Vestara Khai

Born on the secluded planet of Kesh in 27.5 ABY, Vestara Khai was a Force-sensitive female Human, who even considered that she might have some Red Sith heritage. Her parents were Gavar Khai, a Sith Saber, and Lahka Khai, his wife, who did not have the Force. This planet was the homeworld of the Lost Tribe of Sith, who were descended from Sith survivors who had crashed on Kesh in 5000 BBY. In 37.5 ABY, at the age of ten years, Vestara, then a Sith Tyro, meaning an initiate within the Tribe, took part in the uvak competition to capture a reptavian uvak. She was successful and named her uvak Tikk. Following the competition, she became close friends with Ahri Raas, another Keshiri Sith Tyro. They frequently trained together, enhancing their combat skills, hoping to be chosen as apprentices. During her childhood, Vestara was cared for by a Keshiri woman named Muura.

In 41 ABY, while sparring with Raas, Vestara sensed the arrival of the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship. Ship recognized Vestara's ambition to become a Sith Master and offered to teach her. As Vestara was the first mind Ship encountered upon arriving at Kesh, the Circle of Lords, Kesh's ruling Sith council, summoned her. They made her an apprentice to Lady Olaris Rhea, and Vestara left her home to begin her training at the Sith Temple in the Takara Mountains of Kesh. Ship also informed the Sith about events in the galaxy since their ancestors had been stranded millennia ago, revealing that the Sith had been nearly wiped out and that the Jedi had become numerous.

Soon after, Ship discovered a Damorian s18 light freighter traveling from Eriadu and requested five Sith to help attack the vessel. Vestara and Rhea were chosen, along with Sarasu Taalon, Ivaar Workan, and Ruku Myal. Ship took them off-world and attacked the freighter, preventing it from escaping into hyperspace. The Meditation Sphere forced it to land, and the Sith began hunting the surviving crew, dividing into two teams: Vestara, Myal, and Workan, and Rhea and Taalon. Vestara's team killed two crew members, while Taalon and Rhea cornered the remaining four. Taalon then ordered Vestara back to the freighter to take inventory. On her way back, Vestara, disappointed at missing a kill, encountered a girl who had been a passenger on the freighter. The girl told Vestara she had escaped slavery, and despite begging for her life, Vestara killed her with a parang. Ship then told Vestara to name the girl, and Vestara named her "First," as she was her first kill.

With Ship guiding them, Vestara and her Tribe continued to travel beyond Kesh in the Meditation Sphere, engaging and destroying other ships, leaving no survivors. They used salvaged parts to rebuild the Omen, the ship their ancestors had crashed on Kesh. Once the Omen was repaired, the Tribe began capturing starships, forming a new Sith armada. One of the first battleships captured was renamed the Eternal Crusader and placed under Lady Rhea's command, with Vestara serving aboard as her apprentice. During these travels in the galaxy, the young Sith apprentice became a skilled killer.

In 43.5 ABY, Luke Skywalker, the exiled Jedi Grand Master, came into contact with the Codex, an Aing-Tii relic that amplified his Force presence, making it detectable to the Sith Tribe. The Sith decided to eliminate him to clear the way for the reestablishment of the Sith Empire as the dominant power in the galaxy. Rhea and Darish Vol, the Tribe's Grand Lord, personally selected a strike team under Rhea's command to find and kill Skywalker, and Vestara was among those chosen. Before their departure, however, the dark side entity Abeloth sent out a Force call that seized control of Ship, causing it to abandon the Sith Tribe. The strike team was then tasked with first tracking down and recovering Ship before finding and killing Skywalker.

Others chosen for the mission included Raas and his Master, Yuvar Xal. The team departed Kesh aboard the Eternal Crusader and used Vestara's unique connection to Ship to follow it to a planet in the Maw. Some team members worried about a potential trap, suspecting that Ship was intentionally leading them; however, they continued their mission. Upon arriving at the planet, the Eternal Crusader remained in orbit while a search party, including Vestara and Rhea, was sent to locate Ship. The Sith discovered that the world was filled with deadly plant life, resulting in several team members being killed by the carnivorous flora. Soon, they encountered Abeloth, a beautiful and powerful being who controlled all life on the planet. Abeloth pretended to assist the Sith in finding Ship and agreed to return to Kesh with them, but she secretly used her influence over Ship to keep it away as the Sith fell victim to the planet's flora.

As the Eternal Crusader's supplies dwindled, Rhea decided to leave, believing that returning to Kesh with Abeloth would compensate for losing Ship. However, Abeloth then allowed Vestara to glimpse Ship, prompting the Sith to pursue it again. While crossing a river, Rhea was pulled into a whirlpool by a siphon reed. Despite Abeloth's warning, Vestara jumped in to save her Master. Catching up with Rhea underwater, Vestara used her lightsaber to cut open the reed and free her. Rhea used the Force to pull them to the surface, where Raas caught and pulled them back to shore. Afterward, while Abeloth still appeared beautiful to the other Sith, Vestara saw her true form: a humanoid with a large mouth, stubby arms, and tentacles instead of fingers. Despite this, Vestara's attempts to convince her fellow Sith of Abeloth's true nature failed, and the team remained on the planet, losing more members. Reinforcements were continually sent from the Eternal Crusader until none remained aboard. With Ship still hidden, Xal prepared to overthrow Rhea.

