A/N: Thanks once more to you wonderful reviewers—Mako-clb, edboy4926, .L, and The Dark Prog.

I'm absolutely grateful to every reader for joining me on this journey—and for joining me now for this final chapter.

vii. juyo/vapaad

Inside the Senate
Galactic City, Coruscant

Jaina followed Master Mace Windu and three of his fellow Jedi Masters as they neared the Chancellor's Office. She was troubled, yet amused to discover that the corridors of the great, mushroom shaped Senate building had changed little in the decades between the days of the past Republic and the Galactic Alliance of her present. She noticed a master step into pace beside Master Windu and whisper to him. The bald Jedi glanced back at her before responding loudly enough for her to hear: "She has called herself the Sword of the Jedi before the Council. Let's hope we don't have need for her claimed skill."

At least he is honest about why I am here, Jaina thought. I am not wanted on this mission, but Master Windu has reason to believe I am needed. There were a dozen things she wanted to tell him—about herself, about her duels with her brother, about the other Sith she knew of which included the one before them. If only they knew how dangerous Palpatine truly is. He is nothing like Jacen. I should have told them about the clones, the possessions, every frightening trick of the dark side he used to flee death.

And before she could find the words and the right moment to tell them the full extent of what she knew about Darth Sidious, they were turning into the Office of the Chancellor. It was comprised of red carpets and old art, likely stolen from Republic worlds by long dead Sith Lords. The five Jedi stepped into the office proper as Palpatine turned to face them. Jaina followed Master Fisto and thus found herself directly on Master Windu's left. An odd sight, she imagined, since she was in a flight suit.

"Master Windu," Palpatine said. His eyes flickered to Jaina for the briefest of moments. They were dismissive of her, only concerned by the Jedi immediately before him. "I take it that General Grievous has been destroyed, then. I must say that you are here sooner than I expected."

Mace Windu unclipped and ignited his lightsaber. "In the name of the Galactic Senate"—Jaina followed in turn along with the other three Jedi—"you are under arrest." They illuminated their side of the office in humming shades of green and blue and deadly violet.

He blinked, but remained impassive. "Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?"

"The Senate shall decide your fate."

Palpatine snarled with a dark timbre. "I am the Senate."

"Not. Yet." Mace's words sounded more defiant than explicit.

Jaina stiffened as Palpatine rose. Her grip tightened and she was thankful to be wearing gloves, for her hands were suddenly clammy. He summoned a lightsaber into his hand, smooth and almost crystalline. "It's treason then." It ignited with a jarring snap-hiss, the crimson blade of a Sith Lord promising death. And then with an inhuman battle roar, he leapt over his desk in a spinning attack. Unlike the other Jedi who all drew back into defensive stances, Jaina stepped forward. He stabbed out of his landing, and she just parried his blade, creating an opening for the two masters who had lined up on the other side of Master Windu. She could only hope they used it to stop the threat before them.

To her sickened disgust, Palpatine was faster. He came around and slew them with a single slash, weaving around their comparably clumsy attacks. And thus it was three Jedi against one Sith. Palpatine, growling and twirling his weapon in ferocious patterns, was able to step into the guard of Master Fisto and put his lightsaber through the Nautolan. Jaina struck out with a kick and nailed the Sith Lord in the hip, sending him backwards in an awkward stumble. His crimson saber rose and blocked Mace Windu's voracious assault.

They're both using Form VII, though different variants, she realized, stepping back to observe the two fierce fighters, unwilling to give even a millimeter. Jaina frowned as Mace Windu guided his duel with Palpatine into the greeting hall beyond the office, but found herself hopeful.

He's increasing the amount of space in which to fight. Palpatine took advantage of how close the others were to kill them quickly. It seems he has prepared to fight in that office—and perhaps in there alone.

Her violet lightsaber humming, she followed after the two, and as Windu dodged a wild slash from the Sith, she moved forward with a single handed jab. Palpatine reacted faster than she thought the older man could, leaping back from her jab while bringing his lightsaber up to block Windu's powerful overhead blow. Jaina followed up on her jab with three tight swings, drawing upon her training with Boba Fett. She caught the Sith Lord with another kick, and Palpatine had to let his stumble turn into a fall in order to avoid Windu's flurry of blows.

