Second Chances

CHAPTER ONE



Jaina Solo pulled down on the lever on the controls in front of
her and the Lightning Rod shot out of hyperspace into the Hapes
System. She checked the instruments in front of her to make sure
that everything was functioning normally, which wasn’t always the
case with the old ship, but today everything checked out fine
regardless.  Beside her, Zekk laid in the coordinates Tenal Ka
had given them and the ship began its approach to the round
glowing world known as Hapes.

Jaina shifted uncomfortably in her seat and checked her wrist
chronometer.  They would reach planet side in about twenty
standard minutes.

“What’s wrong?” Zekk asked turning to face her, his face an
obvious mask of concern.

“I dunno,” she said with a shrug, “it’s just that I – “

“Don’t tell me you ‘have a bad feeling about this’,” Zekk said
with an exasperated sigh.

“Fine, I won’t,” she said with a small smile as she saw him slump
down in his co-pilot chair with a groan. “It’s probably just the
whole idea of Tenal Ka getting married that’s giving me weird
vibes.  I mean, who would’ve thought she’d leave the Jedi Academy
and then less than six months later be getting married.”

“And who would’ve thought it’d be to someone either than Jacen,”
Zekk finished, voicing Jaina’s own unspoken thoughts. She
wondered if her twin brother thought the same thing.

Ever since Tenal Ka had left the Jedi Academy on Yavin Four,
Jaina had felt a sudden change in her twin brother’s emotions.
Regret, sadness and even anger seemed to pour off of him these
days. Through the special bond they shared through the force from
being twins, it was difficult to hide anything from each other,
especially feelings that strong.  But when she had tried to talk
to Jacen about what was bothering him, he would just brush her
off and say nothing.  He knew that answer hadn’t satisfied his
sister, but he also knew that she wouldn’t invade his privacy by
probing his thoughts without his permission.  At least not yet,
Jaina thought silently to herself.

To everyone else, he seemed like the same old Jacen, except maybe
to Anakin and Danni.  Their little brother didn’t share the same
connection with Jacen that she did, but he was usually pretty
perceptive. With Danni, Jaina knew for a fact that the former
ExGal scientist and Jacen had grown close ever since he had
rescued her from the clutches of the ruthless Yuuzhan Vong on
Helska Four.  It was obvious that he had feelings for her and
from what she had heard from Danni, it seemed she shared those
feelings as well. Danni had told her of the kiss they had shared
by the river near the academy.  There had also been other little
hints here and there as well. Things like spending hours at a
time training together, just the two of them, and going for long
walks in the luscious jungles on Yavin Four alone.  No one knew
what happened when they spent all those hours alone, and Jaina
felt it was none of her business to invade her brother and
friend’s privacy by asking questions.  What they did together was
their business, but Jaina couldn’t help but wonder at exactly
what was going on between the two Jedi. Whatever it was, they
were keeping pretty secretive about it.  Jaina suspected it was
probably due to the whole age difference thing, with Danni being
five years older than Jacen.  But their father was quite a few
years older than their mother after all, and her mother had only
been a few years older than Jacen when she had met their father.

Still, whatever it was that was bothering her brother, Jaina
could only guess that it had something to do with Tenal Ka.  She
had suspected as much since his change in moods had occurred soon
after the Dathomirian warrior had left Yavin Four.  It had been
no secret that their seemed to be an obvious attraction between
the two practically the entire time they had been together at the
academy training to be Jedi Knights.  Even though the warrior
girl rarely showed any emotion at all, Jacen seemed to be the one
person who was able to crack a smile out of her.  And before
Jaina knew it, the two had become inseparable, and oblivious to
the obvious mutual feelings they felt for one another.  But after
graduation they had gone their separate ways.  Tenal Ka had gone
back to Dathomir to continue to be a warrior for her clan and
fight against the ongoing threat of the Night Sisters, while
Jacen had returned home to Courscant, and a few months later
began fulfilling his duties as a Jedi Knight by fighting against
the invading Yuuzhan Vong warriors, who were threatening to take
this galaxy as their own.

After being apart for nearly six months, they had met up again
when their Uncle Luke had summoned all the Jedi Knights back to
the academy for a special meeting regarding the Vong invasion.
The two had picked up right where they had left off: just as
oblivious as to how they both felt about each other as when they
had been at the academy together.

Jaina sighed. Whatever could have happened between her brother
and Tenal Ka would never happen now that the warrior girl was
getting married.

“I’ll go tell the others to strap in, since we’ll be landing
soon.  Or should I say, you’ll be getting ready to land soon,”
came Zekk’s voice, cutting into Jaina’s thoughts.

Jaina forced herself away from her musings and gave a small
laugh.  Even though the Lightning Rod was Zekk’s ship and he was
more than a competent pilot, Jaina was usually the one to fly her
when they flew together and perform repairs when they needed
doing, with Zekk’s help of course.  He had often teased her about
caring about the old bucket of bolts more than him, but he knew
the reason that she loved to fly the ship was because she so
desperately wanted a ship of her own.  What she really wanted was
her father’s ship, the Millennium Falcon, but that ship was her
father’s most beloved possession and she had a feeling he would
fly it until it fell apart, or at least until her mother finally
convinced him to retire the old ship.  Jaina didn’t see the
likeliness of either one of those things happening anytime soon.

“Well, if you really think that, you can strap in the back with
the others and I’ll do the landing myself,” she teased.

Zekk pretended to look hurt. “Well, if you really don’t need me…”
He trailed off.

“Of course I need you. Who’s going to sit here and play with the
landing lights if you don’t?”

He grinned.  “It’s a tough job but someone has to do it,” he said
getting up from his seat, and giving her hand a brief squeeze
before leaving the cockpit.

Zekk entered the small lounge area of the Lightning Rod to find
Jacen and Anakin engaged in a holographic game of Dejarik while
Tahiri and Danni watched.  Zekk smiled to himself, knowing the
two young Jedi Knights were trying to impress their respected
supporters.  He could see the beads of sweat rolling down Jacen’s
face as he concentrated on his next move, while Anakin looked
calm, as if he already had a winning strategy figured out.  This
came as no surprise to Zekk, considering the youngest Solo’s ease
at which he solved puzzles.

Jacen finally made his move, cornering Anakin’s most valuable
game piece.  Knowing that it was all but impossible for his
little brother to win now, Jacen leaned back in his seat and
crossed his arms over his chest, wearing a satisfied smile on his
face.  Anakin had been caught off guard by his brother’s
offensive move and now he was going to have to alter his strategy
if he wanted to win.  Beside him, he could feel silent
encouragement and support radiating from Tahiri and it made him
feel warm inside to know that she had such faith in his
abilities.  He wouldn’t let her down.

With his eyes half closed, he let the force flow through him,
hoping that it would guide him to find a flaw in his brother’s
attack.  It didn’t take long before he found one.  Jacen had
hoped to catch his brother off guard with his unorthodox
offensive strategy, but in doing so he had left his most valuable
game piece open for attack.  In an instant Anakin made his move. 
In one swift movement his holographic monster trudged over to
Jacen’s unprotected one and dismembered it.  Game Over.

Jacen placed his elbows on the game table and held his chin in
his hands.  “I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming, “ he shook
his head. “I should know by now to never underestimate my little
brother’s problem solving abilities.”

The passengers turned their heads to the sudden bout of laughter
coming from the doorway of the lounge. Zekk walked over to Jacen
and slapped his friend on the shoulder.  “You would think by now
that you would be used to losing.  It’s only about the millionth
time Anakin’s beat you at this game.”

Anakin grinned.  “You want to give it another shot, and try and
beat me this time?”

Jacen shook his head and got up from the table.  “Even I know
when it’s time to quit.”

But before Anakin could goad his brother into playing another
game, Zekk said, “beating Jacen again will have to wait until the
trip home.  We’re almost at Hapes.”  He looked over at Jacen, and
although his face was now an impassive mask, he could feel the
sudden rise in anxiety in his friend’s emotions at this news.
Maybe Jaina’s right, Zekk thought to himself.  There was
obviously something going on with her brother that he wasn’t
sharing with anybody.

Danni must have picked up on it as well, because she ended the
silence by saying, “I guess we better strap in, huh?”

They all agreed and moments later everyone’s crash webbing was
secure and Zekk was back in the cockpit with Jaina, who was
already approaching the coordinates where they were supposed to
land.

“Wow, they want us to land in there?”  Zekk asked in surprise,
eyeing the massive hanger bay that looked like it could easily
house a couple of hundred ships.

“Yep, Tenal Ka wanted to make sure the Lightning Rod was
protected just as any other Hapan cruiser.”

Zekk shook his head in amusement. Leave it to Tenal Ka to think
of something like that.  He knew that assassins and saboteurs
were about as common as a cold on Hapes, so it felt good that she
wanted to make sure her friends were safe during their stay. But
why anyone would want to steal this hunk of junk, was quite
beyond Zekk. Sometimes, their friend could be a little too
cautious.

Before they knew it, Jaina was bringing the old ship into the
hanger, which was, as Zekk suspected, filled with dozens of
different types of sleek looking Hapan ships.  There was
everything from tiny escort ships to heavily armored Hapan Battle
Dragons.  He let out a low whistle.  He bet the combined value of
all those ships would be enough to buy half of Courscant.

As soon as Jaina had landed their ship on their designated
landing pad, Zekk began the shutdown cycle. Once that was
finished, Jaina unbuckled her crash webbing and rose from her
seat.  Turning to Zekk she said, “well, what are we waiting for?”



* * *

Jacen Solo strode down the landing ramp feeling… well, he wasn’t
exactly sure what he felt.  They were here on Tenal Ka’s home
planet for her wedding, and Jacen was still having a hard time
adjusting to the fact that his best friend in the whole galaxy
was going to marry some guy she hadn’t even known existed a few
months ago.  Lord Zeille she had said was his name in one of her
holo messages.  He was probably some spoiled brat who was used to
getting whatever he wanted and didn’t deserve her. There it was
again.  Jealousy.  Jacen closed his brandy brown eyes and sighed.
Every time he thought about Tenal Ka getting married, he felt a
pang of jealousy… and well maybe even envy. Envy of the man who
was going to be her husband, and jealous that he wasn’t that man.
This is ridiculous, he scolded himself and shook his head to
clear it.

He opened his eyes in time to see Tenal Ka strolling towards
them.  Her usual unemotional demeanor was nowhere to be found.
Instead, she smiled as she approached them, happy to see her
friends again.

Her usual red gold braids bounced around on her shoulders as she
walked, and Jacen noticed with a smile that she still chose to
wear the same Dathomirian lizard hide armor that she had always
worn when at the academy.  Her grandmother, the power hungry Ta’a
Chume, was probably having a fit because her granddaughter
continued to refuse to wear the traditional Hapan garments of the
Royal Family.

“Welcome, my friends. It is good to see some familiar faces who
are friendly,” she greeted them.

“It’s good to see you too,” said Jaina, and she gave the warrior
girl a hug.

Tenal Ka hugged her back with both arms – both arms!  Jacen
blinked, realizing that Tenal Ka had replaced her arm that she
had lost a couple of years ago in a lightsaber accident with
Jacen.  Her faulty lightsaber had collapsed during a dueling
exercise with Jacen.  With Jacen pressing his own lightsaber
against hers, his momentum had carried him forward, to strike
where Tenal Ka’s blade had suddenly vanished, causing him to
slice through her arm, just below her elbow.  Tenal Ka had long
ago forgiven him, insisting that it was her own fault for being
so careless when constructing her lightsaber. Still, Jacen
couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty, even now.  If he hadn’t been
so intent on impressing her by winning their duel, she might not
have lost her arm in the first place.

He could feel his sister’s worrying eyes on him now, and knew
that she had felt his self reproach about the whole accident. He
quickly flashed her a lopsided grin that made him look so much
like their father, to assure her that he was okay now.

It looked like she believed him, for she turned her attention
back to Tenal Ka.  “You never told us in your holo messages that
you decided to get a replacement arm.”

“I know.  I am sorry, Jaina my friend.  It would have… prepared
you,” Tenal Ka apologized.

“Hey, no problem.  It was a nice surprise,” Jaina replied good-
naturedly.

“Yeah, we’re happy for you,” said Zekk, as he draped an arm
around Jaina’s shoulders.

After finishing welcoming everyone with a hug, including Jacen,
though he noted with some disappointment that it was a bit more
tentatively then she did with the others, Tenal Ka led them away
from the hanger bay.

It was at that point when Jacen noticed that Tenal Ka had come
alone to greet them.  “So where’s Lord Zeille?”

“Zeille had important business to attend to, but he’ll be meeting
us for dinner tonight at the Palace,” she answered without
turning around to face him.

Outside, there was an expensive looking land speeder waiting to
take them to the Palace, Tenal Ka’s home, where they would be
staying.

The group of friends piled into the speeder and Tenal Ka tried
not to let it bother her that Jacen and Danni were sitting
together in the cramped back of the speeder.  She was going to be
married in less than a week, and if Jacen had found someone to be
with, then she was happy for him.  Deep down though, she could
hear a voice inside her screaming LIAR!  But before she could
contemplate the matter further, they had arrived in front of the
magnificent looking Hapan Fountain Palace.

She had grown up there until she had been old enough to decide to
travel to her mother’s home planet of Dathomir to learn the
primitive ways of how her people lived and to discover her force
potential.  Her mother had been delighted when she had made the
decision to become a Dathomirian warrior and even more so when
she had decided to attend Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy on Yavin
Four to train to become a Jedi Knight.  Her grandmother, on the
other hand, had been less than thrilled to say the least.  She
was aghast to learn that her only grandchild would ignore her
duties as heir to the Hapan throne to become a Jedi.  As heir to
the throne, her grandmother felt that she should be learning
about politics and other matters that Tenal Ka could care less
about, instead of running around the galaxy wielding a lightsaber
and having adventures.

But now, because she had chosen to return home, and because of
her age, she had no choice but to let herself get thrown into
politics and other matters of Hapan society.  And no choice but
to get married.

Traditionally, because she was the heir to the throne, Tenal Ka
should have been married as soon as she had turned sixteen, not
now when she was getting ready to turn seventeen, which was
exactly why she had opted not to return home.  She had no desire
to get married and leave her life as a Jedi Knight behind.  Her
parents had supported her decision, not wanting their daughter to
get married before she was ready and especially not before she
had found a suitable husband of her own.

Marriage had been the last thing on her mind until she had begun
to notice the intensifying relationship of Jacen Solo and Danni
Quee.  She had thought nothing of it at first, because Jacen
still spent a great deal of attention to her and they had become
close again, exactly the way things had been when they were both
attending the Jedi Academy.  But one night she had been out
looking for Jacen, only to find him and Danni kissing down by the
river.  She had run off into the jungle and back to her room,
trying to convince herself that she didn’t care.  It grew harder
though, as the weeks passed.  The kiss seemed to have awaken
feelings that the two of them had been keeping hidden.  She would
catch them trying to steal glances at one another when they
thought the other wasn’t looking.  Then there were all the hours
Jacen would spend teaching Danni how to fight with a lightsaber
or how to develop some other aspect of her force powers.

Tenal Ka had to admit, though, Danni was a formable warrior and
learned quickly.  She was strong willed and tenacious.  No wonder
Jacen liked her.  But the worst part of all was when Jacen was
with Tenal Ka he still acted as if nothing had changed between
them, and finally it became more than she could bear. It was then
that she made her decision to leave Yavin Four for good and
return home.

Instead of her usual calm and cool demeanor, Tenal Ka had let her
emotions take over and made the hasty decision to return home,
knowing full well what would happen when she returned, but not
caring. All she wanted was to get as far away from Yavin Four…
and Jacen as possible.

Her parents had urged her to rethink her decision, knowing full
well that their daughter did not want to get married, but Tenal
Ka had made up her mind.  Even when Jacen had asked her to stay,
knowing what would happen if she returned to Hapes, it had almost
been enough to make her change her mind, but then she thought of
him and Danni together, and that was what made up her mind for
her. So she had left, without telling Jacen how she really felt,
but it no longer mattered.  She had waited too long and now she
had lost him forever.

Soon after returning to Hapes, she had been forced to choose from
a list of eligible suitors to marry, and Zeille seemed to be the
most acceptable of the lot.  She didn’t love him but it didn’t
matter.  She knew her role as heir to the throne and would marry
him regardless.  It would have happened sooner or later, whether
she had left Yavin then or not. Eventually, she would have had to
fulfill her role in the Hapan Royal Family. It was just a matter
of it being sooner than she had anticipated.

Forcing her thoughts aside, and chiding herself for dwelling on
the past, she led her friends into her home.

She had chosen rooms for each of her friends that she knew would
suit their liking.  All of the rooms in the Fountain Palace were
beautifully decorated and spacious, with furnishings designed to
provide the utmost comfort for the guest staying there.  First
came Jaina’s room.  Tenal Ka had chosen this room especially for
her because the room was filled with all kinds of old electrical
components and pieces of machinery that Jaina could spend endless
hours tinkering with.  Next came Zekk’s room, which she had made
a point of having beside Jaina’s, and the two seemed to
appreciate the gesture.

They left Jaina and Zekk to unpack and moved further down the
hall to show Danni to her room, which had a large bay window
overlooking the cities of Hapes.  Then they moved on to Anakin’s
and Tahiri’s rooms.  Anakin’s was like his sister’s, for Tenal Ka
knew of the young man’s interest in fixing things and figuring
out how they worked. Tahiri’s room was next door and was filled
with giant exotic plants and scents reminding her of the jungle
moon of Yavin Four.

Now it was just her and Jacen walking through the brilliantly
decorated halls of the Fountain Palace, and Jacen couldn’t help
but notice that she was putting his room as far away from hers as
possible.

They walked silently along, each not knowing what to say, but at
the same time knowing exactly what they wanted to say but unable
to find the words to say it.

Finally, they reached the room Tenal Ka had selected for him.
When she opened the door, Jacen gasped in both surprise and
amazement. A large aquarium tank took up the wall on the opposite
side of the room, teeming with exotic fish from at least a dozen
other worlds.  The furnishings inside managed to be both elegant
and simple at the same time. The room reminded him of the one he
had stayed in at the Crystal Reef Fortress during his first stay
on Hapes, soon after finding out that Tenal Ka was not just a
simple Dathomirian warrior but also the Princess of Hapes.

Tenal Ka couldn’t help but feel secretly pleased that he enjoyed
the room she had selected for him.  She remembered how much he
had liked the one at Crystal Reef Fortress and knew this room
would be perfect for him, but all she said was, “is it
satisfactory?”

He whirled around to give her that famous lopsided grin of his
that always made her heart beat faster and her knees feel weak.
“Yeah, it’s perfect,” he answered.

“I am glad you like it.” Deciding it was best to leave before
things got awkward, Tenal Ka turned to leave but a hand on her
shoulder stopped her. She turned around to find herself staring
up into the eyes of Jacen.  His brandy brown eyes gazing right
into her cool gray ones.  She felt herself being drawn closer to
him, feeling an overwhelming need to be in his arms.

Jacen inched closer to her and swallowed hard. “Tenal Ka, I – “

At that moment, Tenal Ka realized exactly what would happen if
she didn’t walk away at that instant.  She pushed Jacen away from
her.  “I have to go,” she lied, “I am glad you like the room,”
she finished lamely.

And with that, she turned and hurried out of his room and down
the hall, leaving Jacen alone to stare for some time at the spot
where she had just been.













CHAPTER TWO





Jacen Solo tugged at the collar of his formal shirt for about the
twentieth time in the last five minutes.    Even growing up in a
family where diplomatic functions were as common as breathing had
not made Jacen comfortable with wearing formal clothes.  He would
much rather wear his flight suit or jedi robes, but tonight he
didn’t have a choice.  They were having dinner in the Fountain
Palace’s elegant dinning room with Tenal Ka, her parents, and her
fiancée Zeille.

He looked himself over in the mirror and ran a hand through his
neatly combed hair, tousling it slightly.  He had to admit he
cleaned up pretty well, just like his father.  He sported a black
vest over a white shirt with black pilot pants. Giving a final
satisfied grunt, Jacen turned and left his room.  Once in the
hall, he could see his sister just emerging from her room as
well.  She gave him a wave and then knocked on the door to Zekk’s
room.

“Zekk? You better hurry up or we’re gonna be late,” then she
turned to her approaching brother and gave him a large grin,
“well, I didn’t know dad would be joining us for dinner,” she
teased.

“Well, I didn’t know mom would be joining us either,” he teased
back.

Before Jaina could think of a come back, the door to Zekk’s room
swung open and the young man stepped out, and immediately laid
his gaze on Jaina.  Her medium length brown hair flowed loosely
around her bare shoulders, while her red dress flowed down the
rest of her body coming to an end just above her opened toe
shoes.  She looked an exact mirror image of her mother.

“Wow, you look beautiful,” he breathed.

Jaina felt her cheeks growing warm at the compliment and finally
managed to get out a “thank you” when she found her voice again.

Jacen rolled his eyes.  The last thing he wanted to see was his
sister and Zekk getting all googly eyed over each other.  He
cleared his throat.  “We better get going.  Danni, Anakin and
Tahiri are already downstairs waiting.”

They both agreed and the trio headed towards the turbolift and
rode it to the second floor where the dining room was. The lift
doors parted, allowing Jacen to see his younger brother and
Tahiri sitting beside each other talking quietly, while Danni
studied a Hapan painting on the far wall. When Anakin heard the
lift doors open, both him and Tahiri, followed by Danni strode
over to meet the others. Jacen couldn’t help but notice how
striking Danni looked in her silky blue dress with her curly
blond hair done up in a tight bun with a few loose strands
hanging around her bare neck.  He felt himself blushing, just by
looking at her.

