Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse

No surrender is possible. There shall be no leniency. More than just the galaxy's future is at risk— The Force's destiny hangs in the balance.

The climactic installment of the sweeping Fate of the Jedi saga sees the Jedi and Sith in direct confrontation, with Coruscant serving as their battleground. The Sith see it as a chance to reclaim their long-lost dominance over the galaxy. For Abeloth, it represents a significant advancement in her ambition to rule all life. Luke Skywalker views it as a call to arms to forever eliminate the Sith and their terrifying new master.

Jedi Knights launch a swift and deadly surprise assault on Sith infiltrators across the planet. However, triumph over the cunning and savage Abeloth, as well as the terrifying endgame she has in store, is far from assured. As Luke, Ben, Han, Leia, Jaina, Jag, and their allies draw closer, the devastating truth about the dark side incarnate will be revealed, sending shockwaves through the Jedi Order, the galaxy, and the Force itself.

The Jedi initiate their covert invasion of the planet at the start of the novel, which is set on Coruscant, with the goal of liberating it from the Lost Tribe of the Sith's clandestine influence. Jaina Solo, Valin, and Jysella, who are siblings from the Horn family, are among those who successfully pass the security checks, which are overseen by undercover Sith. However, Yaqeel Saav'etu and Yantahar Bwua'tu run into some difficulty when a Sith, Captain Suhale, detects them, forcing Bazel Warv, who had come with Seff Hellin and Vaala Razelle, to pose as a spicer in order to save their lives and then make their escape. BAMR News later describes this as the operations of a Jedi spice cartel.

Luke Skywalker, his son Ben, and Vestara Khai, a recent defector from the Sith and now a Jedi apprentice, also encounter a Galactic Alliance Security patrol led by the Sith named Ruku Myal elsewhere on Coruscant. Luke, however, outsmarts Myal by turning off the lights in the spaceport they are in, which forces him to use his lightsaber. Vestara manages to murder the Sith by using the Force to drive his own shikkar into his body as Myal deflects the shots fired at him by his own men, who mistook him for a Jedi. Luke uses the Force to ensure that the shikkar kills Myal quickly before he, Ben, and Vestara flee during the chaos.

Abeloth, who is posing as Rokari Kem, the most recent Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, has been torturing Wynn Dorvan for weeks since the Sith captured him, but she has been unable to get any information from him regarding the Jedi Order's location. She does, however, gradually persuade him to join her side and appoints him as her co-Chief of State, allowing him to offer guidance on matters such as bringing Imperial Lieutenant Lydea Pagorski back into Imperial space. Abeloth absorbs Pagorski's being into herself when she decides to do so.

The Jedi Order sends out a widespread message over the HoloNet prior to their impending attack on Coruscant, demanding that all Sith surrender or face death. While many Sith decide to fight, they are quickly killed. Corran Horn kills Jestat Vhool, and Octa Ramis kills Kayala Fei, for example. Meanwhile, as Ben and Vestara are dispatched to divert Sith High Lord Ivaar Workan, who is posing as Senator Kameron Suldar, Vestara secretly reveals her identity to her fellow Sith in order to get closer to Workan. As a result, Ben and Vestara are taken hostage while Luke and the other two Jedi on the strike team against Workan, Seha Dorvald and Doran Sarkin-Tainer, raid his office. Vestara, not wanting Workan to be taken alive because his continued existence would lead to an interrogation in which he would reveal how he discovered that Ben and Vestara were spies and thus reveal Vestara's true intentions, tricks the other Jedi into simply shooting Workan dead as he duels Luke in the ensuing battle. Ben shoots Workan in the head, killing him.

Hapan Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo participates in a Hapan flotilla to aid in the evacuation of Jedi from Sith who are invading the planet of Ossus. Allana, Tenel Ka's daughter, who was left in her care aboard the Dragon Queen II because her grandparents, Han and Leia, are also helping with the Jedi evacuation, is with Tenel Ka. Allana has a vision of the Barabel Jedi nests in the depths of the New Jedi Temple being attacked, and she becomes alarmed, wanting to save the Barabels' hatchlings. She tries not to break her promise to Tesar Sebatyne and the other Barabel Jedi—Dordi, Wilyem, and Zal—to her mother about the hatchlings' secret. Tenel Ka reminds her daughter that she must remember that how she receives the visions is more important than the actions she takes in her frantic haste to act upon them, which reminds Allana of how her late father, Jacen Solo, failed to recognize that. Tenel Ka assures her daughter that they will notify Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne of the threat to the Barabels as soon as the evacuation is finished.

