Beyond - Legends A Boy No Longer: The Path of the Chosen (post-SbS AU, Anakin, Jacen, Jaina) (COMPLETED 1/14)

Here begins my second significant trek into the realm of SW fan fics, though probably less filled with my crazy theories and ideas of how canon ought to be. Let it be noted that this will be more of an on-off project for the near future, and updates will probably be less frequent than liked.

Hope you enjoy this, and feel encouraged to respond, comment, question, criticize, or do anything in post-like format, which will invariably motivate me to write faster.

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Orbitting slowly above the Inner Rim world of Myrkr, the Yuuzhan Vong worldship looked like an imperfect moon, disfigured by time and the work of its long-lived existence. The Baanu Rass was the oldest of the surviving worldships that had made the long trek across the vast distance of lifeless void separating galaxies. The damage the massive ship has suffered had left it almost worthless, and the continuing war had ended any chance of repairing the ship.

From space, it looked entirely normal, quiet and peaceful.

Inside, however, was hell.

Picking her way carefully through the smoldering debris and bits of corpses that littered the ground, Vergere examined the handiwork the Jedi strike team had made in its spectacular and almost impossible escape from the worldship.

Not only had the ship suffered horrific damage, but the entire voxyn cloning program had been obliterated in a fiery stroke of Jedi ferocity, as well as countless hundreds of warriors that had fallen in battle against the Jedi warriors.

Surveying the area with both her eyes and her senses, she spotted what she was looking for. Carefully making her way over to the charred corpse of a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, she casually tossed the body away with a wave of her hand and knelt down to the victim underneath.

With amphistaff wounds all over his body, blood caked in his hair and oozing out of his mouth and nose, and what looked like several broken bones, the Jedi Jacen Solo looked like he had died horrifically. And judging from his limp, lifeless state with almost no identifiable breathing or pulse, any normal examiner would pronounce the boy dead.

But as a Force user, Vergere knew better. Tilting her head, she looked the Jedi boy over, running her fingers over his face as if she were blind.

She had witnessed the battle, the boy becoming a storm of Force energy, ripping through the Yuuzhan Vong ranks in an unstoppable maelstrom of raw Force power and deadly lightsaber precision. As the Yuuzhan Vong had been slaughtered in the dozens before his blade, his fellow Jedi had fled onboard the fool Nom Anor's personal ship, leaving him to almost certain death.

Vergere allowed herself a faint smile to crease her face. Despite her best efforts, her plan had not succeeded. Though she had seen before her very eyes that what she believed about Jacen Solo was correct, his brother had escaped with the others.

Most inconvenient, she thought, But there is still hope yet.

At this point, the survival of Anakin Solo made little difference. He, and everyone else that mattered, believed Jacen was dead and nothing could get in her way until she had done everything she could.

Tears gently fell from her eyes, splashing onto Jacen's unconscious form, causing the faint stirrings of life to grow within him. Despite his grievous injuries sustained during his nearly apocalyptic fight, her tears and the will of the Force would keep the Jedi boy alive for as long as was necessary.

"Now," she spoke, "We shall see what comes of this unexpected turn of events, Jedi Solo."

 

woo hoo!

I am the first to respond and actually know what is going on! I pledge to keep up with this fic to atone for my lapse in the one with the incestuous Jedi Twins and maniacal Tahiri who took over a Star Destroyer. I really did love that fic but lost the thread when I went on vacation. But here...I'm in from the beginning!

Can't wait to see how Anakin surviving shapes up. Please give him some sane Tahiri to love...you know how I feel about her...and if you don't, let me tell you...she's my favorite female character.

Oh, and incidentally, I was going through some old notes the other day and came across one of my all time favorite Tahiri quotes which I think you wrote...please tell me I'm correct.

It was something like: "You know what primitive living does to the Yuuzhan Vong in me."

If that was you...could you direct me to the appropriate story?

Looking forward to an update here.

 

EH_Pilot: *grins*

Interesting... looks as though it's going to be a lot of fun, this one.

And, a look inside the Space Chicken's head? I don't think we've ever really seen that before, in pro-foc or fanfic... and - it makes sense. She's stone-cold sane, and she knows exactly what she's after.

