Chapter 14

"Traitors!" Darth Treulos screamed as she bombarded the Mandalorians with lightning, slowly draining their unconsciousness. "You won't steal our prize!"

Four of the Mandalorians staggered under the attack, but the lightning merely blasted the helmet off the one with his back to the door and made him stumble. He seemed to draw the lightning into himself and redirect it into his fellow Mandalorians until they were truly unconscious. The lightning played over the walls and everything around him except the prisoners. He finally turned around.

"Jacen?" Darth Treulos shouted in disbelief.

"Hi Tahiri," He said, calmly redirecting the lightning at her. "Miss me?"

Suddenly he stopped the lightning and stumbled to one knee.

"Okay, that should be all the surveillance equipment," Jacen said weakly when a final burst of flame died against the wall. He caught himself against a table before he fell over entirely, and Tahiri rushed forward and pulled Jacen up into a hug, which he gratefully returned.

"Hello?" Luke called out. "Care to lend a hand?"

Jacen and Tahiri broke their hug with smiles. Tahiri retrieved Blade's sword to cut the vines of the Embrace and Jacen pulled himself up and stumbled over to where Kam was lying on a cot.

"I'm so sorry, Kam," Jacen apologized to the unconscious Jedi. The injuries were brutal and extensive, but all Jacen could have done without exposing himself was to induce a healing trance once the torture was done. His connection with Kam was not as strong as with Luke and Mara, who he was more capable of protecting. He used the Force to reset the dislocated rib, something he knew would be extremely painful if Kam was awake, but knew it had to be done sooner rather than later now that Kam was already in a healing trance for two days. Ribs were not meant to sit under the rib cage at odd angles. He just hoped that the internal bleeding would be taken care of by the healing trance.

"He should be fine," Jacen said to his aunt and uncle, now free of the Embrace. Tahiri produced their lightsabers from under her cape and tossed Kam's lightsaber to Jacen, which he clipped to his own belt – perhaps the oddest addition to Mandalorian armour he had seen yet. "But we should get him into a Bacta tank as soon as possible. I trust the Embrace has been going easy on you since I arrived?"

"You two planned this yourselves?" Mara asked, ignoring his question and accepting her lightsaber.

"Yes," Jacen said. "Kyp didn't even want to acknowledge you guys could still be alive. I looked at my options and found that Tahiri is unique among the Jedi in that she can avoid the lure of the Sith better than anyone. With her own and Riina's personalities in her head, one can keep the other sane and tell lies more effectively. She infiltrated the Sith and helped me get in a position to help you out. I'm sorry we couldn't do anything sooner."

"Better late than never," Luke said, activating and testing out his lightsaber on the table to confirm it still worked. The blade shone brightly and hummed with enthusiasm as it easily carved through the table. "Now how do we get out of here?"

"Lowie's coming," Tahiri said. "He crashed the Shadow in the jungle during the evac and has been hiding there since making repairs. I made contact with him and provided him with stuff to repair the ship, including a couple Mandalorian cloaking devices and Artoo."

"I lured some Terentateks into attacking the facility here," Jacen said. "A little distraction to give us some cover. Soora's going to be a little too busy to worry about a handful of Jedi escaping."

"We should get going," Luke said.

"I'm staying," Tahiri said. "There's a spy among the Jedi feeding Soora information. I can't leave until I find out who it is."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked. "You've already put yourself in enough danger as it is. They'll know you helped us escape."

"No," She said with adamant determination. "We staged it so all the surveillance equipment would be destroyed and all witnesses would be unconscious. Nobody knows about this conversation except us, and Riina can help me lie. I'll be fine."

Luke put a hand on her shoulder and looked deep into her eyes, seeing her steadfast resolve.

"Thank you, Tahiri."

"Here," Slightly embarrassed, looking more like the old Tahiri Luke remembered than she had lately. She pulled a data card from her belt and handed it to him. "I found it in your room. I brought some other things to Lowie already, but I just found this one. It's the holoimages from your front hall."

She bowed her head and walked to the door. "I guess this means you get to blast me now, Jacen."

"I promise it won't hurt," Jacen said. "Oh, just to warn you, Trigger's developing a bit of a thing for you."

A mixture of fear, disbelief, and disgust overtook her face. "I thought you said this wouldn't hurt."

"I wish," Jacen looked at her apologetically. "Thank you, Tahiri, for everything. Please take care of my team." He gestured to the unconscious Mandalorians at his feet.

"I will," She smiled, knowing how attached to them he had become.

He fired a careful blast of Force energy at her that hit her clean in the chest and knocked her back against the wall unconscious. The use of the Force seemed to drain him more than a marathon, but he did no more than sway on the spot. He walked up to her and placed a hand on her head for a moment.

"There, now she won't easily recall this conversation," Jacen said. "Lowie's almost here. Let's go."

