Vestara Khai

"I never had to lay a hand on you for punishment, child. You have always excelled. You are driven by the dark side to achieve&hellip;to rise."

- Gavar Khai, to his daughter

Vestara Khai was a Force-sensitive female Human born to Sith Saber Gavar Khai and his wife, Lahka, on the planet Kesh in 27.5 ABY. She became a Tyro in the planet's Sith Tribe in 37.5 ABY, and after being contacted by the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship in 41 ABY she was apprenticed to Lady Olaris Rhea. Ship helped the Tribe travel offworld and form a new fleet. However, in 43.5 ABY, Ship deserted Kesh, following the call of the dark side entity Abeloth. Vestara was a member of the strike team sent to recover Ship and kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker, but the Sith were defeated by Skywalker and his son, Ben. The sole Sith survivor, Vestara fled to the planet Dathomir, where she sent a message to her Tribe and lived under the protection of the Dathomiri Witches. The Skywalkers found her and eventually captured her, but they were confronted by a Sith fleet led by High Lord Sarasu Taalon.

Taalon forced the Jedi to accept an alliance to confront Abeloth&mdash;who had proven to be a danger to the Sith, and who was causing a psychosis among the Jedi Order's Knights&mdash;with the stipulation that Vestara remained aboard the Skywalkers' ship. During the mission, Vestara and Ben began to develop feelings for each other, and she was instructed by her father to use them to her advantage against the Jedi. On Abeloth's planet, the Sith betrayed the Jedi, but Luke defeated Abeloth. The Khais, the Skywalkers, and Taalon repaired their alliance and remained behind to investigate more into Abeloth, but after discovering that she had survived, the Sith and Jedi again came into conflict. Vestara was sent by her father and Taalon to travel with and spy on the Jedi, and they tracked Abeloth to the moon Pydyr. A contingent of Sith soon arrived, and upon finding Abeloth, Taalon&mdash;who had begun to turn into the same kind of being as Abeloth&mdash;opened battle on the Jedi.

After the Sith and Abeloth incapacitated the Jedi, though, Vestara killed Taalon. While Abeloth escaped, Vestara fled with the Jedi, as the Sith suspected betrayal. She and the Skywalkers then located Abeloth on the world Nam Chorios, and Vestara secretly messaged her father; however, in the ensuing battle, Abeloth survived and Vestara assisted the Jedi in escaping from the Sith. As the hunt for Abeloth continued, Vestara, the Skywalkers, and Jedi Knight Jaina Solo encountered a group of Sith, and Vestara was forced to kill her father. She finally decided to turn her back on the dark side and train as a Jedi, and she and Ben began a relationship. They soon embarked on a mission with over 100 Jedi to hunt down Abeloth and Ship, but Vestara killed Jedi Knight Natua Wan in order to save Ben from a deadly insect that was determined to feed on him. The Jedi were forced to flee the world, and due to her actions, Vestara came to the conclusion that she would never be able to follow the Jedi path.

Early life
"Praise circumstances for the time of your birth, young one. For you will know the honor and responsibilities and delights of being among the first in five millennia to leave Kesh&hellip;and rejoin our brethren, from whom we have been separated for so very long, to take your place in ruling a Sith galaxy."

- Olaris Rhea, upon the hour of Vestara Khai's apprenticeship

The Force-sensitive female Human Vestara Khai was born around 27.5 ABY to the Sith Saber Gavar Khai and his non-Force-sensitive wife, Lahka Khai. She was born and raised on the remote world Kesh, home to the isolated Lost Tribe of Sith. In 37.5 ABY, ten-year-old Vestara, then a Sith Tyro, participated in a competition to obtain a reptavian uvak. She was successful in that endeavor, and she named her uvak Tikk. After the competition, she became good friends with the Keshiri Sith Tyro Ahri Raas. The two often trained together, honing their combat techniques in hopes of being chosen as apprentices.

In 41 ABY, Vestara was sparring with Raas when she sensed the approach of the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship. Ship sensed Vestara's desire to become a Sith Master and offered to teach her. Since Vestara's was the first mind that Ship touched when it came to Kesh, she was summoned before the Circle of Lords, the ruling Sith council. Vestara was then apprenticed to Lady Olaris Rhea, and she began her training in the Sith Temple in the Takara Mountains on Kesh. Ship informed the Sith of the happenings in the galaxy since the ancestors of the Tribe had crash-landed on the world 5,000 years previously, revealing that the Sith been nearly exterminated and that the Jedi had grown numerous.

Ship soon thereafter discovered a Damorian s18 light freighter en route from the planet Eriadu, and called for five Sith to help attack the vessel. Vestara and Rhea were selected, along with fellow Sith Sarasu Taalon, Ivaar Workan, and Ruku Myal. Ship carried them offworld and attacked the freighter, which was unable to escape into hyperspace. The Meditation Sphere forced it to land and then embarked on a hunt of the surviving crew, splitting into two teams for the search&mdash;Vestara, Myal, and Workan in one, and Rhea and Taalon in the other. Vestara's team killed two of the crew, and Taalon and Rhea cornered the remaining four. Before long, Taalon ordered Vestara back to the freighter to take inventory. On her way back, Vestara&mdash;disappointed at being denied the chance for a kill&mdash;encountered a girl who had been a passenger on the feighter. The girl told the Sith apprentice that she had just escaped slavery, and although the girl begged for her life, Vestara killed her with her parang. Ship then told Vestara to name the girl, and the apprentice named her "First," since the girl had been her first kill.

Under Ship's guidance, Vestara and other Sith began traveling in the Meditation Sphere beyond Kesh, battling other ships. They used the parts from the vessels they defeated to rebuild the Omen, the ship in which the Tribe's ancestors had crashed on Kesh. The Tribe then began to capture more starships and formed a new Sith armada. During that time, one of the first battleships to be captured was renamed the Eternal Crusader and put under the command of Lady Rhea; Vestara served on the vessel under her Master. During their travels abroad in the galaxy, Vestara became a skilled killer.

Strike team
"Luke Skywalker has done much to fight the Sith, the dark side. He was at one point the last Jedi, and now he has re-created the Order with hundreds of them. And now, somehow, he has broadcast his presence into the Force. And we can take him down."

- Lady Rhea

In that year, the exiled Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker came into contact with the Codex, an Aing-Tii relic that magnified his presence in the Force, causing his power to be felt by the members of the Sith Tribe. The Sith decided that they needed to kill him in order to pave the way to reinstate the Sith Empire as the ruling power in the galaxy. Rhea and the Tribe's Grand Lord Darish Vol handpicked a strike team to be sent under Rhea's command to find and kill Skywalker, and Vestara was among those chosen. Before they left, however, the dark side entity Abeloth sent out a call through the Force that took control of Ship, causing the Meditation Sphere to desert the Sith Tribe. The strike team was then given the priority of first tracking down and recovering Ship before finding and killing Skywalker.

Also among those beings chosen to be on the strike team were Raas and his Master, Yuvar Xal. The team left Kesh aboard the Eternal Crusader and used Vestara's unique connection to Ship to follow the Meditation Sphere to a planet in the Maw. Some members of the team worried that they were being led into a trap, as they deduced that the Meditation Sphere was intentionally allowing the Sith to follow it; but the Sith continued on their mission anyway. Upon their arrival at the planet, the Eternal Crusader remained in orbit while a search party, including Vestara and Rhea, was sent planetside to find Ship. The Sith found that the world was home to several deadly forms of plant-life, and they lost several members of the team to the carnivorous flora. Before long, the Sith encountered a beautiful, powerful being named Abeloth, who was able to control all of the life on the world. Abeloth pretended to help the Sith in their search for Ship and agreed to return to Kesh with the strike team, but in actuality she used her influence over the Meditation Sphere to keep it away from them as the Sith fell one-by-one to the planet's dangers.

Calamity at Sinkhole Station
"If Ship can take all of us in one trip, the Skywalkers must be very near. And they had to come in something. Once Ship takes us to them&mdash;''" "Absolutely. We kill the Skywalkers and&hellip;" "''&hellip;we steal their vessel. How hard can it be?"

