Chapter 12

"This is outrageous!" Kyp yelled after slamming the Council chamber doors shut. "How does that kid think he can come here and tell us what to do?"

"I didn't see you with any ideas," Kenth Hamner replied evenly as Kyp took his seat. "It looks like Jacen knew exactly what he was talking about. Saves us a lot of time planning, if nothing else."

"You agree with him?" Octa Ramis asked in disbelief. "Solo's not even a Jedi Master. He shouldn't be part of these discussions. I don't even know why the entire Master assembly was here! These are Council issues!"

[Just because he is not a Master does not mean he is not useful,] Lowbacca replied. [His plan is wise, and we would be wise to listen to him.]

"That's true," Kenth agreed. "We wouldn't even have thought of his plan to search for the Sith using Zonama Sekot."

"It sounds like a deathtrap for anyone who follows him," Kyp responded. "Even if there are Sith on the loose, of which we have only Jacen's guess that they even exist, there's no telling that his idea will do anything except get himself and everyone on that planet killed."

"That is a distinct possibility," Cilghal said reluctantly. "However I have to admit, with more Jedi there his chances of success will be higher. It theoretically is possible that Jacen's plan will succeed."

"Well then, why doesn't the entire Order go along with Super Jacen?" Kyp asked sarcastically. "This is a bad idea. Besh – Aurek – Dorn. Bad."

[I think we know the spelling of the word, Kyp,] Lowie growled sarcastically. [But we have to consider that Jacen might be able to pull this off. As he said, he's the only person who knows the full extent of his capabilities, and Sekot certainly thinks it's possible. Who could be more knowledgeable about the galaxy than a sentient planet?]

"It's still a bad idea," Kyp said miserably, taking his chair and crossing his arms. "And I'm not going along with it."

"Me, neither," Octa agreed.

"Well, it's not fool proof. That much is for certain," Kam Solusar replied. "But I thought we were discussing resource deployment for the search pattern, not Jacen's unorthodox ideas. The decision has already been made for Jacen to proceed with his plan. This discussion is over."

"Thank you, Kam," Luke finally spoke. He keyed some information into the datapad in front of him and activated the holoprojector in the room. "Here's the list of Jedi. Let's get started."

-! #$%^&*()

From the Private Journal of Jedi Master Jacen Solo

=With comments by B. Wrarm, Jedi Librarian=

=Approximately 35 years after the Battle of Yavin, Three Days after Master Solo returned to the Jedi Order=

They bought my idea to use Sekot to search the galaxy for the Sith.

=Pause=

=Near shouting= How in all nine Corellian hells am I going to pull this off without killing myself? Are they nuts?

=Normal voice= If this doesn't kill me, Eriana will. She told me not to even try to mention it, even though we planned it out. It was one of those ideas we brainstormed that we had to exclude for obvious reasons, but it did seem somewhat viable. I thought I'd throw it out there just to see how they'd react to it, but they actually went for it. That'll show me not to push people around.

=Deep sigh=

I have to talk to Sekot again.

=End=

-! #$%^&*()

Eriana and Womprat were at the sparring area in the expansive training facility when Corran and the Solos arrived. Judging by the lack of sweat on Eriana, she had spent more time yelling at Womprat than training.

"Just turn the bloody things on!" Eriana screamed in desperation.

"Statement: I fail to understand how meatbags think yelling at me will fix the alignment problems," Womprat replied.

"There aren't any alignment problems," Eriana said exhaustedly. "For the fiftieth time, I checked the programming myself!"

"Condescending statement: But you are a meatbag, and are unable to grasp the higher functionality of the utopian dream of droid programming."

Spotting Jacen, she sprinted over to him and grabbed him by both arms. "Jacen, fix that droid, or so help me I will ram my lightsaber through him! He's been messing around with my remote synchronization program for the last three hours!" Her eyes were wide and her breathing was short and furious.

Womprat, also spotting Jacen, decided the program was fixed and activated the thirty remotes. "Prognosis: All systems operational, Master."

"There you go," Jacen smiled. Womprat never disobeyed Jacen, but enjoyed bothering anyone else he could. Her idea to use his advanced combat analysis functionality to tie together multiple training remotes for advanced blaster deflection training had been resisted at every stage of development, from missing datapads to data that mysteriously deleted itself upon upload.

