Legacy of the Force: Invincible (Alternate Ending)

•This alternate ending is a fanfiction and is not endorsed in any way by Lucas Films or Disney or any of their affiliate companies.
•Finally, almost 2 years after writing this, I’ve finally gotten it all typed up and semi-edited. There are probably mistakes grammatical and spelling, my overuse of commas and perhaps wrong use of punctuation.
•I would like to say that I am not a fan of how Ben learned how to hide himself in the force. Nor how Ben taught Mara, who taught Luke and Jaina. However, I can’t change this without changing the major events in this book and previous books in the series.
•I am changing the fact that Jaina ever learned to use shatterpoint, as that was also ridiculous.
•This alternate ending starts as Jaina is going in for the killing blow and she sees that Caedus isn’t attempting to kill her or block himself, and she feels him calling out in a last desperate attempt to save Tenel Ka and Allana.

Work Text:

Legacy of the Force: Invincible: Alternate Ending

…END OF CHAPTER 18

Part 1

Jaina pauses just in time. Just as she was about to land the killing blow. She had been hit by an immense love in the force. She felt Caedus reaching out to Tenel Ka to warn her and Allana. To save them. He had been telling the truth. She was more puzzled now than ever.

“Wait, Jaina!” Caedus was using the force to stay her hand. “Hear me out! None of you have ever asked me why. You’ve never tried to understand. You’ve only been intent on killing me. All of you. Including Mara, and she almost succeeded. You’re only reaction was: He met with Lumiya; He turned to the dark side; He is a Sith lord and, therefore, he must die. But that is not all I am, and I can and have resisted the trappings of the dark side. I paid my sacrifice time and time and again. I lost the admiration, love and respect of Ben. Then I lost everyone else I loved, and then I had to kill Mara.”

Jaina pulled back at that, ready to lunge. Ready to land the killing blow. “Wait!” cried Caedus. You do not understand! Maybe if I show you. Maybe then you will understand. And maybe you will understand that you may have made the same choice I made.”

“Never in a million years would I turn to the dark side brother. Never,” said Jaina looking off into the distance as she spoke. “But Jaina,” Caedus replied gently. “You already have. Several times I felt you in the dark side. During the Dark Nest Crisis. During your training with the Mandalorians, though I didn’t know that is what you were doing until Mirta Gev told me you were training with them and it all made sense. But I felt you in the darkness. It’s OK, Jaina. To touch the darkness. You don’t have to live in fear of it. You must understand it, and accept it for what it is. Now, let me show you the past. Let me show you why I turned to the dark,” said Darth Caedus offering a hand to his twin sister.

Jaina, looking very apprehensive, took the dark lords hand. Immediately, they were flow-walking back in time. Back to Lumiya’s meteorite home. Down into the tunnel system. Back to the strange estate of Darth Vectivus where stood Lumiya, Jacen and Jedi Knight Nelani Dinn.

Darth Caedus looked at Jaina and told her, “Do not allow your emotions to overcome you. You don’t want to leave imprints of yourself in the past or future unnecessarily. come on.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward where Jacen was standing. “We are going to flow-walk within a flow-walk. We must see what Jacen sees,” Caedus continued.

They cautiously approached the group. Lumiya was telling Jacen that if he didn’t become the Lord of the Sith then trillions upon trillions would die, and only he had the power to change that. They heard Jacen’s reply that he didn’t see how going to the dark side would help anybody let alone help save the galaxy. To which Lumiya responded that he should look for himself to see the truth.

At this moment, Darth Caedus, already having hold of Jaina’s hand moved her arm to around his waist instead. She tried protesting, but the look in his eyes were commanding and she obeyed. She was so close to him now. This Darth Caedus that was once her brother. In some ways it revolted her being this close. Yet at the same time she was exhilarated. Caedus took his one good hand and placed it on Jacen’s wrist. Of course past Jacen couldn’t notice them, but Caedus used the force to cloak them as a precaution.

Immediately after placing his hand on the past Jacen, Caedus and Jaina were thrown into the time stream and were seeing what that Jacen was seeing. There were thousands and thousands of variations of possible futures. Each time they saw Jacen not choosing the dark side they saw a war that spanned the entire galaxy with trillions of deaths, and each time Jacen ended up killing Luke Skywalker. The flashes went by fast so details weren’t gleaned. However, the look on Luke’s face was something Jaina had never seen. Pain and anger tore through the visage that she had only ever known to be kind. Sure, she’d seen him sad, depressed and a little angry before, but this. In each instance Luke did not look like himself. Each time, Luke died by the hands of Jacen Solo.

Jacen pulled out of the visions overwhelmed. Jaina heard Jacen protesting that what he saw was impossible. That he could never kill Luke. Jaina thought maybe Lumiya was tampering with the visions somehow, but there was no force manipulation taking place. She would’ve been able to feel it. Then she hears Lumiya tell Jacen, “Now look again. Look at the futures where you choose to become the Dark Lord of the Sith. If you choose the dark side.” Jacen obliged.

Off they went again flipping through possible futures. Jaina saw the galaxy at war again, but this time it was many times smaller and the amount of death much less. This time only millions dead instead of trillions. The war was more controlled. The Jaina saw peace. Order and peace with Darth Caedus at the head of the galaxy. Was he a dictator, for sure, but she didn’t see the cruelty or oppression that she had learned existed in Palpatine’s time. She didn’t see slavery either. Sure, there was fear of Caedus’ rule but the galaxy had order to it. There was a unison. And, as a positive note, Caedus didn’t kill Luke.

Caedus broke off the connection to Jacen and moved them forward a bit through time to where Jacen was chasing Nelani Dinn. Keeping Jaina’s arms around his waist he grabbed Jacen by the wrist again, and again they flow-walked. This time she could see that in every instance that Jacen let Nelani live she led the Jedi Council straight to Lumiya and to Jacen. Lumiya ended up either arrested or dead and the meteorite home destroyed each time. Their plans thwarted every time, and the galaxy would still be plunged into decades long war. Then Jacen searched possible futures for if he killed Nelani, and he understood that this was the only way. Luke would never understand the need to go to the dark side. Even if it was as a sacrifice for the galaxy, and his first instinct would always be to kill a Sith. Jacen understood. Jaina understood. She felt everything her past version of her twin felt, and she understood. Caedus let go of past Jacen again. Then the two watched as past Jacen and Nelani Dinn battled ferociously through the cavern with not much gravity until Jacen won. The fight was over and Nelani was dead.

Caedus pulled himself and Jaina out of their flow-walk and back to the Anakin Solo. Back to the room with the furnace and biological waste.

“I have one more thing to show you, Jaina. Then you can make up your mind about killing me,” said Caedus. Jaina looked taken aback. Like she had completely forgotten her mission. To kill her twin brother. Or maybe she was just confused. She didn’t know anymore. She took a step back.

Part 2

Darth Caedus stepped in taking his sister’s hand once more as he closed the newly opened gap between them. This time he took Jaina into the future. They flow-walked a short distance through time and were in the room that they were just in. The one with the furnace. Jaina was confused even more, but then she saw herself landing the killing blow to Caedus. She gasped audibly. She saw herself holding him as he lay dying. She felt her near-future self’s regret at having killed her brother. Then Caedus fast-forwarded through time further into the near future.

The civil war was over. There was peace in the galaxy. Jaina thought it strange her brother would show her this. Wasn’t this an argument for killing him? Then she saw Natasi Daala in command of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. Then she saw Daala attacking the Jedi Order trying to end it. She was trying to dismantle it. She saw Luke being arrested. Then she saw him going into exile. She saw the Jedi go into hiding. She also saw Jedi being inflicted by some form of madness and going insane and killing people. She couldn’t believe her eyes. If that wasn’t enough, next she saw scheming and plotting at every level of the government. The Sith had also infiltrated many levels. Some very powerful entity had taken up the leadership role, but they weren’t in their own body? She couldn’t understand exactly what was going on, but she knew it was incredibly bad. Then she saw a war between the Jedi and the Sith.

Caedus then moved them out of that future and into another one. One where Caedus ruled. If the Jedi quit meddling in everything he was trying to accomplish, there was still war, however, it wouldn’t be long lived and dwindled down until there was peace. Caedus would wear down the Confederation and they would give up. They would surrender. Caedus would gain control of the Imperial Remnant and there would be no more nano-virus. He shows Jaina how if not stopped they plan on targeting any enemy with the stuff. She then understood that, that must be why he was in such fear over Tenel Ka and Allana. He shows her him taking over, killing the Moffs responsible and getting rid of all evidence, research and technology for the nano-virus. He shows her the war as it winds down and begins to acquiesce to Caedus. He rules by fear but is fair and not cruel. A strong fist, but not an iron fist. She sees all of this. She sees that people fear and despise Caedus, but that they don’t dare move against him. She doesn’t see all of the plotting and corruption that was rampant in Daala’s government. She sees justice and order. She also sees people thriving and doing well. She feels a peace in this new order that she hasn’t felt in a long time.

Finally she understood Jacen’s sacrifice. He had to become this, despised and alone Sith lord, in order to save the galaxy from itself. But what about Mara? She looked at Caedus, and he let out a long sigh, and said, “If we must.” He squeezed her hand as if to ready her.

The next thing she saw, they were in space. Floating in what appeared to be the Hapes System near Kavan. They were watching two ships. “I had just left Hapes. I was visiting with Tenel Ka and Allana, and then ---,” he trailed off. One ship was following the other in stealth. Jaina could see it was a stealth fighter. The one in front was Jacen. The one behind, and the aggressor, was Mara Jade Skywalker’s. They watched as Mara tried to shoot Jacen down. Jacen maneuvered and ending up hitting Mara. Jaina could see the hit wasn’t bad, but Mara feigned as though she had to land. “It was a ploy.” thought Jaina, “to lure Caedus into following her.” Caedus shook his head affirmatively.