- Khai and Rhea, discussing their upcoming mission

As the Eternal Crusader supplies were depleted, Rhea finally decided that they should leave, as she believed that returning to Kesh with the powerful Abeloth would more than make up for losing Ship. However, Abeloth then let Vestara catch a glimpse of Ship, and the Sith again chased after the vessel. As they crossed a river, however, Rhea was dragged by a siphon reed into a whirlpool. Despite Abeloth's warning, Vestara jumped into the water and followed Rhea in an attempt to save her Master. As Vestara caught up with the Sith Lady beneath the water, she used her lightsaber to cut open the reed and free Rhea. Rhea used the Force to pull them back to the surface, and they were caught and drawn back to the shore by Raas. Afterward, although Abeloth still appeared as a beautiful woman to the other members of the strike team, Vestara was able to perceive Abeloth's true form&mdash;a humanoid with a large mouth, stubby arms, and tentacles instead of fingers. Nevertheless, Vestara's attempts at convincing her fellow Sith of Abeloth's true nature failed, and the strike team remained on the world as more and more members were killed. Shuttles of reinforcements were continually sent down from the Eternal Crusader to replace the Sith losses, until finally there were no more Sith aboard the vessel. Ship still remained hidden from the Sith, and Xal prepared to initiate a coup against Rhea.

Before Xal's plans could be carried out, however, Abeloth discovered that Skywalker and his son, Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, were aboard Sinkhole Station, a space station in the Maw. She thus allowed Ship to return to the Sith, convincing them that they should capture the Jedi and return with them to Kesh rather than killing them as had been originally planned. Vestara and the approximately fifteen surviving members of the strike team traveled to Sinkhole Station aboard Ship and prepared an ambush for the Jedi, although Rhea changed the mission's objective back to killing them. Vestara lay in wait with Xal, Raas, and the Sith Saber Baad Walusari in a junction through which the Skywalkers would have to pass in order to reach their vessel, the Jade Shadow, in the space station's hangar. As the Skywalkers passed the junction, Vestara and Walusari launched a set of grenades at the Jedi. Xal had planned with his apprentice to execute his betrayal at that moment; he and Raas Force-pushed the grenades back at Vestara and Walusari before turning to attack the Jedi themselves. Rhea had foreseen the betrayal, however, and had given the two Sith fake grenades to throw first. Upset at Raas' betrayal of her, Vestara threw her shikkar&mdash;a glass dagger&mdash;at Xal, killing him. Distracted by Xal's cry of pain, Raas was killed by the Jedi. Walusari then tried to throw fragmentation grenades at the Skywalkers, but the Jedi sent the grenades back at him, killing him.

Vestara managed to cut Luke on the face with her parang, however&mdash;unbeknownst to the Sith&mdash;he had allowed her to cut him so that he could establish a blood trail on her that would allow him to track her. The Grand Master then knocked her out with a blow to the face, bound her, and took her captive as he and Ben continued to head for their ship. However, they were soon attacked by more of the Sith, and Vestara regained consciousness and joined in the assault. Ben fired on her with his blaster as she fled down a hall, but Luke ordered Ben to let her escape. Vestara located her Master and two other Sith&mdash;the only remaining survivors of the strike team. As Ben prepped the Jade Shadow for flight, Luke returned to the station inside a lift. As the doors opened he was confronted by the four Sith. He killed two of them quickly, leaving just Khai and Rhea. They dueled with the Grand Master inside the lift as it headed back for the hangar, scoring hits on his vac suit. However, he deflected a blaster shot into Vestara's boot and began dueling with Rhea one-on-one, using the Force to hold the apprentice in place. As the lift doors opened behind Luke, Ben opened fire from the Jade Shadow, distracting Rhea and allowing Luke to kill her. Vestara used the distraction to flee from the Jedi, realizing that, without her Master, she was completely outmatched. She saluted Luke and then fled in a SoroSuub StarTripper yacht, She's a Chancer.

Dathomir
"I will only lie. That or tell the truth."

- Vestara Khai, to Ben Skywalker

Vestara feared that the Jedi would attempt to locate her Sith Tribe by following her, so she sought to hide her presence on a world with a large concentration of Force-sensitives, from where she could send a secure message back to Kesh and inform her Tribe of the strike team's destruction and her current location. The planet she ultimately chose was Dathomir, a world inhabited by Force-sensitive beings known as Dathomiri Witches. Upon landing there, she sent a hypercomm message to her Tribe and made a deal with a group of Nightsisters&mdash;a female-dominant organization of dark side Witches&mdash;to exchange information and Force techniques with her Tribe.

Vestara was found on the verge of collapse by Olianne Sihn of the Raining Leaves Clan of Dathomiri Witches. The Clan decided to keep Vestara under their protection, and Sihn planned to adopt her. Meanwhile, the Skywalkers arrived and found the Raining Leaves Clan, which was about to begin a conclave with the all-male Broken Columns Clan in order to merge the two Clans into one. The Skywalkers confronted Vestara, but the Raining Leaves Clan forced the Jedi to leave her alone since they had adopted her into their tribe. As the conclave began, the Nightsisters began to disrupt the proceedings; they were anti-male and did not want the Clans to merge. The Nightsisters attacked the two tribes with rancors and their Force powers multiple times during the conclave. In one of the battles, Vestara stole Ben's lightsaber and used it to save Luke's life from some attacking Nightsisters. Ben thanked her for that act, but he remained suspicious of her.

Eventually, the two Clans succeeded in merging to form the Bright Sun Clan, but that evening they were beset by the largest Nightsister attack yet. On the newly christened Bright Sun Hill, the Clan&mdash;with the help of Vestara, the Skywalkers, and their Force-sensitive guide Dyon Stadd&mdash;managed to defeat the Nightsisters one final time. Afterward, Vestara secretly gathered the surviving Nightsisters in a landing meadow to meet with members of her Tribe who had just arrived in-system. However, the Nightsisters, commanded by Dresdema, were furious to find that the Lost Tribe also consisted of males, and they attacked the Sith. The Tribe, led by Lord Viun Gaalan, easily defeated the Nightsisters, capturing them and taking them back to the fleet in orbit.

Gaalan praised Vestara for her efforts, and she went to retrieve one last Nightsister&mdash;Halliava Vurse, who had been undercover as a member of the Raining Leaves Clan. However, Stadd and the Skywalkers had noticed her missing and tracked her to the landing meadow, where they confronted Gaalan and three other Sith who had remained behind to wait for Vestara and Vurse. The Jedi defeated the Sith, and Gaalan fled in his shuttle just as Vestara returned with the Nightsister. The Skywalkers then took Vestara captive, exposing her treachery&mdash;as well as Vurse's betrayal&mdash;to the Bright Sun Clan. The Clan decided to exile Vestara from their midst, finally allowing the Jedi to keep her in their custody. The Skywalkers returned to the Jade Shadow in the Dathomir Spaceport and took Vestara captive aboard their ship, planning to chase after Gaalan. However, as they reached orbit they were confronted by eleven capital class ChaseMaster frigates under the command of the Sith High Lord Sarasu Taalon, who ordered them to enter a parking orbit lest he order his vessels to fire.

Klatooine
"You are attracted to the Skywalker boy."

- Vestara's father, regarding Ben Skywalker

Taalon told the Jedi that Abeloth had been causing a psychosis amongst the Tribe's apprentices, just as she had been doing to many of the Jedi Order's Jedi Knights. Taalon went on to propose an alliance with the Jedi to defeat Abeloth, since she was a common enemy. Luke was dubious at first, but eventually agreed with the provision that Vestara remained aboard the Jade Shadow. The Jedi vessel was then contacted by her father, Gavar, who had accompanied Taalon on the mission. Despite Luke's initial reluctance, Ben convinced his father to allow Gavar to briefly come on board and speak privately with Vestara.

The two Sith knew that the Jedi would record their conversation&mdash;which indeed Luke did&mdash;and so spoke in the Keshiri language. Gavar reassured Vestara that her mother was still doing well, and gave his daughter a shikkar in the hopes that one day she could kill one of the Skywalkers with it. In turn, she presented him with a layout of the Jade Shadow. He also revealed to her that the Sith alliance was a sham&mdash;the Tribe's apprentices had not fallen under Abeloth's influence at all&mdash;although he neglected to tell her the true objective of the Sith mission. He also spoke with her about her attraction to Ben and suggested that she use it to glean information from him and potentially turn him to the dark side.

