After Jar Jar landed his starfighter in the public docking bay across from his apartment and turned the engines off, he exited, closed and locked his vessel, and walked the rest of the way to his apartment across the street. A few minutes later, he entered his apartment proper and simply plopped down upon his comfortable sofa to watch the HoloNet.

"...and the upcoming peace negotiations between the Mandalorian factions of Mirta Gev and Belok Rhal will take place tomorrow at five P.M., local time over the world of Mandalore," the voice of Chevin news anchor Perre Needmo reported on Jar Jar's holoscreen. "Reports that just came in have confirmed that several members of the Jedi Order, including Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his sister and former diplomat Leia Organa Solo, will be present for the proceedings."

Jar Jar then tuned out the rest of what Needmo was saying - which transitioned into some sporting event on Coruscant - as he fell into contemplation about what the Chevin had reported. Vestara Khai told him that she didn't know where Rhal or the main body of his fleet had resided. And while he wouldn't put it past the Jedi Order to not tell her about this, he imagined that if they did agree to an alliance with her to stop the Mandalorian civil war, the Order would at least inform her of whatever efforts they took to stop the conflict.

So then why didn't she tell him about this?

Turning off the holoscreen, Jar Jar took the commlink of his belt and began dialing Khai's comm code. He waited a few moments for a response.

"Yeah?" the Sith's voice asked when she finally answered.

"Ladya Khai, why youssa noa tella me abouta da Mandalorian peace conference tomorrow?"

"Relax, Jar Jar, this'll all work out. Trust me."

"You asked me to killata Rhal and his army. Why you no tella me abouta disa?"

"Why do you care? You have some investment with the Jedi Order?"

Jar Jar hesitated before he continued. "What about the Jedi Order?"

The Gungun could hear the Sith's growl coming from the other end of his commlink. "Until I tell you otherwise, Jar Jar, you're not to make a move on this peace conference, do you understand?"

"But why nota?"

Jar Jar could almost feel Khai restrain another groan of irritation. "Jar Jar, before I answer that question, I have to ask you again: Do you have any attachment toward the Jedi Order?"

"Why, yesa. Why do you ask?"

A moment of silence passed such that it seemed to Jar Jar that the communication between him and Khai had been cut off somehow. But that fear was assuaged when she responded with, "Because if you show up there and begin killing Rhal's men, you can disrupt the peace conference and only bring more chaos to this war."

"Oohh, moi moi, I understand now," Jar Jar said. "But why youssa no sayso before?"

"Um... I thought it would obvious," Khai replied with a nervous tinge to her tone.

At that point, Jar Jar knew that something else was going on. "Oh," he replied. He was surprised at how natural that came out. "Meesa see dat now. Okay, well, tell me when you needa me, Ladya Khai."

"I will. Khai out." The communication ended there.

Then, just as he put the commlink back to his belt, Jar Jar hurried out the door back for his starfighter.

.

Jaina awoke with a start from the nightmare that she was having, and found herself staring back at the appraising gaze of Vestara Khai looking down upon her. The Jedi Master repressed the urge to whip out her lightsaber from her belt and decapitate the Sith right then and there, and instead, she looked around to find that they were in the Faux Harla's medbay.

When Jaina's gaze returned to Vestara, she growled, "What did you just do to me?"

"Figured out the Sword of the Jedi's weakness," the Sith replied with an arrogant smirk. "It took some time for me to find out, but after some searching through the Force and its threads going back to you, I found that those same threads connected to your fellow Jedi and friend, Tahiri Veila. I saw the friendship that bordered on sisterhood between the two of you, what with the connection that you both had to your brother, Anakin, but I found something else, too."

"You searched me through the Force, while you were aboard my ship with me and my husband, and I didn't sense you doing any of this?" Jaina inquired, still angry and wary of Vestara.

"I picked up a few tricks after we beat Abeloth," Vestara answered. "But anyway, I found something else that linked you and Tahiri together, something stronger than the bonds that you had with your younger brother."

"What was that?" Jaina asked.

"The trauma you endured under Harry S. Plinkett," Vestara said in a morose tone.

Jaina was silent for a moment. Then she asked, "Where's Jag?"

