A few hours earlier on Coruscant - uhm Yuuzhan'tar
Nom Anor shoveled his way through the either confused or agitated crowd to spot familiar faces. He saw a priest flee, whose long black braids were flying behind him. His pursuer, a man whose white linen robe indicated that he was to be sacrificed, had the help of two Shamed Ones who, while running, threw stones at the priest. The pursued headed straight for Nom Anor, his black eyes begging for help. The intendant stepped aside and nodded approvingly at the two Shamed Ones. The thump of falling and gasping from several throats indicated that the priest had either fallen or been knocked to the ground. Nom Anor didn't care. He didn't know either these two Shamed Ones or the priest, and apparently they didn't recognize him either, so he continued on his march.
He came upon a group of Shamed Ones whose faces were familiar—at least in part.
He stopped abruptly. "I'm back," he declared solemnly.
No reaction.
"I, the Prophet Yu'shaa, have returned to you."
A young woman he knew as Uunu put her arms on her hips skeptically. "I do not know you."
The other shamed ones began to whisper. Had he really been gone so long that they didn't even recognize his voice? So he pulled out his ooglith cloak and donned it.
"Yu'shaa has returned!" a man chanted now, others joined in rejoicing - and the spell was broken.
Kunra, the deserted warrior, came up. "I knew you wouldn't let us down, Yu'shaa," he said confidently.
Nom Anor took off the mask of his prophethood. "That's over now," he explained. "From now on I will forever stand before you on this planet, free and without a mask, as who I truly am - Nom Anor."
"But where have you been all this time?" Uunu asked, and you could tell how hard she was trying not to let the question sound like an accusation.
"Everything is ready," Nom Anor dodged the question. "I hereby promulgate Shimrra's decree that, effective immediately, all Shamed Ones shall be deemed and treated as normal Yuuzhan Vong."
Applause and jubilation erupted; no one thought of Uunu's question anymore, and Kunra's next question was almost drowned out in the din of joy.
"And there are no exceptions? Even for deserters like me?"
Nom Anor nodded and pointedly removed his green turban that identified him as Prefect. Then he bent down and demonstratively placed the garment on the floor between himself and Kunra. "Even for deserters like you, Kunra."
The former warrior grinned. "But you kept it on for the official announcement."
Nom Anor's good eye blinked mischievously. "With an administrator like me, everything has to be in order. But now that the living planet Zonama Sekot is hovering directly overhead, I should be able to contact the Jedi Jacen Solo who will be helping us now."
He pulled out his comlink and called Jacen, who answered. "We'll meet at the World Brain," the young Jedi announced.
The crowd of former Shamed Ones so moved to the former Senate building, where once the Chancellor and later Emperor Palpatine had held his offices. Carpets of moss and tendrils of thorns surrounded the building, but a passage was clear - and through it they saw the shaper Qelah Kwaad and some adepts marching through.
"Follow them!" Nom Anor shouted.
They quickly caught up with the group of Shapers, and Qelah Kwaad turned. "Well, Nom Anor? It wasn't enough for you then that the Jedi Jacen Solo escaped you here in this place?"
"I enabled Jacen's escape from here intentionally, but now I'm telling you, Qelah Kwaad: leave the World Brain alone!"
"You shouldn't concern yourself with Shaper matters, Nom Anor," the Master Shaper snapped at him.
"You may not know, but I'm kind of well-versed in the craft of shaping, Master Shaper."
With these words he pushed past her and the Shamed Ones followed him to reach the cave entrance of the World Brain's dwelling. Qelah Kwaad stretched out her eight-fingered hand and harpoon hooks lashed out to stop Nom Anor and his Shamed Ones entourage from charging forward, when suddenly a blue blade spun from the cave entrance. In a graceful arc, all eight hooks were cut off their ropes and fell to the ground, never reaching their destination.
A forelock of blond hair showed as the thrower stepped into the light to catch the returning weapon in her right hand.
"Thank you, Tahiri," Nom Anor said.
"You know this Jedi?" Qelah Kwaad asked suspiciously.
Nom Anor smiled triumphantly. "Me and Tahiri Veila have met on multiple worlds already."