Luke and Taalon agreed to meet up with Luke's friend, Lando Calrissian, who intended to provide them with the Colossus I Beta Series asteroid tug Rockhound for assistance in navigating the dangerous Maw. They decided to wait for Calrissian at the planet Klatooine in the Si'Klaata Cluster. There, Luke allowed Ben and Vestara to travel to the planet's surface with Stadd in order to restock the Jade Shadow supplies. Having grown up on a remote planet, she was awed by the diversity of activity on Klatooine and continued her flirtatious behavior with Ben, which he reciprocated. She also attempted to avoid any conflicts of their ideologies so as not to upset him. They were interrupted, however, when Stadd suddenly fell prey to Abeloth's influence, causing him to believe that everyone had been replaced by impostors. He fled the market, heading for the Fountain of the Ancients&mdash;a sacred wintrium Fountain that was surrounded by a one-kilometer zone wherein no technology was allowed&mdash;in the Derelkoos Desert. Vestara and Ben pursued Stadd, and she assisted him in capturing the Force-sensitive, taking care to prevent the psychotic man from dying in the process.

Vestara, Ben, and Stadd were subsequently taken captive by Klatooinian guards, although the Sith and Jedi were only held due to being underage. They were taken to the Treema Courthouse and Detention Area, where Vestara and Ben passed the time waiting for the arrival of their fathers by telling jokes. When Luke and Gavar arrived, Gavar angrily scolded Vestara about how she had helped Ben, but she replied that she had done it only to cement the young Jedi's trust in her. The Skywalkers returned to the Jade Shadow with Stadd, whom the Klatooinians had gladly turned over, realizing that they would be unable to hold the psychotic Force-sensitive for long. Meanwhile, Luke had sent a recording of Vestara's conversation with her father during their meeting aboard the Jade Shadow to the protocol droid C-3PO for translation. Although the droid was unfamiliar with the language, he was able to give Luke a rough translation of it in Basic. Luke showed the transcript of the translated conversation to his son, who was deeply upset that the Sith were planning to betray the Jedi and that Vestara hoped to turn him personally to the dark side. Ben began acting coldly toward her, and she was upset by his sudden change of attitude, unaware of what caused it.

Into the Maw
"Just find us somewhere safe to land.''" "''That's a relative term here."

- Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai, upon their arrival at Abeloth's planet

With tensions between the Jedi and Sith rising, Luke and Taalon agreed that they no longer wanted to stay on Klatooine, so the allied fleet left the planet to await Calrissian just outside the Maw. Calrissian finally arrived along with Jedi Knight Jaina Solo, who had come in hopes of assisting the Skywalkers in the dealing with the Sith. The fleet entered the Maw, heading first for Sinkhole Station, where Luke hoped to find information that could prove useful for their mission. Upon their arrival, however, they found that the space station had been completely destroyed. Two of the Sith frigates moved into the debris field, and the Rockhound attempted to stop them with its tractor beams. It managed to save one of the frigates, but the other collided with debris and exploded. Vestara and the Skywalkers deduced that Sinkhole Station had been built to contain Abeloth, but she had become powerful enough to break free and destroy the space station. The fleet then agreed to head straight to Abeloth's planet.

When they arrived in orbit over Abeloth's planet, Vestara sensed Ship and could tell that he was unhappy serving Abeloth. She also learned that Ben had previously piloted Ship for a short time. Concerned that Abeloth might try to free Stadd now that they were so close to her, the Skywalkers sent Vestara to check on the psychotic man. Vestara decided to use Stadd to find Abeloth by tricking him, but she neglected to tell the Jedi of her plan, fearing that they would not trust her. Vestara lied to Stadd that she was an impostor, telling him that she&mdash;along with all of the other impostors who had chosen to replace Sith&mdash;were associated with Ship, who was serving Abeloth; thus the impostors of the Sith were on his side. She asked if he would lead them to Abeloth, and he replied that he would. Then, rather than giving him more of his sedative as the Skywalkers had requested of her, Vestara gave him the antidote and scrambled the machine that was monitoring him. She requested that he pretend to be unconscious if the Skywalkers came in to check on him, telling him that she would soon return to unlock his stun cuffs.

After landing on the planet, Vestara and the Skywalkers met with Taalon, Gavar, and Captain Leeha Faal. Luke suggested that they travel in the realm of the Force called beyond shadows&mdash;something he had learned to do from the Force-sensitive Mind Walkers who had lived at Sinkhole Station&mdash;in an attempt to find Abeloth, since he had first seen her while Mind Walking. Vestara was strongly opposed to the idea and attempted to talk her fellow Sith out of it&mdash;having seen the decrepit Mind Walkers at Sinkhole Station during the strike team's ambush of the Jedi, she knew that Mind Walking was very dangerous and could severely weaken and even potentially kill any who attempted it. The other Sith agreed with Luke, however, and agreed to his idea. Upon her return to the Jade Shadow, Vestara spoke with Stadd once more, telling him that he should escape while Luke and the Sith were beyond shadows.

Vestara was left with Ben on the Jade Shadow to monitor Luke's physical body while he, Gavar, Taalon, and Faal attempted to find Abeloth beyond shadows. While Ben monitored his father, Stadd suddenly broke free from his room and charged for the vessel's exit. Ben called for Vestara to stop him, but instead she stepped aside and let Stadd pass. Suddenly, Luke returned from beyond shadows&mdash;Faal had been killed and he had discovered that the presence that had been reaching out to him the entire mission, which he had assumed to be the spirit of his deceased wife, was actually Abeloth. Ben revealed to his father what Vestara had done, and the two Jedi confronted her. However, she replied that she had placed a tracking device on Stadd and let him go free so that they could follow him to Abeloth. Vestara and the Jedi met up with Taalon, Gavar, and nineteen other Sith to track Stadd.

They found Stadd in a cave on the side of a volcano&mdash;the same cave where Vestara and her strike team had originally met Abeloth. There, they found Stadd on the ground, barely alive, and no longer possessed by the psychosis. He revealed that Abeloth had attempted to consume his life force but had left him for dead when she sensed the allies' approach, and that while he still felt her influence on his mind, he realized that it was not the truth. Stadd was left at the cave entrance along with two Sith while Vestara, the Jedi, and the rest of the Sith traveled deeper down a tunnel in the back of the cave to hunt down Abeloth. Eventually, they reached a courtyard at the end of the tunnel. There, Luke called out to Abeloth, and she suddenly appeared behind him.

Confronting Abeloth
"Don't leave me&hellip;p-poison&hellip;"

- Vestara Khai, trying to keep Ben Skywalker distracted shortly before the Sith betray the Jedi

Abeloth attempted to trick Luke into believing that she was Callista Ming, his former lover, but ultimately failed, as he realized that Abeloth had only consumed Ming&mdash;as she had attempted to do with Stadd&mdash;and then taken on her appearance. The strike team attacked Abeloth, and several Sith began weaving a control web&mdash;a technique they had learned from the captured Nightsisters&mdash;over Abeloth in the hopes of captuing her. The Khais, Taalon, and the Skywalkers all charged Abeloth, but the entity grabbed Vestara by the throat with the Force and raised her off the ground, violently shaking her. Vestara attempted to shoot Force lightning at her, but Abeloth turned the lightning back on the Sith apprentice and raised large, white, spiked roots out of the ground, stabbing Vestara with them several times. Ben quickly came to rescue her, slashing through the roots with his lightsaber and carrying Vestara away from the battle in his arms. A quick examination revealed that she wasn't mortally injured, but she grabbed Ben and told him that the spikes were poisonous. He began to search his possessions for something that could help her wounds, but the Sith suddenly executed their betrayal of the Jedi&mdash;Gavar turned a strike away from Abeloth and toward Luke while the rest of the Sith lowered the control web onto Abeloth.

Ben shouted a warning to his father, who managed to block Gavar's attack. Vestara tried to insist that she needed Ben's help, but furious at her betrayal, he jumped away and engaged her father in a duel. Luke, meanwhile, slowly gained the upper hand in the battle against Abeloth while Ben began to press Gavar back; however, Abeloth set off a Force blast that repulsed everyone in the area, and she fled back up the tunnel. Luke was the first to recover and chase after her, with Ben and the Sith shortly behind and Vestara in the rear. Catching up to her at the cave's entrance, Luke managed to defeat and apparently kill Abeloth, despite another attempt to trick him. Afterward, the Sith repaired their alliance with the Jedi so that they could jointly investigate more into Abeloth and her origins. Taalon and Luke decided to send Calrissian, Solo, and the entire Sith fleet offworld except for the Khais and the High Lord himself. Vestara was taken back to the Jade Shadow to be treated for her injuries.

