Sioux: I plan on killing everyone off on both sides so and reducing the entire population of the galaxy down to R2D2 and C3PO. Having won their independence from the evil clutches of the Solo/Skywalker family, R2 and 3PO will travel the galaxy on an endless quest looking for a pet kitten that looks remarkably like Han Solo. Okay, I really need to get more sleep before writing these comments. The foiled Jedi plan is not entirely of their own faults as infiltrators... As for Jaina, I agree. Shoving those two together in canon was like mating a leonburger with a shihtzu. Should not be done. That was way too long a time between them, and I thought Danni had a great connection to the Fel family to exploit. I think part of Danni hoped that she could get away with Jaina not finding out because of the rigidity of the Csillian culture. What she didn't count on was Isolder being there and forcing the delay of Jaina being able to get the information she needed from Jag, thereby opening up the opportunity for a social event where the proverbial cat could be let out of the bag. Jag's sister never struck me as the most discrete person around. As for hockey, it means a lot more to Canada than most other countries. From my sense of what people have told me, I think for the US it would be another medal, but for Canada, it's everything. And I can't stand Crosby either.

A/N: 45 Celsius = 113 Fahrenheit.

Chapter 6: Victim [[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Several hours had passed since the failed attack on Darth Krayt and Mara still did not have a plan. After escaping through the air ducts, they had to quickly abandon that route when they discovered emergency bulkheads were being closed to block their progress. Thankfully, lightsabers cut through emergency bulkheads, but that also left a trail to be followed. They had spent so much time avoiding patrols that were closing around them that they barely had time to think of how to rescue Luke and Jacen. Their efforts were also impeded by the ship jumping to hyperspace, cutting them off from HK-47 and Artoo.

"In here," Eriana whispered, stopping at a door along the otherwise empty hallway they had risked entering. She opened the door to a droid storage closet with a passcard she had stolen from one of the security personnel earlier in the day. They squeezed into the closet between the shelves of cleaning supplies and Mara found herself almost sitting on top of a deactivated astromech when the door closed, casting them into darkness.

"We can't stay here long," Mara cautioned her. "If they track our heat signatures..."

"I know, but we need to access the computer system so we can figure out where Jacen and Luke are," Eriana said. She pulled a small datapad out of her pocket and a long coil of wire from another. She handed one end of the wire to Mara and pointed to the wall behind the astromech she was sitting on. "Plug this into the data port."
Mara took the wire and awkwardly felt around behind herself to find the port.

"Wouldn't they be able to pick up our location?"

"Probably," Eriana admitted. "But we're flying blind."

"Got it," Mara said as the wire clicked into the port. "Try the connection now."

Eriana tapped the screen several times, her face glowing a slightly different colour with every press of the screen.

"It's working. Now to slice into their security."

"Here," Mara said, holding her hand out for the datapad. "I've been doing that since before you were born."

Eriana passed it to her and removed a lightsaber from her belt, just in case.

"You know, I'm not as young as all you Jedi think I am," Eriana said. "I just turned thirty-seven."

"That doesn't change the validity of my statement," Mara said after doing some quick math in her head. "I've located their lightsabers. They're in an unguarded armoury not far from here."

"That was fast. What about the two of them?"

"They're being held in two different locations, but they're under heavy guard."

"If we try breaking one out..."

"They'll double the guard on the other," Mara finished.

"We should go after Luke," Eriana said, to Mara's surprise. "He knows more sensitive information about the Jedi than Jacen does, and Jacen knows a thing or two about surviving torture."

"Luke would want us to save Jacen."

"They'd both want us to save the other," Eriana countered. "And I think we both know where our personal loyalties lie, but we can't let emotion get in the way of logic. Losing Luke would be a much bigger blow to Jedi morale. Half the Jedi can't stand Jacen."

"We still need an escape plan." Mara turned her attention back to the datapad without offering any argument to protect her nephew. "But we'll still be trapped until we drop out of hyperspace."

"See if you can find out our destination and ETA," Eriana suggested. "If we're going to Coruscant, we may be better off waiting for them to be transferred to the planet and break them out there. A big city is easier to get lost in than a big ship."

"On it," Mara said. A few minutes passed before Mara's eyes grew wide. She held up the datapad to Eriana to show their destination.

"How...?"

"He must have tracked one of our ships," Mara said. "This is bad."

"Not entirely," Eriana said. "If he's going there, then he's going to want Luke and Jacen to watch the attack..."
"...which means he'll bring them together to wherever he is..."

"...and we can get both of them out at once. Scan the ship schematic for forward view ports near the command centre."

