When the New Purpose dropped out of hyperspace about a week after Darth Judicar's meeting with Admiral Iosha, the former looked out through her ship's viewport and saw a beautiful planet with vast rivers, plains, mountains, and jungles. Through her Force-senses, however, she could feel that this world—its name being Kesh, she remembered—was steeped in the dark side of the Force by some of the millions of inhabitants who lived on it.

And as she reached out to those presences, she could feel some of them—only a few dozen or so—reaching back to her through the Force. Unlike her rather clear Force-conversation with Iosha before she met the woman face-to-face, the presences that Judicar was feeling on Kesh were only giving vague intimations to her, namely of curiosity and fear. In response, she gave them calming sensations, indicating that she had no intention of hurting or killing any of them and that she only wanted to speak to them.

Indeed, she wanted to speak to them. But from what little she learned from the data package that Iosha gave her, Judicar had far greater intentions for this pocket of lost Sith than to simply have a nice chat with them.

When the presences she had felt gave her the impression of permission to meet with her, Judicar gave a simple, "Thank you," as clearly as she could to them through the Force before she she piloted the Purpose towards the planet. Soon after entering its atmosphere, she vectored toward a clearing in a jungle that was near a city, as the presences indicated to her, and set her ship down there.

From there, it was a half-hour hike from the landing site towards the city. When Judicar finally arrived, she found herself being gawked at by various humans and purple-skinned humanoids, with both species in this gathering having members that didn't even wield the Force. Nevertheless, she pressed on, ignoring each of them in turn, as she felt that the presences who contacted her specifically were somewhere further along in the metropolis.

As Judicar walked, however, it took her a few seconds to realize that she was being followed. She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned to see a dark-haired nine-year-old human girl with a curious expression on her face who was only a few meters away. The girl's Force-presence, though, was noticeably guarded, and Judicar realized that if she wanted to know what the child's intentions with her were without actually speaking to her, she would have to exert a considerable amount of her own power to force through her will.

Judicar narrowed her eyes at the girl, who stood resolute with the expressions on her face, in her body language, and in her Force-presence still holding. But after a few tense seconds of silence, Judicar turned back and resumed her pace, uncaring that the child was still following her.

After several minutes of walking and ignoring passersby who looked at her, Judicar rounded the corner of a building and found herself facing a collection of six individuals who varied from human to purple-skinned humanoid; they all stared blankly back at her. At the center of this collection was a particularly elderly-looking balding human man who radiated Force-power much greater than the others at either side of him.

Indeed, Judicar had felt this kind of power in very few individuals before when she was Jaina Solo; one of those people who came to mind was Luke Skywalker.

"Who are you?" the elderly man asked.

The newcomer Sith straightened to her full height. "I am Darth Judicar, Dark Lord of the Sith. And you are?"

"I am Grand Lord Darish Vol of the Lost Tribe of the Sith," the elderly man answered. "And what is the purpose of your arrival to our world, Lord Judicar?"

"I have come to free your people from their isolation on this world, Grand Lord Vol," Judicar answered.

"Oh, really?" Vol asked. "How so?"

"Well, after I learned about the presence of your people on this world-"

"How did you learn about us?" a male purple-skinned man, who appeared much younger than the Grand Lord, cut in.

"Now, now, High Lord Taalon," Vol said calmly, "allow Lord Judicar to answer our questions. If you have any of your own, wait until she has finished speaking."

"My apologies, Grand Lord Vol," Lord Taalon said with an obeisant nod of his head.

In spite of Taalon's words, Judicar couldn't help but feel some resentment coming from the purple-skinned man's Force-presence.

"You were saying, Lord Judicar?" Vol asked.

"Ah, yes. After I learned about your people here on this world, Lord Vol, I realized that if I were to help my fellow Sith get free of their isolation from the rest of the galaxy, it would take quite some time, I believe. After all, I am just a single Sith with a single ship. However, I do believe that if we were to acquire more ships, there may be a way for your people to rejoin the galaxy."

"What did you have in mind?" Vol inquired.

"Piracy, of course," Judicar answered. "Not a very elegant solution, I know, but an effective one, I'd say."