The evacuation of the Ossan students is successful, with one exception: Sith infiltrators secretly board one of the evacuation ships. Han Solo's quick thinking persuades Tenel Ka to have the ship captured, forcing it to evade the Hapan forces and detonate in a suicidal baradium explosion. It becomes evident that the Queen Mother was the target of an assassination attempt. Allana then argues that she should go to Coruscant to speak with her friend, Bazel Warv, so that she can warn the Barabel Knights about the danger to their spawn. She informs her grandparents of this without revealing the existence of the hatchlings, and only after Leia's attempts to contact Saba (both via comlink and through the Force) fail. Han and Leia, however, refuse and appear to leave without her. Only when they arrive at Coruscant, as the battle between the Jedi and Sith rages, do they discover that she stowed away in order to complete her mission.

Meanwhile, Jedi Knights Raynar Thul, Lowbacca, Tekli, and their protocol droid C-3PO travel to the Celestial Palace, which is situated on an unnamed world in the Maraqoo sector, specifically in the Reo system. The Jedi and C-3PO meet with the Killik hive nest of the Thuruht there in order to meet with its queen. They inquire as to what the queen knows about Abeloth, as Thuruht appears to be connected to the ancient and mythical beings once known as the Celestials, for whom the Killiks claimed to have worked for eons; the Thuruht nest had even imprisoned Abeloth on the unknown world themselves. Raynar informs the queen that Abeloth is on the loose in the galaxy and that no one knows where to find her when she asks why the Jedi want to know about Abeloth. The Thuruht nest then begins to perform their duties in a hurry, and C-3PO translates for the Jedi Knights that they are doing so because, according to the queen, the End of Time has arrived. Raynar takes advantage of Thuruht's panic to learn what they know about Abeloth, even as he inadvertently slips back into the Killik hive mind. The Jedi discover that Abeloth once lived with the Ones, a group of Force entities who represented the Balance of the Force, which included the Son, the Daughter, and the Father. When she realized she starts aging unlike them, she secretly immersed herself with the Pool of Knowledge and drunk from Font of Power. The Father realizing what Abeloth done, abandoned her and left with the Son and the Daughter. Lonely, desperate and changed by drinking from Fountain of Power and bathing in Pool of Knowledge, Abeloth became the Bringer of Chaos, an entity who promises to rise whenever the galaxy falls into such uncontrollable strife that she can cause a pan-galactic apocalypse that will renew the galaxy into a new peace, a cycle that repeats itself every several thousand years. The Thuruht's role in stopping Abeloth in preparation for a galaxy-wide apocalypse is a result of their call-to-arms by the Son and the Daughter, both of whom would team up to defeat Abeloth in order to protect what they cherish most. Unfortunately, it is soon discovered that the Ones had died decades earlier because of a visit made by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to the Ones' second homeworld of Mortis.

Wynn Dorvan persuades Abeloth that in order to defeat the Jedi, she must lure them to the Jedi Temple, where the Sith can serve as defenders and defeat the Jedi in a swift ambush. This, of course, is a ruse for the Jedi to wipe out the Sith in one swift strike, which they intend to do with the assistance of Void Jumpers commanded by Admiral Nek Bwua'tu. A Jedi strike team comprised of the Skywalkers, Vestara, the Jedi Horn family members, Jaina Solo, her astromech droid Rowdy, and others secretly enter the Temple to lower its shields, allowing the commandos to storm in and kill as many Sith as possible. The Sith, however, are prepared for this attack because of Abeloth, and they strike, killing many members of the strike team. Vestara is separated from the rest of the Jedi in the initial assault against the strike team. Fleeing for her life from a Sith team, she finds herself cornered at the slowly-opening entrance of the Temple's underground evacuation tunnel. This group reveals that they want to take her alive and torture her for information in order to find out what she revealed about them and/or their plans to the Jedi (they also reveal to Vestara that the late Grand Lord Darish Vol is no longer in control of the Lost Tribe, which arouses suspicion from Vestara over who is leading the Sith now). Vestara decides to save her own life by revealing that she knows who the Jedi queen is—Allana Solo, going by the false name of Amelia Solo under Han and Leia's supervision; Vestara had deduced this fact from several other pieces of information she became aware of. The leading Sith of the pact hunting her, Lady Sashal, gives her the opportunity to prove herself when the Solos, with Bazel Warv, appear in the evacuation tunnel after the entrance to it completely opens up for Vestara. She is quickly given a thermal detonator that she can use to assassinate Allana, but she deliberately misses and it blows off the forward part of the Millennium Falcon instead. In the ensuing conflict, as Vestara leaves, with her treachery now known by the Solos, Bazel is killed defending Allana just as the rest of the Solos, with R2-D2, run away and regroup with Zekk and other Hapan soldiers who finish off the rest of the pursuing Sith. The Barabel Jedi come along and help, allowing for the existence of their hatchlings to go out in the open, especially after hearing that Bazel died so that he could at least try to tell them that their spawn may be in danger.