As Taalon, Luke, and Gavar began to investigate Abeloth's origins, Vestara remained under Ben's watch aboard the Jade Shadow, along with the recovering Dyon Stadd. However, Vestara suddenly felt Ship's presence returning, and she tricked Ben, managing to lock him in the ship with Stadd while she escaped. Vestara was soon caught and nearly killed by the planet's carnivorous plants, but Ben, who had broken free, tracked her down and rescued her. They made their way to the site of the ancient ruins where Luke and the other Sith were investigating. Gavar confronted Vestara about leaving the Jade Shadow, but upon Taalon's arrival, she spoke with the High Lord about Ship's return. She and Taalon then returned to find Ben attempting to sneak off with Abeloth's corpse while Luke distracted Gavar, and Taalon quickly moved to attack Ben. However, Vestara suddenly noticed that Abeloth's body was morphing into that of Dyon Stadd's&mdash;they realized that the entity had somehow switched bodies with Stadd before Luke had killed her. The Jedi concluded that that meant that the "Stadd" aboard the Jade Shadow was actually Abeloth; after a lengthy standoff, the Jedi finally convinced the Sith to return to their vessels. There, however, they discovered that Abeloth had already escaped.

Broken alliance
"We're on opposite sides of this thing, and maybe that makes us enemies. But we don't have to hate each other&mdash;that's a choice we make ourselves."

- Vestara Khai, to Ben Skywalker

As they searched through the jungle for Abeloth to no avail, the Sith claimed that the Jedi had actually taken Abeloth's corpse and were hiding her from them. However, when the tenuous allies conversed with Ship, the Meditation Sphere claimed that Luke knew where to find Abeloth. The Sith turned on the Grand Master, who revealed that he believed they could find her at the Pool of Knowledge&mdash;a Force nexus on the planet that he had visited while beyond shadows with the Mind Walkers. Ship transported them across the planet and left them to find the Pool for themselves. The allies split up into two groups to locate the nexus&mdash;Vestara and Ben in one, and the three elders in the other. Vestara and Ben found the Pool in a grotto, and Vestara quickly alerted her fellow Sith through the Force. Ben attempted to convince her to leave the place and forget that they had ever found it, telling her that it would be too dangerous, and that Ship was just trying to pit the Jedi and Sith against each other. Just then, however, Taalon, Gavar, and Luke all arrived on the scene, and the five allies entered the grotto.

In the Pool, Vestara and Ben both viewed adult versions of themselves together. Suddenly, Ben exclaimed that he had seen an image in the Pool of Abeloth running for their vessels, and that they needed to return to them before she escaped. Gavar questioned Vestara whether that was true, but she had not been looking, and was not sure. The Pool then changed to show Tahv and the Takara Mountains, and Gavar moved to attack Ben, suspecting that the Jedi were trying to discover the location of the Sith homeworld. Luke pushed him away, but Taalon, meanwhile, viewed a Jedi queen upon the Throne of Balance within the Pool, and, fearing that she could prevent the Sith's planned invasion of the galaxy, demanded to know who she was. The Skywalkers recognized her as their relative, Allana Solo, daughter of Darth Caedus, and chose the moment to attack, knowing that a fight was going to break out between them no matter what. Ben pushed past Vestara, who was shocked by his sudden attack on her; but he was too late to stop Taalon from jumping into the Pool. Vestara recovered and assailed Ben, but he sent her flying backward, and she collided into Taalon as he reemerged from the Pool. He punched her in fury, but she joined him in battle against Luke while her father incapacitated Ben. Luke, however, used the Force to slam Gavar into Vestara and Taalon, and then cut off Gavar's forearm with his lightsaber. Luke was repelled by Force lightning, and he and Ben quickly fled the grotto, collapsing the entryway behind them.

As the Sith recovered from the battle and dug their way out of the grotto, Taalon and Gavar decided to use Vestara as a spy to learn everything she could about the Jedi queen that Taalon had seen. Taalon beat her severely to make it appear as though they had been punishing her and she had fled from them. Before sending her to join the Jedi, however, Taalon and Gavar confronted Vestara about whether she and Ben had fallen in love. Vestara's response was hesitant, but Taalon revealed that he wanted them to fall in love so that Ben would come to trust her, because the Sith could use that trust to their advantage. They then sent her off to the beach where they had left their ships, following close behind her. Vestara arrived at the beach to find the Jade Shadow already gone. Disappointed, she decided to await the arrival of Taalon and her father to tell them the news&mdash;unbeknownst to her, the Skywalkers were still there, hiding; it was actually Abeloth who had fled in the Jade Shadow. Since Luke saw Vestara's reaction to the missing Jade Shadow, he concluded that she was not actually running from the Sith and deduced their plan. When Taalon and Gavar arrived behind Vestara, Taalon blasted her with Force lightning and sent her tumbling down a sandy bank. Luke came out of hiding and provided cover fire, forcing Taalon and Gavar to take cover. As Luke and the two Sith exchanged fire, the Jedi retreated down the bank to Vestara. Taalon and Gavar grew closer, but accidentally triggered a thermal detonator that Luke had left as a trap for them in the jungle. Luke and Vestara then fled to the Emiax, Taalon's personal shuttle, where Ben was waiting. As Vestara and the Jedi boarded the shuttle, Taalon and Gavar reemerged; and Luke fired on the two as he, Vestara, and Ben escaped in the Emiax.

Events on Pydyr
"But if you come with us, it can't be as a prisoner. We're going to have enough trouble without worrying about you."

- Luke Skywalker, to Vestara

Aboard the Emiax, Vestara, Luke, and Ben tracked Abeloth to Pydyr, a moon of the planet Almania. They were messaged and warned not to approach the surface due to the outbreak of a terrible plague, but Luke decided to land the shuttle in the spaceport in the capital city of Corocus anyway. While Luke left Vestara and Ben to investigate the situation and try to locate Abeloth, Vestara escaped the shuttle and found a public S-thread booth, where she sent a quick message to a Sith relay center on the planet Boonta. She reported that they had reached Pydyr, and that she believed the Jedi had already called for reinforcements. Ben found her and began to question her, asking her to return to the shuttle, but she convinced him to come with her to seek out Luke. They eventually found him with the Jade Shadow in a cave where he had just finished speaking with Akanah Norand Goss Pell, a member of the pacifistic Force-sensitive Fallanassi. While Vestara and the Skywalkers regrouped and contemplated further action, Vestara and Ben both began to show signs of the planetwide plague&mdash;unbeknownst to both of them, the plague was merely an illusion put forth in the White Current, the Fallanassi's interpretation of the Force. Thus only Luke, who knew how to access the White Current, showed none of the affects of the disease.

Soon, the Kondo-class assault shuttle Obuuri arrived with a large contingent of Sith reinforcements, including Sarasu Taalon&mdash;who, following his dive in the Pool of Knowledge, had begun to transform into the same kind of being as Abeloth&mdash;and Gavar Khai. Gavar and Luke clashed immediately and prepared to open battle, but Taalon told Gavar to back down, insisting that once he learned what exactly he was becoming he would help the Jedi kill Abeloth. Aboard the Jade Shadow, Vestara, her father, Taalon, the Skywalkers, and fifty more Sith traveled alongside the Obuuri in search of the Fallanassi's village. Luke tried to tell the Sith that their hazard suits would not protect them from the plague, revealing that both Ben and Vestara had worn the suits and both showed symptoms anyway; but Gavar accused Luke of neglecting to protect his daughter while Taalon asserted that the Jedi was trying to trick the Sith. The Jade Shadow and the Obuuri were soon set upon by the Fallanassi's defenses&mdash;more illusions in the White Current. The ships were beset by a fleet of Sith Meditation Spheres, and although Taalon at first kept up the pretense that the Spheres were under Sith control, Vestara and the other Sith grew fearful as the fleet neared them. The Obuuri finally opened fire, but Luke, who was aware that they were just illusions, was able to fly the Jade Shadow straight through the Spheres. Soon afterward, the Obuuri crashed into a cliff that had been hidden by illusions. Taalon began to demand that they land and request more reinforcements, but they then reached the island that was home to the Fallanassi; Luke dove his vessel down to the village, and the illusions hiding it were broken.

The Sith and Jedi were greeted by the Fallanassi, who agreed reluctantly to help nurse the Sith who had contracted the plague. Taalon, however, finally saw the plague for what it was and demanded to know Abeloth's whereabouts. When Pell stepped forward to speak with the newcomers, Taalon began to question her, and even had Vestara's father hold another Fallanassi hostage in an attempt to make Pell more forthcoming. She revealed that Abeloth had come to the Fallanassi because she was one, but when Luke questioned whether that meant she had always been one or if she had joined more recently, Pell refused to answer. On Taalon's orders, Gavar killed the hostage, but Pell grew furious and attacked the Sith Saber with an illusion that drove him to madness. As he ran screaming from those gathered, Vestara tripped him with the Force. However, he remained under the illusion's power, and she finally used the Force to knock him out. Pell&mdash;who was actually Abeloth inhabiting Pell's body&mdash;then released visions onto all of the Sith present, save Vestara and Taalon, driving some to commit suicide by jumping into the surrounding ocean.

