When Tahiri's cell door opened again, she was taken by surprise She'd been expecting more scowling gray-clothed guards or maybe even the queen again, but instead she found herself looking up at a teenage boy in a brown woven Jedi robes. His red hair was messy, his eyes very tired, and he had a lightsaber hooked to his belt.

Softly, Tahiri said, "I'm surprised they let you take that in here."

Ben Skywalker realized her meaning after a second. He put a hand on his weapon and said, "They trust me. Strange as that is."

"I can't think of someone who wouldn't trust you," Tahiri said. She'd meant it to sound warm and joking, then immediately remembered Jacen. She lowered her head, avoiding his eyes, and said, "They'll let me go free. That's what they said."

"That was Tenel Ka's decision."

She couldn't tell if he approved. "What about Master Skywalker?"

"We've talked about it. He thinks you've already taken steps to redeem yourself. He says that if you want to rejoin the Jedi Order, he's willing to talk to you about it."

She shook her head. "I'm no Jedi, Ben."

"You used to be."

"Maybe. I'm not even sure any more. I was a Sith until about a week ago."

"You were never Sith. You were just one of his pawns, a tool he was using-"

"Don't, Ben." She looked up again. "I'm not just another one of his victims. I killed people, Ben. I murdered them."

"I know," he said, blue eyes gone cold.

Of course he knew. He'd been strapped to a table and watched as she'd pumped Force lightning into Lon Shevu, his GAG friend and mentor, lightning that had overloaded the circuits of the beaten man's medical system and stopped his heart. She hadn't even meant to kill him, not like Pellaeon. It had simply happened; she'd let it happen. It was still her fault and Ben had to know that. The fact that he was willing to help her now, after what she'd done to him, was more mercy than she deserved.

"Tahiri, you're not him. There was a point where he did what you did, killed a prisoner by accident. I was there. I saw him afterward. He was horrified at himself… but he kept going. You're not like him. You knew your limits. You knew when you couldn't do that evil any more."

She wanted to believe it; it might even have been true. She sniffed, "That doesn't erase what I've done."

"I know. But we're still willing to help you."

She wiped a little wetness from her eyes. "I may not be Sith, but I'm not a Jedi any more, Ben. Just like I used to be a Tusken and a Yuuzhan Vong, but I'm not those anymore either."

"Then what are you?" he asked, voice soft and curious.

She didn't know. She simply didn't. She looked down at her hands without answer.

"You can be what you want to be now, Tahiri. You only have to decide, to-"

"To chose and act? That's the sort of thing he would say."

"Fair enough," Ben admitted, "But that's not wrong in itself. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe… Maybe I will come back to the Order someday, but I can't do it now." In her heart, she knew that day would never come. She'd only said it to appease him. Maybe he knew that, maybe not. She added, very weakly, "I'm sorry, Ben. I really am."

"It's all right. I understand."

Tahiri gave a long, tired sigh. "Is that why you came down here, Ben? To offer me an out?"

"Partially. I also wanted to let you know that you're invited."

"Invited to what?" she frowned.

"Tonight. We're… burning his body."

His body. Jacen's body.

And he was asking her to come.

"Really? You're doing it here, on Hapes?"

Ben nodded. "Like they did for Anakin, I guess, not that I remember that. Like it, but smaller. Dad and I are going. So's Jaina, Uncle Han and Aunt Leia. So's Tenel Ka."

She closed her eyes and could almost see Anakin on his pyre half a lifetime ago, surrounded by those whose lives he'd saved.

"Family," Tahiri said. "Only family."

"Pretty much," Ben said, faint as a whisper.

You will always be family to us.

Jacen had said that, back when he was unmistakably Jacen, back when she'd needed him and needed his family. And it was part of the reason why, ten years later, she'd let him drag her into the dark.

"I can't do it, Ben." She shook her head. "I'm not family."

"I talked to Dad and Jaina. They said they'd be okay with it."

Jaina. Tahiri felt something like bile in the back of her throat. All the awful things she'd gone through over the past months must have been nothing compared to what Jaina had. She didn't know how she'd be able to look the other woman in the eye.

Any of them in the eye.

"I'm sorry, Ben. I appreciate that, I do. But I can't go. I'm not family. I'm nobody's family."

After a long, hesitating pause, Ben said, "I under-stand."

"Thank you."

He stepped back into the doorway. "Goodbye, Tahiri. I hope I see you again some day."

"Goodbye, Ben."

He nodded, turned, and let. The door closed behind her. She collapsed back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She started to wonder when the dreams would come again.