In the modified X-wing that the One Sith allowed her to take to leave Korriban and eventually dock with the Thrawn's Vindication, Tahiri dropped out of hypetspace hundreds of millions of kilometers away from the jungle world where she had turned her back on Gorog. And immediately, she began as passive of a Force-scan as she could manage just to find out if Alema was here.

It had taken less than a quarter of a minute, but she soon found the Twi'lek's individual Force-presence amidst the larger Killik hive-mind. But before the Dark Nest could launch another one of those mental attacks that they had given Tahiri like last year, she closed herself off from the Force and immediately wheeled her X-wing around to jump back into hyperspace for the Vindication.

Only to find that one of Gorog's giant capital ships suddenly appeared before her from beneath her current position, effectively cutting off her escape vector. Five seconds later, a swarm of dartships dropped from the capital vessel's hangar bay and began heading for Tahiri.

She pulled her X-wing up sharply and began rocketing over the capital with the swarm following closely in her wake. Tahiri paid no mind to the fact that none of them were firing on her rear as she continued to pour speed over the giant Killik vessel's hull to return her course for her intended hyperspace jump.

However, once she reached the pinnacle and found clear space open to her once again, her X-wing seized up. Tahiri looked at her instruments and found that everything seemed to be in working order on her ship, which could only mean one thing: she was caught in a tractor beam.

As if to accompany that realization, her comm console pinged for her attention. She hesitated to reach out for it, fearing the voice she knew to be on the other end.

Instead, she reached for the glove compartment beneath her X-wing's steering yoke and pulled out the cyanide pill that Hesklon had promised to leave her. Indeed, she found it after only a few seconds and was about to fling it into her mouth when, like her ship before her, her whole body seized up.

Now she was caught in a Force-trap, she knew, even before she opened herself back up to the Force. It was then that she felt what she feared: Alema's own Force-power, as aided by Gorog, making sure that she couldn't get out of this one so easily.

And through that power, Tahiri's right arm moved against her volition to answer the comm console.

"Hey, Tahiri," Alema's voice mocking voice came through. "We were wondering when you would return to us. How was your time with our friends, hmm? Was it enlightening?" It was obvious that the Twi'lek was referring to the One Sith; if she had just been calling them her and Tahiri's "friends," it was probably because she didn't want to compromise their identities to anyone who might possibly be listening in, like the Empire of the Hand, even if that chance was extremely remote.

"Alema," Tahiri growled. "If I don't leave this instant-"

"Then a fleet of Empire of the Hand Star Destroyers is going to come here to wipe us all out? Ha! Even if that were true, we are ready for it anyway. But since we know that they can't spare more than a single Destroyer to come after us because of the Chiss' war with the Galactic Alliance, we really have nothing to fear from you. And that's more so since we have grown in power since the last time we've met; to think that we would have been unable to incapacitate you like this just a year ago!"

"Whatever you're going to do, Alema, you better-"

"Get it over with? Oh, no, Tahiri; we won't make it so easy for you. What we're going to do is bring you aboard that nestship and make you watch as we first overtake all of the Chiss worlds by wiping out their Empire of the Hand guardians. And, if we are still young enough, we will make you watch as we topple the Jedi Order, the Galactic Alliance, and all of these other petty powers in the galaxy before we take it over and... Wait, what is this?"

Suddenly, a Star Destroyer dropped out of hyperspace before Tahiri and the Killik capital ship—or nestship, as she just learned it was called—and immediately opened fire on the latter. Within moments, Tahiri's X-wing floated freely away from the nestship, and two seconds afterwards, she felt her body freed from Gorog's Force-grip upon her.

Without hesitation, she gunned it for the Destroyer even as it continued to pound away upon the nestship with its turbolasers, which was now exchanging red laserfire with the more artificial capital vessel. And none of the squadron of TIE fighters that poured out of the Destroyer's hangar bay paid her any mind as they opened up on the dartships that had chased Tahiri to the nestship's pinnacle.

It wasn't long before Tahiri saw the name Thrawn's Vindication painted alongside the Destroyer's hull before she docked her X-wing in its hangar.

Not long after she landed, all twelve of the TIE fighters that had covered for her also returned one-by-one every few seconds while the Vindication's turbolasers were now broadening their fire upon the remaining dartships as well as the nestship. Once the last of the TIEs had been docked, the Destroyer began a quick turn away from the view of the nestship and, in less than half a minute, launched for hyperspace.

And it was only then that Tahiri realized that she still held the cyanide pill in her hand.