"I'm already on it," Mara said tapping away on the screen. About ten minutes later she handed over the datapad with a map of the ship displaying a green path and a few red dots over it.

"We have twelve hours until arrival. We have to go here to get the lightsabers, here to grab some food, here to get some rest, and this is where Krayt's going to be. It's the only restricted area near the command centre with windows, and it isn't far from Krayt's quarters."

"Looks good," Eriana said. "But does this really say we're sleeping in a garbage compactor?"

"Welcome to the spy life, princess," Mara said. "We go where nobody else wants to."

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

At some point in the night Jaina finally came to the realization that she was not going to get any sleep, so she decided get out of bed. Hours had passed since Leia had checked in on her when everyone came back from the Fel residence. Curled up under the blankets hugging a pillow, Jaina pretended she was asleep even though her mom probably knew she was wide awake. The gesture of checking on her was not unappreciated, but since Jaina had stripped her clothes off and crawled under the sheets without bothering to put anything else on, not to mention her foul mood, she really did not want to get out of bed.

She finally sat up in bed and tossed the covers aside, looking down at her naked body with a measure of indifferent curiosity in the dim lighting of the room. She looked at her breasts, caressing the right one with her right hand and giving it a tentative squeeze, as if trying to figure out if or for what a man might be interested in it. She released her grip and her hand fell to run over her abs, well-defined from decades of training as a Jedi, and she looked down over the strong, lean muscles on her legs that had run marathons through the jungles of Yavin 4 and carried her both into and out of countless battles. The general consensus from celebrity holonet reports was that she was attractive. Very attractive, even. Her body was in really good shape, she curved in the right places, and her breasts were well-suited to her small frame. But after the rejection from last night, she did not feel anything but revolting.

What does Danni have that I don't? Jaina thought to herself, and shook her head. How did Jacen get so lucky finding Tenel Ka and…I'm just…alone?

She slowly pulled herself to the edge of the bed and got to her feet. She crossed the room and picked up her bag of clothes, quickly sifting through it for a clean set. She carried the clean clothes to the refresher and tossed them on the counter. She caught her reflection in the mirror and looked at her face. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying all night, and dark crescents stood out under her eyes against her otherwise pale skin from the lack of sleep.

Jaina turned away from the hideous reflection staring back at her and activated the sonic shower, setting it to forty five degrees. She got into the shower and tried to let it wash away her misery with the steamy heat, but all it did was make her skin feel hot. Deep down, her thoughts were still lingering on the turn of events from the night before. The more she thought about it with the sonic shower scrubbing her skin, the events of last couple weeks nearly made her sick to her stomach.

After about twenty minutes of standing in the hot shower leaning against the wall without moving, Jaina finally decided that she could stand there all day and nothing would change. Her skin had already turned bright pink from the heat, but the chill of Csilla would not leave her. She got out of the shower and quickly dressed, thankful the mirror had fogged up so she would not have to see her own reflection. She picked up the clothes scattered on the floor from the night before and gathered her few other belongings and stuffed them into her bag. Stopping only to grab some fruit and bread from the small kitchenette, she left the hotel suite without even leaving a note. She knew her mom would figure out where she went – there was only one place she would go.

It was not until Jaina finished the pre-flight preparations on the Millennium Falcon and locked herself in the cockpit that she finally looked at the time – it was nearly 0600, local time. The others would show up eventually, so Jaina figured she should do something productive. She pulled the data card from her jacket and shucked the jacket off, draping it across the back of the communication chair. She pulled her LinkCom from her pocket and plopped herself into the pilot seat. She hesitated for a moment, almost unwilling to accept help from him, before closing her eyes and reminding herself of what she had said to Jag the night before.

I have no right to be upset with anyone but myself.

She had said it to appease him, trying to convince herself that she might believe those words. Distantly she knew that it was the right answer. But the pain in her heart screamed otherwise.

I have no right to be upset with anyone but myself, Jaina repeated, this time trying to remind herself that it was the right answer. I'm the one who screwed things up with Jag, not Danni. I can't blame them for my mistakes.

She plugged the data card into her LinkCom and watched as ten files appeared on the file menu. She selected the first file and began reading.

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Like an underwater game of tug of war, Jacen slowly fought his way back to a level of consciousness where thought and perception became coherent enough that he could start to make sense of his situation. His limbs felt heavy and his mind sluggish as he tried rolling to his feet, but merely rolled off the bunk and landed face-first on the cold hard metal floor. He clumsily felt around, reaching up to his face to remove the blindfold so he could see, but no blindfold was present. It took him a few moments to realize the problem was not with his eyes: the room he was in was completely dark. His mind slowly caught up to his last memories as it sluggishly played out the trap – him and Luke fighting the lack of air, the electrical currents, and...the poison.