They forwarded slightly through time and found themselves on Kavan. They watched as Mara exited her perfectly fine ship. Jaina could feel through the force her aunt’s murderous intentions to lure Jacen there to kill him. She found the cave, where she would spend her last moments, even though she felt sure she would be victorious. Jaina could feel the hate and disgust that radiated from Mara. This confused Jaina. So did the plot to kill him outright. At this point he hadn’t done much that would merit killing him. Now that she thought about it, most of what Jacen, Caedus has done has been pretty much in the open. The only subversive thing she knew about was trying to make Ben his apprentice. She understood how that would anger Mara and Luke, but did he deserve a death sentence? Sure, she didn’t agree with Jacen’s choices, even less so after he became Caedus, but she was starting to see how these choices were necessary for the long run. Everyone has been attacking Caedus because he chose the dark side, because he chose harsh decisions. These are all short-term issues. Jaina has seen the long-term, and Jaina gets it. But will Luke and the rest of the Jedi understand? Even though its’ a “new” order, are they so stuck in the old ways that they could never change to accept the Sith as a necessary part of the bigger picture pf the Universe? After all, the Universe is in eternal battle between light and dark, and are we not but pawns on an infinite stage. Caedus was right. She allowed that realization to sink in for a moment. We, the Jedi, have been wrong this whole time. Attacking him relentlessly because he chose dark and we chose light. He chose a different philosophy, and out of sacrifice for everyone else at that.

She drew her attention back to the cave. She realized now that instead of merely holding Caedus’ hand, her arm was wrapped inside of his. She saw Mara hungrily setting traps for Jacen. She felt murder through the force and it was coming only from Mara. It unnerved Jaina as she felt the Emperor’s Hand in front of her and little of the Mara she knew. She saw Jacen enter the tunnel. Mara leapt out kicking Jacen in the knee. Jacen was wedged to the wall. Then Mara ran down the tunnel. Jacen freed himself. Mara was already setting up another trap down the tunnel she had just run. A hole for Jacen to fall in to.

Jaina didn’t understand where the bloodlust was coming from in Mara. Sure, she was just on same said mission to kill Caedus, but she never felt bloodlust in her task. Just duty. She felt she had to, to save the galaxy from him. She didn’t know that Caedus was actually saving the galaxy from itself.

She saw the trap. She could feel Mara’s force energy the entire time, beckoning Jacen to follow her. Jacen did, and he fell right into her trap. Mara brought the walls down right on top of him. Jaina saw Jacen’s hand sticking out from the rubble and his bloodied face. Then Mara pulled out a blaster to shoot him right in the face. Jaina couldn’t watch. She knew, Jacen lived, but still she didn’t want to watch. Mara was like an animal. Then she saw Jacen deflect the blaster shot with an immense force wave. Rubble went flying and so did Mara. Jaina tried to duck, but Caedus held her fast. Saying. “Nothing can harm us here. We are not truly here.”

Jaina saw Mara fly back and hit the wall very hard. They both scrambled up. Something in the force changed with Jacen in that moment. Some kind of understanding or acceptance. Caedus sensed her curiosity and told her, “It was foretold that I would have to make a sacrifice of my love in order to become a Sith lord. To become a Sith Master, Dark Lord of the Sith. I thought it might’ve been Ben. However, it was then that I understood that by killing Mara, which I would have to if I wanted to live, that it was Ben’s love, respect and admiration that was to be the true sacrifice.” Jaina was sad and disappointed, but said nothing.

They returned their attention to the life or death battle taking place in front of them. Mara was going to keep coming until Jacen was dead. That much was clear. Mara charged with a shoto in one hand and a vibroblade in the other, cutting Jacen’s face. Jacen force pushed her again, but again Mara charged. She was closing him off, giving him no quarter. Javen tried using his dart gun, but it was futile. He hurled debris at her, which she dodged and got close enough to jump on his back. They rolled and fought. Jacen was losing blood and losing the fight. The fight came to blows. It was messy and desperate. Finally, Mara had her shoto at Jacen’s neck. Jacen had her by the hair putting her face by his lightsaber. Meanwhile, Jacen was searching for something and found it. Mara ripped the hair out that Jacen had a hold of to get at him, and then there was a pause. Jaina saw Jacen turn into Ben distracting Mara in that final moment while he stabbed her in the leg with a poison dart.

Part 3

Caedus looked at Jaina and shrugged. “What would you have done had she come to kill you? One does what they must to survive. What would anyone have done in my place? Let her kill me when I knew the fate of the galaxy hung in the balance? Most people would do anything to survive, and that’s what I did. So don’t look at me like that.” Jaina hadn’t even realized that she had been.

At the moment she saw Mara take her last breath, she felt something shift in the force. She looked at Jacen, who also noticed the change. The change was within him. “This was the exact moment when he became Darth Caedus,” Jaina thought. Caedus gave her an affirmative look. “So, that whole sacrifice thing is real?” she said to Caedus, more a statement than a question. Caedus just simply replied, “Yes.” The flow-walk reversed until they were back in the Anakin Solo in real time.

Jaina unwrapped her arm from Caedus’. Then she took a step back and leaned against the conveyor belt that led to the furnace where not long ago, Isolder’s, Tenel Ka’s father’s, body was burned. “So, why kill Isolder then?” she asked Caedus. “I offered him the choice to go free back to his daughter’s ship. He thought it was a trap. I don’t blame him for feeling that way, but I was trying to get him away from the Remnant before they could take his blood to use against Tenel Ka and Allana. Allana wasn’t an intended target, but they made it so it affected anyone with Tenel Ka’s genes.

“The Remnant betrayed my orders and took Isolder’s blood without my knowledge. He chose to die, not telling me they already took it. I killed him thinking I was saving Tenel Ka and my daughter. Many have died from the nano-virus on the Dragon Queen while we have been exploring the past and the future. I know you had to feel those deaths too.” She shook her head, yes, that she had felt it too. “However,” he paused, looking long at his sister, “Tenel Ka and Allana headed my warning, and her and my daughter are safe.” Jaina looked up at him, at her dark clad brother. He continued, “But you already knew she is my daughter. You and all the rest of the meddling bunch!” “Yes,” she replied. “Mom and Dad know. Mom was the first to figure it out. She took one long look at her and saw you looking back, and she knew. They’ve kept the secret for her safety. You were never going to follow through on your threat to kill Allana were you? Your threats to Tenel Ka were empty,” she implied knowing the answer. “I could never hurt my daughter,” he replied staring at her with his Sith eyes. “Now, what are you going to do?” he asked.

Jaina looked at him indecisively. As if her whole belief system were crumbling from the very foundations themselves as she remembered all he had shown her. Especially of the nature of the force itself. If she were to side with Caedus, what did that make her? A dark side user? A Sith? No! She could never be. A grey jedi then? Because she would be essentially rebelling against everything the Order believed in and stood for. But, if Caedus is right, and she has seen that he is, what does that say about the rules and the tenants of the Order? The Order which has no room for the existence of the Sith. But the force … the force which encompasses both the light and the dark. The force, which is in eternal struggle with itself with light against dark and dark against light. That means, if there is a constant struggle for balance between the light and the dark that sometimes light must win and sometimes dark must win. When you look at the bigger picture, for there to be balance, each side must have equal time ruling. Or there must be a change in the force users themselves and they must have light and dark within them and not try to force being all light or all dark. She’s seen now that there is no good or evil in the light. Just light. It is the same with the dark side. There is only good and evil in people. And that is usually a messy grey area. There is what you would call evil in people who do good and bad in the name of the light and there is good in people doing the same for the dark. Good intentions and all. It is people who assign these labels, and in the big scheme of things, none of it really matters. Good nor evil matters, because in the end it’ll be just the force. The force which is light and dark at the same time.

Caedus’ face relaxed a bit when he felt Jaina permeate a sense of understanding through the force. “come. I have a couple more things to show you.” He took Jaina’s arm and flow-walked back in time. Back to the asteroid in the MZX32905 system. There they were in front of Lumiya and Jacen again. Jaina looked questioningly at Caedus when Lumiya began to speak.

“The Sith, who were famous for being bad, Jacen, were they way they were because they were badly damaged men or women to start with. Not because they were Sith. Usually, they were weak, or deluded, or greedy to begin with. Like your grandfather,” said Lumiya.

Then Caedus transported them to a small, plain apartment where Lumiya and Jacen sat facing each other. Again Lumiya spoke. “You’re afraid that my words might be true. That the dark side doesn’t corrupt in and of itself. That you’re destined to become the next Sith Lord --- the first Sith Lord to be active in decades, the first one in centuries with the strength to use the Sith techniques to help others. Because, if it is true, you have to make a decision, choosing between your life as it is --- comfortable, but almost purposeless --- and life as you know it should be.”

Then the world changed again and they were once again on the Anakin Solo. Darth Caedus looked at Jaina and said, “I won’t lie and say that the lure of the dark side to become selfish and cruel isn’t there. It is. I fell into that trap for a short while, but I’ve pulled myself out of it and redoubled my efforts. Before I ever made the decision to choose the dark, I contemplated my reasons. Then I flow-walked back to grandfather to see why he chose the dark side. His reasons were mostly selfish, to save the one he loved. So he believed. He was consumed by the fear of losing her. I could feel it radiating from him. And thus he chose the dark side thinking he could save her the more power he had. I was reassured then, that my decision was purely selfless and with the knowledge gained from my flow-walking, the right decision.” He could feel through the force that he had mostly won her over but, there was something still bothering her.

