Luke entered the quarters that he shared with Mara and Ben in Shedu Maad's Jedi Temple and found the former standing in the center of the living area facing him. After making a passive Force-scan to find that Ben was in his room, concentrating intently on finishing some math homework, Luke returned his full attention upon Mara.

"I take it that you already know what my decision is?" he asked.

"Yes, but I don't need any premonitions from the Force to figure out what you'd do, Farmboy," she said as she walked over to him; her steps made it seem as if she wasn't blind at all. Once she was less than a meter away, she asked, "I just wanna know, you're sure this Admiral Hesklon is trustworthy?"

"As well as I can make out his Force-presence. While I've already determined that he can't use the Force, though, he does seem able to block out certain things from me, at least on a passive level. Not as well as, say, a Bothan or a Hutt, but it shows he's clearly not weak-minded. Still, I trust him not to betray us while we go out and rid the Dark Nest once and for all. I sense he's a man of honor."

"He's still on the side of the enemy. He may not betray you or the other Jedi you take with you during the mission, but after, when you're successful?"

"You know as well as I do that it's a risk I'm willing to take, my love," he said as he placed his natural hand gently alongside Mara's face. "Especially since Gorog really does need to be eliminated. But after that... well, we'll see what we can do. We've made it out through worse scrapes than this, right?"

Mara nodded. "I suppose we did."

Luke pulled her into a hug. "Look, I'm sorry you can't come. But you don't need me to tell you that there's only so much that the Force can do for you with your-"

"You're right, I don't need you to tell me that, Farmboy," she said a little too defensively as she abruptly pulled back from him. Upon realizing her mild outburst, she sighed and returned to his embrace a moment later. "No, I'm sorry, Luke. I just feel so helpless and useless now, especially since I feel that Jaina is still out there and that she could-"

"We've been over this, Mara. If Jaina really is still out there as you say, we have to do everything we can to bring her back."

"I know, Luke. I know." Still, Mara's tone was tinged with doubt.

And it was that doubt that Luke couldn't help but notice. Still, instead of broaching the topic and leading back into a repeat of the discussion regarding doing what "needed to be done" and bringing Jaina back into the fold of the Skywalker-Solo clan, Luke said, "Besides, you're neither helpless nor useless, my love. You're a wonderful teacher, not just to Ben, but to the other students here, too. And your powers in the Force and your skill in combat is still impressive, if not more so because of what you have to overcome."

Mara smirked. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Farmboy." Her tone became serious again when she asked, "You haven't told me lately, did you find any time to send any Jedi to find out where Jaina was?"

"I'm afraid not. Even if we could spare any Jedi right now from this war, or from hunting down the Dark Nest, there are still no leads as to where Jaina could be right now."

Mara sighed. "I feared that might be the case. But speaking of hunting down Gorog, have you picked out any candidates to join you on the mission?"

"I made a shortlist on my way back here from Denon. I'm taking Kyp and Kyle with me. As for Knights, I'm taking Lowbacca, since he has experience with the Killiks, as well as Jacen and-"

"Leave Jacen out of this."

"I'm sorry?" Luke asked.

"Leave him be. You've already given him time off; he should use it wisely."

"I let him know before he returned to Hapes that his vacation was conditional, in case we got desperate in this war. Now, granted, dealing with the Dark Nest would be a little different, but like Lowie, he has-"

"This isn't about letting him have complete time off, Luke. He's looking for Jaina now."

Luke paused as he absorbed what his wife just told him. "How do you know this? Did he comm you about this?"

She shook her head. "He didn't have to. I reached out to him, to see when he would get off his ass and find her. Even now, I can sense him looking for her."

"You influenced him through the Force, all the way from here?" Luke couldn't help but feel horrified at what Mara was implying.

"I didn't say that, Luke. Besides, I didn't have to; just me telling him before he left the Temple was enough of a motivator for him."

Luke sensed that she was telling the truth; he was more certain of it than Admiral Hesklon's intentions of being honorable with the Jedi with whom he would be working, and that was obviously relieving for him.

Still, he asked, "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because I knew you would object."

