Six standard months later
"How would you go about insuring the Chief of State's safety at the summit then, since my suggestions seem so displeasing to you, Master Solo?" The chief of the CSF asked Jacen in a sarcastic tone, which irked the young Jedi.
"Well first off, Madame, I am not quite sure why you are even being consulted on this matter. With all due respect of course." Jacen retorted scathingly.
Chief of State Omas raised his hands, attempting to placate the two individuals before him. "Please, gentlebeings. There is no need for this to digress into an angry argument." He fixed Jacen with a rebuking glower. "I asked the Chief here because I hoped that a woman of her station would be a spring of useful knowledge in this particular circumstance."
Jacen smiled broadly and turned his attention to the 'wellspring of knowledge'. "My dear Chief of Coruscant Security. I apologize. I was in no way attempting to insinuate that someone of your vast experience had nothing useful to share." The Chief was in fact a recent graduate of the Academy and had been appointed to the head of Coruscant Security after only one year of working a desk job because of her family connections. "I was also, by no means, trying to make it seem as though someone who has seen as much action as you, and has organized the security of so many important diplomatic events, is unqualified to provide input in something as important as the first meeting between the Leaders of the Hutt Clans and the Chief of State of the Galaxy's free beings… in over a hundred years. Additionally, I would never go so far as to even think that a person who comes from a known anti-alien coruscanti aristocratic household would be, perhaps, unsuited to this particular task. Furthermore, it would be downright madness for me to qualify the Chief of State asking you here as anything but a courtesy call which his political advisors forced on him because your family has donated so generously to his ad campaigns, something he de facto never encouraged," his voice changed from sardonic to respectful as he nodded in Cal Omas' direction who was barely keeping his amusement contained. "Finally, since I know how well traveled you are, and how un-sheltered your formative years have been, I know you can solve this mystery that has been plaguing the burdened minds of the Chief of State and I for the entire hour you made us wait, past the appointed time that this meeting was supposed to start. Where, on Nal Hutta, is this historic meeting supposed to take place again? I know the holonews casters have been raving about it all week but do to my advanced years the name escapes me."
The young woman, who had been turning steadily redder in irritation, and perhaps embarrassment, as Jacen went on, opened her mouth to speak. Jacen leaned towards her in anticipation, putting on an expression of riveted attention. She blinked several times and then rapidly rose to her feet. "I don't have to stand for this," she proclaimed, and fled the office.
As soon as the door slid close in her wake, Cal Omas burst out laughing. Jacen shook his head, sighing annoyed. "What a class A tool…"
Cal Omas wiped a tear off his cheek. "By the force . . . did she have that coming."
The two of them were now alone in the Executive Office of the Executive Building. Jacen had found himself in this office more frequently as of late. After Mara had left, more than half a standard year earlier, he had begun to pursue his machinations in earnest. He had managed, at great expense to himself, to hire a skilled assassin for the purpose of attempting an assassination on the Chief of State Cal Omas. Jacen had, of course, appeared on the scene in what appeared to be a happy coincidence, deflecting the sniper's bolt inches from the Chief's face. In what was to become the most watched newscast of the decade, he pursued the assassin, who turned out to be as good as he had been expensive, through the city. Various news agencies caught images of the pursuit and the clips had since been pieced together to create an almost complete story, excluding the end of the chase, in which the assassin's speeder crashed into an empty warehouse in the Works sector. Jacen had pursued the killer into the structure and, although finding the noghri helpless and injured, he had decapitated him and dragged his body out of the speeder. Placing its highly customized weapon in its hands, he made the scene look like the inevitable result of fighting in close-quarters with a Jedi.
When he had been invited to a soiree hosted by the Chief of State several days later, he was publicly thanked. Afterwards he turned the private conversation that he had with Cal Omas towards the topic of protection and how he thought it necessary for a Jedi to personally insure the Chief of State's safety in these trying times. Cal Omas initially resisted the idea but Jacen managed to persuade him. Cal Omas, in turn, insisted—in accordance with Jacen's scheme—that Jacen be the one to fulfill this role.
