From Korriban, Jacen and Nelani traveled to Tatooine. They found no trace of Garis or anyone who might be associated with him there; however, for a moment as he piloted the Solo Quest over the planet's desert surface, Jacen thought he had a flash of something in the Force. But as quickly as it came up, it was gone, and Jacen just as promptly forgot about it... as if he had never experienced it all.
In fact, in Jacen's mind, nothing had happened at all when he flew over that particular area of Tatooine.
Over the next two months, during which Nelani improved more and more in her training in all the aspects of the Force that Jacen had learned, which included making basic compounds from her body while simultaneously creating new compounds to balance her homeostasis, the two of them continued their search for Garis throughout the galaxy.
By the end of those two months, however, they had run into a dead end.
"Master Skywalker?" Jacen asked in his comm transmission to his uncle. Nelani sat next to him in the Solo Quest's copilot seat, anticipating Luke Skywalker's disappointment in their failure.
"Yes, Master Solo?"
"Apprentice Dinn and I have been unable to find Garis Boric," Jacen said. "We've looked in every place we could look. As far as we can tell, Garis Boric no longer exists in the galaxy."
"I see," Luke replied. "Very well. Return home with Apprentice Dinn. And then you can go back to Zonama Sekot for an extended stay there."
"Extended stay?" Jacen asked. "For how long?"
"Three weeks," Luke answered. "I think you deserve it after all this time from not seeing your beloved, Master Solo."
"Oh. Well, thank you, Master Skywalker."
"How has Apprentice Dinn fared in the search, Master Solo?" Luke asked. "Notwithstanding the obvious failure, of course."
Jacen raised an eyebrow in scrutiny. "Excuse me, Master Skywalker, but what exactly are you asking?"
"Has she demonstrated attitudes that are more becoming of a Jedi than instigating a duel within Temple grounds?" Luke asked.
Jacen noticed Nelani wincing at the reminder of her brief fight with Garis months before.
"She has," Jacen confirmed confidently. "And more than that, she has opened herself up to learning more about the Force under my tutelage."
"Really?" Luke inquired.
"Yes, and Apprentice Dinn has excelled. In spite of our failure to find Garis Boric, I do believe that Apprentice Dinn is nevertheless ready to face the Trials for Knighthood."
"Very well," Luke said. "Deliver her back to Denon, and you may have your next sabbatical to Zonama Sekot, Master Solo."
"I will," Jacen replied. "And may the Force be with you, Master Skywalker."
"As with you and Apprentice Dinn, Master Solo." With that, Luke cut the connection at the other end.
Nelani smiled in hopeful joy as Jacen dialed in the hyperspace coordinates that would return them to Denon.
.
Days after seeing Nelani off on Denon, Jacen dropped the Solo Quest out of hyperspace in the system that Zonama Sekot inhabited. There was no need for a signal or transmission from the living planet ahead that indicated that he was allowed to arrive; only the welcoming greeting that Sekot, and by extension Danni's Force-presence, was all the indication he needed. In fact, for this long-awaited visit, the Quest, an armed vessel, was allowed to land on the world itself in spite of the ban on bringing non-Sekotan weapons to Zonama.
On Jacen's first day back, he and Danni made up for lost time, though they didn't have sex given the growing bump on Danni's belly. Yet, as cliched as it was, Danni's proceeding pregnancy only made her look so much more radiant in Jacen's eyes; and it allowed them a fair amount of time to continue bonding on a social level, where Danni divulged more of the recent scientific discoveries about Zonama Sekot that she and Tekli had made. In turn, Jacen shared more of what he learned from his postwar sojourn throughout the galaxy.
By the end of that first day, Jacen and Danni decided to head to the Rehab Building in the outskirts of La'okio. There, they intended to meet an old friend.
Inside the Rehab Building, the couple stopped outside the room of one of the building's occupants. Jacen knocked on it, and seconds later, it was answered by Tahiri Veila.
"Hey, Tahiri," Jacen said. "Sorry we forgot to call first. Do you mind if we come in, or are you busy with something?"
"No, no, it's fine, Jacen, Danni," Tahiri said. "Come on in." She then opened the door further to allow the couple inside.
Once they were in and the door was closed and locked behind all three of them, Tahiri asked, "Please, sit down. Make yourselves at home. Would any of you like anything?"
"I'm fine," Jacen said.
"You have any snacks?" Danni asked. "I could really go for some right about now."
Tahiri smiled. "I see the baby's coming along quite nicely, Danni."
"Thank you," Danni replied as Tahiri went to get something.
As Jacen and Danni set themselves down on a couch that was adjacent to the armchair in the room's living space, they waited before Tahiri came back with a tray of juicy biscuits and some Sekotan green milk.
Danni practically began devouring the biscuits before Tahiri had set the tray down. Moments later, when Danni was done having her fill, Tahiri sat down in the chair.
"So, Tahiri, how have you been holding up?" Jacen asked his fellow Myrkr survivor.
Tahiri remained silent and expressionless for a moment as she looked up at Jacen. "I've been recovering," she said without emotion.
"Well... that's good to hear," Jacen said uncertainly.
"I'm just starting to learn to not let it run throughout my thoughts," Tahiri said. "After all the pain and suffering that I went through in the war, Jacen, I'm only now learning that I need to find good things to hold onto in my life. Otherwise, when I finally pass on into the Force, would I look back on the horrible things that have happened to me, or the good things that I can cherish?"
