Darth Caedus

"[Jacen] has always questioned his purpose as a Jedi, and even the meaning of the Force. I can't imagine him not questioning any fate that lay in store for him. And a special destiny is not always something joyous, or easy to bear. My father had a special destiny, and see where it took him."

- Luke Skywalker

Jacen Solo, later known as Darth Caedus, was the eldest son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, the younger twin of Jaina and the brother of Anakin. Even before he and his sister were born, their uncle Luke Skywalker could sense their strong presence in the Force, for the twins shared an inseparable mental bond. Later in his life he became the mentor to his cousin, Ben Skywalker and fathered a baby girl, Allana, with Tenel Ka.

Jacen showed latent Force powers as an infant when he helped his uncle and his uncle's students defeat the spirit of Exar Kun. He started his formal Jedi training years later at his uncle's Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. He excelled as one of the best students, getting into many adventures with his friends, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka and his sister Jaina. Later, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, he often did not see eye to eye with the orthodox Jedi view of the Force, despite being one of the more powerful Knights of the New Jedi Order.

After being captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, he became associated with Vergere, who molded many of his ways of thinking. Jacen had always been an empathetic person, forming close bonds with Humans and animals alike; as a child he developed an affinity and sensitivity toward nature and the Living Force. However, this bond with living beings diminished severely following his travels amongst other Force users. By 40 ABY, Jacen's empathy to others had become largely nonexistent, a trait later evidenced by his remorseless torture and killing of suspected terrorists.

Later that year, he secretly apprenticed himself to Lumiya, becoming her third and final apprentice. After Mara Jade Skywalker's failed assassination attempt on his life, and the murder of Lumiya at the hands of Luke Skywalker, Jacen declared himself Darth Caedus, Dark Lord of the Sith, bringing the Skywalker legacy in full circle.

Childhood (9 ABY–22 ABY)
"He said, 'Why do I have to be strong? Someday I'll be able to go anywhere I want, or get anything I want, just by thinking about it&mdash;like Uncle Luke.'"

- A troubled Han Solo, speaking of Jacen's disregard for physical fitness Just prior to the end of the Thrawn Crisis, Jacen and his older twin sister, Jaina, were born to Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo. Because Grand Admiral Thrawn had promised to apprehend the twins and their mother in exchange for Joruus C'baoth's help, Jacen, Jaina, and their mother were the targets of three unsuccessful kidnapping attempts by Thrawn's Noghri Death Commandos. After the twins were born, prior to the deaths of Thrawn and C'baoth, Imperial Intelligence agents staged one last unsuccessful attempt to apprehend Leia and the twins.

Isolation
Following Luke's advice on protecting the children from the dark side of the Force, Han and Leia sent Jacen and Jaina to New Alderaan, and placed them in the care of Leia's lifelong friend and aide, Winter. For more than the first year of their lives, Jacen and Jaina saw their parents only twice. But any safety that could be derived from this arrangement would be short-lived. The reborn Emperor Palpatine discovered the location of the planet and ordered an attack immediately. During the chaos of the Second Battle of New Alderaan, Jacen and Jaina were nearly kidnapped by Dark-siders Xecr Nist and Kvag Gthull, but their efforts were thwarted by the actions of Rayf Ysanna.

Following the battle, Jacen and Jaina were brought to the ancient space city of Nespis VIII, where it was discovered that the Alliance had survived the destruction of Da Soocha V. After the birth of their younger brother, Anakin, Jacen and Jaina would live with their mother and father while on the run with the Rebel fleet until after an incident involving a warhead that was fired from the Galaxy Gun. The twins and their younger brother would visit Onderon, a planet that had been presumed to be safe from Palpatine.

This proved not to be the case when Palpatine arrived on Onderon, hoping to spiritually enter Anakin. Jacen and Jaina could do little but look on as their parents and uncle, as well as Empatojayos Brand battled Palpatine's last known clone. Palpatine was unsuccessful, but the incident led to Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin being sent to the world of Anoth with Winter.

Reunion
"You may all someday be the greatest Jedi Knights ever, but I'll always remember you like this! Pests!"

- Han Solo to his sons Jacen and Anakin, good-naturedly referring the difficulties of being a parent

When they were two-and-a-half years old, Jacen and Jaina would return to Coruscant, to live with their parents. Because they had lived away from Han and Leia for quite a while, Jacen and Jaina had viewed Winter as their mother, and Leia as a stranger. Therefore, they were quite apprehensive during their reunion. Because Han was absent at the time, Leia found herself trying to keep a precarious balance between her motherly and political duties.

To keep herself from being overwhelmed by the tasks that confronted her, Leia would enlist C-3PO's help. The protocol droid had uploaded information regarding child-rearing into his memory banks and would meet the challenge with an initial enthusiasm, but with mixed results. Chewbacca would also aid in raising the twins, after he had returned from Kessel with Han.

The team of C-3PO and Chewbacca would typically take care of Jacen and Jaina when their parents were away. C-3PO would recite stories such as The Little Lost Bantha Cub, and take them on field trips along with Chewbacca, who would keep an eye on them. However, such an arrangement didn't pan out for them during a trip to the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals.

Using their mental bond, Jacen and Jaina decided to play a game of hide-and-seek with Chewbacca and C-3PO, though the latter parties did not consent to it. The twins found their way to a turbolift and unknowingly took it into Coruscant's undercity. During the course of their adventure, they encountered many odd and dangerous creatures, and discovered Onibald Daykim's kingdom. After they were allowed to sample some of the local cuisine, Daykim returned Jacen and Jaina to their parents.

When their Uncle Luke was disabled by Kyp Durron, and the spirit of an ancient Sith Lord named Exar Kun, Jacen and Jaina accompanied their parents on a visit to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, and were baffled by their uncle's condition. During the dinner that followed, the twins, along with their mother and the students felt a great disturbance in the Force when the planet of Carida was destroyed by Kyp Durron.

The day after that Jacen would find a number of woolamanders that had taken up residence in the Great Temple, and claimed that he could talk to them. While in spirit form, Luke found that the twins were the only individuals with whom he could communicate. He managed to keep his body from being destroyed by warning them of the threat in their dreams.

After their parents had left the Praxeum, Jacen and Jaina were placed in the care of Cilghal, one of Luke's students. While visiting Luke's body once again, they noticed that they could see his spirit when they were awake. That night, Luke once again awoke Jacen.

Exar Kun's spirit had dispatched a number of Sith battle hydras that would have surely destroyed Luke's body if given the chance. Luke instructed Jacen to take up his lightsaber to defend his body. As Luke's spirit took control of Jacen's body, he showed Jacen how to use the lightsaber with all the skill of a master swordsman. However, after the event, Jacen seemed like he had no idea what had happened. Jacen and Jaina would later help destroy Exar Kun's spirit and restore Luke's spirit back to his body.



Abduction
"Jacen, you have to say whether we believe him. Because you're the oldest–" "–I'm oldest. I'm oldest, hold father Hethrir!–" "–I remember. I remember when you both were born, your mama and papa were so happy they said to me, 'Here is Jacen, our firstborn son, and here is Jaina, our beautiful daughter.–" "–We believe you, Hold Father Hethrir"

- Conversation between Jaina, Jacen and Hethrir following the kidnapping

When he was five years old, Jacen and his siblings accompanied Leia on a diplomatic mission to the planet Munto Codru. Chewbacca would make sure that the children would not get into any trouble as they played in a designated meadow during negotiations, but he would not be enough to keep Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, and Chamberlain Iyon's wyrwulf from being kidnapped. The twins and Anakin unknowingly left a trail of pain behind them that could be sensed in the Force.

After returning to consciousness, the children were greeted by a man named Hethrir. He claimed that their parents, their uncle, and Chewbacca had been killed in an earthquake, and that he, Hethrir, was their hold-father. They immediately picked up on the fact that Hethrir was lying to them when Jacen and Jaina lied to him about the order in which they were born.

Jacen and Jaina did not adapt well to the drudgeries of living aboard Hethrir's Worldcraft. They managed to stay resolute in the face of the overwhelming pressures that were brought to bear to ensure their corruption. Jacen and Jaina would rebel against the authority of Hethrir's Proctors in a number of subtle ways. On one occasion, Jacen would induce a large number of myrmins into attacking the Proctors during a meal. However, many myrmins died to cause the Proctors a small amount of discomfort, much to Jacen's regret.

Jacen would later use his talents to befriend the sand dragon that lived just outside the compound in which they were kept aboard the Worldcraft. He was able to ascertain that the sand dragon was a female, and thus Jaina gave the name Mistress Dragon to her. That friendship would prove useful when they made an escape attempt with a number of the other captive children. They would mount Mistress Dragon to evade the Proctors, who had by then been alerted to what had happened.

As the Proctors drew closer to the children, their mother's yacht, Alderaan, landed nearby. After a tearful reunion, they proceeded to Crseih Station to rescue Anakin and Iyon, as well as a number of other children who were in Hethrir's possession. If they did not make it in time, Hethrir would sacrifice Anakin to Waru. In the process of rescuing Anakin, Waru destroyed Hethrir and vanished from the known galaxy. Additionally, a number of other children were saved from being sold into slavery, among them Iyon's wyrwulf and Lusa, a young Chironian, with whom Jaina had become friends.

After the rescue, both parents would take a more active role in the raising of their children. Of all of the children, Han was most concerned about Jacen, who had a tendency to shun physical activity and wanted to do everything with the Force, instead of his hands. Unlike his younger brother, Jacen&mdash;along with Jaina&mdash;would often test his father's patience. Despite the hard time that he gave Han, Jacen loved him and was frightened by the prospect of losing him when the news was broken to him that his father had been captured by the Duskhan League.

The First Corellian Insurrection
"All right, but be sure you remember whose idea it was to start shooting."

- Jacen Solo reluctantly acquiesces to his sister's desire to free Chewbacca, Ebrihim and Marcha

In 18 ABY, Jacen accompanied his family on a vacation to the Corellian system. After their arrival, Leia hired a Drall named Ebrihim as a tutor for the children and a guide for the whole family. During their first day with Ebrihim, Jacen and Jaina made it clear that they were annoyed by the fact that they were being tutored during what was supposed to be their vacation. However, this was somewhat mitigated by the fact that they were learning about places that they would eventually visit.

On their first outing, the family was to visit Corellia's first major archaeological site. Jacen looked forward to this trip, and planned on seeing some real skeletons. He did manage to get a glimpse at some, but he was troubled by the recklessness shown by the Human League Heritage Squad's workers.

Jacen and his siblings became separated from the rest of the party and accidentally stumbled upon what would later be identified as Corellia's planetary repulsor, one of which was located on each of the Five Brothers. After Ebrihim's droid Q9-X2 found them, Jacen and Jaina used the Force to cover up any sign that they had been there and returned to the party. They would later tell their parents, Chewbacca, and Ebrihim what they had found in the tunnel.