Before Xal's plans could be enacted, Abeloth discovered that Skywalker and his son, Ben Skywalker, were aboard Sinkhole Station, a space station in the Maw. She then allowed Ship to return to the Sith, convincing them to capture the Jedi and return with them to Kesh, rather than killing them as originally planned. Vestara and the remaining fifteen or so members of the strike team traveled to Sinkhole Station aboard Ship and prepared an ambush for the Jedi, though Rhea changed the mission's objective back to killing them. When the ambush began, Vestara waited with Xal, Raas, and Baad Walusari in a junction the Skywalkers would have to pass through to reach their vessel, the Jade Shadow, in the station's hangar. As the Skywalkers passed, Vestara and Walusari launched grenades at them. Xal and Raas had planned to betray the others at that moment, Force-pushing the grenades back at Vestara and Walusari before attacking the Jedi. Rhea had foreseen this, however, and had given Vestara and Walusari fake grenades. Upset by Raas' betrayal, Vestara threw her shikkar, a glass dagger, at Xal, killing him. Distracted by Xal's cry, Raas was quickly dispatched by the Jedi. Walusari then tried to throw fragmentation grenades at the Skywalkers, but they sent the grenades back, killing him.

Vestara managed to cut Luke's face with her parang, though he had allowed it so he could establish a blood trail on her for tracking. The Grand Master then knocked her unconscious, bound her, and took her captive as he and Ben continued to their vessel. They were soon attacked by more Sith, and Vestara regained consciousness and joined the assault. Ben fired on her with his blaster as she fled, but Luke ordered him to let her escape. Vestara found her Master and two other Sith, the only remaining survivors. As Ben prepared the Jade Shadow for flight, Luke returned inside a lift. When the doors opened, Vestara and the last three Sith dueled the Grand Master. He quickly killed two, leaving only Khai and Rhea, who fought him inside the lift as it headed back for the hangar, scoring hits on his vac suit. However, he deflected a blaster shot into Vestara's boot and began dueling Rhea one-on-one, using the Force to hold Vestara in place. As the lift doors opened behind Luke, Ben fired on the Sith from the Jade Shadow, distracting Rhea and allowing Luke to kill her. Vestara used the distraction to flee, realizing she was outmatched without her Master. She saluted Luke and fled in a SoroSuub StarTripper yacht, She's a Chancer.

Vestara feared the Jedi would follow her to her Tribe, so she sought to hide on a world with a high concentration of Force-sensitives, from where she could send a secure message to Kesh, informing her Tribe of the strike team's destruction and her location. She chose Dathomir, inhabited by the Dathomiri Witches. After landing, she sent a hypercomm message to her Tribe and made a deal with the Nightsisters, a female-dominant organization of dark side Witches, to exchange information and Force techniques with her Tribe.

Vestara journeyed deep into the Dathomir rainforests, where Olianne Sihn from the Raining Leaves Clan of Dathomiri Witches discovered the youthful apprentice, who was on the verge of total exhaustion. The Clan made the decision to offer Vestara shelter, with Sihn intending to formally adopt her. Concurrently, the Skywalker family arrived and located the Raining Leaves Clan, who were about to commence a conclave with the exclusively male Broken Columns Clan to facilitate the merger of the two Clans into a single entity. The Skywalkers confronted Vestara, but the Raining Leaves Clan intervened, compelling the Jedi to leave her undisturbed, citing her adoption into their tribe. As the conclave got underway, the Nightsisters began to sabotage the proceedings; their anti-male sentiment fueled their opposition to the Clan merger. The Nightsisters launched multiple attacks on the two tribes using rancors and their mastery of the Force during the conclave. During one of these skirmishes, Vestara managed to seize Ben's lightsaber and employed it to shield Luke from an impending Nightsister attack. Ben expressed gratitude for her actions, yet his suspicions regarding her remained.

Eventually, the two Clans successfully united, forming the Bright Sun Clan, only to be immediately confronted by the most significant Nightsister attack to date. On the newly named Bright Sun Hill, the Clan—aided by Vestara, the Skywalkers, and the Jedi's Force-sensitive guide Dyon Stadd—ultimately vanquished the Nightsisters. Following this victory, Vestara secretly assembled the remaining Nightsisters in a landing meadow to rendezvous with members of her Tribe who had recently arrived in the system. However, the Nightsisters, under the command of Dresdema, were enraged to discover that the Lost Tribe also included males, prompting them to attack the Sith. The Tribe, led by Lord Viun Gaalan, swiftly defeated the Nightsisters, capturing them and transporting them back to their orbiting fleet.