"Master Qelah Kwaad, you can help us," Tahiri chimed in, her arms making a sweeping motion with the lightsaber she still held in her right hand that seemed to embrace all of Coruscant, "to get all of this done, so that this war may come to an end finally."
"I will obey the Overlord's bidding, which is to protect the World Brain from the very likes of you, renegades!"
"Oh, come on now," Nom Anor said forgivingly, "do you have any idea what's going on outside of the tightly sealed Damutek where you do develop your heresies? Why the earth is shaking?"
"I have no idea what the warriors are doing up there," she snapped back. "I was not informed by either the Warmaster or the Overlord that Coruscant, errm Yuuzhan'tar, is now getting a fourth moon after the old one has been dissembled and reshaped."
Nom Anor grinned superiorly. "You don't even know where Nen Yim is now."
"Enough of that!" Tahiri chimed in again, looking at the Master Shaper. "After the victory of the Galactic Alliance, I will put in a good word for you as my domain mate - if you help us now."
A detonation was heard in the distance - not a result of the quake caused by the entering celestial body, but the impact of an enemy bomb - and it was only then that Nom Anor realized that the earthquake he was just talking about had happened had stopped at least ten minutes ago.
Qelah Kwaad surveyed the adepts and initiates accompanying her, then her eyes darted to the heavens before glancing indecisively at Nom Anor, then at Tahiri. Another familiar face became visible from the cave entrance.
"So you guys agree?" Jacen Solo called out to Tahiri. "Are you coming?"
Qelah Kwaad's indecisiveness turned to resignation. "All right then."
They went into the grotto and came upon that dark hall which had been the Senate rotunda. In a specially made pond lay the World Brain - a large, tentacled, yellow-eyed creature created specifically for this planet by the Yuuzhan Vong shapers to coordinate and oversee the planet's Vong formation.
Well, my friend, what can we tease them with this time? the World Brain silently asked Jacen Solo.
"We're not going to tease them at all," Jacen Solo replied, "but maybe throw their weapons off a bit."
This will be a difficult task.
A small, lilac bird-like creature appeared suddenly. "I can help you with that," the spirit of Zonama Sekot said, who had reverted to the form of Vergere again.
Where is my Von'u?
"It's coming soon," Jacen Solo reassured the world-brain courteously.
A human-looking golden droid stalked into the cave, clutching a yellow bowl of some sort of jelly.
"Your Von'u, Sir," the figure said tinnily in the Yuuzhan Vong language.
Thank you very much, Threepio.
"You know this droid?" Nom Anor asked, puzzled.
But of course. Droids are friends. That's what Jacen Solo taught me.
Jacen smiled. "Now that you're well taken care of with Von'u ... will you help us so we can have an easy time with the Overlord?"
You leave me alone again?
"My parents will take good care of you," Jacen promised. "Believe me, they are good babysitters."
At that moment, Han and Leia entered the grotto.
"That's exactly my Jacen," Jacen's mother said to the group gleefully and proud, then she looked at the tentacle monster in the pool. "He quickly finds friends of all kinds everywhere."
Just go your own way. And with my new companions, I will continue to help you from here.
They left the cave and headed for the citadel ship. They were joined by Luke Skywalker and other Jedi. When they reached their destination, they found a large moat surrounding the ship, teeming with ravenous animals. From the citadel itself, a large, misshapen creature resembling a huge sack was coming towards them. "The overlord wishes no visitors!" Nom Anor heard Drathul's voice.
Luke activated his lightsaber, but his nephew held him back. "It's just a mon duul, a transmission sack. He doesn't do anything."
"But we want something," Nom Anor replied. "An audience with Shimrra."
"With all the Jedi?" Drathul asked, skeptical about the Mon Duul. "Never! The drawbridge stays up!"
"We don't even need it," Luke replied. "Give me a boost folks!"
Luke Skywalker jumped over the ditch. With the Force, the Jedi gave him a boost from behind and he made it to the other bank unharmed. Other Jedi followed in the same vein, Luke now pulling them via the Force over to the other side of the moat. When enough Jedi were gathered at the entrance of the citadel, they joined forces and simply pushed the huge Mon Duul into the ditch, so that even the Force-insensitive visitors could get into the citadel with dry feet via that bulging sack without any problems.
