Previously on Coruscant 90210...

Tahiri left the Order to sing and was living with a wann-a-be Imperial...

Thankfully she has Jag to lean on…

Jysella fell in love with her Master and was rather cranky about being dismissed…

And Jacen is… Jacen…

Season 2

Episode 1

Well, I've walked these streets

A virtual stage, it seemed to me

Makeup on their faces

Actors took their places next to me

Well, I've walked these streets

In a carnival, of sights to see

All the cheap thrill seekers vendors and the dealers

They crowded around me

Have I been blind have I been lost

Inside myself and my own mind

Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen?

Well, I've walked these streets

In a spectacle of wealth and poverty

In the diamond markets the scarlet welcome carpet

That they just rolled out for me

And I've walked these streets

In the madhouse asylum they can be

Where a wild-eyed misfit prophet

On a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me

Have I been blind, have I been lost

Inside myself and my own mind

Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen

Have I been wrong, have I been wise

To shut my eyes and play along

Hypnotized, paralyzed by what my eyes have found

By what my eyes have seen

What they have seen?

Have I been blind

Have I been lost

Have I been wrong

Have I been wise

Have I been strong

Have I been hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have found

In that great street carnival

Have I been blind

Have I been lost

Have I been wrong

Have I been wise

Have I been strong

Have I been hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have found

In that great street carnival

In that carnival

Carnival/Natalie Merchant

Senate City Spaceport, Senate City, Coruscant
40 ABY
Ten Years After The Yuuzhan Vong War

Jag walked briskly through the artificially lit spaceport. He was running late and growing anxious. Tahiri was scheduled to leave soon and he hated to have to rush the limited time he got to spend with her.

He caught sight of a figure wrapped in an expensive looking cloak standing at the end of the corridor and made his way toward her. She was facing away from him, peering over the railing at the travelers below. Coming to a stop at her side, Jag checked out the scene that held her attention before turning to look at her profile.

"What is a beautiful woman like you doing all alone in a spaceport at this hour?"

"Does that line actually work for you?" There was a hint of mischief in her voice, but also fatigue.

Jag chuckled softly. "To be honest… I've never used it before. But I think it used to work for Cem."

"I wonder if he tried it on Teeka."

"I doubt the opportunity presented itself… I think he was confined to 'pleasure to meet you' and 'will you marry me?'"

Jag watched a smile blossom on her face.

"He always has had a way with words."

"Thanks. I never get any credit for being the 'charming Fel'."

Tahiri finally turned to face him. "That's because you're known as the 'smart Fel'."

"He did manage to land a queen, he's not exactly dumb."

"Yes he did, but I suspect that had little to do with his brains. But enough about Cemmie's sex life. Come on, charmer. I'm on a tight schedule, we need to do this."

Jag turned and wrapped an arm around Tahiri's shoulders to guide her in the direction they needed to go. "I'd make a joke about how I love it when you're Forceful, but something tells me you're not in the mood."

"It's been a long night, and the Force is the only reason I don't have a broken jaw." She shook her head at his reaction and said, "In a minute."

He knew she wouldn't give an explanation until she felt it was safe so he let the matter drop while they walked to their destination.

Jag had rented one of the small conference rooms reserved for traveling business-beings to conduct meetings in whilst waiting for transports. Tahiri had joked that she and Jag had met in so many seedy spaceports in the galaxy that she could no longer tell one conference room from another; a joke that Jag took to mean that these meetings had been going on for far too long.

Entering the small space and letting out a sigh, Tahiri threw off her cloak, allowing it to land in a heap on one of the chairs. She then turned to the droid that had followed her and Jag silently down the hall.

"Fiver, run Morcheeba Churanga."

The little astromech immediately began to slowly circle the room running an anti-spyware program designed to detect bugging devices in any enclosed environment.

"You're getting creative in your codes."

Tahiri's mood lifted instantly. "Morcheeba is a band I heard last month on Taanab and Churanga is their chip. They're joining the tour so we can spend some time together. If all goes well, I'm going to offer to sign and produce them. I'll have Fiver download the music. I'd love to get your take."

