In the Temple's hangar bay, the Solo Quest had finished her refueling, and Jacen and Garis approached the ship for their second return trip to the Unknown Regions.
"I'm just betting that when I return to Denon again, I'm goin' back to the Unknown Regions again for some reason," Jacen commented to Garis as they approached the Quest. "This is, like, the third time I've gone there in the past several days."
"Do you think it is the will of the Force that you keep returning there?" Garis asked. His tone was half-lighthearted, half-curious.
Jacen shrugged. "I don't sense its hand in this. But then again, I don't believe too much in coincidences."
"Understandable," Garis replied.
"Jacen!"
Jacen and Garis turned around at the sound of Leia's voice; Jacen's mother was approaching the two men at a brisk walk.
"Hey, Mom. What is it?"
When Leia finally stopped before her son, she sighed. "Jacen, before you go, I must ask: do you really want to do this?"
Jacen raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Yes, of course, Mom. Why do you ask?"
"Because when you told your father and I about Danni carrying your child," Leia began, "you seemed... ashamed. As if you didn't really like Danni, or... had relations with a woman you didn't really know or care about."
It was Jacen's turn to sigh. "I'm not ashamed of what Danni and I did, Mom. It's just that..." His sigh returned as he trailed off.
"It's just what, Jacen?" Leia asked.
"It's just that... Well, I guess I feel somewhat ashamed of myself. Not for what Danni and I had, but... I feel sort of guilty for turning her down. Because I do want to be with her and our child, but at the same time, how could I do that and help continue to guide the Jedi Order? Yes, I can visit her, and that's what I'm doing, but... can I really be a father?
"I mean, as I'm thinking about it, it's still sinking into my brain that I am going to be a father. And I don't even know what that really means for myself, Mom! Danni comes and drops this bombshell on me, and I don't know how to react! What does that mean for my future as a Jedi? What does that mean for my future as a person in general?"
Leia placed a hand on her son's shoulder in assurance. "You may not always be there for Danni and your child, but to me, one thing is for certain: that whatever problems you'll face as a father, and as a Jedi, you'll overcome them. But that's up to you as to how you want to overcome those problems."
Jacen nodded in appreciation. "Thanks, Mom."
Leia returned the nod. "Oh, and before I forget, your father wanted me to pass on a few parting words."
"Where is he now?" Jacen asked.
"He's in the medbay," Leia answered.
Jacen's expression flared to concern. "Is he all right?"
Leia chuckled. "He's fine. So far, anyway. The healers in the lab are monitoring him for a potential heart attack after his ranting and raving."
"Figures," Jacen replied with a grin. "So what did he say?"
"He said that before you go to Zonama Sekot," Leia began, "stop by at a jewelry shop here on Denon, buy a nice ring for Danni, and ask her to marry you."
Jacen laughed. "I don't think Uncle Luke would appreciate me spending some of the Order's funds on a ring that Danni may very well reject."
"What makes you think she will, Jacen?" Leia asked.
Jacen was slightly taken aback by his mother's question before he recovered himself. "Well, because she and I both know that it's just not gonna work. I won't always be there, as you said, and plus, we haven't spent enough time together for me to marry her. Just because she's pregnant, that doesn't give a good basis for a long-lasting marriage. We're not some backwater civilization that still believes in that kind of thing, Mom."
"No, we don't," Leia agreed evenly. "Take care of yourself, Jacen."
"Goodbye, Mom," Jacen replied with an appreciative smile. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, then turned and led Garis up the now-lowered boarding ramp of the Solo Quest.
Once they were in the cockpit and sat in their expected pilot and copilot seats, Jacen pressed a button that raised the ramp before he continued with the ship's pre-heating.
"Would you ever want to marry Danni Quee?" Garis asked his Master.
Jacen stopped what he was doing and looked at his apprentice blankly. "If I knew that Danni and I both wanted it, and that we knew what we were doing."
"Knew what you were doing?" Garis echoed. "It seemed pretty clear to me that you two knew what you were doing."
"Danni may know," Jacen said. "But I'm even less sure of myself." He returned to his start-up sequence of the Quest.