“We thought you guys were never going to show up.  What took you
so long?” Anakin asked.

Jacen hooked a thumb back at Zekk. “Zekk needed a little extra
time to get ready,” he explained.

Zekk shuffled his feet, obviously embarrassed, but Jaina came to
his rescue, “well, we’re here now and I don’t know about you guys
but I’m starved.”

“Same here,” Zekk chimed in, and Jacen could feel his own stomach
growling with hunger.

“Well,” Jaina began, taking Zekk’s hand in hers, “what are we
waiting for?”

And with that, the group of young Jedi Knights walked into the
dining room, but not before Jacen gently pulled Danni aside and
whispered in her ear, “you look amazing,”

Danni’s cheeks flushed slightly. ”You look pretty handsome
yourself,”

Jacen held out his arm and Danni took it in hers and they walked
into the dining room together.



* * *

The Fountain Palace dining room was exquisite, to say the least. 
The first thing that caught Jaina’s attention was the exotic
scents and smells that attacked her nostrils, all of them being
pleasant ones. There were tables along the walls of the room;
each one filled with different Hapan delicacies for the guests to
munch on before the actual meal arrived.  There was also the
long, and obviously expensively decorated table, by the sight of
the freshly polished dishes and crystal goblet glasses, which
were set up in the middle of the room where they would be eating.
The chandelier, which contained a variety of different coloured
Hapan jewels, hung from the ceiling over the dinner table. The
room itself was bright and cheerful with a variety of brilliant
colours lining the walls.  Jaina herself had been to many of her
mother’s diplomatic dinners but this room rivaled even the beauty
of the banquet halls in the Palace back on Courscant.

Tenal Ka was already there waiting for them when they arrived and
rushed over to greet her friends. Then she led them over to the
table and introduced them to the guests already seated. First
were Tenal Ka’s parents, Isolder and Teneniel Djo, whom the group
already knew and then Tenal Ka introduced them to the handsome
young man across from her parents.  “My friends, this is Lord
Zeille of Hapes, my fiancée,” she seemed to stumble over those
last words but quickly composed herself and finished the
introductions.  Then she told her friends to find a seat around
the table.

Tenal Ka took her spot beside Zeille, with Jaina and Zekk on her
other side, while Jacen took a seat beside her parents with
Danni, Anakin and Tahiri beside him.

Zeille stared over at the young man seated beside Tenal Ka’s
parents and said, “you must be Jacen,” it was a statement not a
question.

Jacen stiffened in his chair, “that’s right,”

Zeille ran a hand through his short blond hair and smiled coldly
at him. “Tenal has told me all about you.”

Jacen suddenly felt very uncomfortable.  He knew Zeille’s
statement had been meant to catch him off guard so he forced a
roguish grin on to his face and said smoothly, “funny, she hasn’t
told me anything about you,”

The air at the table become tense but Jacen could swear he saw a
small smile appear on the lips of Tenal Ka’s parents, but they
disappeared before he could tell for sure.  He caught the
disapproving frown his sister sent him, but noticed with
satisfaction the sides of Zeille’s mouth twitch at the remark.
Zeille opened his mouth to respond to Jacen’s comment, but Tenal
Ka, sensing a fight brewing between the two of them, cut him off
by announcing that dinner was ready.

The beautiful male Hapan servers came around and delivered a
steaming plate of food to each guest. A mixture of meat from the
local wildlife and vegetables made up the dish.  Tenal Ka ate a
couple of mouthfuls, and although the food tasted excellent, she
found she didn’t have much of an appetite and ended up pushing
most of it around her plate.  She decided that this was the best
time to approach Jaina with what she had been meaning to ask her
since her friend’s arrival.  She cleared her throat and turned to
her friend beside her. “Jaina, I have been meaning to ask you
something,” Tenal Ka began, showing an uncharacteristic display
of nervousness, “would you be my maid of honour at my wedding?”

Jaina grinned, obviously flattered that her friend would choose
her instead of some Hapan noble. “I would be honoured,” she
replied, and Tenal Ka looked as if the weight of a bantha had
been lifted off her shoulders.

“So,” Jacen began trying to change the subject, “what is it that
you do, Zeille?”  He  asked, purposely forgetting to use his
honoured title.

Zeille grinned that cold smile of his again as if he had been
waiting for Jacen to ask him that very question. “I run the
largest ship constructing yard in the Hapes Cluster,” he bragged,
“we make the special armor for the Hapan Battle Dragon ships.
It’s a very important job.  I mean, I may not be running around
the galaxy wielding a lightsaber but I’m saving lives all the
same by making sure my ships have the best armor and weapons
available.”

Jacen gritted his teeth. “There’s more to being a Jedi than
knowing how to use a lightsaber.  The Jedi are the guardians of
peace and justice in the galaxy.”

Zeille waved a hand dismissively. “Of course.  I never meant to
imply otherwise.  You can use the force to accomplish things that
ordinary people could not, but that doesn’t mean you’re superior.
Ordinary folks have gotten along fine without using the force for
generations.  In fact, many of the great leaders of the galaxy
have no force potential whatsoever.”

Jacen clenched a fist under the table.  He knew Zeille was trying
to provoke him.  He hadn’t come out and said it but Jacen knew
that under all that talk what he was really saying was the Jedi
were nothing special and the galaxy could get along fine without
them.  He bit back a response when he saw the look his sister was
sending him. She knew how Zeille’s comment had upset him and
probably the majority of those present, but this wasn’t the time
or the place to argue about it, so he called upon a Jedi calming
technique and let his anger drain away.  Jaina was right.  Making
a scene would only serve to sink himself down to Zeille’s level,
and he was better than that, so he just sat there for the rest of
the meal without saying a word.

Despite the reaction Zeille’s comment had sparked in all the Jedi
present, Tenal Ka had said nothing. It was as if the comment had
not affected her, which Jacen knew was highly unlikely, or she
just didn’t care the way Zeille spoke to her friends, especially
to Jacen.

By the time dessert came around, Jacen had had about enough of
this Zeille guy.  There was just something about him he didn’t
like, besides the fact that he kept his hand rested on top of
Tenal Ka’s throughout the entire dinner.

He was in the middle of shoveling the last of his pudding-like
dessert into his mouth when Zeille spoke up again. His words
caused Jacen to nearly choke on the last of his dessert.

“We haven’t decided where we’re going for the honeymoon, yet. But
it’ll definitely be some place exotic and exciting, right Tenal?”

Tenal Ka slowly nodded her head and busied herself with finishing
her dessert so she wouldn’t have to look at anyone.

Finally, when Jacen didn’t think he could take anymore, dessert
was finished and everyone began getting up to say their thanks
and good-byes.  For Jacen, the end could not come soon enough.
Once all the good-byes were said, he didn’t wait around for his
friends, instead he rushed out of the dining room and rode the
turbolift to the main floor.  From there, he exited the main
doors to the massive Palace and stepped outside.

After the evening he had just had, all he desperately wanted was
to be alone.

By the time his friends had noticed he was missing, it was too
late.  Jacen was long gone.



* * *

Night was quickly approaching as Anakin and Tahiri walked side by
side in one of the large cities on Hapes. After dinner, Tahiri
had wanted to check out the beautiful city that they had passed
through earlier that day. She especially wanted to see it all lit
up at night.  Anakin had volunteered to go with her, so they had
changed out of their formal dinner wear into something more
comfortable and then set out. And Anakin had to admit, he was
glad he had come along.  The city was a spectacular sight with
all the glowing lamps that lit up the streets and pathways. Even
the buildings were all lit up.  You couldn’t even really call it
night on Hapes because everything was so bright.  It reminded
Anakin of Liberation Day on Courscant.

It was turning out to be a beautiful night.  The skies were clear
and you could see the stars starting to come out. There was a
cool breeze that ruffled through Anakin’s hair and he saw beside
him, Tahiri shiver and hug her arms against her chest. He offered
her his jacket and she accepted it with a grateful smile.

“Jacen seemed pretty agitated at dinner tonight,” remarked Tahiri
as they walked along.

Anakin nodded and placed his hands in his pant pockets.  “I don’t
think he approves of Tenal Ka’s choice for a husband.”

“I don’t think Zeille likes Jacen that much either,” she said,
“or the rest of the jedi for that matter,” she added quietly.

“Yeah, I got that impression too, by the way he was talking,”
then Anakin smiled in the glowing moonlight, “I think Jacen’s
jealous.”

“Jealous?  But I thought– “

“That Jacen and Tenal Ka were just friends?” He finished for her.

Tahiri nodded.

“If only things were that simple,” he said with a wistful smile
as they continued to pass through the glowing city, ”their both
too oblivious to how they really feel about each other.  It’s
been like that since they first met. Everyone knows Jacen and
Tenal Ka are meant to be together except Jacen and Tenal Ka.”
Then he turned to look at Tahiri, “my brother wouldn’t have acted
the way he did at dinner if he wasn’t jealous. Did you notice the
way he was glaring at Zeille every time he put his hand on Tenal
Ka’s?  Then when Zeille mentioned the word ‘honeymoon’ Jacen
looked as if he’d been the victim of a raging wookie who just
lost a Dejarik game.

“It looks as if your brother has it pretty bad for Tenal Ka,”

“That,” Anakin said turning to face her, “is an understatement.”



* * *

Jacen tossed another stone into the blue green ocean and watched
it splash.  He’d been out there on the beach tossing rocks for
almost an hour now.  He had initially left the Palace to walk
through the streets of the city, but had found he wanted to be
alone without the eyes of curious onlookers watching him as he
passed by.  That was what had led him to the beach.  Here, there
was nothing but the sound of the surf crashing against the rocks
to interrupt his thoughts.

He now stood barefoot with his wrinkled and un-tucked white
shirt, he had long since taken his vest off, which now laid
beside his boots in the sand, watching the stars beginning to
shine in the night sky.

He blew out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and threw
another rock into the water, but barely heard it splash against
the sound of the crashing waves. He knew his behaviour had been a
less than stellar performance at dinner and was thankful that his
parents or even his Uncle Luke hadn’t been there to witness it.
He knew that anger wasn’t the Jedi way but Zeille had made him
feel so insignificant by saying that what he did was so much more
important than being a Jedi Knight.

  Maybe he’s right, Jacen grudgingly admitted to himself. Zeille
didn’t run around the galaxy going on adventures and trying to
settle problems by using the force or a lightsaber. He had his
own successful company that made the armor for the Hapan ships,
ensuring that he passengers would be safe in times of battle. It
was obvious he had made millions of credits doing it.  His
marriage to Tenal Ka would have ideal benefits for both parties
involved. The Royal Family would inherit the most successful ship
constructing facility in the Hapes Cluster, while Zeille and his
family would inherit the wealth and all the privileges that went
along with being a member of the Royal Family.  Who was he to get
in the way and spoil it?  Especially if that was what Tenal Ka
wanted.

Tenal Ka… he really didn’t want to think about her right now.

He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn’t sense the
person approaching him.

“Credit for your thoughts,” said a voice.

Jacen whirled around, momentarily startled and found himself face
to face with Danni.  He flushed at not having sensed her
approach.  “Uh, I guess I was so preoccupied I didn’t sense you
coming up behind me,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“Whatever it was it must’ve been pretty serious,” she said
sitting down on the sand.

“Naw, not really,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand and
joined her on the sand.  Danni didn’t seem to be buying it
because she kept staring at him with a worried expression on her
face.  He gave her one of his famous lopsided grins to ease her
worries. “Really, I’m fine.”

“Don’t give me that Solo lopsided grin,” she chided, but then she
softened, “you’ve been acting really distant for weeks now,
what’s going on?”  When he didn’t say anything she went on, “It’s
Tenal Ka, isn’t it?”

He sighed.  He couldn’t hide anything from her. “I just don’t
think she’s thought this whole coming home and getting married
thing through.  I’ve known her for years, and let me tell you,
the Tenal Ka I know would rather be out battling Night Sisters,
then being tied down by marriage to some guy she hardly even
knows.”

“Maybe she’s changed,” Danni suggested.

“maybe,” he admitted with a shrug, “I just want her to be happy
that’s all.”

“Is that all?”  Danni pressed.

“Of course!  What other reason would there be?”

“I don’t know, you tell me,” said Danni.

He stared at her open mouthed until he thought of something to
say, “there is no other reason,” he stated firmly.

Danni nodded but he couldn’t tell whether she believed him or
not.

“I’m sorry about the way I acted at dinner and then leaving
without saying anything,” he apologized.

“It’s okay.  I suppose it was just the Han Solo in you,” she
teased.

He laughed.  “My dad doesn’t care much for fancy dinners either. 
It makes me wonder how he survived all these years with my mom.”

“He must’ve learned to adapt to uncomfortable situations.”

“Not really.  My dad still fidgets and complains every time he
has to dress up for some diplomatic function.  He’s threatened
more than once to go wearing his grease stained clothes that he
wears when he’s working on the Falcon,” he explained to her.

“What did your mom say?”

He grinned at her. “She ended his threat pretty quickly when she
promised him she would send the Falcon to a scrap yard if he ever
did that.”

This time it was Danni’s turn to laugh and Jacen couldn’t help
but notice how beautiful it made her look, with the moon casting
highlights over her face and hair.

When she finished laughing, she realized he was staring at her,
and instead of turning away, he moved closer to her. Danni
responded by doing the same until they were mere inches apart.
Danni reached up to stroke his cheek with her hand.  Jacen gently
pulled her closer to him and bent down to kiss her. Danni
returned the kiss passionately and ran her hands through the back
of his tousled brown hair.

The kiss seemed to go on forever but when they finally parted she
saw Jacen was grinning at her like an idiot. She was glad it was
dark out so he wouldn’t see the dark shade of red her cheeks were
turning.  She had never felt this way about anyone before. She
had never had time for a relationship while she was working her
way to becoming a scientist.  She had devoted all her time to her
studies and then she had left home to join the ExGal observation
team on Belkadan before the Yuuzhan Vong had destroyed it.  Sure,
there had been advances made towards her, but having a
relationship had been the farthest thing in her mind at the time.
That was until she had met Jacen Solo, or rather until he had
heroically rescued her from the Yuuzhan Vong.  She had tried not
to fall for him, even though she knew how he felt about her.  She
was five years his senior, which made having any sort of a
romantic relationship near impossible. Jacen though, didn’t seem
to care, and as they grew closer, she found herself not caring
either.

But as they sat there alone together on the sand, staring up at
the stars, she couldn’t help but wonder that even though he was
here with her that his heart was with someone else.

























CHAPTER THREE





The next morning, after an uneventful breakfast, Tenal Ka and
Jaina found themselves in a room full of bustling dress
designers, who busied themselves by taking countless measurements
and finding dozens of dresses for the two to try on.  Ta‘a Chume
had spared no expense for her granddaughter’s wedding.  She had
hired the best dress designers and fashion experts that the Hapes
Cluster had to offer.

As much as Jaina appreciated Tenal Ka choosing her as her maid of
honour, she didn’t appreciate being constantly poked and prodded
with needles as the designers took her measurements to try to
construct the perfect dress for her.  When she looked over at
Tenal Ka, she could tell the warrior girl was not fairing much
better.  She looked like she would be having more fun if she were
pulling teeth from a rancor than having all this fuss made over
her, even though this was for her wedding after all.  Jaina
herself would have much rather spent the morning exploring the
city or fixing the Lightning Rod with Zekk, but she knew this had
to be done with the wedding only a few days away.

“Your parents will be arriving soon, will they not?”  Tenal Ka
asked from where she was trying on yet another dress.

Jaina was glad for the chance to get her mind off the horrendous
dress-fitting ordeal and she sensed that was the reason why Tenal
Ka had asked her.  “Yeah, I spoke to my dad last night and he
said they should be arriving sometime tomorrow morning.”
Ambassador Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo had been invited to the
wedding as official representatives of the New Republic.  Also,
Leia was old friends with Prince Isolder even though they didn’t
get to see each other that often.

Tenal Ka nodded at Jaina’s explanation but said nothing more.

Jaina cleared her throat and spoke again, “Zeille seemed nice
enough but I think he has something against the Jedi,”

“He thinks they are nothing special but he will never come right
out and say it because he knows I am one and is probably afraid
of how I might react,” Tenal Ka responded and Jaina thought she
could detect the barest hint of a smile appear on the warrior
girl’s face.

Jaina bit her lower lip. She hadn’t wanted to say anything but
she couldn’t help herself.  “I don’t think Zeille and Jacen hit
it off too well,” she remarked.

Tenal Ka shrugged stiffly. “I noticed it was rather… awkward for
him,” she replied, referring to Jacen.

Jaina suppressed the desire to cry out in pain as another needle
poked her.  “I’ve never seen him act like that before,” she
continued as she turned around for one of the dress designers.

“No, Jacen usually has more control than that,” Tenal Ka agreed.

Jaina raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Well, something caused
him to lose control last night.”

Tenal Ka started. “Just what are you– “ she cut her own self off
and turned to the bustling dress designers. “You already have
enough measurements to make dresses for the entire New Republic,
leave us be,” she commanded them.  They obediently heeded to the
princess’ request, knowing there was no room for dispute by the
tone of her voice, and filed out of the room one by one. Tenal Ka
waited until the last one was gone and the door to the room shut
behind her before speaking again. “What are you suggesting,
friend Jaina?”

“Look,” Jaina began, “you and I both know that the reason my
brother behaved the way he did last night was because he’s
jealous.  Why else would he have run off like that after dinner
without saying anything to anyone?”

Tenal Ka stared at her friend utterly perplexed, as if Jaina had
just told her it was raining crystal snakes outside. “I do not
know what you mean,” she said turning around and finding a nearby
chair to sit on.

“Come on, Tenal Ka, this is me you’re talking to,” Jaina said as
she pulled up a chair and sat down in front of her friend. “You
and I both know that Jacen’s been chasing after you since the day
he met you.  And after awhile it seemed like you enjoyed all the
attention my brother gave you,” Tenal Ka seemed about to protest
but Jaina hurried on before she could interrupt her. “Don’t
worry, it was only really obvious to the people who knew you,”
she said with a Solo lopsided grin.

Tenal Ka spoke up from where she sat. “Jacen and I had a… special
relationship,” she said at last. “He would always try so hard to
make me laugh with his jokes, even though they were usually
humourless,” Jaina could see her friend struggling not to smile
at the memories of the awful jokes Jacen used to tell her to try
to crack a smile out of the seemingly humourless girl from
Dathomir.  “He was there for me after my lightsaber accident and
I know I would have not survived the harsh cold of Ryloth without
him.  I owe Jacen my life a dozen times over.” Her gaze seemed to
be off in the distance as if she were remembering all of the
adventures and moments she and Jacen had shared together.

Jaina was unaccustomed to her friend’s uncharacteristic display
of emotion.  She had never seen Tenal Ka get this sentimental
over anything before. In fact she couldn’t remember a time ever
when Tenal Ka had opened herself up like this to anyone.

“You know I think Jacen feels the same way. He feels like he owes
you so much because of everything you’ve done for him,”

Tenal Ka shook her head, causing her braids to swing back and
forth wildly.  “Jacen does not owe me anything.”

Both were silent for a while until Jaina worked up the courage to
ask the question that had been going around in her mind for
months now.  She knew she’d probably kick herself later for
asking it when it was really none of her business, but her own
curiosity got the better of her. “Tenal Ka, why did you really
leave the academy?  I know the last thing that you would have
wanted was to become tied down with marriage and all kinds of
political responsibilities. “

Tenal Ka hesitated.  How could she tell her friend the truth? How
could she tell her that her real reason for leaving had been
because she was no longer able to watch the man that she loved
fall for someone else?  What would Jaina think of her for letting
her emotions lead her to make such an irrational and foolish
decision?

Jaina sensed her friend’s hesitation. “It had something to do
with Jacen, didn’t it?” She asked in a low voice.

“It had nothing to do with him!” She snapped, responding more
sharply than she had intended to, but she knew it didn’t matter.
Jaina could see right through her lie.  She had been hiding the
truth for so long that she felt she would spontaneously combust
if she didn’t tell someone soon.  If she couldn’t tell Jaina, one
of her closest and most trusted friends, then who could she tell?
She most certainly couldn’t tell Jacen, even though he was her
best friend and she confided in him about everything. Well,
almost everything…

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Jaina pressed.

Tenal Ka stared down at her feet. “You are correct, friend
Jaina,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jaina sat silently, waiting patiently for her friend to continue.

“When we left the academy and went our separate ways,” she began
slowly, “we left so many things unsaid between us, but I guess we
were both too afraid to say anything.” Tenal Ka looked up from
her feet and turned to Jaina. “I have never depended on anyone in
my life. I always prided myself on being independent and being
able to handle any situation that got thrown my way. But slowly,
over time I began to depend on Jacen, both emotionally and
physically.  I saw it as a weakness within myself, but at the
same time it frightened me to see how much I took pleasure in
always having someone there for me, willing to fight by my side
or to comfort me.

“When I kissed him for the first time, down by the lake,” she
began in a reminiscent tone,  “I thought I had done it to
surprise him.  I soon realized that I had done it not so much as
to surprise him but because I had wanted to kiss him for as long
as I could remember, but had never actually been able to work up
the courage to do it.  That kiss brought us even closer, if that
were actually possible, but we never really did say how we felt
about each other. I guess we both assumed that the other already
knew how we really felt.  Then when it came time to go our
separate ways, we both thought that the other would always be
there.

