Disclaimer: Still doesn't belong to me. :-(

Part III

It was nearly two hours later, as Jaina was preparing to leave the medical bay, when Saba Sebatyne and Kenth Hamner arrived, Kenth's right arm tucked under his traveling cloak. Cilghal quickly got him situated and set a droid to work on cleaning the cauterized remainder of his wrist and another on beginning measurements on a prosthetic. He seemed to be managing the pain well, grimacing periodically, but well in tune with the conversation among Luke, Mara, and Saba.

"He knew these ones were coming," Saba hissed. "The Council must not be az secure as the masterz thought."

Mara frowned. "We still haven't been able to learn just how he found out, but we're looking into the matter." Kenth and Saba exchanged a furtive look. "What?"

"Durron, uh… strongly hinted… at the source of his information," he shot Luke an apologetic look.

Luke's eyes hardened. "He told you it was Jaina, didn't he?"

"Like I said, it was a hint, more than a direct declaration…"

The Jedi master sighed. "It wasn't her," he shook his head. "I don't know how he found out, but Kyp was here, aboard the Mon Mothma last night." Kenth and Saba radiated surprise. "He snuck into Jaina's quarters somehow and talked to her and then…" hurt her so badly that I could almost go back to the dark side just to justify killing him, "he forced her into a trance. Han and Leia found her this morning and when they finally got her awake, she rushed to the meeting to tell us. I'm sorry," he truly was. "It was my decision not to tell you; I thought Kyp would expect that, and would then spring a trap. I only just realized the full extent of his… delusion."

"What did he want with Jaina?" Saba frowned, her tail twitching in barely suppressed anger.

Luke shrugged wearily, but another, soft voice sounded from the doorway.

"He wanted to know if I still care for him; if I'd tell him about your plans. Ignorance saved me, but it won't again."

"What do you mean?" Mara demanded, eyeing her niece in increasing concern; Jaina looked grim and weary, and a cold sense of numbness poured off of her.

"Why else would he tell them?" Jaina asked disinterestedly. "He thinks he can maneuver it so that you'll stop trusting me, send me away, alienate me from the Order and what's left of my family."

Luke nodded thoughtfully. "And then who do you think would be there to pick up the pieces…?" he speculated.

"Thereby eliminating any existing doubt in the Council's minds that I was working with him all along."

There was a general sense of confusion among most of the room's occupants, but they didn't know everything- indeed, they knew very little. Luke didn't care much at the moment. He motioned Jaina out into the corridor, and Mara followed uninvited; he didn't turn her back.

He struggled for words. "I just… I wish I understood this obsession," he directed softly to Jaina. She looked away uncomfortably. "He wants to get at you, but wants to connive to the point that it's almost on your terms instead of his."

"If I may," Mara stepped in quietly. "I think I might understand. I believe that Kyp views Jaina as his path to redemption."

This proclamation was met with a long silence. "How do you get there?" Luke finally asked.

"By all accounts, Kyp's regression times roughly with your falling out, after Sernpidal," she told Jaina, who winced. "After being told for months that his tactics were dangerously close to the dark side, your sudden departure confirmed it for him- he cared about your opinion in a way that he never valued Luke's, or anyone else in the Order. I won't speculate on why that is," she added in a tone that told Jaina that she knew exactly why, "but I think it shook him. All of a sudden, he thinks he has relapsed to the dark side. Now he's free to do things he probably already wanted to do, but you kept him grounded while you were his apprentice. And that freedom… that freedom is what really sent him down the wrong path that he was merely skirting before.

"What choice does he then have? He's recognized what he's become, maybe it took his fight with Corran to really show him how far he's strayed… but now he's estranged even further the one person whose opinion he truly values. He's alone, friendless, has no family. He wants your trust again, Jaina, maybe even your affection, needs someone to care for him- but he doesn't think he'll get it without orchestrating it."

Luke nodded. "So he tries to create a situation- or situations- where Jaina has no one else to turn to."