"Absolutely. Oh, I have one for you. Have you heard Supreme Beings of Leisure?"

"No, but I love the name."

Turning to the astromech, Jag instructed, "Fiver, upload Supreme Beings of Leisure while you're at it."

The droid emitted a whistle in response to Jag's command then its dome turned, a sharp series of bleeps aimed at Tahiri.

"Fiver says we're all clear."

"It will never cease to amaze me that you understand it."

"Him, Jagged, how many times must we go over this?" Tahiri knelt next to the droid as she cooed softly, "ignore Uncle Jag sweetling," and Jag chuckled when Fiver swiveled his head under her palm as if to acknowledge her affection. "I suppose it is ironic, given the whole melding thing," she continued, clearly speaking to Jag this time. "Although, if the only steady companion you'd had for six years was an astromech, you'd probably begin to recognize certain sounds too. And don't forget, I'm a singer and I understand Tusken. Clearly I have a natural facility for tone and pitch."

"Clearly."

Jag pulled a small datapad out of the case he had brought into the room with him and linked a cord from it to Fiver. "Okay little man, work your magic."

The droid immediately began the exchange of information that Jag and Tahiri were there for and they sat down at the small table. Tahiri rummaged through her handbag and drew out a nic-stick and a lighter and began to smoke.

"I see quitting's going well."

Tahiri leaned her head back and exhaled a long plume of smoke before turning to him and saying, "You live with Huff Tarkin for as long as I have and see if you don't pick up an unhealthy habit or two."

"That bad?"

Tahiri flicked the ashes off her stick into the dish on the table and took another long drag before saying, "Kriffer tried to hit me."

Jag felt his jaw drop open at this news. "What did you do?"

"To set him off or stop his fist?"

"Both."

"I declined his invitation to act as arm candy for today's festivities so I could go back to work. He started ranting about my lack of commitment to him, then going on about the varied species of my audiences and I called him anti-alien." Tahiri drew another long hit then shook her head ruefully. "I knew when I said it that it would piss him off, but even I forget sometimes how stupid he is. What idiot tries to hit a fully-trained Jedi? Practicing or not. Especially after the last time."

"Last time?"

Tahiri cringed and bit her lower lip as she averted her eyes and Jag was suddenly plagued with the sickening realization that for all the unpleasant things he knew that she had been through in living with Tarkin, there were evidently a whole host of things he did not know.

Before he had a chance to address that Tahiri shrugged and said, "Don't worry, it wasn't a thing… I read his intent in the Force and caught his hand."

"Hence your earlier comment. Ri..." Jag let his sentence die and his head drop. When he looked back up he couldn't help but notice how fragile she seemed. "Can we discuss pulling the plug on this operation again?"

"We don't have what we need."

"On Tarkin? Nothing duracrete or specific, but you know there's enough information for indictments on over 200 of his associates. If Belindi starts making arrests someone is bound to implicate him in something, if only to save their own hides."

Tahiri appeared to think about this for a minute and then slowly shook her head and sighed. "Still not good enough. I've gone through too much, given up too many years of my life to quit now and hope that we might get someone to turn on him. If we don't have solid evidence of his involvement in some, if not all of the illegal things he's doing, he'll close up shop and no one will ever get this close again."

Jag nodded, knowing that everything she said was true.

The two sat in miserable silence for a few minutes listening to the whirring sound of Fiver downloading Tahiri's latest batch of reports on the activities she had witnessed and uncovered in her travels and time at Tarkin's house. Her house.

"I really hate that man." Tahiri said.

"I know."

"He's despicable."

"I know."

"He's kriffing his assistant."

"That… I did not know."

"I want him brought down and I will fight 'til my last breath to see that his organization is dismantled and he's locked away forever."

"I know."

"So I guess you have your answer. I'll go back, and keep going back, until we have something

that can stick."