After several days, during which they toured Corellia's main continent, Jacen and his family would relocate their lodgings to Corona House. There, Leia and Han were scheduled to attend a major trade conference which would be the first step in an attempt to encourage Corellia to become less insular and more connected with the rest of the galaxy.

During the first night of the trade summit, while their parents were away, the three children overheard a conversation between their parents with Mara Jade and Governor-General Micamberlecto. They learned of a plot which involved the destruction of entire star systems.

Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin would end up cooped up in Corona House with Chewbacca, Ebrihim, and Q9-X2 while their parents left to advise Micamberlecto on how best to deal with the brewing crisis. They watched from the apartment as enclaves within Coronet City burned to the ground and bodies piled up in the streets in the first stages of what would come to be known as the First Corellian Insurrection.

Corona House came under fire and Chewbacca decided that at this point it was time to leave. The children, the Wookiee, the Drall, and the droid piled into the Millennium Falcon. Terrified by the violence that had erupted, Jacen falteringly said goodbye to his father, who had given him the burden of telling his siblings that they would have to leave their parents amid the chaos on Corellia.

With the hyperdrive of the Falcon damaged by a PPB's lucky shot, the decision was made to visit Ebrihim's Aunt Marcha on Drall. By the time that they reached Drall, the Falcon's damaged hyperdrive became a non-issue since an interdiction field had mysteriously materialized, preventing any ship within the Corellian system from entering hyperspace.

Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin were happy to accept the hospitality of Marcha, the Duchess of Mastigophorous and received a lesson about Drallish traditions as well. The following morning after breakfast, Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin related to Marcha their experience at the archaeological dig, the mysterious installation that they had found there, and the conversation and recording that they had seen and heard.

Marcha would bring Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin to Drall's planetary repulsor after putting all of the pieces together. They eventually made their way inside the repulsor and looked as Anakin experimented with its interfaces.

After escaping death when his brother activated the repulsor, Jacen used his bond with Anakin to track him down within his general vicinity. Though he thought that Anakin should not get off easy, Jacen knew that being angry at and mean to his brother for what he had done would be pointless, given the situation. Jacen managed to gently coax Anakin from his hiding place and returned to the main chamber of the repulsor.

Jacen would later be reunited with his father's (and by extension his own) cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo, who came as soon as he learned that Drall's planetary repulsor had been activated. The reunion was not a happy one however, since Thrackan planned to use the repulsor for his own ends and imprisoned Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Chewbacca, Ebrihim, and Marcha. Thrackan would use the children in a gamble to blackmail their mother into getting the New Republic to recognize Corellian independence.

The children escaped from their prison with the aid of Q9-X2 and made their way to their father's freighter. After they effected some repairs with the help of Chewbacca and Ebrihim, who needed to be left behind, Jacen piloted the Millennium Falcon out of the mouth of the planetary repulsor with Thrackan in hot pursuit.

Though he was flying it upside down and had no experience flying the Falcon, Jacen managed to outmaneuver Thrackan's ship, eventually tailing the Mynock-class assault boat. Jaina's gunnery skills would ensure that it presented no threat, eventually damaging Thrackan's ship enough that it hung dead in space. Immediately thereafter, a tractor beam attempted to lock on to the Millennium Falcon and Jacen did his best to evade it, but gave up after he heard the voice of his father's friend Lando Calrissian (who mistook his voice for that of Jaina) over the comm system.

Aboard the Bakuran vessel Intruder, Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin were reunited with their parents. However the reunion was cut short since Han and Leia had volunteered to help the Bakuran fleet in its confrontation with the forces of the Sacorrian Triad at Centerpoint Station. Jacen and Jaina for their part, accompanied their brother back to the planetary repulsor on Drall to see if he could find a way to use it to stop the ancient space station from continuing its destruction of whole solar systems.

Once again inside the planetary repulsor, Jacen helped to smooth out the wrinkles in the lines of communication between Anakin and older more experienced technicians such as Antone. Anakin was a critical part of the plan to stop Centerpoint Station because the repulsor's systems would only answer to him. On one occasion, as the lives of the people of Bovo Yagen hung in the balance, Anakin became cranky and walked away from the terminal at which he was working. The responsibility would once again fall to Jacen to coax him into getting back to the task at hand. Jacen would watch as Anakin saved the lives of twelve million people and countless more.

Sometime after they returned home to Coruscant, Jaina would meet a street kid named Zekk, who had a talent for finding things. Though he had a tendency for disappearing many times, he became the first friend that they had outside of their family. He would often take the twins on many adventures throughout the city. Jacen would find that Zekk was often, if not always, amused by his jokes.

After the discovery of a partial copy of the Caamas Document in 19 ABY, and because of the crisis and scandal that would inevitably follow, Jacen and his siblings were sent to Kashyyyk with Chewbacca and a group of Noghri for their protection. After it had passed, he, Jaina, and Anakin was present at the signing of the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty with their parents aboard the Star Destroyer Chimaera. Shortly thereafter, Jacen would attend his Uncle Luke's private Jedi wedding to Mara Jade. During the public ceremony commemorating the union between Luke and Mara, Jacen was confined to a room designated for the children of the guests under the watchful eye of Booster Terrik.

Ever since he was aware of the gifts that he had inherited, Jacen wanted to develop them so that he could become a Jedi Knight and wield a lightsaber like his uncle. When he was twelve, he and his sister jumped at the chance to study at the Jedi Praxeum. He learned much during his time there, but the twins would stay there for only a few months. When the twins returned to their parents' open arms, Anakin would leave for the Praxeum for a few months as well. Jacen waited (albeit somewhat impatiently) for the chance to attend the Praxeum full-time.

Jedi training (23 ABY–25 ABY)
"Well, Jacen is pretty wild. He loves spending time outside. He collects bugs and gets into a lot of trouble."

- Anakin Solo to Tahiri Veila

At the age of fourteen in 23 ABY, Jacen and his sister returned to Yavin 4 to begin their training at the Praxeum on a more full-time basis. Jacen continued to develop the gift that he had for communicating with animals. With Jaina's help, Jacen set up and made regular additions to a large menagerie of small critters in the quarters in which he resided. Jacen's hair was typically filled with twigs and leaves from his expeditions into the jungle in search for more odd creatures.

In spite of the knowledge that he had accumulated during his study of strange plants and animals when he had been younger, Jacen still had quite a bit to learn about the natural world. One of the creatures that he had kept in his menagerie was a rock lizard, who, after a few weeks in captivity tried to escape. Jacen brought up this problem during a conversation with Luke, who then related to him a story about Huey, a dewback that had shared the same problem. Jacen took Luke's advice and released his rock lizard into the wild. It would return later with an egg sack.

""Hey, Lando, I heard two droids talking the other day. The first one said, 'Well, did you beat the Wookiee at sabacc?' And the second one said&mdash;" "&mdash;'Yes, but it cost me an arm and a leg.' "That's an old joke, kid." "Maybe that's why Tenel Ka didn't laugh at it."

- Jacen Solo, attempts to amuse Lando Calrissian

When Jacen wasn't paying attention to his animals, he would be attending classes and socializing with other students. After he and his sister befriended a Dathomiri warrior girl named Tenel Ka, Jacen took issue with her seeming lack of humor. The twins decided to make it their goal to make her laugh, but Jaina seemed to eventually lose interest in what seemed to be an impossible endeavor. Nevertheless, Jacen continued to pursue this matter as if it were a personal mission, but all of his attempts seemingly resulted in failure. There were only a few fellow students who managed to rub Jacen the wrong way and the most prominent among them was Raynar Thul, who took issue with his menagerie of animals.

Approximately one month after the twins had first begun training, Han and Chewbacca visited the Praxeum, along with a young Wookiee named Lowbacca. Lowbacca was Chewbacca's nephew and like Jacen and Jaina, planned to train to become a Jedi Knight at the Praxeum. Along with Jaina and Tenel Ka, Jacen befriended Lowbacca and found that the young Wookiee was among the few individuals who appreciated his sense of humor.

The destroyed TIE Fighter
"Be careful&mdash;don't assume a teacher is always right, without question. You have to think for yourself. Sometimes we teachers make mistakes, too. But in this case, I am right: You're not yet ready for a lightsaber."

- Luke Skywalker to Jacen Solo, after discovering his nephew playing with his lightsaber in his office

When Lowbacca came back to the Praxeum late one evening with tales of a mysterious glittering object Jacen agreed to accompany Jaina, Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka to investigate it. The next day they discovered that the object was a solar panel from a TIE Fighter that had crashed over twenty years prior. The rest of the TIE Fighter eventually was found and Jacen's sister declared her belief that the derelict starfighter could be fixed.

Though he had some misgivings about the enterprise, Jacen decided to help Jaina, Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka repair the fighter. His job mainly consisted of searching the surrounding area for missing parts from the TIE Fighter, which allowed him ample opportunity to learn about the surrounding vegetation and search for interesting animals. As the TIE Fighter neared its final stages of repair and modifications (which included a hyperdrive that Jaina had received from her father), missing parts within full view crash site became rare.

Against his better judgment, Jacen went into the jungle out of sight of his friends and discovered a well-worn path. Like many of his other searches for "missing parts" this search became one for whatever animal created that path and he ventured further into the jungle until he discovered a makeshift dwelling and found signs that it had been recently inhabited by the pilot of the TIE Fighter.

Jacen ran as quickly as he could to the crash site only to be taken hostage by the TIE Fighter pilot. Lowbacca and Tenel Ka escaped so that they might be able to warn the others about the trouble that their friends were in. The pilot marched the twins back to his home and over "dinner" he revealed to them that his name was Qorl and that he had been out of touch from the rest of the galaxy for the past twenty three years, after which Jacen informed him of the political situation at the time.

The next day, Qorl forced Jacen and Jaina to complete repairs on the TIE Fighter, during which Jacen attempted some subterfuge by placing a crystal snake inside the fighter's cockpit. After they completed repairs, Qorl announced that he would destroy the old Rebel base which housed the Jedi Praxeum, took off and left the twins to fend for themselves in the jungles of Yavin 4. After some waiting, the Millennium Falcon materialized from the sky and brought them back to the Praxeum.

The Shadow Academy
During a field trip to Lando Calrissian's GemDiver Station, the twins and Lowbacca were kidnapped by stormtroopers led by Tamith Kai, a Nightsister. En route to their kidnappers' secret base, the twins and Lowbacca were brought to the cockpit of the ship that had been used to board GemDiver Station. Here, they were reunited with Qorl, who told them that he had found "his Empire" and that that the kidnapping of the young Jedi Knights was the result of the information that he had given to his masters. After reversion to realspace, Tamith Kai told Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca that they would be trained to become Dark Jedi once they arrived at their destination&mdash;the Shadow Academy.

Brakiss&mdash;one of Luke's failed students and the head of the Shadow Academy&mdash;greeted the trio of Jedi trainees and informed them of the plans of the Second Imperium&mdash;one of the Imperial insurgency groups that had refused to acknowledge the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty. Despite their protestations to the contrary, Brakiss was convinced that Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca would eventually come around to see things his way and had them imprisoned in tiny cells.