“People can change, though.  When we met again after so many
months, things went back to the way they had always been when we
were together at the academy, with the exception of Danni.  It
was obvious that Jacen cared about her a great deal but I hadn’t
realized how much until I stumbled upon the two of them kissing
by the lake one night. I had tried to convince myself that I
didn’t care but as I saw the two of them growing closer and
closer I had a harder time convincing myself.  Eventually, I got
tired of watching the two of them together everyday and that’s
when I made my decision to return to Hapes.  I knew the
consequences of my returning, but I did not care. I was too hurt
and angry at myself to care. Jacen had moved on and there was
nothing I could do about it.”

Jaina, who had been listening intently to her friend’s story,
spoke up and said, “Jacen told me he tried to get you to stay,
why didn’t you just tell him then how you really felt?”

Tenal Ka stood up and began pacing. The topic at hand was
obviously making her feel quite restless.  “I do not know why I
did not tell him then how I felt.  But even if I had, it would
not have made any difference. Jacen had made it obvious about his
feelings concerning Danni Quee.  Jacen knew what would happen
when I returned to Hapes but he still did not say anything.  With
that, my mind was made up.  Jacen no longer felt the same way
about me as he did for years when we were training to be Jedi
Knights.  There was nothing to keep me on Yavin Four any longer,
so I left,” Tenal Ka finished.

For one of the few times in her life Jaina was at a loss for
words.  She had had no idea how deep Tenal Ka’s feelings ran for
her brother. She shook her head.  Her brother could be so…so
stupid sometimes. She knew that Jacen entertained similar
feelings for the warrior girl, but for some strange reason he
seemed unable to admit his true feelings to her.  But how could
she tell Tenal Ka this?  She had seen how close Danni and Jacen
had become.  She had even seen them kissing for Jedi’s sake. She
knew her brother cared about Danni a great deal but in her heart
Jaina also knew Danni wasn’t the one her brother wanted.  Tenal
Ka and Jacen knew each other better than they knew themselves. So
why was it so difficult for the two of them to admit how they
really felt?  What were they so afraid of?

When Jaina didn’t say anything, Tenal Ka continued.  “Now do you
know why I never told anyone the real reason why I left? I let my
emotions and feelings take over, and allowed them to make my
decisions for me, something I have never done in my life.  I hope
that you do not think any less of me now that you know the truth.

Jaina smiled at her friend. “Don’t worry, I don’t. What you did
is little something known as ‘being human’.  Everyone does it,
some more than others, but you,” she said with a shake of her
head, “you work so hard at hiding and controlling your feelings
that you’ve never experienced having your emotions impact your
decisions.  Until now.”  Jaina explained.

“This is a fact,” Tenal Ka said, nodding her head in agreement.

Jaina raised an eyebrow at her friend when she didn’t continue.
“What are you waiting for?  You need to find Jacen and tell him
what you just told me before it’s too late.” Once her friend
found Jacen and told him exactly what she had just told her she
knew it would make her brother the happiest man alive.  He had
been so distant and moody for months now, and this news would
change everything!  But Jaina’s celebrating was short lived.

“I cannot tell him anything,” the warrior girl responded flatly.

Jaina stared at her in disbelief. “What are you talking about?
Once he knows how you feel he’ll break it off with Danni and the
two of you can be together.  Trust me, Jacen has been waiting to
know that you have feelings for him that go beyond friendship
since the day he met you.”

“Friend Jaina, you must not say anything about what I have told
you to anyone, especially not to Jacen,” Tenal Ka pleaded.

Jaina blinked.  “From what I gathered from your story Jacen is
the one you want to be with not Zeille.  You have to break off
this whole wedding thing before it’s too late.”

Tenal Ka shook her head. “That is impossible. I have already made
my choice.  The wedding must go on as planned.  To break it off
now would disgrace my family as well as Zeille’s,” she explained.

“But you don’t love him!” Jaina blurted out.

“In time, perhaps I will,”

Jaina sighed.  “You know Jacen and I share a special bond. We
can’t hide anything from each other.  Especially not something
this big.”

“You must.  Besides, it would change nothing if you told him what
I have just told you.  Your telling him would only complicate
matters,” then she turned and looked pleadingly into her friends
eyes.  “Please try to understand, Jaina.  I have no choice but to
go through with this marriage.  I have no desire to get married
to anyone right now but I can think of worse off situations.  I
chose this path and I intend to see it through. I know I am
putting you in a awkward position by asking you to keep this from
Jacen but it is for the best,” but Tenal Ka didn’t feel nearly as
confident or convinced as she sounded.

 Jaina sighed, feeling defeated.  She had no choice but to go
along with her friend’s wishes, at least for now.  Now everything
was up to Jacen.  She only hoped her brother would open his eyes
and get his act together before it was too late. If it wasn’t too
late already.





























CHAPTER FOUR





Late at night on the same day, a cool breeze blew through the
overhanging balcony of the Fountain Palace.  The balcony
overlooked one of the Palace’s many elaborate and secret gardens,
which just happened to be Tenal Ka’s favourite place to go when
she needed to be alone.  And Tenal Ka needed solitude right now. 
Nevertheless, a familiar presence soon joined her out on the
balcony, ending any hopes that she had of being alone to sort out
her confused and jumbled thoughts.

“I forgot how much of a spectacular view it was from up here,”
came the voice of Jacen Solo from behind her. Tenal Ka didn’t
turn around. She had sensed him long before he had even set foot
on the balcony.  Jacen was the last person she wanted to see
right now but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him to go away.
Somehow his presence managed to both unnerve her and comfort her
at the same time.

She could hear his footsteps getting louder as he approached her.
He didn’t stop until he was standing beside her.  He placed both
his elbows on the balcony railing and placed his chin in his
hands, staring out at the gardens.  Glow lamps helped to
illuminate pathways through the different patches of flowers and
trees.  The various flowers and plants were well taken care of.
Of course Jacen expected no less from the Royal Family of Hapes. 
At the moment though, the garden was deserted, with no one to
appreciate its beauty besides the two onlookers.

Tenal Ka spoke up after a few moments of silence.  “You are up
late.”

Jacen turned his gaze on Tenal Ka and raised an eyebrow at her.
“I could say the same about you,” he remarked.

She shrugged.  “I could not sleep,”

“Neither could I,”

“What is keeping you awake, Jacen?” She asked.

He ran a hand through his tousled brown hair.  “I couldn’t stop
thinking about some stuff,” he said, “what about you?”

“My thoughts were keeping me awake as well,” Tenal Ka answered
honestly.

Jacen took a deep breath. “You were thinking about your wedding,
right?”

She nodded slowly and noticed how tense Jacen became at the
mention of her wedding.   He opened his mouth to speak, but then
thought better of it and clamped his mouth shut.  Tenal Ka could
tell that there was something troubling her friend and she wanted
him to be able to talk to her about whatever was bothering him.
What were friends for anyways?

She placed a hand gently on his arm and was momentarily startled
by the sudden warmth and strength that flooded through her body. 
“What is troubling you, Jacen?” She asked.

He turned to face her and hesitated.  How could he tell his best
friend that he thought she was making the biggest mistake of her
life?  He finally decided the best approach would be to be honest
with her. She deserved the truth and would do the same if their
situations were reversed.

He took a deep breath and said slowly, “I think you’re making a
huge mistake by getting married.”  There.  He had finally told
her how he had felt about this whole marriage idea since she had
first announced her engagement.

Tenal Ka stood motionless at first. Her face a complete mask and
Jacen was unable to get any reading on what she was feeling
through the force. It was as if she was purposely blocking his
mind from hers.

“Why is it so difficult for you to accept my engagement?” Jacen
could hear the anger edging into her voice and wished that he
hadn’t upset her.  “Everyone else has, why can’t you?”

“Because,” he stammered, trying to come up with an excuse, “you
barely even know this Lord Zeille. A few months ago you didn’t
even know he existed.”

“I know him well enough,” she stated evenly.

“Do you love him?”

“I find him satisfactory,” she responded.

Jacen shook his head. “That’s not what I asked,”

Tenal Ka turned her gaze away from him and stared down at the
serene and peaceful garden.  “It does not matter,” she said
finally.

Jacen’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t matter?” He was practically
shouting now, “this is the guy you’re going to be spending the
rest of your life with and you say ‘it doesn’t matter’?  Of
course it matters.”

“Love is not important. The marriage will provide equal benefits
for both of us.  I will grow accustomed to my situation.  This is
a fact,” said Tenal Ka.

“No, this is not a fact,” Jacen said grabbing both her arms. “You
deserve better than to end up in some loveless political
marriage,”

Tenal Ka pulled away from his grip, even though he was strong,
she was still stronger.  “This was my choice,” she said gruffly,
“and nothing you or anyone else can say will change that.  The
marriage will go on as planned.”

“Was that new bio-synthetic arm your decision too, or did Zeille
make you get it?”  It was a cheap shot and he knew it.

“It was my decision. You know better than anyone that I do not
let others make my decisions for me,”

He could tell his comment had made her angry for even making such
a suggestion and the tone of her voice suggested that she was
through talking with him, but Jacen couldn’t leave things the way
they were between them.  He had to make her see reason. “Tenal Ka
– “

“Jacen please,” she said cutting him off, “do not make this any
more difficult than it already is,” she looked up into his brandy
brown eyes, searching for understanding and acceptance. “You are
my best friend, and I want you more than anyone else to be happy
for me.”

“And I want nothing more than for you to be happy,” he began,
“and if Zeille makes you happy,” he swallowed, ”then I wish you
two all the best,” those had been the hardest words he had ever
had to say in his entire life, but he meant them.  If she was
happy, then that was all that mattered to him.

Tenal Ka reached for his hand. “Thank you, friend Jacen.  You
have no idea how much that means to me.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t want you to think your best friend’s a
jerk,” he said, scratching the back of his head.

“I have never thought you to be a jerk,” she answered truthfully.

“Well, that’s good to know,“ then he turned and grinned at her,
“not even after all those jokes I told you that you never laughed
at?”

“Never.  I found your sense of humour to be most… interesting,”
she could never tell him that secretly she had always loved his
jokes. Though usually humourless, she loved how hard he had
always tried to make her smile or laugh.  She found it to be an
attractive quality in him. His easygoing good-natured side was
what made him so easy to talk to and she always had appreciated
his attempts to lighten a tense situation.

An awkward silence followed as the two stood together on the
balcony overlooking the luscious and serene garden.   Jacen
cleared his throat, ending the awkward silence.  “It’s, uh,
getting late, I should get going. My parents are coming tomorrow
and I want to be wide-awake to greet them,” it was a lame excuse,
but he was growing uncomfortable being alone out here with Tenal
Ka.  She had said that there was nothing anyone could do to
change her mind about Zeille, so Jacen didn’t know what there was
left to say. Being honest with her now about how he felt wouldn’t
change anything.  It was too late for confessions.

Tenal Ka didn’t seem inclined to argue with his excuse.  She just
nodded her head as he turned and walked away.

But when he got to the doorway, Tenal Ka’s voice stopped him.

“Jacen?”

“Yeah?” He asked turning around to face her.

Through the shadows that the moonlight cast on her face, Jacen
could see the conflicting emotions there. She seemed hesitant and
uncertain about what to say, but she quickly composed herself and
said, ”sleep well, Jacen my friend,”

He was expecting her to say something else but he didn’t let his
disappoint show.  “Goodnight, Tenal Ka,”

“Goodnight, Jacen,”





















CHAPTER FIVE





The morning before the wedding was anything but calm and rational
for Jacen.  He had blown his last chance the night before on the
balcony to convince Tenal Ka that marrying Zeille would be the
biggest mistake of her life. The wedding would happen whether
Jacen accepted it or not.

He plopped down on his bed with a frustrated sigh.  Tenal Ka’s
right, he thought bitterly.  Nothing I can say to her will change
her mind.  What do I have to offer her? Friendship?

“Yeah, that ‘ll make her come running straight into my arms,” he
grumbled to himself.

He jumped up from his bed and began pacing.  He had so many
thoughts and feelings jumbled up in his head that it was
impossible for him to sit still for too long.  He was so much on
edge that he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a knock
at his door.

“What?” he snapped.

“Jacen?” came the reply of Han Solo.

“Dad?”

“Yeah, it’s your old man. Can I come in?”

“Uh, sure.  Just hold on a sec.”  He ran his hands through his
hair, trying to make himself look more presentable, and he
smoothed down his clothes so they wouldn’t look like he had slept
in them.  Then he opened the door.

Han Solo stepped in and greeted his son with a huge bear hug.
When they broke from the embrace, Jacen was the first to speak.
“I thought you guys weren’t coming ‘til later,” both him, Jaina
and Anakin hadn’t expected their parents until that afternoon.

“Well,” Han began, flashing his son a lopsided grin, “your mom
pulled a few strings and managed to get some other political
officials who owed her a favour, to take care of all her
appointments for today, and so we’re here early,” he gestured by
spreading his arms out.  “Besides, “ he continued more seriously,
“your mom needs a break from all this Yuuzhan Vong business.
She’s really stretching herself to the limit.  So this gives her
a chance to spend some time with you and your brother and
sister.”

“Where is mom?”  Jacen was surprised that his father had come
alone to greet him.

Han shrugged, nonchalantly. “You know Leia and Isolder are ‘old
friends’.  She had some business to discuss with him first, and I
opted not to go along. Me and Isolder never really got along in
the first place.”

“I see,” Jacen did his best to hide a smile from forming on his
own face.  He knew that his father had been responsible for
stealing his mother away from Isolder and winning her heart, and
he never let Isolder forget it.

“Besides,” he said, eyeing his son with a raised eyebrow, “it
gives you and me a chance to talk.”

“Talk?” Jacen echoed, “about what?”

“About whatever it is that’s bothering you,” he said coming
around to sit on a nearby chair.

Jacen crossed his arms over his chest.  “There’s nothing
bothering me,” he responded unconvincingly.

“Look son, I may not have the force like everyone else in our
family, but I like to think I can tell when something is bugging
one of my own kids.  Am I right?”

Jacen sat down on the edge of his bed and said nothing.  He
waited for his father to try and coax him into coming out and
saying what was bugging him, but his father remained silent,
waiting for Jacen to make the next move.  Jacen sighed.  He knew
his dad wasn’t going to leave until he got a straight answer from
him. He looked down at his feet and took a deep breath. “It’s
Tenal Ka,” he admitted finally.  When he looked up at Han, he was
surprised to see a look of understanding and even sympathy on his
father’s face.

“The girl’s got you heart, doesn’t she?”

Jacen nodded but said nothing.

“She must be pretty special,” Han remarked.

Jacen felt a smile forming on his face.  He tried to stop it but
couldn’t.  “She is.  She’s perfect.  I’ve never met anyone in my
life that means as much to me as she does,”

“This sounds familiar, “ Han said in a reminiscent voice.
“Reminds me of your mother and me,”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think kidnapping Tenal Ka and taking her to
Dathomir will make her fall in love with me. She’s a Dathomirian
warrior, you know,”

Han chuckled. “No, I suppose not,”

“I don’t deserve her anyways. She’s probably better off with that
other guy,” he remarked reluctantly.

“Hey, don’t say that,” Han said, coming over to sit next to his
son on the bed.  “That’s not the Solo attitude.  If a lowly
scoundrel and smuggler, like myself, can win the heart of a
beautiful princess and rebel hero, than you, “ he said, pointing
at his son square in the chest, “a Jedi Knight, son of the former
chief of state, and nephew of the Great Jedi Master Luke
Skywalker, deserve any girl out there. Including Tenal Ka.”

  “Yeah, well, whether I deserve her or not, it doesn’t matter.
Tomorrow’s the wedding and Tenal Ka’s made it clear to me that
she has every intention of going through with it.”

“Did you give her a reason not to?” His dad asked in all
seriousness.

Jacen glanced up at his dad. “Like what?”

“Well for starters, you could tell her how you really feel.”

“She knows how I feel,” he insisted.

“Does she?” Han said raising an eyebrow at his son.  “Cuz if I
were in her boots, I’d think there was something going on between
you and Danni Quee.”  When Jacen remained silent, Han went on,
“son, love isn’t something that you can find whenever you want.
Some people never find it.  That’s why if you have the chance,
take it.  If you don’t, you’re gonna spend the rest of your life
regretting it, thinking about the what if’s and could’ve been’s.”

He placed a firm hand on his son’s shoulder, forcing Jacen to
look at him.  Han hated seeing his son this miserable but the
only thing he could do was be there for him and offer him advice.
What he did with that advice was up to him.

The words he spoke next, lifted Jacen’s spirits.

“If you really love her, don’t give up on her just yet.”  Then he
got up and left the room, leaving Jacen to ponder the truth of
his dad’s advice.























CHAPTER SIX





The sun shone brightly through the clear sky on Hapes and a warm
breeze filled the air.  It was a perfect day for a wedding.

The ceremony was to take place in the large, vastly decorated
ceremonial chambers of the Royal Family’s Estate. Next to it was
the gigantic ballroom where the reception would be held later on.

Guests shuffled in one after another, and in no time the entire
room was filled.  The High Priest of the Royal Family would
perform the ceremony and had taken his place at the front of the
room.  Ta’a Chume  and Tenal Ka’s mother had taken their
respected seats up at the front, with an empty seat between them,
most likely Isolder’s spot.  Jaina was standing across from the
priest in her maid of honour dress, with Zeille’s best man, a
Hapan of course, opposite her.

The gathered guests conversed amongst themselves, discussing
everything from the weather outside to the much-anticipated
arrival of the Princess of Hapes and her soon-to-be husband.

Jacen tuned it all out and turned around to see his parents
sitting only a few rows behind him.  His mother was busy talking
to some Hapan diplomat. They were most likely discussing all the
potential the Hapes Cluster had to offer if they some day decided
to join the New Republic.  Jacen couldn’t help but smile.   Leave
it to his mother to still be looking out for the best interests
of the New Republic while attending a wedding.

He caught his father’s eye, though, and Han gave him a Solo grin
that wasn’t nearly as lopsided as usual. Probably because he was
still worried about his son’s state of mind, but Jacen smiled
back at him to reassure his dad that he was all right and turned
back around.

Less than a minute later, the sound of a choir of Hapan trumpets
spread throughout the room.  Almost instantaneously the talking
stopped and everyone turned to face the doorway. Including Jacen,
along with Danni, Zekk, Anakin and Tahiri beside him.

The trumpets ceased their sounds and everyone waited anxiously
for what they knew would come next.

The two Hapan guards standing by the doorway opened the huge
wooden doors and stood at attention off to the sides. The music
started up again but with more grandeur and elegance than before.
Jacen ticked off the seconds in his head until he saw her walk
in, linking arms with her father, Isolder.

Later on, he wouldn’t remember if he had stood there gaping at
her like an idiot.  She took his breath away.  That was the only
way he could describe it.  The long white dress Tenal Ka wore
seemed to flow like water behind her, while the rest of it clung
to her figure showing the flattering curves of every part of her
body, up to where the dress ended just below her shoulders.
Instead of her hair fashioned in the usual warrior braids, it was
put up, with a few loose strands of red gold hair bouncing up and
down with each step she took.   Various glowing jewels were wound
into her hair, with all different stones found around the Hapes
Cluster

Jacen could have never imagined her looking anymore beautiful
than she did at that moment.  She was absolutely breathtaking and
no matter how hard he tried to keep from staring, he couldn’t
take his eyes off her.

He was standing at the edge of his row, and he was hoping she
would turn to look at him as she walked past, but she didn’t. She
kept her expression neutral and looked straight ahead as she
walked past. But Tenal Ka could feel Jacen’s eyes on her and when
she opened herself up to the force, she had to do everything
humanly possible to keep the flush of red from spreading across
her face when she felt the powerful emotions radiating off Jacen
in waves towards her.

She strode past him and Isolder handed off his daughter to Zeille
then took his place between his wife and mother.

That was when it hit Jacen like a ton of duracrete bricks.  He
was only minutes away from losing the best thing that had ever
happened to him.  The one person who had always made him feel
special.  The one who had always stood by his side – been willing
to die fighting at his side, and the one person he had ever
loved.  He was about to lose all that because he had been too
afraid to take that finally leap and tell her how he really felt.
How he had always felt.

His father’s advice echoed in his head.

Love isn’t something you can find whenever you want.  Some people
never find it.  That’s why if you have the chance, take it.  If
you don’t, you’re gonna spend the rest of your life regretting
it…

What a fool I’ve been, Jacen thought.  I was too pocket hare to
risk our friendship and now look what’s happened.

The ceremony going on in front of him seemed to vanish before his
eyes, replaced by images of the jungles of Yavin Four. Tenal Ka
and him swimming together in the lake one night before dark. That
time he had joined her for her morning run and she practically
had to carry him back to the temple when they were done.  The two
of them trapped on the cold side of Ryloth, holding each other to
keep warm.  The time her lightsaber had shorted out when they
were sparring and his own saber had sliced through her arm.
Fighting the Bartokk assassin insectoids at the Crystal Reef
Fortress. Running away from the Second Imperium through the
dangerous underside of Kasyakk.   The kiss she had given him by
the lake after the defeat of the Diversity Alliance.  He could
still recall the exact words she had spoken to him as if it were
yesterday, were you surprised, friend Jacen?  Hugging her good-
bye after graduation and leaving Yavin Four for good.