Fiver continued to whir and after a moment Jag decided to change the subject.

"Did you see Jacen tonight?"

Tahiri nodded. "He came to the party for a bit."

"Did you talk to him?"

"For a few minutes. Why?"

"He mentioned again that he's worried about you and I was curious as to whether or not he told you so."

Tahiri smiled and then leaned her head back and blew out another plume of smoke. "He wouldn't be the Jacen Solo we love so much if he wasn't worried and trying to fix something or someone."

"Does that make his concern any less valid?"

Ignoring Jag's question Tahiri asked one of her own, "What did he say?"

"That you seemed tired and that he thought you were losing weight. And that you tend to lose weight when you're stressed."

"I've clearly spent too much time with Jacen when I've been stressed. But more importantly, why is he telling you this?"

Jag rolled his eyes. "Other than the fact that he and I are close, and you and I are close? I don't know… maybe he thinks we talk?"

"Sarcasm isn't your strong suit, Jagged. What'd you tell him?"

"That I'd keep my eyes open. He cares about you and just wants to know that you aren't all alone and without friends."

Tahiri smiled ruefully and Jag wished that she hadn't closed herself off to so many people. He knew it wasn't entirely her choice and that given what she was doing it was somewhat necessary, but the toll it was taking on her was becoming more evident - he was seeing less and less of the exuberant young woman he had gotten to know years ago.

When she took the initiative to start this undercover operation he had been impressed, but its boost to her self-confidence had begun to wane about a year in, when they began to realize that the investigation could go on for far longer than they had originally anticipated. Now, he was genuinely concerned for her mental well-being.

"Well Jacen will have plenty of time to tell me all about his concerns. I'm staying with him next month when I play here. He'll be moved into the apartment by then and he said it's huge and beautiful; just the kind of place a galactic singing sensation would stay."

"How did you get that by Tarkin?"

Tahiri snorted. "Manipulation; he was putty in my hands on this one. He knows I hate staying at the embassy alone, I even allowed him to feel like it was his idea that I stay with Jacen, then praised him for being open minded and caring about how important the Solos are to me, and my ongoing disappointment that so many Jedi refuse to speak to me. Wilhuff Tarkin III wants nothing more in life than to seem like a swell guy, so in the end we both got what we wanted. "

"And he didn't question why you aren't staying with me or at a hotel?"

"I told him that with Noya planning the wedding and you two just moving in I didn't want to ask. And I'd rather open a vein than spend another night in a hotel, especially here; staying with Jacen is the next best thing to being at the cottage. Besides, it will give me a chance to show Jace that I'm okay and that all his worry is unnecessary."

"That's probably wise. The last thing we need is him getting overly concerned and deciding to try to save you from yourself… snooping around and becoming suspicious about why you left the Order or what you're doing with Tarkin. But you know we'd have made room… I'd even give you your choice of packing crates to sleep on."

Tahiri grinned, "Thanks for that. And don't worry about Jacen. He never questioned the reasons I gave for leaving, it's the Governor that bothers him. But we reached an understanding about that long ago. Jace and I don't talk about him."

There was another long silence before Tahiri said, "Do me a favor, don't tell him you saw me smoking."

Jag laughed softly and Tahiri gave him a rude finger gesture before continuing.

"He doesn't harass me if I do it in the studio or onstage but he will harass me for smoking anywhere else. And don't tell Cemmie either. Kriffer will be on the comm to Jace instantly and in no time they'll have each other worked up and convinced I need an intervention."

"At least you'll have company in rehab - they'll book Teeka in with you."

Tahiri sighed and shook her head. "Why do we let them play together? They're a terrible influence on each other."

He smiled then said, "I didn't have a chance to tell you at dinner but I spoke to Jaina last night."

Tahiri turned her head so fast he almost asked if she'd given herself whiplash, but instead just chuckled at her expression.

"How did it go?"

"In some ways, it was harder than I imagined it would be and in other ways easier. But at least it's done. I no longer have to worry about the first time I see her."