Minutes later, the ship had left the Temple's hangar bay, soared to Denon's skies to breach its atmosphere, broke out of its gravity well, and launched for hyperspace.
And that was all that ran through Jacen's mind as he tried to distance his thoughts away from his future with Danni as much as possible; ironic, since he was only getting closer to her.
.
Two days later, during which Jacen and Garis meditated together to better understand each other's strengths and weaknesses as Master and apprentice, the Quest had returned to Zonama Sekot. Jacen placed his ship into a locked orbit around the living world, and then he and Garis were taken down to the surface by a Ferroan named Aken.
As Aken took the Jedi down toward Zonama, Jacen let out a hard breath, as if he were anxious about the Ferroan's careful piloting of her Sekotan shuttle down through the atmosphere.
Garis, seated next to him in the shuttle's passenger cabin, grabbed his Master's hand in reassurance.
"It's okay, Jacen," the apprentice said in a soothing tone. "It's all right."
Jacen nodded absently. "Thank you, Garis."
Soon, they were past the atmosphere and soared down through the clear skies for a grassy field a short distance away from what Jacen recognized as La'okio. He couldn't help but notice Garis's look of awe and inspiration; he was feeling the teeming life that coursed throughout the planet.
Finally, the shuttle landed, and when all three of them were out of the ship, the vessel sunk into the ground, much to Garis's concern.
"Don't worry," Aken said to the apprentice, noting his disbelief. "It's just being stored by Sekot. This is her method of maintaining the security of her creations."
"It's an interesting method, I'll say," Garis said. "Just as the rest of this planet is. Ja-" When Garis reminded himself of Aken's presence, and that now was the time to be formal, he corrected himself. "Master Solo, this world is beautiful in every single way. How would you ever be able to leave this place to begin with? How could you be able to leave a place like this?"
Jacen grimaced. While he knew that Garis didn't mean it, he couldn't help but think to himself, That's right, Jacen. How could you leave Zonama and Danni? For a moment, he completely forgot why he even made that galaxywide sojourn in the first place.
Garis noted his Master's negative expression and quickly said, "My apologies, Master."
Jacen patted his apprentice's shoulder. "It's fine, Garis."
A second later, an organic landspeeder rose up out of the ground, and Aken entered it in the driver's seat. Jacen and Garis filed into the backseat and waited as the Ferroan drove them toward La'okio.
A couple of minutes later, they had entered the village, and Jacen and Garis followed Aken's lead by getting out of the vehicle. The speeder then sunk back into the ground, like the shuttle before it.
"From here on," Aken said to the two Jedi, "wherever you want to go, you will walk." She pointed at Garis. "You. A guide will soon show up and lead you to your lodging for the time of your stay."
"What about Master Solo?" Garis asked.
"He knows where to go," Aken answered. She turned and headed away, most likely to return to her hut to attend to whatever chores she had to accomplish.
"I can sense her, Garis," Jacen elaborated. He didn't have to tell his apprentice who he was referring to. "You stay here and wait for your guide."
"Very well, Master Solo. I mean, Jacen. Oh, wait, since we're on a living planet that knows everything that's going on-"
"Relax, Garis," Jacen said with a smile and a wave of his hand. "Sekot doesn't care much about that kind of thing."
"Oh, okay then," Garis said with an understanding nod.
Jacen flashed his apprentice a Solo grin, then turned and headed off.
A short while later, Garis was met by a male Yuuzhan Vong with an eye-patch over one of his eyes.
"Hello, my name is Nom Anor," the alien introduced himself in a slightly miserable tone. "I will be your guide to your lodging, Jedi Apprentice Boric."
"Nom Anor?" Garis asked. "Weren't you the Yuuzhan Vong who-"
"Yes. Yes, I was." His tone didn't shift from its misery.
Garis's expression broke into a mirthful smile that turned into a laugh. "If I may say, this is incredibly funny." He continued laughing.
Nom Anor couldn't help but let a resentful growl escape his lips. Nevertheless, he swirled around, waved forward wordlessly, and marched off. Garis went on laughing as he followed the somewhat-disgraced Yuuzhan Vong.
.