. . .

In Hesklon's command salon, the holographic representation of Supreme Commander Kelssar looked more shocked than before. The human admiral couldn't blame the Twi'lek, since what he just proposed could be considered treasonous.

"You do realize, Admiral," Kelssar began, "that we would be willingly working with an enemy, correct?"

"I more than understand that, Commander Kelssar," Hesklon replied evenly. "But I've shown you the holofootage of Miss Dhreat's testimony of her experience upon returning to System GH-31-SL, and the biological readings that came from that testimony confirmed that she wasn't lying or exaggerating the extent of Alema Rar and Gorog's power now. If the Dark Nest could freeze Dhreat's body like that when their queen was hundreds of millions of kilometers away from her, imagine what they could do to those of us who aren't Force-users. Indeed, that may have very well been how they decimated the defensive fleet at Karspla."

"And you think that siding with the Jedi Order, behind the Chiss Ascendancy's proverbial back, is really going to help us?"

"We need a Force-user as powerful as Luke Skywalker on our side, Commander Kelssar. Now I haven't forgotten about what he's done, especially on Csilla last year, but-"

"I need to talk to the other admirals over this, Admiral Hesklon. This is not a decision that we can make so lightly. The only reason I'm not discarding your proposition out of hand is because you have made it clear just how serious this Killik threat is to us. You will hear back from me when you hear back from me. Is that understood, Admiral?"

Hesklon stifled an impatient sigh. "Yes, Commander."

"Good. Now you're sure that the Dark Nest can't find you in your current position?"

"I've seen to it that they can't, Commander."

"Excellent. Then hold your position until I contact you again, Admiral." Kelssar signed off on his end.

When he stood up and left the salon, Hesklon found Dhreat standing just outside.

"I know my command salon is soundproof," he said, "but I take it that wasn't much of a challenge for you?"

"Don't worry, Admiral," she said. "I left you to your privacy. I can honestly say I didn't see or hear anything with my Force-senses while I was waiting for you."

"I believe you," Hesklon replied earnestly. "So what was it that you wanted to say to me?"

"To thank you."

"No need. I was just doing my part."

"But we both agreed that the Vindication wouldn't come in because I would have returned."

At that, Hesklon stopped for a moment. "Yes, we did."

"So why did you swoop in only a few minutes after I was slated to drop out of hyperspace in that system, Admiral?"

"You're complaining about that?"

"Not really. I just wanna know: you thought I was going to be overwhelmed by the hive-mind, didn't you?"

He hesitated before he responded. "Yes. I did."

"You didn't think I'd be able to even use the cyanide pill, did you?"

"I had a feeling that Gorog would've somehow prevented you from using it, yes."

"Hmm. Funny. You seemed to have kept that doubt out of my Force-senses. You sure you're not a Force-user yourself, Admiral?"

Hesklon raised an eyebrow. "If I said no, you wouldn't believe me, would you?"

"I'd have my doubts."

"Well, all I can say is that I'm not Force-sensitive, Miss Dhreat. If I were, I'd have been open with you about that... even if I kept the rest of my crew in the dark." His voice had been low enough so that no one else on the Vindication's bridge could have heard him say that.

After a moment, Dhreat smiled. "You really aren't, are you?"

For professional decorum, Hesklon only offered a microscopic smile of his own. "I'm not. I guess I'm just good at hiding some feelings from Force-users." His whole body language became serious. "But at any rate, I thought it was necessary to keep you in the dark about the actual plan. You see, if Gorog had taken you, as they did, and prevented you from jumping into hyperspace on your own, they may very well have extracted the plan from your mind that you and I discussed."

Dhreat's smile vanished. "So you lied to me. You were going to drop in a few minutes after me all along."

He nodded. "I apologize for that, but like I said, it was necessary."

"Then tell me this, Admiral: was that cyanide pill real?"

"Yes, it was."

After a moment, she said, "You are telling the truth about that. So I suppose that whatever you have planned next, with whatever you discussed with... Supreme Commander Kelssar, I assume? You're keeping me in the dark about that, too."

"Don't take it personally," Hesklon said. "It's just-"

"Necessary. Yeah, I got that. I'll try not to take it personally." She turned and left him alone with the rest of the bridge crew.

. . .

For his leave, Jacen decided to return to Hapes. And there, in the bedchamber of the Queen Mother's Fountain Palace, he sat next to Tenel Ka as the latter cradled their baby daughter, Allana, in her one arm. He held out a finger close to the infant's face and wiggled it while cooing to her; Allana, in turn, fussed as she tried vainly to grab at her father's finger with both hands.