Gaalan commended Vestara for her contributions, and she proceeded to retrieve the last Nightsister—Halliava Vurse, who had been operating covertly as a member of the Raining Leaves Clan. However, Stadd and the Skywalkers noticed Vestara's disappearance and tracked her to the landing meadow, where they confronted Gaalan and three other Sith who had remained behind to await Vestara and Vurse. The Jedi triumphed over the Sith, and Gaalan escaped in his shuttle just as Vestara returned with the Nightsister. Subsequently, the Skywalkers apprehended Vestara, exposing her treachery—as well as Vurse's deception—to the Bright Sun Clan. The Clan resolved to exile Vestara, finally permitting the Jedi to take her into custody. The Skywalkers returned to the Jade Shadow at the Dathomir Spaceport and imprisoned Vestara aboard their ship, intending to pursue Gaalan. However, upon reaching orbit, they were intercepted by eleven capital class ChaseMaster frigates under the command of the Sith High Lord Sarasu Taalon, who demanded they enter a parking orbit or face the consequences of his vessels opening fire.

Taalon informed the Jedi that Abeloth had been inducing a psychosis among the Tribe's apprentices, mirroring the effects she was having on numerous Jedi Knights within the Jedi Order. Taalon then proposed an alliance with the Jedi to combat Abeloth, recognizing her as a shared adversary. Luke was initially skeptical but ultimately agreed to the proposition, stipulating that Vestara remain confined to the Jade Shadow. The Jedi vessel was then contacted by her father, Gavar, who had accompanied Taalon on the mission. Despite Luke's initial hesitations, Ben persuaded his father to permit Gavar a brief visit aboard to converse privately with Vestara.

Anticipating that the Jedi would record their conversation—which Luke indeed did—the two Sith communicated in the Keshiri language. Gavar assured Vestara of her mother's well-being and gifted his daughter a shikkar, hoping she might one day use it to eliminate one of the Skywalkers. In return, she provided him with a layout of the Jade Shadow. He also disclosed that the Sith alliance was a fabrication—the Tribe's apprentices had not been affected by Abeloth's influence—although he omitted the true objective of the Sith mission. He also discussed her attraction to Ben, suggesting she exploit it to gather information and potentially sway him to the dark side.

Luke and Taalon arranged to meet with Luke's acquaintance, Lando Calrissian, who intended to supply them with the Colossus I Beta Series asteroid tug Rockhound to aid in navigating the treacherous Maw. They opted to await Calrissian on the planet Klatooine in the Si'Klaata Cluster. There, Luke permitted Ben and Vestara to venture to the planet's surface with Stadd to replenish the Jade Shadow's supplies. Having been raised on a secluded planet, Vestara was captivated by the vibrant activity on Klatooine. She continued her flirtatious advances toward Ben—which he reciprocated—and endeavored to avoid ideological clashes to maintain his favor. Their interaction was disrupted when Stadd suddenly succumbed to Abeloth's influence, leading him to believe that everyone had been replaced by impostors. He fled the market, heading toward the Fountain of the Ancients—a sacred wintrium Fountain encircled by a one-kilometer zone prohibiting technology—in the Derelkoos Desert. Vestara and Ben pursued Stadd, and she assisted him in apprehending the Force-sensitive, ensuring he did not perish in the process.

Subsequently, Klatooinian guards took Vestara, Ben, and Stadd into custody, although the Sith and Jedi were detained primarily due to their underage status. The Klatooinians transported them to the Treema Courthouse and Detention Area, where Vestara and Ben passed the time awaiting their fathers by exchanging jokes. Upon Luke and Gavar's arrival, Gavar privately reprimanded Vestara for aiding Ben, but she countered that she had done so solely to solidify the young Jedi's trust in her. The Skywalkers returned to the Jade Shadow with Stadd, whom the Klatooinians had willingly relinquished, recognizing their inability to contain the psychotic Force-sensitive for an extended period. Meanwhile, Luke had dispatched a recording of Vestara's conversation with her father during their meeting aboard the Jade Shadow to the protocol droid C-3PO for translation. Despite the droid's unfamiliarity with the language, he provided Luke with a rudimentary translation in Basic. Luke presented the translated transcript to his son, who was deeply disturbed by the revelation that the Sith were plotting to betray the Jedi and that Vestara intended to personally sway him to the dark side. Ben's demeanor toward her turned cold, and she was perplexed by his abrupt change in attitude, unaware of the cause.

