When Tahiri and Lowie made it to the top level of the nestship through the turbolift shaft that they had been bounding off of, the latter slashed his brown-bladed lightsaber through the doors before he rolled into this level's corridor. Tahiri followed suit with a duck-and-roll of her own, and once they were both on their feet, they wasted no time in rushing toward the Force-presence that they both knew was Alema.
Along the way, they encountered yet more Killiks and the occasional Joiners who brandished vibroblades and blasters to try to kill the two Force-users. However, without a more direct connection to the Force, like Alema had, none of the Killiks or Joiners could stand up to the Force-enhanced combat capabilities of either Tahiri or Lowie in hand-to-hand combat, resulting in those Gorog members dying within seconds. As for blasters, Lowie was able to deflect the laser bolts that were fired in his direction back at the firers while Tahiri used Force-speed to evade the shots meant for her before she swiped in and cut down her intended opponents. Both Force-users were also smart enough to destroy the weapons by breaking them, which included slicing them at the pommels and barrels or just by using the Force to crumple the blasters.
After several minutes of running through various twists and bends on this level, Tahiri and Lowie came across the corridor that led to the nestship's bridge. Unfortunately, they both had to duck to either side of the corridor when an E-web mounted blaster, which had been placed right in front of the door, began firing rapidly at them under the hands of a five-foot tall Killik.
Through their mind-meld, Tahiri and Lowie knew that neither of them had the skill necessary to deflect or evade the E-web's blasters; after all, Tahiri could only use Force-speed in quick bursts, and she knew that there was virtually no way she could get to the E-web before she got gunned down. And with Killiks closing in on either side of their respective corridors—it seemed that both Force-users had killed all of the Joiners who were on this nestship, sans Alema—they knew they had to come up with something quick.
Tahiri then reached out to Luke, only to feel that his presence felt heavily distracted and endangered. She shook her head at Lowie, who only returned a nod before he twirled around to face his own swarm of Killiks. With a mighty Wookiee battle-cry, he charged at the insectoids with his lightsaber whirling before him.
But just before he reached his line of Killiks (who all seemed to be, thankfully, unarmed, as if they had run out of blasters and vibroblades), he reached out through the Force for several of the foremost insectoids and then telekinetically flung them into the E-web's line of fire. Lowie then jumped back so that he appeared at the intersection, too, just before any of the Killiks could pick themselves up from the deck.
Then, with another use of the Force, Lowie quickly gathered all of the Killiks in front of him and formed them into a makeshift shield to absorb the laser bolts meant for him. Hurriedly, Tahiri ducked behind him as he charged forward again, his Wookiee battle-cry renewed, as the E-web's bolts rapidly disintegrated the dead Killiks before him.
But once they were all but useless as shields, Lowie allowed their charred carcasses to drop before him even as he leaped high into the air; simultaneously, Tahiri dodged to her right, and that was just before Lowie swiped down at the Killik that manned the E-web with a decapitating strike.
With nothing to stop him now, Lowie plunged his lightsaber into the reinforced door that led into the nestship's bridge as he telepathically communed to Tahiri, Keep those bugs off my back!
"Got it!" she replied aloud as she took up the station behind the E-web. However, once she squeezed the trigger, it clicked empty.
"Kriff it! Just my luck!" she exclaimed before she stepped around it and adopted a defensive stance with both vibroblades held out before her. Facing the opposite direction from Lowie, she braced herself and breathed heavily to begin slashing away the swarm of Killiks that she was about to meet.
But just when they were about a meter before her, she dropped both vibroblades and unleashed a torrent of Force-lightning from each hand. The foremost Killiks were burned to crisps that collapsed to the deck in seconds before the next line of insectoids fell before her wrath.
Amidst her concentration, she could feel Lowie's judgmental glare from behind her. He even roared once to voice his disapproval.
"Just shut up and keep cutting!" Tahiri exclaimed without looking away at her frying of the Killiks. "You can chastise me about the dark side later, you walking carpet!"
Lowie voiced his displeasure with a deliberately loud grunt but nevertheless shut up as Tahiri asked and resumed cutting into the reinforced door.
About a minute later, the chunk of door that Lowie had cut around fell inward. But before he could rush in, he was blasted back off his feet. His body collided with Tahiri from behind, which ceased her double torrent of Force-lightning, and they both rolled along the deck before they were swarmed by the remaining Killiks.
The next thing both Force-users knew, once their views were unobstructed by the insectoids that were all around them, they were on their knees with their arms behind them and their physical weapons confiscated. And before them, Alema stumbled out of the bridge with her face looking pale against her natural blue complexion, her eyes bloodshot, and her teeth bared in obvious anger. She lurched toward them with a red-bladed lightsaber held in her Killik hand-which, as Tahiri remembered, was the result of her lopping the Twi'lek's natural arm off on that jungle world over a year ago-while her other hand gripped tightly upon one of her lekku head-tails.