"And we can run away from war and death, and find somewhere to be together…" Jaina's voice was distant and hollow, thinking about Mara's words: alone, friendless, no family. Sighing, she looked up at her aunt and uncle. "Sorry- that's what he told me, when he said I should go with him. It makes sense," she admitted. And then her resolve hardened into something fierce and cold. "Well, he shouldn't hold his breath. I'll never trust him again- never."

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

One Week Later

Her parents were worried about her- she hadn't told anyone about what she, Luke, and Cilghal had discovered, and she trusted their discretion as well. She did her best to keep the bitterness at bay around them, but she knew her mother could sense that she was hiding something. They were leaving for the Maw soon though, which put Jaina in a difficult situation.

She had convinced Luke that she was fine staying where she was, in one of the few, small apartments aboard the Mon Mothma; however, once her parents were gone, she would logically resume staying in one of the single-person billet-style quarters- where there would be no one near her if anything happened. And it seemed likely that, if he had another move to make, Kyp would make it soon.

Well, then Jaina just needed to outwit him. She went to go comm Zekk.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

"Jag, I need your help."

He stepped back and allowed her to enter his sparse billet. "Oh?" His brow quirked up and she fought against wincing at his cool skepticism as it reminded her that she'd completely avoided him for the past week outside of squadron training.

"I'm sorry I've been distant but things have been pretty hectic for the Jedi…"

He nodded, frowning. "Yes, of course; how is Master Hamner recovering?"

She sighed. "Fine, all things considered; a shiny new prosthetic that looks exactly like his old hand, but he swears the skin tone is a shade off." Jag snorted softly. "But that's sort of what I need to talk to you about."

"What do you need?"

He was completely business- maybe that was for the best. It might make the conversation that was sure to ensue a little easier to stomach. "I need you to come with me during your two weeks of leave."

A beat passed. "Jaina, I don't have two weeks of leave."

"You do now," she smiled apologetically. "Goddess's privilege. I told General Antilles that I'm feeling a bit overworked and require some time away- with my choice of pleasurable company, of course." The truth was that Wedge was thrilled with her performance of the last week, snapping at people and doing whatever she damn well pleased- only, he didn't realize that was just how she felt until she went and explained what she needed to do with time away from the Mon Mothma.

Jag's brow rose a bit higher. "Of course," he drawled ruefully. "What do you actually need?"

She sighed. "You to help me bring in Kyp Durron."

The silence stretched longer this time. Finally, he frowned. "I'm no Jedi; I can't help you with this."

"Actually," her voice was soft and sad, "you're probably the only one who can."

"Why?" his tone was shrewdly calculating. "And why you? You're not a master."

Her eyes closed and she took a few deep breaths. "Because I'm the only one who will be able to get to him without risking further bloodshed, but I need a non-threatening, non-Jedi with me."

"How?"

"By getting him to come to me."

He stared at her quietly for several seconds. "Why would he come to you?" She was quiet and tense. "Jaina?" She didn't respond, and he approached her, looking carefully into her face but she wouldn't meet his eyes. He reached out to pull a lock of hair out of her eyes… and she turned her head aside, shutting him out. Sadly, he took her hand in his, gripping it tighter when she tried to free it, and she finally looked at him, and he saw anger, bitterness, fear, sorrow… fear? "Jaina," he breathed, pulling her closer to him, "what's happened to you?"

She didn't cry-she wouldn't. But for a long time, he sat with her on the small bed, arms around her shoulders while she shook slightly and tried to calm her breathing.

When she was sufficiently calmed, she leaned away from him and began to talk.

"You know that I was Kyp's apprentice for several months, since I last saw you at Ithor and before we met again in Hapes?" she asked. He nodded. "We were involved… romantically… at the same time." He said nothing and she realized he'd already suspected this. "And when he tricked me into helping destroy a growing Vong worldship, I left him and left his squadron. It wasn't long after that when my aunt contacted me to say that he'd disappeared, and soon afterwards, we began hearing about the kinds of things Kyp was doing fighting the Vong and the Peace Brigade."