After a particularly disastrous lecture, during which his sister Jaina experienced the power of Force lightning firsthand for defiance of Brakiss, Jacen was cut off from seeing his sister and Lowbacca. Brakiss decided that the new recruits were wise to the propaganda that he recited in his speeches, so he decided to try to turn the twins by giving them what they desired. In Jacen's case, it would be a simple matter.

Jacen's training at the Shadow Academy began with lightsaber practice. Despite Jacen's insistence that Luke had told him that he was not ready to be trained with a one, he was subjected to exercises in which he had to defend himself from holo-remotes. Though the imaginary monsters were unable to harm him, Brakiss "encouraged" Jacen by hinting that he might lose his patience with Jacen and put a real monster in the chamber with him. Jacen was later put in a variety of sadistic scenarios which involved him unknowingly dueling his sister and another wherein a series of hard balls, rocks and knives were thrown at Jaina and himself.

After Jacen survived the latter scenario and learned how visualize objects in the Force in the process, he, his sister, and Lowbacca were informed by Brakiss that of plans to kidnap more "recruits" from the Praxeum. Jacen decided that it was time to attempt escape. He used a Corusca gem that he had retrieved during his visit to GemDiver Station to free himself from his cell. Jacen then freed his sister and Lowbacca along with a reprogrammed M-TD, who helped to disable various subsystems of the Shadow Academy (except for the alarms). The Jedi trainees raced to the Shadow Academy's docking bay, where they found Luke and Tenel Ka, who had come to rescue them.

After making it back safely to Yavin 4, Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca returned to life at the Praxeum. Jacen's desire to have his own lightsaber was tempered by the realization that he could have killed his sister during their imprisonment at the Shadow Academy. He decided that he was not yet ready for the responsibility that a lightsaber entailed and would trust his uncle's judgment on the matter.

Zekk's recruitment into the Shadow Academy
Jacen and Jaina later returned to Coruscant with their friends for a month-long vacation from the Jedi Praxeum's strenuous curriculum. Jacen and Jaina spent their first day back home with Zekk, bringing Lowbacca and Tenel along on adventure through the Coruscant Underworld. During their time down there, Jacen helped "acquire" a hawk-bat egg for Zekk by using his gift for communicating with animals. After a run-in with the street gang known as the Lost Ones and its leader, Norys, they managed to make it back intact to the apartment that Zekk shared with his old friend Peckhum.

Over a lunch of stormtrooper rations, Jacen and Jaina convinced Zekk to attend a diplomatic banquet that was going to be held in the honor of the new Karnak Alphan ambassador within the next couple of days. Zekk accepted and he showed up at the Imperial Palace at the proper time. Jacen (with his hair awkwardly straightened) and Jaina greeted Zekk but, despite remaining silent about the matter, could not contain what they thought about Zekk's seemingly old-fashioned style of dress and long, tangled hair and how it would look at a diplomatic banquet.

During the reception, Jacen discovered that the hawk-bat egg that he had retrieved would find a safe home on Karnak Alpha. He was also mystified by Tenel Ka's knowledge of Karnak Alphan customs, but didn't try to force the point. After witnessing Zekk embarrass himself by accidentally eating a plant, Jacen looked on as Zekk stormed out of the Palace.

After coming to Zekk's apartment the next day, Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca were only greeted by the door and nothing else. As days passed without any word from Zekk, concern turned to dread. Peckhum eventually contacted them and when they asked him where Zekk had gone off to, the old spacer told them that he was going to ask them the same question. With the aid of information from Peckhum, Jacen and Tenel Ka decided to check out Zekk's haunts in the undercity.

Just in case they ran into trouble, Jacen and Tenel Ka kept an kept an open comlink to his brother Anakin and C-3PO. Eventually they found Zekk giving a speech to a group of strangely subdued Lost Ones inside their compound. In spite of Zekk's different appearance and the odd circumstances, Jacen was glad to see his old friend but Zekk didn't seem to share the sentiment. The reason for this made itself clear when Tamith Kai appeared with her fellow "recruiters" Garowyn and Vilas. The Jedi trainees had very little time to digest the news that Zekk had discovered that he was Force-sensitive and decided to train to become a Dark Jedi at the Shadow Academy before they were stunned and left behind.

Thanks to the comlink, Jacen and Tenel Ka were found by C-3PO, Anakin, and Leia. They returned to the upper levels and contacted Jaina, who had been unsuccessfully trying to keep her mind off Zekk by mapping out orbital debris and helping Lowbacca and Chewbacca repair the Orbital Solar Energy Transfer Satellite that Peckhum had been assigned to. Jacen told her what he and Tenel Ka had found in the undercity of Coruscant. By putting this piece of information together with other observations, Jaina helped to find the Shadow Academy, which had been conducting operations within the Coruscant system. The New Republic Defense Force's valiant efforts notwithstanding, the Shadow Academy managed to escape to hyperspace, Zekk along with it.

Tenel Ka's accident
After watching a message that Zekk had left behind in a message pod before the Shadow Academy had escaped, Jacen and Jaina were disheartened to discover that Zekk was doing what he was doing out of his own free will. What was supposed to have been a month-long vacation was cut short and they were brought back to the Praxeum by Master Skywalker, who reassured them that he believed that he thought that there was still hope for both Zekk and Brakiss. In the meantime however, in order to counter the Dark Jedi that the Shadow Academy was producing, Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca would have to begin building their own lightsabers.

Jacen's hard-learned lesson hit home once again when Tenel Ka rushed to complete her lightsaber to keep up with her friends. She used an imperfect crystal and her blade shorted out in a sparring match with Jacen. His lightsaber passed through thin air where her weapon had been an instant before and severed the young woman's left arm. Though the girl bore him no ill will, Jacen took it hard, and it became another event that would help shape him into the Jedi he was becoming.

Luke contacted Tenel Ka's family regarding the accident, and Tenel Ka returned to her homeworld of Hapes to recover. After a brief period of time, Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca were permitted to stay on Hapes to visit with her. Although Jacen was shocked to hear that his friend was the heir to the Hapan throne and wondered why she kept it from him, she assured him it was because she wanted her friends to like her for herself, not because of her position. Later on Hapes, Jacen helped foil a plot by Ta'a Chume's underling Yfra to overthrow Tenel Ka's family.

The fall of the Shadow Academy
After their return to the Praxeum, the Jedi companions then traveled to Kashyyyk, where Lowbacca's younger sister Sirrakuk was about to undergo a Wookiee ritual. Since the ritual was dangerous, Lowie wanted to assist his sibling. Unfortunately, a Second Imperium strike force led by Zekk himself attacked Thikkiiana City, a major exporter of computer technology. The four Jedi trainees defeated most of the Imperium soldiers, and Jaina informed Jacen and her friends that Zekk warned her that the Praxeum was to be the Shadow Academy's next target.

In response, the four Jedi raced back to the Jedi Praxeum and alerted the Jedi there. Sure enough, the Shadow Academy and a fleet of reclaimed Imperial warships appeared. Legions of Stormtroopers and Dark Jedi were then unleashed, thus starting the battle. The twins, with the help of their peers at the Jedi Academy, Luke, and Zekk would bring down the Shadow Academy and the Second Imperium.

Diversity Alliance
Following the defeat of the Second Imperium, the Solo twins helped rebuild the Academy and also continued their Jedi training. While the reformed Zekk recovered from his injuries, he was harassed by nightmares as a result of his involvement with the Dark Jedi. As a result, Zekk refused to use the Force again and left the Academy on Peckhum's freighter Lightning Rod to become a bounty hunter.

However, trouble would soon come when Raynar Thul received word that his father Bornan Thul&mdash;a wealthy merchant and shipping baron&mdash;had disappeared while en route to an important trade conference with Nolaa Tarkona, the Twi'lek leader of the Diversity Alliance, a fanatical all-alien group which sought to punish Humans for the cruelty inflicted by the humanocentric Galactic Empire. When Nolaa learned that Bornan had disappeared, she placed a huge bounty on him and the mysterious cargo he was hiding.

Jacen and Jaina also traveled to the Alderaan system to search through the asteroid field that had once been Alderaan. The twins landed on a barren asteroid and secured a shard from what used to be the planet's core. However, they were ambushed by Ailyn Vel, disguised as the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett. Luckily for them, Zekk came to the rescue and drove the Fett impersonator away. Despite having rescued them, Zekk refused to return with them to the Academy though he decided to search for Bornan Thul later.

During their hunt for Bornan Thul, the Solo twins would be joined by Raynar Thul, Tenel Ka and Lowbacca. They searched his last known locations stretching from ancient ruined worlds to the droid foundry world of Mechis III. Meanwhile, Nolaa Tarkona went on a crusade to whip up support among the alien species of the galaxy, particularly the Chromans of Chroma Zed. Things went bad for the Jedi when Lowbacca misguidedly joined the Diversity Alliance under the influence of fellow Wookiee Raabakyysh and traveled to their headquarters on Ryloth to learn more about them.

Meanwhile, Zekk rescued Bornan from bounty hunters and learned the reason he had disappeared. Bornan had stumbled upon the location of a top-secret Imperial plague warehouse on an uncharted asteroid in the Deep Core. Hidden there was a supply of deadly diseases created by General Evir Derricote almost two decades ago. Though the Galactic Empire had been defeated, this plague warehouse still remained with its supplies of deadly diseases. Bornan also revealed that Ailyn Vel (still disguised as Boba Fett) had sliced into his ship's navicomputer and gotten a hold of the coordinates of the plague warehouse. Having learned about it, Nolaa Tarkona wished to unleash a plague against all Humans.

Feeling that Lowbacca only knew the public face of the Diversity Alliance, the Solo twins along with Raynar and Tenel Ka traveled to Ryloth only to get arrested by the local authorities and put to work in the dangerous ryll mines of Ryloth. However, Lowbacca soon learned what had befallen of his Human companions through Raaba. The enraged Wookiee turned against the Diversity Alliance and helped them escape the harsh terrain of the planet and zealous Diversity Alliance troops. The Jedi also discovered that the Diversity Alliance was stockpiling weapons for its war against Humans. While Lowbacca went ahead of the others to secure escape, Jacen and Tenel Ka were separated from Jaina and Raynar. Having been chased by Diversity Alliance soldiers onto the dark, frozen side of Ryloth, Jacen and Tenel Ka discovered a cave in which Kur, a Twi'lek clan leader exiled by Nolaa when she took power, resided. After they were rescued by Lowbacca, Sirra and Luke Skywalker, the pair also rescued Kur.

Based on the reports of his Jedi charges and the testimony of Kur, Luke asked the New Republic Senate on Coruscant that an inspection team be sent to Ryloth to investigate reports of Diversity Alliance aggression. After recording an encrypted message to his wife explaining their plan, Bornan, Raynar, Zekk, Jacen and Jaina Solo, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca gathered up some explosives and went to the warehouse with the intention of destroying it. The Diversity Alliance fleet, led by Nolaa Tarkona, arrived at the asteroid shortly afterwards, and there was a confrontation between the two groups. During the struggle, several plague canisters were broken open, and Bornan sacrificed himself so that the plague would not spread to the children.