A few weeks before this occurred, Jacen managed to break the vote stalemate in the order. Following a public speech in which he acclaimed Corran Horn the best possible choice to succeed Luke as Grand Master, Kyp Durron and Kyle Katarn threw their votes in with Master Horn. He persuaded Mara to follow suit and soon after she cast her vote for Corran Horn via hologram attendance, Master Horn gained the needed majority and was ratified as the new Grand Master of the Order. While Corran had no real ambitions that were quenched through this promotion, he nevertheless promoted Jacen to the rank of Master several weeks later, apparently on Kyp Durron's recommendation. Jacen was rapidly moving up in the world, much to his relief. After all, time was of the essence.
Jacen, still sitting across from the Chief of State, shook his head in exaggerated exasperation. "When I think about what my sister had done at that girl's age… my god Jaina had fought on the frontlines of a horrendous war… perhaps the worst in recorded history, watched friends die, and killed multiple beings so that others might live… and yet she was not half as arrogant as that twerp."
Cal Omas nodded thoughtfully. "Your generation of Jedi and career soldiers is truly admirable. The things you and your peers did to stop the Yuuzhan Vong is worthy of great praise. I read the post battle report filed by Leia, your mother, following the final battle over Coruscant. Is it true that you melted that fiend Onimi like flame melts ice?"
Jacen smiled wistfully. "For one glorious instance in time I was completely at one with the force… and no limits barred my ability to affect or understand the physical world. It was a beautiful moment that was utilized for a dark purpose… how much could I have learned if instead of killing a creature I had tried to solve an existential mystery that has plagued philosophers for thousands of years, or cured a disease that has been considered incurable for an equal amount of time? It was necessary to do what I did but sometimes I think it was a wasted opportunity. This feeling is crystalized in the sadness that I feel whenever I think of that moment."
Cal Omas appraised him with a look that bespoke great empathy. Jacen definitely liked the Alderaanian, no matter the obstacle he represented. "Life is full of those. But for what it's worth, that horrible conflict had already claimed more lives than the worst epidemic and certainly more than the most convoluted existential dilemma. It had to end. And you ended it. It was that act that truly marked the end of the war, more than any other one action. That is worthy of pride. You should commend yourself for your choices that led you there, and the teachers who made it possible."
"Thank you, Chief of State." Jacen said gratefully. "Perhaps we should address the matter at hand."
"Master Solo, I'll be honest with you. I never had any interest in discussing the finer points of security procedure and, as you so observantly pointed out, was only about to do so to assuage my political advisers regarding our young Director of CSF and her family's donations." Cal replied. "Although it's alarming that you forgot that the meeting is going to take place at the newly erected Republic Convention Center on Nal Hutta I assume you have the matter well in hand."
Jacen rose to his feet and exaggeratedly tapped his forehead with his hand, in a gesture of mock-realization. "How silly of me to forget…"
Cal Omas shook his head in disappointment. "I'm paying you too much."
Jacen laughed. "You really are," he agreed, and after bowing turned on his heel and left the room.
Jacen spotted his cousin, formally apprenticed to him recently, staring at a grotesque painting by a Barabel painter, depicting an almost abstract—which Jacen attributed to the Barabel's lack of artistry rather than artistic choice—image of a female huntress biting down on the neck of its Virpine prey. He walked up quietly behind his cousin. "Admiring the lethality of the work?"
Ben nodded, not betraying the surprise that he felt by his cousin's proximity. "It's pretty sweet."
"Did you lick it?" Jacen asked. "They frown on that I've been told."
Ben chuckled. "Of course not, Master."
"Don't use expressions like that. They make you sound uneducated in the better circles of society." Jacen scolded.
"Yes, Master." Ben replied sighing.
Jacen started walking down the hall, towards the hangars. "Ready to welcome your mother home?" he asked, after Ben caught up to him.
"I guess." Ben replied, unenthused.
"Still angry that she left?"
Ben nodded. "Yeah."
"What have we learned about anger?" Jacen asked.
Ben cleared his throat, and assumed a high pitched wizened tone. "Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to suffering."