As tensions escalated between the Jedi and Sith, Luke and Taalon concurred that they no longer wished to remain on Klatooine, prompting the allied fleet to depart the planet and await Calrissian just outside the Maw. Calrissian eventually arrived with Jedi Knight Jaina Solo, who had come to assist the Skywalkers in their dealings with the Sith. The fleet entered the Maw, initially heading for Sinkhole Station, where Luke hoped to uncover information that could prove beneficial to their mission. However, upon their arrival, they discovered that the space station had been completely obliterated. Two of the Sith frigates ventured into the debris field, although the Rockhound attempted to impede them with its powerful tractor beams. It succeeded in rescuing one of the frigates, but the other collided with debris and exploded. Vestara and the Skywalkers surmised that Sinkhole Station had been constructed to contain Abeloth, but she had grown sufficiently powerful to break free and destroy the space station. The fleet then resolved to proceed directly to Abeloth's planet.

Upon arriving in orbit above Abeloth's planet, Vestara sensed Ship's presence and discerned his discontentment with serving Abeloth. She also learned that Ben had briefly piloted Ship in the past. Concerned that Abeloth might attempt to liberate Stadd now that they were in close proximity, the Skywalkers dispatched Vestara to check on the psychotic man. Vestara resolved to exploit Stadd to locate Abeloth by deceiving him, but she refrained from informing the Jedi of her plan, fearing their distrust. Vestara falsely claimed to Stadd that she was an impostor, asserting that she—along with all the other impostors who had chosen to replace Sith—were affiliated with Ship, who was serving Abeloth; thus convincing him that the impostors of the Sith were on his side. She inquired if he would guide them to Abeloth, and he affirmed his willingness. Then, instead of administering more of his sedative as the Skywalkers had instructed, Vestara administered the antidote and tampered with the monitoring device. She requested that he feign unconsciousness if the Skywalkers came to check on him, assuring him that she would soon return to unlock his stun cuffs.

After landing on the planet, Vestara and the Skywalkers met with Taalon, Gavar, and Sith Captain Leeha Faal. Luke proposed that they travel in the realm of the Force known as beyond shadows—a technique he had learned from the Force-sensitive Mind Walkers who had resided at Sinkhole Station—in an attempt to locate Abeloth, as he had initially encountered her while Mind Walking. Vestara vehemently opposed the idea and attempted to dissuade her fellow Sith—having witnessed the decrepit Mind Walkers at Sinkhole Station during the strike team's ambush of the Jedi, she recognized the inherent dangers of Mind Walking, which could severely weaken and even potentially kill those who attempted it. However, the other Sith concurred with Luke and approved his proposal. Upon returning to the Jade Shadow, Vestara spoke with Stadd again, advising him to escape while Luke and the Sith were beyond shadows.

Vestara was left with Ben on the Jade Shadow to monitor Luke's physical body while he, Gavar, Taalon, and Faal attempted to locate Abeloth beyond shadows. While Ben monitored his father, Stadd suddenly broke free from his room and charged toward the vessel's exit. Ben called for Vestara to stop him, but instead, she stepped aside and allowed Stadd to pass. Suddenly, Luke returned from beyond shadows—Faal had perished, and Luke had discovered that the presence that had been reaching out to him throughout the mission, which he had initially believed to be the spirit of his deceased wife, was actually Abeloth. Ben then revealed to his father what Vestara had done, and the two Jedi confronted her. However, she countered that she had placed a tracking device on Stadd and allowed him to escape so that they could follow him to Abeloth. Vestara and the Jedi rendezvoused with Taalon, Gavar, and nineteen other Sith to track Stadd.

They located Stadd in a cave on the side of a volcano—the same cave where Vestara and her strike team had originally encountered Abeloth. There, they found Stadd on the ground, barely alive, and no longer possessed by the psychosis. He revealed that Abeloth had attempted to consume his life force but had abandoned him when she sensed the allies' approach, and that while he still felt her influence on his mind, he realized that it was not the truth. Stadd remained at the cave entrance with two Sith guards while Vestara, the Jedi, and the rest of the Sith ventured deeper down a tunnel at the back of the cave to find Abeloth. Eventually, they reached a courtyard at the end of the tunnel. There, Luke called out to Abeloth, and she materialized behind him.

Abeloth attempted to deceive Luke by impersonating Callista Ming, his former lover, but ultimately failed, as he recognized that Abeloth had merely consumed Ming—as she had attempted to do with Stadd—and then assumed her appearance. The strike team attacked Abeloth, and several Sith began to weave a control web—a technique they had acquired from the captured Nightsisters—over Abeloth in an attempt to capture her. The Khais, Taalon, and the Skywalkers all charged Abeloth, but the entity seized Vestara by the throat with the Force and levitated her off the ground, violently shaking her. Vestara attempted to unleash Force lightning at her, but Abeloth redirected the lightning back at the Sith apprentice and conjured large, white, spiked roots from the ground, impaling Vestara with them multiple times. Ben swiftly came to her rescue, severing the roots with his lightsaber and carrying Vestara away from the battle in his arms. A cursory examination revealed that she was not mortally wounded, but she grabbed Ben and informed him that the spikes were poisonous. He began to search his belongings for something to treat her wounds, and the Sith seized that moment to betray the Jedi—Gavar redirected a strike away from Abeloth and toward Luke while the rest of the Sith lowered the control web onto Abeloth.