Above the asteroid, the Diversity Alliance forces crumpled under the onslaught of both the New Republic fleet led by Han Solo, and the Bornaryn fleet led by Aryn Dro Thul. With the threat of the Diversity Alliance eliminated, Jacen and his friends returned to Yavin IV to continue their training. During a gathering of his friends by the river, Jacen was surprised when Tenel Ka leaned over and kissed him.

Black Sun
Following that, Jacen and Jaina went on a trip with their father Han and Zekk to Ord Mantell to watch the Blockade Runners' Derby. Zekk later won the race. However, they encountered Czethros, a bounty hunter who had hunted Han Solo years ago, though he now claimed to be an honest businessman. Later at a hangar bay, they were ambushed by several Chameleon creatures though they were rescued by Anja Gallandro, a young woman who wielded a lightsaber but was not a Jedi. Instead, Anja relied on doses of spice to enhance her senses.

Although attracted to Tenel Ka, Jacen found a small infatuation growing for the older woman, and this probably led to the cooling of Jacen and Tenel Ka's relationship. Anja had blamed Han Solo for killing her father, but Solo denied it because her father died in a trap while finding treasure. However, Anja was actually an undercover agent for Czethros, who really was a leader of Black Sun. The galactic-wide crime syndicate had been keeping a low profile for years ever since the death of Prince Xizor during a skirmish on Coruscant in 3 ABY. However, they had been attempting to gain power by planting cells in positions of power throughout the New Republic, including political, economical and military. Czethros also controlled Anja by keeping her addicted to spice.

Han managed to convince Anja that he was good by stopping a 25 year-long civil war on her backwater homeworld of Anobis. There, Solo met with the two rival factions and brokered a truce between them. This made Anja wonder whether her hatred for Solo had been misplaced and she agreed to join the Solo twins and their companions at the Jedi Praxeum to discover her abilities.

Later, Lando Calrissian invited the twins and their friends to Cloud City where he wanted them to be the first try out the new SkyCenter Galleria amusement park which he had invested in through the use of repurchased interests from the spice mining world of Kessel and shares from a mining operation on Varn. However, things went bad when a business associate of Calrissian named Cojahn was found dead. Worse, the Jedi discovered who Czethros actually was and his plot for galactic domination. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie were also ambushed by several Ugnaught Black Sun mercenaries in the lower levels of Cloud City. They ran into a garbage chute and Jacen fell, slipping out of Cloud City and into Bespin's atmosphere. Fortunately, M'kim, a Thranta Rider, caught him, saving him from a terrible death.

As a result, Czethros was targeted by the New Republic and arrests for him were issued on many worlds. However, he had managed to evade capture and went underground. Unfortunately for Anja, she had realized that without Czethros there would be no supplier for the spice that fueled her addiction. Anja then stole Zekk's ship Lightning Rod and traveled to the ocean world of Dac, better known as Mon Calamari, where she hoped to retrieve a hidden stash of spice beneath the planet's frozen ice cap.

Meanwhile on Kessel, Calrissian's longtime Sullustan mate Nien Nunb had been nearly killed during a suspicious accident in the carbon-freezing sections of the processing facility. Black Sun had planted cells even there and the Sullustan knew he was in danger. Worse for him, his workers were turning against him. Jacen, Tenel Ka and Zekk pursued Anja to Dac while Jaina and Lowbacca went to Kessel to help protect Nien Nunb. On Dac, at the resort city of Crystal Reef, Jacen confronted Anja while she tried to lease a Mini-Sub to hunt for the hidden spice stash. He managed to help Anja confront her spice addiction and she accepted her father's real fate. They also succeeded in destroying Czethros's stash of spice on Dac. Jacen thought Anja had Jedi potential, but it turned out she didn't, and his infatuation disappeared when Anja went to work for Lando.

Back on Kessel, Czethros and an army of Black Sun mercenaries took control of the planet and captured Nien Nunb though Jaina and Lowbacca managed to escape. They also discovered that Black Sun had been planting cells in positions of power throughout the New Republic. From Kessel, Czethros hoped to send a signal that would activate these cells. However, Jaina and Lowbacca sabotaged his operations by destroying the transmitter before Czethros could broadcast his signal. They also freed the prisoners and helped defeat the Black Sun mercenaries. Rather than allow himself to be captured, Czethros threw himself into a vat of carbonite and was flash-frozen instantly. However, he was retrieved and placed in New Republic custody. The Chief of State Leia Organa Solo would supervise his thawing and interrogation. As a result, the names of Black Sun moles in strategic positions of power were discovered, defeating the crime syndicate.

Following this ordeal, he, along with several other trainees including his sister Jaina, his younger brother Anakin, Tenel Ka, Lowbacca and Zekk were honored during a ceremony at the Jedi Praxeum. While Jacen learned much from these experiences, they could hardly prepare him for the carnage that would follow shortly thereafter.

The War's beginning
"I renounce the need to know, now, what I will become later. In looking to my future, I have ignored the present and my role in it. The present is too critical for me to do that anymore."

- Jacen Solo

Luke formally took on Jacen and Anakin as his apprentices. While Jacen disagreed with Luke on several aspects of the Force, the differences between Anakin and Jacen were far greater.

In 25 ABY, Anakin and Jacen argued a lot regarding how the Force should be used, and these arguments started to cause a rift between the brothers. While Anakin viewed the Force as a tool to be wielded, Jacen was more passive in his views.

After Lando Calrissian invited the Skywalkers and Solos to Dubrillion, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin took turns "running the belt", and Jacen watched as Jaina beat the record previously held by Kyp Durron.

Alerted by a cry in the Force, Jacen and Jaina traveled to Helska 4, and discovered that scientist Danni Quee and Kyp Durron's apprentice Miko Reglia were being held captive by a group of invaders calling themselves the Yuuzhan Vong. Although the pair successfully rescued Danni, the three watched as Miko sacrificed himself to cover their escape.

"Be careful about sacrificing your gifts, to help others see the truth as you perceive it."

- Luke Skywalker

While Jacen was just as grief-stricken at the death of Chewbacca as the rest of the Solo family, it did not haunt him as much as it did his siblings. Jacen joined the effort against the Yuuzhan Vong, but he still held doubts about the Jedi's role in the war. After the disastrous Battle of Fondor, Jacen tried to give up using the Force altogether. That all changed at the Battle of Duro. Leia was captured by Tsavong Lah, the Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong, who intended to sacrifice her in a ceremony. Lah was unconcerned when Jacen appeared, for he considered Jacen a coward for being pacifistic. Jacen, however, attacked with unprecedented ferocity, and knocked Lah out a window, which crushed his foot. The act brought Jacen back to the front lines of the War&mdash;and prompted Tsavong Lah to call for the heads of the Jedi.

Mission to Myrkr
Jacen was part of the Myrkr strike team that attempted to destroy the Voxyn. Jacen's role in the mission was to coordinate the battle meld between all the strike team members and the use of his animal friendship ability. The leader of the mission was his brother Anakin, and the tension between Jacen and his brother threatened to derail the mission before it even began. The mission was one disaster after another, and resulted in the deaths of half the force, including Anakin. After Anakin's death, Jacen became the leader of the remaining strike team members, and he managed to kill the voxyn queen. However, the team was forced to leave him behind, and he was captured by the Fosh Jedi Vergere. When Vergere cut Jacen off from the Force, the rest of the strike team felt a surge through the Force, and believed as a result that Jacen had been killed. Only Leia was convinced her son was still alive.

Vergere
"I tell you this: though neither he nor they yet know it, he is the greatest of all the Jedi. Jacen Solo is the living Jedi dream. Even without the Force, he is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine."

- Vergere

Meanwhile, Vergere, who had lived with the Yuuzhan Vong for over fifty years, proceeded to torture him by placing him within the Embrace of Pain, forcing Jacen to give into the pain and understand the strength one gains when it is fully embraced. Vergere challenged his very beliefs, severing his connection to the Force, which manifested itself in a death-like Force surge, fooling most of those that felt it.

Jacen was placed with a group of slaves taking orders from a dhuryam, a more advanced form of a yammosk. A set of 12 dhuryams was being tested and pit against each other to determine which would be the World Brain of Yuuzhan'tar, the Yuuzhan Vong name for Coruscant. Abiding by his Jedi teachings to help others, Jacen medically helped the slaves in his detail, which helped the dhuryam assigned to it. However, he soon became overwhelmed by slaves and their respective dhuryams wanting help for the injuries and maladies that plagued them. Vergere tested Jacen by comparing what he did to gardening; weeding out some so that others might survive. Indeed, many did die and Jacen felt a sense of regret. During his time in the Nursery, he did make progress, however. Thanks to the slave seed embedded in his chest and his Force abilities, he managed to seduce the local dhuryam and gain a bit of control over it and the rest of the Nursery. It could be said that he made a "friend," but the dhuryam had no comprehension of trust.

Shortly before seed-fall occurred, Jacen led a revolt in the Nursery. Standing in an amphistaff grove, Jacen used the Force and his skill with creatures to beckon the creatures to him, having them wrap around his body to form a suit of armor. After dispatching many guards, Jacen killed all the dhuryams except one after surrendering to a blood rage. Jacen then moved on to destroy the dhuryam he had befriended, but was stopped by a familiar voice; that of his dead brother, Anakin. Hearing that voice woke Jacen up out of the blood haze he had entered, but he suspected that it was Vergere that really stopped him.

Jacen soon learned that he could sense the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, a result of the slave seed Vergere had implanted in him on the seedship to make him obey the Yuuzhan Vong. He used this Vongsense to escape onto Coruscant. Vergere foiled his plans at escaping the planet, and Jacen finally succumbed to the months of torture. Vergere led him to the site of the former Jedi Temple, where Jacen told her of his grandfather's fall to the dark side. During this speech, Jacen was confronted by a squad of Yuuzhan Vong, and felt a hot tidal surge of red billow through him as he blacked out. When he came to, Jacen's hands hurt. They were singed and smelled like they were burning. Vergere asked him how it felt to touch the Force once again. It was then Jacen recalled his actions; he had unleashed a wave of Force lightning at Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong warriors, narrowly missing Nom Anor, who fled through a cave.

"I slipped. I fell, barely on the dark side of... of the balance point. Everything started to slide. Everything."

- Jacen after realizing what he had done

Jacen began to panic with the realization that he had tapped into the dreaded dark side of the Force. Vergere then told Jacen the one thing that would alter his outlook of the Force. "What you feel is the Force. This is the shameful secret of the Jedi: There is no dark side." She went on to support her assertion. Vergere then told him that the only dark side he need fear is the one in his own heart. Jacen then turned and fled.