Jacen closed his eyes and focused the Force inside himself and discovered the poison spreading inside him, but it felt like hollow points in the Force. He switched to his Vongsense and the hollow points lit up like stars in the night sky – poison spores, not very different from the ones his aunt had been infected with. Using his Vongsense and the Force, he tweaked the white blood cells in his body to direct them in fighting the spores and modified the water in his blood to break up the toxins. Sometime later he finally felt refreshed and, satisfied the poison was removed from his system, slowly pushed himself to his feet. He held out a hand and gathered several air molecules near his palm, speeding them up until they began to emit light. He tossed the ball into the air and gathered more air molecules together, repeating the process until he had four balls of light hovering above him under his control. Using the light he was able to examine the small dark grey cell he had been imprisoned in, but was unable to find any immediate means of escape. Checking his pockets, everything had been removed, including the ball of lint he had been saving.

The door unexpectedly shot up into the ceiling and Jacen extinguished his lights. Two human Bogan warriors with extensive tattoos entered with lightsabers drawn, but not ignited, and ordered him to join them. He slowly walked up to them, assessing them with the Force as if to hint that he was not afraid of them, and walked past them. He sensed the blow coming before it hit and shifted slightly so it hit his rib cage instead of on his spine, but he fell to his knees with a cry of pain, feigning the more serious blow. If they wanted him dead, he knew he would be already. The two Bogan warriors grabbed him by his wrists and dragged him between them down the long hallway out of the detention area.

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Engrossed in the files given to her by Jag, Jaina abstractly took note of her companions as they entered the hanger bay and boarded the ship. She only glanced up at them for a second to make sure they were all there and tried to suppress the flash of annoyance when she noticed Danni was with them.

Not her fault. Jaina reminded herself and put the datapad aside. She checked the time, noting it was almost 0915, and activated the communication system and the engine warm-up procedure.

"Csilla Ground, this is Millennium Falcon requesting clearance for takeoff and a departure vector coreward on flight plan X-3580 that was filed yesterday."

"Csilla Ground to Millennium Falcon, you are cleared for flight plan X-3580. Please wait for the hanger bay to retract before commencing takeoff procedures. Winds are blowing at 40 knots from the south-west."

"Millennium Falcon, acknowledged."

Jaina switched on the internal speakers.

"Takeoff in one minute," Jaina advised gruffly. "Strap in."

She flicked it back off and looked up at the roof as it slowly peeled itself open, dropping accumulated snow and letting the brilliant morning sunlight into the hanger. To her surprise, the door opened behind her.

"I thought I locked that," Jaina said as her mother sat in the co-pilot's seat.

"Do you really think your father wouldn't have created a way to get into the sealed cockpit of his own ship?" Leia asked evenly. "He never wanted anyone but himself to take his baby."

"Millennium Falcon, this is Csilla Ground. Hanger doors are fully retracted. Please proceed with takeoff and flight plan X-3580."

"Thank you, Csilla Ground. Millennium Falcon proceeding on course X-3580."

Jaina added power to the repulsor jets and the Falcon gently lifted from the ground, hovering up about twenty metres above the hanger bay before Jaina retracted the landing pads and added power to the main drive. She pointed the ship up and slammed the throttle to almost full, sending a jolt through the ship that slammed her back into her seat.

"Woah!" Jaina said, bringing back the throttle a bit and grinning sheepishly at her mom's glare. "I forgot how fast this ship is."

"Let's just hope the Chiss don't think of that as a slight against their hospitality," Leia said. "Where are we going next?"

Jaina passed her the LinkCom without taking her eyes or hands off the operation of the ship.

"Jag is a Black Vornskr," Jaina said, trying to maintain a professional tone of voice to hide her pain. "If the Chiss found out, I'm sure there'd be hell to pay. He passed me that data card last night. Wedge contacted him several times over the last couple weeks to gather some intel and support. Those are transcripts of all of their official and unofficial communications over the last few weeks, as well as some older files and Jag's own thoughts and a guide to decrypting their obscure encoding references. Long story short, he believes Wedge is hiding in the Deep Core."

"The Deep Core is dangerous for a fleet that size," Leia said absently, looking over Jag's notes.

"I know that," Jaina snapped.

"Excuse me?"

Jaina closed her eyes and grimaced for a second. "Sorry. I'm just…last night was…"

"I know." Leia sighed. "But I'm not your enemy. Try to remember that."

They sat in silence for a few moments until the Falcon broke through the atmosphere. Jaina set a course out of the gravity well of Csilla while Leia brought up the charts on the navicomputer.