“What about trying to kill Luke and destroying the Jedi Order? I mean after all, here we are, where you have brought your fleet to destroy them,” she said matter-of-fact. “I am only on the offensive with the Jedi because at every corner they appear under-mining everything I am trying to accomplish. Or they are trying to kill me. You – case in point. They don’t understand me so they assume what I am doing is bad or evil. So they throw wrenches into my plans or they try to kill me every time I turn around. It’s tiring, really. I realized, regrettably, that in order to bring peace and justice to the galaxy, they must be stopped first. This was never my goal or desire, but they just keep putting themselves in the way. What they are doing is treasonous. If the Jedi had never meddled in my plans, this war would’ve been over by now, or very nearly over. It could’ve been over before it started back at Corellia. The first time we went there, father and mother stuck their noses in it and it was a disaster. They made it much worse than it had to be. The next time, mother and father went to my child’s mother and turned her against me and changed the tide of the battle. Nobody bothered to ask me a thing. Just shoot first, ask questions later. Just like father. Every move I’ve made has been calculated at ending the war. Then the Jedi interfered and accelerated and prolonged the battles causing untold unnecessary deaths on both sides. Knowing the truth now, you can search your feelings. Remember your past maneuvers and you will see I am right.”
Jaina closed her eyes, now trusting Caedus wouldn’t make a move against her, but keeping him in her awareness, she travelled through the force and her memories to the Blockade of Corellia, to Centerpoint Station, to several other smaller battles, to the Second Battle of Fondor, and even to this battle in the Transitory Mists. Caedus was right. If the Jedi had simply minded their business, the war would be almost over and with much less death and destruction. It also occurred to her she was saying they and them about the Jedi even though she was a Jedi.

“What about bombing Fondor after they surrendered? That is something very difficult for the Jedi to ignore,” she asked. “That was a decision a Jedi could not make, but as a Sith I could. It was a necessary political move to get Admiral Niathal out of the picture. She was trying to depose me. It was her plan all along and she chose to act at Fondor. I had to do something, and my decision killed two Fynocks with one stone. I realize this seems cruel to you, but trust me, it was a necessary maneuver. I had no plans to annihilate that city. Just what I had already bombed to force Niathal to attack me. What I didn’t count on was Pellaeon having Daala and her fleet in reserve if something happened to him,” Caedus responded.

Part 4

The bigger picture wasn’t something she was used to seeing, and it was making her head hurt. She was used to one fact here and a solution there. Not light and dark and grey. Her head swirled with all this knowledge and realizations. And just then, Caedus took her in his arms and he completely opened to her. Something he hadn’t done in a long time. The darkness swooned and swirled around her. All that power. She looked up into his golden sith eyes and feeling no malice there, she opened up to him in return. Their force energies mixed and mingled. She felt the icy coldness of the dark, but also and intense heat. She felt unlimited power and the power was immense. She felt hate and fury, but she also felt desire, and could it be? Yes, it was. She also felt love. Immense love. A deep abiding love for Allana, for her, even love for Luke and Mom and Dad. Most of all she felt a desire for peace for the galaxy as a whole. She couldn’t believe that mere moments ago she was blindly going to kill her brother, her twin, and if she were being honest, it was out of fear and ignorance.

Caedus bent his head and kissed Jaina on the forehead. He pulled back from their embrace, but he didn’t close himself off in the force. “You know,” he said with a slight smirk. “Most would consider me to be a horrible Sith Lord, or not a Sith at all. Maybe just a Dark Jedi, because I am not cruel and overtly evil. They might even say I am weak because I love. However, I embrace all emotions, and I truly believe in the Sith Code. I just don’t believe you have to be cruel and monstrous to be Sith. It also doesn’t say anywhere that you must oppress or be without love. Most Sith forgo love as it is a weakness that can be exploited and used against them. But you don’t have to be Sith for that to be true. You just have to be in a position of power. Just look at Tenel Ka and the assassination attempts on her and how she has had to hide our daughter away. Darth Bane also was not a cruel Sith. He only killed when necessary. He said, ‘Killing without reason or gain was a petty pleasure of sadistic fools.’ I choose not to be a sadistic fool and I choose to learn from my mistakes and others mistakes.

“Vergere transcended Jedi and Sith. She was more. I’ve forgotten myself in all this fighting and some to the allure of the ark side. I’ve forgotten the depths of the force, which no Jedi or Sith before me have ever reached, but I have. I have gone deeper than anyone that I am aware of. I was not merely a Jedi.” Jaina reflected back on Lumiya’s words about how previous Sith were already greedy, or jealous, or weak, and how Jacen would be better, would be the most powerful. “I am not merely a Sith either,” he continued. I am something more. Just as Vergere transcended those labels. There is no real label for what I am, but I do take up the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith. Jaina, if you understood the force like I do, you would understand. My predecessors had it all wrong. When you oppress a people, they will invariably rebel and rise against their oppressor.” Jaina shifted her feet and sighed, not making eye contact. It was unnerving to look into his sith eyes. Yet at the same time it was mesmerizing and there was a pull. So she chose at this moment not to look into his eyes.

“I truly want peace, order and stability for the galaxy,” he continued. “I mean it was perfectly fine for Han to partner up with Boba Fett and assassinate an unarmed man in cold blood. Thraken Sal Solo, his own cousin and Head of State of Corellia. Even though he deserved to die. No one even blinked when he did that. However, when I ordered the assassination of Dur Gejjen, everyone has a fit.” Jaina looked up at him then with a dubious look on her face. “OK. Yes. I had Ben do it, but he was the most qualified other than me. He was the only other force user. Plus, I will admit. I was testing him.

“I wanted Ben to be my apprentice.” Jaina’s brows furrowed at that. “I wanted him to become strong. He is strong, but I wanted him to transcend the limits of the Jedi with me. Lumiya warned me at the very beginning. Back at Darth Vectivus’ hidden estate ---“ “Who?” Jaina interrupted. Caedus placed his arms behind his back in his usual soldierly stance, and winced from his injuries. How he was still standing Jaina did not know. She did feel his constantly calling on the force. That must be it. She knew of his great tolerance to pain, but she seriously injured him and for him to still be standing in front of her. He did favor one foot and the other barely touched the floor, but he still moved back and forth or leaned into her when making a point, all the while explaining everything. She was realizing just how strong he must be in the force, and just how strong he was period. She understood this, but she didn’t understand how the pain she caused him, how Caedus fed off that pain in the dark side of the force and how it made him stronger.

“--- Darth Vectivus. Do you remember the great house we were standing by in the caverns during our flow-walking, there with my former self and Lumiya?” She shook her head that she did. “He was a Sith Lord,” Caedus continued, “who also did not think that to be Sith meant to be cruel or a megalomaniac or a psychopath. This was according to Lumiya of course. Anyhow, we’ve gotten off track. It was there Lumiya said Ben would not make a good apprentice as he as too indoctrinated by the Jedi Order. I didn’t listen to her. I should have. I would’ve saved myself a lot of trouble.

“You should also know, Ben was never a target.” Jaina’s eyes lit up into his at that revelation. She also wore a look that might’ve been bewilderment, had Caedus not known her better. He felt surprise and disbelief from her in the force. Caedus stepped in closer to her and bent his head toward her and said, “It’s the truth. He was a distraction at different times to keep Mara and Luke off my trail and to give me freedom of movement for missions I needed to accomplish. Without their meddling. Also, and you may find this one harder to believe, Lumiya harbored no anger or hate towards Luke. Not anymore she didn’t. Luke knew it, he felt it. The attacks on Luke and Mara were also distractions. I even set up Lumiya to confront Luke and Mara at the depot. Ben was supposed to arrive, though he didn’t thanks to you.” Jaina smirked at that. “And Luke and Mara thought I had a hand in it anyway. Lumiya was to be alone. I had no idea she was working with Alema Rar. Lumiya knew I was setting her up, and she went anyway. She even suicide bombed herself and Alema. She was willing to sacrifice herself so that I may become the Sith Lord she needed, the galaxy needed, me to be. Ultimately, she did sacrifice herself for me. She gave her life to Luke knowingly, to take suspicion of Mara’s death, though it was completely self-defense, off of me. It would’ve worked too had Ben simply accepted it or at least that Alema Rar had done it. She knew way beforehand that she would end up dying for me. Not something you’d expect from a Sith.”

Jaina pondered all of this. Her head was reeling now. Caedus could feel it. Could feel her energy slowly changing in the force. Her energy had been changing from rigid killer, from rigid beliefs, into something more pliable. He grinned inside at this. Not from malicious intent, but at the prospect that he was at death’s door and now he had a real chance at continuing on and completing his goals. Sure, he could easily snap her spine or her neck where she stood, leaning on the conveyor belt, but that wouldn’t help his case with the rest of the Jedi. If he could win her over, she could open the door to acquiescing the Masters. He knew they would never be truly on his side as their dogma wouldn’t allow for it. Sure, it was the “New” Jedi Order. Caedus sneered at this, again internally so Jaina couldn’t feel it. It felt a lot like the “Old” Jedi Order. The New Jedi Order led by Luke Skywalker, who turned out to be quite the dogmatic Jedi. Sure, he allowed attachments by allowing his Jedi to fall in love and have families. And, he had opened them up to alternative uses of the force as he had abided Jacen’s five year sojourn into exploring other practitioners of the force so that he may understand the force more fully. But when it came to the Sith, that’s where good Uncle Luke draws the line. Sure, there are quite a many Sith that had given us a bad name, and they were stuck in their dogma as well. Caedus understood the force’s eternal struggle between light and dark. The requirement of it, but he also understood the force is One. When you pull yourself up above the muck of the galaxy and the Universe, and you look down upon it all, there is a great understanding there. It took Caedus a lot of pain and torment to get there, but he learned years ago that one must suffer pain to become something greater. And Caedus had been through great pain.