"Skywalker is powerful!" Alema exclaimed. "Oh, yes, he is! But when I kill you, he will know how we feel as he and his vermin forces continue to kill us! And when you're dead, he will-"
The Twi'lek was cut off from saying anymore when Lowie reeled his head back and bit deep into the neck of the Killik behind him, which slackened the grip along his left arm. With that freed, he swiped at the insectoid that held his other arm and then suddenly pulled himself forward along the deck; this shook off the Killiks which held him by the legs.
In less than a second, he was on his feet and grabbed at Alema's lightsaber-wielding hand before she had a chance to strike him down. With his other hand, she pinned her up against the bulkhead behind her by the neck while growling at her in Shyriiwook.
Naturally, the Killiks around Tahiri released her, forgetting about her as a threat for the moment, so they could attack Lowie from behind to save their queen. But with her hands freed, Tahiri turned and dropped to her back to renew her Force-lightning attack on the seemingly endless tide of Gorog around her.
As Tahiri burned away the Killiks that kept coming, Alema wrestled vainly in Lowie's grasp while he continued to try to talk her down.
"Let this all go, Alema!" he exclaimed in his own language. "You're better than this, I know it! Tahiri knows it! Master Skywalker knows it! Do you think that if Numa were here right now-"
"SHUT UUUUP!" Alema exclaimed before a sudden wave of the Force emanated from her body, which, again, blew Lowie back. He collided with the bulkhead behind him before he collapsed to the deck on his hands and knees.
But before he could pick himself back up, Alema used her free hand to stun Lowie with her own torrent of Force-lightning, which prevented him from collecting himself from the deck. Thus, he was helpless as Alema advanced on him slowly, her face still looking as if she was in the midst of of torture.
"Lowie, no!" Tahiri exclaimed as she spared an upside down look from her prone state. Quickly, she brought her right hand toward Alema, who now stopped as she brought her lightsaber up to absorb Tahiri's lethal energy.
The three of them stayed that way for about half a minute, with Lowie actively resisting Alema's efforts to kill him with some Force-resistance, before the entire nestship quaked. The Force-lightning from both Tahiri and Alema ceased as the latter and her Killiks collapsed to the deck just as the human and Wookiee struggled to push themselves back to their feet.
But just as they made it, the nestship rocked again, and they joined Alema and the Killiks in dropping to the deck.
The nestship is being attacked! Lowie communed in her mind-meld with Tahiri.
What are they doing? Tahiri returned. Don't they know we're here? We can end this without further bloodshed if they just-
She was cut off from communing more when the nestship rocked yet again from what had to be a barrage of turbolaser fire coming from either the Hoth's Counter, Thrawn's Vindication, or any one of the snubfighters from either the Galactic Alliance or Empire of the Hand.
After a couple more critical hits to the nestship, Alema, who seemed to have lost her lightsaber in the chaos, and the remaining Killiks in the corridor finally managed to push themselves back to their feet before they turned from the bridge and began running the opposite way.
Hurriedly, Tahiri looked for at least one of her vibroblades and found both of them lying side-by-side in less than five seconds. With the Force, she pulled each of them into one of her hands before she leaped to her feet and moved to intercept Alema.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Tahiri exclaimed as she thrust the blade in her left hand at her.
As expected, Alema spun out of the way like the skilled dancer that she was right in the path of Tahiri's next blade, which she intended to gouge right into the other woman's midsection.
However, Alema must have expected that, because she deflected the second incoming blade with a swipe of her Twi'lek hand before her lightsaber slid down the sleeve of the Killik one.
And when Alema pressed the pommel up to Tahiri's chin, the Twi'lek snarled even as sweat poured down her face in the midst of whatever mental torture she was enduring right now.
But then the sound of a lightsaber igniting occurred from behind Alema instead of in front of her. Quickly, the Twi'lek dropped to her haunches, releasing her grip from Tahiri in the process, and spun around to activate her own lightsaber.
Her blade swiped through Lowie's natural leg, which had been set forth before her, and he collapsed to his back in pain. Then Alema swiped back to try to cut both of Tahiri's legs out from under her, only for the human to flip back to escape from the strike.
When Tahiri landed on her feet, however, she looked on in horror as Alema plunged her lightsaber right into Lowie's chest.
