad commander and asked, "I thought we were going to intercept Jaina."
"We won't be doing that," the commander replied. "I had two clawcraft dispatched to handle her."
"What?!" Corran and Jacen shouted simultaneously.
"We won't allow her to return to your ship," the commander said to Jacen.
"But that's my sister!" Jacen cried.
"That's not my problem," the commander replied coldly. "She's a threat to us and must be neutralized as such."
After springing up from his seat, Jacen had his lightsaber out, active, and pointed right at the commander's throat. "Call it off now!" the human shouted just as the charrics of all the other Chiss were directed at him.
"I'm ready to die, Jedi," the commander said. "And if you decide to kill me, none of my troops have any problem firing on you. Whether or not you die is irrelevant; those clawcraft will still blow your sister away. You can't affect that."
"Jacen, put your lightsaber away!" Corran said. "I don't need three Jedi dying on me today!"
Jacen stared down the Chiss commander for ten seconds before he deactivated his weapon, replaced it on his belt, and sat back down in his chosen seat. Two troops moved toward him, one of them holding stuncuffs, but the commander waved them off before saying something to them in Cheunh.
"I told them that won't be necessary," the commander said for the two Jedi's benefit. "We all know you're not like Master Sebatyne; you have cooler heads."
Jacen sneered before he shut his eyes. He opened them back up two seconds later and looked at Corran in worry.
"I can't feel Jaina!" he said.
"Is she dead already?" Corran asked.
Jacen shook his head. "She's made herself small!"
. . .
When Jaina returned to the spaceport where the Solo Quest was parked, she hopped out and headed for the entrance. She stopped when she heard a distinctive sound in the sky that reminded her of TIE fighters. She looked up and found a pair of clawcraft screaming down at her.
"So that's how you wanna play it, huh?" Jaina muttered.
Lasers started raining down around her, ripping through the spaceport and the speeder behind her with impunity. Jaina immediately started running further away from where she had driven, and as she kept running, she ignited her blade and ducked into an alleyway.
The fact that this was what Saba had done before she died was something that Jaina put in the back of her mind as she began bounding off the walls like before to ascend. Once she was over the line of roofs, she saw both clawcraft swooping down toward her.
Even as they started firing upon her, she ignited her lightsaber and flung it to the leftmost fighter. She then used one hand to use the Force to pull herself back down toward the alley by using the ladder behind her as an anchor; simultaneously, her other hand was used to maintain her lightsaber's trajectory for her chosen clawcraft.
When Jaina grabbed hold of the ladder with the hand she used to pull herself down, she felt her lightsaber's blade sheer through one of the fighter's wings. Above, both fighters soared overhead, only now one of them was smoking and missing a wing.
Jaina then propelled herself back up; she landed on the roof in front of her and recalled her lightsaber back to her hand. She turned around and watched as the clawcraft that was now to her right disappear over the horizon before erupting in an explosion; she saw its pilot parachuting their way to the ground.
However, the remaining clawcraft circled back around and was spewing lasers at her again. Jaina then ran across the roof, jumping and dodging the lasers all around her, before she leaped across to the next rooftop. She continued this for two more roofs until she was mere meters from the remaining clawcraft.
When that happened, she threw her still-active weapon forward like a spear; it went through the clawcraft's viewport and skewered the pilot through his chest.
Jaina then leaped over the incoming craft, and as she flipped in midair, she used the Force to call her lightsaber back into her hand. It had smacked back into her palm even as she watched the fighter crash atop a rooftop several yards away.
The errant Jedi Knight then hurried and leaped off the roof to Force-cushion her landing into another alley. With a bout of telekinesis, she lifted up a manhole cover nearby and plummeted into the sewers below.
She would find a way off this planet one way or another; and when she did, she would kill Jag and anyone who got in her way, even Corran or Lowie.