It took Jacen only a few minutes to find Danni's lodge in the Yuuzhan Vong-Ferroan village, which had next to no residents on the roads right now. Dusk was now setting on this side of the planet, so everyone was just getting back to whatever job or set of chores they had set out to do to turn in for the day.
The blonde scientist was leaning against the threshold of her hut, staring back at Jacen expressionless. He couldn't even get a read on her emotions through the Force; she was keeping her feelings tightly bound to herself.
Still, that didn't stop Jacen from approaching her timidly.
"Hi," he said finally. His tone was uncertain and awkward.
"Hi," she replied with an unreadable tone. Jacen couldn't detect any undercurrents of any resentment or anger she might be feeling for him. "I heard that you were promoted to Jedi Master."
"I was," Jacen confirmed, still timid.
"Well, at least you finally committed to a long-term responsibility," Danni said, letting some resentment escape from her voice.
The comment stung Jacen. "I'm sorry," he said. "But, look, I can see you once every month. Uncle Luke is allowing it."
"Which means that you can't decide to be with me and our child even if you wanted to," Danni replied.
"Danni, I do want to be with you and our child," Jacen said in a pleading tone. "But now that I'm a Jedi Master-"
"If you wanted to be with me," Danni said, "why didn't you decide that before you became a Master? What changed between my offer to you to stay with me and your promotion? Huh?!" She seemed to be on the verge of crying.
Jacen only dropped his mouth in speechlessness. He didn't know what to say; for a second, he thought about telling her that he was deluding himself into believing that he was still on his self-searching sojourn when it was long over. But even that seemed like a flimsy excuse in the face of Danni's anger.
"Jacen, I love you! How could you do this to me?! I want you, I need you. You think I want to just see you for once a month for a day or so?"
"But you said that you didn't need me to help raise the child-"
"I don't need you like that, you-you... half-witted, scruffy-looking, nerfherder! How could you be so smart and yet so stupid at the same time? I need your emotional support, your love! And you denied me that chance to help raise our child because you wanted to explore more of yourself!
"Jacen, you know so much now! You've experienced so much! Why do you still feel like you need to know more, when all that really matters is who you love and who loves you! And that's me, and that's Jaina, and that's the rest of your friends and family! Yet you selfishly continued to pursue this feeling that you have to... be the Force itself or something like that! Can't you just learn to live and be satisfied with what you already have?!"
Jacen actually had to take a step back from Danni's rant, as if to distance himself away from it instead of her.
"No, no, you get back here," Danni nearly shouted. "You get back here, and you find out what you have to say to me. Don't worry, take your time. We're in no rush." In those last two sentences, Danni's voice was a mix of sarcasm and barely restrained fury.
As she fumed, Jacen began a mad scramble in his mind to try to find the right thing to say.
After what felt like an eternity, but which was only a quarter of a minute, Jacen finally said, "Danni... Uh... Do you want me to renounce my rank and title of Jedi Master to be with you?"
Danni now looked taken aback, as if he just suggested that he kill her and their child. "No!" she shrieked. "No, you keep that title, Jacen! You've earned it. Don't turn it down because of me! Don't you dare turn it down because of me!"
"Then what do you want me to do?" Jacen asked, his tone now desperate. He sounded like a helpless child unable to satisfy an abusive parent, even if he was doing exactly what that parent was asking him to do. "All I can do is visit you once a month!"
Danni, who now fell utterly silent, approached Jacen and whispered, "Then let's make it all count." She immediately wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply before pulling him into the hut. Once the door was closed and locked by Jacen, they immediately started taking their clothes, only taking their lips away from each other for that.
Over half an hour later did they finally finish this new bout of lovemaking, and Jacen and Danni lay on her bed, sweating and heaving from all the effort. Two minutes after their initial collapse, and their breathing became more regular, Jacen looked over at his lover.
"Hey. Wanna do that again?"
"Yeah," she whispered with an enthusiastic nod.
And without a second's hesitation, she jumped on him and they started the new bout of intercourse.
.
During Jacen and Danni's first bout of intercourse since seeing each other again, Garis's laughter over his guide's plight finally died down as he followed Nom Anor through the village.