Maybe I'm over-reading, but the contrast I get between the often oblique exterior movement, and the cool certainty of the mind inside, is striking, sharp, and really rather neat...

Hoping you find time to update this one semi-regularly...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

pregnantpadme: Welcome aboard, and thanks for your support

I might have written that quote, but it's been awhile and I don't remember the specifics too much. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten your affinity for Tahiri.

Thrawn McEwok: With replies like these, expect many updates.

By the way, oblique?

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Jaina Solo slumped down in the pilot's chair of their captured Yuuzhan Vong frigate with a great sigh. For the first time in what seemed an eternity, her body finally had a chance to rest. Leaning forward on her elbow, she starred aimlessly out into the hypnotic, endless realm of azure color wrapped around an infinitely expanding hyperspace tunnel.

Though her body was at rest, her mind and soul were in flames, utter chaos running rampant, tearing what little self-control she had left to pieces.

How could she rest, even think of resting, when her twin brother, a very piece of her own soul, had died? His presence had been wiped out from the Force. Gone. Erased. Wiped clean as if it never existed. All that was left in its place was a gaping void.

Empty, hideous, terrible, mocking nothingness!

She remembered, through the fog of her grief, how Anakin, terribly wounded, had almost decided to go back and finish the job they had started. It would have meant certain death for her younger brother. But before Anakin could convince them, Jacen, his eyes filled with grim determination and intervened.

"I'll go," was all he said gravely before rushing back the way they had gone.

As they had worked desperately to escape in Nom Anor's frigate, she remembered feeling Jacen's presence in the Force erupt in a volcano of Force power, shinning brighter than any star in the galaxy, fighting as if he were the lightsaber of the Force itself. Then, like a candle snuffed out, his presence had vanished.

Now it was just a void. A giant, yawning, gaping void.

Uncontrollably, she shut her eyes tightly, fighting back the tears, fighting back the agonizing grief that jabbed at her heart ceaselessly.

Thankfully, she was pulled from her brooding by a gentle hand nudging her back into reality.

"Jaina?" a soft, cautious voice filled her eyes.

Startled, she looked up at the warm, comforting eyes of her old childhood friend Zekk. Her bewildered expression went unnoticed.

"Jaina?"

Shaking herself out of her trance, she looked back at Zekk. "I-I'm fine, Zekk..." her voice trailed off weakly.

Zekk knew she was lying. No one onboard was fine. Everyone was suffering in some way, emotionally or physically. They had all lost long-time friends, and many of them would die if they did not get medical attention soon.

Especially Anakin.

Sensing her thoughts through the lingering connections of their Jedi battle-meld, Zekk smiled weakly.

"He's doing fine. Tahiri's been clinging to him like a mynock since we made the jump to lightspeed, and Lowie's been watching over them both just as much."

Despite herself, a ghost of a smile appeared on Jaina's lips. After all the horrible things she had gone through in the war so far, it was nothing compared to what Tahiri had suffered. She didn't want to even imagine what would have happened if Anakin had died in Jacen's place.

Nor did she want to think what was going on inside Tenel Ka.

Zekk sat down in the seat next to Jaina, sighing in relief as he did.

"How long before we reach Coruscant?" he asked.

Jaina shrugged. It had been nothing short of miraculous that they had deciphered how to work the living ship in time to escape, and even if the ship did have a chronometer, she doubted she could find it, or much less convert it to standard time.

"Not much longer," was all she said. Coruscant had not been chosen for its convenience or for its hospitality towards stolen Yuuzhan Vong ships, but because it was the easiest coordinates to impress upon their living ship's brain.

The two young Jedi fell into a awkward, subdued silence, neither looking at the other, instead

 

EH_Pilot: By the way, oblique?

She often moves, physically and in conversation, in these little hops, which don't always seem straight-forward to me...

The rest of the time, she's sticking daggers in...

And now - the update!!

Firstly... um, YV frigates don't fly in hyperspace - they use "darkspace", where it's black outside... the contrast works well in terms of the beat of the scene, though...

</Motti>"I suggest you use it!"

in Nom Anor's

... masquer?

... laundry-basket?

... frigate?

You make it sound like a nightclub!

