Like a fog suddenly being lifted, Jacen felt his Force-senses to be cleared up in a snap from the pervasive cloud brought on by Darth Acheron. And for a moment afterwards, he sensed Jaina's tainted presence on Centerpoint; in that brief instant, though, he could sense that she was distressed, as if she was running away from something that had nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, before he could get a lock on her location, she shut her presence off from him, making herself small through the Force, just as he had taught her over a year ago.

From his meditative stance on the floor of his quarters, Jacen didn't even consider why Acheron had decided to clear up the perpetual Force-fog that had been keeping him from sensing Jaina as well as in that moment. Instead, he concentrated and attempted to try to find his sister's shrunken presence, looking to see if there was some way, some flaw in her technique, that he could exploit so that he could find her. He counted himself lucky that Thrackan saw fit to leave him alone for today, as he seemed not to need him, which suited Jacen just fine since that gave him time to try to locate Jaina.

But in looking for her specifically, he soon found something he hadn't seen or felt in several years: a lightsaber with a distinct Force-impression.

The impression of his and Jaina's dead brother, Anakin.

Jacen reeled from that feeling as this discovery shook him to the point that his eyes snapped open, breaking him out of his meditation. Before the thought crossed his mind to use that as a way to track Jaina, he had to wonder why his sister would bring their brother's lightsaber to Centerpoint. The last time either of them had seen it—or the last time Jacen had seen it, as it had become apparent—was when their father lodged it into the tree that served as the site of Chewbacca's memorial after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War. What purpose would Jaina have for bringing that 'saber to this station?

Jacen.

He blinked at the sound of his name ringing through his head. It took him a moment to recognize that the voice belonged to his mother, and she was trying to reach out to him through the Force. Shutting his eyes again, he reached back out to her and asked, Mom? Are you in the Corellian system?

Yes, I am, Jacen, and your father and Jaden Korr are here, too. I'm sorry I didn't contact you earlier since we've been here for the past few days now. I've been trying to get in touch with Jaina, and at one point, I did. But, Jacen... I fear she may be lost to us.

Jacen hesitated in his response. I know it feels like that, Mom, he communed to her warily. But I need to try to reach out to her still; maybe I can even make it up to her for our confrontation on Coruscant.

Jacen... you know what she's done. To everyone on the Venture. To Mara. She kidnapped Ben and had him undergo... She's not the Jaina we know anymore.

Jacen felt his heart sink at his own mother's implication, bringing him back to what Aunt Mara had last said to him before she died. It was one thing for her to say what she said, but for Jacen's own mother to suggest what he was thinking was something else entirely.

What are you saying, Mom?

What I'm saying, Jacen, is that when you see Jaina next... don't let what the two of you had before get in the way... of what needs to be done.

Mom... are you saying that... Jaina needs to die?

Jacen, please, don't-

I can't give up on her like that. She's my sister, your daughter. If it were me in Jaina's place, who did the things she did, if not worse, would you and Dad be so willing to give up on me? I can't see it in either of you. I can see it in Mara, but you-

Just find your sister, Jacen, Leia's voice communed emphatically. And make it quick. And just like that, Leia's presence seemed to fall away from Jacen's senses.

A part of him wanted to try to reach out to his mother again, to see if he could make her see reason and reconsider what she was asking him to do. Jacen had already wanted to kill Jaina after she killed the World Brain and all those Shapers and scientists on Coruscant, but as he just told Leia, he wanted to at least make an effort at atoning for that by bringing his sister back to the light side of the Force.

And if he was going to do that, he might as well start by tracking Anakin's lightsaber. And since that weapon used a Yuuzhan Vong lambent crystal, it would be better if Jacen were to switch to his Vongsense to get a better read on it.

As he did, he cast his senses with a metaphorical wide net over Centerpoint. Consequently, he not only felt the lambent crystal elsewhere on the station, but also the part of Acheron, when she had been Tahiri, that had been Shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong on Yavin 4 so many years ago. And it was then that Jacen could sense that she was in an unconscious state; not sleeping, especially since it was currently early afternoon on Centerpoint, but outright unconscious, as if she had been knocked out.

