Disclaimer: The setting for my story is Star Wars and is property of the Too Lucky For His Own Good George Lucas. The assorted lyrics belong to the artists who are listed directly below the little exerts. Sanar Klis is on loan from TricksterJainaFel. The plot and the other characters you don't know belong to me. Unfortunately, I'm not making any money off of it and have no hopes for such a turn of events.

Summary: After watching Zekk walk off with a blonde beauty in his arms, Jaina Solo felt like her world had collapsed. Months later, on a mercy mission, her two best friends make a bet with her that she just can't turn down. Now her mission is to hunt down the one man she loves and convince him to stay with her…

Characters: Jaina Solo, Zekk, Shan Brooks, Nara Onyx, Sanar Klis

Keywords: AU, Z/J, angst, friendship, romance

Authors Note: Once again, I have screwed up the Star Wars time-line. Don't blame me! Blame TJF! She's the one who got me started! This one is AU starting from the beginning of the YJK but not majorly so until the end. Sometime at the start of the YJK, Mara and Kyp were sent on a mercy mission to the Klis planet (YOU try spelling that thing!!) (she says it's spelled Na'Lein'yhpaon) and ended up purchasing a defensive, Force sensitive, mocha-eyed girl named Sanar. The rest of the YJK kinda goes on down the same route: Jacen cutting off Tenel Ka's arm, etc, but with Sanar tagging along. Mara was never pregnant by the way. When the Yuuzhan Vong attack, things seem to go south as the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV is reduced to rubble and only those off-planet survive, leaving a bare handful of Jedi behind. A vote is taken and the Jedi declare war on the Vong; even the revered Master Skywalker threw his all into the fight, though it ruined his relationship with his sister. Leia Organa-Solo hated (resented him more then anything in the galaxy) Luke for choosing what she called 'the path of least resistance'. When she was killed trying to negotiate peacefully with the Vong, the New Republic blamed the Jedi for destroying the possibility of peace with the Vong, and declared them enemies of the state and put prices on their heads. Talon Karrde and his band of smugglers came out of the woodwork, joining forces with the Jedi and in the end they triumphed. A few weeks after the Solo twins seventeenth birthday the Vong were taken out in an amazing two-prong attack by the smuggler faction, led by Zekk and his mysterious partner and by the Jedi, led by the charismatic Kyp Durron who was their unofficial leader. The new Republic hurriedly reviewed their ruling and after a few weeks of arguing they 'generously' granted the Jedi a pardon, removing the price from their heads several months after the war was over. This story starts about five months after the Jedi were forgiven. I hope you enjoy.

AN2: This fic, Hunting, started out as a song fic to Enrique's song "Escape" but I soon realized that I had too much stuff. So, short story it is! Hunting owes its inspiration to TricksterJainaFel's Rebuilding series, her short story Cry (t'is a beautiful story dedicated to me!!), and the Unofficial Continuation of the YJK , which is bloody good by the way (hint hint). It is also my first attempt at a fic that has 'Fluffy Mushy Happy Warm' Feelings – it didn't really work but it's still not my traditional stuff. sigh It doesn't jump around too much, but it will show a couple flashbacks for both Zekk and Jaina. At the rate that this is growing, it might end up being a full length fic but I'm ignoring that possibility right now! It will not be a novel!! It won't!! defiant

Dedication: To the Goddess who inspired me, Erin!!! (and also in part to Jo who has been begging for this since forever)

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If you feel like leaving
I'm not gonna make you stay
Soon you'll be finding
You can run, you can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run, you can hide
But you can't escape my love
- "Escape" by Enrique Inglesias

:::::::

It had started in a cantina. Tenel Ka's Master, Kyp Durron, had dragged them out to the local bar so they could relax. "Them" being Tenel Ka Djo, Jaina and Jacen Solo, Sanar Klis, and a baby vornskr that the smuggler Talon Karrde had given to the Solo twins.

Now, after almost two hours, "totally drunk" seemed to describe them fairly well. Well, except for the baby vornskr, but that's beside the point. The Jedi had been in the Outer Rim on assignment from Luke Skywalker for nearly seven standard months. Their mission was to examin planets for collateral damage done to them during the war and inform the New Republic where help was needed the most.

The four younger Jedi, Sanar, Tenel Ka, and the twins had become fast friends, their relationships consolidating as their other friends died around them.