Great scene, though. Quick, brutal, and effective...

And, I like the way you dropped the YJK back in the Battle of Coruscant before the end of SbS, rather than leaving it for Dark Journey!!

Good job!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I might just have to keep up with this one...

 

That line might actually have been in a JDH3 fic...can't remember now.

Anyway...hmmm...Anakin is still alive and the gang looks to be haeding to Hapes...at least that is what one would think...but then we never know with you.

Am looking forward to the moment when Anakin wakes up.

PP

 

Anakin's alive! Though it'll be interesting to see how he fits into the grand scheme of things, since Jacen's still under Vergere's watch.

Please PM me when you update.

 

Hmmm... Anakin Lives how intriguing

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Great job so far.

~Latin Geek~

 

Thrawn McEwok: And thumbs up to the big post

RedGold: Oh yes, you must.

pregnantpadme: Hey, I can be predictable when I want to be

JadeSolo: Will do.

Jedi_Latin_Student: Thanks!

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Anakin Solo's eyes opened.

He was floating. Floating in a sea of murky pink water. His arms ached, his chest ached, his head ached. But at the moment, none of that mattered to him. His thoughts slowly cleared of the fog of his hibernation trance and he became conscious of the fact that the sea of murky pink water was in fact a transparisteel medical cylinder of bacta in the middle of a hospital facility decorated in charming sterile white.

He felt suddenly vulnerable.

The faint yellow glow of the medical droid's staring, lidless eyes didn't help matters much.

His mind fully cleared.

He remembered....

The bacta tube opened up and he suddenly felt compelled to get away.

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Anakin Solo sat alone in another sterile room adjacent to the room he had been floating in for Force knows how long. His arms crossed over his chest, his mind was lost in its own sea of thoughts. Too much had happened in too short a time with too little chance to deal with. For the first time in too long, he was alone to think.

The door across from his chair slid open. Before the door had even finished rolling open, a blond-haired, barefoot blur had darted in and landed squarely on top of him. The blur instantly flung its arms around him.

"Tahiri!" he gasped in surprise.

"Anakin!" the blur squealed in delight.

Tahiri clung tightly to Anakin, determined not to let go anytime soon.

"I...i-it's nice to see you too," he mumbled nervously.

"We almost lost you, Anakin. I...we were so worried you wouldn't make it."

Despite himself, he was grinning along with Tahiri, the raw happiness at seeing him alright was being transmitted like a shinning beacon in the Force.

"I'm not going to leave you, Tahiri. Don't you worry about that," he said, holding her in his arms.

Tahiri managed to pull herself away from Anakin just enough to look him in the eye, blinking back a tear.

"I know."

Feeling another presence in the room now, Anakin looked up towards the door. Standing in it, Jaina looked back, smiling broadly. But mixed in with the joy and relief coming off his sister was grief.

Anakin's smile instantly faded, his eyes hardening. Until now, he hadn't even realized there was a gaping absence. Nothing was said between the two about it. They both knew. He simply nodded at her.

Now was supposed to be a happy time. Happy times had become too few and far between ever since the war started that they were too precious to spoil.

"It's..." his voice choked, "Jaya, it's good to see you."

"My thoughts exactly," his sister said, her voiced sounding strained.

"So," he cleared his throat, "How long have I been out?"

"A week," Tahiri said.

Anakin blinked. I've been unconscious a week!?

"They practically had to throw her into a containment field to keep her away from you," Jaina said, her voice lightening noticeably.

Anakin's cheeks flushed slightly. Where ever he and Tahiri were headed, he still felt...modest, embarrassed even. Especially when talking about it in front of Jaina.

"Who's they, anyway? Where are we?"

"Hapes," Jaina replied, "Tenel Ka managed to convince them to let us land. Just in time too. Even in your trance, you weren't doing too well."

"But I thought we were headed to..." his voice trailed off. Coruscant.

Oh.

Oh, this is bad.

"Jaina," his tone was gravely serious, startling Tahiri, "What happened?"

Jaina sighed.

"Ask me again sometime," she said with a wavering smile, "Come on. Everyone else is waiting outside. They're just as anxious but less," she paused, glancing at Tahiri, "impatient to see you."