Ben shouted a warning to his father, who managed to block Gavar's attack. Vestara attempted to insist that she needed Ben's assistance, but he was enraged by her betrayal, and he leaped away and engaged her father in a duel. Meanwhile, Luke gradually gained the upper hand in the battle against Abeloth while Ben began to push Gavar back; however, Abeloth unleashed a Force blast that repelled everyone in the vicinity, and she fled back up the tunnel. Luke was the first to recover and pursue her, with Ben and the Sith shortly behind and Vestara in the rear. Catching up to the entity at the cave's entrance, Luke managed to defeat and seemingly kill Abeloth, despite another attempt to deceive him. Afterward, the Sith reestablished their alliance with the Jedi to jointly investigate Abeloth and her origins further. Taalon and Luke decided to dispatch Calrissian, Solo, and the entire Sith fleet offworld, with the exception of the Khais and the High Lord himself. Vestara also returned to the Jade Shadow to receive treatment for her injuries.

As Taalon, Luke, and Gavar began to investigate Abeloth's origins, Vestara remained under Ben's watch aboard the Jade Shadow, along with the recovering Dyon Stadd. However, Vestara suddenly sensed Ship's presence returning, and she deceived Ben, managing to lock him in the ship with Stadd while she escaped. A bloodvine ensnared and nearly killed Vestara—releasing pollen that temporarily blinded her, restricting her movement with vines, and suspending her over the edge of a cliff—but Ben, who had broken free, tracked her down and helped rescue her. They then proceeded to the site of some ancient ruins that Luke and the other Sith were investigating. Gavar confronted Vestara about leaving the Jade Shadow, but upon Taalon's arrival, she informed the High Lord that she had sensed Ship's return. She and Taalon then returned to find Ben attempting to sneak off with Abeloth's corpse while Luke distracted Gavar, and Taalon swiftly moved to attack Ben. However, Vestara suddenly noticed that Abeloth's body was morphing into that of Dyon Stadd's—they realized that the entity had somehow switched bodies with Stadd before Luke had killed her. The Jedi concluded that that meant that the "Stadd" aboard the Jade Shadow was actually Abeloth; after a protracted standoff, the Jedi finally convinced the Sith to return to their vessels. There, however, they discovered that Abeloth had already escaped.

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

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

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

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

Soon after, the Obuuri, a Kondo-class assault shuttle, arrived carrying a large contingent of Sith reinforcements. This group included Sarasu Taalon, who, after immersing himself in the Pool of Knowledge, was beginning his transformation into a being similar to Abeloth, and Gavar Khai. A confrontation erupted immediately between Gavar and Luke, with both preparing for battle. However, Taalon intervened, instructing Gavar to stand down. Taalon asserted that he would assist the Jedi in eliminating Abeloth once he fully understood the nature of his own transformation. Alongside the Obuuri, the Jade Shadow, with Vestara, her father, Taalon, the Skywalkers, and fifty additional Sith aboard, journeyed towards the Fallanassi's village. Luke attempted to warn the Sith that their hazard suits would not offer protection from the plague, pointing out that Ben and Vestara had both worn the suits and still exhibited symptoms. Gavar dismissed Luke's concerns, accusing him of failing to protect his own daughter, while Taalon claimed the Jedi was attempting to deceive the Sith. The Jade Shadow and the Obuuri soon found themselves under attack from the Fallanassi's defenses – more illusions generated by the White Current. A fleet of Sith Meditation Spheres swarmed the ships. Initially, Taalon maintained the facade that the Spheres were under Sith control, but as the fleet drew closer, fear gripped Vestara and the other Sith. Eventually, the Obuuri opened fire, but Luke, aware that the Spheres were merely illusions, skillfully piloted the Jade Shadow directly through them. Shortly after, the Obuuri crashed into a cliff concealed by illusions. Taalon began demanding a landing and a wait for additional reinforcements, but at that moment, they reached the island where the Fallanassi resided. Luke descended his ship towards the village, shattering the illusions that concealed it.

The Fallanassi greeted the Sith and Jedi, reluctantly agreeing to provide care for the Sith who had contracted the plague. Taalon, however, finally recognized the true nature of the plague and demanded to know Abeloth's location. When Pell stepped forward to address the newcomers, Taalon began interrogating her, even ordering Vestara's father to hold another Fallanassi hostage in an attempt to coerce Pell into revealing more information. Pell disclosed that Abeloth had sought out the Fallanassi because she was one of them. However, when Luke inquired whether Abeloth had always been a Fallanassi or had joined them recently, Pell refused to answer. Upon Taalon's command, Gavar murdered the hostage. Enraged, Pell retaliated by attacking the Sith Saber with an illusion that drove him to madness. As Gavar fled the gathering, screaming, Vestara used the Force to trip him. Despite being under the illusion's influence, she ultimately used the Force to knock him unconscious. Pell—who was actually Abeloth inhabiting Pell's body—then unleashed visions upon all the Sith present, except Vestara and Taalon, leading many to commit suicide by leaping into the surrounding ocean.