Once it is clear that Caedus can count on Jaina to help him, even if it’s just to stop trying to kill him, maybe even begin to sway Luke and dare he hope Ben, just enough to give him the space he needed, he must decide how to handle the Order. He knows what must be done for the galaxy, though it is ever changing due to surprise new players always stepping in. These unknown variables. His ability to have clear visions had been disturbed by Luke’s constant strong focusing on him. He knew this now. Being with Jaina, as Jaina had opened herself to him and he her, mostly, he could glean Luke’s influence.

Part 5

Luke had been doing focused meditations so that when Caedus tried to glean the future, Luke was always there. Luke was all he could see. This made seeing the future very difficult. But now that he knew, he could circumvent him. Luke also projected a force illusion of a multitude of vessels to confuse Caedus and make him look insane to his subordinates. Luke shouldn’t have been able to do that. Luke also projected an illusion of him in Jaina when they fought in the Roche System, and without her permission. “That’s pretty dark Luke,” thought Caedus. “If only I can get him to back off ---.”

Caedus looked at Jaina, placing a look of longing in his eyes. “Jana,” and he grasped her hand with his one remaining hand. There was none of the revulsion and aversion from earlier. “In order to complete this understanding we have embarked on, so that you may know me and my intentions, I want to force meld with you. Like earlier, only deeper.” She appeared somewhat startled by this suggestion. She was taken aback, but she didn’t pull away from him. Deep inside, she missed her twin and that strong force connection they shared.

Ever since Jacen started closing himself down in the force, she lost her connection to him. Now he’s offering to meld with her. She had only heard of battlemelds, and that was only with her mind. This sounds much more intimate. She was nervous and apprehensive. “Is this a good idea?” she asked herself. There was no reply.

Caedus, though opened to her, not closing himself off as he usually did, was still not showing all of himself through the force. At the same time, he was closing themselves off from the rest of the world. He made it so that the room they were in was the Universe, and nothing else existed.

“Well dear sister, will you ‘join’ with me?” He had a knowing smile on his face, and a twinkle in his golden eyes that made him all the more handsome. Even being battered and bruised. He was looking better every minute. Caedus was of course healing himself and using a variation of the healing trance so that he may be alert to interact with Jaina. And on top of all the other things he was controlling in the force while seriously injured, he managed to keep his healing from her as well. After all, she may not change her mind, and he may need to kill her. Better her think he was weaker than he was. Though he was beginning to doubt that she would try to kill him again.

Jaina gave in. Caedus felt it the very moment it happened. She would try this ‘meld’ thing with him. “It won’t be what you’re used to. It won’t be our minds melding. Or rather, not just our minds,” he told her. “In fact, our minds will be a very minor part and you may not even notice that. It will be more our force selves and the force within and without us. Are you ready?” Jaina looked up at him, this time her eyes were big, open and a little apprehensive.

Caedus pulled her to him, standing her up and bringing their bodies together in a deep embrace. She felt him opening, like some kind of dark flower blossom that only opens at night, and it opened into her, into her very being. She had opened too, on Caedus’ command everything she was opened and bled into Caedus, though she didn’t notice that as much. At the center of them both, they who were now one, all of who they were completely combined, a dark storm opened up behind the blossom. There was no fear. The storm was destructive, but it was also cleansing and renewing. She could feel all of Caedus’ desires and they were just what he had told her, and what she felt earlier.

She was disappearing from their current physical space, but this time was different from the flow-walking that had been doing. They were melding with the force. She felt the light side and the dark side. She felt them clashing. The darkness entered her and found the darkness within her and she felt a sensual acceptance of her darkness and a strength in it.

Then they went further, deeper, and she couldn’t tell anymore where Caedus began and she ended. They were deeper in the force and could no longer feel light and dark as being a separate thing. They were One thing and that One thing permeated all things. It permeated the One thing that her and Caedus had become. She felt all things. She felt everything. Every want or desire, every emotion, every dark despair, and she felt them all as part of the One thing.

Then they went even deeper, where time and space and form no longer existed. They no longer mattered. The silly quibblings of the mundanes, life and death and destruction. None of that mattered here, because they were in a place beyond that. She understood that this was the realm of the Universe, of the big picture and also of nothingness. A place where human comprehension of the way things work here was near to impossible. But, through Caedus, she felt it, knew it, and she wondered at him and who he had become. Most mortals wouldn’t come close to being able to know or understand any of this, much less to know how to reach this place. A place out of space and time. A place where one might say gods existed, if you believed in that sort of thing.

She felt herself, himself, their-self drifting back to the place where all of the force is One, and they lingered there a second. You could feel everything here, but all of it at once as none of it was separate. It was all the same, all part of the same One, that I, we, are that One. Her mind was spinning again.

Caedus brought them back to the duality of the force. That place where the eternal struggle takes place in the non-physical arena. It is here where the one that they were began to part and become the two of them again.

Jaina slowly started to feel her identity coming back to her. Of her becoming aware of the physical again. It took a few moments to get her senses back to normal. They were separate again. “Once you’ve been where I’ve just been, you know separateness is just an illusion,” she thought to herself.

She realized Caedus and her were still embraced. She looked up at him in bewilderment, and if she were being honest, with awe, and she pulled herself free from him. She shook her head slightly back and forth. Caedus just stared at her bemused. Then they both leaned against the conveyor belt that led to the furnace, and they sat in silence.

A few standard minutes went by before Jaina broke the silence by asking, “How do you even concern yourself with this madness here after knowing all of that? This madness of war. Endless battle between light and dark, and how do you even choose one over the other?”

Caedus took a deep breath in and answered, "Because this is the reality, this physical reality that we ultimately exist in. I choose the dark over the light even though I now know it doesn't really matter what side of the force I use. I chose as I did because of the visions of the future and then I found it suited my needs better. The dark is better suited for me to accomplish my goals."

"Well, how did you — how were you ever able to go so deep into the Force and ... and beyond it? I just can't comprehend it," Jaina said.

He looked her over, studying her. "It started with Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong. The pain I went through" Caedus' eyes went vacant for a moment, "opened me up to new possibilities. New aspects of the Force I never knew existed. I also realized that pain is necessary for change and growth. Then I went on my five year journey to understand the Force better. I learned many different things about the Force, about myself. I applied those things. I taught myself how to make the Force open up to me at very fundamental levels and I just kept going deeper and deeper until I was outside of everything. Where there is no thing. Where I took you.

"I understood the nature of the Force. The constant struggle between light and dark. The eternal struggle for balance. A balance that can never be achieved. I also understood that it doesn't matter which side if the struggle you are on; light or dark. The Force doesn't care. The Force has no feelings. All the Force needs is the never ending struggle. You think the Force only guides users of the light side? He paused and stared at her. Then continued. "You would be wrong. The Force guides users of the dark side just as much. Whether or not they listen to the Force is another matter. That can be said of users on both sides."

Part 6

He hadn't been sure how the melding would go exactly. When she felt like they were no longer two beings, it's because they weren't. They melded at the molecular level as well as in the Force. Not completely, but just enough. She would never be able to hide herself from him again. She wouldn't even know what was done so he wasn't worried about her being able to do the same with him. He would be able to hide from her in the Force no matter what. Now if he could figure out a way to do the same to Luke and Ben. He smiled to himself at the possibility that he could get things back on track. He wasn't naive enough to believe that they, him and his family, could go back to the way they were. Just getting them to stop interfering in his plans would be good enough for him. If he couldn't get Luke to back off ... "I might have to sever Luke's connection to the Force," he thought to himself.

"Why does it sound like the fighting has stopped? And why can't I reach out to any one in the Force?" Jaina asked starting to look worried. "It's OK," Caedus said letting out a slight laugh. I am sure the fighting has stopped because they probably think we are dead and there is no further need to fight. I have limited our Force signature to this room and blocked others from sensing us. So no one outside this room can sense us through the Force." At the same time he put up the barrier he also set off a Force pulse from each of them. This would've given the impression of death. He couldn't keep giving his secrets away. They kept trying to use his skills and tactics against him. Jaina had a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry sister. The ruse won't last long. Just long enough for my ships to leave the area," said Caedus. "You mean you're not going to destroy the Jedi base? I mean you came all this way and you've been through all of this, and ... I tried to kill you." She looked off into the distance. There was a pang of shame inside her. She had been ready to murder her brother. No one even tried to save him. No one tried to bring him back to the light. She cringed at that thought. After what she had seen of the truth of the Force, who were they to save, to convert. She had seen herself, she had seen in the Force that light, dark it didn't really matter. Not in the big picture. Their lives all the struggling, all the choices, all the life and death things were a teeny blip. They, the Jedi, seem like fanatics now. Dogmatic fanatics. The Sith freely chose to be Sith, and she thought she had chosen to be a Jedi. But had she? She was raised as a Jedi, in a Jedi family and surrounded by Jedi. Even her dad, Han Solo who wasn't a Jedi, had filled her with Jedi propaganda. Now she just felt weird and used. She had been raised to believe that Force users who were good and just were Jedi and that all others were either Sith and therefore bad, or misguided people who needed to be turned to the light and taught the ways of the Jedi. And then there was Caedus standing before her. The Dark Lord of the Sith. She had melded with him, mingled together in the Force. The darkness that swarmed there. It was like a storm, and the power she felt... She had never before felt so much immense, unbridled power. It felt —good. She hated admitting that, but it did. She could at least admit that to herself. What she didn't feel was malice, and the desire for murder, mayhem and chaos that she had been taught, no, indoctrinated to believe was in the heart of every Sith.