Jacen smiled at the Master Yoda impression. "You're right. When your meditating in your chambers you probably should not think about how much you hate that one apprentice who beat you in the lightsaber tournament the other day, and mull it over and indulge it and finally start pondering how easy it would be to sneak over to his chambers and plunge your lightsaber in his heart… but what have I taught you about anger."
Ben adjusted his voice and assumed the educated coruscanti accent Jacen had become so practiced in. "Only use anger, my young apprentice, when you are losing a fight."
Jacen tapped the back of his cousin's head; not hard but not to gently either. "Seriousness please. Why only then?"
Ben inhaled. "Because, if I'm losing a fight I'm about to die anyway so it becomes acceptable to consider some extreme options?"
Jacen nodded, and projected pride through the force. "Exactly Ben. It doesn't matter if you're the most serene, meditation addicted, kind, emotionless Jedi who ever lived. If your head gets parted from your body that will have meant nothing. So anger has its uses… especially if you use it to fuel your desire to survive."
Ben nodded as they entered the lift that brought them to the hangar. "I guess that's true. But mom shouldn't have left like that, out of nowhere."
Jacen shook his head. "I disagree. You both needed to grieve alone and your mother, especially, was not getting any better. And she commed you every day, so it's not like you couldn't have told her any day that you needed her to come home."
Ben fell silent and drew a handheld hologame from within the folds of his robe. Jacen cocked his eyebrow but said nothing. The arrived at the hangar level and made their way across the speeder lot.
"Column!" Jacen warned his cousin, when Ben nearly walked headlong into a supporting pillar, which even here in the hangar lot was ornately crafted, reflecting the opulence of the Executive Building.
Ben weaved out of the way, with a skilled feat of Jedi acrobatics, almost managing to make his mistake look deliberate. "I sensed it," he explained.
"If you can sense permacrete, encapsulated in decorative Serenno marble, then we need a role reversal in our relationship." Jacen noted.
The duo entered Jacen's speeder and left the Executive Building's speeder lot.
They arrived at the Temple a short time later, where Jaina was waiting to greet them. As soon as he caught his sister's eye and took in her serious expression at a glance, he turned to Ben. "Why don't you change into something more comfortable for when your mother returns tonight?"
Ben, relieved to be off the hook for the rest of the day, nodded and ran out of the entrance hall of the Temple with quick steps, in the direction of their quarters. Jacen watched his cousin leave and then walked over to Jaina.
"How was your meeting?" she asked.
Jacen scoffed. "A colossal waste of my time."
Jaina shook her head, smiling half-heartedly. "They often are."
The twins strolled in the direction of the Room of a Thousand Fountains in companionable silence. When they arrived they both lowered themselves onto the grass near an ornate spring, sitting opposite each other.
"Aunt Mara is coming home tonight." Jaina began, her voice serene.
Jacen allowed the force to envelope him just as she was doing and inhaled a calming breath of the slightly moisturized air, allowing it to assuage his frustration and refresh his body, while drawing on the force to compound the effect.
"So she is." Jacen agreed.
"It's been almost seven months. It's about time she returned to her son." Jaina allowed a hint of disapproval to creep into her voice.
"They were not healthy for each other. I advised her to do some soul searching." Jacen retorted, allowing no emotion to enter his tone.
They both had their eyes closed but Jacen could feel her urge to open hers and study his expression. "Is going on lengthy familial absences your solution to hardship?"
Jacen grinned. "Didn't you run away to Hapes when Anakin died, and I was MIA? Dad fled in the Falcon and went on a crazy adventure when Chewbacca died. What can I say? It runs in the family."
Jaina chuckled. "Maybe you're right. We do seem to be unable to deal with emotional trauma healthily."
"It was my way of making Mara feel more like family. Take part in family activities."
Jaina's amusement was palpable. Suddenly her mood shifted back to seriousness. "Apparently, she's not coming back alone."
Jacen was so submerged in the force and the pleasure of his sister's company that he almost didn't catch her words. "What?" he asked after a momentary silence.
"Mara apparently met someone on one of her self-assumed missions. While she was taking down a slave cartel, which specialized in young females, she received help from someone on the inside. After they managed to take those bastards down, they continued working together." Jaina explained.