Abeloth then extended an invitation to Taalon to join her in a gathering hall for conversation, and Vestara and the Skywalkers followed. Luke warned the Sith that Abeloth was simply attempting to manipulate them, but his words were ineffective. Realizing that he could not reason with the Sith to avoid conflict, Luke began strategically positioning himself for an attack. Recognizing Luke's intentions, Taalon initiated battle against the Jedi. While Vestara and Taalon engaged Ben in combat, Luke turned his attention to Abeloth and swiftly defeated her, destroying Pell's body. Luke then joined Ben in battling the Sith, but Abeloth reappeared in the form of Callista Ming. Abeloth quickly overwhelmed the weakened Luke but prevented Taalon from killing him, instead rendering the Grand Master unconscious and declaring that he should suffer as she had. Taalon then imprisoned Ben in a Force net, and they retrieved Vestara's unconscious father from outside, bringing him into the hall. As Vestara watched, Taalon discussed his transformation with Abeloth, and the entity began to infuse him with dark energy from her tentacles. As Luke began to regain consciousness, he created a distraction by using the Force to collapse the ceiling. Vestara, recognizing that Taalon could not be allowed to become another Abeloth, seized the opportunity presented by the distraction to kill the High Lord.

With Taalon's demise, the net imprisoning Ben dissolved, and the Skywalkers launched an attack on Abeloth. Khai tossed his lightsaber to the Jedi for use in the battle—their own having been confiscated after their capture—and then unleashed Force lightning upon Abeloth. Weakened, Abeloth used the Force to repel Luke and fled the gathering hall. Vestara then turned on the Jedi, ordering them to prepare for Sith custody. However, Luke used the Force to awaken her father while simultaneously commending Vestara for killing Taalon. Gavar, unaware of the full circumstances surrounding Taalon's death, moved to confront Vestara about her perceived betrayal. Vestara incapacitated him again with the Force and then fled the hall with the Skywalkers, knowing that the Sith would not allow her time to explain her actions. As she and the Jedi made their way towards the Jade Shadow, the other Sith began to awaken and recover from their illusions. With Abeloth's departure, her control over them had finally broken. Master Vhool confronted the Jedi and, unaware of Vestara's situation, instructed her to start up the Jade Shadow while he returned to the hall to find Taalon.

Vestara had initiated the ship's systems and brought its blaster cannons to bear when a squadron of Jedi StealthX starfighters, along with Captain Booster Terrik's Star Destroyer Errant Venture, suddenly arrived and opened fire on the Sith. Simultaneously, Vhool discovered that Vestara had killed Taalon. Before the Tribe could intervene, she opened fire upon them, once again saving the Skywalkers and providing them with the time to board the vessel. As they lifted off from Pydyr, the Errant Venture established contact with the Jade Shadow. Both sides provided brief updates on their recent experiences, but Luke refused to rest. He reasoned that since Abeloth was still alive, the recovery of the Jedi on Coruscant from their psychosis following the events on Abeloth's world was due to the entity's weakened state. He determined that they needed to maintain her weakness and keep her on the run to prevent her from regaining too much power. As the Errant Venture and the StealthXs forced the Sith to retreat, Vestara and the Skywalkers plotted their course to continue the pursuit of Abeloth.

Following their departure from Pydyr, Vestara and the Skywalkers tracked Abeloth to the space station Meliflar Station. Upon arrival, they were ambushed by the station's inhabitants. After forcing their surrender, Khai and the Skywalkers consulted with their leader, Hallaf, and learned that his daughter had been rendered unconscious by Abeloth, and that the station's residents had been instructed to kill the Skywalkers. However, the smuggler Cardya had led a mutiny against Hallaf, and the inhabitants had subsequently decided to attempt to capture the Jade Shadow instead of destroying it. Luke then tapped into the residual taint left by Abeloth in Hallaf's daughter and discovered that she intended to travel to the planet Nam Chorios. Vestara and the Jedi journeyed to the planet, seeking out the Theran Listeners, a group of Force-sensitives with unique abilities whom the Skywalkers suspected Abeloth intended to control. Luke located one of the Listeners, Taselda, whom he had encountered on his previous visit to Nam Chorios decades earlier.

Taselda escorted Vestara and the Skywalkers to meet Listener-Master Taru Durn, who instructed Luke in the technique of mnemotherapy—a Force ability that enabled the user to extract and destroy memories. They soon discovered that Doctor Cagaran Wei had disappeared, and they suspected his disappearance was connected to Abeloth. Consequently, Vestara and the Skywalkers traveled to Wei's residence in the city of Hweg Shul, where they met with the Ithorian mayor Snaplaunce. Wei's landspeeder logs indicated that he had traveled to a rock ivory processing plant 483 kilometers from Hweg Shul. Snaplaunce agreed to provide them with transportation—his customized TIE/sh VIP shuttle, Vote Snaplaunce. However, during their flight, Ship attacked them, forcing them to deviate from their course. Koval Station Control contacted them and ordered them to adhere to their flight plan, but they were unable to respond before the Station began firing its turbolaser at them. The shuttle sustained significant damage, and one of the Station's shots struck one of the planet's sentient crystal life-forms, a tsil, triggering a massive death convulsion.

