Of the Forgotten
Chapter 3
The Killiks got their help by way of the Hapan fleet Tenel Ka gave at Qoribu, along with the Bornaryn shipping company fleet, given by Raynar Thul's own mother, Aryn, thanks to some persuasion on Tesar Sebatyne's part. These two fleets managed to help counter the Chiss fleet that attacked the Colony-inhabited moons of Qoribu, igniting a titanic battle while Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker tracked Alema Rar and her Gorog companion to the Dark Nest moon of Kr.
When the Battle of Qoribu was over, the Gorog appeared to be destroyed, Welk was dead, Alema was missing, and yet, there were still no visible signs of where Lomi Plo had fit into all this. UnuThul himself had visited the underground caverns of Kr to inspect the Gorog bodies for the rest of the Killiks, and determined that the Colony was indeed being manipulated into going into war against the Chiss. So, in order to calm the flames of rivalry between the Killiks and the Ascendancy, UnuThul agreed to take the Colony far away from Chiss space. Han and Leia Organa Solo volunteered a nebula they encountered when Alema betrayed them, and the Hapans agreed to ship the Killiks over to the nebula for them to inhabit its cluster of planets that the Solos found. The whole process following the battle took over a month.
With the Killik issue resolved like that, Jacen, again, with permission from Uncle Luke, decided to return back to Zonama Sekot to see Danni and Jorielle. He offered Tahiri and Tekli to come with him, but they refused, ultimately preferring to remain with the bulk of the Jedi Order in spite of the homes that Zonama had previously provided them after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended.
Jacen travelled straight back into the Unknown Regions and ended exactly in the system that Zonama Sekot was still orbiting in. He set the ship down on the closest spaceport to his home grashal, where Danni and Jorielle still surely lived, and after setting his StealthX there, he hailed an airship to take him back to his grashal.
When he returned home, the first thing he saw as soon as he opened the front door to his home was his wife, Danni, sitting there on the couch with a blank expression on her face, and her arms crossed across her chest, as she stared at her husband.
"You betrayed me, Jacen," she said with a menacing tone. "How could you?"
She knew. He didn't know how, but she knew. "Danni, listen to me–"
"Leave," she said. "Go back to the rest of the Jedi Order. Jorielle and I don't need you anymore."
"Danni, I–"
"I said leave!" she exclaimed in tears. "Go! Get out of here! Now!"
Without another word, he closed the door on himself, turned around, and simply walked away, feeling as defeated as he felt when Tenel Ka forced him to sleep with her. Jacen decided to walk all the way back to his StealthX and do as Danni said; just return to the Jedi Order as a direct servant.
How could Danni have known?
~o~
"You told her?" Jacen exclaimed at Tahiri as they spoke privately in the latter's cabin in the Ossus Jedi Academy.
"I had to tell her, Jacen," Tahiri said. "She deserved to know. I know you wouldn't have told her. And as a Jedi, it was my obligation to inform her of the truth over the commlink."
As a Jedi, Jacen thought. Those words were exactly what he said to Tenel Ka when he tried to persuade her, without sex, to give the Killiks a helping hand. How fitting it should be used against him in the wake of the breakdown of his marriage to Danni. Jacen rubbed his hand over his face before asking Tahiri, "Did you tell anyone else about this?"
"No," Tahiri said. "Only Danni knows. No one else needs to know. And I doubt that Danni would tell anyone close to you. After that, I don't think she wants to have anything to do with you."
"A comforting thought," he said sarcastically. "Speaking of which, how did you know of what happened between me and Tenel Ka?"
"Deductive reasoning," Tahiri said. "I seriously doubted that Tenel Ka would spare a fleet to go up against an ally of the Galactic Alliance's like the Chiss, even if it was to help out Raynar and the Killiks. So I figured she may have needed a bit more persuading on your part. And given how she felt for you–"
"How did you know what Tenel Ka felt for me?" Jacen interrupted.
"Well, after we escaped from the Baanu Raas and you were left behind after you killed the voxyn queen, we felt your presence from the Force disappear altogether," Tahiri explained. Jacen remembered how true that was, when Vergere somehow managed to take away his connection to the Force while he was in captivity under her hands and those of the Yuuzhan Vong. "And though she wasn't with us when this happened, we felt Tenel Ka's anger when it seemed that you died. We all pretty much knew that she loved you from that point on."
"Well, thanks for at least having the courtesy of bringing me in here to tell me that you were the one to ruin my marriage," he said spitefully.
"You were the one who ruined your marriage, Jacen, not me, when you slept with Tenel Ka," Tahiri said. "I only did what was necessary."
"Tenel Ka gave me no choice, Tahiri! She forced me into it; if I hadn't, the Killiks wouldn't have gotten the help they needed against the Chiss back at Qoribu."
"Then ask yourself, Jacen, was it really worth it?" Tahiri asked.