Abeloth then invited Taalon to a gathering hall to converse with him, and Vestara and the Skywalkers followed them. Luke told the Sith that Abeloth was just trying to play them against each other, but his words were in vain; and realizing he could not reason with the Sith to avoid conflict, Luke began to maneuver to the best possible position from which to attack. Taalon recognized Luke's intention and opened battle on the Jedi. Luke turned on Abeloth and quickly defeated her, killing Pell's body. Luke then joined Ben in battling Vestara and Taalon, but Abeloth returned to the scene in the form of Callista Ming. Abeloth quickly overpowered the already weakened Luke, but she stopped Taalon from killing him, instead knocking the Grand Master unconscious and insisting that he suffer as she had. Taalon then trapped Ben in a Force net, and they retrieved Vestara's father from outside and brought him into the hall. As Vestara watched, Taalon spoke with Abeloth about what he was becoming, and she began to feed him dark energy from her tentacles. As Luke finally began to reawake, he caused a distraction by collapsing the ceiling with the Force. Vestara, knowing that Taalon could not be allowed to turn into another Abeloth, took advantage of the distraction to jump forward and kill the High Lord.

With Taalon's death, the net holding Ben disintegrated, and the Skywalkers attacked Abeloth. Khai threw her lightsaber to the Jedi to use in battle&mdash;their own had been taken from them after their capture&mdash;and then blasted Abeloth with Force lightning. Weakened, Abeloth repulsed Luke with the Force and fled the gathering hall. Vestara then turned on the Jedi and ordered that they prepare themselves to be taken into Sith custody, but Luke used the Force to awaken her father while simultaneously praising Vestara for killing Taalon. Gavar, who was unaware of the full circumstances surrounding Taalon's death, moved to confront Vestara over her apparent betrayal. Vestara knocked him out again with the Force and then fled the hall with the Skywalkers, knowing that the Sith would not allow her time to explain her actions. As she and the Jedi made their way toward the Jade Shadow, however, the other Sith began to wake and recover from their illusions; since Abeloth had fled, her hold over them was finally gone. Master Vhool confronted the Jedi and, unaware of Vestara's situation, ordered her to start up the Jade Shadow while he went back to find Taalon.

Vestara had started up the ship and brought its blaster cannons around to bear when a wing of Jedi StealthX starfighters, along with Captain Booster Terrik's Star Destroyer Errant Venture, suddenly arrived and opened fire on the Sith. Meanwhile, Vhool discovered that Vestara had killed Taalon, but before the Tribe could stop her, she also opened fire on her Tribe, again saving the Skywalkers and giving them time to rush on board the vessel. As they lifted off from Pydyr, they were contacted by the Errant Venture. Both sides briefly updated each other on their respective recent events, but Luke refused to take any time to rest. He deduced that since Abeloth was not dead, the only reason the Jedi back on the galactic capital planet Coruscant had recovered from their psychosis following the events on Abeloth's world was that the entity had been weakened. As the Errant Venture and the StealthXs forced the Sith to retreat, Vestara and the Skywalkers plotted their course to continue hunting down Abeloth.

Nam Chorios
"Abeloth. She's here."

- Luke Skywalker, on Nam Chorios

After they left Pydyr, Vestara and the Skywalkers tracked Abeloth to the space station Meliflar Station. Upon their arrival they were ambushed by the station's inhabitants. After forcing them to surrender, Khai and the Skywalkers consulted with their leader, Hallaf, and learned that his daughter had been put into an unconscious state by Abeloth, and that the stations' residents had then been ordered to kill the Skywalkers. However, the smuggler Cardya had led a mutiny against Hallaf, and the inhabitants had then decided to try to capture the Jade Shadow rather than destroy it. Luke then drew on the taint left by Abeloth in Hallaf's daughter and discoved that she intended to travel to the planet Nam Chorios. Upon their arrival there, Vestara and the Jedi searched for the Theran Listeners, a group of Force-users who had unique abilities and whom the Skywalkers suspected Abeloth intended to control. Luke found one of the Listeners, Taselda, whom he had met on his first trip to Nam Chorios decades earlier.

Taselda took Vestara and the Skywalkers to meet Listener-Master Taru Durn, who taught Luke the technique of mnemotherapy&mdash;a Force power that allowed the user to draw out and destroy the memories of a being. They soon learned that Doctor Cagaran Wei had disappeared, and were given reason to believe that his disappearance was related to Abeloth. Vestara and the Skywalkers thus traveled to Wei's home in the city Hweg Shul, where they met with the Ithorian mayor Snaplaunce. Wei's landspeeder logs led them to believe that he had gone to a rock ivory processing plant 483 kilometers from Hweg Shul. Snaplaunce then agreed to provide the group with transport, his customized TIE/sh shuttle, Vote Snaplaunce. During their flight, however, they were attacked by Ship, and forced to maneuvere off-course to avoid the Meditation Sphere's attacks. They were then called by Koval Station Control and ordered not to deviate from their flight plan, but they were unable to reply before Koval Station began to fire its turbolaser at them. The shuttle sustained heavy damage, but suddenly a shot hit one of the planet's sentient crystal life-froms, a tsil, creating a massive death convulsion.

While the disturbance made Luke lose control of the shuttle and plummet into a dust storm, it also made Ship flee the area. The dust storm itself interfered with Koval Station's lock on the Vote Snaplaunce, and the shuttle's engines soon failed, forcing them to land. They found Wei's corpse at the processing plant and deduced that either Wei was bait to set them up for the ambush, or else someone&mdash;possibly Snaplaunce himself&mdash;had sabotaged the shuttle's engines in order to strand them out there. While they assessed the damage, Vestara realized that although the laser cannons had been removed, their internal wiring remained. The group managed to turn what remained of the shuttle into a functioning landspeeder, and Luke learned from communicating with the Tsils that the Theran Listeners had fallen under Abeloth's control.

Aiding the Jedi
"Vestara, you've killed an innocent being.''" "Don't you dare criticize me for that, Master'' Skywalker. I can't destroy Abeloth. Maybe you can. You have to live. We were about to die, and Abeloth would win. You have to do what it takes to win."

- Luke Skywalker and Vestara Khai, after she killed a tsil to give them a chance to escape her Tribe

Vestara and the Skywalkers returned to Hweg Shul, where they discovered that they were wanted for the murder of Wei, and that someone had attempted to assassinate Snaplaunce. They made their way to Taselda's home, and Luke used the mnemotherapy technique and found that she was under Abeloth's control. From Taselda, they learned that the Master of the Theran Listeners, Nenn, had been taken to a pumping station outside of Hweg Shul. Vestara then sent a message directly to her father, informing him that Abeloth was in an underground pumping station on Nam Chorios. The next morning, they commandeered a modified T-47 airspeeder and traveled to the pumping station in the town Kesla Vein. There, they were ambushed by a group of Sith under the command of Saber Tola Annax. Annax confronted Vestara about Taalon's death, and she revealed that the Sith were aware of his impending transformation. Annax ordered that Vestara surrender, with the incentive that she may be acquitted of her betrayal. Vestara did not accept the offer and a duel broke out, in which Vestara killed one of the Sith. The sole survivor of the Sith assailants, Annax blew up their T-47 and fled the area.

Meanwhile, the reporter Kandra Nilitz heard of the T-47's explosion, Luke Skywalker's suspected involvement, and of a news blackout in the town of Crystal Valley, and decided to try and find Skywalker. Vestara and the Skywalkers again came under attack by the Sith near the site of the T-47's destruction. Nilitz approached them there in the midst of the combat, and Vestara and the Jedi quickly jumped aboard her rental speeder and fled the area. Luke decided that their next move would be to find Crystal Valley&mdash;the tsils nearest there confirmed that Abeloth was in that vicinity&mdash;and he rewarded Nilitz for helping them by informing her of Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of Sith. When they arrived, Luke allowed Nilitz and her camera operator to use a series of data links to film the upcoming confrontation. The Grand Master then told Vestara to send a message to Annax to inform her that Abeloth was at the Crystal Valley pumping station. Inside the facility, Vestara and the Jedi found many Theran Listeners lying in pain on the floor.