"Do you need an assist on damage control with Noya?"

Jag dropped his head, not wanting to meet her eyes.

"Oh, Jagged, how in heavens did you manage to avoid them meeting?"

"Jacen… "

Tahiri let out a long low laugh. "My, my... he was a busy boy last night. At my party helping Valin pick up girls, at Cem's running interference for you… didn't he have to pick Jaina up when she landed, too? Thank goodness there isn't a war going on. However would he manage to get everything done?" After a minute she added, "He probably tucked Tahly in and told her a bunch of bedtime stories, too."

Jag grimaced. "He was dancing with Noya, I read the last couple of stories."

Tahiri shook her head. "The only reason I'm not going to beat his ass for wingmanning for you is because I have no doubt that he did it for her; he may be the kindest man we know."

"He is. I always wonder why he hasn't found a nice girl to settle down with."

Tahiri raised her eyebrows and looked away. "Clearly he isn't looking in the right places." Sighing deeply, she continued, "I have to go. I've included some information on Huff's new assistant, her name is Rabeeta Farkonic. I want all the intel you can find on her. She doesn't trust me and I'm not sure if it's because she's jealous and wants Huff all to herself or is on to me so I need to be armed."

"I'll find you as soon as I know anything. By the way, Belindi is very impressed with all the work you've done, you know. She and I met last week. She came to me personally with the Intel analysis from your last hand-in. She was the one who suggested that if you wanted to stop, there would be no issue with it. Since this started as an investigation into art fencing and election fraud and we have so much information on the large rings, she considers your work a huge success already. I know that stumbling on to Tarkin's involvement was a boon and you want to bring him down too, but you've already gathered enough evidence to put a lot of bad people away forever and change a lot of other people's lives for the better."

"I know. But even if we arrest all those beings and shut down all of those operations… If we don't get Tarkin, he'll find a way to start it all up again, and he'll be more careful and harder to catch. He might even come out of it looking like a good guy who was unjustly persecuted, and that would kill me."

Jag nodded his head. This was not the first time they had had this conversation, but he always hoped it would be the last. "Well, maybe there will be something in what you've just given me that we can link. Or something in what I've just given you."

Tahiri stood up and pulled on her wrap while Jag unplugged Fiver. She stepped up to him and slipped her arms around his middle and settled in when he wrapped his own around her shoulders and held her.

"You're doing an amazing job, Ri. You should be very proud of all you have accomplished, and like I said: no one would blame you if you wanted to get out now."

Tahiri pulled back and looked up with a sad smile. "You do realize that since you and Belindi are the only two people in the universe who know what I'm really doing that it makes your compliment slightly hollow?"

"Yeah, but the sentiment remains."

Tahiri kissed his cheek and squeezed his hand. "I'll talk to you soon."

"Watch your back."

Throwing her thumb toward her droid, she quipped, "That's his job," then whistled to Fiver, who immediately followed her as she headed out the door.

Meditation Garden
Jedi Temple Complex, Senate City, Coruscant

Jacen wandered around the gardens nestled in between the tall buildings of the Jedi complex, following the Force to his destination. Around the bend of a partially hidden path, Jysella Horn sat in a cross-legged meditation pose, eyes closed. From where Jacen stood, she seemed serene and at peace. Had he not just spent an hour talking to his uncle about her, he might believe that she was.

Taking a seat on the ground across from her and mimicking her pose, Jacen dropped into a trance as well. He knew that he would feel her when she was ready to talk and still had a couple of hours before he was supposed to accompany Tenel Ka to the Senate building, and he could use a little centering himself.

"Master Skywalker has chosen you?"

Jacen had been right about feeling when Jysella came up, but was still a little surprised by the lack of greeting or preamble. He opened his eyes and looked at Jysella for a moment.

"Good morning. Did you find what you were looking for in your meditation?"

"No. Did Master Skywalker assign me to you for the remainder of my training?"

