Cover Artist: Jason Felix

Events in the galaxy are quickly coming to a breaking point again. The people of the Corellian system feel that they should have all the benefits of membership in Galactic Alliance without having to contribute to the Alliance financially. Naturally, the Alliance disagrees with them, so steps are taken to stop the Corellians. A task force is sent to distract the Corellian military forces while they Jedi attempt to capture the Corellian leaders and Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker are sent to disable or destroy Centerpoint Station so it can't be used against the Alliance. While Jacen and Ben are successful, the remainder of the Jedi missions fail because the Corellians are warned in advance. On top of that, the Alliance task force ends up occupying a city on Tralus. The leaders of the two factions decide to meet in neutral territory to discuss peace, but during the conference they are assaulted by an unknown force and the Corellian representative is killed. Investigating the attack, Jacen and Ben take evidence to Lorrd to be analyzed, and are met by another Jedi named Nelani Dinn. Their investigations lead them to a woman named Brisha Syo who takes them to an asteroid that used to house a Sith Lord. Meanwhile, on Tralus, the Corellians assault the Alliance forces to drive them off the planet. In the hopes that it will forestall a war, Han Solo assists Wedge Antilles in flying the bombers that are instrumental in destroying the Alliance base with a minimal loss of life. The Corellians are successful, but Princess Leia fears that war is becoming inevitable. On the asteroid, Jacen, Ben and Nelani are attacked by Force phantoms, and Jacen and Ben must fight what appears to be evil doppelgangers of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade while the real Luke and Mara fight evil versions of Jacen and Ben on Coruscant. Before anyone can be killed, Ben is rendered unconscious and the phantoms disappear. Brisha then reveals herself as Lumiya and explains that Vergere was a Sith who was training Jacen to be a Sith Lord. Jacen looks into the future and sees that unless he becomes a Sith, war will envelope the Galaxy. Deciding that it is up to him to prevent this fate, he kills Nelani and alters Ben's memory so that he can begin to learn without anyone knowing about Lumiya. On Coruscant, Luke discovers that the non-existent threat he has been sensing has just become a reality that he needs to discover and stop.