Maybe Lumiya had been right. She also hated admitting that. Caedus stood there watching, musing as his sister made the connections he knew she would. That she would have to make. Maybe the dark side wasn’t evil. For she felt no evil in her brother. If the person wielding the power of the dark side was strong enough, and if they weren’t sadistic or a megalomaniac to begin with, then the dark power could be wielded for justice and maybe they could bring peace and order to the galaxy.

She knew through her studies of history that the Republic always succumbed to corruption and greed and there were always many players manipulating and scheming at every level of the government. She also knew from a few elders who had been alive during the days of Palpatine, before he became Emperor, that the Senate would take weeks, sometimes months or even years to decide on something. Maybe Caedus was right. She saw what would happen if he had died and Admiral Daala, of all people, had taken charge. The manipulating and scheming would be rampant. The corruption… It seemed to never end. The pattern always repeated. Perhaps because it was human nature. Just maybe though, maybe her brother really could prevent that outcome. Then what would come after him? Would there be a power vacuum with more fighting and it would start all over again?

Her head was swimming again. As if reading her thoughts, Caedus said, “I’ve had a vision. Years back I had a vision of a dark armored man sitting on the Throne of Balance. What that is and where that is is unimportant for now. Just before I came down here, I had another vision. A vision of Allana sitting on that throne. She was surrounded by friends. I can rule until that time comes, but I cannot do so if Luke has me killed.” Jaina winced. More and more she was thinking the Jedi had overstepped their bounds. Who were they to just decide who lives and who dies. They didn’t consult anyone, not really. Well, Niathal, but she was Caedus’ rival . Of course she would want him out of the way.

“The Jedi,” Caedus continued “are meant to be keepers of the peace. Not the secret authority of whatever government they are backing at the time. Time and again the Jedi have inserted their will on the galaxy. Not different from the Sith they deign to allow to exist and whom they call evil. If Luke truly wanted to change the Jedi and keep in line with the Jedi philosophy, then the Jedi would be on some remote world far from any government or galactic affairs. There they would commune with the Force and work on becoming one with it. Not training warrior knights to be the unrelenting hand of their propaganda, killing those who oppose them. Killing those who don’t conform to their ideals.”

He was saying what she had begun thinking. What she was realizing. How would she get Luke to stop this madness? Luke had thought of nothing else, nothing but killing Caedus since he found out he killed Mara. As bad as it was, it had been self-defense. She had seen it when they Force Walked. Would Luke stop once he found that out? Or would he be steadfast in his mission to kill Caedus? And Mom and Dad? Her heart physically hurt at the thought of them and she felt sick. So ready to kill their own son, as she had been, without having the full story. Without hearing his side. What kind of people were they? They had all been caught up in the millennium old war between the Sith and the Jedi to even question themselves. The Jedi’s modus operandi when it came to the Sith was “The Sith must die. They cannot be allowed to exist.” Jacen had seen past this. She felt his defiance and his reluctance when Lumiya was telling him about the choice he had to make. Jacen had always been different. A different type of Jedi, especially after the Yuuzhan Vong, but maybe even before that. Maybe after Vergere trained him, he had outgrown the Jedi.

Would the New Jedi Order be able to change and adapt? Would she convince Luke to stay out of the affairs of state? She knew Luke couldn’t ally himself with a Sith. He would never do that, would he? It’s funny how Jacen was boiled down to a word. Sith. From beloved family member to contemptuous, hideous Sith. She never thought she would ally herself with a Sith, but more and more she found herself defending Caedus. Some of his choices still bothered her, deeply. When considering the big picture, her opinion was changed.

“What do we do now? If they think you’re dead, they will begin dismantling everything you’ve built.” Caedus pondered a second before responding. “I shouldn’t need long. I want to see Tenel Ka. I want to see my daughter. I can feel them in the Force, but I need to see them myself. Tenel Ka probably won’t listen to me. In fact, she would surely sick Luke on me. She would also assume that I wanted to kill her for her betrayal. Though, the thought had crossed my mind. However, I don’t — want to kill her. Allana would hate me for it.You could persuade her to come to me. If you of all people persuade her that it is safe, she would trust you. You’d have to reach out to her through the Force, but only to her. Kind of like a secure connection where the others wouldn’t feel it. While we are here I can block any one else from sensing the connection. I think they are alone with a couple of guards after fleeing the Dragon Queen from the nano-virus. Then we can have my comms officer set up an encrypted link between you and her. You are probably going to have to tell her I’m dead or about to be. I don’t think she’d come otherwise.” He looked a little glum for a passing moment, but then it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

“But you saved her life Caedus. Surely she knows you could have let her die. So why would you then bring her here just to kill her?” Caedus shrugged. “Maybe she’ll think I only saved her to save Allana and now that she’s tried to kill me by attacking my fleet for a second time that I’ll just kill her and take Allana.” The thought was satisfying to Caedus and he smiled to himself. He could take his daughter and raise her the way he saw fit and they would be close. However, as soon as Allana found out it was he that killed her mother, she would hate him. The thought of that brought him immense pain and sadness and it did not suit his plans. No, he wouldn’t be the one to kill Tenel Ka.

Part 7

Jaina resigned herself to acknowledging Caedus was right. She said, “OK, how do we do this?” Caedus began, “I will take care of the details. You just reach out to her. Let her know that you need her. Make it a bit desperate. You need her and Allana to come to you. Then focus on her comm link. We will need the frequency. Think you can do that? Feel the frequency through the Force?” “I’ve — I’ve never tried that, but I’ll give it my best.” she replied hesitantly. Caedus wouldn’t tell her the details of how he would have to cloak her Force connection to Tenel Ka. How he would have to mask it as any other communication coming from the ship. He has to keep his methods secret, no matter how much he wanted to trust Jaina. Part of the sacrifice he took on as being Sith is being alone. Even with a seemingly repaired relationship with his sister, or even getting close to his daughter, he couldn’t afford to trust any one.

Jaina reached out to Tenel Ka and found her in the Force. Caedus masked the connection quickly making it almost disappear. He cloaked it, masking it in the frequency of normal comm chatter. All this focus was taking it out of him though. The whole time they’d been talking he was staunching the bleeding of his wounds and Jaina’s with the Force. He was using the Force to hold him up right even though he was exhausted. He was also blocking their Force signatures from everyone outside of the room they were in. All that was taking a lot out of him and now he was also masking Jaina and Tenel’s connection. He was powerful in the dark side to be sure. He is the Dark Lord of the Sith. The entire dark side is concentrated in him. Sure, there are other dark side users, but the dark side had chosen him, had passed the mantle of Dark Lord to him. It had happened when he killed Mara. Aunt Mara Jade Skywalker. He had felt the shift in the Force when it happened. It had felt like tectonic plates shifting, but not planetary, in the Universe. First, he thought it was her death. Her act of dying and her spirit leaving. He felt that too, so that wasn’t it. It was the entire dark side opening itself up to its’ new Master. He had realized then that he was just a kid playing at power before that. Playing in a small sand box. Whereas now he was a man at the helm of the dark side. A Universe sized pool of endless power. And it was all his to do with as he wished. The dark side filtered through a human body was limited to the degree that the body could handle. So, now, mortally injured many times over, a toll is taken. He needed Jaina to hurry up.

Jaina reached through the Force and quickly found Tenel Ka. She felt that Tenel Ka was scared and felt alone in the Force. Wary. Not knowing who to trust. Sad. Mournful. Did she think Caedus was dead like he said people would? Could he really fake a death in the Force? Would Luke be fooled? She didn’t dare to try and sneak a feel for Luke’s status. He would surely feel her probe and then he would come to her location and then — and then he would kill Caedus. In an even fight she thought Caedus would win against Luke. But not wounded as he was. Wounded because of her. Her and the New — new but not so different from the old Jedi Order. Not when it came to the Sith. Not when it came to enforcing governmental policies and law. Not when becoming enforcers in military conflict. She felt nauseous. She was starting to feel the fullness of her wounds. Now that the fighting was over and the adrenaline was dissipating she was becoming more and more aware of her injuries, and they were significant. She also felt Caedus’ energy — inside her. He was staunching the bleeding in her wounds through the Force, inside and out. Just what was the limit to his abilities? — She shook her head and thought, “Must get back on track. Must get the job done.” She sent urgency to Tenel Ka. Desperation. Death and mourning. Need. Strong need for Tenel Ka and Allana. Imagery of Caedus saving her and her daughter. Need and more need. An image of Allana and her daddy. Must be both of you. Jaina’s need for Tenel. Imagery of her very injured self. Now focusing on Tenel Ka’s comm link. “I can do this,” she thought. “Caedus said I can, and I am aided by his power. — His immense power.” She remembered their embrace, their melding. It was very much like the joining in the Killik’s nest, but also very different. It was so … intimate. If she hadn’t been his twin she would have felt differently about what they had been through … her lips parted and she remembered where she was and then she exhaled slowly. “Must get back on — track,” she forced herself mentally.

