Beyond - Legends BS-26-9 (Sacrifice AU)

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Author's Note: Another variant of the Betsyverse ... this one assumes Jacen didn't choose to step off the Sith path in Shifting Tides, and things are darker for it ...

and other things have changed.

DISCLAIMER: LFL's are LFL's. Marvel's are Marvel's. OCs are their own. No money is being made off of this. This is a work of fiction. Please don't sue.

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26.10 ABY: Hapes Cluster, near Hapes-prime:
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He'd followed Mara's suggestions to the letter, but was still shocked to find where the trail had led.

Or rather, to whom the trail had led.

Jacen? Luke wondered - he'd been following Lumiya after the rather ugly fight with her strange Sith "Ship" on Hesperidium (the nerf-steak hadn't taken the swelling down much on Luke's eye) and his planting a tracking beacon on the organic-like Sith meditation sphere.

Except that - after he'd checked in on Mara, who was rapidly approaching her due date, and checked the answering machine for that long-hoped-for but still-absent message - he'd found Lumiya heading for the Hapes Cluster.

Luke had hoped she wasn't going to go after Tenel Ka or Allana; it'd been bad enough the Sith cyborg had attempted to kill Jacen's son Tace - now safely hidden with Jaina and Jag's daughter Wynter on Nirauan, a guest of the Fels - months earlier.

The incident had driven Jacen even further past the boiling point than he'd been over the Skrull infiltration which had catalyzed the creation of his Galactic Alliance Guard.

It used to be the Galactic Anti-Skrull Guard, but he made sure the Skrulls weren't a problem, Luke recalled grimly, watching at a safe distance as Jacen's Stealth-X engaged Lumiya in combat.

The very public, very Forceful execution of the Skrull queen Veranke had both outraged the Council and won Jacen massive public approval from most Coruscanti.

That, of course, had been just before the Corellian attack on that hotel ... and all nine Corellian hells had broken loose.

The Guard became the Galactic Alliance Guard; Jacen started getting frantic; Han and Leia "seceded" back to New Alderaan, and Jacen's demands for them to give him Tace back became ... menacing. At least he agreed to let Tace be protected by the Fels, Luke recalled, sighing.

He focused; as much as part of him thought it'd be wiser to let one of the two combatants take the other out - Jacen's sudden rise to Chief of State, over Cal Omas' suspiciously-timed arrest after Dur Gejjen's assassination, had upset the Council considerably - Jacen was still his nephew.

Even if his paranoid actions drove off ... Luke remembered, worry and upset rising in him until he used a Jedi calming technique.

And Lumiya ...

I can't help but think of her still as Shira, sometimes, Luke admitted, embarrassed and a little wistful.

Mara had his heart and soul. But memories were memories, dangerous as they were.

That was when the Star Destroyer popped out of hyperspace, and a voice crackled into life on Luke's comboard.

"Master Skywalker, please stand down and allow us to take both Sith into custody - or destroy them," an Imperial voice - human female, the Core accent only subtly altered for the speaker probably being raised on Bastion - asked.

Luke blinked back his shock and transmitted on a tight-band, "Both Sith? And with all due respect, what's a Remnant Star Destroyer doing in Hapan space?"

"We'll gladly explain if you wish to board, Master. For the moment, please watch out for the outbound lines," the captain said -

and 12 TIE Defenders blazed from the Destroyer's launch bays, toward where Jacen and Lumiya had broken off their fight, Lumiya's surprise evident through the Force even at this distance. As usual, Jacen was unable to be read.

What almost troubled Luke more was that he swore he sensed a