With that realization, Jacen froze in indecision. The dominant part of him wanted to go and look for Jaina to stop her before she did whatever she intended to do on Centerpoint. His more inquisitive side, however, wanted to learn why Thrackan thought it was a good idea to knock her unconscious; considering the fact that she was only one of two Force-users on this station who could protect him from this mysterious Sith organization that Acheron was once part of, whatever the reason had to be must have been crucial. Perhaps Acheron finally decided to chance it and try to break out of Thrackan's grasp, resulting in her failure?

But if that were the case, why didn't Acheron have some way to conceal Jaina from Jacen's senses? Certainly telling Jaina about it through the Force would have been helpful so that her brother wouldn't have been able to get a track on her or even discover that she had Anakin's lightsaber.

With that question raised in his mind, Jacen's inquisitive side gradually overcame his more immediately caring side as Jaina's twin brother. It could have been that maybe Acheron didn't have that kind of forethought, but Jacen highly doubted it; even before she became a Sith, Tahiri had become much more logical when she bonded with the Yuuzhan Vong personality known as Riina Kwaad. So it wouldn't be like her as a Sith to make such a foolhardy move.

The more he thought about it, the more Jacen convinced himself that whatever the reason Thrackan had to knock Acheron out, it was something that might even concern him and Jaina to some extent. And until he learned what that reason was, he was going to have this nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that, somehow, might end up compromising him if he were to search for Jaina right then.

On the other hand, if he were to confront Thrackan to find out why he knocked out Acheron, he could be giving Jaina valuable time to do whatever she intended to do on Centerpoint. For all he knew, not going after her as a priority could mean disaster later down the line.

He hadn't felt this conflicted since before he was taken in by Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong, he realized.

Ultimately, however, he decided that his sister could wait. Until he had all the answers he needed, he knew he wasn't ready to face her. And after that conversation with Leia, Jacen had a feeling that he might not be in the right emotional state to confront Jaina anyway; he could only hope that this wasn't the wrong decision.

So he unfolded himself from his meditative stance and left his quarters. He immediately got a read on Thrackan's location via his Force-presence and, one turbolift ride later, headed straight to his office.

This time, there were two guards armed with blaster carbines standing at either side of the door; Jacen figured that they must have been there to compensate for his and Acheron's absence for today.

The guard to Jacen's left asked him, "Is Thrackan expecting you?"

"Yes, he is," he replied with a wave of his natural hand.

A moment later, they both said simultaneously, "Alright, you can go in."

When Jacen stepped inside, Thrackan looked up at him from behind his desk suspiciously; the two guards who stood behind him remained stoic and silent.

"Jacen," Sal-Solo said, "I wasn't expecting you."

The Jedi then used the Force to knock both guards' heads back against the wall behind them before either of them could react to their employer's remark; they collapsed to the floor like dolls. And before Sal-Solo could press a button on his desk to call up security or activate an anti-Jedi trap, Jacen Force-pinned his second cousin's arms to his chair's armrests.

"Guards!" Sal-Solo called out to the ones standing outside. "Guards, help!"

"They can't hear you," Jacen informed him darkly. "I'm using the Force to mute any sound in here that they could hear."

"Alright, okay, what do you want?" Sal-Solo asked in a panic.

"Why'd you knock out Acheron?"

"What? You could feel that?"

"Of course I can. And even if I wasn't looking for it through the Force, you forget that her being conscious, or even in a meditative or natural sleeping state, was part of what was keeping me from sensing Jaina on this station. Once I sensed my sister again, I realized that something was up with Acheron, and I thought you might know something about it. So don't try lying to me; you know I can sense it."

Sal-Solo grimaced over the fact that, for once, since he had become Head of State of Corellia and Centerpoint, he was the one who had been outdone by a Force-sensitive. "I shoulda given you an ankle bracelet while you were in bacta!"

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't have trusted in our familial bond exclusively, Thrackan," Jacen remarked lightly. "Now spill."

Sal-Solo exhaled angrily. "I take it you remember that droid that had your late brother's personality, Jacen?"