The memories flooded through him, each one lasting only a few
moments, but leaving him with feelings of happiness, excitement,
guilt, and sadness.  All of the important events in his life she
had been a part of.  She had become a presence in his life that
he could not – did not – want to live without.  He didn’t want to
imagine a future without her in his arms sharing those same
feelings that he felt for her right down to the core of his very
being.

When the world around him began to come back into focus he dimly
heard the words, “–if there are any objections as to why the
union of these two should not take place, speak now.”

Tenal Ka tensed.  She had this feeling in the pit of her stomach
that something was about to go wrong.  She quickly assessed the
crowd gathered but saw no one about to protest. She let out a
breath she didn’t know she had been holding and turned back to
the priest.

Satisfied, that no one objected to the union of these two people,
the High Priest went on.  Turning towards the Princess, he said,
“Now, Princess Tenal Ka– “

“Stop!”  A voice shouted.

Loud murmurs rose up through the guests as a nervous looking
young man stood up.

Tenal Ka spun around, so did Zeille.  She would recognize that
voice anywhere.  What in the name of the force was he–

“Tenal Ka, you can’t marry him, “ he said quickly.  The tone of
his voice was pleading.  Jacen swallowed hard.  He couldn’t stop
now even if he had wanted to.  “You can’t marry him
because…because I love you .” Once he spoke those three words he
couldn’t believe he had been so afraid to say them all these
years.  He wanted to break out into a huge silly grin but the
look on Tenal Ka’s face stopped him.  Her expression was full
of…anger?  But before he could think about it anymore, she had
picked up the front of her dress and raced down the aisle.

Jacen grabbed her arm, “Tenal Ka – “ he began, but she broke free
of his grip and continued running.  Out of the chambers and out
the Palace doors.

By now the quiet murmurings had turned into cries of disbelief
and surprise.

Jacen didn’t waste anytime.  He took off after a very upset
looking Tenal Ka, with a fuming Zeille hot on his heels.

He raced out the doors of the Palace in time to see Tenal Ka
running away in the direction of the city. Despite being in a
wedding dress, her athletic prowess had allowed her to get an
amazing head start.  If not for the seriousness of the situation
he would have laughed at Tenal Ka running at a pace just slower
than lightspeed in a wedding dress.

The sky that had been clear and full of sunshine earlier had
turned a dark gray.  Droplets of rain began to fall from the sky.

Before he lost sight of her, Jacen yelled at the top of his
lungs, “Tenal Ka, wait!”  He moved to start running after her
again when a strong hand shoved him against the wall.

“What the hell did you think you were doing in there, Solo?”
Zeille demanded angrily.

Jacen pushed him aside.  He didn’t have time for this.  “I need
to talk to her,”

“Don’t you think you’ve done enough already?” Zeille growled at
him, “if she wanted anything to do with you she wouldn’t have ran
off like that.”

Jacen ignored him and ran into the rain in the direction he had
seen Tenal Ka going.  Now more than ever did he need to find her.
Once he found her, they could talk everything out and he would be
able to tell her everything he should have told her years ago.
And he would start off by telling her how big of a fool he had
been.























CHAPTER SEVEN





Jaina watched as both of Tenal Ka’s parents attempted to calm all
of the guests present, with somewhat mild success.  Some had
gotten up and left but most had remained where they were,
demanding to know where the princess had gone and who was that
young man that had interrupted the ceremony.  Jaina didn’t see
Tenal Ka’s grandmother anywhere.  She hoped Ta’a Chume hadn’t
gone looking for her granddaughter because she was probably the
last person Tenal Ka wanted to see right now. Actually, Jaina
guessed there might be a certain young Jedi Knight her friend
would rather avoid right now…

She could see her mother was now joining Isolder and Teneniel Djo
in the their efforts.  Since Leia was a trained diplomat with
years of negotiations under her belt, she was better adept at
addressing areas of chaos – controlled or otherwise.

“So what do we do?” Came Zekk’s voice from behind her.

“I dunno,” she said turning around to face him, Anakin and
Tahiri.

“Someone should go after Tenal Ka, and see if she’s all right,”
Tahiri suggested.

Jaina had thought the same thing when she had seen her friend
down the aisle, but then she had seen Jacen run after her and
realized that the two of them probably needed some time alone to
talk… about stuff.  But judging by the way Tenal Ka had run out
of there, she wasn’t in too much of a hurry to talk to Jacen.

“I think that’s what my brother’s doing,” Jaina finally
responded.

“Well, maybe somebody should go check on the both of them.  I
don’t know about you guys but Tenal Ka looked pretty upset to me,
and Jacen didn’t look much better,”  Zekk stated.

Jaina hesitated.  The last thing her brother and Tenal Ka would
want was an audience.

Zekk sensed her hesitation. “Jaina,” he said, placing both his
hands on her shoulders. “Their both our friends, and Jacen’s
yours and Anakin’s brother.  We’re just going to check on them.
Make sure they’re all right.”

“Besides,” spoke up Anakin, “Zeille ran after the both of them
and he’s probably pretty angry with Jacen for screwing up his
wedding.”

That made up her mind. “You’re both right. Let’s go.”

At that moment she realized someone was missing from their group.
“Where’s Danni?”

“She, ah, kinda ran off after Jacen’s little announcement,”
Anakin explained.

“Maybe we should go after her too,” said Tahiri.

“One crisis at a time,” Jaina muttered, as they pushed their way
through the swarms of people now standing in the aisle. They were
almost to the doors when Jaina spotted her parents heading in
their direction.

Anakin nudged his sister. “Uh oh, mom and dad,”

Jaina just kept walking. They were only a few feet from the door
now.  The last thing she wanted to do right now was to try to
explain this whole mess to them, so when her mother and father
cornered them near the doors, Jaina quickly said, “can’t talk
right now,” and pushed past them.

“Jaina-“ her mother called after her.

“Mom, we have to find Jacen and Tenal Ka,” then she grabbed
Zekk’s hand and pulled him along with her since he seemed to be
stopping.  Why was he stopping?  This was his idea in the first
place, Jaina thought to herself.

“Maybe we should have told them-“

“Zekk, what would we tell them? My twin brother’s a nerf herder
who waited until it was practically too late to tell the girl
that he’s always been crazy about that he loves her?  They
probably already knew that part anyways.”

“Point taken,” Zekk replied.

“Jacen’s given the phrase ‘last minute’ a whole new meaning,”
Anakin remarked.

Jaina just shook her head and stepped outside.  It was still
raining but only lightly now.  She was glad that her brother had
finally come to his senses, but she had this bad feeling that
things wouldn’t work out the way he had hoped. She had no idea,
though, just how bad things would turn out for him.



* * *

It hadn’t taken him long to find her, even though she was dimming
her presence in the force.  But Jacen didn’t need the force to
find her. He knew her too well. He knew the gardens behind the
palace had always been one of her favourite places to go when she
was looking for solitude. Zeille would never think to come look
for her here, and Jacen was thankful for that. That meant the two
of them could talk without any interruptions.

He hesitated at the edge of the garden, not sure of what he
should say or do.  But knowing that after his latest revelation
there was no turning back.  He could never take back what he had
said in front of a roomful of at least a thousand people.

She was sitting on a stone bench with her back to him, and Jacen
could see she was soaking wet.  Her dress ruined, and her once
beautifully decorated hair was coming out in several places.

Jacen started walking towards her. She should have heard him
approaching by now, if not by his footsteps then through the
force. Either way, she didn’t turn around.  When he was no more
than a foot from her, Tenal Ka broke the silence.

“Please Jacen, just go away,” she said, keeping her back turned
to him.

Go away?  What was she talking about?  She knew as well as he did
that they both had some major issues to resolve.

He crossed his arms over his chest and didn’t move.

“Just go,” she said more forcefully this time and Jacen could
detect a hint of anger in her voice.

“I can’t.  We need to talk,” he said moving to sit beside her.

“There is nothing to talk about,” Tenal Ka stated firmly.  She
still wouldn’t look at him.

“Yes, there is,” he said gently, “starting with what happened
back at the Palace.  I’m sorry if I-“

“You’re sorry?” She finally turned to look at him.  Jacen could
see her face was streaked with tears and she was shivering. He
wanted to offer her his jacket but it was soaked through, and
even if it weren’t she probably wouldn’t have accepted it anyways
by the way she was glaring at him.

She laughed bitterly. “Do you know how long I have waited to hear
you say those words to me?  And you wait until I’m in the middle
of getting married to tell me?”

He could hear the rising anger in her voice.  He had never seen
her upset like this before.  Not even that night on the balcony.
But he was confused.  She had wanted him to say those words to
her, so then what was the problem?

She picked up on his confusion through the force.  “You don’t get
it, do you Jacen? I can’t be with you.”

He hadn’t expected that. “Why not?  You don’t love me back, is
that it?”

She softened, and he could see the faintest hint of a smile
tugging on her lips.  “Of course I do.  I always have.”

That threw him off for a second. He hadn’t expected her to admit
that so easily, but he was even more confused than before. “Then
what’s the problem?”

“I’m getting married, that’s the problem,”

“Then don’t marry him,” he answered simply.

“Jacen-“

He grabbed her hand. “Do you love me?”

She looked him straight in the eyes.  “Yes, I do love you…but I
can’t anymore.  I have to marry Zeille.”

“No you don’t.  He doesn’t deserve you.  We belong together.”

Tenal Ka squeezed his hand. “Please Jacen, do not make this
anymore difficult for me than it already is.”

He pulled his hand away from hers, angry now.  “And you think
this isn’t hard for me?  I finally tell you I love you and you
say you love me but we can’t be together.  How’s that for fair?”

Fresh tears streamed down her face and her voice shook silently
when she spoke. “You want to talk about fair? I watched you spend
the past two months growing closer and closer to Danni, while at
the same time you thought everything between us was fine.  Well,
you know what, Jacen Solo, it wasn’t.  I didn’t even want to
admit to myself that I was, “she swallowed,” jealous of all the
time you were spending with her, because you still spent time
with me.  And why would I be jealous?  You and I were still best
friends, nothing had changed, and I realized that was the
problem.”  She turned away from him. “It wasn’t until I saw you
two by the lake together that night, when I realized I had been
fooling myself all along.  I was jealous. Jealous that you had
obviously moved on…and jealous that you were kissing her and not
me.”

Jacen felt like smacking himself in the forehead with the handle
of his lightsaber.  “And that’s why you left,” he finished for
her.

She nodded.  “I tried to convince myself that I didn’t care but
it got harder the more I saw you two together.  So I decided
leaving would be the best thing.  I knew what would happen if I
went home but I didn’t care.  I was hurt and angry with you. And
myself.  I let my emotions take over, something I have never done
before in my life, and I regret doing it, but there is nothing I
can do about it now.”

“It’s my fault.  I should’ve given you a reason to stay, but even
then I couldn’t do it.”

“It is my fault as well, Jacen. I could have – should have – said
something but I didn’t.”

They both sat in silence. It had taken practically losing each
other for them to finally confess how they both really felt but
it no longer mattered.  It was too late.  They both knew it, but
Jacen refused to admit it out loud.

Jacen finally spoke, “Tenal Ka, I can’t just forget about what
happened here, and I don’t know how you can either. I know that I
screwed up. I’m so sorry I hurt you. That’s the last thing I ever
wanted to do, believe me.  But now that we each know how we
really feel, we can change all that. We’ve already wasted years
pretending those feelings weren’t there.  I don’t want to waste
anymore time.  I want us to finally be together.”

He was pleading now. She could hear it in his voice. He was
desperate, afraid he was going to lose her for good.  She wanted
the same things he wanted.  And it took every inch of her self-
control not to throw herself in his arms and tell him to never
let go.  She hated herself for hurting him like this, but it was
the only way. One day he would hopefully understand why she had
to do this.

“I have to go,” she said getting up to leave.

He got up too.  “How can you just walk away, like nothing’s
changed?” He challenged her.

“I have to.  I do not have a choice.”

“You always have a choice. You two aren’t even married. You
wouldn’t be doing anything wrong.”

“The ceremony may not have happened, but once I go back I will
have to sign the legal contract binding me to the marriage.  You
know what will happen if I do not sign.”

  He did.  She had explained it to him that night on the balcony,
but that didn’t make it any easier for him.  He just couldn’t let
her go like this.

They stood there facing each other. He had so many things he
wanted to say to her.  Things he’d thought he’d have a lifetime
to say.  He opened his mouth to speak but Tenal Ka placed a
gentle finger on his lips.

She kissed his cheek. “I am sorry, Jacen, but it has to be like
this,” she whispered.  She pulled away from him and walked out of
the garden.

He tried to call out for her, to tell her not to go, but he
couldn’t move his lips.  He just stood there, frozen in place,
soaking wet and alone. He tried not to think, not to feel,
because if he did he would realize the best thing that had ever
happened to him had walked away, and he would never get her back.























CHAPTER EIGHT







“I should have said something to him,” Jaina remarked, as the
group made their way into the Palace’s turbolift. Jaina hit the
button for the second floor. They had spent the past hour and a
half looking for Jacen and Tenal Ka to no avail.  By now, they
were cold and wet.  They had come back to get changed and then
they were going out looking again.

“You didn’t know this was going to happen,”  Zekk said to her.

“Maybe if I had, none of this would have happened,” she
continued, not really listening to him.

Zekk placed a comforting arm around her shoulders.  “It wasn’t up
to you to make Jacen and Tenal Ka realize how they felt about
each other.  They had to find that out on their own.”

Jaina didn’t say anything. She felt a little better, but not much
as the turbolift stopped at their floor and the group piled out.
Zekk’s room was the first one on the floor and they stopped
outside his door.

“We’re going to change and then we’re going out looking again,”
Jaina said indicating to Anakin and Tahiri.

“What about me?” asked Zekk.

“You stay her, incase Jacen or Tenal Ka comes back.  If they do,”
she went on pulling out an extra comlink from her pocket and
handing it to him, “call me on the comm..  We’ll be back soon if
we don’t find them.”

Tahiri suggested, “maybe they don’t want to be found,”

Jaina turned to her, “I hope that’s all it is,”



* * *

Sometime later, there was a knock on Zekk’s door.  He knew it
wasn’t Jaina because she probably would’ve called him on the
comlink to say she was coming back.  He opened the door to reveal
a very distraught looking Jacen Solo. He was still wearing his
suit from the wedding ceremony that morning, minus the jacket,
and it was damp and rumpled. It wasn’t fairing much better than
its owner.  Jacen looked like he’d been to hell and back.

“Can I come in?” he asked in a low voice.

“Yeah, of course,” Zekk said gesturing inside.

Instead of sitting down, he proceeded to Zekk’s huge bay window
and stared intently outside.

Instead of asking what happened, Zekk blurted out, “we’ve been
looking everywhere for you,”

Jacen tore his gaze away from outside and faced Zekk. “What for?”

Zekk eyed him quizzically. “What do you mean ‘what for’?  We were
worried after you and Tenal Ka just took off like that. Jaina – “

“Where is Jaina?”

“She’s still out looking for you with Anakin and Tahiri.  I’ll
get her on the comm and tell her you’re here–“

“No, don’t”

“She’s worried about you,” Zekk protested.

“I don’t want to face her right now.  That’s why I came to you,”
he explained.

He looked like he needed to talk to someone badly, so Zekk asked,
“do you wanna talk about what happened?”

Jacen snorted and sat down on the edge of Zekk’s bed.  “Let’s
just say that her running out of the palace was the better part
of my day,”

He couldn’t even say her name.

“That bad, huh?”  Zekk could have kicked himself for his
insensitivity to his friend’s dilemma, but Jacen either didn’t
notice or didn’t seem to care.

Jacen ran his fingers through his tangled hair.  “I ran after her
‘til I found her in the Palace garden.  She wouldn’t even look at
me at first.  When she finally turned around her face was all red
from crying.  We argued for a bit.  Then she told me she loved me
too but we couldn’t be together because she was already bound to
marriage with Zeille.”

“I’m sorry,”  was all Zekk could think of to say.

“Don’t be.  It’s my fault.  I don’t know what I was thinking
telling her I loved her in front of a room full of people in the
middle of her wedding.  I had no right.  She’s my best friend and
I ruined what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.”

“Jacen, you –“

“Look, Zekk, you don’t have to try and make me feel better, cuz
whatever you say isn’t going to change anything,” he got up to
leave but stopped when he reached the door handle.

“You can tell my sister to stop looking for me, “

“She’s going to want to know what happened, and if you’re okay,”

“You can tell her whatever you want.  I just want to be left
alone.”  He opened the door and hesitated before turning around.
“Do you have anything to drink?”

Jacen’s question caught him completely off guard.  “What?”

“On the Lightning Rod, “ Jacen pressed, “I know you probably have
something stashed  away there.”

“Whoa Jacen, trust me, you don’t want to do something like that –
“

“Look, whether you help me or not, I’m going to find something,”
Jacen responded angrily and went to leave.

Zekk made a move to stop him, but Jacen pushed him out of the
way.  Clearly he was ready to use force if Zekk tried to get him
to stay, so the only thing Zekk could do was let him go.

“Getting drunk isn’t going to change anything, Jace.  Don’t go
doing something stupid that you’re gonna regret.”  Zekk called
after him

“My whole life has been about regrets and stupid mistakes, so one
more won’t make a difference,” he replied and then walked away.

Zekk wanted to go after him. With the frame of mind Jacen was in,
it was very likely he wouldn’t think before acting.  He decided
to call Jaina.  She answered right away and Zekk quickly
explained what had happened and how Jacen had run off.  He told
her to stay put and he would come find her, then they would go
chasing after her brother.  Again.



* * *

“Why didn’t you try and stop him?” asked Jaina as her and Zekk
made their way through the crowded Hapan city.

“I did try,” Zekk answered, “but Jacen wasn’t about to stay
anywhere he didn’t want to be.

Jaina had sent Anakin and Tahiri back to the Palace, just in case
Jacen decided to go back there, which seemed very unlikely with
the state of mind he was in right now.

“I just hope we find my brother before he does something stupid,”

Zekk stopped dead in his tracks, with a guilty look on his face.

Jaina eyed him suspiciously. “What is it Zekk? What aren’t you
telling me?”

“He asked me if I had anything to drink,”

Jaina gave him a confused look.

“He wanted to know if I had any liquor onboard the Lightning
Rod,” he clarified for her.

Jaina’s eyes grew wide with concern.  “Why would he want to know
that?  Jacen doesn’t drink,” she said more to herself than to
Zekk.

“I think he had plans on drowning his sorrows at the bottom of a
bottle,”

“Well, you told him you didn’t, right?”

“Of course I did…but I think he could tell I was lying,” he
added.

Jaina raised an eyebrow at this.

Zekk spread his arms in a defensive gesture.  “It’s only there
for emergencies,”

Jaina was too worried about her brother to inquire as to what
kind or an ‘emergency’ Zekk needed those items onboard his ship
for.

Suddenly, a terrible thought occurred to her. “Does Jacen know
the access code to your ship?”

“Yeah, he does.  You all do…” he trailed off, realizing where
Jaina was going with this.

Jaina bit her lower lip. “We better get to your ship,”

“I’m right behind you,”

The two of them took off at breakneck speed towards the docking
bay where the Lighting Rod was birthed.



* * *

When they arrived, the Lightning Rod was still in the same
condition as when they had last left her. There didn’t seem to be
anyone in sight. However, a closer inspection revealed the Rod’s
boarding ramp was down.  Someone was inside.

As they approached the ship, the occupant of it became clearer.
The force signature seemed to be distorted for some reason, but
Jaina would be able to detect that presence anywhere.

She slowly made her way up the boarding ramp and into the ship,
with Zekk right behind her.  Once inside, Jaina let her vision
adjust to the dim lighting of the ship.  She proceeded carefully
down the narrow corridor, which led to the lounge area. She could
see a light coming from there.  When she finally reached it, she
looked up to see her brother sprawled lazily on a beat up
repulsor couch, clutching a half-empty bottle in his left hand.
Just by looking at him, Jaina could tell he was drunk.

“Well, what brings my darling sister and her boyfriend all the
way down here?” Jacen asked before taking another swing from his
bottle,”

“We were looking for you,” Jaina replied.

“Well, you found me, so now you can go,” he said in a slurred
voice.

“You’re drunk,” she said taking a step towards him.  Zekk hung
back in the doorway, knowing Jaina wanted to handle this on her
own.

“Am I really?” said Jacen in a mock serious voice before he burst
out laughing.

“Jacen, this isn’t funny. What if mom and dad had been the ones
to find you?  What if Tenal Ka had?”  The last part had been a
mistake to say.

“She doesn’t care,” he spat, “and I don’t care that she doesn’t
care,”

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Jaina said in a sympathetic
voice, “but she really does care about you and you know it.”

“That’s a load of bantha dung. All she cares about is herself,”
he slurred and then laughed bitterly. “Then there’s Danni.  I
sure screwed that up.  She’ll probably never speak to me again,
not that I blame her.”

Jaina suppressed a sigh. This wasn’t going well at all. She truly
felt sorry for her brother and hated seeing him in this much
pain, but he was going to be nursing a lot more than a broken
heart if her and Zekk didn’t get him sobered up before their
parents found him.

“Jacen, we need to get you out of here and back to your room
before mom and dad see you like this,” Jaina explained.

“I don’t care if they see me,” he said and got up to stand, but
lost his balance.  Only Jaina’s lightning fast reflexes allowed
her to make it to her sibling’s side and steady him before he
fell.  Jacen maneuvered out of his sister’s grasp and staggered
away from her.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said out loud.

“What doesn’t matter?” Jaina asked him.