Lowbacca had been killed in one of the initial Yuuzhan Vong attacks; Lusa and most of the other initiates, including the youngest Solo son, Anakin, had died in the attack on Yavin IV. When the twins' mother, Leia Organa Solo, had been killed, it broke her husband's heart beyond repair. Even before the war ended, Han and Chewie retreated to Hapes, flying out every so often to make sure that the twins were okay. The twins threw themselves into their chosen fields: Jacen into learning the mysteries of the Force, and Jaina into ships, both mourning in their own way. The changes during the short but vicious war were immense yet slight.

Sanar was nothing like the hardened, cynical temple servant (a fancy term for slave) that she had been before Mara Jade and Kyp Durron had landed on her home planet and bought her from her brother. Nobody had guessed that Mara could do it, but she mothered and smothered Sanar until the girl's hardened shell cracked. They were closer than master and apprentice, their relationship being one that spoke of trust, friendship and mutual admiration. Kyp was the one thing they couldn't agree on: Mara still hated him for stranding her at the Jedi Academy all those years before, but Sanar had fallen in love with him.

Tenel Ka had become more light-hearted, realizing that she would rule Hapes one day, she was determined to make the most of her freedom at hand. The development of a slightly desperate humor that spawned from needing to be constantly on the alert against her teasing Master, who delighted in provoking her apprentice's temper, was unexpected to say the least. She had also succumbed and gotten a cybernetic arm to aid in her work. Her fighting skills in hand-to-hand combat and with her lightsaber were superb as Jaina knew, being constantly bested in their sparring sessions.

Jacen hadn't visibly changed much during the war, except that he stopped making up the jokes he told constantly, and he grew almost a foot. His affection for the Dathomirian Jedi had grown even as he tried to remain in control of his emotions. When he had been informed that they would be sent on this mission together, Jacen had been ready to refuse, afraid that every shard of self-control he had learned would desert him the moment that he saw her, and that he would make a fool of himself in her eyes. Instead, they had been growing closer on this mission; a lot closer then Jaina wished she could see. Watching her younger twin brother fall more and more in love with the woman of his dreams, and seeing that love reciprocated, was almost more then she could take.

Jaina, who had been apprenticed to her uncle, Luke Skywalker, had only cultivated her love of ships and flying to a level that was appalling to everyone but her father, who applauded her the whole way. Her temper became something that had even the daredevil Kyp trying to avoid it. Her self-control was amazing, yet when it came to using the Force, she seemed to have no more control than she had as a small child. The only time she felt competent was when she was in the cockpit of a ship. The only time she could forget that Zekk no longer loved her was when she was surrounded by machines she could manipulate. And here on this backwater planet, the only thing that was even remotely metal was the table around which they were all seated.

Tenel Ka's face was slightly slack and she was – giggling. Jaina grimaced; it sounded so wrong coming from her! Jacen looked like he had just been handed the deed to Hapes and, for what it was worth, he probably had been. Jacen had spent the last half hour hitting on Tenel Ka, and, to the amazement of both Jaina and the small vonskr, he wasn't being beaten over the head.

Sanar was just smiling in that impish way that told them that she was up to no good, and staring at Kyp with those big mocha eyes of hers. Kyp was grateful that Sanar's master, his nemesis Mara Jade, wasn't around, and was wondering how far he could push the flirting before he would have to worry about his life.

Jaina was the least intoxicated of the humans, but the drink combined with her inner tension and strain was compounding in her system, almost knocking her flat. She would've tried harder to get drunk if she had known what a seemingly innocent conversation would trigger.

When Tenel Ka had finally calmed down a bit, she turned to the only one at the table who wasn't sitting with the person she loved. "Jay-a," she slurred. "Who'd you lu-uve?"

"Tekkie's gonna marry me," Jacen said proudly with a ridiculous grin. "Sh-she shaid so."

Jaina's faint smile disappeared, the subject managing to touch her even through the layers of alcohol in her system. "Don't ask." She took a large swallow of her Corellian whisky, grimacing as it burned down her throat. No… she whispered inwardly, please don't ask about Zekk, he… he… oh kriff it, I can't even admit it to myself… The last time they spoke blossomed in her mind's eye and she shuddered away from it, but it chased after her, drawing her in…

From what felt like a great distance, she heard Sanar mutter, "Betcha is tha' dark boy tha left, was his name a'in? Shekk?…"

Yes, Jaina thought dimly, as she slid into an alcohol induced stupor. It's Zekk. Oh, why did I have to see it… And she fell into a storm of memories that were as sharp as the shards of her broken heart.