Jacen had gotten to know Jysella well enough over the last few years, both because of how close he was to Valin and through her being Kyp's apprentice. He knew her to be straightforward and honest to the point of sometimes being insulting, traits that people tended to either find endearing or annoying. Jacen, however, recognized these characteristics for what they were: defense mechanisms - and he was only slightly amused.

"He did ask me to train you; I refused."

Maybe it was the 'little brother' in him that still loved, even at the age of 31, to annoy his sister, maybe it was a leftover from his time with Vergere, but Jacen couldn't deny to himself that he derived pleasure both from Jysella's first reaction; shock, and her second; indignation.

"Before you throw one of your infamous temper tantrums," Jacen said, attempting to head her off, "why don't we discuss the reason you need a new master and go from there?"

Since Luke had been evasive in his briefing, Jacen didn't know what had happened between her and Kyp, and he was hoping Jysella would be wise enough to be honest about the situation. Something in his demeanor, or the way he opened himself to her in the Force, clearly told her that there were no traps to fall into and that Jacen wasn't trying to 'teach her' anything here, because her body language changed and he saw the proud, defiant young woman relax into a sad young woman.

Breaking eye contact with him for the first time, she looked down at her folded hands. "What did Master Skywalker tell you?"

"Just that it would no longer be in yours or Kyp's best interest to have you two work together and that you needed someone else to guide you until you were ready to be knighted."

"What if I don't want to be knighted?"

Jacen shrugged his shoulders. "Frankly, that never crossed my mind… and I doubt it's ever crossed anyone else's. But since it has clearly crossed yours, we should discuss it."

"Master Skywalker separated Kyp and me because I fell in love with Kyp and he's afraid."

Jacen didn't even attempt to hide his shock. His stomach shook slightly and he had a sudden flash to a conversation he'd had with Tenel Ka years ago… the conversation that had actually led to his setting her up with Cem.

Will I ever stop being surprised by the things women say?

After blinking his eyes and shaking his head slightly Jacen focused on Jysella again.

"Forgive me. I didn't really think it was possible, but you've shocked me."

"By what I said, or how I said it?"

Jacen continued to stare at her for a moment, then said, "Uhh… I'm not really sure. I suppose… now that I think about it, it makes sense that when you put a young, smart, beautiful woman together with a… Kyp… and then ask him to be her teacher and sometimes only companion on long missions to strange worlds… this would kind of be… inevitable. But, as with the prospect of you not being knighted, it never crossed my mind until you mentioned it."

"Clearly, the possibility didn't occur to anyone. And in all fairness to the people who put us together, I was such an immature jerk when I was first assigned to Kyp, why would anyone think of this?"

"So, you fell in love and he did or did not?"

A deep sadness washed over Jacen and it took him a minute to realize it was Jysella's. "Did not?"

Jacen had a sudden horrifying thought. "Does your father know about this?"

Jysella smiled slightly. "No. No one knew about it until Kyp told your uncle. And now you know. My father would not have been pleased to hear of a relationship between his daughter and her twenty years older master… I didn't figure there was any reason to tell him if Kyp didn't feel the same about me."

"And Kyp asked that you be reassigned because you did something that made him uncomfortable?"

"Well, my telling him that I loved him made him uncomfortable, but I think… I guess I should start at the beginning and you can draw your own conclusions?"

Jysella took a deep breath, seemingly trying to center herself mentally and spiritually and began to tell Jacen her story. How at first she and Kyp couldn't stand the sight of each other and that he had only agreed to work with her because Corran had asked, that Kyp was only trying to mend the rifts with the other Masters that his rogue behavior during the war had caused. How she assumed he'd been so grateful that Corran trusted him to train his daughter it probably hadn't occurred to him to say no. Then she told him about the year and a half of hell she put Kyp through, how he finally told her he was done and would not train her. She had clearly already developed some kind of feelings for him, because even then the thought of losing him as her teacher was enough to make her straighten up and show him the respect she knew he deserved.