He sighed in mild frustration. "Look, Mara, even if Jaina really does become a destructive threat in the future, the fact of that matter is that whatever danger she poses right now is nothing compared to whatever the Dark Nest could levy upon the galaxy. And we both know that Jacen is far too useful to be off looking for Jaina while Gorog is not only building in strength, both in terms of numbers and through Alema's Force-power, but also while we're in this war against the Chiss."

"Luke, I don't see Gorog or the Chiss as much of a threat in my premonitions as I do for Jaina. I'm not saying they're not a threat, but Jaina... what she could be could be truly horrible."

Luke was silent for a long while as he tried to mull over his wife's words.

"I know you have doubts about whether or not Jaina can be redeemed, Luke. But know this: whether he kills her or brings her back to the light, Jacen can't be diverted from his path in finding Jaina, no matter what."

"Mara?"

"Yes?"

Luke hesitated before he asked, "Are you sure that... your premonitions aren't based in-"

"We've also gone through this before, Farmboy. No, my premonitions aren't based in any kind of bias against Jaina. I'm sure of it. Which honestly makes me wonder how and why you can't seem to see it."

"I've been busy, Mara." Even as he said it, Luke couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed at having to use that as an excuse. And that was keeping in mind that the Chiss War was, indeed, a bloody conflict so far.

"Yes, I know that. But even amidst all this suffering and death, Luke, you have to find time to commune with the Force. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't go out and help eliminate the Dark Nest once and for all; what I am saying is that we need to let Jacen find his sister and... well, hope optimistically that it won't end in tragedy for either of them."

Luke was silent for several seconds before he finally said, "Very well. I'll allow Jacen to find Jaina, though I still have my doubts, I'm afraid to admit."

"Thank you, my love," Mara replied in relief.

"In the meantime, I ship out tomorrow afternoon with Kyp, Kyle, Lowie, and Jedi Knights Valin and Jysella Horn, Seff Hellin, and Natua Wan, and that's after they all return from their fronts in the war. They're all we can spare right now thanks to Cal, and from what he told me, the GA commanders who had those Jedi under their watch were resistant to the idea of losing the advantages they had with them."

"Still, the fact that you got them at all is a positive sign, yes?"

"It'll have to do, I suppose."

"You don't think all of them with you will be enough." Mara wasn't asking a question.

"I pray to the Force that they will be."

. . .

If there was anything left of the old Jaina in whatever was in the person that Mara said she was now, Jacen guessed that it would be his sister's predilection as a fighter. Indeed, a dark sider, like a Sith, was someone who used violence, which was more often than not unnecessary, to achieve their goals. And even during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Jaina had been more prone to her darker emotions since they served her so well in combat against the extragalactic invaders.

Thus, if Jacen had any hope in finding Jaina, he had a feeling that she would be using her abilities as she had during that previous war and she would be contributing against the Chiss in the same way. After all, Jacen couldn't imagine her fighting for them, what with her going against them during the Killik crisis from last year, so he estimated that Jaina would be fighting for the Galactic Alliance. Of course, if she were to do that, she would have to assume a new identity; it was hard to maintain anonymity given her exploits against the Yuuzhan Vong, and that was even if she wouldn't have been known as the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia.

So, in his first stop in his search for Jaina, Jacen headed to Denon in his YT-2600 Solo Quest II, which had replaced the first ship to bear that name after it had been destroyed on Hlest the year before.

Hlest; where Jaina had truly given into her dark side, Jacen thought grimly.

Shaking his head out from his reverie, he was still walking to Chief of State Omas' office; it had been a pain to get an appointment with him, especially after the Quest II had to be searched for over an hour in Denon's orbit because of the heightened security going on thanks to the Chiss War. Nevertheless, Jacen supposed he should count himself lucky to even get an audience with Omas, even if he was a notably heroic Jedi in his own right, given that the Chief was probably more busy than Luke was when it came to this war.

Once Jacen was seated in one of the two chairs opposite from Omas, he braced himself against the older man's amicable and inviting expression and just said, "I request any and all documents, classified or otherwise, about the crew manifests of every Galactic Alliance warship in active service, Chief Omas."

The older man's eyes widened in shock before narrowing to suspicion. "May I ask why, Jedi Solo?"

"I believe my sister may be fighting in this war using an alternative persona, Mr. Chief," Jacen answered with a straight face. Even as he said it, and even though he believed it, he couldn't help but feel stupid now that that logic actually came out of his mouth.