Among the bodies they found Jedi Knight Valin Horn, who remained under Abeloth's influence. Horn told them that he had learned from one "Grand Master Callista Ming" had that the impostors had been invaded by an alien intelligence that separated them from the real Force. Before long, Abeloth emerged in the form of Ming; however, Ming's presence in her was stronger than all the rest, and she was able to influence Abeloth's actions, forcing her not to attack Luke. Ming revealed that it was because of her presence in Abeloth that the entity came to want so many Jedi. As Luke confered with Ming's presence, Vestara's Sith reinforcements arrived and began to battle Abeloth elsewhere in the station. Horn believed that the Skywalkers had brought along Jedi to trap him and Abeloth, and attacked Ben. Vestara quickly joined the fray, helping Ben hold back the more experienced Jedi Knight. Meanwhile, Luke succeeded in using the mnemotherapy technique to withdraw Ming's presence from Abeloth and sever it. Horn was staggered by the blow, but Abeloth quickly took the form of Nenn. The Master of the Theran Listeners refused to be used thus and stabbed himself; Horn was knocked unconscious, and back where the Sith were fighting Abeloth, Vestara and the Skywalkers heard her scream in agony.

Before they could join in the battle against her, however, they were set upon by Annax and a team of about two dozen more Sith. Vestara stood back-to-back with the Skywalkers as they were attacked by the Sith. As the battle began, however, Vestara began counting down, warning the Skywalkers that a major Force attack would hit them in ten seconds. They managed to survive the Sith onslaught for those seconds, and as she reached zero Vestara killed a tsil, resulting in a major death convulsion that incapacitated the Sith, further weakened Abeloth, and even brought both Luke and Vestara to their knees. They fled the area with Valin before the Sith could recover. Luke admonished Vestara for killing the tsil, but Vestara countered that she did so because she knew that, against so many Sith, it was only a matter of time before they would have been killed; and Luke was the only one with the strength to defeat Abeloth, so she had to ensure his survival.

While they had been inside the station, a fleet under the command of Vestara's father had arrived in-system. However, Luke whad been hoping that they would&mdash;unbeknownst to Vestara, he had the Jedi wing waiting hidden in-system the whole time, and when the Sith arrived, the Jedi ambushed the fleet. Luke called to the Jedi forces to be picked up and commandeered one of the StealthXs while Vestara, Ben, and Horn were taken to safety. In the battle, Luke wounded Ship, who nevertheless successfully escaped with Abeloth on board; and the Sith fleet was forced to retreat.

On the hunt
"You want me to take a Sith, whose trustworthiness seems to depend on the time of day, the season, and the phases of whatever moons happen to be nearby, with us on a potentially dangerous mission to the Sith homeworld.''" "''That's about right, yes."

- Luke Skywalker and Jaina Solo, on having Vestara Khai accompany them to Korriban

After they recovered from their injuries on Nam Chorios, Vestara and the Skywalkers were joined by they Jedi fleet in their hunt for Abeloth. Although they began to suspect that Abeloth had formed an alliance with the Sith, Vestara refused to give away the location of her Tribe's homeworld&mdash;she feared that if she did, the Jedi would travel there and wipe all of the Sith out. Eventually, they agreed to try to find Ship, in the hope that locating the Meditation Sphere would lead them to Abeloth. Jedi Knight Jaina Solo arranged for them to work with the formerly psychotic Jedi Knight Natua Wan, who was stationed in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, to research information on ancient Sith Worlds. After acquiring a list of several worlds deemed as possible locations for Ship, the Jedi fleet split up to search the planets. Solo joined Vestara and the Skywalkers aboard the Jade Shadow and they traveled first to the planet Korriban, since it was the planet from which the Sith originated. Despite Luke's reluctance, and to Vestara's and Ben's surprise, Solo invited Vestara to accompany them planetside on Korriban because she believed that Vestara could prove useful.

They landed on Korriban in the Valley of the Dark Lords, and Luke ordered that they stick together and communicate via comlink when not right next to each other. The dark side aura that permeated the planet filled Vestara with mixed emotions&mdash;on the one hand, she was wary of the powerful energy, but it also excited her. They began their search at a nearby citadel, which they found to be deserted. The four began to grow convinced that they would not find anyone on Korriban when a group of tuk'ata Sith hounds approached them. Before they could attack, however, Vestara moved forward and spoke to them in the Sith language, ordering them not to harm the Jedi. She then requested that they find any fellow Sith who may be on the planet; but the hounds replied with an uneasiness that meant they could not carry out her wish&mdash;there were no other Sith of the Lost Tribe on Korriban. The Jedi were shocked as the tuk'ata then left them alone, and Solo was instantly suspicious of the Sith apprentice. Vestara, however, revealed what she had said and that none of the Tribe's Sith were on Korriban, and the Jedi agreed.

The four then went to the planet Dromund Kaas, where the Jedi were even more reluctant to let Vestara accompany them, partially due to the parallels in its history with that of the Lost Tribe's homeworld. However, Vestara argued that they only had three choices: they could kill her, leave one of their own number behind to guard her while the other two completed the mission, or they could take her with them. Convinced that it was the best option, Luke finally agreed to let her come along. Vestara and the three Jedi made their way to a temple surrounded by a powerful dark side Force nexus. Vestara was awed by the sheer strength of the dark side emanating from the area, and she and Ben split off from Solo and Luke to explore the temple. After several minutes of searching in vain, however, they became convinced that there was no one there. Just as they were preparing to leave, though, they were suddenly ambushed by ten Sith Sabers under the command of Gavar Khai.

Orphaned
"Ben? Do&hellip;you think I could?''" "Could what?" "&hellip;become a Jedi." "''Vestara Khai, I know you can do anything you want. Yes. Oh, yes. You can become a Jedi. And it would be the greatest honor of my life to help you. I'll be there every step of the way. I promise."

- Vestara Khai and Ben Skywalker

Luke instantly assumed that Vestara had again drawn the Sith to them, but to his surprise, Vestara ignited her lightsaber and stood with the Jedi against her father. Gavar admitted disappointment in her and revealed that Vestara's mother, Lahka, had recently been killed. Shocked, Vestara asked if it had been his doing, and although Gavar replied that it had not, he also revealed that he had not stopped it, and added that both his wife and daughter could be replaced. Gavar ordered his fellow Sabers to attack the Jedi, and he attacked Vestara himself. While the Jedi held off three Sith Sabers each, Vestara engaged in combat with her father. He told her that she had brought shame upon their family and accused her of betraying the Sith. Vestara, however, noticed that Gavar&mdash;who had taught her that she must always be in control of her actions and emotions&mdash;was fighting and acting with in an out-of-control manner. She realized that he had not stayed loyal to the Sith, either, and questioning his loyalties confirmed her suspicion.

As the duel wore on, Vestara began to push her father backward, and she finally sliced him from shoulder to hip, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, the three Jedi had defeated all of the other Sith Sabers, and they quickly moved to comfort her. Solo revealed that she had had to kill her own brother in order to save the lives of many beings, including herself. She told Vestara that she would always miss her kin, but that she had done the right thing&mdash;the only thing she could do. Meanwhile, due to the small number of Sith they encountered, Luke deduced that the Sith had guessed what the Jedi were doing and sent the team there to ambush them; thus the main fleet was elsewhere. Vestara also revealed that she believed the Sith were with Abeloth&mdash;during her duel with Gavar, she had sensed that the entity had some kind of influence over him. Luke then decided that they should recouperate and head back to Coruscant.

Later, Vestara mourned over her father's death in her quarters on the Jade Shadow. She tried to find solace by reviewing letters that she had written while on Nam Chorios&mdash;she had imagined that her father truly cared for her as if he were a Jedi, and had written the letters as a way to comfort herself with such an imaginary relationship with him. She decided to write one more, now that he was dead; in it claiming that she missed him, that he was the best father she could have wanted, and that she appreciated how he had aided her in her life as a Jedi. Before she could finish, however, Ben walked in on her typing the message. He inquired as to what she was doing, and when she insisted that it was not his business, he grew suspicious. She tried to stop him from seeing what she had written, but after a quick fight he subdued her. She tried to tell him that it had nothing to do with the Jedi; however, Ben did not believe her, and he opened the files.