Anakin nodded and stood up, Tahiri reluctantly releasing him. He would go see everyone else now.

Bad new

 

;:marks for further reading::

Yes, I forsee much good plot in the future of this fic.

This is an interesting 'what if' so far.

If you have a PM list, please add me.

 

That was a nice little holiday treat. But boy is Anakin going to be bumbed. Hey...maybe he and Jaina and Tahiri can launch a strike force to rescue Jacen...except they'd have to know he was alive.

Hmmm.

Oh...and could you please give Tahiri a pair of shoes?

Puuuullllleeeeeeese!

 

The shoes could be a Christmas/life day gift to Tahiri

Poor soon to be guit-ridden Anakin.

Yes, save Jacen from the evil Bird sith!

 

"I'm not going to leave you, Tahiri. Don't you worry about that," he said, holding her in his arms.



I like how Anakin just sort of knew what had happened, but he then gears himself to deal with other matters.

 

*grabs a chair, throws it in front, and plops down*

Woo-hoo! Anakin's alive - this is great! Count me in if you do PM updates.

 

SpiritofEowyn: Notification you will have.

pregnantpadme: Don't push your luck

Eleventh_Guard: Welcome aboard.

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The door to Anakin Solo's quarters assigned to him in the Royal Palace on Hapes slid open and the young Jedi stumbled in. The room was as opulently decorated as one could manage, bordering on an obscene flaunting of wealth and power. Decorated in some slight alteration of base color he probably never knew existed before and in an obscure historical style of Hapes? distant past, the room was what Anakin labeled ?not his style?. At the moment, the obscure aesthetic details of the room were lost on him. He was more concerned about something to sit down in. He was completely and utterly exhausted, more mentally than physically. Miraculously, he managed to hold off his desire to collapse in a heap on the ground long enough to step inside and collapse in a heap on the bed, face first.

With a groan, he rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling.

Two days ago he had awoken in the bacta tank, sore, disoriented, and with a pungent tasting funk left over from his floating experiences. It was only today that the unpleasant aftertaste from the bacta had faded to a tolerable level.

Almost immediately after his awakening, he had been swarmed over by his friends from the strike mission. Awash in a sea of relief, concern, and general distress over the tragedy of the past week had almost overwhelmed his weakened mental state. Then had come the rest of his family.

His parents had arrived at Hapes, with Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara, a few days before he had regained consciousness so that they could see their children once more...

...and say goodbye to another.

Only one day after awakening, Jacen's funeral had been held.

Memorial he corrected himself. They never had the chance to recover his brother's body. The strike team had barely escaped even with Jacen staying behind. In all likelihood, the Vong probably desecrated his body before reducing it to base components and feeding it to sustain the worldship he had died on.

That would be so like them, too.

The occasion had been a quiet, solemn one. Family and friends gathered to pay their respects, reminisce on old memories, and talk of what was to come. All in all, the memorial had been one of the worst days of his life.

I'll go.

Those were the last words Anakin had heard from Jacen. Those were probably the last words anyone ever heard from his brother. He had almost gone back himself to finish the job, and he had known full well it was suicide. Even if he hadn't been wounded terribly, he would have died had he gone back...

I let my brother go back to die.

His heart almost exploded at the thought. Taking a deep breath, he concentrated, slamming those emotions into a tiny, microscopic shell of solid durasteel. Calling upon reserves of the Force, he reinforced his barriers, locking those hurtful emotions away where they couldn't do any damage.

"Sithspit, why did you have to go back!?" he muttered darkly to himself, still staring up at the ceiling. Realizing he was treading dangerous water, he quickly cast the thoughts back into the recesses of his mind.

So what else is there to think about?

Ever since awakening, his mind had been plagued with the constant whispers of dread. While in his trance during the strike team's flight into Republic space, he had still been able to percieve the outside world through the ebb and flow of the Force. He had remembered...

Anakin shut his eyes and shook his head, gritting his teeth angrily.

"No...no, I'm not going to think about that!" he snarled in frustration, "Stop thinking! Stop thinking!"

So what else is there to think about?

Anger.

Anger flashed like sparks inside him, igniting a fire in his chest.

The Vong!