Caedus gave a knowing grin at her thoughts, but he was sweating now, and starting to shake a little. “Jaina! You must — work — faster! I’m not sure how long I can hold everything, and we must continue masking ourselves a while longer,” he said. Jaina swallowed. Her saliva forcing it’s way passed a hard lump in her throat. She settled in. Determined. Instead of being forceful, which was her original plan of action, how she handled most everything, she decided on finesse. She sent small tendrils of energy allowing the Force to guide her. The tendrils at first aimed at the intended target, the comm link. However, they turned and headed straight back for Jaina. To her wounds. Apparently, the Force thought they were more urgent than obtaining Tenel Ka’s comm link frequency. She tried again. Turning herself over to the Force, but this time with more determination. The result was the same. Exasperated, she threw herself back against the conveyor belt, and the cost of that little outburst … pain wracking through her body. Her surely broken ribs. Her broken face bones. She didn’t even understand how she was still able to talk, but she knew. It was him. She was mystified by his ability and strength in the Force. She knew his strength was waning though. His torn Achilles heel, the hole in his abdomen. Slash on his leg, plus shielding us, and now the connection to Tenel Ka and masking it. He was on the floor now. She had to hurry.

“Jaina, use your emotions. It’s the only thing strong enough. You must command the Force to do your will,” Caedus grunted. “I cannot,” she mumbled. “But you already have, many times. And just a little while ago when you were going to land the killing blow. It was full of love and memories. Emotion, Jaina, all of them, even love, command the dark side. You must, now, if you are going to glean the frequency.” His voice getting weaker.

Jaina composed herself, not wanting to give in. Mostly out of stubbornness than anything. She knew how many times she had touched and used the dark side. She took a deep breath and pulled up a little anger. Anger at almost killing her brother. She might still have killed him if he doesn’t get into a bacta tank soon. Her too. She could feel death creeping towards her like a greedy Jawa scavenging for spare parts from the wreckage of long dead droids. She thinks she’s bleeding internally, even though Caedus is slowing it. The slowing is slowing. She should hurry. She gathered her anger at being so injured. Then she sent it forth on an imaginary line that would resonate with frequencies. Whichever one she chose as she was commanding the Force to do her bidding now. It reached Tenel Ka’s comm link. Almost instantaneously the frequency was hers. She felt Tenel Ka slightly balk in the Force in confusion. Jaina pulled back her anger and tucked it away and then she gave Tenel Ka a nudge with an image of her comm and talking. Hopefully she got the meaning.

She pulled back her connection to Tenel Ka and was ready to collapse, however her and Caedus’ day was long from over. They have to go make the comm call to tell Tenel where to meet them. Then they will have to make their long way to the medical bays and the bacta tanks. Even if they can’t stay nearly long enough in them, any length of time will help until they can get somewhere where they can stay as long as they needed. She estimated they needed a few days, maybe two with healing meditation. She could feel Caedus’ healing meditation now, but she didn’t have the strength to do her own. “come on, you have to get up. We need to go to the bridge so we can put the call through. And you need to decide where to meet,” she told him.

Caedus gathered himself, both physically and mentally and in the Force. He moved to get up, and fell down again due to the Achilles injury. Jaina stopped him and squat down in front of him pulling at his face. “What are you doing?” Anger building inside him. “I’m taking the needles out of your face. One looks to be lodged in your brain,” she said half jokingly. “And there’s a couple left in your shoulder. You don’t want your subordinates to see you like that do you?” she questioned. He resigned and let her remove the needles. Not once did he wince or moan. His face never even tightened even a little from pain. Jaina didn’t know what to make of her brother, but then she remembered the months he had been in the Embrace of Pain while a prisoner of the Yuuzhan Vong.

“OK, all done.” She moved from in front of him. “Let’s get moving.” She helped him to stand. Then he took his arm back and stood straight and tall as if he wasn’t almost dead. Caedus gathered himself in the Force. He now would have to bury their force energies as they moved through the ship instead of limiting it to the room. He told Jaina to hide herself to give himself a slight reprieve and to help in creating a Force illusion around the two of them. He kept staunching her wounds as much as he could, and his own hole in his gut, and especially his Achilles. He had to use the Force to tie the two pieces of tendon together. To sort of glue them together so that he would be able to walk. So they wouldn’t snap away from each other and prove his leg useless. As it was, even with the Force, he had very little use of that foot and had to put all of his weight on the other leg. The pain was extreme, to say the least, and he used that pain to fuel the dark side. To give him more power to do what needed to be done. It was a self-perpetuating loop. Pain fueling the dark side, around and around it went. So long as he could hold himself upright and maintain consciousness, limitless power was there for the taking.

Part 8

They started to walk. Jaina helped him, and he let her. It was a painstakingly slow journey to the bridge, but finally, they got here. There were gasps and wide-eyed stares with gaping mouths at the sight of the two of them barely holding on to life. Bloodied, battered, and seemingly half-dead. Their Lord, their Dark Lord. They had no idea what to do. How to react. Whether or not to react. They were dumb struck.

Caedus felt the fear in the air and he reveled in it. “Sergeant,” he said to the closest soldier to the comms. “Get the frequency from Jaina and establish an encrypted link. Once established, give Jaina the comm.” The soldier didn’t move. “Now, Sergeant!” Caedus ordered, raising his voice. “And to the rest of you — my wonderfully loyal crew, my sister and I just had a simple misunderstanding. We’ve — worked it out. No reason to worry. However, we’re both going to play dead for a little bit, maybe a day or two, to keep the fighting stopped. This means they’ll think they’ve won and they’ll try to dismantle what we’ve built. I won’t let that happen. I need my top officers to tell our other key trusted members of our little ruse, and they can delay any undermining of the GA. Oh, and once Jaina is finished with the comms, we will be retiring to the bacta tanks. I will of course give you my orders and the destination we will move to. There we will be receiving our Beloved Queen Mother and her daughter.” He pondered for a moment and then continued. “I might as well tell all of you here, Allana is my daughter.” Gasps and whispers filled the room. “So, if anything happens to her — my response will be rapid and permanent.” There were many hard swallows heard followed by a slew of “Yes, my Lord!” and “Of course, my Lord!” Darth Caedus continued not paying their responses any attention, “And I expect you to keep that a secret for now. I don’t need the entire galaxy trying to kidnap or kill my child to get at me. Especially not with my injuries. Am I completely understood? You will tell no one. Not even in conversation with each other!” He passed his eyes over the room pausing on each person there to drive his point home. Then there were bowed heads in agreement and submission equally and more “Yes, my Lord!” responses. He marveled slightly at how quickly they’d converted from “Yes, Sir” to “Yes, my Lord”. It happened across the ship almost all at once. Definitely during the same day. The power and presence of the dark side demanded respect and obedience. Caedus exuded dark side power, when he let his power show, when he wasn’t suppressing it.

Jaina was on the comm-link. She had been connected to Tenel Ka. Caedus could hear her trying to convince Tenel to come and meet her, to say good-bye and to ensure the fighting stops. “Manaan, give her coordinates near there, and then we need to go,” Caedus said wincing. Jaina must have convinced her to come because he heard her give the coordinates and end the call. “Why Manaan?” she asked. “Why not,” he replied. “It’s close, kind of, a little out of the way, and no one really goes there anymore. Now come on. I really need to get into a bacta tank.” Then they limped off the bridge together and headed to the medical bay.

As they walked toward the infirmary, they held each other up after waving off help from several GA officers. Caedus gave his instructions for the Anakin Solo to go near the coordinates he gave for Tenel Ka. He ordered the rest of the remaining fleet to jump to another secure location as soon as the Anakin Solo was gone, including the Imperial Dreadnaught. After a painful and slow journey down a few corridors, they made it to the med bay. They hadn’t spoken on the way there. All their focus had been on getting there. Two med droids approached them and one helped Caedus onto one bacta tank and one helped Jaina into another.

Jaina came to consciousness still in the bacta tank. She turned to look at the other tank, the one Caedus was in, and found it to be empty. She wasn’t quite healed and still needed at least another day, but she thought she could manage for now until she got back to the Jedi’s not-so-secret base. That is, if they haven’t moved base by now. Then it hit her. What was going to happen now? She knew all of Caedus’ reasons for his decisions. She now knew what the Force truly was, as best she could, and how pointless and wrong it was for the Jedi to think, no, not even that but to be judge, jury and executioner of someone because they used the Force differently than they did. They all thought they were chasing down and stopping evil. But Jaina had seen the horrors of the war that spread out over the galaxy in every version of the future, the versions that Jacen hadn’t decided to become Sith that is, she understood that them trying to stop him was actually what you would call evil. His choice, his sacrifice saved trillions upon trillions of lives. The rest won’t just believe me when I tell them, not really. They really won’t believe me when I tell them the dark side is not a corruption of the Force. It’s just the polar opposite of the other side of the Force. A different way. That the deeper truth was if they pushed deeper into the Force they could just utilize The Force and forego sides. She didn’t see how she’d be able to convince anybody of that, especially Luke or Ben for that matter. They’d made up their minds. It seemed like all they wanted lately was the death of Caedus. But Luke would listen, — wouldn’t he? He was, after all, the Jedi Grand Master. She suddenly felt very unsure of herself and her ability to convince any one any differently about Caedus. She banged on the tanks walls for the droid to come release her from the bacta tank. The droid protested at her early release. So she reached through the Force and applied gentle pressure to the release button. The liquid in the bacta tank began draining and before long she was out of the tank.