“Nothing.  Nothing matters anymore,” he replied.

He sounded so empty it made Jaina’s heart ache.  She made a move
to put a comforting hand on his shoulder but he pushed her away.

“Just get out of here, Jaya,” he slurred, using his nickname for
her when they had been little, “and leave me the hell alone,” he
snapped.

“She’s just trying to help,” Zekk said stepping in.  He knew
Jaina could take care of herself but he wasn’t about to stand by
and let Jacen push her around, no matter how drunk he was.

Jacen eyed him. “Yeah, well, I don’t need her help or the help of
ex-dark Jedi who thinks he’s turned good,”

Zekk tensed beside Jaina, and she could sense his rising anger.
Zekk’s past was a very touchy subject because there was a lot of
it he wasn’t proud of.  And turning to the dark side and becoming
a dark Jedi was one of them.

“Zekk, don’t.  He’s drunk.  He doesn’t know what he’s saying,”
she pleaded, placing a restraining hand on his arm.

“Come on Zekk,” Jacen taunted, spreading his arms out wide, “take
your best shot,”

“Jacen, stop it,” demanded Jaina.

Jacen ignored her. “Hey, maybe I wanna take a shot at the guy
who’s sleeping with my sister,”

That was the last straw. Jaina didn’t have time to react before
Zekk had Jacen slammed up against the bulkhead of the ship.  It
took every ounce of Zekk’s self control not to pound Jacen into
tomorrow.  Jaina was right.  He didn’t know what he was saying
but that didn’t make it any easy to handle. He had to take a deep
breath and count to ten before he spoke again.

“Whether you like it or not, we’re taking you back to the Palace.
Even if we have to carry you there,” Zekk said through clenched
teeth.

Zekk let up on Jacen enough so he could squirm free.  But Jacen
lost his balance in the process and this time it was Zekk there
to catch him, and Jacen wasn’t in any condition to put up much of
a fight as Zekk and Jaina half carried and half dragged him off
the ship.

“If we’re lucky, we can get him back to his room without anyone
seeing us,”

Zekk shifted Jacen’s weight on his shoulder, but before he could
say anything, Jacen responded to his sister’s comment by saying,
“I already told you guys I don’t give a damn who sees me,” he
struggled to push his sister and Zekk away, “I just want to be
left alone, can’t you understand that?”  He pleaded with his
twin.

“I understand you want to be left alone, but being alone is what
got you into this mess in the first place,”

“Nobody asked for your help. I can take care of myself,” he told
them, pointing at himself square in the chest.

Jaina begged to differ. Jacen couldn’t even stand up straight,
let alone walk straight.  He was definitely in no condition to
find his own way back to the Palace.

“Jace, you’re in no condition to walk anywhere by yourself – “
Jaina stopped talking when she realized her brother was no longer
listening to her, not like he had been listening to her in the
first place.  Something else seemed to have caught his attention.
Both Jaina and Zekk turned around to see Tenal Ka standing a few
paces away from them.  She was no longer wearing her wedding
dress, but was back in her familiar lizard-hide armor.  Her hair
was still in the same style as it had been for her wedding, even
though it was falling apart, and she had taken out the glowing
jewels that had been in her hair.

Jaina had no idea how long Tenal Ka had been standing there, but
judging from the look on her friend’s face she had been standing
there for sometime before anybody had noticed her.

Jaina hadn’t seen her friend since that morning, and she didn’t
look much better than when she had run out of the palace.

“We’re just trying to get him back to the palace,” was all Jaina
could think of to tell her.

“I need to talk to him,” Tenal Ka told her.

Jaina bit her lower lip. With the state Jacen was in, he was
liable to say things he would regret later on.   “Tenal Ka, I
don’t know if that’s such a good idea,”

“Jaina’s right, Jacen doesn’t know what he’s saying.  You’re just
going to get yourself hurt,” said Zekk, stepping in.

“I appreciate your concern, but I have to do this,” she told
them.

“If you say so,” said Zekk, as Jaina and him stood aside and
watched her approach Jacen.

Tenal Ka had no idea what she should say to him.  Actually, she
wanted to yell at him for doing something so stupid. The Jacen
she knew – and loved – would never have sunk so low as to getting
drunk to solve his problems.  But she also knew the last thing
she wanted to do right now was upset him more by telling him off.
So all she said was, “why?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’?” He said, glaring at her, “I did this
because of you,”

“Jacen – “

“No, don’t try and get out of this like you’ve been able to get
out of everything else between us. This is your fault,” he
accused her.

“I never wanted to hurt you, Jacen. I never meant for any of this
to happen,” she said, trying to reason with him.

“Well it did, Princess,” he was yelling at her now, and Tenal Ka
wondered if maybe her friends had been right.

At that point, he leaned in so close to her face that she nearly
recoiled from the strong stench of alcohol on his breath. “But
you don’t have to worry about me anymore.  Now you can go back to
taking care of yourself. You know, I hope Zeille’s not as big of
a fool as I was for getting sucked into believing you really
cared about me.  Cuz you’re too cold and unfeeling to really care
about anyone.”

That was when she hit him. She didn’t know what came over her,
but before she knew it her fist came into contact with his face,
hitting him square in the jaw.  He stumbled backwards at the
force of the blow, holding onto the spot where she had just hit
him.

She immediately regretted what she had done.  She just stood
there, unmoving, stunned at her actions.

Jacen was just as surprised as her. The left side of his face was
alive with pain, and he wondered briefly if she had hit him hard
enough to break his jaw.  He found it hard to focus, and his
vision became fuzzy.  The world was spinning around him now, and
he found it hard to stay on his feet.  The last thing he
remembered before passing out was a pair of strong arms reaching
out to catch him… and then blackness.























CHAPTER NINE





It was late the next morning when Jaina went down to the dining
area for breakfast.  She had spent a restless night tossing and
turning, unable to get the image of her hurting, drunk brother
out of her head.

She was surprised to see Tenal Ka sitting at the table eating
breakfast by herself this late in the morning. Tenal Ka was
almost always the first one up.  She would do her usual ten-
kilometer run, take a shower and then still manage to be the
first one seated at breakfast.  Jaina’s guess was the warrior
girl had had as much of a fitful sleep as she had.

Jaina crossed the room, making her way to where her friend was
seated, stopping only long enough to grab a cup of steaming caf
off a nearby table before sitting down across from Tenal Ka.

“Morning,” Jaina said, before taking a sip from her mug.

Tenal Ka looked up from her plate of uneaten food that she had
been pushing around, and gave her friend a nod to acknowledge she
had heard her but said nothing.

“I’m guessing you slept about as good as I did,” Jaina said to
her.

It had been impossible for her to get Jacen out of her head even
for a second last night, but all she said was, “this is a fact,”
in a flat tone.

“You know he didn’t mean anything he said,” Jaina said, trying to
comfort her.

“He had a right to be angry with me,” she wouldn’t come out and
say it but a part of her felt responsible for what had happened
with Jacen.  She had hurt him deeply.

Jaina could sense her friend’s self reproach.  “It wasn’t your
fault he got drunk.  He made that choice on his own.”

 “I hit him,”

“And Jacen deserved it,” said Jaina, defending her friend’s
actions, “he’ll be the first one to admit that.”

Tenal Ka looked down at her plate to try to hide the expression
on her face.  “I never meant to hurt him, but he knew that there
was no way I could get out of my marriage, even after…” she
trailed off, and shook her head to clear it.   “Jaina, you must
believe me that I would never hurt you brother on purpose.”

“I know that.  And I also know the only way to make things right
between the two of you again is for you to march up to his room
and tell him you want to be with him and not Zeille,”

The warrior girl shook her head. “I cannot.  Zeille and I are
legally married now, even without the ceremony.”

Jaina asked, “what does Zeille think about everything that’s
happened?”

Her friend shrugged. “We did not speak much when I got home last
night,”

“Did you sleep with him?”

Tenal Ka shot her a look. “Jaina, Zeille and I are married now,
and even though it is none of your business, no, Zeille and I did
not sleep together.  I…I couldn’t,” was all she could think of to
say.

Because you love my brother and would never do that to him,
thought Jaina, but before she could express her opinion, she felt
a subtle shift in her friend’s emotions as her gaze shifted to
the doorway.  Jaina turned in her seat to see who it was, and was
surprised to see her brother standing just inside the dining
area, clutching a steaming mug with both hands. When he noticed
both their gazes on him, the expression on his face quickly
changed to one of guilt. Guilt because he was remembering
everything that he’d said and done the night before.  He turned
away from them, ashamed.  But before Jaina had a chance to call
out to him, Jacen hurried out of the room.





She shouldn’t have been in there, Jacen thought silently, she
should have been up hours ago.  Seeing Tenal Ka today was one of
the last things Jacen wanted.  How was he supposed to try to get
over her if he kept seeing her wherever he went?  He hadn’t
planned on running into his sister either, at least Zekk wasn’t
there. That would have been too much having the three of them
after what he had done to them last night.

It all came back to him like a bantha punching him in his gut.
Those horrible things he had said to Zekk and his sister.  Zekk
should have pounded him into the wall of his ship for what he had
said.  Drunk or not, Jacen had been out of line.  His sister was
probably furious with him too.  He couldn’t blame either one of
them if they never wanted to speak to him again.

Then there was what happened with Tenal Ka.  Jacen squeezed his
eyes his shut, wishing he could take back everything he had said
to her last night.  If their friendship hadn’t been over before
that, it was most certainly over now.  How could she ever forgive
him after those awful things he had said to her? He felt the
swollen spot on his jaw where she had hit him.  There was already
a large blue and purplish bruise there.  He was lucky she hadn’t
broken it.  She had been just as stunned as him when she had done
it.  He remembered the hurt look in her eyes after telling her
she was too cold to care about anyone.  How could he have said
that to her when he knew it couldn’t be farther from the truth?

He was so wrapped up in his own guilt, that when he turned a
corner he bumped straight into Danni, spilling his cup of caf
down his shirt.  Though, dirty clothes were the least of his
worries at the moment.

He searched for the right words to say.  The words that would
make everything okay between them again.  He couldn’t find any,
and was thankful when Danni broke the silence first.

“What happened to your face?” She asked, trying not to sound too
concerned after everything that had happened.

He tried to smile, but it hurt too much.  “I had a little
accident with someone’s fist,” he explained.  He figured Danni
thought it was Zeille who had delivered the blow.  Jacen wished
Zeille had been the one to hit him.  It probably would have hurt
less.

“I’m sorry,” he told her at last. He seemed to be hearing those
words a lot lately.

Danni just stood there, staring at him long and hard before
finally saying, “I’m sorry too.”

Jacen quickly shook his head, adding to his already increasing
headache.  Thankfully, he had been able to apply a Jedi healing
technique to get rid of most of the lingering affects of his
hangover.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he stated firmly, “I was the
one who hurt you,”

“Can I be honest with you?” Danni asked, finding a nearby
repulsor bench to sit on.

Jacen followed her. “Of course,”

“I knew that what happened yesterday was going to happen a long
time ago,” she said simply.

“What?”

She turned to face him with sad eyes.  “Jacen, I was so grateful
to you – and I still am – for rescuing me from the Vong. But I
figured any relationship, aside from friendship, would be
impossible given our age differences, even after I knew how you
felt about me.  When things finally started to happen, I met
Tenal Ka for the first time. You two were so perfect for each
other, yet you both failed to see it.  I finally decided I could
settle for being second best.”

“Danni, you weren’t second best,” he tried unconvincingly.

“It’s okay, Jacen,”

Was she right?  As much as he hated to admit that he had been
that shallow, Danni was right.  In convincing himself that Tenal
Ka would never return anything but platonic feelings for him, he
had in fact settled for Danni.  Someone who he cared deeply for
and shared similar feelings for him.

“We never really said how we felt,” Danni went on, “I guess
because deep down we both knew the truth.” She took a deep
breath.  “I just want you to know that I don’t hate you,”

“You should,” Jacen replied, “after how I hurt you,”

“You did hurt me, but I can’t hate you just because it’s not me
that you’re in love with,” she got up from the bench.  “I’m
catching a shuttle back to Courscant in a few hours,” she
explained.

Jacen looked up at her, “You don’t have to go,”

This time Danni was the one to shake her head.  “Yes I do.  I
can’t stay here anymore.  Good-bye Jacen,” and then she was gone,
leaving Jacen alone, once again.



* * *

It wasn’t until late in the evening on her second full day of
marriage, that Tenal Ka was able to return to her new apartment
in the Palace that she shared with Zeille.  She had spent the
past two days meeting with well-wishers and other diplomats and
dignitaries eager to greet the newly married Princess of Hapes.
Somehow, Zeille had managed to avoid all of this, by saying he
had business things that needed taking care of before they left
on their honeymoon.

Honeymoon…

She sighed, and lazily flopped down on a nearby couch.

She had answered everyone’s questions as politely as possible,
even when they got a little too personal. The one question that
seemed to play on everyone’s mind was who was that young man that
had disrupted  the wedding ceremony and what had happened
afterwards. Their prying into her personal life made her sick,
but years of living in the Hapan Court had taught her that
diplomacy was the best way of dealing with any unsettling
questions, so they wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing how
upset their questions made you.

She got up and headed towards the refresher to take a shower. She
was only halfway there before Zeille walked in the door.

“Tenal Ka, are you here?” He called out.

She walked back into the living area.  “What is it, Zeille?”

“We need to talk about something,”

Tenal Ka sighed impatiently. “Can it not wait until later?”

“No, we need to talk about it now,” he said firmly.

“Well?”  She inquired with an arched eyebrow.

“It concerns your current ship, the Rock Dragon,”

She gave him a puzzled look. “What about it?”

Zeille hesitated, trying to find a response that would upset her
the least, and that irritated her even more.

Finally he spoke, “I find it highly inappropriate and dangerous
that a person of your high status go gallivanting around the
galaxy in something that small and inadequately armed.”

Tenal Ka’s eyebrows rose further. “You want me to get rid of my
ship?”

“Well, yes.  I simply want you to find something more suitable
for a princess to travel in.  Perhaps a Hapan Battle Dragon,” he
suggested.

She was angry now. How dare he suggest that she simply “give up”
something that meant so much to her?  The Rock Dragon had been
the ship her and her friends had taken on so many of their
adventures.  At times, it had become like a second home to her.
It held too many good memories for her to just give it up because
Zeille told her to.

“No,” she said quietly but firmly.

“Excuse me?”

“No, I will not give up my ship just because it does not suit
you.”

“Look, I don’t think you understand – “

“No, I do not think you understand. That ship means a lot to me,
and it is just that.  My ship.  How dare you tell me to get rid
of it,” she fumed.  It seemed that these days she was having a
harder time keeping her emotions in check.

Zeille glared at her. “I think you’re out of line, princess,” he
said, deliberately calling her by her title because he knew how
much she hated it.  “Now that we’re married, you’ll do whatever I
tell you to do,”

Tenal Ka moved so close to him that their bodies were mere
centimeters apart.  He was taller than her, so she looked up at
him, furry evident in her eyes.

“If you think that for one second you can order me around, you
are gravely mistaken,”

“Is that a threat?”

She glared daggers at him. “It can be,”

Disgusted and outraged, Zeille walked away from her and left the
apartment, slamming the door behind him.





















CHAPTER TEN





He wasn’t quite sure why he was there. He had picked up on her
distress through the force and had felt inclined to come.  They
hadn’t spoken in two days but Jacen was man enough to put aside
his own personal feelings, for a while anyways.  At least he
thought he could.

When Tenal Ka opened the door, her face was full of surprise,
just as Jacen’s decision had been to come there. She obviously
hadn’t been expecting him or she would have sensed his presence
through the force.

Jacen shuffled his feet nervously. “I, uh, got a strong sensation
through the force that something was wrong,” he explained.

He half expected her to slam the door in his face, or to hit him
again, but she did neither. Instead, Tenal Ka simply regarded him
for a few seconds before answering him.  “Zeille and I had a
misunderstanding,”

“Ah,” It had obviously been a lot more than a ‘misunderstanding’
if Jacen was able to pick up on her emotions that strongly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked her.

“No,” she answered quickly.

He had been expecting this. She was obviously still pretty upset
with him, and rightly so.   It wasn’t like he had a right to know
what was bothering her. Jacen wasn’t even sure if they were
friends anymore.  He prayed that they still were, hoping that in
time she would be able to forgive him for everything he had said
to her when he was drunk.  He couldn’t stand to lose her
altogether, but if she wanted time and space to sort everything
out, he would give it to her. He owed her that and so much more.

“I guess I’ll just head back to my room now,” he said, making a
move to leave but Tenal Ka’s voice stopped him.

“Jacen, you do not have to go,”

“Ok, I’ll stay,” he replied and then added, “if that’s what you
want,”

She nodded slowly, causing her red gold braids to sway slightly
up and down.  “I do,”

Before Jacen knew it, he was following Tenal Ka into her
apartment and taking a seat across from her on a repulsor couch.
She sat down on a nearby chair in front of Jacen, seemingly
afraid to get too close to him.

Jacen noticed Zeille was nowhere to be seen.  He assumed he had
taken off after their ‘misunderstanding’.

This was Jacen’s first time in Tenal Ka’s new home.  It had all
the grandeur and taste that he’d expect from a princess’ home.
And Tenal Ka probably hated it, Jacen thought, allowing himself a
small smile.  The furniture alone was almost certainly enough to
by half the Imperial Palace back on Courscant.

He fidgeted in his seat. “So, how have you been?” He asked,
trying to make conversation. Anything was better than just the
two of them sitting there in silence as if they were complete
strangers.

She shrugged slightly. “I have been busy with the usual Hapan
nonsense,” she began, “squabbling diplomats and officials hoping
to improve their status by constantly congratulating me on my new
marriage,” she went silent after that last part, realizing that
marriage was the last thing either one of them wanted to talk
about.

Jacen cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for everything I said to
you.  I was drunk, but that was no excuse for the way I treated
you.  I deserved to be hit,”

Tenal looked at his face. It looked better than it had the
morning after it had happened.  “Does it hurt?”

“Naw, not really,” when it looked like she didn’t believe him, he
added, “it looks worse than it really is.”

“I am glad I did not cause you any permanent damage,”

“So am I,” then he continued in a serious voice, saying, “I don’t
even know why you’re talking to me,”

“Because we are friends,” she made it sound like it was the most
obvious answer in the universe.

“You still want to be friends after everything I’ve done to you?”

“No matter what you say or do Jacen, you will always be my best
friend.  Nothing will ever change that,” she said softly but with
conviction.”

“Then why won’t you look at me?”

“I thought you would hate me after…after what happened between
us,” she said looking at him for the first time since he had
walked in the room.

Jacen quickly shook his head. “I could never hate you,”

A small smile crept onto her lips. “I am glad we are still
friends,”

“Me too,” relief washed over Jacen. He had been so worried that
he’d lost his best friend for good but it had turned out she had
been just as worried about the same thing.  As much as it pained
him, he could handle just being friends with her. They had always
been close, and like Tenal Ka had said, nothing would ever change
that.

He realized at that moment that he had been staring at her.  He
quickly turned away, embarrassed.  Then he stood up.  “I should
probably go.  It’s getting late,” he wanted to get out of there
before he did something stupid.

Tenal Ka stood up at the same time and was facing him.

She was so beautiful, just standing there facing him.  All he
wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her.

Whoa, Jacen, he scolded himself, she’s married.

As much as he tried to stop the feelings growing inside of him,
he couldn’t.  They just stood there, staring at each other. Tenal
Ka eventually turned away, but Jacen placed a gentle hand on her
cheek forcing her to look at him.  He leaned forward, their lips
slowly inching closer and closer, until that moment when they
finally touched.  Tentative at first because Jacen was unsure of
how she would respond. He expected her to pull away, but was glad
when she didn’t.  The kiss become more passionate as Tenal Ka
pressed her lips against his and ran her hands through the hair
on the back of his head.

Jacen suddenly pulled away from her, aware of what was going to
happen if they didn’t stop.  He  leaned his forward against hers.
“Tenal Ka, we can’t,” he breathed.

She kissed him again. “Yes, we can,”

He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her close to
him.  He started kissing her lips and then moved his head down so
he was kissing her neck.  Tenal Ka ran her hands along his back
and began taking his shirt off. She lifted it over his head and
started kissing his chest.

Jacen ran his hands through her red gold braids and whispered
softly to her, his breath tickling her ear, “I love you,”

She smiled up at him and Jacen couldn’t remember seeing a more
beautiful sight, “I love you too,” she kissed him again, their
bodies pressed tightly together.  Jacen lifted her into his arms,
something he had wanted to do a million times before, and
continued kissing her as he carried her into the bedroom.

























CHAPTER ELEVEN







There was a stirring beside Jacen as he slowly made his way back
consciousness.  He rolled over and put his arms around the figure
in the bed with him.

“Good morning,” he breathed.

“I would say it is ‘good afternoon,’” Tenal Ka replied, turning
over to face him.

“Afternoon?”  His mind panicked.  Jaina would probably be looking
for him.  Then he relaxed.  This would be the last place Jaina or
anyone else would think to look for him.

“So, am I correct in assuming that we missed breakfast?”  He said
with a Solo lopsided grin on his face.

“I think you are correct, Jacen my love,” she said with a smile
on her face.

He could get use to being called that and to Tenal Ka’s smiling.

She noticed he was staring at her. “What is it?”

“I was just thinking what a beautiful smile you have.  You should
use it more often,” he remarked.