If it were Jacen, though, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that as long as as she was making herself small as she did now, he couldn't sense her, and he couldn't help the Chiss in tracking her down. Because she couldn't imagine that he would stoop so low as to try to kill her; Corran, sure, and Lowie maybe, but with Jacen, it was unimaginable.
And yet... she couldn't help but wonder.
. . .
On the shuttle's way back to the Guardian, Corran saw two more shuttles launch from the Star Destroyer and make its way for the planet. When the shuttle that he, Jacen, the unconscious Lowie, and the Chiss troops were in touched down upon the deck of the Guardian's hangar bay, Jacen was one of the first people to step off before he approached Jag, who stood there with his guards.
"That's far enough, Jacen," Jag said as his guards levelled their charrics at the Jedi.
Jacen stopped, but his breathing was ragged from anger just as Corran sidled up next to him. "You approved that attack on my sister?!" the Knight yelled.
"After Commander Hujol explained to me what happened," Jag said sternly, "I had to agree with him. When she destroyed those speeders, it became apparent that she was a threat."
"She didn't attack you or any of your forces!" Jacen shouted.
"But she did kill Master Sebatyne in cold blood, did she not?" Jag asked.
"So? That still didn't justify you attacking her!"
"Jacen, settle down," Corran intoned.
"Tell me, Jacen," Jag said, "do you sense your sister to still be alive down on Hlest?"
Jacen gritted his teeth. "I can't sense her; she's made herself small, as I taught her."
"But even so, you would feel it if she died, correct?" Jag asked.
"I would," Jacen replied.
"But you haven't?"
"No."
Jag sighed. "Then the attack failed and we just lost two clawcraft for nothing."
"Jaina brought down two clawcraft?" Corran asked. "So she got aboard the Quest?"
"No, she brought them down without the need of a ship," Jag explained bitterly. "And then she disappeared; we think she might have made her way into the sewers of that town. Our scanners can't pick up her life-readings, so I've already dispatched two squads to look for her there just before you arrived."
"So that's what those two shuttles headed there were for?" Corran asked.
Jag nodded. "They are. Oh, and by the way, Jacen, I'm afraid that the clawcraft attack on your sister brought inadvertent damage to the Solo Quest down below. I can have a repair team go down there, though I imagine they might have some trouble with the local authorities."
"Wait, you mean to tell us that you fired upon a spaceport?" Corran asked. Now he was sharing Jacen's rage.
"Hlest's government doesn't have the firepower to mount a defense from any attack that the Ascendancy would bring upon it," Jag said. "So they cannot launch a suitable retaliatory strike upon us that we can't easily blow away. Hence, whatever fallout this incident brings upon the Ascendancy, I assure you, it won't be something that the Jedi will have to worry about. However, that doesn't mean that the local forces won't put up a decent fight if we get groundside."
"You bring us back down there now!" Jacen demanded angrily.
"So you can get in the way of neutralizing your sister?" Jag asked. He then looked over at Corran. "I hope you won't allow that, Master Horn."
Corran got between Jacen and Jag. "Jacen, please," the Master said. "I really need you to settle down right now!"
"You're really just going to leave her to die?" Jacen asked incredulously.
Corran sighed. "Look, I'll talk to your uncle. See what I can do."
Jacen breathed in through his nostrils before letting his breath out the same way. "Jaina may be powerful, Master Horn. But even she's not invincible." He then looked over at Jag. "And forget about sending anyone for my ship. I can get a new one later."
"Then I'll have guest quarters prepared for you," Jag said amicably.
"Gee, thanks," Jacen said. "And I really hope you realized you have no chance with my sister after this."
"You two," Jag said to a pair of his guards in Basic. "Please escort Jedi Solo here to the nearest guest cabin. Make sure he gets there safely."
Both guards responded in Cheunh before they approached Jacen. He allowed them to lead him out of the hangar bay.
"Now, Master Horn," Fel said, "would you like me to lead you to one of our holoterminals so you can contact Master Skywalker and inform him of what just happened?"
"Yes, please," Corran said formally.