They went up the winding staircase and a band of brown warriors stood in their way. Luke, Tahiri, and the other Jedi accompanying them all stopped short. Brown was an unusual skin color for Yuuzhan Vong; most of them were yellow, almost white, or bluish. And they could feel these warriors clearly in the Force, unlike other Yuuzhan Vong - very much so, just as if...
The warriors raised their amphistaffs, but Luke turned to signal his people to lay down their weapons. He himself stepped forward and held his lightsaber out to the leader. "Don't you want something like that too?"
One of the brown warriors put a translation worm in his ear. "You want to bribe us with your Jedi devilries?"
"A Jedi weapon for those who can also become Jedi."
The leader shrugged. "We weren't created for that."
Luke smiled. "The legend goes that my father was created by a Sith Lord to later serve the Sith." He paused. "He killed the last of the Sith to save me. And you warriors should also choose the right side to save yourselves and those close to you."
The brown eyes of the commander became bigger: "We can choose?"
Luke nodded meaningfully.
The warriors looked at each other. "But we have no families or female counterparts," the leader objected again. "Our sole purpose is to serve the Overlord."
"That's what you were told," Luke said, "but haven't you ever wished you could just go fishing with a dad or brother or go to the holo theater?"
The warrior raised an eyebrow. "To the holo-theater?"
"He means do you have other friends among the Yuuzhan Vong that do normal things with you besides guarding the Overlord," Jacen Solo interjected.
"But the other Yuuzhan Vong aren't like us. We are enough for ourselves. And now let us capture you and bring you before the Overlord."
The twenty or so brown warriors formed a circle around Luke and were about to tie him up when the Jedi raised their hands and a bubble of power formed around Jedi and the Yuuzhan Vong accompanying them. For the warriors outside the bubble it appeared like the light around the people they were ordered to arrest, was broken in a slightly different angle than outside the odd dome, but their hands, holding the organic blorash cuffs, felt the barrier clearly. The warriors put away their cuffs for the arrests and instead raised their amphistaffs to get through the hull. Nom Anor whinced, as if that could happen anytime, but the warriors' weapons bounced back likewise, useless to penetrate the almost invisible barrier. Some warriors even had to duck down to evade the ricocheting thud bugs they had thrown themselves.
"This is a fight which cannot be decided with ordinary weapons", the guard leader said to his men in the Yuuzhan Vong language.
Hence the warriors put away their weapons and tried another technique. They spread their hands in a big circle around the bubble to create counter-pressure. The Jedi Force bubble got a dent, but it got a tad wider elsewhere.
"Your Force abilities are remarkable," Luke said. "We'll also teach you how to create something like this, provided you join us."
For the first time, confusion appeared on the warriors' hitherto determined faces.
"Because there's more to being a Jedi than wielding lightsabers," Luke continued. "And with us Jedi you will be equals among equals. Don't continue to be pawns of the Overlord."
"But warriors don't just desert - that would be dishonorable!" the leader said.
"I used to think so too," Kunra butted in, "but I don't think I'm any more dishonorable now that I'm serving a just cause."
The warriors looked at each other and their leader cradled Luke Skywalker's Jedi weapon in his hand. "The High Priest Jakan insulted us," he said hesitantly. "Jakan said we're more like Vonduun crab than Yuuzhan Vong."
"Then we will explain to him that he was wrong and that there is much more in you," Luke said solemnly.
"Then we will join you," the leader promised and held out the lightsaber to Luke to hand it back to him.
The bubble of power instantly vanished, and together the enlarged company continued its march upwards until they reached the gate that led to Shimrra's audience chamber. Two warriors, just as brown as their comrades below, guarded that entrance. Without exchanging a word with their people, in tacit agreement they made room for those seeking entry, and the membrane of the door opened.
This chapter contains events from the book series "New Jedi Order", vol. 13 "Traitor" by Matthew Stover (2002) and vol. 19. "The Unifying Force" by James Luceno (2007)