A moment of silence later, Jacen said, "You ruined my marriage because of a theory, something you didn't know directly."
"And you proved it for me in the end, didn't you." It wasn't a question.
Without saying another word, Jacen turned around and left Tahiri's cabin.
~o~
36 ABY: Ossus
Despite what happened to the Gorog on Kr during the Battle of Qoribu a year earlier, the Dark Nest was still alive, and Luke Skywalker himself had confirmed that Lomi Plo was leading it. Now, because of their resurfacing, they took complete control of the rest of the Colony and sparked the Swarm War, a conflict that erupted when the Galactic Alliance decided to form a blockade around their space of the Utegetu Nebula, and which had culminated with the Battle of the Murgo Choke. From this, not only were the Galactic Alliance and the Killiks enemies, but the Chiss were also enemies of both–thanks to the Battle of the Murgo Choke, the Killiks had taken a few Alliance vessels, like the Admiral Ackbar, making it appear as if the Alliance and the Killiks were allied against the Chiss.
Because of all these events, Luke Skywalker had called for a conclave on the world of Ossus. Every Jedi in the galaxy was attending in the Academy's vast auditorium as Master Skywalker gave his announcement to all the apprentices, Knights, and Masters present; he was deeming himself the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and told everyone looking upon him that they were to either dedicate their full efforts as members of the Jedi Order, or give up their positions.
Danni and Jorielle, who had come all the way from Zonama Sekot, were among the first to tell Skywalker that they would retire as Jedi because their fates belonged to Sekot. He agreed, and wished both Danni and her daughter a safe journey back to Zonama before Tenel Ka came in so that she could quit as a Jedi.
After that, as Danni exited the auditorium with Jorielle at her side, she felt Jacen's presence them.
"Daddy!" Jorielle exclaimed as she and her mother turned around to face her father. She ran into Jacen's arms and hugged him as he bent down to return her embrace. "Oh, I missed you!"
"I missed you, too, Jorielle," he said before pulling back. "So, you're not going to be a Jedi anymore?"
"Mommy said that me and her just don't have the time," Jorielle said.
"I see," Jacen replied. He stood up from Jorielle and walked around her to have a more private conversation with his ex-wife. Jorielle joined them nevertheless, but it seemed that neither of her parents cared.
"What is it that you want, Jacen?" Danni asked.
"Danni, I haven't seen you or Jorielle in almost a year," he said. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened, and I want to make things right. What happened between me and Tenel Ka meant nothing to me, other than to help the Killiks."
"Whole lot of good that's doing for the galaxy right now, Jacen," Danni said sarcastically, reminding him that it was because of the Killiks that the Swarm War was commencing. "And I know about your other child, too."
"Other child?" Jorielle asked, looking up to her father. "Daddy, what is Mommy talking about?"
Jacen looked down at his daughter. "Jorielle, the reason that I can't be with you and Mommy is because I had to do something that I thought was for the greater good."
"You cheated on her?" Jorielle concluded with shock in her eyes. "Is this what this other child is about, Daddy?"
"Come along, Jorielle," Danni said as she grabbed her daughter by the hand and steered her away from her father.
Jorielle tore her eyes away from Jacen as she and her mother walked away from him, leaving him downtrodden and saddened.
"I hope you will remain as a Jedi, Jacen, in spite of your problems" Luke's voice said from behind him.
Jacen turned to his parents and his aunt and uncle standing there.
"So you all know, don't you?" Jacen said.
"We noted the look that Danni and Tenel Ka shared when they quit," Han said. "We knew that you and Danni had a fallout, but we never figured why. Now we know."
"How could you cheat on her, Jacen?" his mother, Leia, asked.
"The Killiks needed help," Jacen said. "So I looked to Tenel Ka. But she wouldn't help them unless... well, you know."
"We understand why you felt that it needed to be done, Jacen," Luke said. "But tell us. Since Tenel Ka's child is your child, too, what will you do?"
"If Danni can take care of Jorielle by herself, then Tenel Ka can certainly do the same for Allana," Jacen said. "Neither of them need me. I have a greater duty to fulfill in this galaxy by stopping this new war. Or do I sound irresponsible for abandoning all of them?"
"Danni and Tenel Ka are both adults like you, Jacen," Luke said. "And like you said, they can raise their daughters respectively by their own. And personally, while I'm glad that you're still with us to help the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance end the Swarm War, I just hope that you yourself feel like you're making the right decision."
"Well, Danni didn't give me much of a choice after Tahiri told her that I slept with Tenel Ka," Jacen said. "And Tenel Ka and I aren't on speaking terms, considering what she forced me to do. I only met her again weeks ago when she told me over the commlink about Allana, so I came just to see my new daughter. But really, the Jedi Order's the only other avenue that I have left."