He ran, believing to see the spirit of Anakin Solo, his dead brother. However, he sensed that the apparition had no presence in the Force. He was drawn in by a hallucination, and, as he would later discover, entered a cave beast. Inside the belly of the gargantuan animal, he heard a voice, crying for help. He tried to shut it out, believing it another hallucination. Then, to his horror, he realized that it had a presence in the Force. He tried to rescue the little girl crying for help, but to no avail. He raised hate inside himself and used the Dark side for strength, finally rescuing the child. This confused him and drew his mind back to Vergere's teachings; that the Dark side was simply the Force's unleashed potential.

He discovered more survivors, refugees of the conquest of Coruscant. He speculated that they too, were drawn in by illusions; false hopes. Through his confusion, he also found anger and then rage. The refugees had a rule: whoever arrived last in the beast would sent to feed its ravenous hunger. The girl arrived last, and she was undergoing an execution, Jacen found. The survivors accused him of being the last and then tried to send him on his way to the stomach. Enraged, he drew on the anger he felt and used the Force to make the animal believe that humans were poisonous, triggering it to forcibly eject all of them. Bereft of their shelter, the survivors would most likely die of Coruscant's many dangers. Lost and confused, he left them and went on.

Jacen arrived at the Solo's now ruined apartment and was saddened by how much things had changed, the home and his life now a perversion of its former self. Shortly after his arrival he was visited by what he thought was (and may have been) Anakin's ghost, his deceased younger brother. This also challenged his thoughts on the Force. The apparition of Anakin engaged in the playful banter they had once shared, and Jacen told him of the things he had done, and also his confusion. Jacen also asked Anakin whether he was real or an illusion. He countered asking Jacen if there was a difference saying that life, like the Force, was all one thing and that there was no difference, akin to Vergere's teachings. Jacen then thought that Anakin really was an illusion and tried to shut him out, falling into a deep depression. Vergere arrived and woke him, once again challenging Jacen's beliefs. They were soon joined by Nom Anor and his entourage of warriors, who confronted Jacen offering him Anakin's lightsaber if he would convert to the Yuuzhan Vong religion. Jacen agreed, although Nom Anor was unaware that he was lying.

Meanwhile, Ganner Rhysode, who was part of the team at Myrkr, had heard rumors that Jacen was alive. He tried to convince Jaina that her brother might still be alive, but she refused to believe him. Ganner decided to discover the truth on his own. He backtracked the information and found himself face to face with Jacen, but caught in a trap that had been set for Jaina. The trap having failed, Jacen sent word to Nom Anor that they should return home with the prisoner, where he will be sacrificed. Jacen pretended to plan to offer up Ganner as a gift to the True Gods, killing him within the Well of the World Brain. But Jacen had something else in mind entirely.

Jacen gave Ganner Anakin's lightsaber, giving him the choice of exactly how to use it. Once inside the Well of the World Brain, formerly the Senate's Grand Convocation chamber, Ganner raised Anakin's blade and defended the door, while Jacen confronted the World Brain. When the door opened and the Yuuzhan Vong found Ganner standing there, they were puzzled as the Jedi stated "None shall pass." Ganner fought an ongoing wave of warriors, taking them each down, building a fortress of corpses around him, becoming one with the Force as he fought on. Meanwhile, Jacen connected with the World Brain, acknowledging his betrayal, sharing everything he knew and all of his experiences and, in the end, made the World Brain realize that the two were one. While chaos erupted in the Well, Nom Anor and Vergere made their way towards his hidden escape craft. Upon arrival, Vergere used the Force to tie Nom Anor with hydraulic cables and revealed that she took Jacen's lightsaber so that she and Jacen could steal Nom Anor's ship. Jacen finished with the World Brain and sensed the danger Ganner was in. He was just about to join the fight when he was stopped by Vergere who told Jacen that he could not save him, and would only die with him. She then returned Jacen's lightsaber to him. Meanwhile, in a last stand of defiance that would earn him near godlike status among the Shamed Ones, Ganner used the Force to rip apart the walkway he was on, plunging to his death along with his foes. Vergere and Jacen fled from Coruscant in Nom Anor's ship. During the flight, Vergere told Jacen of a vision she once had, of an invincible giant called "the Ganner" who guarded the Gate to the Lands of the Dead, with the words "None Shall Pass" engraved upon the gate. Jacen then revealed to Vergere that he had managed to convince the World Brain to join his side, and that it would sabotage the Yuuzhan Vong's efforts to Vongform Yuuzhan'tar.

Jacen and Vergere returned to Mon Calamari, where Jacen was reunited with his family. After a long earned vacation and a promotion to full Jedi Knight, Jacen joined Jaina in Admiral Traest Kre'fey's battle group. Jacen became Kre'fey's link to the Jedi pilots in his fleet, and Jacen was able to predict where new elements were needed when they were needed. At the Battle of Ebaq 9, Jacen rushed to Jaina's aid, but soon needed help himself. Vergere sacrificed herself to save Jacen and killed the Yuuzhan Vong warriors on the moon.

The war's end
"I'm more sure than ever that Jacen has a special destiny."

- Luke Skywalker

As the newly formed Galactic Alliance emerged, Jacen accompanied his uncle Luke Skywalker into the Unknown Regions to seek a solution to the Yuuzhan Vong menace. There he helped thwart a Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the Imperial Remnant, visited Csilla (homeworld of the Chiss Ascendancy), and discovered the living planet Zonama Sekot.

"Stand firm!"

- Anakin Skywalker's voice heard by Jacen

In last months of the war, Jacen helped recapture Coruscant. Jacen tried to attack Shimrra, but was knocked out with one hit from the mighty Vong, which forced Luke Skywalker to intervene, and kill Shimrra, saving Jacen's life, though getting wounded in the process. Meanwhile, Jacen engaged Onimi, Shimrra's "pet", in battle. Onimi had regained the usage of the Force as a result of extensive shaping and experimentation in Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology, and had manipulated Shimrra into planning the invasion of the galaxy. Onimi tried to poison Jacen by secreting poison from his fang, but Jacen reached a higher level of the Force than ever before, balancing the light and dark within him. The effect caused him to age physically, but it also killed Onimi by using Onimi's own poison against him. During this battle Jacen heard a voice strikingly similar to, yet deeper than, that of Luke Skywalker. Jacen knew deep in his heart the voice to be that of his grandfather's, Anakin Skywalker. After Onimi's death, Jacen prevented Nom Anor from poisoning his own family and healed Luke with a self-concocted antidote. After the war, Jacen decided to travel the Galaxy and spend time among other Force-users in search of answers, including the Aing-Tii Monks, Fallanassi, Witches of Dathomir, Jensaarai and Theran Listeners. During this time as well he met future Jedi Nelani Dinn, who he taught lightsaber techniques to.

Dark Nest Crisis (35 ABY–36 ABY)
"You think you know him, and then he tries to start a war."

- Han Solo referring to Jacen starting Swarm War

Five years later, Jacen Solo, changed by his travels among other Force-users, along with his sister and a group of fellow Jedi who had survived the Myrkr mission, journeyed to the Unknown Regions after being called by the Force. There they discovered that Raynar Thul had survived, and had been joined to a Killik hive. The Killiks were having a border dispute with the Chiss, and there was no way the Killiks could defend themselves. Jacen convinced Tenel Ka to send a fleet to protect the Killiks. As a result, Tenel Ka and Jacen's relationship once again began to blossom, with Tenel Ka becoming pregnant. Jacen was not aware until he arrived on Hapes with Ben Skywalker and found Tenel Ka with a baby. She gave birth to their daughter Allana in 36 ABY, though the girl was not publicly revealed, for fear that Hapan nobles would try to assassinate her.

The fear proved well founded when the Dark Nest immediately attempted to assassinate the child at the request of Ta'a Chume, Tenel Ka's grandmother. Tenel Ka and the baby were saved, and Jacen, to protect Tenel Ka and his daughter, caused a hemorrhage in Ta'a Chume's brain, rendering her comatose. Jacen went as far as to erase his own cousin Ben's memory to protect his daughter's existence. Jacen then had a vision of endless war, and concluded that there was only one way to preserve his new found family: wipe out the Killiks. In order to do this, Jacen tricked Lowie, Tesar Sebatyne, a still Joined Jaina and Zekk, into instigating a war between the Chiss and the Killiks. Jaina, upon realizing what Jacen had done, was furious with her twin, and vowed never to fly with him again.

When Luke called all of the Jedi to the Temple, Jacen went. He was asked by Han and Leia who was the father of Tenel Ka's baby, but Jacen wouldn't answer.

When Luke was told by Lowie and Tesar that Jacen had tampered with Ben's memory, Luke confronted his nephew. Jacen responded with a cover-up story, explaining that on Endor, a group of Ewoks had been captured by a Gorax and killed, and that Ben had felt their deaths in the Force. Jacen said he then erased the traumatic memory from Ben in order to prevent Ben from retreating further from the Force. He was lying, of course, to keep Tenel Ka and his secret.

Jacen had the chance to get to know his maternal grandparents when he was asked to stay and watch holo recordings that R2-D2 was trying to keep secret. He witnessed Anakin's attack on Padmé on Mustafar. Though he had reckoned from the holos he saw before that his grandfather was "only trying to protect his wife", he didn't understand how he came to Force Choke her.

During the final phases of the Killik expansion, Jacen joined his aunt and uncle on a mission to destroy the Dark Nest. In a saber duel with Lomi Plo, Jacen was stabbed in the stomach saving Mara, puncturing three organs and preventing him from aiding Luke in his showdown against Lomi Plo and Raynar Thul. While in the infirmary with Luke and Mara, Jacen explained to his uncle that the reason Lomi had been able to become invisible was because she had been exploiting Luke's doubts to hide behind them and create the illusion of her not being there. According to Jacen, the only way Luke could fight Lomi on equal ground was if he banished all doubt from his mind, so he urged him to watch the last hologram R2 was hiding: the one showing the death of Padmé Amidala and his own birth. After this, he insisted Luke had to accept his fears and anger and use them to defeat his enemies. While Luke agreed he had to accept those emotions, he still refused to use them. Luke fought both Lomi Plo and Raynar with the combined power of the colony behind them, successfully defeated and killed Lomi Plo and captured Raynar Thul alive. Afterwards, Jacen became the Jedi mentor to his cousin Ben.

The raid on Centerpoint Station
"There are times when the end justifies the means. But when you build an argument based on a whole series of such times, you may find that you’ve constructed an entire philosophy of evil."

- Luke Skywalker

In 40 ABY, Jacen and his cousin Ben Skywalker were sent on a mission to investigate a missile factory on the planet Adumar with the two Jedi discovering the factory selling unlawful amounts of armaments. After the successful mission, Luke Skywalker informed Jacen of Corellia's plan to make Centerpoint Station into an operational weapon and the necessity of stopping it. Luke discussed using an Alliance fleet to distract the Corellians so Jacen would succeed in this task. While Jacen was skeptical of the reliability from data gathering, he agreed to neutralize the station together with Ben. After covertly entering the station through cargo compartments, Jacen met Thrackan Sal-Solo, his distant cousin who had recently become Minister of War. Jacen decided to distract Thrackan so Ben would succeed in crippling the station. After chasing Thrackan throughout the station and single-handedly defeating most of Thrackan's numerous security forces in the process, Jacen cornered Thrackan. During this time, Ben succeeded in his role and Jacen encountered a Force vision. He saw if Thrackan lived, a destructive war would consume the entire galaxy. Deciding to kill Thrackan, Jacen almost succeeded but Thrackan used a quick diversion to escape, forcing Jacen to leave Centerpoint behind.