Jacen shook his head and focused himself, shaking away his exhaustion. With new energy, he led his aunt and uncle out of the chamber with Kam being floated between the two Jedi Masters. He crept through the hallways, hearing shouts and blaster fire nearby, but had a clear run as they made their way to the designated landing pad. When they reached the landing pad, a hatched opened in thin air to reveal Ben Skywalker smiling and waving.

"C'mon!" He called, waving his parents aboard.

Luke and Mara ran ahead with Kam and boarded the ship with Jacen trailing behind. Before Jacen could reach the ship, a blaster bolt hit the ground by his feet. He stopped and turned to see a lone figure in gold armour pointing his blaster Jacen's head. Jacen did not bother to raise the blaster rifle in his hands.

"Go," Jacen said to his aunt and uncle. "I'll be right there."

He took a few steps towards Lanos.

"So you're a Jedi," Lanos said, ignoring the other Jedi as they boarded the ship.

"Yes," Jacen replied.

"You betrayed our trust," He growled. "Pretending to be one of us while ready to stab us in the back at a moment's notice."

"Would you have done differently for your family?" Jacen asked.

After a moment's reflection, Lanos threw something at Jacen in response. Jacen caught it easily one handed and looked at it. It was a blue Mandalorian helmet. His helmet.

"Probably not," Lanos agreed. "You'll always be a brother to the Mandalorians."

With that, Lanos walked back towards the holding cell and Jacen boarded the ship. Jacen sent an empathic message to the Terentateks, and a few minutes later the Jade Shadow broke through the atmosphere and jumped to hyperspace, finally leaving Ossus behind.

Soora sprinted towards the two Terentateks as they raced towards…and past him. He leapt high as the beasts charged past him, and he twisted in mid air to see why the Terentatek had dodged him. As he landed on the ground, he noticed that all the Terentateks had charged into the woods at the same time.

He stared at the retreating animals and the Force revealed to him what they were – a diversion. A diversion that could be created by only one person. A person that had infiltrated his camp and had eluded the best bounty hunters.

A person who had even spoken to him not half an hour before.

"Master Bulq!" Someone ran up to Soora. "The Jedi! The Jedi have escaped!"

Soora did not even bother to see who it was. He flung his lightsaber at the person without turning around, spearing the messenger's head with the blade. He walked back towards the camp hesitating in step only long enough to call the lightsaber from the man's head to his hand.

"You will pay for this, Jacen Solo," Soora said in a trembling voice to nobody in particular with the calmness of voice that could only be attained from anger overloading his ability to express emotion. "You will pay."

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Epilogue

Sekava stumbled out of the forest and came across a group of Sith patrolling the outside of the forest. The academy walls in the distance looked like they had suffered considerable damage, but it hardly recognized in Sekava's mind.

You failed us, little Sith. They won't be happy. You must avenge yourself.

His mind flashed back to the battle in the forest clearing. He had leapt in high, lightsaber blazing, but found himself flying backwards. He bounced off a tree utterly bewildered. Even worse, his lightsaber appeared in the Mandalorian's hand, blade pointed at his chin.

"You're Roshi?" Was all he had thought to say. He recognized the armour from the guards at the Jedi brig.

"Yes," The Mandalorian had replied. "And no. I usually go by Jacen Solo."

He remembered the fear, the confusion, and the rage that all rushed over him at one time. He told Solo he would not get away. The others would stop him. Solo merely laughed at him. Oddly enough, it was a polite laugh. Almost gentle and understanding. He could almost see Solo smiling softly through the menacing helmet.

"I'm taking the Jedi with me. Not even Soora can stop me," He had told Sekava as everything started going dark. "By the time you wake up, I'll be in hyperspace…"

You must destroy Jacen Solo. You will never be worthy to be a Sith until he is gone.

The Sith patrol moved towards Sekava to assist him, but he stood tall and knocked them back with uncontrolled raging telekinesis. The voice made too much sense. It always had; he just never realized it. He looked to the sky trembling with anger and pledged his destiny:

"Your head will be mine, Jacen Solo!"

AN: I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter of this trillogy. I regret to inform you all that there will be a delay until I will be ready to start posting the third chapter, Dawn of Chaos. I have, perhaps, 70% of it written, but there are still gaping holes in the storyline that I need to fill and the whole editing process to do before I feel comfortable presenting it. The reason for the delay is that I will be writing the GMAT examination to get into grad school and I need to focus my efforts on that until late October. My plan is to start writing again in November, and hopefully finish by January. However, nothing is set in stone. Except the date of my GMAT exam. Unfortunately. I assure you that it will be worth the wait. And if you're curious, it is 65,156 words thus far, which is almost as long as Détentes End. I'm hoping to get it up to 85,000.

Thanks again for reading!