Then Jacen nearly fell out of the bed in shock when he saw her
begin to blush.  “Tenal Ka, smiling and blushing in the same day.
I don’t know what to do,” he said, feigning a shocked voice, “I
don’t know if I could handle anymore surprises today.”

Tenal Ka laid her head down on his bare chest, where she could
feel his heart beating.  “I have a confession I must make,”

Jacen didn’t know what to expect at this, but it most certainly
wasn’t what he got.

She spoke so softly he had to strain to hear, even with his force
sensitive hearing.

“I have always found your jokes… amusing,” there.  She had
finally said it.  She had promised herself she would never tell
him because she knew he would never let her forget it.  But now,
after everything they had shared, she felt inclined to share this
little secret of hers with him.  She peered up at him, and could
see him unsuccessfully trying to keep the amused expression off
his face.  Finally, he couldn’t contain himself any longer and
burst out laughing, while Tenal Ka waited patiently for him to
finish.

When he did, the first words out of his mouth were, “ok, who are
you and what have you done with the real Tenal Ka?”

“I am the real Tenal Ka,” she said in all seriousness.

“I think you’re going to have to prove that,” he said with a
mischievous grin on his face,  and leaned forward to kiss her.

They kissed, and when they finally parted, Jacen propped himself
up on one elbow, so he was facing her and asked, “so, how come
you never laughed at my jokes then?”

“Because if you knew that I enjoyed them, as unusual as they
sometimes were, you would have never let me live it down,” she
replied.

“Well, I guess I should start telling jokes again – “ he began.

“No, Jacen, please do not. If you tell anyone that I enjoy your
jokes, I will – I will be most embarrassed,” she pleaded.

“I can handle keeping this secret just between us, unless – “

“No ‘unless’,” said Tenal Ka, and she kissed him to try and shut
him up.

“Unless,” Jacen finally managed to get out between kisses, “we
get married, because if we do, it’ll make a great wedding story,”

Tenal Ka stopped kissing him at that moment, and Jacen felt the
sudden downturn in her emotions.

“What is it?” He asked, concerned.

She didn’t speak for a few moments, so Jacen just waited
patiently for her to explain what was bothering her.

“Jacen,” she said at last, “what happened – what we did – there
are extreme consequences for both of us if anyone finds out,” she
said in a serious tone.

“Hey,” he said stroking her cheek, “no one’s going to find out,”

Tenal Ka shook her head. “Jacen, you don’t understand – “

“I don’t care what the consequences are.  We’re together now,
that’s all that matters,” he said in a reassuring voice.

Tenal Ka didn’t disagree. She just laid there, enjoying the
feeling of being in his arms.

“Zeille wants me to get rid of the Rock Dragon,” she told him.

“That’s what you were upset about last night, wasn’t it?” Jacen
said, understanding at last what had been bothering her.

“Yes, and I told him I would not. Then we both got angry and he
left.”

“I’m glad you told him you wouldn’t.  I know how much that ship
means to you,” he said, as he ran his fingers through her hair.

Tenal Ka turned over to look at the chrono on her nightstand and
noticed the time.  ”I have to go now,” she said  climbing out of
bed, “if I do not show up for my scheduled meetings people will
get suspicious and start looking for me,”

Jacen didn’t say anything. He just lay there in her bed while she
got dressed.  Finally, he couldn’t stand the silence anymore and
said, “do you regret what happened last night?” He had been
almost too afraid to ask.  Afraid that she might say it had all
been a mistake.

She stopped adjusting her reptilian armor and looked at him.

“No,” she responded instantly. She walked over to him and knelt
beside the bed.  She reached out for his hand and held it tight.
“I would never want to take back what we did.”  She gave him a
kiss on the cheek that lingered for a few moments, and then she
pulled away.  Tenal Ka grabbed a data pad off her desk, then
walked out of the bedroom and out of the apartment.





It was amazing how in just a few days Jacen’s life had completely
changed for the better.  Everything was perfect, and he hoped it
stayed that way. Over the course of the last few days his
relationship with Tenal Ka had blossomed into something he’d only
dreamed of since the first day he’d met her.

He was walking through the Palace Garden now.  The garden had
become their secret meeting place since it seemed that nobody
else came here.

Tenal Ka had left an urgent note for him to meet her here this
afternoon.

They both knew they had to be careful not to arouse any
suspicion, so they had decided it best not to tell anyone what
was going on between them.  That way, their friends wouldn’t have
to lie and cover for them.  If they weren’t involved, then
nothing would happen to them if Jacen and Tenal Ka got caught.
Jacen knew how angry his sister would be when she found out he
was keeping his and Tenal Ka’s relationship from her, but it was
for the best.  Still, he found it extremely difficult to keep
something like this a secret from her.  So Jacen had to do his
best to act as if nothing had changed between him and Tenal Ka.
That meant keeping to himself, being moody and doing anything
else he could think of to keep her from finding out the truth. He
hated deceiving her like this but it was the only way to protect
her if someone were to find out about his and Tenal Ka’s
relationship. But that didn’t help him feel any less guilty about
all this sneaking around.

His parents had left yesterday, and he had done his best not to
give anything away.  They had asked him what happened to his
face, and he replied by telling them he had gotten what he
deserved.  They had regarded him curiously but didn’t ask any
more questions.

His parents had asked him if he wanted to come home with them
now, but he told them that he was okay, and would “tough it out”
until his friends were ready to leave.  They had nodded in
understanding, thinking their son still wasn’t ready to give up
on Tenal Ka.  If they only knew, Jacen thought silently to
himself.

When he made his way through the maze of exotic flowers and
bushes, he found Tenal Ka was already there waiting for him.  By
the look on her face and the way she was pacing, Jacen knew
something was up. And that something wasn’t good.

When she heard him approaching, she stopped her pacing but the
troubled expression on her face remained.

It still took some getting use to for Jacen to see Tenal Ka so
openly share what she was feeling with him. Normally, her
expression would be a mask and it would take some deep probing on
Jacen’s part to get a clue as to what she was really feeling
inside.

“What’s wrong?” He asked immediately.  No “hi” or “ I missed you”
because Jacen sensed things were too serious for that.

She hesitated and Jacen knew that wasn’t a good sign.

He pulled her down beside him on a nearby stone bench, held her
hand in his and sent waves of strength through the force at her,
indicating whatever she was going to tell him, they would face it
together.

Tenal Ka used the strength that Jacen was sending her to help her
get out what she had to tell him. “Zeille is making arrangements
for us to go on our honeymoon in a few days,”

Jacen’s eyes grew wide but he didn’t speak.  What was he supposed
to say?  Tenal Ka and Zeille were still married and there was no
reason for Zeille not to want to take his bride off somewhere for
a honeymoon.

“I have been able to stall him up until now,” she went on,
“telling him I had business to take care of in the Royal Court
before we went anywhere.  But he confronted my grandmother,
saying I need time away from all this politics and she agreed
with him.”  She waited patiently for Jacen to say something, any
thing, but he remained silent, pretending to be intrigued by some
nearby brightly coloured flowering tree from Ithor.

She gave his hand a squeeze. “Jacen, say something,”

“What do you want me to say?” As soon as the words were out of
his mouth, he realized he had said them harsher than he had meant
to. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, “but Zeille has every right to
take you away from here.  You two are still married after all.
If you keep giving him excuses about why you can’t go he’s bound
to get suspicious.”

Tenal Ka could hear the jealousy evident in his voice, but he was
right of course.  Any more delay on her part was bound to make
Zeille suspect that she had other reasons for now wanting to go
away with him.  But both her and Jacen were Jedi Knights, and
Jedi were always resourceful, even when they had little resources
to work with.

She stared at Jacen hard. “We are Jedi Knights,” she said with
confidence, “we will find a way to get through this.”



* * *

Zekk kicked absently at a stone as he walked along a narrow path
leading away from the main hanger where the Lightning Rod was
birthed.  Jaina and him had just finished recalibrating the navi
computer, when she crossed the wrong wire into the wrong port,
which in turn had caused the shields to short out and the newly
repaired navi computer to go all haywire.

They had spent all morning fixing the navigational controls, so
Zekk had trouble controlling his temper when Jaina did that.
Before he knew it, he was yelling at her, saying she never would
have made that mistake if she had been paying attention to what
she was doing. Come to think of it, Zekk couldn’t ever remember
Jaina making any stupid mistakes like that.  She could fix the
Rod with a blast shield over her eyes and binders on her wrists.

Jaina had apologized, saying she had been distracted.  Then Zekk,
still angry about the damage to his ship, had said she shouldn’t
be working on his ship if she was going to make stupid mistakes
like that. Then Jaina lost her temper and said maybe she didn’t
want to work on his hunk of scrap metal anyway, and stormed off.

She had purposely made the comment about his ship to get back at
him for insulting her mechanic abilities, and it had worked too.

Zekk sighed.  He hadn’t meant to start a fight with her but they
all seemed to be running on short fuses lately.  He suspected the
reason for Jaina’s distraction had been Jacen. She felt so
helpless, being unable to help make things right again between
her brother and Tenal Ka.

Zekk knew he shouldn’t have snapped at her, and he would
apologize to her later, but right now he needed to clear his
head.  If he went to find Jaina now, chances were she’d chew him
out some more for insulting her repair skills.  It was better to
wait awhile, then go apologize when they both had cooled off.

He had no specific destination in mind as he strolled along, but
found his current path leading towards the Palace Garden. It
looked quiet and peaceful enough, just what Zekk needed right
now. It sure was beautiful enough, with all the different types
of plants native to about as many different worlds. Maybe he’d
bring Jaina here later so they could talk.  His thoughts were
interrupted though, by the sounds of voices not to far off.

 As he got closer, his force-attuned hearing helped him to
identify the two speakers.  But he found it almost impossible to
believe that the two of them would be here together, alone.  As
far as he and everyone else knew, Jacen was too ashamed of the
things he had said to Tenal Ka, and was still angry with her for
marrying Zeille, to even talk to her.  Tenal Ka in turn, was
angry with Jacen for ruining her wedding.  But Zekk’s ears didn’t
deceive him as he wound another corner and could hear their
conversation clearly now.

“ – we will find a way to get through this,” he heard Tenal Ka
say.

Zekk realized instantly that the two of them were probably trying
to patch things up.  He didn’t want to stand around and eavesdrop
on his friends, so he turned to walk away, when he heard
something that made him stop.

“Tenal Ka, you and I both know that the only way out of this is
to tell Zeille and everyone else the truth,” said Jacen.

Zekk knew he should turn and go. This was a private conversation
but his curiousity got the better of him.  He stood at the edge
of the bushes overlooking his friends and listened closely.

“Then maybe we should,” Tenal Ka suggested.

Jacen shook his head emphatically. “No way.  There’s no way I’m
going to let Zeille use this to embarrass you and your family in
front of the entire Hapan court.  And you know he would.  He’d do
anything to increase his own power and status with your
grandmother, without a thought as to what would happen to you,”

It grew quiet then, so Zekk peered around the corner and was in
time to see Tenal Ka stroking Jacen’s cheek as the two of them
sat side by side facing each other on a bench.

“Jacen, we cannot go on like this forever,” she said in a soft
voice.

“I know,” he replied with a sigh, “I hate all this sneaking
around.  And the worst part of it is having to lie to my sister.
She thinks I’m depressed and angry and probably on the verge of
doing something majorly stupid.”

“I hate this situation as well,” Tenal Ka agreed with him.

Zekk’s confusion was growing by the second.  Zeille using some
deep dark secret to embarrass Tenal Ka and her family? Lying to
Jaina?  It couldn’t be…could it?  Fortunately for him, his
confusion was about to come to an abrupt end.

He watched as Jacen stared hard into Tenal Ka’s cool gray eyes.

“I don’t know how much longer I can hide what’s going on between
us.  I want to tell the whole galaxy and anyone else who will
listen, how much I love you,”

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly but
passionately on the lips.  The two remained locked in each
other’s embrace, completely unaware of their unseen onlooker who
stared at them in complete and utter shock.





















CHAPTER TWELVE





Dinner that evening was more quiet than usual, Jaina noticed.
Jacen was his usual moody self, Anakin and Tahiri were having
their own private conversation, and Zekk was busy shoveling food
into his mouth as if it were his last meal.

They had made up a couple of hours ago, but something had seemed
off with Zekk when he had come by to apologize. He had brushed
her concern aside, saying he was just worried about the state his
ship was in. Whatever was bothering him, Jaina knew he would tell
her when he was ready, so she had dropped the subject.

“So,” she began in a conversational tone, “I guess we should head
back to Yavin Four soon.  Maybe even as early as tomorrow.”

At the mention of leaving, Zekk choked on the food he had been
chewing and started coughing, while Jacen lost his grip on his
fork and dropped it on the floor.

“It just went down the wrong way,” Zekk explained, recovered now.
When Jaina and everyone else went back to their meal, Zekk shot
Jacen a quick glance and could see him struggling to keep his
expression neutral at the mention of leaving Hapes.

“Well, we won’t be able to leave for a few days anyways,” said
Zekk, thinking quickly, “the navi-computer and the shields still
need to be fixed,” he caught Jaina’s glare at the mention of her
‘mistake’ but it was the only excuse he could think of.  He just
hoped it hadn’t bought him another round of a yelling match with
her.

Fortunately for him, she responded by saying, “yeah I guess that
may take a few days,”

            Jacen spoke up from his spot at the table, “I need to
go do something,” and then he got up and left.

“Um, I think I left the landing lights on the Lightning Rod on,”
Zekk said.  He knew it was a lame excuse but he hurried out of
the dining area after Jacen before anyone could say a thing.

Now Zekk’s acting weird, Jaina thought to herself.  First, he
lied about what was bothering him this afternoon and now he just
ran out of there like a gundark with its ears on fire, with some
lame excuse about his ship.  What was going on around here that
she was being kept in the dark about?





“Jacen, wait up!” Zekk called after him, as Jacen rushed through
the grand corridors of the Palace.

“Not now, Zekk,”

“I thought you would be grateful since I just bought you a few
extra days with Tenal Ka back there,”

Jacen stopped dead in his tracks and said without turning around,
“what are you talking about?”

“I saw you two together today in the garden,”

Jacen faced him, running his fingers nervously through his thick
brown hair.

“How much did you see?”

“Enough,” Zekk answered.

Jacen looked around the open area they were in.  Anyone could be
just around the corner listening in.  He waved a hand at Zekk.
“Follow me,”

Zekk did as he was told and followed Jacen into the turbolift and
up to his room.  As soon as they were inside Jacen’s room with
the door shut, Jacen spoke.

“No one was supposed to find out,”

“Well maybe you should’ve been more careful,” chided Zekk.

“We were – “

“Making out in the open where anyone could see you is not being
careful.  Just be glad it was me that found you and not someone
else,” he pointed out,” so, how long has this been going on for?”

“A few days now,” Jacen answered truthfully.

Zekk opened his mouth to speak but Jacen beat him to it.

“We didn’t want to lie to everyone but we both decided that it
was better this way.  If you guys didn’t know anything then if we
were to get caught, we wouldn’t have to worry about all of you
taking the blame for our mistake.”

“Didn’t you stop to think for a minute that maybe we’d have been
willing to lie and cover for you? We’re you friends after all,”

“It wasn’t your decision to make,” Jacen said simply.

“The hell it wasn’t,” Zekk said in an angry voice, “Jaina and I
watched you make a fool out of yourself when you got drunk over
losing Tenal Ka.  And today, your sister nearly blew up my ship
because she’s so distracted by worrying about you, while you and
Tenal Ka go off to your secret love nest to fool around.  Do you
think that’s fair to her?  Or to your brother?  Or to any of us?”

Jacen sighed.  Zekk was laying the guilt trip on him, and he was
laying it on good.

“Look, I know it’s not fair but the fewer the people that know
the better,” Jacen explained, “and that’s why I have to ask you
not to say anything to anyone, especially not to Jaina,”

“How do you expect me to keep this from her?  She already
suspects something’s up, I’m sure of it,”

“Please Zekk,” Jacen pleaded, “I’m asking you as a friend to
promise me you won’t say anything.  I don’t want my sister or
anyone else involved in this.”

Zekk heaved a sigh and caved in. “Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut,
just don’t ask me to lie for you to Jaina more than I already am,
because I won’t do it,”

Jacen nodded.  “Thank you, Zekk,”

“Thank me by bringing your relationship with Tenal Ka out into
the open before someone gets hurt,”



* * *

That night, Jacen lay awake in his bed thinking about everything
that had happened that day, when there was a knock at his door.
He checked his chronometer, knowing it was late, but also knowing
exactly who would be at his door at this hour.

He opened his door to reveal Tenal Ka standing there, and he
quickly ushered her inside, checking up and down the hall to see
if anyone had seen her.  After Zekk’s accidentally stumbling upon
them, he wasn’t taking any chances.  Zekk was right, they had
been careless and it was exactly that kind of carelessness that
would get them into trouble.

“Did anyone see you come here?” He asked, as soon as she was
inside.

She gave him a curious look. “Of course not.  I made sure that I
was not being followed,”

“Are you sure?”  He pressed.

“Yes,” she replied, “Jacen, what is it?  You are acting
paranoid.”

“It’s nothing really,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders,
“it’s just…”

“Just what?” she inquired, concerned.

“Zekk saw us in the garden today,” he saw her expression rapidly
change to one of worry, so he quickly continued, “but he hasn’t
said anything to anyone and he told me he wouldn’t,”

“It was my fault.  I was careless,” she said taking the blame.

“We were both careless,” he said placing both his hands on her
shoulders.  “Jaina wanted to leave tomorrow, but Zekk said
there’s some repairs that need to be done on the Lightning Rod.
That bought us a few days,” he explained.

“We cannot ask Zekk to keep our secret forever,”

“I know.  It’s just until we figure out what to do.  We can trust
him.  He’s not going to say anything.”

“I do not doubt friend Zekk’s trust,” she said evenly, “however,
Jaina is going to be angry when she finds out that not only us
but Zekk as well was lying to her,”

“We’ll cross that repulsor bridge when we get to it,” he said,
hoping that his sister wouldn’t stay mad at them forever when she
found out the truth.  “Did you talk to Zeille?”

“He wants to leave the day after tomorrow,”

Jacen sank down into a nearby chair. “That doesn’t give us much
time,”

“Then we will just have to make the most of our time together,
until we can come up with a better plan,” she said evenly.

“I think I like that idea,” he said with a lopsided grin on his
face and leaned down to kiss her.  Though, he couldn’t help but
feel as he held Tenal Ka in his arms that from this point on
things were going to get worse, not better.



* * *

Less than thirty meters away and two floors above the hiding
couple, housed the reason for Jacen’s fears.

Inside a room that seemed like an ordinary office, sat a man
watching a tiny computer screen.  He had been given strict orders
to monitor this individual at all times.  The job was simple
enough, given his previous experiences as a spy for the esteemed
Ta’a Chume.  But this time he wasn’t working for her. He was
working for her grandson-in-law.

Lord Zeille had come to him yesterday with his suspicions
regarding his wife’s recent odd behaviour.  Leaving their
apartment at all hours of the night and not returning until dawn,
and then spending the rest of the day avoiding.

The spy had given Zeille a small virtually untraceable locator
device to place on the Princess’ clothing. Because of its clear
colour, it would be almost impossible to find, even if one knew
what to look for.  And he could almost guarantee that the
Princess had no idea of her husband’s suspicions.  She didn’t
realize she was giving the hired spy all the proof he needed to
confirm those suspicions.

It was at least the second night in a row Princess Tenal Ka had
left her apartment and headed to the room that was currently
occupied by Jacen Solo, son of the former Chief of State Leia
Organa Solo.

The hired spy had also been lurking on the grounds of the Palace
Garden, which had suddenly seem to have been taken a great
interest in by the Princess.  It was there, right in the open
that he had seen her kissing the Solo boy.

He laughed quietly to himself. The two of them were making his
job unimaginably easy for him.  If they only knew, he thought
with a wicked grin.

He also remembered seeing someone else who had caught the
princess and her companion together.  From the information Zeille
had given him, the boy’s name was Zekk, a friend of the two
lovebirds.  He had taken care to ensure that Zekk hadn’t seen him
because that would have ruined everything right there. The young
man seemed too distracted by Princess Tenal Ka and Jacen Solo’s
public display of affection to notice him anyways. It was obvious
that Lord Zeille was not the only one being lied to.

He went back to watching his screen with the flashing dot on it. 
He would wait only to see if that dot would stay at her present
location, and then show his findings to Lord Zeille, along with
the other information he had gathered over the past couple of
days.

He had a feeling that his employer would be most impressed with
his findings.  But what he did with that information was his
business.  All the hired spy cared about was that he got paid for
his services.  And he deserved every credit of it.



















CHAPTER THIRTEEN





Jacen was awakened not by the loud pounding at his door, but by
the warnings his danger senses were giving off, telling him
trouble was nearby.

Tenal Ka was already alert and awake beside him. She sensed it
too. Something was definitely wrong.

He checked his wrist chronometer: 2:30am.

They had been watching an old holo made soon after his younger
brother Anakin had been born, and had fallen asleep on the couch.
To Jacen, sleep sounded a lot more favourable at the moment then
answering the pounding at his door.

To quote the famous words of my father, Jacen thought silently, I
have a bad feeling about this.

He turned to Tenal Ka. “Maybe if we don’t answer it, they’ll go
away.”

At that, the thumping at his door grew louder, and they could
hear muffled angry voices coming from the other side of it.

“They will not go away,” Tenal Ka said grimly, “because they know
I am here.”