Toryaz Station
Later, Jacen attended the galactic conference between Gilad Pellaeon and Aidel Saxan with his family. Jacen fought alongside his Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara after Corellian commandos stormed the station. Jacen discovered Aidel Saxan was killed in the attack and afterwards decided to investigate the mysterious threat.

Trailing the source
With tassels found by his twin sister Jaina and Zekk, Jacen and Ben led an investigation ending at Lorrd to learn about tassels in hopes in finding out what they mean. There Jacen met Nelani Dinn, a former Jedi student of Jacen seven years prior. During a conversation, Nelani revealed to Jacen she had long harbored romantic feelings towards him and agreed to help translate the tassels. Along with help from cultural language expert Dr. Heilan Rotham, Jacen discovered Sith philosophy encoded in the tassels.

Disturbances
As Dr. Rotham translated the tassels, random public disturbances occurred throughout Lorrd within a space of weeks. As Jacen and Nelani defused each problem, Nelani questioned Jacen's aggressive methods in dealing with the problems as several perpetrators died in the process along with one innocent civilian. Later, Ben tracked the cause of the disturbances to a woman named Brisha Syo. After Brisha's capture, she refused to be cooperative unless Jacen took her to a remote asteroid field. Jacen agreed, much to Ben and Nelani's protests. Nelani and Ben decided to accompany Jacen to protect his life from any unseen hazards.

Lumiya
"You will be the man your grandfather couldn't."

- Lumiya to Jacen Solo

Along with Ben and Nelani, Jacen followed Brisha to the Home, an asteroid lair of Darth Vectivus. Brisha told the trio of the civilization which once inhabited the asteroid along with a narrative of Darth Vectivus's history and then separated Ben and Nelani from Jacen as they entered deeper into the caverns. After sparring with a Force phantom of Luke, and seeing an apparition of himself as a future Sith Lord, Syo revealed that she was Shira Brie, also known as the Sith Lady Lumiya. Lumiya told Jacen about Vergere's true identity as a Sith student whom attempted to end Palpatine's life decades ago and had sacrificed herself so Jacen could become the new Dark Lord of the Sith. Nelani, who overheard Lumiya's conversation, rejoined the two and was shocked by Jacen yielding to Lumiya's views. Overwhelmed by concern, Nelani then engaged in a duel which ended after Jacen intervened. As Nelani arrested Lumiya, Jacen saw a vision that confirmed what Lumiya told him: only by accepting her Sith teachings and embracing the dark side could he prevent the galaxy from sliding into chaos. After seeing himself kill Luke Skywalker in this vision, Jacen freed Lumiya and then reluctantly killed Nelani to prevent this occurrence. He left the asteroid with an unconscious Ben to make time for his Sith training.

Galactic Alliance Guard
"It's time he became a Master. We all know what he can do."

- Kyp Durron

As the Corellian dispute continued, Jacen neared complete mastery of the Force. Proficient in masking his presence in the Force completely, Jacen honed his dark powers under the tutelage of Lumiya and he began to take steps to ensure the safety of his family and the galaxy at large. After silently allying himself with Admiral Cha Niathal in her drive to one day replace Cal Omas as chief of state, Jacen manipulated his way into the rank of colonel in the Galactic Alliance military. He later supported a first strike against Corellia, and was given control of a "secret police" referred to as the Galactic Alliance Guard. Hearing and reveling in frequent comparisons to Darth Vader, Jacen flow-walked back to the Raid on the Jedi Temple and Order 66, helping to assure himself that he was not joining the Sith for selfish reasons by viewing the motivations of his grandfather or Emperor Palpatine. He was shocked to discover Anakin Skywalker had been driven to the dark side by his own selfish love for Jacen's grandmother Padmé Amidala and observed in horror as Anakin Skywalker killed a group of Jedi younglings while the other Jedi spread across the galaxy were slaughtered by the Clone troopers. After Jacen escaped the vision, he decided his own reasons as a Sith were purer than his grandfather's and prepared to embark on the Sith path. Jacen repeatedly tested Lumiya in the presence of an unsuspecting Luke Skywalker to ensure her loyalties were with him, and not to her precious vendetta on his uncle. He moved her to Coruscant, shielding her from detection by other Jedi as she assisted him in rationalizing his conflicting emotions via the Sith prophecy of the tassels.

After the neutralization of Centerpoint Station, Thrackan Sal-Solo eventually placed a bounty on the entire Solo family, which was taken up by Boba Fett's daughter, Ailyn Vel. Already in custody from a prior GAG raid, Vel was interrogated by Jacen about her employers, tortured, and finally died when Solo attempted unsuccessfully to rip the information from her mind, instead causing a massive aneurysm that killed her. Ben was shocked by his actions causing Jacen to begin to fear what he was becoming and what he could do, doubting himself.

Shortly thereafter during a blockade of the Centerpoint Station, Jacen ordered his sister Jaina to destroy a disarmed freighter that was retreating from the blockade. When she refused, he removed her from active duty for refusing to carry out orders, for which she was suspended indefinitely. The rift between Jacen and his family widened further as Luke decided to ask his son to separate from Jacen's dark influence and return to the academy on Ossus. Though not accepting his father's request, Ben began to have suspicions of his own regarding Jacen's character after witnessing the murder of Ailyn Vel. After discovering Jacen's crime, Han Solo in disgust swore that he no longer wanted to know his son and disowned him, something Lumiya would say later was a necessary sacrifice.

Fears
"I don't know who you are, but you aren't my son anymore. My Jacen would never do the kind of stuff you do. Get out. I don't want to know any more."

- Han to Jacen after seeing Ailyn Vel's body

Lumiya told Jacen that it would be necessary to make huge sacrifices in order to become a Sith Lord and restore order to the galaxy. Reflecting on the prophecy of the tassels, Jacen realized that the "ultimate test of selflessness" that Lumiya was speaking of would be to kill what he loves. Jacen quickly realized he might have to kill the love of his life, Tenel Ka Djo, and their illegitimate daughter, Allana, in order to change into the Sith Lord that he was destined to become.

Although this thought caused him enormous emotional pain, Jacen realized that Lumiya's words were true. Sacrificing that which he loved most would remove his inhibitions and attachments, allowing him to succeed where his grandfather had failed in his quest to become a Sith Lord. Reluctantly, Jacen accepted the fact that he would have to make huge sacrifices, whatever they may be, for the sole purpose of obtaining galactic peace.

Events at Hapes
"Hunting bad men is my job."

- Jacen Solo

In helping him find more Corellian insurgents on Coruscant, Jacen used the World Brain. On one trip to the World Brain, Jacen was followed by Alema Rar, who was believed to have been killed in the Battle of Tenupe during the Swarm War. Alema sought revenge on the Solo family and attempted to kill him with a blow-dart. However, Lumiya was able to warn Jacen in time for him to dodge the dart, which then struck the World Brain.

Jacen wanted to go after Alema and eliminate her, but Lumiya convinced him that saving the World Brain was more important, and they let her go. Alema, as of then, was the only living being aware of Jacen's apprenticeship to Lumiya.

While Luke attempted to find a trace of the dark side in Ben through a series of sparring matches, Jacen ordered Lumiya to have all members of the Bothan True Victory Party killed in order to prevent further attacks on the World Brain. During a meeting between Jacen and Lumiya, Tresina Lobi, a Jedi Master who was tracking Ben, learned about Jacen's relationship with Lumiya and attempted to contact Luke. Alema Rar, hiding nearby however, was waiting for Jacen to become a Sith to hurt Leia, and attempted to protect Jacen and Lumiya from the Jedi. Alema and Lumiya formed a hasty and tense partnership, working together to kill Master Lobi while Jacen and Ben made for the orbital General Crix Madine Military Reserve.

Jacen became the commander of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, Anakin Solo. During this time, Tenel Ka requested that Jacen lead an investigation into an assassination attempt on her life, and also entrusted him with the safety of their daughter, Allana. Jacen agreed, vowing in his own mind he would never sacrifice Allana for any reason. He decided on his parents as possible candidates instead, after learning of their suspicious involvement with the assassination attempt. Soon after, Aurra Sing arrived on board the Star Destroyer and engaged Jacen in a duel. As the battle wore on, Jacen found Sing challenging despite calling upon the dark side to enhance his strength. Jacen was about to kill Aurra Sing with Force Lightning but he saw Allana watching them. Eventually, the duel ended after Allana incapacitated Sing using a paralyzing agent and Sing was incarcerated.

During a later starship engagement with a rebel Hapan fleet, Jacen was confronted by Alema Rar, who began to sow seeds of doubt in his mind about his parents' involvement with the threat to Tenel Ka. Believing his own parents to be behind the plot to assassinate Tenel Ka and Allana, Jacen ordered his ship gunner to attack the Millennium Falcon with his mother, father, sister, and cousin aboard. Although the old freighter escaped, one of the Anakin's turbolaser shots dealt it severe damage, punching a hole through the Falcon's central core and killing Cakhmaim and Meewahl.

Jacen tests Ben
"You're stalling. You don't know whether he will be fit to become a Sith apprentice. The time to learn that is now, not when you reveal yourself. You must test him."

- Lumiya tells Jacen to test Ben Skywalker

After coming to terms that his parents were to be his Sith sacrifices, Jacen experienced a vision in which he had met his end in a duel with his mother. Jacen later commanded the Anakin Solo in an attempt to round up members that were a part of a smuggling operation near Bespin. Jacen managed to capture smuggler Uran Lavint and her Hutt co-pilot, Blatta, after she sold them out to the Galactic Alliance to pay her debts. Just before releasing her, Jacen ordered his crewmen to disable her ship's hyperdrive. Kyp Durron also reported to Luke Skywalker saying that Cal Omas and Cha Niathal wanted Jacen to become a Jedi Master.

Jacen later met with Admiral Antilles aboard the Anakin to discuss the terms of agreement in which Corellia agreed to surrender itself to the Alliance. His conversation with Wedge also made Jacen realize that he wasn't the same nature loving and easy going adolescent he used to be. He would convince himself that it was a necessary change. At the request of Jacen, Lumiya organized a test for Ben in order to see if the boy was ready to become Jacen's Sith apprentice. Though Lumiya doubted that Ben would survive, Jacen had complete faith in Ben and believed that Ben was going to take up his mantle someday.