The Yuuzhan Vong were the root cause of all this. They were the ones that started this war. They killed Chewbacca, they destroye

 

Powerful stuff!!

Fuller review later when I'm actually awake!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

The room was as opulently decorated as one could manage, bordering on an obscene flaunting of wealth and power. Decorated in some slight alteration of base color he probably never knew existed before and in an obscure historical style of Hapes? distant past, the room was what Anakin labeled ?not his style?.



Anakin's going dark! That's both scary and exciting.

 

Thrawn McEwok: Perhaps the most baffling thing about that is I thought it seemed somewhat weak. Maybe it's just that whatever you think, I think the opposite?

Try and wake up one of these days, by the way

JadeSolo: That's good. And I can't help but laugh every time I see your avatar

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Anakin sat in the nearly abandoned mess hall of the annex of the palace the Jedi were living in, nursing a bowl of grey, pasty, flavorless gunk. Though actual food was readily available, the sheer volume of it Anakin would receive would be too much for him.

Why should I gorge myself on mountains of food when there's millions of there starving?

The nutrient rations, in all their glorious grey, reflected his mood. Since last night, the combined mental exhaustion and frustration had turned him into a walking speeder wreck.

Last night he had finally seen what had happened at Coruscant.

Now his nightmares were not just vague feelings sensed through a fog of unconsciousness, but images that seemed burned to the back of his eyelids, mocking him every time he closed his eyes.

The Battle of Coruscant had been truly epic, in both scale and how monumentally ridiculous it all was. The battle was perhaps the largest battle in the history of civilization, without question the largest battle of the modern age. Warmaster Tsavong Lah had amassed a gigantic armada and sent it steamrolling towards the most heavily defended world in the entire galaxy, even more so with three huge defense fleets under Admirals Antilles, Bel Iblis, and Kre'fey, with the ever bumbling Sien Sovv in overall command.

Tsavong Lah's abandonment of anything remotely strategically or tactically sound was compensated for by a shield of captured civilian craft.

The New Republic fleet should have obliterated the Yuuzhan Vong armada. Instead, Sovv had, as usual, hesitated, resulting in a fleet-wide organizational disintegration. Kre'fey refused to fire through the civilian shield and allowed the Yuuzhan Vong fleet at actually penetrate into the mine field.

Anakin, disgusted, wished his grandfather had been there.

Even worse, the government panicked, as the ever-cowardly Senate continued to do, and fled the capital. In the chaos amid the battle, Senators had stolen parts of the Republic fleet to act as overblown escorts, or even taken ships out-system to defend their homeworlds.

Chief of State Fey'lya had redeemed himself, if only slightly in Anakin's eyes, by perishing in a blaze of destruction, killing thousands of Yuuzhan Vong warriors in the Imperial Palace in the process.

Anakin fed himself another spoonful of the gunk, closing his eyes and sighing.

Coruscant should have been a New Republic victory. It should have been where the Vong offensive was totally beaten and hurled back beyond the galactic Rim. The war should have been won that day.

Instead, it had nearly been lost.

Millions of servicemen and women had fought and died heroically in the defense of the capital. They had fought with everything they had, and given their lives for a cause they believed enough in to die for.

They had been betrayed by the New Republic; betrayed by the very government that they swore to serve.

If the New Republic had a weakness, it was its government, the cowardly, corrupt, idiotic Senate that had done everything wrong since the start of the war.

Damn...

Anakin was suddenly yanked back into reality when another bowl of grey gunk dropped in front of him, and Jaina sat down behind it, across the table from her.

"I had the same idea," she said.

Anakin only nodded. The two ate in silence for several minutes, neither willing nor needing to say anything. Both avoided eye-contact with the other.

Jacen's death was affecting his twin more than him. That was probably because he was doing a better job of locking his emotions away.

"I saw what happened at Coruscant last night," he finally said calmly.

Jaina stopped eating.

"It would have been be

 

EH_Pilot: it was baroque, but it worked, IMHO. I think it ends up reading as though repressed anger is sparking up like tinder, detached from the character's conscious thought-process...

Still , though. I'll try and be more coherent later...

Anakin, disgusted, wished his grandfather had been there.

Great line!!

Great update, all in all!!

Poor Tenel Ka, though.