The Jedi's eyes widened in shock. "What about it?" he asked evenly.

"Well, we got him back online," Sal-Solo replied.

"You what?!" Jacen exclaimed.

"Relax, he doesn't remember anything you said to him," Sal-Solo said as if that was what Jacen cared about. "In fact, it's a backup of Anakin's memories, as fresh as the ones we put into the program that you'd talked to before you convinced it to wipe out all of its command functions over Centerpoint. However, it's still takin' us a while to get it hooked up with those functions again, so... well, after looking into Acheron's background as Tahiri Veila and learning about the fact that she and Anakin were good friends, if not more than that..."

"What, you thought that if she were to meet with this droid, Thrackan, she might somehow help it to... get it to hook up with its command functions again or somethin' like that? You thought she could somehow use the Force to get done faster what your scientists couldn't? And you thought that Tahiri's connection to Anakin when she was younger would be the lynchpin to that?"

"Somethin' like that. A long shot, I know, but I figured that maybe the Force would help, you know, speed things along. Especially with the GA and Chiss fleets coming here."

"You were desperate."

"Wouldn't you be if you were in my place?"

"If I were in your place, I wouldn't be a xenophobic isolationist who tries to use this station as a giant gun on the rest of the galaxy."

"Oh, how-"

"Or use the memories and DNA of a dead teenager to try to control that giant gun."

"Look, spare me your Jedi moralizing! The GA and Chiss are comin' here , and I gotta get this station up and runnin' with its gravity well projector or we're all screwed, ya hear me, Jacen?!"

The Jedi tilted his head inquisitively at his second cousin. "What happened?"

"What?"

"What happened when Acheron saw the droid?"

"She... she didn't react well."

"Meaning?"

"She threw a tantrum and used her Force-lightning or whatever to electrocute it. I had no choice, I had to knock her out. She's back in the cell I placed her in before you two saw each other again."

"So, clearly, your plan backfired, and even made things worse for your scientists to get this station functioning as a weapon again. Shows to highlight your ignorance of the Force, Thrackan."

"Like I need a reminder of how much we can't get this station up and runnin' as a gun again," Sal-Solo remarked sarcastically. "Not that we had much of a chance of getting it online in time anyway. But now..."

"Now you might never have that chance if either the GA or the Chiss have their way, huh?"

Sal-Solo said nothing; he just glared at Jacen hatefully.

"Well, I'm sorry to drop by and give you such a needless reminder of your predicament," Jacen said sarcastically, "but I'm gonna go out and look for Jaina if you don't mind. I know you don't trust me because I'm her brother and you think I might let her get away or somethin' like that, but believe me, I won't let her get away."

That was when Jacen finally released his Force-hold on Sal-Solo's arms so that he could turn and leave his office.

"Hey, Jacen," Sal-Solo said.

"What?" the Jedi asked as he stopped to look back over his shoulder.

"I know you won't let Jaina get away," Sal-Solo said, "because I won't let you."

Then the Corellian Head of State bumped his knee against the button that almost instantly released the knockout gas to his office.

As Sal-Solo gave into the gas, Jacen used the Force to try to block out the knockout agent's effects. Thinking quickly, he recalled the Aing-Tii trick he pulled on that Chiss Star Destroyer when he and the Jedi team led by Kyp Durron were on the successful mission to capture the Sith infiltrator Vekta. Carefully, he allowed the Force to pull him through the door that led outside.

But just when he rematerialized on the other end, he lost consciousness and dropped prone to the floor, as the guard to his right had fired a stun blast that knocked him down.

"Did you know they could do that?" the firer asked his buddy. "Phase through walls, I mean?"

"No, this is a new one for me, too," the buddy replied. "Say, were you the one he mind-tricked into letting him in?"

"No, I think he mind-tricked both of us."

"Oh, yeah, that would make sense. Can't believe we fell for that, though."

"Yeah, yeah, save it and let's just get him into a holding cell before he wakes up and hope Thrackan ain't too mad after."

"Right." The buddy then brought up his commlink to his mouth and called up a security retrieval team for the Jedi at their feet.