"Handling the piloting," Vestara answered. "After a while, he thought it was a better idea to handle your ship than leave it to me. It was more to make sure that you didn't wake up with the fact that your ship was being handled by a Sith than to ensure either of your safety from me."

Jaina gave an agreeing nod, but her expression fell back into serious inquiry. "If you knew my weakness - what Tahiri and I endured together - and you used it to knock me out, why didn't you just kill Jag and me?"

"You mean aside from the fact that if I did that, I'd have the whole Jedi Order, and your parents, going after me again?" Vestara retorted.

"Sith like you are a cowardly lot, but even you won't pass up any opportunity to take care of significant threats to your well-being," Jaina said. "Especially now that you have someone that can level an entire army for you."

Vestara nodded in agreement. "Fair enough. You see, I'm actually a lot more concerned about what'll happen if either you or Tahiri die."

"What do you mean?"

"When I discovered what Plinkett did to you and your friend, I also found something else. After he finished with you, he left only faint vestiges of the experience in your minds, just as a little reminder. Someone like Plinkett is too egotistical to give you complete amnesia, from what I've learned from my own experience with him."

"Okay," Jaina said. "But what does that have to do with not killing Jag and me?"

"Because those vestiges that Plinkett left in your minds are what will trigger his return to this galaxy if either you or Tahiri die," Vestara said. "And he can't just return through the Borg technology that he stole from his home galaxy, because when he tortured you and Tahiri, it caused an imbalance in the Force that created a one-way portal back to his home galaxy. The only way it can become a two-way portal is if both you and Tahiri died."

"Alright," Jaina said. "So then that just leaves one more question."

The Jedi Master then quickly whipped out her lightsaber and pressed the blade end up against Vestara's chin, rendering the Sith completely motionless under fear of the purple blade's activation.

"Try to use my experience with Plinkett again, whatever you did when you did it, and the lightsaber will go off just by the reflex of my finger here," Jaina warned. "Now, tell me, why not just use this contact of yours to wipe out Belok Rhal's fleet, if not coerce them into an unconditional surrender? And don't lie to me, my senses are attuned to yours now, so there's no hiding whatever deceit you may have."

Vestara growled. "If I were to tell you, what's to stop you from killing me?"

"Oh, as much as I'd love to kill you, I'll only do that if you have to make me," Jaina promised her, though the threat of death still permeated her aggressive tone. "Now answer me."

The Sith sighed in defeat. "Do you really think the Death Watch are just gonna cooperate over at Mandalore?"

Jaina rose an eyebrow in inquiry. "What are you saying?"

"Oh, don't be an idiot, Jaina, Rhal and his thugs are gonna spring a trap there so he can take out both the Jedi and Mirta Gev and her faction!" Vestara exclaimed.

"Which will wipe out many Jedi there," Jaina concluded with horror.

"It may not mark the end of your Order - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if your uncle and parents survived the battle that's to come - but, like you said, I, as a Sith, am not gonna pass up an opportunity for some dead Jedi," Vestara elaborated. She then added, "Unless Plinkett's involved, of course."

"And it wouldn't matter if the upcoming battle at Mandalore escalated the conflict when you have that ace in the hole that can wipe out whole space fleets single-handed," Jaina said.

"Exactly," Vestara conceded angrily.

"Yet you knew this would happen even before you realized that your contact was more powerful than you thought," Jaina said. "Wouldn't that mean you would've escalated this conflict without a way to stop it?"

"Why do you think I suggested we'd go on these raids against Rhal's fleet, which we've yet to start, by the way," Vestara said. "It would have at least weakened the Death Watch a little bit."

"Makes sense," Jaina agreed. "But what makes you think that Mirta and the Jedi won't be ready for a trap anyway?"

"I wouldn't put it past either of them, but hey, there's bound to be dead Jedi," Vestara said.

"I should kill you after all," Jaina said. "But if I were to do that right now, that'd only make me as bad as you." She then lifted up her free hand, palm upward. "Now give me your commlink."

Reluctantly, but without hesitation, Vestara gave her commlink to the Jedi Master.

"Thank you," Jaina said.

Then she knocked the Sith out by smacking the pommel of her lightsaber against Vestara's head.