"I'm going to kill that droid one of these days," Eriana muttered, stalking off to her training circle.

"Where shall we begin?" Jacen looked to his sister and Corran.

"Hang on a minute," Jaina interrupted. "Didn't she just tell a bunch of Jedi off for losing control of themselves?"

"Yes," Jacen said, looking at Eriana as she started the first level of her training program. Her deflections were already faster than the unaided eye could see, but still barely testing her mastery of Soresu. "Don't let that little outburst deceive you. She's normally quite calm."

"Little outburst?" Jaina said incredulously. "Jacen, that's very hypocritical…"

"She's not normally like that," Jacen cut her off, looking his sister in the eye. "Womprat has a way of getting under her skin. Everyone's skin, now that I think about it. Even…some Jedi Masters I know can't tolerate him at times. If I had a credit for the number of times Astro tried taking a bite out of Womprat… Honestly, Jaina, the only times I've ever seen her get this angry have been around Womprat. She's very level-headed. And besides, it's not like she acted on that anger. Yelling at Womprat is just a release valve for her. How could you compare that to what Kyp did when he lost his temper?" He pointed at the mangled door propped up against the wall beside the frame it once hung on.

Unconvinced, but unwilling to argue further, Jaina walked onto the training mat and started stretching. Corran and Jacen joined her while waiting for Kyle to arrive. A few moments later he came in, cursing Kel's name and they stretched for another five minutes. When they were ready for light exercises, Jaina gave Jacen a training collar for his lightsaber which was designed to diffuse the power of the lightsaber so only light burns would be received from an errant strike. He did not tell her he already had such a feature designed into his lightsaber, and affixed the collar. The other Jedi did likewise, and Jacen activated the training mode should the training collar not work on his alien design.

Jacen did not train to his full potential, allowing himself to relax and judge the skill of his opponents while making mistakes to see how many were noticed. He was disturbed to see how few mistakes were caught. Through the basic exercises, he noted that Jaina's motions were much more fluid than their last fight and that her skill with the blade had improved considerably. She also seemed a much calmer and, therefore, a more intelligent fighter now that the weight of the war had been lifted from her shoulders. He had also not seen his sister this focused in the Force since they were on Yavin IV. Corran and Kyle had also improved, though their skills had always been far more developed than the twins' skills thanks to their age. Jacen noted they were only marginally better, but still in excellent form. Thanks to the past five years involving countless hours of training with some of the greatest duelers of the Old Jedi Order, Jacen judged himself to be in a category beyond his current opponents. After twenty minutes of drills, they began sparring with each other.

"Master of the Mat," Jaina had called it. The concept of the game was that whoever won a match would stay in and fight the next fresh opponent. The person would stay in the ring until defeated, or everyone got tired of the minor burns from diffused lightsaber blows. A blow landed to the chest or head or two limbs being "lost" constituted a victory.

"Age before beauty," Jacen gestured to Corran and Kyle, indicating they should start.

Kyle started for the ring, but Corran did not move.

"I'm more beautiful than anyone here," Corran said indignantly, hiding his smirk as only a former Rogue could. Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Get over here, Princess Horn," He used the Force to pick Corran up and levitate him to the middle of the sparring ring.

"Hey, no telekinesis on the deficient Jedi!" Corran called to his friend.

Kyle ignited his lightsaber in response and Corran followed suit. They tapped blade tips together as a sign of respect and returned to their guards. Jaina called "Begin!" and Corran attacked with a strong, fast downward blow meant to split Kyle from head to groin, but Kyle caught the blade above his head and sent a front kick to Corran's gut. Corran rolled to his right with the kick causing most of the force to slide past him and flicked his blade towards Kyle's left ear while regaining his balance. Kyle deflected the attack easily and came across with a strike towards Corran's left shoulder.

Jacen examined the style of the two Jedi Masters and was surprised at how similar they fought. Both fighters improvised constantly, mixing parts of various forms rather than sticking to one, and used their well-honed reflexes to make up for their unorthodox fighting styles. In the end, Kyle "cut" Corran in half across the chest using a well-timed diversionary kick to the knee. Jaina was next, as Jacen pointed out according to his initial selection model.