And where's Jag?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Hmm. Nice. Kinda makes you wonder if the universe is better off with a dead or angry Anakin. Although he doesn't seem Dark yet. Yay.

I look foreward to more.

 

Ooh... yeah, the line about Anakin's grandfather Anakin gave me a chill.

 

OHhhhhhh....

Now Jaian will have help in the Darkness...

I can't wait to see how Tahiri reacts to Anakon's leaving...if he even has the nerve to tell ehr before he goes.

Poor TK...she would never admit to thinking that it should have been Anakin and not Jacen...but what else can we think?

Looking forward to more!

 

Thrawn McEwok: Where's Jag!?

You know I never read Dark Journey!



SpiritofEowyn: Good, because there will be more

Eleventh_Guard:

pregnantpadme: Jaian? Anakon?

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Anakin had just finished loading the last of the supply crates into the Servant's cargo hold when Jaina stuck her head in.

"We've got a visitor."

Anakin growled in irritation. "Did you tell anyone we were leaving?"

"Of course not," she snapped back angrily.

Pulling his work gloves off, Anakin wiped the sweat from his face and followed Jaina to the boarding ramp. "So who is..." he started to say.

He stopped as soon as he saw Tenel Ka standing in the ship's entrance portal, examining the frame of the ship with mild interest. She turned away from her examination and met Anakin's eyes. They were practically the same as they had been the day before.

"I'm going with you," she declared bluntly.

Anakin's jaw set firmly, and he could feel both women's eyes on him, studying him. A flicker of irritation flared up at him.

"That's right, you are," he said at long last. "Do you have your own ship?"

She nodded.

"Supplies?"

Again she nodded.

"Weapons?"

"Of course."

But how did you know? he wondered to himself.

"Meet us in orbit in half an hour."

---------------------------------------------------

"They did what!?" Han and Leia cried out incredulously at the same time.

"Anakin and Jaina left," Tahiri repeated, feeling suddenly very embarrassed at being the one to deliver to the news to their parents.

The sudden and unannounced departure of the Solo's two remaining children had actually been found out by Lowbacca. Everyone had been affected by Jacen's death, and everyone was both aware of and worried because of what it may do to Anakin and Jaina. Lowie had gone searching for them. Both had been becoming harder to sense through the Force, a result of them shutting themselves off from everyone, so the fact that he couldn't sense them right away didn't raise any alarms.

Assuming they were in the hanger where the captured frigate was berthed, Lowie made the discovery that it was gone. A check with Hapes' traffic control had confirmed the frigate's departure, just hours earlier.

They had left onboard the warship without telling where they were going or for how long.

And you didn't even tell me!

The last thing Lowie wanted to do was inform the Solos of their children's disappearance.

Frankly, it was the same for Tahiri, but knew that it pained the Wookie for seemingly failing his responsibility to look out for them.

"Tenel Ka went with them," she added as Han and Leia argued between themselves.

"...more of that Jedi Force nonse...wait, who went with them?" Han stopped in the middle of his sentence.

"Well," Leia said, "That explains how they got out of the system so easily."

Tahiri cringed, lost for words.

Everyone had been so worried about what Anakin and Jaina must have been going through, that no one had paid attention to what Tenel Ka must be experiencing.

"It can't be too hard to find them. A Vong frigate and a Hapan transport roaming the galaxy together. If we knew where they were going, we could catch them on the Falcon no problem."

"I don't think we can catch them, Han, even if we do find them."

Han frowned. Convincing just one of them was hard enough, but Anakin and Jaina combined...

"We can't just sit here and let them run around the galaxy doing...well, whatever it is they're going to do!"

"I think," Tahiri finally spoke up again, "They've gone off to fight the Yuuzhan Vong again," putting enough emphasis on "Yuuzhan" to remind Han.

"We can't," Han spoke first, "We can't just sit here!"

"That's right, we can't just sit here. We've got other things that need to be done. Wedge needs us at Borleias and Luke and Mara need to get back to Ben. Anakin and Jaina need to find their

 

:ffers to make kentucky fried Vergere::: I guess that means Jacen would be with her.

I wonder if Tenel Ka will cause problems, since she think Anakin should have 'died' instead.