"I see," Omas said skeptically. "And... what evidence do you have for this theory, Jacen?"

"The word of my aunt," he replied more confidently. "Her connection to the Force has become stronger than it was just last year. She's been having premonitions that my sister is alive and... she may become a great danger to the Jedi in the future." Though he had expressed his disbelief at Mara's assertion that Jaina was still alive, and that was ignoring the fact that she told him to kill her, Jacen couldn't shake the feeling that his aunt wasn't suffering from any kind of delusion, whether it was somehow a result of her blindness or something else.

"Is that so?" Omas asked, still very skeptical.

"Yes, it is," Jacen affirmed with a brief nod.

Omas took a deep breath before he said, "Jacen, while I appreciate your involvement in this war so far, and while I haven't forgotten your contributions during the Yuuzhan Vong War, you have to understand that giving you virtually unlimited access to confidential information on warship crew manifests is a tall order even for me. And even with the Jedi's help in this war, there are still those in the GA's military, even in the upper echelons of the command structure, who doubt the Jedi as valid allies, I'm sorry to say."

"I understand that, Mr. Chief," Jacen replied patiently. "But even if you can't get me that kind of access, I need some kind of starting point, something to narrow down where Jaina could be in this war."

After a moment of contemplative silence, Omas asked, "And what is it that you would be looking for, Jacen?"

"Well, um... I guess a female human pilot, for starters. But not just any female human pilot, who would be in her mid-twenties, like me right now. She would have to be a pilot of great skill, someone who would be impressive. Someone who probably received a lot of commendations."

"Hmm. Well, while I haven't been kept abreast of any particular female pilots who would match your sister's skills, I believe I may be able to contact a few admirals and captains about this. Of course, that would take some time, and I have other matters I have to attend to in the meantime."

"Well, then, what about someone who joined the ranks of one of the GA Navy's capital ships recently? Or... or..."

"Or what, Jacen?"

"Or what about someone who may not exactly be a conventional part of the military structure?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Faking a background to join the military would be very tricky. It'd be doable, and it would take quite some time obviously, but it would be tricky. And while Jaina did gain the reputation of being the Trickster goddess of the Yuuzhan Vong during that war, something tells me that she would go for a much simpler approach for this."

"What do you suggest she'd do, Jacen?"

"Join as a mercenary."

"A mercenary?"

Jacen nodded. "The GA military does accept mercs in this war, doesn't it, Mr. Chief?"

Omas' lips thinned in a straight line. "Not officially, no," he said carefully.

"Not officially. I see."

The two men stared each other down for a long moment before it was Omas who emitted a sigh of defeat.

"Okay, look," the Chief of State of the GA began, "this part of the conversation never happened, is that understood?"

"What part of the conversation?" Jacen retorted with a knowing smirk.

Omas reflected that in his own expression briefly before returning to one of worry. Then he reached under his desk, produced a black datapad that was a few inches smaller in width and length than the average 'pad, and slid it across his desktop to Jacen.

"This is a list that I've had my own personal spies compile for me over the course of the war," Omas began, "that feature the names of mercenaries who were unofficially part of the effort against the Chiss. While some in this government's Intelligence community would think that it's best for me not to know this kind of information, I find it somewhat too underhanded even in these times to use the likes of Mandalorians and other kinds of mercenaries in this conflict. Still, I allow for some to slip through the cracks provided they don't do anything too egregious or immoral."

"And those who do?"

"Well... I don't think that's relevant to your search for Jaina, now is it, Jedi Solo?"

"I suppose not." Now it was Jacen's turn to sound skeptical and suspicious of Omas.

The Chief of State was silent again before he said, "You do understand that if that information leaks out to anyone, Jacen, even to the Jedi Order-"

"I get the gist, Mr. Chief. Thank you for this. I won't tell anyone."

Omas nodded reluctantly. "I'll give you five minutes to copy the data from that 'pad to your own. Afterwards, when you find what you need, you will erase that data completely."

"I promise I will. You have my word as a Jedi." Jacen then linked both the 'pad that Omas had given him and his own so that the data could be copied into the latter.

"I guess that'll have to be enough," Omas said with a perturbed tone.