"See if I get you a life day present," She gave him a nasty look and stuck her tongue out at him, but grinned broadly as she took her place in the sparring ring. The match took a minute, and Jaina won. Kyle was distracted from being hit by one of Eriana's errant training bolts in the back of the head, allowing Jaina to skewer him through the heart. Kyle and Jacen traded places. Jacen stood in front of his sister and took a few deep breaths to centre himself. He already knew how Jaina would fight, what moves she would make, and how easily he would defeat her. So he decided to have some fun.

"Tell you what," Jacen said to her, pulling a strip of dark black cloth out of his robe. "I'll try it blindfolded."

He tied the cloth around his eyes and stared at his sister.

"Your funeral," She replied.

Ten seconds later her unlit lightsaber hilt was flying across the gymnasium and she won a nasty red welt across her neck.

"Well done," Jacen said. He called the soaring lightsaber to his hand and tossing it back to his coughing sister. "You lasted longer than I expected. Corran?"

Five matches later Jacen intentionally lost to give his friends a chance to fight each other. As he massaged the burning patch on his ribcage, he pushed the blindfold up and glanced over to see how Eriana's training was going. He was rewarded by the sight of a blurry gold ball of light that Eriana had become as she deflected over a dozen blaster bolts a second with her lightsaber. Apparently Womprat had decided that taking a free chance at trying to hit her with a plethora of blaster bolts was preferable to continually annoying her, and was steadily pushing her to her limits without mercy. Jacen doubted he himself could keep up with the speeds she was currently moving at, but made a mental note to try the deflection program at some point. While he had focused on learning the ways of the Force during his journey, Eriana had focused on mastering the lightsaber. As a result, she was a marginally better fighter than he was, but he could still hold his own against her. He turned his attention back to the game to see Kyle and Jaina throwing absurd, playful insults at each other as distractions while Corran threw fuel onto the fire from the sidelines.

"Don't forget that time he called you 'Jaina the Hutt!'" Corran called out.

"That was you!" Kyle responded, but took advantage of her shock to sweep her legs with a high feint and low strike.

"I was half tempted to invite the pretty blonde," Corran said to Jacen as Kyle helped Jaina off the mat. "But now that I see her fighting those remotes, I'm glad she's over there!"

"Just be thankful she didn't hear you call her 'the pretty blonde,'" Jacen said with a grin. "The last guy who did picked his teeth off the ground."

Fifteen matches later Eriana won the tournament as she showered a twenty metre radius around her with a spray of high-intensity miniature blaster bolts that would have put a Star Destroyer's fire rate to shame. Corran and Kyle retreated to the sonic showers while Jaina stayed behind to talk to Jacen after he used the Force to shut Eriana's training program down. Eriana immediately went to the diagnostic screen to see what had happened.

"Where did you learn how to fight like that?" Jaina asked her brother, creating small puddles of sweat on the floor as droplets dripped from her face.

"Obi-Wan," Jacen said silently. "That was only Soresu."

"Soresu? The third form?" Jaina asked. "We've been learning it from one of Uncle Luke's books, but it doesn't look anything like that!"

"That's because what you've been learning is not Soresu," Jacen replied, returning the settings on his lightsaber to normal and removing the training collar. "It is a butchered form learned from a book by people who don't know any better. Obi-Wan was arguably the best practitioner of Soresu the Jedi Order ever knew. Comparing a lesson from him to those records Uncle Luke found years ago is like comparing a rancor to a mynock for bone structure."

"Hey Jacen!" Eriana's voice called from behind the twins as she approached. "What'd you think of the training program?"

"Looked great – I can't wait to try it!" Jacen said enthusiastically. "But next time pick a droid that doesn't want to kill you."

"Bucket of bolts," She grumbled. "The synchronization routine I made increased the difficulty significantly, but that mobile garbage can overrode all the safeties." Several small burn marks still ejecting small wisps of smoke from her training outfit emphasized her point. "All in all, I think it was a success."

"Great," Jacen said, calling one of the remotes to his hand and inspecting it. "And if the Jedi Order ever needs a missile defense system, I'll let them know you're available for hire."