"And one I'm inclined to agree with," Vol returned. "Still, I am curious, Lord Judicar, what do you have to gain from this alliance with the Lost Tribe of the Sith?"

And there was the question that Judicar had anticipated as the best-case-scenario result from this encounter. Indeed, just as she had no interest in being subordinate to whatever Sith organization that Admirals Iosha and Ulaska were part of, neither did she have any interest in being subordinate to this Lost Tribe that had been marooned on a backwater planet in Wild Space for over five millennia.

But if there was a difference between Iosha and Ulaska's Sith and the Lost Tribe, it was this: Judicar could build them up from their foundations and gradually claim power from Vol and his immediate subordinates in a way that she doubted she could claim from whomever the two Chiss Sith swore fealty to. Judicar had little doubt in her mind that it would be difficult and time-consuming. And if these Sith were true to their name, they would be on the lookout for treachery from within their ranks, and that was to say nothing about whatever they thought about an outsider like Judicar.

Still, the answer that she had in her mind was as easy as it was immediate. If there was ever an enemy that could unite Sith, it was the enemy that she was about to announce.

"The downfall of the Jedi Order," Judicar answered simply. "Something that I believe that you would stand to benefit from; should you agree to leave this planet, of course. Even now, the Jedi are in a state of war with a power foreign to their part of space. We can use that to our advantage to build up our fleet so that we may defeat them at their weakest."

Vol smiled faintly while his followers remained impassive and silent. "Well, do go on, Lord Judicar. What did you have in mind to start?"

"Well, on my way over to you, Lord Vol," Judicar began, "I had been formulating a plan. I hope you don't mind if I were to borrow one of your people's children to get us started with our piracy."

Judicar turned her head and directed her gaze at the girl who had followed her from earlier; again, her Force-presence remained opaque to a passive scan of her intentions as her face and body language remained neutral.

"Tyro Khai?" Vol asked the girl.

"Yes, Grand Lord Vol?" the child asked with an obeisant dip of her head. Unlike with Taalon, though, Judicar sensed no resentment or hint of dissent from Tyro Khai; only obedience and a willingness to do the best she could to honor her elders.

"I see you have taken a particular interest in our guest here," Vol said. "Were I to have your parents' permission, would you be willing to accompany Lord Judicar on whatever mission she has in mind?"

Khai nodded again. "I live to obey, Grand Lord Vol."

Judicar grinned. Oh, yes, she thought; this one would be quite useful.

And as she looked back to Vol and his subordinates, a thought occurred to Judicar: why didn't Iosha and Ulaska's Sith enlist the Lost Tribe for their own purposes? Surely, with the numbers they have even now...

No, Judicar thought. It didn't matter why Iosha and Ulaska's Sith didn't want the Lost Tribe. If they weren't smart enough to take an opportunity like this for themselves and would rather give them to Judicar with no strings attached, then Iosha and Ulaska's Sith didn't deserve to rule the galaxy.

So, with that thought out of the way, Judicar smiled faintly as she returned her gaze upon Vol and his immediate subordinates.

"Well, then, Grand Lord Vol," Judicar said, "before we get started, I hope you don't mind if you were to assign someone to me, say a record keeper, to tell me everything there is to know about your people's culture and history first."

"We would be happy to oblige," Vol replied before waving a hand and turning away, indicating that Judicar should follow.

. . .

In the week that had passed since Jacen actively disobeyed Master Hamner's orders to assist Masters Ramis and Lobi at Adumar, he had finally narrowed his search for Ben in the Kanz sector to a system designated MZX32905. And to further facilitate his unsanctioned search for his cousin, Jacen had deliberately ignored the calls that he received from both Master Hamner and Nelani Dinn; at this point, he didn't know if he had been exiled from the Jedi Order or if Hamner had put out a search for him nor did Jacen care. Because, at the present time, all the young Knight cared about was rescuing Ben from whatever machinations his own sister and whomever she worked for or with had in mind for him.

Ahead, Jacen spotted a large asteroid through the Solo Quest II's viewport; at first glance, it looked like any normal asteroid, and his ship's sensors seemed to confirm that. But a feeling—whether it was through the Force or from his own gut—told Jacen that there was more to this giant rock than met the eye. So he centered himself and initiated an active Force-scan to see if there was anything about this mass that would bear any interest to him; namely, if it concerned Ben at all.