Abeloth deceives Wynn Dorvan into killing her because her avatar in Rokari Kem is dying because it cannot handle her Force power, so she can transfer her consciousness into the Jedi Temple's computer core, where she can control its inner systems against the invading Jedi while fighting them in one of her other avatars in Lady Korelei. The fight against Abeloth-Korelei causes a sense of hopelessness, prompting Luke to promote Jaina to the rank of Jedi Master. Meanwhile, as Luke, Jaina, and Corran Horn try to lower the Temple's shields, Ben, the Horn siblings, and Rowdy are dispatched to deal with the computer core so that they can open the Temple's entrances, making it easier for the Void Jumpers to invade.

Abeloth arrives in the Imperial Remnant as Lydea Pagorski and allies with Admiral Natasi Daala to launch the first Imperial democratic electoral campaign against Head of State Jagged Fel. Just as Jag has his loyal Admiral Vitor Reige enter the vote against him in order to split the military vote against Daala, he and his bodyguard, Tahiri Veila, determine through some hard evidence that Pagorski is really Abeloth in disguise. So he sends Tahiri to Hagamoor 3, where Moff Tol Getelles's secret de-aging serum operation was previously in the works, after Tahiri finds a lead on Boba Fett there, which both she and Jag hypothesize could lead to Abeloth-Pagorski due to the latter's affiliation with Daala—since Daala is also affiliated with Fett, a connection between Fett and Abeloth may very well be possible. Tahiri meets Fett at Getelles's secret factory, where he is looking for the scientists who created the nanovirus that plagued his home world of Mandalore three years earlier, and they confront Abeloth-Pagorski. Although they kill her avatar, it occurs just before the orbital bombardment of the facility that Tahiri had previously ordered in the event that she wouldn't return from her mission in time. The bombardment results in the death of the two scientists, Drs. Jessal Yu and Frela Tarm, who Fett wanted to use in order to bring about a cure for his planet. He does manage to get data on the nanovirus itself so that a cure may be concocted elsewhere.

The death of Abeloth's avatar in Pagorski coincides with the inexplicable pain suffered by Abeloth's avatar in Lady Korelei, causing her to abruptly leave her battle with the Jedi. Luke, Jaina, and Corran Horn all take notice of this. Meanwhile, as Abeloth controls the Jedi computer core, she separates Ben Skywalker from the Horn siblings and Rowdy and transports him aboard the Sith Meditation Sphere known as Ship. There, as Abeloth begins Coruscant's apocalypse by causing earthquakes and volcanic activity amidst the battle between the Jedi and the Sith, she abducts Vestara Khai with Ben and takes them back to her home world as Korelei. Elsewhere, after Luke, Jaina, and Corran succeed in their mission and the Void Jumpers storm the Temple with their Jedi leaders, the surviving members of the strike team are quickly extracted, healed as quickly as possible to minimal shape, and they hold a Council meeting with the other Masters to discuss how to defeat Abeloth and the Sith once and for all. The raging apocalypse amidst the roaring battle only leads to a further sense of doubt and loss for the Jedi once Tekli and Lowbacca, absent Raynar Thul now that he's back with the Killiks, reveal what they know of Abeloth from the Histories of Thuruht. And with Ben and Vestara traveling back to Abeloth's planet under her hold, they all determine that Abeloth wants to recreate her family of the Ones, with Ben taking the Daughter's position in the light side and Vestara taking the Son's position in the dark side.

Jag is aware that he will not win the Imperial vote as a result of the events on Hagamoor 3. So he signs out, much to Daala's shock, after he reveals that she was previously sponsoring Moff Getelles's droch de-aging serum program. Daala loses the campaign against Vitor Reige, and, as a result, Reige becomes the Imperial Head of State just as Jag and Tahiri depart for Coruscant in order to help their allies there. With Saba Sebatyne and several other Void Jumpers, led by Gef Olazon, they move in on the Temple to rescue the Solos, their surviving Hapan bodyguards, Zekk, the Barabels, and their hatchlings. Saba, Tahiri, and their contingent of Void Jumpers then proceed to carry out their mission of killing Abeloth's computer core avatar just as Tahiri is considered part of the Order again by Saba. Meanwhile, Luke and Jaina depart in the Rude Awakening to rescue Ben and Vestara. Along the way, Luke receives a message from the Solos, which tells him of Vestara's attempt on their lives. Luke then conveys this information to Jaina.

As the Rude Awakening approaches Abeloth's world, Jaina engages Ship in combat while Luke enters beyond shadows—where he sees the likes of the late Numa Rar, Ganner Rhysode, and Tresina Lobi—to find help from his late wife, Mara. But Mara tells him that she cannot help him, and his late, treacherous nephew, Jacen Solo, reminds him of this even as Luke scolds him on account of the fact that his actions in the Second Galactic Civil War were what allowed Abeloth to roam freely in the galaxy. Luke is soon joined by a mysterious Sith who agrees to help him defeat Abeloth, and they soon engage in combat against her. Meanwhile, Ben and Vestara are tempted by Abeloth to immerse themselves in the Font of Power in order to slake their physical thirst for water, but they manage to overcome their temptation and fight her off.