While the disturbance caused Luke to lose control of the shuttle and plummet into a dust storm, it also prompted Ship to flee the area. The dust storm interfered with Koval Station's lock on the Vote Snaplaunce, and the shuttle's engines soon failed, forcing them to land. Vestara and the Jedi quickly discovered Wei's corpse at the processing plant and speculated that Wei had either been bait to lure them into an ambush, or someone—possibly Snaplaunce himself—had sabotaged the shuttle's engines to strand them. While assessing the damage to the shuttle, Vestara noticed that although the laser cannons had been removed, their internal wiring remained. They then managed to repurpose the remaining components of the shuttle into a functional landspeeder, and Luke learned from communicating with the tsils that the Theran Listeners had fallen under Abeloth's influence.

Utilizing the makeshift speeder, Vestara and the Skywalkers returned to Hweg Shul, where they discovered that they were wanted for Wei's murder, and that an attempt had been made on Snaplaunce's life. The three traveled to Taselda's residence, and Luke employed the mnemotherapy technique to discern that she was under Abeloth's control. From Taselda, they learned that the Master of the Theran Listeners, Nenn, had been taken to a pumping station outside of Hweg Shul. Vestara then sent a direct message to her father, informing him that Abeloth was located in an underground pumping station on Nam Chorios. The following morning, she and the Jedi commandeered a modified T-47 airspeeder and traveled to the pumping station in the town of Kesla Vein. However, they were ambushed by three Sith under the command of Saber Tola Annax. Annax confronted Vestara regarding Taalon's death, revealing that the Sith were aware of his impending transformation. Annax demanded Vestara's surrender, offering the possibility of acquittal for her betrayal. Vestara, however, refused the offer, and a duel ensued, during which Vestara killed one of the Sith. Annax promptly destroyed their T-47 and fled the area.

Shortly thereafter, Vestara and the Skywalkers were again attacked by the Sith near the wreckage of the T-47. Meanwhile, the reporter Kandra Nilitz had heard about the T-47's explosion, Luke Skywalker's suspected involvement, and a news blackout in the town of Crystal Valley; she decided to investigate. Nilitz approached them during the battle, and Vestara and the Jedi quickly boarded her rental speeder and fled. Luke decided their next step was to find Crystal Valley—the tsils nearest there confirmed Abeloth's presence in that area—and rewarded Nilitz for her assistance by informing her about Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of Sith. Upon their arrival, Luke allowed Nilitz and her camera operator to use a series of data links to film the upcoming confrontation. The Grand Master then instructed Vestara to send a message to Annax, informing her that Abeloth was at the Crystal Valley pumping station. Inside the facility, Vestara and the Jedi discovered numerous Theran Listeners lying in pain on the floor.

They also found Jedi Knight Valin Horn, who remained under Abeloth's influence. Horn informed them that he had learned from one "Grand Master Callista Ming" that the impostors had been invaded by an alien intelligence that separated them from the true Force. Before long, Abeloth appeared in the form of Ming; however, Ming's presence within her was stronger than any other, to the extent that Ming could influence Abeloth's actions, preventing her from attacking Luke. Ming revealed that it was because of her presence in Abeloth that the entity had developed a desire for so many Jedi. As Luke consulted with Ming's presence, Sith reinforcements arrived and began battling another manifestation of Abeloth elsewhere in the station. Horn, believing that the Skywalkers had brought Jedi to trap him and Abeloth, attacked Ben. Vestara quickly joined the fight, helping Ben defend against the more experienced Jedi Knight. Meanwhile, Luke succeeded in using the mnemotherapy technique to extract Ming's presence from Abeloth and sever it. The blow weakened Horn, but Abeloth quickly assumed the form of Nenn. The Master of the Theran Listeners, however, refused to be used in this way and stabbed himself. Horn lost consciousness, and from the area of the station where the Sith were fighting Abeloth, Vestara and the Skywalkers heard the entity scream in agony.

Before they could join the battle against her, however, they were confronted by Annax and a team of approximately two dozen more Sith. Vestara stood back-to-back with the Skywalkers as the Sith initiated combat. Vestara quickly began counting down from ten, warning the Skywalkers that a major Force attack would occur when she reached zero. They managed to withstand the Sith onslaught for those seconds, and as she reached zero, Vestara killed a tsil, triggering a massive death convulsion that incapacitated the Sith, further weakened Abeloth, and brought both Luke and Vestara to their knees. Prepared as they were, Vestara and the Jedi recovered before the Sith and fled the area with Horn. Luke admonished Vestara for killing the tsil, but Vestara countered that she did so because she knew that, against so many Sith, their death was imminent. She reasoned that Luke was the only being she knew with the strength to defeat Abeloth, so she had to ensure his survival.