But in spite of the genuine feelings of warmth and happiness he radiated, Tenel Ka could sense the grief and sadness underneath her paramour's facade.

"You are not really here with us right now, are you, Jacen?" the redheaded Jedi asked.

Jacen's smile vanished as he looked away and stopped playing with Allana. He sighed before he responded with, "I'm sorry, Tenel Ka. I try to be, but I can't."

It was then that Allana started to cry; quickly, Tenel Ka placed her close and cooed at her, almost instantly calming her down. She knew that her daughter wasn't thirsty, hungry, or even needed a diaper change right now; she had simply felt the sadness that Jacen had bled out through his Force-presence. So it was all that Tenel Ka could do to pour her own feelings of warmth and love into the baby to calm her down and eventually lull her to sleep.

Once she had Allana in said state of slumber and tucked into her bed in the nursery, Tenel Ka returned to her seat next to Jacen and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"You know you can talk to me, right, Jacen?"

He looked right in her grey eyes and placed a hand upon hers. "Of course I can, Tenel Ka. It's just that..." He trailed off before sighing. "I don't know. Maybe it's just the guilt I feel about having to sit this war out, even for a little bit, while others are dying out there. Or maybe it's because..."

"Because of what, Jacen?"

He looked away from her and shook his head. "Nothing."

"It is not nothing, I can tell."

"Trust me, you don't wanna hear it."

"I think I do."

He looked back at her. "Are you sure?"

"Jacen, whatever is bothering you, I will not have it affect our time with our daughter."

"I'm not even sure if talking about it will help anyway," he said bitterly.

"And how can you be so sure of that?" she asked patiently.

"Because it can't change anything," he said sharply.

"Jacen... talking can be enough sometimes. It may not have to change everything, but it change small things. And with enough time, it may be able to change enough so that we can go on living as well as we possibly can."

"I get what you're trying to do, Tenel Ka, and I appreciate it. Really, I do."

"But?"

"But..." He sighed again. "Look, it's a combination of something I can't talk about anyway, for security reasons, and something that Aunt Mara told me."

"Then tell me about what Mara told you."

After another sigh, he answered with, "She said that Jaina was still alive."

Now Tenel Ka's patient look turned to one of mild shock. "Is that so?"

"According to Mara, it is. And, apparently, Jaina's presence is steeped in the dark side of the Force. But I don't know if I can believe Mara."

"Why should you not believe her?"

"Because it's too hard to do so. Especially after I felt Jaina die a year ago."

"So why would Mara be able to sense if Jaina was alive but you cannot?"

"Well, that's what's really bothering me, Tenel Ka. If Jaina's out there, and her Force-presence is one that's so alien to the one I grew up with in our twin bond, it makes me wonder... could it really be Jaina?"

"And you need to figure this out." It wasn't a question.

He hesitated. "Yes, I do."

Tenel Ka nodded. "Then go."

"What?"

"You heard me. You need to figure this out. You need to learn where Jaina is. Because you cannot truly be here with Allana and me until you find her."

"But Aunt Mara could be wrong, she could be-"

"Enough, Jacen. You and I both know that what I said is true, and you cannot honestly deny it. And if for no other reason, if your family is to be complete again, you must bring her back."

"But how would I even-"

"Know where to start looking? I leave that up to you. You know Jaina better than even your own parents, I believe. And even if she has changed for the worst, as Mara said, then you are the best person to bring her back from the darkness. Out of everyone in the Jedi Order, Jacen, you probably were steeped in the dark side, or at least in your dark side, when you were with Vergere, and you emerged stronger for it. If Jaina really is your sister, then I feel that she can emerge from the darkness stronger for it, too."

"Well, even if that's the case, Tenel Ka... she would have a lot to answer for."

"Yes, she would. But at least she can begin on the path to penance."

Jacen nodded. "You're right. I have to do this." He stood up. "But first... I need to say goodbye to Allana."

Tenel Ka returned the nod and stood up even as Jacen turned and headed to the nursery. She watched him as he brushed the back of his hand along his daughter's sleeping face while whispering his love for her. Then he kissed Allana on the forehead, returned to Tenel Ka, and shared one final passionate kiss with her.

From there, nothing else was said before Jacen turned and left the bedchamber so that he could eventually leave the Fountain Palace and Hapes. After that, he embarked on his journey to find his sister.