However, their trek through the village was halted when Garis stopped to find a procession of meditating Yuuzhan Vong off in the large garden to their left. Nom Anor looked in the Jedi's direction, where Garis's gaze was riveted on a blonde woman who looked similar to Danni Quee but not enough to be a twin or a younger sister.
"Is that Tahiri Veila?" Garis asked Nom Anor as he pointed at her.
"It is," Nom Anor answered unenthusiastically. "You recognize the three scars on her forehead?"
"I do," Garis answered, still not taking his gaze away from the woman.
Tahiri's attention was nowhere close to concentrating on Garis or Nom Anor; instead, she wandered among the gathering of meditating Yuuzhan Vong and sparing each a glance, as if she were evaluating something in each individual.
"What is she doing?" Garis asked his guide.
"She is evaluating the progress that each Yuuzhan Vong in that circle is making in attaining Force-sensitivity," Nom Anor explained. "Sort of like how a teacher will go around a classroom during a test in one of your elementary or secondary schools."
"Shouldn't every Yuuzhan Vong be there?" Garis asked. "Shouldn't you be there?"
"This is a different class," Nom Anor stated. "Different groups of Yuuzhan Vong are taught by different people, such as former Eminence Harrar, who has mastered the Force now. These classes will grow, I imagine, as the next generation of Yuuzhan Vong arrive, and more of my people will attain Force-sensitivity until, eventually, our whole species reclaims the Force."
Soon, Tahiri returned to her spot at the opposite side of the circle that Garis and Nom Anor stood outside from and announced, "The evaluation is over! You will all return to your homes for rest, and tomorrow, you will each talk to me, by the order of my choosing, of how you fared in the evaluation. Class dismissed."
With that, all of the Yuuzhan Vong stood up from their spots and dispersed out of the circle to return to their huts for the night. Garis went through the circle, and the dispersing aliens paid no mind of his presence while Nom Anor rolled his one eye and followed the Jedi.
"Where do you think you are going?" the one-eyed Yuuzhan Vong asked.
Garis ignored him as he intercepted Tahiri.
"Hello," Garis said. "My name is Jedi Apprentice Garis Boric. And you must be Tahiri Veila, right?"
Tahiri was mildly confused. "Uh... sure. I'm sorry, may I ask why you're here?"
"Oh, my apologies," Garis said. "I'm the apprentice of Jacen Solo, who you may know."
"It's been years since I've last seen Jacen, but, yes, I know him," Tahiri said. "Is he on his way to becoming a Master if he's training you?"
"He's already a Master," Garis clarified.
"Oh. Well, good for him then. Is he on Zonama Sekot right now?"
"You don't know?" Garis asked.
Tahiri shook her head. "I don't pay too much to other people's Force-presences when I'm not teaching or evaluating a class these days. Is he here to see Danni?"
"Yes, he is," Garis confirmed.
"I suppose he's just visiting?"
"He is."
"Huh," was all Tahiri said about that. "Well, Apprentice Boric, it's been nice meeting you. But I should really turn in for the night." She made a move to pass Garis.
He blocked her way. "I'm very interested in talking to you."
"Oh?"
"Yes. I'd like to know a little bit about how you teach the Yuuzhan Vong to reclaim the Force, and all. It's one of the many things that fascinates me about your generation of Jedi, Master Solo among them."
"Well, I'm flattered," Tahiri said. "But I'm really not interested in talking tonight, Apprentice Boric. You seem like a really nice guy, but I just want to get back home, have dinner, and go to sleep." She moved past Garis, who didn't try to stop her this time.
"Oh," Garis said quietly to her retreating form. "Okay then."
Nom Anor then appeared beside Garis, grinning like the plotter he once was as he looked in the direction that the apprentice was staring at.
"If I may offer any advice about this," Nom Anor said, nearly startling Garis out of his reverie, "do not pursue any relationship with her. Even after all these years, she still cannot get over the death of her boyfriend, Anakin Solo, your Master's late brother."
"Whose death was your responsibility, I understand," Garis said as he glared daggers at Nom Anor.
The reluctant guide sneered. "Come on. Let's just get you to your lodge and be done with this." He turned and resumed his course for the lodge.
Garis reluctantly followed without another word.