For the first two minutes, Jacen got nothing. But then, as if he saw something move through a crack in a wall, he felt a small presence at the periphery of his senses. Through the Force, Jacen chased after that sensation, knowing that if he were to latch onto it somehow, he would at least get a lead in searching for Ben.

The presence he felt was elusive, but after what felt like hours, he finally caught onto it and managed to convey through the Force, Gotcha.

The reply he got was, Do you now? A chuckle followed and faded away, leaving Jacen with a great sense of unease and an intimation that that little Force-chase was nothing more than a prelude to some larger game that his quarry had in mind.

Nevertheless, he piloted the Quest toward the asteroid. After several minutes, he found an opening on the giant rock's surface and, as he trusted the Force to guide his hand better than his ship's sensors, he allowed his actions to be directed by feeling through the dark lifeless corridors that had no doubt been artificially bored into centuries ago.

Eventually, he found a landing pad to set the Quest down upon. And after confirmation from the ship's sensors that the air was suitably breathable and had no detectable contaminants, he cycled the vessel down and stepped out soon after.

Come, Jedi, come, the voice from before said in Jacen's mind. Your trial awaits you.

Warily, Jacen followed where he felt the voice bade him. More than ever, he felt—no, he knew—that what he was stepping into was a trap. Yet he knew that if he didn't confront whatever or whomever awaited him, he wasn't going to get any closer to finding Ben. That, and whomever this person was would obviously be able to counter whatever he would have in mind to avoid the traps that awaited him.

Oh, fear not, the voice said to him condescendingly. The only traps that await you here are the ones in your mind.

Jacen felt truth behind those words inasmuch as he felt the dark intent behind them. Whomever was speaking to him wanted to face him, but in a way that would first assault, if not outright destroy, his mind. As he took his steps further and further from the landing pad to a dark cavern ahead, Jacen couldn't help but think if he was about to have his own version of what Uncle Luke had when he trained under Yoda on Dagobah over three decades before.

Before he was fully submerged in the cavern's darkness, Jacen pulled out a foldable glow-rod from his utility belt and activated it. Unfortunately, the green light that shone around him did little to illuminate the all-encompassing darkness that surrounded him as he kept walking forward. As in the Force-chase, he neither saw nor sensed anything for quite some time; not one hint or sign of life aside from his own footsteps, breathing, or heartbeat. And the more he tried to reach out to the elusive Force-presence, it was as if she had completely disappeared, as if she had never been aboard this asteroid to begin with, and that what had brought Jacen here was all but an illusion, a metaphorical mirage, from the Force itself.

But just as he thought that, Jacen whirled around when he heard laughter echoing off the walls. Still, though, he neither sensed or saw anything, even though the laughter sounded relatively close to him. However, that didn't stop him from continuing to spin in place as he tried to find out where the laughter was coming from.

When he finally decided to stop spinning on account of an oncoming bout of dizziness, Jacen centered himself once again as he tried to block out the laughter from his thoughts. Yet the echoes continued to persist even as he retreated into the deepest recesses of his mind, up to the point where he would have been able to depart from his body and rejoin the Force.

But then that was when he stopped and his eyes flashed open; because at that point, he recognized the voice from which the laughter came.

"Vergere?" he asked.

That was when the laughter stopped completely. And once again, aside from the sounds he made, complete quietude surrounded him as much as the physical darkness did, and then Jacen wondered what else, if anything, was going to emerge from the cavern.

And then Vergere's voice returned, with none of the mirth that accompanied what Jacen realized now was mocking laughter.

"The Force cannot deceive you, Jacen. It does not provide illusions or mirages to your senses. Only you do that for yourself. And as for whether or not you can let others deceive you..."

Vergere's voice trailed off as Jacen felt a mounting sense of danger coming from all around him. At the last possible second, however, did he drop the glow-rod and whip out his activated lightsaber to deflect the red-lined lightwhip that emerged from off to his right.

"...is also on you," Vergere's voice concluded.

Jacen then backpedaled as his fight with the darkened figure ahead began.