Jacen smiled, and Danni shared her lover's expression.
"That's a really positive attitude to have, Tahiri," Danni piped in.
Tahiri shrugged. "I guess I have to have it. I mean, yes, what Garis Boric did to me was awful, but it was short; and compared to what Mezhan Kwaad did to me on Yavin Four, I feel like it's something that I shouldn't dedicate anymore time to thinking about.
"I lost about a couple of minutes or so to that bastard; I won't dedicate another millisecond to thinking about what he did to me."
Jacen and Danni gave their friend a shared approving nod.
"But I'm curious," Tahiri said, "whatever happened to him?"
Jacen hesitated before he sighed. "He escaped."
Tahiri sat up, and her expression changed into one of disbelief. "What?"
Jacen winced. "My new apprentice and I searched three months for him, looking every which way he could hide in the galaxy; but we could find no trace of him."
"You never told me you had a new apprentice with you," Danni commented.
"You never asked," Jacen replied evenly.
"What's his name?" Danni asked.
"Actually... he is a she."
Danni's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, I see. So you thought that because you were with a female- wait, how old was she?"
"She's somewhere in her twenties, I never found out," Jacen said.
"Okay, so you didn't tell me about what's her name because you thought I'd be jealous, is that it?" Danni asked.
"Her name is Nelani Dinn, and, yes, I thought you'd be kinda jealous," Jacen said.
Danni looked at her lover in mild irritation. "Jacen, after all the time we've spent together, you think that I'd instantly become jealous that you spent three months with a twenty-something-year-old woman? Oh, sure, the thought may cross my mind, but I'm not exactly going to jump to conclusions right away; as a scientist, I can't, in good conscience, do that."
"Fair enough," Jacen said.
"But just to make sure, you didn't cheat on me with this Nelani Dinn, now did you?" Danni asked.
"You know I'd never cheat on you," Jacen replied honestly.
"Good, then that means you're still the man I love," Danni replied almost casually.
"So wait, wait, wait, you're telling me that Garis Boric is still out there," Tahiri concluded, having just fully comprehended the fact that her rapist escaped justice for his crime.
"Yes," Jacen answered uncomfortably.
Tahiri's face then contorted into rage. "That's it," she said, standing up. "I'm leaving."
"Leaving?" Jacen asked as he and Danni also stood up from their seats. "Leaving where?"
"I'm gonna scour the galaxy the way that you and your new apprentice didn't, Jacen," Tahiri said. "And I'm gonna find Boric and make him pay for what he did to me." She started to move toward the exit of her room.
Jacen blocked her way. "Now, hold on, Tahiri, you don't wanna do anything you'll regret. If you do find Garis Boric and kill him out of vengeance, you'll be embracing that dark part of yourself unnecessarily."
"Unnecessarily?" Tahiri asked in disbelief. "What, you mean to tell me that making sure that a rapist isn't out there, potentially doing the same thing to other women as he did to me, or worse? And even if he never raped or otherwise harmed another woman again, he should still answer for what he did to me! And if you're not gonna continue doing it, Jacen, then I'll pick up the slack! Now get outta my way!" She tried to move past him.
But once again, Jacen got in her way. "Tahiri, if you do this, you'll be no less of a monster than Garis," he warned. "Is that what you wanna be? Like what Riina Kwaad was before she completely joined with you?"
"You know nothing of Riina," Tahiri growled. "You think that just because you went through a year of torture under Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong that you're the one who suffered the most pain in the war? Do you have any idea the kind of torture that Mezhan Kwaad and her Shapers put me through? I lived a lifetime of pain and suffering in a matter of days; I bet if you went through the same thing, your weak, philosophical pondering mind would just completely collapse in the face of that kind of torture. Your experiences are nothing compared to mine, Jacen, so you just shut up, get out of my way, and let me do your job of finding that bastard."
"Tahiri, you're not thinking clearly," Danni interjected as calmly as she could. "You have to listen to Jacen, or-"
Tahiri's deadly glare sent nonverbal daggers at Danni, silencing the pregnant woman right then and there.
"Or what?" Tahiri said anyway. "Do you have any idea what it's like to lose the man you loved, Danni? And then you have to live almost a decade of your life in pain and misery of that loss before being raped? No? Then shut the kriff up."
"Anakin was my brother, Tahiri," Jacen reminded her. "You know that I mourned his loss."
"I wasn't talking to you," Tahiri growled. "Now I'm going to tell you one last time, Jacen: step out of my way."
Jacen paused. "No."
Tahiri said nothing more before she whipped out and activated her lightsaber from her belt and struck out at Jacen. But the Jedi Master had already quickly pivoted out of the way, grabbed both hands around Tahiri's weapon-wielding wrist, and sent a current of Electric Judgement running through her body before she fell to the floor unconscious.
Danni, startled at the violence that Jacen had to enact in order to knock out Tahiri, had her hands over her mouth before she dropped them to her sides. Her eyes remained widened as she kept her gaze on Tahiri's unconscious form.
Jacen sighed. "For her own good, Tahiri will need to be restrained." He directed his gaze back at Danni from Tahiri. "You know as well as I do that if I let Tahiri go on this quest, even if it's not futile, her drive for vengeance will make her into something horrible."
Danni hesitated, then nodded in understanding.
"I'll let Magister Hal know right away," Jacen said before he took out his commlink for activation.