"So she is being accompanied by one of the young women she rescued?" Jacen asked, opening his eyes and watching as Jaina did the same.
Jaina shook her head. "No," she replied, frowning. "Apparently it's a man. And the way Mara spoke about him in her communique it almost sounded like they were beginning to become romantically entangled."
Jacen's jaw dropped. "You're telling me that she received help from a man who was part of a sex slave crime cartel that she was dismantling, and she is now involved with that person?" Jaina opened her mouth, attempting to reply. "A member of an involuntary prostitution ring!" Jacen reiterated. "Have you been mixing up memories again?"
Jaina bristled. "No! And I'm serious. And I'm just as shocked as you are. It's only been nine months."
Jacen rose swiftly to his feet and didn't bother to wait for his sister as he practically ran out of the room.
Several minutes later he stood at a public com station, impatiently tapping his foot. The com station was in a busy alleyway. In order to blend in, he was wearing a casual outfit. Sadly this took away the detracting effect of the Jedi robe, which would have resulted in people giving him a wide berth. Due to his inconspicuous attire he was constantly getting bumped into. Suddenly, the monitor signaled an incoming call.
Jacen immediately acknowledged the call, which coincided with a sound proof barrier incasing the booth. "You took your time." Jacen stated, angrily, while attaching a signal muffling device to the side of the com device, which both distorted his voice and made the com-signal harder to track.
"I had to apply bacta gel to the gash that your creepy plant left on my arm." The voice on the other end replied.
Jacen had convinced the world brain to cause a Yuuzhan Vong vine to snake its way all the way up to the apartment that the person he was talking to resided in. This way all he had to do in order to inform the person that they needed to talk was contacting the world brain, who would in turn cause the vine to prod the occupant of the apartment, signaling Jacen's desire to talk. This circumvented the need to call him himself, thereby limiting Jacen's exposure.
"I pay you an exorbitant amount of money, do I not?" Jacen premised.
"Yes."
Jacen rapped his fingers rhythmically against the glass of the booth. "Why?"
"To build a network of informants around the galaxy."
"No that's not the reason. Informants are a means to an end. What end is that?" Jacen asked impatiently.
"To inform."
"Am I not paying you enough to achieve this goal?"
"No." The voice on the other hand sighed exasperatedly. "I mean yes, you are paying me enough of course."
Jacen stopped his fingers motion and leaned against the glass instead. "Then how, by the force, could you possibly have remained uninformed regarding Mara Skywalker's escapades?"
"I didn't think something like that was relevant."
"I've told you to remain informed on the activities of the galaxy's most powerful families,a amongst other things. You don't think the Skywalkers meet that criterion?" Jacen exhaled forcefully.
"Your usual interest is in politically motivated people. The Skywalkers are powerful, sure, but not politically."
Jacen growled. "First off, if you think that you are a shortsighted fool. The Skywalkers and the Solos have enormous political capital and influence. I am wiring fifty thousand credits into the usual account. Invest them into keeping tabs on the Skywalkers and the Solos. No living spies! They can sense organics observing them. Just data mine them. Hack their coms. And stick to the matriarchs of the families. I don't need to know what's on Ben Skywalker's nameday wish list. Leia and Mara are the important ones."
Jacen ended the call, not bothering to wait for a response, detached the distortion device, and left the booth at a brisk, but innocuous pace.
As he walked back to the temple, which was not too far away, he mused over what he'd gleaned from the day. Most of his plans were falling into place quite nicely. This was of course a good thing. But he didn't like getting blindsided by unforeseen happenstance. Mara returning from her adventures with a paramour was distressing. Firstly it meant that she had either gotten over her grief at a more rapid rate than anticipated, following it up with a rebound relationship, or she was still mourning and was cauterizing her grief in an unhealthy way. Either option was not going to go over well with Ben, who would almost certainly reject any new adult man in his mother's life, especially one he didn't know. This disruptive element was not something he had any patience for. Jacen sighed impatiently when a large crowd obstructed his pace. He pushed through the crowd while continuing to muse on what had happened.