When Ben saw that the letters were addressed to their father, he became convinced that she had been spying on them the whole time; she just told him to read them thoroughly. As the young Jedi Knight continued reading and realized what the letters were, he quickly became embarrassed and apologized. Now that he had started, however, Vestara did not want to let him stop, and insisted that he finish them. When he was done, he lay down beside her and comforted her, apologizing again for intruding. Finally, Vestara asked Ben if he thought she could become a Jedi. He replied that he believed she could, and added that he would help her. The two then shared their first kiss as Vestara took comfort in being able to feel trust and love by turning to the light side of the Force.

Mission to Upekzar
"If you want to continue, let's continue. It's better than sitting outside twiddling our thumbs while Luke and the others take down Ship. At least we're doing something useful."

- Vestara Khai, to Ben Skywalker and Natua Wan in the caves of Upekzar

When Vestara and Ben told his father of her desire to be a Jedi, the Grand Master was shocked and disbelieving. However, Vestara Khai opened up her presence in the Force and allowed herself to be examined by him. Luke found that she was sincere in her change of heart, and told her that he would teach her himself. Once on Coruscant, Ben gave Vestara a tour of the Jed Temple. They met with Jaina Solo and Natua Wan in the library, and the latter Jedi Knight revealed that she believed Ship was on the planet Upekzar. Wan gave them a quick briefing on the planet, revealing that the world was home to the rhak-skuri&mdash;which translated to "dream singer" in the Sith language&mdash;a bug in the diplura family that secreted pheromones with hallucinogenic properties. Wan went on to report that the Sith there had based their culture on their contact with the bugs, and many of their dark side rituals and rites were performed without protection from the hallucinations.

Luke, meanwhile, had reported Vestara's new allegaince to the Jedi Council, as well as announced his decision to move the Order off of Coruscant. Luke went on to appear on reporter Perre Needmo's show, The Perre Needmo Newshour, where he publicly announced his decision, claiming that the Jedi Order was going to sever all political ties, and while it would still help the Galactic Alliance, it would no longer do so as an official branch of government. Soon after the Jedi left&mdash;Vestara once again accompanying the Skywalkers aboard the Jade Shadow&mdash;Han Solo, Jaina Solo's father, contacted them and revealed that Galactic Alliance Security had arrested his wife, Leia, for charges of conspiracy against the government, espionage, and smuggling spice. Luke told Han to confer with interim Chief of State Padnel Ovin and his Chief of Staff, Wynn Dorvan, as both were friends of the Jedi. Vestara also suggested that Han take his adopted daughter, Amelia, with him.

The Jedi proceeded to watch the news on the HoloNet. The news showed one "Kameron Suldar" as the head of a Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Jedi Activity, but Vestara recognized him as High Lord Ivaar Workan of the Lost Tribe of Sith. She began to divulge what she knew to the Jedi, but was surprised when Luke revealed that he already knew the man was a Sith. Luke told them that he had made such a show of the Jedi leaving Coruscant in order to set the planet as bait for the Sith. He wanted to lure them all to one place so that the Jedi could take care of Ship and Abeloth, and then come back and defeat the Tribe. Vestara told the Jedi that she believed Workan had arrested Leia Solo to make sure that the supposedly last Jedi left on the capital world was closely guarded and to bolster his own authority.

Almost every Jedi in the galaxy&mdash;over one hundred altogether&mdash;traveled to Upekzar to confront Ship and Abeloth, and upon their arrival, Luke ordered Vestara, Ben, and Wan to explore a group of caves on the planet while the rest of the Jedi hunted down Ship. As they searched through the caves, however, the three were suddenly beset by a gigantic rhak-skuri&mdash;due to its prolonged exposure to the dark side energies on the world, the rhak-skuri had mutated, growing much larger and stronger. The three Jedi defended themselves from the creature as it attacked them, and Vestara tried to distract it from Wan and Ben. However, the rhak-skuri still identified her as a Sith, and it preferred to kill Jedi&mdash;it knocked off Ben's protective breath mask and prepared to feed on him as he was paralyzed by hallucinations. Vestara made a quick decision&mdash;she had to protect Ben, no matter the cost. She turned on Wan, attacking the Jedi Knight and quickly killing her. The rhak-skuri then fed on Wan while Ben began to recover from his hallucinations.

Suddenly, the caves began to collapse, and Vestara and Ben tried to make their way out. However, another seism trapped them behind a wall of rocks. Vestara's lightsaber had been lost behind the rocks, so using just Ben's blade and the Force, the two began to work away at the rocks. As they finally broke through, they found Jedi Master Corran Horn waiting for them&mdash;he returned Vestara her lightsaber and revealed that a volcano had erupted and that they needed to evacuate the planet immediately. The planet had been a trap laid by Abeloth&mdash;neither she nor Ship was there, and although Vestara and the majority of the Jedi force managed to escape, they still suffered several losses. Afterward, Vestara reflected on her actions; she knew that she could never tell Ben what she had done, because he would never forgive her for killing Wan. However, she did not regret her decision&mdash;and she came to realize that that meant that she could never be a Jedi. Vestara then resolved to remain with Ben for as long as she could until they inevitably became enemies and she was forced to kill him.

Personality and traits
"She's the conversational equivalent of a monkey-lizard on too much caf. Here, there, everywhere, and it's impossible to pin down."

- Ben Skywalker, speaking of Vestara's skills in deception

Vestara was able to speak Basic, Keshiri, and the ancient Sith language. She possessed all of the desired physical qualities of a Sith save for a small scar on her lip&mdash;in the Lost Tribe's society such a deformity was considered a degrading flaw. However, Olaris Rhea told her that she believed the scar was beneficial, as it gave her the appearance of a constant smirk. Despite her scar, Vestara was considered to be beautiful by other Humans, including Ben Skywalker. Vestara felt great compassion for her uvak, Tikk, but suppressed her emotions when Rhea prepared to kill the creature, accepting that it was Rhea's decision; the Lady thus allowed Tikk to live. Vestara also cared greatly for her family and understood that her father had married her mother due to love; that he loved her despite the fact that she was not Force-sensitive. Vestara became acquainted with the Keshiri Ahri Raas, training frequently with him and developing a close friendship. He came to feel attracted to her, but although she found him very attractive and loved him as a friend, she did not reciprocate his feelings.

Vestara held a powerful desire to become a Sith Master; Ship recognized her ambition and contacted her first upon his arrival on Kesh. The Meditation Sphere also acknowledged her powerful will, although it was no match for Abeloth's. During her mission with the strike team, she perceived that Raas was being used by Xal to spy on her and glean information from her that could prove useful to Xal's coup; and she accepted that she might have to be the one to kill her friend. She was very upset by the prospect of doing so, but believed that it was necessary. During the strike team's battle with the Skywalkers, she was angered at Raas' stupidity in attempting to betray her and took out her vengeance on Xal by killing the Sith Master. Later in the battle, after her own master was killed by Luke, Vestara knew that she was completely outmatched and saluted the Jedi before fleeing. Similarly, when confronted on Dathomir by the Skywalkers after Galaan fled without her, she accepted the fact that she had no chance of escaping and surrendered.

On Dathomir, Vestara recognized the power of the Nightsisters and arranged for them to meet with members of her Tribe so that they could exchange their knowledge of the Force&mdash;although in reality she intended for her Tribe to capture the Nightsisters. She showed her cunning in formulating her plans on Dathomir&mdash;her time on the run in the rain forest and under the care of the Dathomiri Witches was used simply to keep the Skywalkers from discovering her true actions. As a result, it wasn't until after they captured her that they realized that she hadn't paid for her yacht to be repaired; rather, she had sold it for enough credits to send a hypercomm message to her people. When in the company of the Skywalkers, she managed to keep from revealing any information to them, despite Ben's best attempts to lure her into doing so during their conversations. Still, she frequently flirted with Ben during their time together and they developed an attraction to each other. At the behest of her father, she attempted to use that to acquire information from him.

Vestara held great respect for her father, Gavar, but she was upset that he neglected to tell her the Sith's true motives in allying with the Jedi. She also began to see him as irrational when he grew angry at her for assisting Ben in the capture of Stadd on Klatooine. Later, unbeknownst to Vestara, Ben viewed a translation of the conversation that she had held with her father when she had met with him aboard the Jade Shadow. The knowledge that she was planning to betray them led Ben to distance himself from her slightly, causing Vestara some distress. She held hopes of being able to turn Ben to the dark side so that they could be together, and wished that he had just been born a Sith. When Vestara developed her plan to use Stadd to locate Abeloth, she decided not to tell the Skywalkers because she feared that they would not trust her. During the battle with Abeloth, Vestara was gravely injured and taken to safety by Ben. He saw that none of her wounds were fatal, but she claimed that the thorns that had stabbed her were poisonous, using his feelings for her to delay his return to the battle as the Sith executed their betrayal. However, Ben still noticed as Gavar moved to attack Luke and he warned his father of the attack in time.