The Sith Lord rolled back onto his feet and brought his lightsaber in close, snarling at them. While Mace brought his weapon up in a low, taunting stance, Jaina drew into the basic stance of Djem So, the Form she had joked with Jacen as kids as being, 'the Skywalker style.'

"So who will strike first," sneered Palpatine, drawing upon his rhetorical skill—and, perhaps, the dark side. "Will it be Master Windu, who so clearly seeks to strike me down? Will it be you…Jaina Solo? Ah, you are Anakin's granddaughter. Such power, such focus, such…potential." His eyes then turned away towards the entrance, and Jaina felt a familiar presence. It was the last one she wished to sense in the moment. "Or will it be you, dear boy? I thought saving Padmé was important to you. The Jedi cannot—"

"Shut it!" Jaina shouted. They all turned towards her, shocked by her outburst. "You offer nothing but death. That's all a Sith can ever promise." She shifted her stance, drawing upon the certainty that allowed her to overcome Caedus, keeping her gaze fixed upon the Sith Lord before her. She could feel the Living Force in the moment, and even a trace of the Unifying Force too. If she turned away from the Force, she was dead. "I will stop you, even if it costs me my life."

Palpatine grinned. It was a horrible, nasty expression that promised to ensure every word she said came true. Jaina shuffled back as he lunged, and then spun left. Her violet saber came about in the spin, deflecting the Sith's strike at her back as she came around. She brought it down to slice across his body. As he maneuvered back towards his office, she stepped into his guard and sliced down the side of his right leg.

The Sith Lord howled from the blow and stumbled away. A hand came up, and with the instinct and reflexes only experience could breed, Jaina caught a fierce lash of Force lighting upon her lightsaber blade. The blue-indigo bolts screamed against the saber blade. It held for several seconds, and then broke away with a gasping hiss.

Palpatine backpedaled with a limp into the main office. She pressed the attack, forcing him to defend against several wild strikes, including one that sliced his saber in twain, until he all he could do was duck and collapse to the ground. Her final wild blow shattered the window of the office. She brought the blade down to his throat, forcing him to crawl back into a corner.

Chest heaving as she regained her breath, Jaina declared, "You lose, as Sith always do."

"No, noo," he denied, sneering and snarling like a cornered kath hound. "You lose, Jedi!" Once more, Palpatine sent Force lightning at Jaina, and once more she used her blade to block it. This time, however, it was redirected upon him, scarring his face in a manner that she had long thought caused purely by the dark side's influence.

Once he stopped, Palpatine looked over and begged. "Anakin, look how I have been deformed. The Jedi…they are trying to kill me!"

"I am preventing your tyranny," Jaina said, lightsaber held forward once more.

"He must stand trial," Anakin said, his lightsaber activating. "I need him."

"Yes," whispered Palpatine, as if he could taste victory. "Only I can help you save Padmé, to save your wife."

"Do not listen to him, Skywalker," Windu warned. "He lies to trick you."

"Can you trust them, Anakin?" asked Palpatine. "Can you trust the Jedi who would tear you and Padmé apart? The Jedi who would exile you? Who would steal your children from you?"

Jaina looked away from Palpatine, and her brown eyes locked upon her grandfather's blue eyes. They were the same eyes she saw in the face of her uncle, yet these were clouded by temptation. The same temptation her uncle faced after the death of his wife and the revelation about her twin. She could hear his voice, her own echoing him, in the prophecy delivered upon her knighting.

I was the Sword of the Jedi with Jacen. I am the Sword of the Jedi with Palpatine. I am tempered steel, purposeful and razor-keen.

"It is your fear, Grandfather. It is your anger, your hate, which kills Grandmother—and your hunger for power. She dies not because of childbirth, as your visions have led you to believe, but because her life is so directly tied to yours that she could only die when Anakin Skywalker dies—physically or spiritually." Jaina turned to face Palpatine and saw a panic and worry she never thought the man capable of feeling. "I am called upon to defend the Jedi Order and stop its greatest threats. And you, in this time and place, are that threat, my lord."

Always I will be the front rank, a burning brand to my enemies and a brilliant fire to my friends. My life will be restless and I will never know peace, though I am blessed by the peace I bring others.

"Then…" her grandfather began, searching for words. She glanced at him and saw that his eyes were wet with tears. Through the Force, she felt the moment he swallowed his fear, realized the folly of seeking to bend destiny to his will, and found the peace he had been struggling to find. He has realized love is greater than fear. "Then…then do it, Jaina. My granddaughter."