"Where do you want to start?" Leia asked.

"Iope," Jaina said. "Jag determined that some of Wedge's communications were routed through there."

Silence persisted for a few moments until Jaina finally turned to her mom.

"Thanks," she said, getting a curious look from Leia. "For talking to me and not making me feel like a complete moron and for not bothering me when I was in bed. I needed that as much as I needed space."

"It's what family…" Leia's eyes shifted over Jaina's shoulder and widened in a way that froze her daughter's heart. "Oh, no."

Jaina turned around and saw what her mom had seen – ships jumping into the system. Hundreds. No, thousands of ships. They opened fire on the unprepared Chiss defense fleet, overwhelming them by sheer volume of laser fire.

"We have to help them," Jaina said, reaching for the controls, but a gentle hand grabbed her wrist.

"No," Leia said. "No, Jaina, we have to find Wedge. There's nothing we can do against a fleet that size. Our mission is too important to risk on a fool's errand."

"But…"

"Jaina," Leia squeezed her wrist tighter, finally getting eye contact from her daughter. "You haven't slept, you're emotional, and we are only one small ship with a much more important mission ahead of us. I don't care if you're the captain of this ship or the ranking Jedi Master, attacking is not a good idea and I'm not going to let you do it."

Jaina looked back out the window and watched helplessly as hundreds more ships were dropping out of hyperspace, joining the ones already plodding toward the Chiss home world.

A chime from the navicomputer jolted Jaina's awareness, and she did the only thing she could – she pulled the lever to activate the hyperdrive.

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After being dragged for several long minutes down hallways and through turboshafts as if part of an exposition for everyone on board to see a broken Jedi, Jacen felt the ship drop out of hyperspace. He reached out with the Force to get a sense of their destination and felt a wave of shock fall over him when he recognized it. He was finally dragged into a dark room where he was unceremoniously tossed a couple metres in before his deliverers retreated. He looked up and saw the distinctive shape of Darth Krayt's armour against the world in the distance, but waited where he landed to catch his breath. A few moments later, the door opened behind him and a body was dropped beside him, bound at his wrists behind his back. It took him a minute in the relative darkness to recognize the battered, bloodied body of Luke Skywalker. While Jacen had been lucky to escape the beating, he could sense the poison coursing through his uncle's veins. Perhaps his uncle had put up a fight and lost. Or, more likely, they decided to beat him up for the sick pleasure of it.

"Thank you for joining me," Lord Krayt finally spoke in a deep cultured tone, gesturing for his two Jedi captives to join him closer to the window. Jacen used the Force to release the binders and helped his uncle to his feet. Together they made their way closer to the Sith Lord, Luke leaning heavily on Jacen for support with his arm around his nephew's shoulder.

"Do you know what you are?" Krayt asked in an arrogantly philosophical tone. He waited for several moments until he realized that his question was considered rhetorical by the two Jedi. "You are a disease. The Jedi are infecting the entire galaxy with their counterproductive ideals, preventing it from prospering. You insist on war, and you only destroy that which you want to build. It is time for this insanity to stop. It is time for one ruler in the galaxy, one strong enough to bring it together and end this pointless contest."

"Palpatine tried the same thing," Jacen replied evenly. "You're just going to be another failure in a long line of Sith failures."

"Perhaps," Krayt said agreeably, turning to make eye contact with Jacen – his two different coloured eyes glowing in sharp contrast with the shadows of his face against the planet behind him. "But as an old Jedi Master once taught, 'try not; do or do not.'

"Do you know the capabilities of my ship, young Jedi?" Krayt continued. "The superlasers are quite capable of destroying most capital ships on their own. But when you put several of them together..."

Krayt gestured to either side of him, where seven more of his capital ships dropped out of hyperspace into formation as if on his cue.

"You can destroy a planet."

Jacen closed his eyes and pushed out with the Force for a second before looking at Krayt.

"Don't even try it," Jacen warned him. "Not even you are that stupid."

"What better way is there to destroy the future of the Jedi Order than to wipe out the Jedi Temple and the last remaining stronghold of children?" Krayt demanded, ignoring Jacen's warning.

Krayt smiled and pressed a button on his wrist communicator.

"All ships, lock target on the planet below and synchronize attack."

"Zonoma Sekot is not a threat to you unless you make her one!" Jacen shouted. "Don't attack her, Krayt!"

"Attack synchronization complete. Ready to fire on your order."

"Witness, the fall of the Jedi, young Skywalkers," Krayt mocked and turned back to face the doomed planet before him. "Fire!"

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A/N: This is the end of part one. Part 2 will continue in April. May the Force be with you.