I came to and could not see Jacen anywhere. I felt the pain of the betrayal, and the pain that was still coming off of Jysella. I walked over to her, and picked her up and carried her to the med center.
I walked into the lobby, just as my strength gave out. I fell to my knees and cried, not really wanting to let Jysella go as the healers rushed to my side and tried to get her out of my arms.
We both got to spend some more time in bacta, two hours for me and six days for Jysella.
When I was decanted and moved to my room, my dad was already there waiting for me. I sighed as I sat up because I could feel the frustration and anger coming from him.
"What did you and Jysella think you were doing? Running off in the Skate without even asking permission? I thought we had talked about this. And look what happened to Jysella!"
"We were worried about Tahiri. Someone had to be, you didn't care about her. Besides what happened to Jysella happened here on Ossus!"
The glare my dad sent my way had caused Jedi Masters to stop talking. I of course, did not take the hint.
"But even that is irrelevant. Tahiri was right. Jacen did all of this. Jacen tortured Tahiri the way she said he did."
The glare turned even harder and icier as he said "Jacen is dead."
I could feel my outrage and anger, so I did a simple breathing exercise to bring both back under control.
I jumped out of bed, and yelled over my shoulder, "Fine, if he is dead, let's go look at his body."
I stomped off to the morgue, with my father following closely. As we drew closer to our destination my mother joined us as well. The more the merrier is what I foolishly thought.
Finally we arrived, and went in. The chill caused our breath to appear as small clouds in front of us. I walked along the wall of cabinets looking for the one which held Jacen, and when I found it, I pulled it open.
Within was a body bag, the proper shape and length to be holding Jacen. I pulled the seam apart, and the sides slide open, revealing Jacen's face and body much as I had seen them the night that this body was put in here.
I was dumbfounded. I knew what I had seen.
I heard my dad's voice behind me. "See. Jacen is dead."
My mind raced. My confusion just grew.
And then I understood.
I reached out and ran my finger down one side of Jacen's nose, and when nothing happened did the same to the other side.
The result was as I expected. Jacen's face cracked open and started rolling backwards, his skin was unraveling itself, pushing itself down, until it was merely a puddle of flesh down at his feet. The face of Zak Arranda now stared sightlessly from where Jacen's had been lying mere moments before.
I grabbed the Ooglith Masquer and turned to my parents as I spate out "Jacen is dead is he."
They merely stared, apparently unable to process this physical proof of them being wrong about Jacen's death.
Finally my dad gave a slight shake and said "This is some type of trick. Jacen is dead."
I threw the masquer at my dad's feet, closed my eyes and focused on the Force, looking for something, anything to help me. I found it in my parents. It was a small black dot within their Force presences. Something that did not belong.
I searched my memory, trying to figure out what Force lore would cause such a thing. As I sat and wondered, a familiar voice intruded on my thoughts. "Krath"
My eyes shot open, and I found myself looking into the chocolate colored eyes of Jacen. "What you are looking at is a Krath form of the alter-mind ability. It forces them to hold onto a truth regardless of what anything else tells them."
His mouth twisted into an approximation of Uncle Han's grin as he continued, "It really is an interesting thing. It was specifically designed for use against Force-users. The stronger the victims are in the Force, the more real the compulsion is, the harder they will hold onto those memories and changes that I want them to."
Fear blossomed in me, as I probed my parents once again, and since I knew what to look for now, I noticed that their minds were covered in the little dots. I looked into my own head and saw one or two as well."
I opened my eyes. "Why?"
"'Why' is always a question that is bigger than its answer."
I could feel Jacen's power as he forcibly held my parents immobile, as he suppressed their wills. I shuddered at the thought of having to fight him again. I felt a flash of Force power coming from Jacen. "There. Now they will stay that way, until you and I are done here."
Jacen looked my way a smile on his face which gave me shivers. "So, which shall we kill first? Your mother? Or your father?"
I just stared at him, as he pulled out a lightsaber and ignited it. "I know, since you were nice enough to take care of those little pests Lowie and Tesar, I'll only take an arm from each of them. I must say Ben, it really was great of you to do that for me. I mean Tesar almost got me at the Horn house."
As he finished talking, his blade shot out twice, slicing off an arm from both of my parents.
I screamed "No!" as I felt the rage erupt within my heart. I leapt at Jacen, but he just waved his arm my way and I was slammed against the cabinets.
I closed my eyes and focused on getting my anger back under control, I could feel that Jacen was walking towards me, and was preparing himself to attack. "You should have just been a good Jedi Ben. Then you could have ruled by my side."
The dark lightning shot forth from his hand, arching towards me. I instinctively threw my hand out and focused on the lightning, on deflecting it away from me. Jacen's first blast hit and went up into the corner of the room frying the security cam. His second blast I deflected back toward him, which he then deflected into a diagnostic station.
His third blast, I grabbed. I pulled the energy in, and as he finished sending it my way, I had a ball of the rolling energy in my palm which I slowly absorbed as I closed my hand. I used that energy to calm my nerves and revitalize my muscles, which were still stiff from my time in the bacta tank.
I opened my eyes, moved away from the cabinets, closer to the autopsy table and calmly said "You have always been strong, but the taint of the Dark Side corrupts you. It is not too late, you can still renounce it."
Then in walked the other dark one. It dropped the illusion, and before me stood a woman, or at least what was left of her. She was about my dad's age. Somewhere in the vicinity of seventy-five percent of her body was cybernetics.
She smiled coldly at me, as she ran her hands through my dad's hair. "Don't waste your breath boy; your cousin is mine, as are your parents, and that pretty little thing that you have been spending so much of your time with. And as are you. All the Jedi are mine, and soon the galaxy shall be mine as well."
I could feel my fury erupt as she threatened those I held most dear.
Jacen looked towards me and said "Ben, may I present Lady Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith. My master."
I used another of those Correllian words here.
I watched her as she walked around my dad and then punched my mom in the face. She turned back to me, and said "You could have been a great Sith Lord Ben, just like your grandfather, but instead you turned out to be another weak minded Jedi. Jacen, kill him now."
Jacen gave a small half bow. "As you command, Mistress."
Lumiya walked out of the room, and Jacen ignited his saber with a snap-hiss.