Vestara was, however, greatly changed by the events that led her to become an ally of the Skywalkers. She was the first of the Sith to see Abeloth for what she truly was; and she was repulsed by the entity. When Sarasu Taalon started to turn into the same kind of being as Abeloth, Vestara realized that his transformation could only bring harm to the galaxy and decided to kill him. Although she maintained that she was still a Sith sent messages to her Tribe notifying them of the Jedi's and Abeloth's whereabouts on numerous occasions, she also blatantly aided the Skywalkers multiple times against the Sith. Meanwhile, her feelings for Ben grew increasingly strong, as did his own fer her. On Pydyr, she was forced to fire on her own Tribe to give ance to escape, and she soon afterward fought the Sith alongside the Skywalkers three times on Nam Chorios.

On the last such occasion, she killed a tsil, creating a massive death convulsion that allowed them to escape from the Sith. When the elder Skywalker tried to reprimand her, she replied that she believed he was their best chance at defeating Abeloth, and she could not allow him to die. When the Jedi subsequently began searching ancient Sith worlds for Abeloth and Ship, Vestara grew eager to prove her trustworthiness. She convinced them to take her with them planetside on both Korriban and Dromund Kaas, despite the inherent dark side power on both worlds. On Korriban, she stopped a group of Sith hounds from attacking the Jedi, but unbeknownst to the Jedi, she also ordered the hounds to tell any members of her Tribe that they found to hide.

She tried to make sense of the internal struggles that she was facing in the form of unsent letters to her father which detailed a life that she wished she had had; and in one she even detailed herself as the daughter of a Jedi. When confronted by her father in combat on Dromund Kaas, Vestara recognized that his mind had been twisted by Abeloth, and she was forced to kill him. Her grief over his death added to her already conflicting emotions, and she finally found herself wishing that she could put aside all the plotting and mistrust that came with being Sith and become a Jedi. Vestara was thrilled when Ben said that he believed she could do it and that he would help her in that endeavor. When he kissed the scar on the side of her mouth, she realized that he was telling her that he found all of her beautiful&mdash;even what she most disliked about herself&mdash;and the two then shared their first kiss.

However, her feelings for Ben soon got in the way of her desire to become a Jedi. When a mutated rhak-skuri on the planet Upekzar inapacitated Ben and planned to feed on him, Vestara was unsure in the ability of herself and Wan to defeat it before it could do so. She thus decided to kill Wan so that the rhak-skuri would feed on her instead of Ben. Vestara did not tell Ben of the incident, because she knew that he would not forgive her for her choice. Vestara realized that she could never become a true Jedi, as she always reverted to the Sith way of doing things; and she accepted that she would one day have to kill Ben, even though it would break her heart.

Powers and abilities
"I am Vestara Khai, daughter of a proud heritage. I have what is necessary to command the dark side and bend it to my will. To use it for the good of the Tribe, and the People."

- Vestara

Khai was very strong in the Force and possessed a great ambition to rise through the ranks of the Tribe. Luke Skywalker himself acknowledged her potential, recognizing her exceptionally strong connection to the Force. Ship recognized her strength and desire and approached her before it did any other Sith on Kesh, offering to help her become more powerful. The Meditation Sphere's move led directly to her apprenticeship to Lady Olaris Rhea and to the creation of a new Sith armada, in which Vestara served. Prior to joining the armada she had never killed anyone, but during the first two years of her travels offworld she became an experienced killer. Khai also learned how to fly Ship under the Sith Meditation Sphere's own tutelage and she later flew the SoroSuub yacht She's a Chancer from Sinkhole Station to Dathomir on her own. Vestara also possessed some knowledge of the inner workings of vehicles. On Nam Chorios, she and Ben were able to refashion the heavily damaged TIE shuttle Vote Snaplaunce into a makeshift landspeeder.

Khai was skilled with a lightsaber and was completely ambidextrous. As a Tyro, she often sparred with her friend Ahri Raas, frequently besting him in their matches. During the mission to Sinkhole Station, Khai and Rhea briefly dueled Luke Skywalker, and though Rhea was killed, Khai managed to survive the conflict. Later, while with the Raining Leaves Clan on Dathomir, Luke Skywalker noted Khai's talent with a lightsaber, comparing it to that of a Jedi Knight. When she and Ben were chasing the psychotic Dyon Stadd on Klatooine, she was able to use her lightsaber to deflect shots fired on them by Klatooinian guards who were also chasing after Stadd, while simultaneously speaking with Luke via comlink, informing him of their situation. Khai was also versed in the use of parangs, shikkars, and blasters. Despite her skills, she knew when to admit defeat&mdash;she fled following Rhea's death at Sinkhole Station, acknowledging that she was no match for the Jedi Grand Master; and later surrendered to the Jedi on Dathomir after Gaalan fled without her, knowing that she had no hope of defeating Stadd and both of the Skywalkers in battle.

Vestara Khai was proficient with several Force techniques. Following her return to consciousness during the battle with the Skywalkers at Sinkhole Station, she managed to Force-push the two Jedi into each other, allowing her time to escape. Later, while chasing Stadd on Klatooine, she easily levitated Stadd's speeder over a large distance, much to Ben's surprise. She also employed Force lightning, utilizing bursts of lightning that ranged from very powerful to very small. At one point she shot Ben with a harmless bolt of lightning. She also used Force lightning to incapacitate two Klatooinian guards, as well as later during the battle with Abeloth&mdash;although the dark side entity easily bent the lightning back upon Khai.

Khai was also noted by the Skywalkers for her cunning and her skills in the art of deception. On Dathomir, Ben attempted multiple times to glean information from her, but she managed to keep the truth hidden from him for some time, avoiding detection of her duplicity while she negotiated a deal with the Nightsisters&mdash;although, unbeknownst to the Nightsisters, she planned to betray them, too, to her own Tribe. Later, on Abeloth's planet, she successfully devised a plan to free Stadd and follow him to Abeloth in order to locate her, deceiving him into believing that she, too, was an ally of Abeloth's. During the battle with Abeloth in the courtyard, Khai pretended that her injuries were poisoned, drawing Ben's attention away from the battle just as the Sith executed their betrayal of the Jedi, almost leading to Luke's death at the hands of Gavar Khai. She did eventually grow tired of trickery, however, and chose to turn her back on the dark side and join the Jedi. After finally opening her well-concealed presence for examination by Luke Skywalker, the Grand Master agreed to take her as his own apprentice.

As was traditional for Sith, Khai carried a red-bladed lightsaber. Following her first contact with Ship and apprenticeship to Rhea, she was given a new crystal for her blade&mdash;one of lignan ore, an ore that was exceptionally powerful in the dark side of the Force, amplifying the power of her blade. Khai carried a parang, a weapon with a curved blade that had been adopted by the Sith Tribe from use as a garden tool to use as a weapon. She also owned a shikkar, a dagger made entirely out of glass for one single use that was considered to be an honorable weapon by the Sith Tribe. After she used her shikkar to kill Yuvar Xal, her father gave her one from his personal collection that had been crafted by the famous shikkar-maker Tura Sanga.

During her time with the Skywalkers her skills improved. On Pydyr, she killed Sith High Lord Taalon while he was distracted. In Kesla Vein on Nam Chorios, she defeated a Sith Saber in one-on-one combat, and although she and Ben together were barely able to hold their own against the psychotic Jedi Valin Horn, Vestara was able to help the Skywalkers hold off about twenty-five Sith for ten seconds. Vestara later went on to duel her own father to the death&mdash;a fight which she won&mdash;as well as betray and kill the Jedi Knight Natua Wan.

Behind the scenes
Vestara Khai was first introduced in Christie Golden's Omen, the second novel in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series. She went on to appear in each subsequent novel of the series, as well as two short stories written by Golden, "Imprint" and "First Blood." The same image of Vestara was used on the front covers for both "Imprint" and Omen, although she appeared with a new illustration on the cover of the eighth Fate of the Jedi novel, Ascension, alongside Ben Skywalker. Vestara has also received mentions in the Blaster department of the Star Wars Insider magazine.

Appearances

 * Imprint
 * Omen
 * Abyss
 * Backlash
 * Allies
 * Vortex
 * Conviction
 * Ascension
 * Ascension