“Where’s Caedus?” she asked the droid. “Lord Caedus is in the other medical bay being tended to. May I suggest you return to the tank, or at least lay down?” the droid was replying, but Jaina was already leaving the room and searching for her brother. Her brother Darth Caedus. She still cringed at the mention of his new name. At him being a Sith. How could she not. Her while life she had been trained one way, with one belief. It would take time to change that automatic repulse response. Doesn’t mean she was OK with every choice he made, every method, but he had been correct in that they had all been legal maneuvers. Her thoughts trailed off as she heard Caedus’ voice coming from the next room.“Just hear me out!” he was saying. “But, I thought you were dying. I brought our daughter to say goodbye to her father.” She recognized the other voice as Tenel Ka’s.

Jaina rounded the corner into another decent-sized med bay. The two had stopped talking and turned their heads and their attention to her from their seated positions in the rear of the room. Caedus had his stub of an arm in some contraption she had never seen before. As she approached she could tell that it looked like a much smaller bacta tank, and now that she could see better, she saw Caedus’ missing arm, the one she had cut off, was in the tank. He was having it put back on! “Yes, it should’ve been done right away, but I haven’t had the time… So I had it cryo-preserved until a day or two and I had the time. The sooner, the better. Plus, I am able to aid the healing. Hopefully, it’ll be good as new,” he finished. She was now standing to the right of the two of them as they sat. “You really should still be in the bacta tank,” he continued. “Me?” Jaina said incredulously. “Yes, well, once I didn’t have to focus on keeping you alive as well as myself, I could put a lot more into just healing myself. And my healing meditation is slightly different and by far more intensive than the one you’ve been taught,” he replied, allowing himself the hint of a smile.

Just then the droid came over and informed Caedus that it was time to remove the arm from the tank. Caedus was about to find out if the process was successful. He removed his arm from the tank, examined it with deep concentration, then he flexed his arm in and out opening and closing his fingers as he turned the whole arm back and forth. Jaina couldn’t believe her eyes. There wasn’t hardly any scarring and it seemed like he had close to, if not complete full use. In the space of what could only have been a few hours Caedus had reattached his arm and healed it. Not only that, however long he had been in the bacta tank, he had healed most of his wounds that were even worse than Jaina’s had been. She was astonished. “Look,” he said, noticing her look of disbelief. “I utilize both sides of the Force, and I don’t repress myself. I can go in a healing trance like any Jedi, except I call on my love for Allana to fuel it and utilizing both sides empowers the healing trance ten fold.” Tenel Ka stiffened a little at this. He had said Allana, and not Tenel Ka and Allana. Why wouldn't he though? She had betrayed him not once, but twice. The final time being complicit in his assassination. “And,” he continued, “I use my will on the Force to manipulate the growing of new tissue where needed, to speed it up even further.” “That’s possible?” asked Jaina. Answering both baffled faces, he replied, “Many great things are possible with the dark side of the Force.”

“So,” Caedus focused on Tenel Ka now. “When will the rest of the gang be arrive?” Tenel Ka scooted away from him in her seat slightly. Her eyes slightly large. “I know you told Luke you were coming here. That I was dying. That Jaina was gravely injured. Though, you were told to keep this location a secret.” Slight annoyance flashed through his face. She opened her mouth to say something, but Caedus spoke for her. “Never mind. Luke and Ben are here. I expect Han and Leia are not far behind.” He called over his comm link telling the officer on the other end to allow Luke Skywalker to come aboard, and also to allow Han and Leia to do the same.

They didn’t have long to wait. After a short time Luke and Ben Skywalker came hurriedly through the door to the med bay. They both stopped short. The look of confusion on both their faces was obvious and Caedus drew some pleasure from it. Luke’s normal state of self-composure rapidly disintegrated. He looked at Caedus and a snarl formed on his lips. “You are supposed to be dead!” he screamed. After seeing Jaina and Tenel Ka there with Caedus as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t murdered Mara. He must’ve confused them with his dark side tricks Luke righteously assumed. Then his wife’s face appeared in his mental vision, and it was all he could see. A blind rage coursed through his blood now, and he let go. He could do nothing else. The rage shown on his face. A look not seen for a decade or two. A split second later he was leaping through the air, simultaneously brandishing his lightsaber, igniting it, raising it above his head in a two-handed grip aiming to stab it straight down. Straight down into the beating heart of the Sith Lord standing before him. Murderer of his beloved Mara. At the same time he leapt, Jaina reacted.She registered the look of rage and knew what Luke intended. All that she had just been through with Caedus. All that she had just learned. She hadn’t been able to tell Luke any of it yet. She just knew he would understand if she just had a chance to explain it to him. So she screamed, “Luke! No!!!” and threw herself in-between Caedus, her brother, and Luke, her uncle. Luke was so lost in his rage and moving so fast he didn’t have time to do anything but finish what he had started. Nor did he want to. He couldn’t wait to plunge the lightsaber into his wife’s killer. His saber struck home. Then his eyes and the room came back into focus and he was struck with horror. He was looking into the very shocked eyes of Jaina Solo, not Darth Caedus’. In shock, he turned off his lightsaber and watched as Jaina’s lifeless body fell backward onto Caedus with a soft thud. She was already dead.

Behind them, half-stumbling and trying to push past each other through the doorway to the med bay after hearing the screaming, came Han and Leia Solo. Upon seeing the scene before them, they too were frozen in shock, mouths agape.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Part 1

Caedus was holding his dead twin sister in his lap. Tears were forming in the wells of his eyes. A couple escaped and fell on her beautiful face. He slowly rose from his seat, lifting and carrying her as he went. He walked over to a med table and carefully laid her body down. His back was to them all. They were all still stricken by shock. Caedus’ head lowered. He took a few breaths. They could see his shoulders heave slightly up and down beneath his cape.

Looking down on his sister’s body and seeing her pointless death, he was reminded of all of the extra pointless deaths caused by Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his endless interference. He constantly thought he knew better. As if he was the only one to see the bigger picture. Instead all he did was bumble from one situation to the next. Disjointed. Not seeing the long line of causation and effect. The rage was swelling in him now. More than ever before. He was tired of endlessly working to keep the galaxy together when at every turn his own family kept interfering and causing even bigger messes. He had had a plan. They, who thought they were doing good. They, the Jedi, the only ones and the only way to effect good. They knew better than anyone else and damn those who stood in their way. His job was now ten-times more difficult thanks to the four behind him. Mother, father, Ben and mostly Luke. He opened himself then to the Force. He let the darkness swell within him. No longer hiding his power. His anger was full and complete. The room darkened as he let himself free of holding back.

He turned to face them. His family. He grimaced. His damned family. He could sacrifice their love and respect as he had agreed to as his price for choosing the dark side, but he was done. “You!” he growled at Luke. He had Luke by the throat and off the ground before anyone even saw him move. The others tried to move in to help Luke, but Caedus raised his newly attached arm and Ben, Han and Leia were paralyzed in place. “I am going to afford you all the courtesy you never gave me. I’m going to explain myself, in a manner of speaking. This will be the one and only time I do so.” The droid in the room finally able to catch up tried to protest. It was crushed to pieces with a single thought. Caedus’ eyes were fierce and wild. The brightest Sith glow yet. “Now sit!” he commanded motioning with his left arm and releasing his hold on Luke. Luke fell to the ground. The rest Caedus had forced to the ground. Before any one could try to move, Caedus had thrown everyone in the room to the past.

“We are in the past at the moment I decided to work with Lumiya. Observe the millions of possible futures I saw where I did not become Sith.” He didn’t even need to touch his past self anymore. He threw them all into the endless time stream where they saw the visions that he saw. They saw generations of never-ending war and trillions of lives lost and they saw Jacen kill Luke every time. “Now, observe!” Then he showed them where he did become Sith. Much less death. In the millions instead of trillions and eventual peace and Luke alive. He then Force-Walked them all to the scene where Mara had tried to murder him. They were in the back of the cave. He waved his hand and the scene lightened so Jacen and Mara could be seen from the pitch black. They saw Mara’s stalking, her planning, her viciousness. They saw the Emperor’s Hand in action. They saw Jacen fighting for his life. They saw that he would die. They saw him trick her with Ben’s visage. They saw him use his last bit of strength to stop her. To kill her. They saw the truth of what happened. He felt a shift in their emotions, a discomfort. He was moving them again. “Now this is going to be really fun”, he said. His anger still fuming. He thrust them back to current time. Then immediately he melded with everyone there. It wasn’t like the experience Jaina had. Caedus had been gentle and had eased her into it. This was not that. He ripped them open, forcing them to meld with him. He gave no choice. Then he thrust them into pure light and then pure dark. Then where the two battled each other striving for dominance while seeking balance and never achieving either. “Do you see?” he echoed into their minds as there was no speech here. They were not here physically as the physical does not exist here. Just energy. Then he ripped into the deeper Truth into the Force itself. Here there was no light, no dark. Just the Force. “Do you get it yet?!” he echoed in their minds even louder. Then he thrust them to a place of darkness complete, of nothingness. He felt the smallness of them. They were outside of the universe. “In the Darkness, Truth is revealed”, he sent them. Then he released them. Though, not before planting a seed of himself within them just as he had with Jaina. With Han he didn’t need to, but he did it anyway. Treachery was everywhere now. Another gift of the dark, of power.

He glowered as he paced back and forth before them. Them like fresh learners who had misbehaved very badly and he the Master scolding them and trying to figure out how to deal with them. Right now they felt like children. They were all still in a state of shock and disbelief and frozen to their respective spots on the floor. Caedus wasn’t sure what Han had experienced during his foray through the Force and through time walks. It didn’t really matter. Luke looked the worst of all. He looked as though he might actually be breaking down.