I take comfort in the fact that though I stand tall and alone, others take shelter in the shadow I cast.

I am the Sword of the Jedi, and so falls my blade onto our enemies.

Faster than a mynock on power cables, Jaina struck with her lightsaber. Once more, her violet blade struck down a Sith Lord, and once more it pierced their heart. There was no lack of pain as with Caedus, but relief. Relief that it was over and that the most terrible Sith to live was no more.

And so passed Sheev Palpatine, Chancellor of the Republic and the Sith Lord called Darth Sidious, who had plunged the galaxy into war for his own ambition, greed, and for a plot of vengeance a thousand years old.

Two months after the Death of Darth Caedus, 40 ABY
Seventeen standard hours from Bastion to Csilla
Within the Imperial Remnant

Jagged Fel stared out the transparisteel view port of the Gilad Pellaeon, his brand new flagship named for the Head of State who had come before him. Days had passed since the wound in the Force, as Jaina had described it, disappeared. Even worse, she had disappeared with it, and against the advice of several Moffs, he had come out to the location to find any trace of her.

"You are acting like a human," remarked Ashik. Jag glanced at his Chiss aide, nearly as new as the ship, and snorted.

"I am human. I haven't lived among the Chiss for years." He sighed, closing his eyes. "I finally reconciled with Jaina. I don't want to lose her again."

"And perhaps you haven't," the Chiss said as several members of the bridge crew stood from their stations. Jag opened his eyes and grinned as a crack of white appeared, expelled a StealthX, and then finally sealed. The fighter leveled out and veered towards the Star Destroyer. "It appears she has returned, and is likely unharmed."

"It does," Jag said, turning away from the view port. He found a comm officer and ordered, "Have her dock in my personal hangar. Unless Daala does something outrageously stupid or the Millennium Falcon somehow finds itself within Imperial space, I do not want us interrupted."

"Sir," Ashik began before Jag could depart the bridge. "If I am remembering my human innuendos correctly, aren't you the one who's supposed to dock in her private hangar?"

Jag nodded as he stepped off of the bridge. He then turned left, followed the corridor several meters, and entered his personal chambers, connected to his private hangar. Once finally away from the crew and his aide, Jag allowed himself to laugh at the Chiss' unlikely joke. As he regained his composure, the distant door to the hangar opened. Jaina stood there, helmet off, eyes wide, and a look of uncertainty Jag swore he had seen upon her face only during the Vong War.

"Jag," she whispered, as if it expressed everything there was between them.

There was something about her standing there, hair slightly disheveled and that look in her eyes that drew him in. He strode forward. "Next time you disappear, take me with you, goddess." Jag drew Jaina into an embrace and smiled as she melted into the contact.

"Next time I accidentally travel through time or across dimensions, I'll take you along. I could've used your support, even if things turned out fine without you." She pushed back enough to look into his eyes. "I'm just happy you're still here. You'd never believe where I was or what I did. I…I wonder what'll become of wherever I was drawn to…"

51:3:27 GrS
The Jedi Temple
Galactic City, Coruscant
35 years after the Clone Wars

Ben Solo sighed, opening his eyes. Unlike his Uncle Luke or Master Kenobi, for whom he was technically named, meditation did nothing to clear his mind and calm his emotions. Instead, it only let the annoying whispers that haunted his dreams continue plaguing him. He considered asking his mother for help, but she never visited the Temple. She had last been inside the ancient palace of the Jedi some time after her knighting at age nineteen, when she left the Order on a proverbial part time basis, or so Uncle Luke called it. Ben was convinced that his mom was only allowed to retain her lightsaber or avoid renouncing her title as a Jedi Knight of the Republic because Grandpa Ani was an important member of the High Council.

"Ben," whined a familiar voice. "You aren't meditating."

He looked over and smirked. "Nor are you, Jaya." His little sister, named for their grandmother on their father's side, huffed, arms crossed as she looked away.

"Only because you aren't." There was a small pout on her face. Ben laughed.

"You don't like meditation any more than I do, little sister. Why don't you head off and play with your friend? I know you like that trio of buns she puts her hair into."

Jaina sighed, bored and annoyed. "Kira is at her saber training module right now." She then slumped against Ben. He resisted the temptation to push her off. "I wish we were in the same crèche. I hear Snip's grand-niece, Master Dume's youngest, and the kid everyone calls Finn 'cause of his weird name or whatever are with hers and it's so much better than mine."