Ambush at Gilatter VIII
In an effort to gain information aboard the Errant Venture, Jacen once again crossed paths with Uran Lavint. Jacen decided to assign Lavint a job, which was to gain information on the conference held by the Confederation on Gilatter VIII. Shortly after, Jacen was confronted by Luke and Mara though he was forced to leave after he and the others were attacked by Alema. Under the disguises of Najack Ell and Silfinia Ell, Jacen and Lumiya were able to gain passage into the Gilatter System just in time for the G.A. military to carry out their surprise attack. The surprise attack failed after Jacen was recognized by Turr Phennir, the Supreme Commander of the Confederation.

The mission ended in a violent ambush, in which his parents along with his Aunt Mara and Uncle Luke went to his rescue. To keep from being seen with Lumiya Jacen sneaked away to take part in the space-battle, and left his family behind, returning to the Anakin.

Sacrifice
In an attempt to sort out supply issues for troops at the front, Jacen found a way to manipulate the law so that he could, in effect, create laws. On receiving GAG surveillance of Cal Omas agreeing a ceasefire with Dur Gejjen - on the condition that Omas allowed both Jacen and Admiral Niathal to be assassinated - Jacen used his new administrative powers to have Omas removed from office and arrested for treason. Jacen was then appointed co-leader of the Galactic Alliance with Cha Niathal. Mara Jade Skywalker soon discovered Jacen's Sith affiliation and she attempted to intimidate him into renouncing the dark side. When Jacen refused, she resorted to force at Kavan. Mara was averse to engaging him in a direct duel, knowing he would win such a fight, so instead she escaped to narrow underground tunnels where a saber would be almost useless. After ambushing Jacen using one of his own techniques, the fight quickly devolved into a physical brawl. When Mara caused a cave to collapse upon him, Jacen sustained heavy wounds and was unable to concentrate on the Force. When Mara attempted a blaster shot, Jacen flung both the shot and the cave rocks off himself with a powerful Force Wave which left him even more exhausted. Badly wounded, and forced to fight on ground of Mara's choosing, Jacen lost the advantage. However, realizing that even during a fight to the death Mara's utmost thoughts were of her son, Jacen Force-projected Ben's face onto his own, making Mara hesitate for the fraction of a second needed for him to stab her with a poison dart, which slowly killed her.

Caedus is Born
"Caedus. My name is Darth Caedus."

- Darth Caedus

Following Mara's death, Jacen realized that she was the one he needed to sacrifice in order to become a Sith Lord, although he didn't understand why it had to be her. Jacen then dropped his name in favor of a Sith one, becoming a Dark Lord of the Sith and taking the title of Darth Caedus.

After attending Mara's funeral, and trying to arrest his parents, Jacen as Darth Caedus put his plans into motion. Caedus hinted to Ben that Cal Omas was Mara's killer to keep his suspicions away and attempted tighter galactic control. Later he led the battle of Balmorra, which he planned to be a defeat that would allow him to win the battle of Kuat which he thought would be the decisive battle of the war. All was going as planned until Rear Admiral Darklighter changed battle tactics that allowed them to destroy the Commenorian fleet and the Hutt forces in space. Caedus showed his darkness when he commanded his forces to let the Balmorrians to finish off the fighting on the ground. During the battle of Kuat, he put Admiral Bwua'tu in command of the battle plan. This plan would only be a success with Jedi support. Luke Skywalker refused to help Jacen in the conflict once he learned that Jacen had sent Ben to kill Cal Omas and left the battle. Unhappy with the development, Caedus deployed the GAG to Ossus and like Darth Vader decades ago on Coruscant, attempted to kill all the Jedi residing there as an example of how intolerable dissent was to the GA. The war between Corellia and the GA had also become another war of Jedi against Sith. After Kashyyyk refused to follow Caedus' rule, he attacked the planet and its Wookiee inhabitants by setting fire to their planet. He not only attacked Kashyyyk to punish the Wookiees but also to draw Confederate forces away from Kuat. His plan worked and the Bothan, Corellian, and Commenorian fleets arrived to aid the Wookiees. On board the Anakin Solo Ben Skywalker attacked Caedus intending to kill him, but because of a shadow bomb from Lowbacca that had hit the ship they lost their balance and Ben's lightsaber only brushed Jacen's ribs. Seeing the potential of the dark side in the boy, Jacen held Ben captive on the Anakin Solo.

"We should have dropped that kid out the medcenter window the day he was born."

- Han Solo

When Luke came to ambush and possibly destroy the Anakin Solo Caedus was waiting in his Stealth X. Caedus forced Jaina to fire on her uncle. Believing Luke dead, Jacen returned to his ship and tortured Ben Skywalker in the Embrace of Pain, the Yuuzhan Vong device Vergere had used which had partly caused Jacen to turn to the dark side. Like Vergere did to Jacen, Caedus temporarily severed Ben's connection to the Force. Luke was in fact not dead and he infiltrated the ship, catching Jacen trying to turn Ben to the dark side. Shocked by what a cruel and dangerous man his nephew had become and not waiting for Caedus to notice, Luke attacked his own nephew to save Ben in the Duel on the Anakin Solo. The lightsaber fight was brutal and both Caedus and Luke were badly injured, even though Luke had superior skill and power. Though Caedus managed to break Luke's nose, shoulder and leg, he suffered even greater injuries and only gained the advantage when Luke was distracted by Ben. He managed to entangle Luke with a Yuuzhan Vong vine, but Luke managed to break free and inflict further injuries on Caedus. Caedus was then stabbed in the back by Ben, who had escaped from the Embrace to kill Jacen. Ben summoned Jacen's fallen lightsaber and attempted to kill Jacen, saying "This kill is mine." Jacen's life was spared when Luke told Ben that Mara's killer was Alema Rar. Horrified by his son's dark side actions and Jacen's wanton brutality, Luke limped away from the room with his son and escaped the Anakin Solo sparing Caedus his life.

During the battle, Tenel Ka, also horrified after witnessing Caedus' destructive tactics, turned against Jacen despite her love for him. At first, Jacen thought his parents were threatening Allana and forced Tenel Ka to turn on him, but after he sensed her true feelings, he knew she had willingly turned on him. Tenel Ka assaulted his ship when he refused to surrender. However, Alema Rar intervened in the Sith ship and used Battle Meditation to weaken the will on the Bothan fleet, and thus allowed Jacen to escape.

In his grandfather's footsteps
Shortly after the Battle of Kashyyyk, Luke said that Jacen now commanded at least master-level abilities. Not only that, but when asked how to solve the problem that had become Caedus, Luke, not being able to come up with an answer, left it up to Kyp Durron on to decide how to destroy Caedus.

Caedus felt he was truly alone as nearly everyone in his family had turned against him, just as Count Dooku had during the Clone Wars after meeting Yoda on Vjun. Caedus admitted privately he would kill anyone who stood between him and his daughter, including Tenel Ka. He then planned to get the Hapes Consortium back into the Galactic Alliance by taking Allana away from Tenel Ka. After he kidnapped her, he told Allana that he was her father. But after he met his uncle Luke in a second dogfight, Allana was rescued from him.

Caedus would eventually acquire a new lightsaber and use a traditional red Sith crystal, giving his blade a bloodshine glow after losing his old lightsaber at the duel between him and Luke above Kashyyyk. His extended immersion in the dark side as a Sith Lord later appeared as sulfuric eye scleras and dark lines upon his face.

Little did Jacen know that there were other Sith on Korriban, and they disapproved of him being a member of their order.

Personality and traits
"You obnoxious, power-crazed, ludicrous little jerk."

- Cal Omas

When Jacen was born, he had a bond with his twin sister Jaina that allowed them to understand each other perfectly. As a young child, Jacen was often left by his parents under the care of other people including Winter, whom bonded with Jacen and his siblings as much as his mother Leia Organa Solo did to safeguard Jacen's future. Despite this, Jacen admitted later he was very proud of his parents' accomplishments. Well into his teens, Jacen was described as a happy-go-lucky child who tried to make his friends laugh by telling them jokes. He also collected various animals as pets. Prior to the Yuuzhan Vong war, Jacen became more serious, often arguing with his brother Anakin upon the nature of the Force. At one point, he even outright refused to use the Force, but when his mother was attacked by Tsavong Lah on Duros, he unleashed a Force Whirlwind on the Warmaster to save her life. Jacen also envied his uncle Luke Skywalker's connection to the Force and shared similar views to his own mother Leia.

After Jacen was captured by Vergere, tortured nearly to the brink of death and madness, emotionally broken and was influenced by her teachings, he no longer believed in the concept of the "light side" or the "dark side" of the Force. Jacen no longer hesitated to use the Force or contemplated upon morality in war. After achieving harmony with the Force during his battle with Onimi, he knew he could never reach that state again, but in an attempt to learn more about the Force, he decided to go on a quest to see the viewpoint of other Force using cultures such as the Witches of Dathomir, and the Fallanassi. Five years after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong war, Jacen tortured Ta'a Chume using the Force, rendering her comatose, and tricked his sister and her squadron into attacking the Chiss, which instigated the Swarm War. His rationalization for his actions was that he was protecting Tenel Ka and the newborn Allana, and that the Swarm War needed to happen to make the galaxy safer for them and everyone else. Jacen also adopted the Potentium view of the Force and convinced the rest of the Jedi to do the same. Although Luke abandoned this view during the Swarm War, Jacen still continued to follow it, saying that a Jedi's job is to be effective and that the end more than justifies the means. It is speculated that continuing to follow this belief, had a large effect on his becoming a Sith Lord.

Jacen had also advocated that the Jedi assassinate his childhood friend Raynar Thul, and when viewing a hologram of his grandfather Anakin Skywalker Force choking his pregnant wife Padmé Amidala, he failed to understand why Anakin did so.

During the Second Corellian Insurrection, Jacen fell further when questioned on his views by Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith. He willingly became her apprentice, and killed his former apprentice Nelani Dinn to preserve secrecy. After Jacen accidentally killed Ailyn Vel during interrogation, he was more annoyed than remorseful. Jacen also began to completely shun his uncle's guidance, instead relying upon Lumiya's and Admiral Niathal's. Jacen severed his bond with Jaina to prevent her from discovering Jacen's affiliations. Like Darth Revan many millennia before him, Jacen felt that he would gain stability and order by either strengthening the galactic government or rebuilding it. Indeed, Jacen shared Revan's view the galaxy was ill prepared to deal with internal and external threats which was the reason it needed Sith teachings to preserve a stable lasting order.

Because of his admiration of his grandfather Anakin Skywalker's resolve to use his abilities for a good end before his flaws undid him, Jacen began mirroring a number of dominant traits his grandfather had as Darth Vader, including arrogant confidence in his own power, tendency to be offended by being questioned of his motives by other people, complete intolerance to either outlaws or threats to galactic unity, a prideful need for respect, and severe dislike of being proven wrong. These traits became more persistent as he studied further under Lumiya's tutelage. Jacen felt he was about to surpass his uncle's Force abilities to become either the greatest Jedi or Sith of all time. He believed he could become a Sith without repeating the mistakes his grandfather made to preserve galactic order. A flaw Jacen was aware of in himself was a lack of patience.