With a wordless scream, Tahiri dropped both vibroblades and brought up both hands to fry Alema from behind. But the Twi'lek had deactivated her lightsaber and let it roll away from her in quick succession before she turned and met the human's Force-lightning torrent with one of her own.
Unfortunately for Alema, her defense lasted for only a few seconds before Tahiri's Force-lightning broke through and began overwhelming her. The human couldn't help but smile through the tears now forming in her eyes even as she felt Lowie's life-force drain away.
But even the twisted pleasure that she gained from torturing Alema to death was interrupted by a sudden and intense pain in her side. Her torrent ceased before she looked down and found a vibroblade in her right ribcage; a toddler-sized Killik, who trembled in the pain that it shared with Alema, stood looking back up at Tahiri in hatred.
The human then collapsed to her intact side as her vision blurred before her. But even before she passed out, she saw an unconscious Alema being taken by a small gathering of Killiks, with the one who stuck Tahiri among them, away.
"Lowie..." Tahiri whispered before darkness overcame her sight.
. . .
When Jacen entered the Well of the World Brain, he was shocked and appalled by the sight before him. Several maimed bodies that were either fried to a crisp or had lightsaber wounds, some of whom at least still had their limbs attached to their bodies, surrounded him. They all either appeared to have been scientists, including some Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, or military personnel based on what he could make out from the tattered remnants of their clothing.
But in the massive pool before him, the corpse of the World Brain itself had sunk deep inside. Jacen rushed to the edge and bent down on one knee to get a closer look. From what he could tell from his vantage point, it had been burned like so many of the humans and humanoids around him.
He closed his eyes and grunted in agony as tears leaked through his eyelids.
"I'm so sorry, my friend," he whispered.
He didn't notice a shadow pass over soundlessly from behind him.
"So," he heard an all-too familiar voice say, "what are you gonna do now, Jace?"
Slowly, deliberately, Jacen stood back up and forced himself to turn to face Jaina, who was only meters away. Through the blurring of his vision caused by his tears, he couldn't make out the finer details of his sister's face, though, even then, he could tell that her skin seemed much paler than before.
"What did that thing really mean to you?" Jaina asked with a condescending tone. "Could it mean anything more than our own bond? Than the bond that we had with Anakin? With Mom and Dad? With our friends? Huh? HUH?!"
"What have you done, Jaina?" Jacen asked through gritted teeth.
"I just gave you some incentive. To actually stop with all of your pointless, whining philosophizing and indecisiveness and make a decision based on what your gut tells you to do. So what does your gut tell you to do now, brother?"
"You didn't have to do any of this, Jaina," he said as his voice broke from his feeble attempts at controlling his emotions.
"You're right, I didn't have to," Jaina said, her tone now more dismissive. "I wanted to," she continued more directly. "I wanted to rid this galaxy of one more Vong abomination. These people, Jacen..." She trailed off as she waved at the slaughtered scientists and soldiers around them. "Shouldn't have been dealing with that squid piece of poodoo that you loved so much down there. They should have killed it when they had the chance, like when we had the chance when we took Coruscant back."
"It wouldn't have been the right thing to-"
"Right thing to do, my ass! That's all you and Uncle Luke were concerned with during the Vong War! Especially you! The right thing to do." She scoffed. "The right thing to do cost so many lives, so many Jedi lives! You think any of them can look at us from whatever afterlife awaits us and say that what we did was the right thing to do? Miko Reglia? Daeshara'cor? Wurth Skidder? Numa Rar? Ulaha Kore? Eryl Besa? Jovan Drark? The Hara sisters? Ana-"
"Don't you dare say his name," Jacen interrupted firmly.
"Why not? He was my brother, too."
"He'd be ashamed of what you've become."
Jaina growled. But then, with a grimace, she clenched her fists and shook her head while closing her eyes. "No, no, no. I'm letting you decide, Jacen. So decide. What are you going to do? Hmm?"
Jacen panted deeply from anger. "I have to take you in, Jaina."
She sneered. "And if you can't? What are you gonna do, kill me?"
Jacen's jaw dropped as the image of Mara telling him that he needed to do just that flashed through his mind. But he shook his head to clear his aunt's voice, to clear her advice, from his thoughts.
"I'm going to do... what I have to do, Jaina," Jacen said angrily.
Her eyebrows lifted as if she were impressed by his gall. "In that case..." She trailed off before her red-bladed lightsaber suddenly appeared in her hand, as if by magic, fully ignited. "Put your money where your mouth is, Jace."
But before he could even reach for his own physical weapon, Jacen collapsed to his hands and knees as he felt one of his closest friends merge with the Force.
"Lowie, no!" he screamed to the ground.
And that was when Jaina took advantage of the distraction to strike down upon Jacen's head.