She was right, of course, but that didn’t stop Jacen from
thinking that maybe there was still a way out of this mess they
had gotten themselves into.

“I’m gonna answer it. Stay here,” Jacen told her.

Tenal Ka shook her head defiantly. “I am going with you. We will
face whatever it is together,”

Jacen knew there was no way in Hapes she was going to change her
mind, and the banging at his door wasn’t getting any quieter, so
he just nodded, and together they both went to answer what was
waiting for them on the other side of that door.

Before Jacen even had the door opened all the way, five royal
palace guards, with nutrient cages on their backs pushed their
way in.  And before Jacen had a chance to ask what was going on,
two guards slammed him up against the wall and placed stun cuff
binders on his wrists.

A third guard standing nearby said, “Jacen Solo, you are under
arrest for your adulterous crimes against the Royal Family of
Hapes, and for conspiring with the Princess Tenal Ka Chume Ta’
Djo.”

“I order you to stop this at once,” commanded Tenal Ka, stepping
up to the guards.

“I’m afraid you have no authority to stop this, Princess Tenal
Ka,” came the icy voice of Zeille, walking into the room.

“What authority do you have to make these groundless accusations?
Jacen Solo has done nothing wrong,” Tenal Ka growled.

“Spare me your pathetic lies, Princess,” Zeille sneered, “I know
everything.  Did you really think you had me played for a fool? I
guess I may have given you that impression the way I pretended I
didn’t hear you sneaking out in the middle of the night. Or how
nonchalantly I would accept the excuses you gave me about all the
Hapan political business you needed to settle before we went on
our honeymoon,” he snorted loudly, “really, Tenal Ka, I had no
idea Jedi could be so dense,”

Tenal Ka’s face was growing red with anger and embarrassment at
her underestimating Zeille.  He had been the one playing her all
along, not the other way around.  How could she have been so
stupid?

Zeille flashed a wicked grin, enjoying every moment of exposing
the two foolish Jedi.  That’s why he had insisted on coming along
when the guards made the arrest.  The look on Tenal Ka’s face had
been priceless, knowing that he had outsmarted her all along.
Then there was the Solo boy, whom he took great pleasure in
watching being harassed by the guards.  Solo’s resistance was
pointless with the ysalamiri inside the nutrient cages that
Zeille had insisted each guard carry.  His force powers would be
of no help to him now.

All Tenal Ka could do was stand by and watch helplessly.  If
there were two or even three guards, she could take them easily.
But not five, plus Zeille and the ysalamiri, which created a
force bubble preventing her from using her force powers.

Zeille noticed the way she sizing up the guards.  “Don’t think
about doing anything stupid, Princess,” Zeille warned, “I have
all the proof I need to show your grandmother right here,”

Tenal Ka eyed the miniature holo cam Zeille pulled out of his
shirt pocket.  It took all of her strength and training as a Jedi
not to jump Zeille right there and show him what a real
Dathomirian warrior fought like.

Meanwhile, Jacen struggled uselessly in the hold of the guards.
They had him pinned face down on the ground, with the stun cuffs
binding his hands behind his back.

His mind struggled to comprehend everything that was going on
around him.  Being placed under arrest seemed surreal to him. He
had always known there were consequences for his actions but he
had never imagined it would end up like this.

He looked on with disgust as Zeille took complete satisfaction in
watching him suffer.

The moment the guards entered the room, Jacen had felt as if he
had suddenly gone blind.  He knew the ysalamiri must have been
Zeille’s idea so he wouldn’t cause any trouble.

“Get up,” ordered one of the guards holding him.  Jacen was
hauled to his feet and shoved in front of Zeille.

“I hope you had your fun, Solo,” Zeille spat, “because the fun
ends here,” he motioned to the guards and they pushed Jacen
towards the door.

Jacen managed to maneuver enough in the guards grip to get one
last look at Tenal Ka.  Her expression was full of anger and
shock, but not despair. She had that look of sheer determination
in her eyes that Jacen had seen so many times before when she was
faced with what seemed like a hopeless situation.

And that look was the last thing he saw before the guards dragged
him away.

Zeille moved to the doorway where Tenal Ka stood watching the
guards take Jacen away from her.

“I assure you he will receive the best treatment available in
jail,”

Tenal sensed the falseness in his voice.  She sucked in a quick
breath.  “This is not over,”

“You’re right.  It’s only the beginning,” and with that he walked
out of the room and slammed the door shut in her face.

Tenal Ka leaned back against the door.  A lesser person would
have given into despair at that moment, but not her. She was a
proven Jedi Knight and Dathomirian warrior, and when faced with a
challenge she met it head on. Besides, she would never give
Zeille the satisfaction of thinking he had won.  She promised
herself she would find a way to get Jacen out of this mess they
had gotten themselves into.  No matter what the cost.





















CHAPTER FOURTEEN





It was around 4:00 in the morning, when Jaina received the
distressing call from Tenal Ka with the news that Jacen had been
arrested.

She knew her brother was going through a hard time but she hadn’t
expected him to do something this drastic. Though by the tone of
Tenal Ka’s voice, it seemed to Jaina there was more going on than
what her friend was telling her. Tenal Ka promised she would
explain everything once Jaina got down to the city jail.  Jaina
had asked her why she couldn’t just tell her over the com link,
and Tenal Ka had responded by saying it was too complicated to
explain over the com.

Jaina had quickly rounded up Anakin, Tahiri, and Zekk.  They
borrowed one of the Palace’s many landspeeders and rode it to the
city jail where Jacen was being held.

Tenal Ka was waiting just inside for them when they arrived, and
the explanation she had in store for Jaina was anything but what
she had expected.



* * *

They had thrown him in here almost two hours ago, and Jacen was
still rubbing his wrists in effort to get back the circulation
from when the stun cuffs had been placed on him.

At least the ysalimiri are gone, he thought with relief.

They probably figured a Jedi surrounded by a force field wasn’t
going to cause any trouble.

Still, he was a long way off from being in a good situation. No
one had come in since they had brought him here, and he wondered
if that had been Zeille’s plan all along.  Just dump him here and
forget about him.  The likeliness of that happening, though, was
extremely small. He knew Tenal Ka would never let that happen.

Jacen heard the door to the cell area open and in walked one of
the guards that had brought him here, followed by Tenal Ka… and
Jaina.  He knew by the look on his sister’s face that Tenal Ka
had told her everything.

They approached his cell while the guard who had escorted them in
hung back a few feet, just in case anybody caused any trouble.

Jacen spoke first.  “I wish you didn’t have to see me like this,”
he said to the both of them, through the clear force field of his
cell.

“I’ve seen you look worse,” Jaina remarked.

Jacen cringed at hearing the anger in her voice, but he knew he
deserved it.

Tenal Ka sensed the growing tension between the two siblings and
said in a confident voice, “we will get you out of here,”

“It’s not that not simple,” Jacen said shaking his head,
“Zeille’s not just going to have a sudden change of heart and let
me walk out of here.  He can make these charges against me stick,
can’t he?”

Tenal Ka said nothing. They had both seen the holo cam in
Zeille’s hands, and she had a feeling that Zeille was showing his
proof to her grandmother at this very moment.  She closed her
eyes briefly.  It was only a matter of time before her parents
found out.  She could picture the look of disappointment on her
mother and father’s faces, but she shoved that image aside.  At
the moment, she had a more immediate problem to take care of.

“What will happen to Jacen if he’s convicted?”  Jaina asked her
friend.

“He could face life imprisonment,” she said in a low voice
looking directly at Jacen.

Jacen felt his breath catch in his throat at the mention of that.
He needed to sit down.  A cot was the only thing in his cell, so
he went over and sat down on it.

Jaina regarded her brother for a moment then turned back to Tenal
Ka.  “What’s going to happen to you?”

“Most likely, the public humiliation of myself and my family, and
the possibility of losing my title as princess and heir to the
throne,” she answered coolly, but both Jacen and Jaina could
sense she was anything but calm.

“They can’t do that,” Jacen protested.

“Ta’a Chume has the power to do whatever she deems necessary for
the good of the Hapan people,” Tenal Ka explained.

“But what about your father – “ Jaina began.

“There is only so much he can do. My grandmother is still very
influential in the Hapan Court.”

It was at that moment when both Tenal Ka and Jacen comprehended
the extent the consequences of their actions had brought on.
Their lives would never be the same again.

“Look, we’re going to get you out of here,” Jaina said to her
brother, not accepting defeat, “ we’ll go straight to the Hapan
Court if we have to.”

“Jaina,” Jacen began, knowing exactly what ideas were rolling
around in his sister’s head, “don’t get yourself into trouble
because of the mistakes Tenal Ka and I have made,”

“You’re right.  This mess is both of your faults.  If you had
just been honest about how you really felt about each other none
of this would have happened.  Instead you both pretended that
those feelings didn’t exist.  Everybody else knew you two were
meant to be together, but you two had to find that out for
yourselves, no one else could do it for you.”

“Friend Jaina, I am sorry that we lied to you,” Tenal Ka said
ashamed.

“We just didn’t want you to get involved,” Jacen added.

“Newsflash Jacen, I am involved,”

“Jaina, I know you’re angry – “

“You bet I’m angry. Two of the people I’m closest to in this
galaxy have been lying to my face for days now.  Did you think I
wouldn’t have approved?  I’ve been praying you guys would get
together since the first day I saw you two lay eyes on each
other.”

Jacen and Tenal Ka could do nothing but stand there and let Jaina
vent her anger.  She had every reason to be upset with them, and
Jacen hadn’t thought anything could be worse than the possibility
of facing a life sentence in prison, until he heard the hurt in
his sister’s voice.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry Jaina.  I really am,” he
apologized, “we thought we were protecting you,”

Jaina’s eyes widened as a sudden realization struck her.  “Zekk
knows too, doesn’t he?  That’s why he’s been acting so strange.”

“We didn’t tell him. He found out by accident,” Jacen said in his
friend’s defense.

“And he didn’t tell me?”

“Because I asked him not to. I told you, we didn’t want you
involved in this whole mess,” it had seemed like a good enough
reason at the time, but now Jacen realized how lame it sounded.
Jaina was involved now anyway, and felt betrayed because of how
they had deceived her.

“Do not be mad at Zekk. This is not his fault,” Tenal Ka said to
her.

“So, was I the last to know?” She felt so stupid for not having
figured it out on her own.

“No, Anakin and Tahiri didn’t know either,” Jacen replied, but he
knew that did little to comfort her.

At that point the guard that had been watching them, growled,
“your time is up,” to Tenal Ka and Jaina.

“We will be back,” Tenal Ka promised him, stepping as close to
the force field as she dared.

He just nodded, wishing he could just touch her for a brief
moment.

“Don’t worry, me and Anakin are already working on a plan to get
you out of here,” Jaina assured him, and this time when she
spoke, there was no anger or bitterness in her voice, just
genuine concern for her brother.

“Be careful,” he cautioned her.

“Hey,” Jaina said with a Solo grin on her face, “aren’t I
always?”

The guard came over then and ushered them back out into the
waiting area.

The visit from his sister and Tenal Ka had left Jacen with a
renewed sense of hope that maybe things would turn out all right
after all.





“I found it,” Anakin Solo announced, picking up the delicate,
almost crystal clear tracking device from Tenal Ka’s lizard hide
armor.

“So that’s how Zeille was able to trace her,” said Jaina.

Anakin nodded.  “I’ve heard of near undetectable tracking
devices, but never anything like this,” he remarked.

It had taken him nearly four hours of scanning and rescanning to
locate it, relying heavily on his force senses to help him find
it.  To an untrained eye, the person would have never noticed the
device, but solving puzzles was right up Anakin’s alley.  He had
figured that for Zeille to have known exactly where Tenal Ka was
at all times, he would’ve had to have bugged her clothing. But it
would’ve been too difficult to bug every piece of clothing she
owned, so it made sense to place the locator on something she
always used.

“I should not have been so naïve,” Tenal Ka scolded herself. “All
along he suspected something and I believed his whole innocent
act,”

“Some people are just born liars,” Jaina commented.

The room grew quiet because everyone present knew the remark had
been directed at Zekk.

Jaina had been giving him the cold shoulder since she had come
out from visiting Jacen.  Zekk remembered placing his arm around
Jaina’s shoulders in an effort to comfort her, but she had shoved
him away, accusing him of knowing what was going on between Jacen
and Tenal Ka all along.  He had tried to justify his not telling
her by saying he had only recently found out and that he had
given Jacen his word he wouldn’t say anything. Jaina didn’t
listen to any of it, and was even more furious with him when he
said he did it to keep her from getting involved, and had stormed
out of the jail

That quiet ride back to the Palace was the longest fifteen
minutes of Zekk’s life.

“I’m sure those tracking devices are pretty common on Hapes,”
said Tahiri, trying to diffuse some of the tension in the room.

Tenal Ka nodded.  “But Anakin is right, I have never seen a model
like this one before either.”

“Zeille must’ve paid quite a few credits for it,” Zekk commented.

“Did you talk to your parents?” Jaina asked.

“I did,” Tenal Ka had walked into Anakin’s room only moments
before his discovery.  She had spent the past few hours with her
parents explaining everything.  Their initial reactions had not
been as upsetting as Tenal Ka had feared. She could tell they
were disappointed in the dishonest manner Jacen and her had gone
about their relationship. But she also felt a sense of approval
radiating from them in that she had chosen Jacen over Zeille. Her
mother had commented she had never liked Zeille in the first
place, and her father had said he would try his best to keep
Jacen out of prison, but they both knew Ta’a Chume would fight
him on it. Both her parents would also do their best to make sure
their daughter wasn’t brought before the Hapan Court and removed
of her title.

Tenal Ka could care less about the title, but if it was taken
from her she would no longer be able to rule the Hapes Cluster
one day, and it would most likely be one of her grandmother’s
scheming spies who would end up on the throne.  If that happened,
the entire Hapes Cluster would be doomed.

“Well, what happened?” Jaina prompted her when she didn’t
continue.

“They said they will try and do whatever they can to help us,”

“That’s it?  They weren’t angry with you or anything?” Tahiri
said in disbelief.

“They were not exactly pleased,” she admitted, “but I got the
impression that they approved of my relationship with Jacen. They
just wished I hadn’t returned home and got married so hastily.”

“Wow,” Anakin remarked, “I hope our parents take the news about
Jacen being in jail and everything else that well.”

“What if your parents can’t get Jacen out of jail?  Zeille has
proof of the two of you having an affair,” said Jaina.

“Then I will get him out of there myself,” stated Tenal Ka.

“We will get him out of there together,” Jaina corrected her.

“I stand corrected, friend Jaina,”

Jaina was shocked to see Tenal Ka give her a small smile. Jacen
must be rubbing off on her, she thought with a smile of her own.

“Well, then, what are we waiting for?  Anakin, can you pull up a
map of the jail Jacen’s in?”  Said Jaina.

“We should make sure we know the entire layout, as well as where
each guard is stationed,” Tenal Ka advised.

Anakin called up the layout of the jail on his holo projector,
along with a map of the sewer system beneath it.

“Good thinking, Anakin,” Jaina praised her brother, “if we come
in from the sewer we have a better chance of getting inside
unseen.”

“Are you sure this is such a good idea?” Zekk said in a low voice
beside her.

“Have you got a better one?” She shot at him.

“No, but what happens if you get caught?”

“We won’t get caught,”

“How can you be so sure? You’ve only been in the place once,”

“We’ll go back tomorrow when we visit Jacen, but we won’t tell
him what we’re planning because he would be completely against
it.  Look,” she said in an annoyed tone, “this is only a backup
plan just in case Tenal Ka’s parents can’t get Jacen out of
there.  If you’re afraid of getting caught, then don’t come.”

“I never said I was scared,”

Jaina ignored him and went back to studying the map up on the
holo projector.

Zekk let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m gonna get some air,” then
walked out of the room.

“Jaina, my friend,” Tenal Ka said to her after Zekk had left,
“you should not be so hard on Zekk.  He did not wish to lie to
you.”

“Well, right now helping my brother is more important than Zekk’s
hurt feeling,” she replied without looking up from the display.

After a few moments of intense concentration, Jaina got up from
the floor and grabbed her jacket.

“I need to get a few things from the Lightning Rod,” she
explained and then left.

Anakin quirked an eyebrow up at Tenal Ka.  “She isn’t going to
the ship for her tools, is she?”

“No, she has something more important she needs to take care of,”
Tenal Ka replied.





















CHAPTER FIFTEEN





Tenal Ka regarded the holoscreen in front of her, hanging on to
every last word being said by the person on the other end of the
communication.  While at the same time struggling to keep any
hint of emotion from showing up in her expression.

“I am sorry, my daughter that there is nothing more your father
or I can do.  Ta’a Chume is invoking the ancient Hapan marriage
tradition laws to keep the court on her side.  She’s having Jacen
moved to a higher security facility,” Teneniel Djo sadly
explained to Tenal Ka.  “His parents have been contacted and are
enroute to Hapes as we speak. I am afraid we have no choice but
to wait until they get here before we act again.”

Tenal Ka nodded solemnly. “I understand, mother. Ambassador
Organa Solo is a skilled diplomat. I am certain she will find a
way to help her son,” she said confidently, and then ended the
transmission.

“My mother may be one of the best diplomats in the galaxy, but
all her years of experience and negotiations aren’t going to help
her here.  The New Republic has no jurisdiction in the Hapes
Cluster, because Hapes isn’t an official member of it.” Jaina
said with an exasperated sigh.

“Then I guess we’re on our own then,” said Zekk.

“Zekk’s right,” Jaina began, “we can’t wait for my mom to get
here because we don’t even know if she’ll be able to do anything.
We have to act now.”

There was no argument from anyone in the room.  They all knew
there would not be a better time to rescue Jacen. If they waited
too long, he would get moved, and their chances of getting him
out would be much more difficult. It was time to put their plan
into action.

“Well,” Anakin chimed in, “what are we waiting for?” He said,
stealing his sister’s favourite expression.



* * *

It stunk down there. That was the only way for Jaina to describe
the wreaking mess of a sewer that she and her friends were
sloshing around in. If they had breather masks it wouldn’t have
been too bad, but they didn’t have that luxury.  Jaina was sure
Tenal Ka could have swiped some for them, but that would have
taken time and time was something they were almost out of.

“How much farther?” She asked turning to Anakin.

Anakin regarded the miniature computer device in his hand. “About
another 20 meters and we should reach the sewer grate that’ll
take us near where Jacen’s cell is.”

Jaina pulled her com link out from her pocket and spoke into it.

“Tenal Ka, are you ready?”

“I am, friend Jaina,” came the warrior girl’s instant reply.

“Good, begin distracting the guards in the next couple of
minutes,” Jaina told her.

“Understood, Tenal Ka out.”

Jaina thumbed off her com link and put it back in her pocket.

Not long after, the group came upon the tunnel that would take
them up into a designated storage area in the jail.

Using their lightsabers, they were able to cut through the metal
grate blocking their entrance in a matter of seconds. With the
aid of her glow rod, Jaina led the group into the tunnel. The
farther they got, the more she could see the tunnel was becoming
a tighter fit.  She hoped her brother’s calculations were right
and that their current path would stay wide enough for a human
being to pass through.

She felt the path sloping upwards and noticed the smell of the
dingy sewers was getting fainter the farther they moved away from
it, and was thankful for that.

Before long, the tunnel area became so low, that the group had no
choice but to crawl the rest of the way on the smooth concrete
surface.

After endless minutes of crawling in darkness, since it proved
difficult to crawl with a glow rod in your mouth, Jaina could see
a light getting brighter on the path in front of them. The light
made her crawl faster, despite the persistent aching now present
in her hands and knees.

Within moments, Jaina and the rest of the rescue party arrived at
the origin of the light.

The tunnel, just as Anakin had calculated, ended at the entrance
to a storage room filled with all kinds of weaponry from blaster
pistols to laser cannons.

Jaina’s hand went to her lightsaber to cut the grate off, but
Anakin’s voice stopped her.

“Wait,” he warned her, “it’s probably wired into an alarm system.
Let me do it.”  He crawled forward, and Jaina did her best to get
out of his way in the cramped are so he could get to work.

Anakin closed his eyes and fell into the force.  He reached out
with his mind toward the grate in front of him.  With a little
probing on his part, he discovered the tiny sensor alarm that was
built into it.  As soon as it was touched it would send out a
silent alarm to the rest of the building, and in moments the room
would be swarming with Hapan police.

“Can you deactivate it?” Tahiri’s voice came quietly from behind
him.

“I think so,” he replied, “I just have to be careful I don’t trip
the alarm in the process,”

“Let’s hope not, or this is going to be some short rescue,” Zekk
murmured.

Anakin ignored him and put everything else in his mind aside, and
focused on the task at hand.  This job would require all of his
concentration, there was no room for mistakes.  His brother’s
freedom depended on it.  He let his eyes fall shut and mentally
pictured pulling apart the wires that would set off the alarm.
When he felt confident that he wouldn’t trip the alarm, he used
the force to disconnect the small blue and red wires connected to
the alarm’s sensor. There was a quiet snap and the wires were
cut.  With the alarm no longer a problem, Anakin mentally pushed
the grate off the hole.  He jumped down in the open storage area,
with the others right behind him.



* * *

“As the Princess of Hapes, I demand you allow me to speak with
the prisoner,” said Tenal Ka in her most authoritative voice.

The captain of the Hapan police force gave a sigh, the tenth one
in the last five minutes.