"So, after he agreed to continue my training things began to go really well. We worked great as a team, we went on a lot of successful missions, we grew dependent on each other, and he didn't treat me like a child. He expected me to act like an adult and he treated me like one."

Jacen watched the emotion play across Jysella's face as she described the beginning of her relationship with Kyp. Her expression became wistful as she added, "He became my best friend."

She was silent for a moment and Jacen let her be, knowing she would continue when she was ready.

"About a year ago, we were on a mission investigating a spice operation in a mining facility. The operators must have been concerned about Jedi snooping around because the place was crawling with ysalamiri. I had never been near any and got really sick. We barely made it out.

"When I finally came to in the med center Kyp was asleep in a chair next to me. I was," Jysella paused, clearly uncomfortable, "emotional… when I saw him, and weepy… and I told him how scared I was and that I loved him. He told me he loved me, too, and then kind of forced me into a trance because I was so distraught.

"My mom arrived the next day and took me to Corellia to recuperate and Kyp went to Ossus. Several weeks later we met up on Jabiim for our next mission and I tried to… continue the conversation… to explain, and found out that he had misunderstood when I told him I loved him. He thought I meant in a 'master/apprentice' sort of way.

"I never really had any grand hopes of him returning my affection, but he insists that I only 'think' I'm in love because he saved my life, or because I look up to him. We've been arguing about it for months. Anyway, I guess he finally decided that it was safer for his reputation to be away from me so he asked your uncle to separate us."

Jacen sat for several minutes thinking about all that Jysella had just told him and studying her. His heart went out to her. He suspected that there were few things more emotionally painful than loving someone who didn't take you seriously and Jacen suspected that that was what Kyp was guilty of.

"When you said you might not want to be knighted, was that to punish Kyp for walking away?"

Jysella smiled slightly again and looked directly at Jacen. "No one ever asked me if I wanted to be a Jedi. I would have been sent to the Errant Venture during the war while our parents were fighting regardless of my Force abilities. It was just convenient that I was an adept and Booster's granddaughter. Afterwards, I had been with the other kids for so long, I didn't put up much of a fight about going to school anywhere else. Mom was off touring the galaxy with your dad and Uncle Wedge, and my dad was helping set up the academy on Ossus so it was a no brainer. Maybe the reason I was such a pain and no one wanted to work with me was because this isn't really what I wanted."

Jysella was silent for a moment and had a faraway look in her eye.

"Kyp made me want to be here. His passion for the Order, and his desire to use his talents for doing good and for fixing things and helping people are the things that inspired me to not just want to be a Jedi, but a great Jedi." Jysella finally looked back down at her lap. "I'm just not sure if I want to do this if I can't do it with him. If I stay in the Order I'll run into him. There aren't that many of us, you know? And eventually he'll meet a woman and I'll have to see him with her and that will really hurt."

Jacen reached over and took Jysella's hands and held them in his own. "I'm so sorry. I can imagine how painful this has been for you and I apologize for assuming that there was something trivial going on. I heard everything you said and I want you to know that I will stand behind whatever decision you make. If you want to stay, then I will train you. If you want to leave the Order, I will help you in any way I can when you face the Council. The only thing I ask is that you give it some time. Meditate on it for a few weeks, perhaps go to Corellia - our parents are all here right now, so you'd have some privacy. And anytime you need to talk just let me know."

Jysella nodded. "Thank you, Master Solo."

Jacen gave her hands one last squeeze and stood up, saying, "You're welcome. And please… you can call me Jacen. The only person I insist call me Master is Valin."

For the first time since she had been a small child, Jacen saw Jysella smile genuinely and was stunned at the transformation. She was always a beautiful girl, but when her face was alight with pleasure, she was breathtaking. It suddenly occurred to Jacen that it was entirely possible that Jysella was mistaken in her assumption about why Kyp had sent her away.

Something told Jacen that if Kyp Durron was uncomfortable around Jysella Horn, it had more to do with his feelings for her than hers for him.

Next time on Fear and Love…

Time to party!