:::::::

A continuous electronic beeping was pounding through Jaina's head when she slowly awoke the next evening to meet the concerned eyes of her friend, Sanar.

"Hey, Solo, glad to see you're still moving." The cynical edge didn't hide the relief that Sanar felt when she saw the younger girl blink. "I thought you'd given up on us for a while. You gave Kyp an' me a scare when we tried to put you into a healing trance, but I think the lump on his head'll heal up in a bit. Even Jacen was worried about you, once he and his girlfriend came up for air and he realized you were out cold." Sanar sounded self-satisfied on that point.

Jaina cracked her lips open and tried to swallow, her tongue thick enough to make her struggle to enunciate her words. "A' least you didn't drop them in water."

Sanar grinned viciously as she helped Jaina sip from a glass of water. "I know, I'm so kind, aren't I?"

Jaina groaned, rolling her eyes. "Sanar! What did you do to them?"

"I didn't mean to turn on the water hose, and whoever aimed it at their heads should be dealt with severely!" Sanar said innocently.

Jaina's eyes widened. "You didn't!"

"I didn't," Sanar protested.

Jaina narrowed her eyes, then grinned when the answer dawned on her. "Kyp's dead meat, isn't he?"

"Last I saw him, he was hiding on top of a sky scraper, muttering something about 'crazy-psycho-Jedi apprentices'," Sanar admitted smugly.

Jaina laughed, but the laugh turned to a cough as her lungs complained. Sanar's concern came back. "Jaina, what the kriff is the matter with you??"

"I think it's called malnutrition," Jaina muttered, her sallow cheeks tingeing pink.

Sanar's dark eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you just say?"

Jaina winced, then pushed back some of her hair, "I," she cleared her throat anxiously, "I don't think I've been eating right for a while…"

Sanar's eyebrows jumped up. "Jaina!"

"I'm sorry! I just – I don't know, okay??" Jaina rolled over to face the wall, self-pity and loneliness surrounding her like a cloak.

"Alright, cut that out!" Sanar snapped, spinning the younger Jedi back to face her. "Any more self-pity and I'll kick you out the air lock from hyperspace – understood??"

Jaina's eyes were wide, but Sanar continued. "You think I haven't noticed that you don't eat? The only reason that I've been letting you get away with it is 'cause you've been able to keep up with us. But after last night, enough is enough! You will eat, you will not wallow in self-pity any more, and I don't care what you have to do to keep out of it!"

Jaina nodded slowly, her eyes beginning to return to their normal size. "Okay," Jaina whispered, her voice cracking.

Sanar grinned and handed her a long flexible straw that was attached to a dark bottle. "It's just water," Sanar explained with a wink. "Now," she said, lying on the bunk next to Jaina and fastening her eyes on the other girl with fascination. "Tell me about Zekk."

:::::::

It was almost midnight when Jacen crept down the hall, hiding from Kyp; he shook his head sorrowfully at the laughter that was ringing through the house that the Jedi were renting. Sanar and Jaina had hung their 'Do Not Enter – Gab Fest In Session' sign up on the door of their quarters, and it would only bring about his early demise if he disturbed them. Experience overrules all.

The two girls were each wrapped up in the men they loved. Zekk hadn't been an issue that long, Sanar not knowing enough and Jaina anxious to change the topic. Kyp soon took the main place in their talk, with both girls arguing over whether or not Sanar should elope the next weekend with him or not. After a while, the conversation drifted back to Zekk and Jaina's relationship.

"I used to think it was the Force's will that we should keep running into each other because we were meant for each other," Jaina confided with a bittersweet smile.

"Used to? Uh-oh, trouble in paradise I take it? What happened?" Sanar munched on a handful of popcorn. What had started out as a serious conversation between two women deteriorated into a light-hearted boy talk between best friends. There were several empty soda cans on the floor and each girl was armed with a bag of buttery popcorn and a fresh soda. There were crushed kernels on the floor from a furious, fun-filled popcorn fight that had issued over whether Zekk or Kyp was hotter – it ended in a stalemate – that they hadn't cleaned up yet.

"Well, the last time I saw him, I was actually almost unconscious and he saved my life. I thought at first he was a dream but then I realized it was real…" Jaina's emotions were torn between pleasure and pain over that particular memory.

Sanar's patience was non-existent. "Well? What happened??"

"He left. I don't want to talk about that," Jaina said shortly, her eyes darkening as she remembered how that memory ended.

"Whoa, sorry," Sanar muttered, her mind suddenly kicking into overdrive as a very appealing, very evil idea presented itself.