“As I’ve already explained to you, your highness,” he said as
patiently as he could from where he sat behind his desk, “I have
my orders not to allow anyone to see Jacen Solo before the
transfer is complete.”

Tenal Ka just gave him her iciest glare, as if to say how dare he
refuse to follow her command. But it was all just for show. If
she wanted to she could pull a force trick and make him take her
to Jacen, but that wasn’t part of the plan.  She was supposed to
keep him here for as long as possible to give her friends the
time they needed to make their rescue.

“I’m sorry, Princess, but there’s nothing I can do,” he said in
an unsympathetic tone,” now if you don’t mind my men and I need
to get on with the transfer,” he said rising up out of his seat.

“Who ordered the transfer?” She was desperate now and hoped the
captain couldn’t tell she was stalling.

“You’re not authorized to know that information,” he responded.

Tenal Ka stared at him blankly. Not authorized?  This had to be
her grandmother’s doing. This whole thing had her conspiratory
touch all over it.

The captain didn’t wait for Tenal Ka to respond.  He signaled to
the five guards that were nearby and stepped out from behind the
desk.

Tenal Ka followed him and the guards down a long narrow corridor.
She was relieved to notice they weren’t heading in the direction
of the cell area, but her relief soon vanished when she felt the
force cease to exist around her.

The guard captain opened a nearby storage door, went inside and
came out moments later, dragging three nutrient cages out with
him.  He strapped one to his back and handed the other two to two
of the guards.

Now, trapped inside the ysalmiri’s force bubble, Tenal Ka had no
hope of using her force powers to stall the guards any longer.
She didn’t have any weapons either.  She had been forced to give
up her lightsaber to security when she had entered the building. 
She could only hope she had bought her friends enough time to
free Jacen.





“You too might want to hurry it up,” Zekk said impatiently, from
his position near the cell entrance door, “Tenal Ka can’t keep
them occupied forever,”

“We’re working on it,” Jaina told him, as Anakin and her
continued to slowly cut through the force field’s control box. It
was made of cortosis ore, a rare type of material that shuts down
lightsabers when the blade touches it.  It was a long and
painstaking process to cut right through it.

Zekk and Tahiri were standing in attack positions near the
entrance, ready for the first wave of guards to come through, if
they didn’t get Jacen out in time.

“Jaina, I want all of you guys to leave right now,” came Jacen’s
voice from the other side of the force field. Jaina could hear
the frustration evident in his voice.  He feared for each one of
his friend’s safety, knowing it wouldn’t be long before the
guards tired with Tenal Ka’s attempt at stalling them, and came
in here.

“Look, we’re not leaving here without you,” the tone of his
twin’s voice indicated the argument was over.

“I think we’re through,” Anakin exclaimed.

Their lightsabers continued to chip away until they were through
the last of the cortosis ore.  The control box was revealed, and
Anakin cut through the lock with his violet blade. The panel slid
open, revealing hundreds of tiny, intertwined cables. Anakin
didn’t hesitate for a second. He made a small arch with his
blade, and with one swift stroke, cut through each one of the
wires.  The control box began to smoke, and a moment later the
force field surrounding Jacen’s cell came down.

Jaina ran to her brother and gave him a fierce hug.  She pulled
away from him a few seconds later.  “Your stay in these wonderful
accommodations is over. Now, let’s hurry up and get out of here
before this place becomes permanent residence for all of us.

The words were barely out of her mouth, as an alarm began blaring
throughout the entire precinct.

Anakin must’ve accidentally set off an alarm when he sliced
through the cables, Jaina thought to herself.

“I think we’re out of time,” said Tahiri looking through the
small glass slit in the door.  Zekk rushed to her side in time to
see at least a dozen well armed Hapan guards heading this way.
Each of the guards had something strapped to their backs. Zekk
strained to see what it was and soon recognized the rectangular
shape of nutrient cages. They were already outnumbered, and with
the ysalmiri’s affecting their force powers, their chances of
escape were gradually getting smaller.

Jaina could just make out the sound of the thundering footsteps
of the guards through the deafening alarm. They needed to get out
of there.  Now.

“What are we waiting for?  Let’s get out of here,” she yelled, so
the others could hear her.

Zekk knew it was already too late for that.  The guards were
already pounding at the door trying to get it open. Zekk had used
his lightsaber to melt the lock, but that would only hold them
for a short time.  It would only take the guards a few minutes
before they used their blasters to knock the hinges off the door
and charge into the room.

“Take Jacen and get him out of here.  I’ll cover you,” Zekk said
to them.

Jaina began to protest.

“I’ll be right behind you,” he assured her,” now get out of here
before they figure out we came in through the sewer.

Beside Zekk, Tahiri switched on her lightsaber.  “I’ll stay with
you,”

Zekk nodded his appreciation while Anakin and Jaina took off with
Jacen down the hall, back towards the tunnel.

It would only be a matter of minutes, if that, before the guards
came barging through the door. Zekk could already hear the door
hinges beginning to give way.  Zekk ran his hands through his
hair.  They needed to hold off the Hapan guards only long enough
to allow themselves to escape.  Then it came to him, and he felt
stupid for not having thought about it sooner.

“Tahiri, help me bring the ceiling down over her,”

The two of them began slicing away at the concrete ceiling. Large
chunks of it began piling up on one another, but they didn’t stop
until the pile was as high as the ceiling had been. When that
happened the guards broke through door and scrambled into the
room.  The one that appeared to be in charge began barking orders
at his men to clear away the deliberate cave in of the ceiling.

Tahiri and Zekk stood safely on the other side of the collapsed
rubble, and even though they couldn’t hear what was being said on
the side with the guards, they had a feeling they should get out
of there before the guards blasted the rubble away.

Zekk wiped the sweat off his brow. “We’ve done our job, now let’s
get the hell out of here,”

“Right,” Tahiri agreed.

The two of them left the disaster area behind them and headed
after their friends.

























CHAPTER SIXTEEN





Somehow, Jaina didn’t find the return trip through the sewer to
be as disgusting and repulsive  as her first trip through it.
Maybe it was because she didn’t have the luxury of taking her
time navigating through the knee-deep sewage, with the
possibility of an army of guards bearing down on them.

Jacen didn’t have a weapon, so if it came down to a fight, they
were definitely outnumbered. Jaina was never discouraged by the
odds, both her family and herself had spent the majority of their
lives defying the odds.

If she had memorized their route correctly, they only had about
thirty to forty more yards to go before they would be out in the
open.  And if Tenal Ka had gotten out of the police station
without too much trouble, she would be waiting for her friends at
the entrance to the sewer.

A thought suddenly occurred to Jaina that she should have used
the comlink to tell Tenal Ka that they were on their way, so
their friend would not be worried, or make an attempt at a rescue
herself.  She fumbled around in her jacket pockets for her
comlink.  When she finally found it, she let out a groan when she
realized it had been turned off since the last time she spoke
with Tenal Ka, because she hadn’t wanted to take a chance of the
comlink going off in the cell area where there might have been
guards stationed.  Tenal Ka could have been trying to warn them
all this time that there were guards blocking their escape.

She switched on the comlink. There was a burst of static that
echoed throughout the tunnel, and then, “-ina, are you there?”

Jaina brought the comlink up to her face, “I’m here.  We ran into
a little trouble, but we should be coming out to where you are
shortly.”

There was a pause. “Is Jacen with you?”

Jaina let out a small smile, despite the seriousness of their
situation.  “Yeah, he’s right here sloshing around in the sewage
with me.” Even though she couldn’t hear Tenal Ka give any verbal
sign of relief, Jaina could feel through the force, her friend’s
worry for Jacen’s safety decrease significantly. Jacen could feel
it too.  She could tell by the way his cheeks flushed slightly at
Tenal Ka’s concern for him.

“Is everything still going according to plan?”  Jaina asked
hopefully.

“Yes,” Tenal Ka answered, back to the business at hand, “I had no
trouble with our escape plan.”

Jacen frowned at his siblings. “Do I want to know what the rest
of this escape plan involves?”

“No,” Jaina and Anakin answered in unison.

Jacen said nothing and kept wading his way through the repulsive
sewage water.

They had only gone a few more yards, when the opening of the
sewer revealed itself.  The glowing moonlight lit the rest of the
way for them.  When they reached the opening, they saw Tenal Ka
waving at them from the bottom of the Rock Dragon’s boarding
ramp.



* * *

When she saw her friends rushing towards her, Tenal Ka felt her
heart skip a beat at the sight of seeing Jacen, free, and
unharmed.  She desperately wanted to run to him and kiss him
passionately, but knew that they still had a long way to go
before they were safe.

Alarmed suddenly, that there was only the three of them, Tenal Ka
called out to her friends, “where is Zekk and Tahiri?”

Jaina, nearly out of breath from running, managed to get out,
“they were creating a distraction for the guards, but they should
be right behind us,” she didn’t sound convinced, but sure enough,
Tahiri and Zekk burst out of the sewer at full-speed a few
seconds later.

They were both shouting and waving their arms.

“Start the ship!” They were yelling at the top of their lungs.

Tenal Ka, didn’t hesitate. She bounded up the boarding ramp and
rushed into the cockpit to start the pre-flight procedures. Jaina
joined her a split second later.

In the middle of running the pre-flight diagnostics, Jaina
glanced out the cockpit’s view port in time to see the first
round of blaster fire come from the tunnel entrance and graze the
hull of the ship.

Jaina gave up on the pre-flight diagnostics, which wasn’t a good
idea for any ship, but right now they didn’t have the time. She
heard the boarding ramp hiss shut, and new that Zekk and Tahiri
were safely aboard.  Without waiting for anyone to buckle their
crash webbing, Jaina lifted the Rock Dragon off the ground, and
took the ship at full throttle towards the night sky.

Without ships of their own, the guards were left to fire their
blasters uselessly at the escaping ship.

Jaina let out a whoop of joy at finally being free, but her
celebrating was cut short when the sensors started beeping in
front of her.

“What is it?” Tenal Ka asked from the co-pilot seat.

“Patrol ships, three of them. I guess that’s all they could put
together in such a short time.”  She peered closely at the
display in front of her and frowned. “Two of them are the new
Hapan battle dragon models.”

“They will most likely be well-armed,” Tenal Ka put in.

“I really wanted to hear that,” Jaina said sarcastically with a
sigh, “Well, we’ll just have to out maneuver them, that’s all,”
she replied in a confident tone.

That was when the first laser fire attack came.

The shields buckled a little, but held.  It would take more then
a little laser fire to bring down the Rock Dragon’s  shields.

“You better buckle your crash webbing,” Jaina told Tenal Ka a
split second before she put the ship into a series of barrel
rolls and other evasive maneuvers.

“Need any help?”  Came Zekk’s voice from the cockpit’s entrance.
He stumbled in the doorway as the ship took another hit.  He went
to take a seat behind Jaina, but Tenal Ka motioned for him to sit
where she was.  She knew Zekk was a much more experienced pilot
then her, and it would probably take him and Jaina working
together to get them out of this alive.

“Take the weapons systems,” Jaina said without looking at him.

Zekk turned on the fully charged laser cannons, and began firing
in random patterns at the pursuing ships. Meanwhile, Jaina worked
on evading the pursuing Hapan ships while trying to get them into
open space, so they could go to lightspeed.  The Hapan battle
dragons were faster  than the Rock Dragon, and gaining on them
quickly. Jaina coaxed as much speed as possible out of the little
ship.  She could hear the straining engines, but pushed the ship
farther. They managed to burst out of the night sky on Hapes and
into black space.

Zekk had been able to cripple the smaller patrol boat, and it was
now retreating.  But the bigger Hapan ships were better equipped
to handling the laser fire Zekk was throwing at them, so his
shots had caused little or no damage.

Now, in the open, Jaina had set the coordinates for lightspeed.
She watched the timer tick back, while continuing to dodge the
other ships. It seemed like forever, but the counter finally
reached zero, and the Rock Dragon was swallowed into the safety
of hyperspace.

Jaina let go of the controls and sank back in the pilot’s seat,
heaving a sigh of relief.  After a moment, she turned to her two
friends with a lopsided grin and said, “see, I told you all along
my plan would work out just fine,”











CHAPTER SEVENTEEN





A week after the entire rescue ordeal had occurred, Jacen Solo
paced anxiously in the living room of the Solo family’s
apartment.  Tenal Ka had called him twenty minutes earlier to let
him know she had come out of hyperspace and was approaching
Courscant.  He glanced at his wrist chronometer for the fiftieth
time in the last two minutes.  She would be here anytime now.

After narrowly escaping from Hapes, Jaina had set the Rock Dragon
on a course heading for Courscant. Upon reaching their home
planet, Jaina had used the comm. to contact their parents. She
told them it was vital that they meet her in the Solo family’s
private docking bay right away.  Han and Leia had asked
questions, but their daughter did not offer any answers, fearing
that the communication channels might be monitored by unfriendly
sources.

With the Rock Dragon docked beside Han Solo’s ship, the
Millennium Falcon, the group had disembarked from the ship and
into the waiting sights of Han and Leia.  Both of them let out
gasps of surprise when they saw that their oldest son was no
longer locked up in a Hapan jail cell.  Their expressions filled
with joy, the relieved parents had grabbed Jacen and pulled him
into a fierce embrace. His parents, especially his mother, had
barely managed to stop hugging and kissing him long enough to get
out questions like, “how?” or “when did this happen?” Leia’s were
eyes filled with tears of happiness at seeing her son free, and
Jacen noticed his father was having trouble controlling his
emotions as well, for his eyes were glistening with unshed tears.
His mother scolded them all for not calling ahead and telling her
and Han the good news.

When no one said anything, Han and Leia cast suspicious glances
at their other two children and their friends.

Jaina had given them a sheepish grin, hoping her parents would
handle what she had to tell them better than she had thought they
would.  Jacen had watched her spend part of the flight home
rehearsing how she was going to explain the mess they were in to
their parents.  But the look on both their faces now told her
that they wanted nothing but the truth.  Her planned explanation
forgotten, Jaina along with help from her brothers and her
friends, spilt the entire story about breaking Jacen out of jail.

Jacen remembered the frowns on both his parent’s faces getting
deeper and their eyes wider, as they proceeded to explain
everything that had happened.

The look of disappointment on his mother’s face had been
understandable, considering what her children and their friends
had just done.  Understanding and acceptance, even pride, was
evident on her face as well. Even though they didn’t say it out
loud, and probably never would, Jacen knew his parents had been
secretly proud at what the young Jedi Knights had done.  They had
accomplished something that the two of them had been unable to do
because of the simple fact that they would likely end up on some
prison colony for the rest of their lives, or worse.

As soon as she had heard the entire story, Leia began to take
charge of the situation, just like the leader she was.  She had
said that she needed to contact the Hapan Embassy in the Hapes
Cluster immediately, to try and forestall any future incidents
that might arise as a result of the repercussions of the young
Jedi Knights actions.  She had taken Tenal Ka with her, hoping
that her royal status on Hapes would help to resolve the
situation.  Leia had ordered everyone else to go back to the Solo
residence and to wait there until they heard from her.

Within those next few hours, Leia and Tenal Ka working together
had managed to devise a plan that would absolve Jacen and
everyone else involved of any punishment.  That was of course, if
the plan worked.  And that was the reason Tenal Ka had gone back
to Hapes: to prove her friend’s innocence.  They had all begged
Tenal Ka to let them go with her, especially Jacen because he
felt like this whole mess was his fault. Tenal Ka had been
grateful for her friend’s support, but had firmly refused their
accompanying her, saying that this was her planet and as heir to
the throne this was her responsibility to take care of. She had
left the next morning, with barely a word to Jacen or anyone
else.  He remembered her kissing him good-bye, and quietly
promising him that everything would work out fine.  He had
believed her, but had an awful feeling inside his gut that it
would come a t a terrible price for Tenal Ka.

He hadn’t spoken to her in days, not until she had called to
inform that she would be landing soon, and that she would meet
him in his apartment, revealing no clues as to the outcome of her
trip to Hapes.

His mother was busy as usual, stuck in a meeting about what to do
with the rising number of refugees, due to the increasing amount
of worlds that the Yuuzhan Vong were taking as their own. His
brother and sister had said they were going to help Zekk work on
the Lightning Rod now that Tenal Ka had brought it back with her.
Zekk had been forced to leave his prize possession behind when
the group had to make their quick exit from Hapes.

Jacen’s father had also made up some excuse about repairs that
needed to be done on the Falcon.  He knew his family was just
trying to give him some privacy, which he was extremely grateful
for, considering him and Tenal Ka hadn’t had a moment alone
together since they had landed on Courscant a week ago.

They hadn’t said much on the return trip to Courscant either.
They just sat together in the Rock Dragon’s lounge, happy to be
together again, and not wanting to think about what the future
had in store for them.

The door chime interrupted Jacen’s thoughts and his pacing.  He
knew it was her without even having to reach out with the force.

Not knowing what to expect, Jacen pressed the switch that would
open the doors.

With a quiet swoosh, the doors slid apart, revealing a neutral
faced Tenal Ka.  He invited her in, and led her out of the stuffy
apartment and out onto the balcony.  A mid afternoon breeze
ruffled through their hair and clothes, as Jacen leaned up
against the balcony’s railing, with Tenal Ka beside him.

This setting felt familiar to him, except now they weren’t on
Hapes overlooking a beautiful garden, and the relationship
between them had changed drastically since that night on the
palace’s balcony.

“The plan that Ambassador Solo and I devised worked,” she said at
last, turning to him, “with the help of my parents, we were able
to convince the council that Jaina and everyone else was
attacking under my orders.”

As princess, Tenal Ka had the right to order anyone to do
anything she wanted, to refuse, was disrespectful to the entire
Royal Family and was punishable by execution in the Royal Court.
Jacen wanted to break out in a huge grin, relieved that nothing
would happen to either his siblings or friends, but something in
Tenal Ka’s face stopped him.

“There’s more,” he stated, knowing she hadn’t told him
everything.

Tenal Ka sighed, knowing she was going to have to tell him.

“I took responsibility for everything that happened between us in
front of the Royal Court,” she said slowly.

Jacen sucked in a breath and ran his hands through his thick
hair.  “Tenal Ka – “

She held up a hand to prevent him from saying anything more.
“Please, Jacen, let me finish,” he nodded silently and she
continued, “it was the only way to get you absolved of all
charges.  I had to tell them what they wanted to hear,”

“And what exactly was that?” He asked, trying to keep his
emotions under control.

She looked away from him and stared out over the balcony,
watching the many different speeders and ships pass through the
air on Courscant.  “I said that I forced you into having an
affair with me,”

Jacen’s eyes grew wide. “You said what?”  He shook his head in
exasperation, “I can’t believe you did that.  If I had known you
were going to do that, I would’ve never let you leave without
me,”

“It was the only way to get the charges against you dropped,” she
said, trying to make him understand.

“What happened to you when you said that?”  He was afraid that
her statement may have cost her her rightful position as heir to
the throne.

“The Royal Council decided that the best punishment for my
actions would be public humiliation in front of my family and the
Royal Court of my confessed infidelity,” she tried to say it
nonchalantly, as if it were something she were used to, but Jacen
knew her better than that.  Tenal Ka was a proud warrior, and it
must have been so hard for her to stand there and let them
disgrace her, especially with her parents watching. Tenal Ka
could care less about what those scheming Hapan nobles thought of
her, but Jacen knew she hated more than anything embarrassing her
parents the way she did.

“What did your parents have to say about your decision?”

“They were proud of me for defending the honour of my friends,”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that by yourself,” he said
taking both her hands in his, but he understood now why she
hadn’t let him anyone go with her.  She hadn’t wanted them to see
her  publicly disgraced on her home planet.  But Jacen wouldn’t
have cared, he would have supported her even if she was
humiliated in front of the entire New Republic.

He needed to make her understand that no matter what anybody said
about her, he would never stop loving her, and that whatever
happened he would be there for her.  That’s what led him to say,
“we’re a team, you and me, and that means you don’t always have
to do things on your own.  You have to learn to let me help you,”

She knew he was right, and he knew she knew he was right.  She
had spent her whole life depending on herself and no one else.
While she thought that had made her stronger, in reality it had
made her weaker.  She didn’t know how to ask for help because she
had spent so many years relying on her own skills and wit.

Jacen was staring at her, watching her ponder over his statement,
and was surprised to see the corners of her mouth turning up in a
small smile – he was still getting used to the idea of seeing her
smiling often.

“What?”

She raised an eyebrow at him, trying to be serious, which wasn’t
really working with the smile present on her face, “you accuse me
of taking on too much responsibility but I know for a fact that
you would have done the same thing had our positions been
reversed,”

Jacen gave her a roguish grin. “Is this a fact?”

“This is a fact,” she answered in all seriousness.

“Well, “ he began leaning in to kiss her, “I guess I should
follow my own advice,”

“That sounds like a good idea to me, Jacen my love,” she murmured
to him before they kissed.

But there was still one thing troubling Jacen.  “What about
Zeille?”  He asked her when they finally parted.

Tenal Ka snorted.  “He will get over it,” she assured him, “He is
being compensated generously by my grandmother as we speak,”

Jacen was glad to hear that Zeille would no longer be causing
them any more problems.  Now they could continue their
relationship without fearing any more consequences as a result of
it.

Tenal Ka leaned against him as he wrapped his arm around her
shoulders.  The two of them watched in silence as the afternoon
sun begin to set, while the moon began to rise in the night sky.

Jacen had no idea what the future had in store for him and Tenal
Ka.  But the one thing he knew for sure was that whatever
happened they would face it together, just like they always had.



The End