Part 2

“This civil war would be over and done with by now or very soon, but, no.” he turned his angry gaze on his father as he stood in front of him looking down on him, hands behind his back. “You, Father, had to put your big meddling face into it. You didn’t talk to Luke about anything. You just thought it would be a good idea to go straight to Corellia and tell them we were attacking. Your family was setting up a blockade, a simple quick lesson for Corellia. You put Luke’s life, Jaina’s life and countless others in danger and thrust the galaxy into civil war. Great job, dad!” he said as he slow clapped in front of Han while his eyes bore into him. Han opened his mouth to say speak, to defend his actions as he was constantly doing. Caedus made a motion with his first two fingers and his thumb in a closing motion and Han’s mouth closed itself. “No!” Caedus said sternly. “Don’t look so surprised. I am the head of the G.A.G. after all.

“And you, Mom —”, turning his attention on Leia. “You went right along with him. I expected more from you. I mean you are on the Jedi Council, yet you consulted no one. It sounds very treasonous to me. You knew Luke was going into action, and your daughter. Tsk, tsk Mother.” If she felt shame or anything it couldn’t be read on her face. Caedus had finished with her, and moved on.

He now turned his attention to Ben. “I had high hopes for you young Ben Skywalker. I was trying to teach you. To make you strong. Lumiya saw that you were too limited, too indoctrinated in the Jedi half-truths. Why she put up with my insisting to make you my apprentice. Perhaps to teach me a lesson in futility. But I’ll never know —” he turned to Luke and continued, “— because you murdered her oh wise ‘Grand Master’.” He made air quotes around the words Grand and Master. He continued, “Even after you knew that she held no hate for you and didn’t intend you, Ben or any of us harm. You knew this, yet you killed her anyway. She only used subtle, idle threats to get Mara to follow her to keep her out of my business. Idle threats you should’ve been able to see through, to sense, had you looked. She knew you would kill her. She saw it. She sacrificed herself to take the blame for Mara’s death for me. Sacrifice. Is that something you as a Jedi Grand master are willing to do for any of your students so that they will surpass you and become what they are meant to be? Sacrifice you life, hmm?” He looked at Luke reproachfully.

Caedus’ gaze went back to Ben now. “Then you, knowing only a snippet of eavesdropped conversation went running to mommy. Didn’t you? You didn’t come to me. Not knowing the consequences of your actions. Now your mother is dead. She fell back into being ‘Hand of the Emperor’ and came to murder me! She almost succeeded too as you’ve now seen. Yes, she lured me in for the kill. I took the bait not wanting to have to worry about her jumping out from behind every corner to kill me. That’s just exhausting. It came down to the final moments. She never tried to speak to me, to ask me questions, to try and ‘save’ me. Just kill, kill, kill. In fact, none of you tried your Jedi redemption on me. That’s not very Jedi. Not to mention not very loving to your own family. So Ben, what should I have done? Let her kill me? What would you have done had she been trying to kill you? Would you not defend yourself? I’m sorry your mother is dead. I’m not sorry I lived.”

Now his focus was once again on Luke. “Back to you, Uncle. Grand Master of the not so ‘New’ Jedi Order. Do you remember years ago, when I was a youngling, telling me about how you threw down your lightsaber and refused to kill your father or the Emperor? That you learned the lesson then that that was not the way of the Jedi? What happened Luke? What’s more is you’ve tied the order once again to the governing faction and you’re using your Jedi as pawns in their endeavors, as police, as military. This is the root of the problem with the Jedi. Not knowing the truth. The light blinds you to the truth Luke. You saw the truth in the darkness. In the complete darkness where I took you. There, you could not deny it. You were wrong — about it all.”

He then walked over to Tenel Ka and kneeled in front of her. He put the back of his hand on her face and caressed her cheek. Then his hand and eyes slid downward, away from her as he exhaled a deep breath. A tear fell down her frozen -in-place face. Caedus rose and made his way around those on the floor toward the door. Without looking back, he motioned with his finger and said, “Tenel, come. I will see my daughter before I depart.” He snapped his fingers and she could move. She got up cautiously and made her way after him without a word of protest. “The rest of you — join me and help me end this civil war — or don’t. I have not been killing you this entire time. If you choose not to join me, do not interfere in my plans as I will no longer be so forgiving.” He stopped at the door. “Oh, and leave Jaina where she is. You may say your goodbyes — then get off my ship,” and he exited the room turning down the corridor to where he felt Allana. Then he released his hold on the group in the med bay. The group who once was his family. But his sacrifice to the dark side had been made, and they were now not much more than the nameless soldier who just passed by him.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Han, Leia, Ben and Luke were alone, still kneeling on the floor of the med bay. Their senses were still coming back to them. What Caedus had done to them, put them through, showed them was shattering. Han was the first to move. Probably because of his lack of connection to the Force. He stood, but made no further motion. After another moment, Leia stood. Then Ben. Luke remained on the floor. They looked at Luke, then at each other. Then they made their way to where Jaina’s body lay on the med bay table. Luke’s lightsaber hole in her chest for all to see. They each said silent goodbyes. None dared to try to take her body with them. The thought didn’t even cross their mind. They were all still in some stupor. They turned to look at Luke, probably for guidance, for what to do next. They got nothing.

Leia went to Luke and bent down before him. She looked into his eyes, but his eyes saw passed her. His face was blank. “Luke,” Leia plied gently. “Luke. We should go now.” There was no change in his expression, but Luke began to rise, slowly. Leia, Ben and Han looked at each other. It was a mutual look of concern and a “what do we do now” look. Ben shrugged. Han looked from Luke to Leia and back to Luke. Leia put her hand gently on Luke’s shoulder and turned him towards the door, nudging him towards it. He complied. Han and Ben followed behind. They all boarded the Millennium Falcon leaving behind Luke’s ship as they left. Not a word was said on the journey back to Coruscant.

Not long after entering Coruscant’s atmosphere, Luke finally broke the silence. Take us to the Jedi Temple and call an emergency meeting. Gather everyone back from the Transitory Mists who have not yet returned. Luke had already given the order for everyone to return to Coruscant just before leaving for Caedus’ ship after feeling what he thought was Caedus and Jaina’s death in the Force. He thought most should already be back so it shouldn’t take too long to assemble everyone even though the hour was late. It was currently 22:20 Standard Time. He hoped they would be gathered by 2300 Standard Hours.

Luke thought he understood the Force and his place in it. That he had worked it out after all of his years of trial and error. That there was right and wrong, good and evil and that was it. But if that was true, how was Caedus right and he so wrong? I know there is much about the Force we as Jedi, all the Jedi before me, do no understand. But he know what he saw, what he felt, out there, or was it in there, in the Force. What Caedus had shown him. Luke’s mind was reeling. His whole paradigm was cracking and crumbling right in front of him. Right inside of him. How could they have been so ignorant? What is the Truth? How had it taken the dark to show him? Was Caedus right that the light blinds the truth? Does that then make the dark path the true path? No, it couldn’t be. That didn’t feel right either. Luke had to figure this out. To make sense of it all.

By the time that thought had finished, they were ready to depart the Millennium Falcon. No one was speaking still. They made their way up the steps to the Jedi Temple. Luke looked up at the building and paused. He took it all in with a melancholy visage. Down corridors and up stairs and down more corridors they moved. They reached Luke’s office and he stopped at the door. He stepped inside after opening the door. Leia made to follow, but Luke gestured and she understood. He needed to be alone. The three of them silently continued on to the Council Chambers, and waited.

Luke sat in his office, in his chair, in the dark. There, his arms resting on the arm supports, hands placed flat together in his typical meditative way. He was leaned back and eyes closed. He tried meditating, clearing his mind, looking for guidance, but he could not. He kept seeing his father’s face. The dark, black, masked face of Darth Vader. He could even hear the breathing of his respirator. That labored, mechanical , rhythmic breathing. He couldn’t help but wonder if he had been wrong to judge him so quickly. He wondered how it would it have been different if he’d joined his father in overthrowing the Emperor and ruling the galaxy. How might have things have turned out if the light and dark had joined and ruled together? His thoughts continued to drift many past decisions.

After who knows how much time had passed, he rose from his seat, adjusted his Jedi robes and left his office. He headed down the corridor towards the Council Chambers where he could hear many voices. Most were inquisitive. Why were they here and at such an hour? What was the emergency? He hadn’t given any thought to what he was going to say to them. He only knew what he needed to do.

He reached the door to the chamber. He could see that everybody was present. All the masters were there. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It wasn’t going to be understood, but it must be done.

He crossed the threshold into the Council chambers and everyone fell silent. All heads turned. All attention turned to him, physically and in the Force. He crossed the room to the middle of the circle not taking his chair. He cleared his throat looking at the floor for a moment. Then he looked up and began, “Thank you all for coming, and at such a late hour. First, Caedus is still alive.” Gasps and grumblings and murmurs filled the room. Luke’s voice returned the silence as he demanded, “No one is to pursue him. I have learned today that through my ignorance, we have caused harm through our good intentions. Inadvertently, yes, but that doesn’t change the end result.” The Masters were exchanging uncertain looks. “The Force is so much more than we know. More than light and dark. More than right and wrong. There is much to learn. There are understandings to be had. Therefore, I have decided to disband the Jedi Order.” Loud gasps, disapproving astonishment and outbursts from the masters. Luke hushed them again with a gesture of his hand. “I must go and find the true way. To make sense of what I have learned. I don’t know when or if I will return. Do not try to find me. May the Force be with you all.” Luke looked at the stunned, staring faces of all the gathered masters. His sister Leia’s face, Ben, his son’s face. Then he turned and exited the room the way he had entered, without a word. And then, he left the Jedi Temple.

END

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