"If that's what you feel is your path, Jacen, then it is your choice," Luke said as he turned away to return to the auditorium so that he could speak with the rest of the Masters' Council on how to end the Swarm War. Han and Leia, saying nothing as they stared blankly at Jacen, turned to join.
Mara approached Jacen in two steps and said, "Personally, Jacen, unlike your uncle, I'm disappointed in you, and I know your parents feel the same way, even though they won't voice it. I know you thought what you had to do needed to be done, but if you think about, what did it all really amount to?" Tahiri's words a year earlier came back to haunt Jacen as soon as Mara said that last part.
Jacen didn't have an answer for Mara, just as he didn't have an answer for Tahiri, but it seemed that Mara wasn't really expecting one anyway as she turned away to reenter the auditorium. "You're welcome to join the rest of the Masters' Council to voice your opinion on how to end this war," Mara said without looking over her shoulder.
Seeing no other way for himself, Jacen joined his aunt.
~o~
The Swarm War came and went in the span of a few months. Only a few million lives had been lost, which, while tragic and enormous, didn't feel all that hefty compared to the previous war with the Yuuzhan Vong. In the end, however, the Killiks had been defeated after Luke Skywalker had managed to confront UnuThul and snap him out of the Colony's hive mind before killing Lomi Plo in combat, disbanding the collective hive mind back into their individual nests. The Chiss agreed to back off to allow the Killiks to return to their areas of space that they had before they assimilated Raynar Thul into their hive mind, and the Ascendancy, also calling off their conflict with the Galactic Alliance, simply retreated back into their own frontier in the Unknown Regions as well.
So where did that leave Jacen now?
The Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya pondered this question within the confines of her asteroid base, the Home, nearby the Bimmiel system. Following the Galactic Civil War, she had been gone into hiding here, spending years trying to find a way of getting back at Luke Skywalker and his allies for what they did to her when she acted as the Emperor's Hand alongside his wife, Mara Jade, and several others. Turning one of his loved ones to the dark side to become a tool that would bring the galaxy into ruin was a good idea, and she thought Jacen Solo to be the ideal candidate.
After all, Jacen had endured much during the Yuuzhan Vong War. He fought in several of its battles, lost his younger brother Anakin during the Mission to Myrkr; he was tortured by Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong for almost a year, and had even experienced oneness with the Force when he finally killed the Vong Supreme Overlord Onimi–an experience he wished to replicate. Lumiya thought that it would be more likely that she could have manipulated Jacen into turning to the dark side, even tell him that she was allied with Vergere on setting him up for this path, and she would have done it all while plotting the next galactic war to convince Jacen that turning to the dark side was what he needed to do; she may have been isolated from the rest of the galaxy, but she was still privy to the news, and was clearly aware of the growing tensions between the Galactic Alliance and a few other worlds, such as Corellia.
Lumiya knew all of this because of Darth Vectivus, the spirit of the ancient Sith who still resided in the structure of the Home, as the asteroid base had once been his home, too. Twelve years earlier, in the closing months of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Vectivus had spoken to Lumiya and told her that Jacen Solo could be manipulated into turning to the dark side because of all that he had experienced during the Yuuzhan Vong War... as well as what he would experience in the five years after the war with the Vong had ended.
Jacen was supposed to have taken a half-decade-long sojourn throughout the galaxy, studying in different Force sects that would radically change his views of the Force in ways that went above and beyond the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. However, after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Lumiya had secretly travelled to all the worlds where these different Force sects resided. She initially thought she was looking in the wrong places, but as time went on, she realized that something went wrong. Very wrong. Jacen had not gone on this sojourn at all; when the Dark Nest Crisis came about, and Jacen had been on the news, playing his part in ending the Swarm War, a headline explaining where Jedi Solo had been in the aftermath of the Yuuzhan Vong War: He had been on Zonama Sekot all this time. After she learned this, Lumiya returned to the Home and tried to contact the spirit of Vectivus again; he had never responded since.
Why?
For weeks, Lumiya pondered why Vectivus wouldn't tell her how he had been so long. Her pondering came to an end when she decided to give up and say out loud, her voice echoing in the structure of the Home, "What had happened?"
She had lost faith in Vectivus then. Her scheme of revenge against Luke Skywalker was all for naught now. And looking to someone else like Mara Jade Skywalker and Jaina Solo was unlikely, for both women had experienced the power of the dark side of the Force in one way or another, and their experience as Jedi would not allow them to fall again. Certainly trying to coerce Luke, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, would be next to impossible, especially since he himself had once been under the taint of the dark side when Palpatine had returned in his clone body years after he originally died at Endor. Leia would be more suitable, since she wasn't as experienced of a Jedi as the others.
However, she was the sister of Luke Skywalker. Trying to turn her to the dark side would be as impossible as trying to turn him to the dark side.
Even with the rising tensions between the GA and Corellia, what was Lumiya going to do to fulfill such a decades-long dream?