Jacen was told by Lumiya in order to complete his Sith training, he must sacrifice someone he loved. Jacen was heartbroken at the prospect of sacrificing Tenel Ka and Allana, but to avoid killing his daughter and her mother, he decided to sacrifice his parents instead after Lumiya informed Jacen he had a free choice in the sacrifice. As a Sith, Jacen became increasingly distant towards most of his family members, displaying cold indifference to the point he abandoned his own parents on a damaged space station and showed no affection to his former nanny Winter whom he was especially close to in his childhood. He retained his compassion and affection only towards Ben Skywalker, Tenel Ka, and Allana. Jacen willingly betrayed both his uncle Luke and aunt Mara Jade Skywalker into a trap involving Lumiya to keep their suspicions off him, and would later even kill Mara Jade as his Sith sacrifice.

Shortly before the Battle of Hapes, Jacen issued an arrest warrant for his own parents, and during the battle he ordered the Anakin Solo to fire upon the Millennium Falcon, endangering his parents, twin sister Jaina, Ben Skywalker, and Zekk as well. The aftermath of this incident allowed Jacen to recognize the contrasts from his adolescence to adulthood, a difference both Jacen and Luke Skywalker attributed to the consequences of the Myrkr mission and Anakin Solo's death. Jacen also came to understand he no longer felt any guilt for his own actions. Wedge Antilles remarked how Jacen had lost his sense of humor and wondered whether that same boy who would help animals down from trees would return. Jacen reflected on that thought and felt that the Myrkr mission had changed him and that every animal he saw had the face of a Voxyn.

Jacen also allowed Lumiya to endanger Ben by letting her set up a deadly mission that would take Ben to Ziost to determine if he would make a suitable Sith apprentice. The mission created a rift driving Ben and Jacen apart from each other, a void widening larger after Ben discerned Jacen's Sith affiliation. By the end of the Battle of Kashyyyk, Jacen would be abandoned by everyone that was once dear to him, including Tenel Ka. Filled with anger and hatred, Jacen could only see it as another 'sacrifice' to his ultimate destiny, and hoped one day to understand it. However, despite everyone turning their backs on him, Jacen continued to draw upon his 'love' for his family and friends in addition to his anger to make him stronger in the dark side.

Abilities
Jacen was well known to be naturally gifted for his Force abilities and lightsaber skill since the age of four. When guided by his uncle's spirit when Exar Kun ripped Luke's soul from his body, Jacen fought like a Master Swordsman which he seemingly had no recollection of afterwards. Later, witnesses would recall that it seemed like Luke's own fighting style, because Luke was doing the fighting using Jacen's body. He could use the Force to demonstrate considerable telekinetic and telepathic abilities throughout his life eventually including Force Wave, Force Choke, Force Whirlwind, and Force lightning, yet Jacen's greatest expertise was befriending or influencing animals. As Jacen grew older, he demonstrated piloting ability comparable to his twin sister. Yet Jacen's greatest talent was perhaps his natural ability as a leader guiding others to victory which proved instrumental in the Yuuzhan Vong War, a trait Pellaeon himself personally noted.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, after Jacen was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and began studying under Vergere's guidance, his Force connection deepened to the point he could match the greatest members of the New Jedi Order. Jacen learned how to neutralize toxins by rearranging molecules with the Force and began learning to mask his Force presence. Jacen's molecular rearrangement technique would save his Uncle Luke from amphistaff venom after Shimrra's defeat. After being implanted by a slave seed by Vergere and later having it removed, Jacen learned to modify his existing empathic ability (which appeared to exist outside the Force) to sense and influence the previously Force invisible Yuuzhan Vong and their biological constructs. During the war, his ability to befriend animals and the development of a "Vongsense" proved useful in undermining the Yuuzhan Vong's organic creations against them. Jacen also used the ability of Force meld, a Force power which allowed him to coordinate the minds of the Jedi participating in the battles of Ylesia and Ebaq 9. When fighting with the true Supreme Overlord Onimi, Jacen drew upon the Unifying Force to destroy him using the Force alone in order to save his sister Jaina by achieving perfect balance between the light and dark sides. This caused Jacen to physically age by five years and made himself realize this state could never again be attained.

After studying under the Aing-Tii, Theran Listeners, Fallanassi, Dathomiri witches, Jensaarai, and various Force user groups, Jacen became even more powerful in the Force. He could flow-walk, the ability to view both past and future as well as leave an imprint of himself in either time frame. Jacen was able to give Ta'a Chume a Force-induced hemorrhage. He also mind-wiped Ben's knowledge of the incident. Jacen could also channel the Force into other individuals to bolster their Force abilities.

During Jacen's time with Lumiya, he gained greater proficiency completely concealing his Force presence, becoming undetectable to other Jedi. This was trained to the point where he did not even have to put forth effort and was only discovered if he chose to magnify his presence. His confidence in this ability was shaken when he discovered that Ben's Sith Meditation Sphere had found him by the presences of others around him. Jacen tortured and killed Ailyn Vel using the Force and Force choked Major Espara for questioning his own orders. When Jacen's daughter Allana was being hunted by Aurra Sing, Jacen intervened and held his own ground against Sing, whom was noted as an infamously deadly Jedi assassin.

During his Sith training, Lumiya promised that he would gain a much greater 'insight' after taking up the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith. Jacen was highly skeptical of this claim as he did not sense any greater understanding at the time. However, shortly after taking his place as the Master of the Sith, Lumiya's claim came true. During a war council Jacen suddenly displayed an amazing sense of battle coordination and insight into how the enemy would not only move their forces but how to counter them. Jacen had just employed one of the Sith's greatest Force abilities, a precognitive battle awareness that allowed him to know exactly how his enemy would react. Jacen had learned from Vergere how to sever an individual's Force connection, which he used on Ben.

Outside the Force, Jacen displayed the ability to manipulate and deceive people as powerful as Luke Skywalker, a feat done by Palpatine long before, and Luke Skywalker during his own trek. Being the eldest son of longtime politician Leia Organa Solo, Jacen had learned much of political machinations from his mother and used this knowledge to manipulate the Galactic Alliance into appointing himself as joint Chief of State.

As Darth Caedus, Jacen engaged Luke Skywalker in what he described as the most "ferocious and terrible lightsaber duel of his life". Although both were heavily wounded, Caedus was amongst the few people to survive a duel against the Jedi Grand Master and wound him badly in the process. Luke admitted Caedus had the same skill and ability level as a Jedi Master.

Tenel Ka
Jacen had known Tenel Ka since they were both students at the Jedi Praxeum. When they were younger, Jacen had always tried to make her laugh in an effort to get her to open up, which usually failed. Nonetheless, Jacen viewed Tenel Ka as a close friend, and even at one point wished he could be more to her. As they grew older, they spent less time together due to their differing duties.

When Jacen was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and cut off from the Force by Vergere, Tenel Ka finally expressed her emotions regarding Jacen when she felt his "death". Long after Tenel Ka became Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, Jacen finally admitted his love for her, and together they had a child, Allana. Although he loved Tenel Ka and Allana very much, he could not be with them due to the political climate on Hapes. As a result, he spent very little time with both Tenel Ka and their daughter, and could not openly acknowledge that Allana was his daughter for fear of the destabilization of Tenel Ka's throne by Hapan nobles.

Tenel Ka would support and defend Jacen during the first part of the Corellian-Galactic Alliance War. Despite Jacen's increasingly brutal acts during the war, Tenel Ka would excuse his actions out of her love for him. However, this changed as a result of the Battle of Kashyyyk, when Jacen used his Fifth Fleet to bombard the planet surface when the Wookiees refused to support him. Feeling betrayed and crushed, Tenel Ka used her Hapan Fleet to attack the remnants of Jacen's fleet with the intention of stopping him. Jacen could still sense love in Tenel Ka's heart, but as he described it, it was a sad love that results from one losing someone precious to them.

Danni Quee
Jacen met Danni during the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, when he rescued her from Helska 4. Although she was five years older than Jacen, she did admit to him that she felt an attraction to him.

After Jacen returned from his captivity, Jacen and Danni started to grow closer, but at the end of the war, they decided that they both had different paths to pursue: She was to remain on Zonama Sekot, and he was to travel across the galaxy to learn from other Force cultures.

Name


Timothy Zahn originally intended "Jacen" to be "Jasen," but his editor at Bantam Spectra, Betsy Mitchell, suggested changing the "s" to a "c" to make the name less Earth-based.

"Jacen" is an alternate spelling of the Greek name Jason (Iason), which means 'healer'.

Appearance
When he created the cover artworks for the Young Jedi Knights book series, artist Dave Dorman used young Calvin Engel, son of cartoonist Jim Engel, as a model for Jacen's appearance. Dorman however didn't try for his exact likeness due to Calvin's hair color and other differences.

Parallels
Jacen's actions during the Dark Nest trilogy had many fans drawing parallels between Jacen and his grandfather Anakin Skywalker during the final days of the Clone Wars. The extreme measures Jacen took to protect Tenel Ka and Allana (such as his torture of Ta'a Chume and his insistence that Raynar Thul be killed) have drawn comparisons to Anakin's actions to protect Padmé and the unborn Skywalker twins.

These actions, coupled with Jacen's denial of the dark side of the Force, led some fans to predict that Jacen would fall to the dark side in the upcoming Legacy of the Force series&mdash;predictions which came true. Ironically, Jacen believes that he can master the dark side without making the same mistakes as his grandfather, but he seemingly fails to realize that his desire to protect his family mirrors Anakin's own.

Lightsaber
Jacen has used three lightsabers so far in his life. After he was kidnapped by Brakiss, he was given a lightsaber with an indigo blade. When he was rescued by his uncle, he left the saber behind and learned a hard lesson about wielding one.

His first official lightsaber was built after his friend Zekk was taken in by the Shadow Academy. After taking great care to build it, he used his Corusca gem as his focusing crystal, which gave the blade an emerald green color. He used this saber for most of his life, even as a Sith Lord. His sword was lost during his duel with his uncle and taken by his cousin and former apprentice, Ben. His second one consists a red synth crystal, one in which he had built after losing his previous one. It gives a crimson glow to the blade. It is his current lightsaber.

Sith Lord
As revealed at starwars.com, Jacen indeed becomes a Dark Lord of the Sith in Sacrifice. There was a contest through the site where registered members could choose Jacen's Sith name. Prior to this, many believed that he would become Darth Krayt. The finalist names were: Acheron (a river in Hell for those who deny justice), Caedus (a battle of darkness), Judicar (the final judge), Paxis (bringer of peace) and Taral (ancient Sith for "he who protects"). The winning name, which appeared at the end of Sacrifice, was "Darth Caedus." Caedus is an invention based on the Latin verb cædo, cædere (the noun form of which is cæsum, not cædus) which means "to cut" or "to kill": which accurately describe Jacen's increasingly violent tactics towards civilians and his murder of his own loved ones. However, caed is also an early Welsh word which translates as battle.