As the three battles against Abeloth commence—in the Jedi Temple, on her own world, and beyond shadows—Abeloth is steadily weakened and killed in each conflict. Beyond shadows, Luke and the mysterious Sith manage to drain Abeloth of her power, and she dies off there. Meanwhile, Saba is able to lure Abeloth out of her computer core avatar and then she kills her by chopping her head off with her fangs. And Ben and Vestara kill off her Korelei avatar after Ben uses the Sith's own shikkar against her, similar to what Vestara did to Ruku Myal, and then Abeloth-Korelei is finished off when she is then crushed by the fight's resultant debris.

Beyond shadows, Mara tells Luke that, in spite of the literal spiritual wounds that he and the Sith stranger have incurred in their fight against Abeloth, he must go on in life to lead the Jedi Order toward their future. Luke turns to Jacen and tells him that because of him and his change of the future, Abeloth was set free just so he could prevent the Sith stranger, who both Luke and Jacen recognize in their dreams nearly half a decade earlier, from sitting on the Throne of Balance. The stranger tells Luke not to be so confident in his theory that Jacen merely changed the future, for he could have only delayed it, and the stranger may yet sit on the Throne of Balance. He departs with that, and Jacen finally tells Luke why he didn't simply come to him in order to prevent his vision—Jacen's goal wasn't to stop the Sith from sitting on the Throne of Balance; he merely wanted to make sure that Allana wouldn't stand next to him when the stranger did, as he saw.

On Abeloth's world, with Vestara's treachery well known to the Jedi Order by now, Jaina prevents her from boarding the Rude Awakening and only allows for Ben to see Luke. After Ben sees a horrifying future of shadowy Sith over Coruscant as they wage a war against Allana, the foreseen queen of the Jedi, Jaina informs Ben of Vestara's assassination attempt on Allana. Ben then completely renounces his trust in the Sith girl before he and Jaina debark to confront her. Meanwhile, because of Jaina refusing to let her aboard, Vestara deduces that the Jedi have found out that she is still a Sith, and Jaina has told Ben of her attempt on Allana's life. She is soon assured by the approaching presence of Ship, no longer in Abeloth's control since her demise, that she will be accepted by other Sith who will find use in her because of what she knows of the Skywalkers and the Jedi overall. As Ship deigns Vestara to be a Sith Lord, she stalls off Ben and Jaina from capturing her long enough for Ship to rescue her and take her to the other Sith. She is saddened by what became of her relationship to Ben, but Ship reminds her that her love will only fuel her power in the dark side, thereby making her a stronger Sith for it.

Three months after Abeloth's deaths, the apocalypse of Coruscant has ceased, but the casualties for civilians alone range in the billions. Because of what happened, the majority of the populace blame the Jedi for what has occurred and they have voted for them to leave against their will. Luke agrees for the Order to leave voluntarily anyway, especially after they learn that, because of what the Histories of Thuruht have determined, Abeloth may return again in another time of great chaos. This is further proven after Sothais Saar and Avinoam Arelis were attacked by a random tentacle, which could only have belonged to Abeloth, that had appeared spontaneously from the Force, and which had disappeared just as quickly. Luke concludes that with the galaxy slipping into darkness and Abeloth's return all too likely, the Jedi and the Sith must become the Ones in order to ensure the Balance of the Force.

With the Sith survivors knowing full well who the Jedi queen is, Allana decides that it's time to drop the charade of her moniker of Amelia and fully embrace her role as heir to the Hapan throne, letting the galaxy know who she is. The Millennium Falcon's forward hull is soon patched up with replacement parts courtesy of Lando Calrissian. Wynn Dorvan is left as the temporary Chief of State before a new candidate can be properly elected (which would most likely be him, anyway). A Jedi team dubbed the Ten Knights is sent out to find the Mortis monolith, which is what will allow the Jedi to find the Dagger of Mortis, which, according to legend, is the only weapon that could kill Abeloth for good, in case she ever returns.

But in spite of the Jedi's knowledge that the galaxy is leaning to the side of darkness, the novel, and the series, ends on a lighter note as its final scene depicts Jaina Solo walking across the hangar deck of the Dragon Queen II, ready to marry Jagged Fel in their wedding. The final few lines depict an unknown woman, who may very well be the woman depicted in the first few lines of the series' opener, Fate of the Jedi: Outcast, lighting a candle against an all-encompassing darkness, symbolizing the glimmer of hope that the Jedi have for the future.