"Do I need to speak with that Zabrak again?" Ben asked, frowning. He vaguely knew the boy's name, but it escaped him at present. Rumor had it his father had been a Sith, back when they existed.

"No," Jaina admitted. "If I'm gonna be the Sword of the Jedi, then I should be able to fight my own fights."

He sighed. Ben had been surprised when he came upon an old file for a SOLO, JAINA that wasn't his sister. While he had resisted the itch to read it, it was when his sister found it that he finally relented. They had read it together and were surprised by what they learned. While it hurt to have the image of their grandfather shattered, learning he hadn't been the one to stop the Last Sith, Jaina had become fixated upon becoming the Sword of the Jedi, just like that other Jaina Solo. "If she can do it, then so can I!" Jaina declared then and there with a toothy grin.

It doesn't hurt that they could be the same person, Ben reflected. That Jaina Solo was said to have come from the future, and rumor has it she was also the Granddaughter of Anakin Skywalker.

"Do I spot two children not meditating?"

They turned, grinning. "Dad!" Ben shouted, leaping to his feet. Jaina was fast behind him, and they crashed into their father as he dropped to a knee. Han Solo drew them into a tight hug, rumbling their hair. The story of how their mother had come to know and then fall in love with him was a long one, and Ben still hadn't heard the full, uncensored version. All he knew for certain was that it involved the Kessel Run, Prince Isolder of the Hapes Consortium, and holovid star Lando Calrirssian, which made the story rich fodder for speculation and fantasy.

"How long are you back for?" asked Jaina, snuggling into their father's chest.

"For good, I hope. Luke finally convinced the Council to hire me as a starfighter pilot instructor. Your, uh, lessons in the Falcon are useful and all, but it's nothing like those interceptors you Jedi fly." He whistled and Ben glanced up to see a smile on their father's face. "Only good thing Kuat produces."

"If you had your way, we'd all fly Corellian ships," said Uncle Luke, walking up to join them. Like Ben, he was dressed in the traditional light colored robes of the Order. Jaina, on the other hand, took after their grandfather and preferred the darker browns that at time edged on black. "Ben, Jaina. Shouldn't you two be meditating?"

"But Uncle Luke!" protested Jaina. Ben sniggered at her whine. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"She's her mother's daughter, all right," their father grumbled in good humor, standing.

"Leia was much more stubborn at that age," Luke replied with a fond smile. He turned to Han. "I heard she's part of the Senate now."

Ben flared his nostrils and pursed his lips. The few times he met active senators had been at lame, boring parties he was forced to go to as a descendant of Anakin Skywalker. And while Gran Padmé had been a senator, she had left the Senate by the time Ben had been born. There had even been a few rare times when he had gone to visit her in the Lake Country of Naboo, where she had married then Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker. In exchange for gossip from Coruscant, she would tell him stories of his grandfather, including a few from the Clone Wars when they had been together, facing the Separatists. The one time he asked about the Sword of the Jedi, she would only smile in that weird melancholic way only old people did, which made it really weird since she was as beautiful as mother was, those rare times he got to see her.

"Yeah, that's true," their father said. "With all of those Outer Rim worlds joining the Republic, she thought it was the right thing to continue helping them adjust."

"Is that why Mom was gone for so long?" asked Jaina, pouting. Ben nodded. While he had come to accept that their mother preferred to remain away from the Temple due to whatever reason led to her first departure, too often he wished for her to be there. To listen as they talked about their lessons and be proud of how Ben and Jaina progressed as Jedi.

"In part," Uncle Luke said with a sad frown. "But there's another matter that has her worried. She has seen…visions of a dark presence in the Unknown Regions. By strengthening the Republic's presence in the Outer Rim and along the Western Reaches, she hopes to sniff out this dark threat."

"I think I know what it is," Ben muttered, looking down at his feet. "I have these weird…dreams, I guess. Visions, sort of like what Grandfather had. It's like someone is whispering to me, and I hear the voice when I meditate."

"Don't worry, Ben," Jaina said, latching onto him. "I'll become the Sword of the Jedi and stop it!"

Ben smiled down at his little sister and felt a sense of relief. If a different Jaina Solo could stop a Sith Lord, then perhaps his own could stop whatever threat wished to prey upon him.