Lying together on the organic bed in post-coital bliss, Jacen and Danni cuddled up next to each other beneath the bedsheet that covered their immodest forms.
"You know, I just realized," Jacen said.
"Hmm?" Danni asked.
"I think I know why I collapsed back aboard the Solo Quest," Jacen said.
Danni looked at her lover. "Tell me."
Jacen couldn't help but grin at her. "I may sound like a bastard for saying this, but it was because of you."
"What?" Danni asked in shocked perplexity. She pulled herself out of his embrace.
"Hey, I'm not blaming you, exactly," Jacen said with upraised arms, as if he were surrendering.
"But you're blaming me generally?" Danni asked.
"Uh..."
"Just... explain, okay?"
"Okay," Jacen said. "To elaborate, as I told Nom Anor and Tekli, whenever I make compounds from myself, I also have a little process going on inside my body where I make replenishing compounds at the same time; something that at this point is very much second nature to me."
"But that didn't happen when you made that pot, the soil, and the plant for me," Danni said.
"No," Jacen agreed. "And that's kinda where you factored in."
"How?"
"Because I was distracted by you," Jacen said.
Danni looked at him in even more confusion for a moment. But when that moment passed, her eyes widened in realization. "Your feelings for me clouded a process in you that was second nature?"
"Yes," Jacen said with a smile. "It's been a long time since I've seen you, and it just stirred up old feelings that I couldn't take my mind off. Sorry about that, I guess I should have..."
Jacen trailed off as he saw the concerned look on Danni's face.
"Jacen, you... you shouldn't let your feelings for me ruin your concentration and have yourself almost die. You know what that would have done to me, even with the resentment I held against you for leaving?"
"Danni, I'm... I'm sorry," Jacen said as he reached to pat her cheek.
Danni grabbed his hand gently. "Promise me you'll never do that again."
"I promise, I won't lose my concentration..."
"Not just that," Danni said. "Promise me that you'll never create anymore substances like that from your own body ever again. If you ever have to, for any reason whatsoever, do it from your surrounding environment."
"You mean like if I'm in a spaceship or something?" Jacen asked. "It's not a good idea to take pieces of equipment around me to make a new substance, or the air wherever I am. Oxygen and hydrogen molecules are a must in most species, Danni, as you already know."
"Fine, fair enough, but only when you're around disposable objects, like a rock or something," Danni said.
"Look, all I can promise you is that I'll only make compounds from my own body if I absolutely have to do so, for whatever reason," Jacen said. "I won't be frivolous about it, like making things as examples to others. How's that?"
Danni hesitated; she was evidently thinking about whether or not this was an acceptable agreement. But soon, she smiled again. "That sounds acceptable to me."
"All right, good," Jacen said with relief.
But then Danni's smile turned into a frown in two seconds. "So I guess this means you'll have to return to the Jedi Order now."
"Pretty much," Jacen said. "As soon as I get dressed, of course. Now if there any clothes in here for me, I'd be good to go, but I don't think I'd look good in your dress." He began searching the room for any suitable clothes while Danni laughed mildly at his remark.
"Don't worry," she said as she stood up from bed to reveal her full, voluptuous form. "Let me get dressed, and I'll get you your clothes."
"Thanks," he said as he observed her getting dressed with sexual admiration.
.
Once Danni successfully piloted the Sekotan shuttle to dock airlocks with the orbiting Solo Quest, she shared one final kiss with Jacen, who sat in the copilot seat. When they broke away, he gave her a wry Solo grin, and said, "I'll send you some communiques every once in a while."
Danni nodded in approval. "I guess this is goodbye then."
"Goodbye, Danni."
"Goodbye, Jacen."
Jacen then stood up from the copilot seat and proceeded to head to the shuttle's airlock. But Danni soon stood up from her own seat and practically rushed her lover, who turned around to meet her head-on as she almost tackled him to the deck of the corridor. Instead, he caught her in a loving, passionate embrace that involved one of the deepest kisses they shared so far. Soon, Danni led them down to the deck, where they started to undress for what would be their last bout of intercourse for what may be a long time.
Once they were done and dressed up again, they said their legitimate goodbyes to each other before Jacen finally walked through the airlocks to board the Quest again. After the airlocks were sealed and disconnected, Jacen piloted his ship away from the system's gravity well as Danni piloted her ship back to Zonama. From there, the Quest broke through the system's well and jumped back into hyperspace.
An hour later, Jacen dropped the Quest out of hyperspace for a recalculation for the next hyperjump. But before Jacen could do that, he noticed that he had a beeping message on his comm console. He pressed the button to begin the recording.
"Jacen, this is Jagged Fel. I understand that by now, you're in the Unknown Regions, so if and when you get this message, I need you to contact me on this frequency. Please respond as soon as possible; it's Jaina."
When the recording ended with the mentioning of Jacen's twin sister, he was left with mild shock. What happened to Jaina? he wondered. She didn't die, he knew. If that happened, he would have felt it through their connection in the Force.
Then he remembered that he hadn't contacted her in a while, either by communique or through the Force. So he decided to reach out to her with the latter method and...
He received only a mental wall of violent images and a heightened sense of fear and loathing for everyone and everything.
Jacen quickly withdrew from reaching out to Jaina through the Force, and shook his head to get those flashing images out of his mind. When that was done, he decided to contact his sister's fiance.
"Jag," he said once their communication was established. "This is Jacen. What's wrong with Jaina?"
"Jacen, when was the last time you communed with Jaina at all?" Jag's voice asked.
"Uh..." Jacen struggled to remember. "About a month ago, I think. And I don't think the attempt I tried to make in contacting her through the Force moments ago counts."
"What did you get from the contact that 'doesn't count?'" Jag asked.
"A series of violent images," Jacen answered. He tried to recall the images that, moments earlier, he attempted to vanquish. "They went by so quickly, they... starfighter battles; explosions; fights with Yuuzhan Vong; our brother Anakin dying aboard the Baanu Rass."
"So that's what's going on," Jag said. "Jacen, you need to come over to Csilla right now. You can do more for Jaina than even I could."
"All right, I'll be on my way," Jacen replied.
Jag cut off the communication as Jacen started to input the hyperspace coordinates for Csilla. In moments, the Solo Quest was bound not for Galactic Alliance space, but further into the Unknown Regions.