"Surely you don't blame yourself for Durron's instability?"

She hesitated, uncomfortable. "There might have been… correlation. He's been… I can't explain it. Watching me somehow, I can feel his presence in the back of my mind." Jag scowled. "I managed to keep it under control while preparing for the Myrkr mission, but… it got worse. Two weeks ago. And then, two nights later… he just appeared in my room in the middle of the night."

Jag started. "Like… an apparition?"

"No," she smiled tightly. "Him. He said things… he wanted me to go with him and disappear," the scowl deepened. "And then he wanted to know if I'd choose him over the Council. I didn't understand, because I didn't know what the Council's plans were- no one did. Kyp thought my ignorance meant that I was out of the loop because… maybe because I defended him, I'm not sure, but he clearly thought it meant that they don't trust me. But he obviously already knew about Masters Sebatyne and Hamner."

"Didn't you tell anyone?"

She shook her head sadly. "I couldn't; he forced me into a sort of trance. My parents were barely able to wake me late the next morning, and then I fainted again after telling the Council that Kyp had been in my room."

His eyes lightened in sudden understanding. "I was told you were sick," he acknowledged.

She nodded. "I was, sort of. And then that night, Sebatyne and Hamner came back and apparently Kyp hinted at them that I was the one who told him the plan." She paused. "Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara think that he's trying to isolate me, make the Council alienate me, so that he'll be able to take advantage of my vulnerability and… keep me," she winced at the word. "Aunt Mara thinks that he views my forgiveness as his path to redemption."

"Do you think he can be redeemed?" Jag asked her evenly. Jaina hesitated. "I mean… he's not exactly gone Sith, has he? His methods may not hold with the Jedi code, but in general, he has the best interests of the galaxy at heart… right?"

Her expression was helpless. "I don't know… I thought so… but now…"

He frowned. "What? You think the incident with Master Hamner…?" He was calculating. "Or something else? Jaina?" She shrugged listlessly. "Did he do something worse?"

"We need to bring him in before he hurts anyone else," she avoided the question- and his eyes. "And I think I have a plan for how to do it."

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

Two Days Later

"General, the colonel and I will be departing this afternoon- as soon as possible."

Wedge Antilles looked up, surprised. "Has something happened?"

"Not yet," she muttered. "But it's only a matter of time before the Council decides to do something that gets a Jedi or Kyp killed."

The expression on Wedge's face gave her the impression that he wouldn't be horribly distraught in the latter event. "Very well; I'll begin disseminating the details of your, er… furlough," he grinned, "through certain channels as soon as you've lifted off. It shouldn't take Durron long to hear about it if he's paying any attention."

As she left the office, Jaina reflected that, as much as she truly liked Jag, it was still awful using him like this- but then again, she wasn't deceiving him, he knew he was the catalyst, that factor that would make Kyp irresistibly drawn to her when they were on 'leave' aboard the Errant Venture. If Wedge did his job right- and he always did- then word would spread around the fleet about the 'Goddess' demanding some R&R to have a romantic interlude with her second-in-command…

And she- she was the bait.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

She tensed as a tap sounded at the door to her quarters; stretching out in the Force, she sensed it was her uncle; ah well, no use pretending she wasn't here then. She tapped the release button and it slid open, admitting him.

"Jaina," he said warmly, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Just packing. "Of course not, Uncle Luke. What can I do for you?"She did her best to keep her voice calm, uninterested.

"I want to go with you."

She froze. "What?"

He smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry; I don't think anyone else knows. But you're determined and distracted, and I know you well enough to know that you're planning something. And now that your parents have left… I'm forced to conclude that your 'leave' is just a trap designed for Kyp." She looked down. "Jaina, you know you don't have to do this," he murmured softly. "What's happened with Kyp… it isn't your fault."

"Maybe not," she bit bitterly. "But he's made it my responsibility." She paused. "We leave tonight."

End Part III