While they were inside the station, a fleet under the command of Vestara's father had arrived in-system. However, Luke had anticipated such reinforcements—unbeknownst to Vestara, he had a Jedi wing of StealthXs waiting in-system, and when the Sith arrived, the Jedi ambushed the fleet. Luke called to the Jedi forces to pick them up; he piloted one of the StealthXs into battle while Vestara, Ben, and Horn were taken to safety. During the combat, Luke wounded Ship, who nevertheless successfully escaped with Abeloth on board while the Jedi forced the Sith armada to retreat.

After Vestara and the Skywalkers had healed from the confrontation on Nam Chorios, the Jedi fleet joined them to hunt for Abeloth. Although they started to believe that Abeloth had allied herself with the Sith, Vestara wouldn't reveal the location of her Tribe's homeworld. She was afraid that the Jedi would wipe out all of the Sith there. Eventually, they agreed to try to find Ship, hoping that finding the Meditation Sphere would lead them to Abeloth. Jedi Knight Jaina Solo set them up to work with the formerly psychotic Jedi Knight Natua Wan. Wan was stationed in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and was tasked with researching information on ancient Sith Worlds. After getting a list of possible locations for Ship, the Jedi fleet split up to search the planets. Solo joined Vestara and the Skywalkers on the Jade Shadow as they went to the planet Korriban, which was where the first Sith came from. Even though Luke was hesitant, and Vestara and Ben were surprised, Solo invited Vestara to join them on Korriban because she thought Vestara could be useful.

They landed on Korriban in the Valley of the Dark Lords, and Luke told them to stay together and use comlinks to talk when they weren't close. The dark side energy of the planet made Vestara feel a mix of emotions. She was cautious of the powerful energy, but also excited by it. They began their search at a nearby citadel, which was empty. As the four started to think they wouldn't find anyone on Korriban, a group of tuk'ata Sith hounds came towards them. Before they could attack, Vestara stepped forward and spoke to them in Sith, telling them not to hurt the Jedi. She then asked them to find any other Sith who might be on the planet. The hounds replied with an uneasiness that meant they couldn't do what she asked—there were no other Sith there. The Jedi were shocked when the tuk'ata left them alone, and Solo quickly became suspicious of the Sith apprentice. Vestara then explained what she had said and that none of the Tribe's Sith were on Korriban. The Jedi agreed to leave. Without the Jedi knowing, she had also told the tuk'ata to tell any other members of the Tribe that the hounds might meet to hide.

The four then went to the planet Dromund Kaas, where the Jedi were even more hesitant to let Vestara join them, partly because its history was similar to the Lost Tribe's homeworld. However, Vestara argued that they only had three choices: they could kill her, leave one of their own behind to guard her while the other two finished the mission, or they could take her with them. Convinced that it was the best choice, Luke finally agreed to let her come along. When they landed, Vestara and the three Jedi went to a temple surrounded by a strong dark side Force nexus. Vestara was amazed by the strength of the dark side energy, and she and Ben split off from Solo and Luke to explore the temple. After searching for several minutes without success, they became convinced that there was no one there. Just as the four were getting ready to leave, they were suddenly ambushed by ten Sith Sabers, including Gavar Khai.

Luke immediately thought that Vestara had brought the Sith to them again, but to his surprise, Vestara turned on her lightsaber and stood with the Jedi against her father. Gavar said he was disappointed in her and revealed that Vestara's mother, Lahka, had recently been killed. Shocked, Vestara asked if he had done it. Gavar said that he hadn't, but also said that he hadn't stopped it, and that both his wife and daughter could be replaced. Gavar told his fellow Sabers to attack the Jedi, and he attacked Vestara himself. While the Jedi held off three Sith Sabers each, Vestara fought her father. He told her that she had brought shame to their family and accused her of betraying the Sith. Vestara noticed that Gavar—who had taught her that she must always be in control of her actions and emotions—was fighting and acting out of control. She realized that he hadn't stayed loyal to the Sith, either.

As the duel went on, Vestara began to push her father back, and finally sliced him from shoulder to hip, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, the three Jedi had defeated all of the other Sith Sabers, and quickly moved to comfort Vestara. Solo revealed that she had had to kill her own brother—Darth Caedus—in order to save many people's lives, including her own. She told Vestara that she would always miss her family, but that she knew she had done the right thing. Meanwhile, because of the small number of Sith they met, Luke realized that the Sith had guessed that the Jedi were hunting them and had sent the team there to ambush them. The main fleet was somewhere else. Vestara also revealed that she thought that the Sith who had attacked them were under Abeloth's influence. During her duel with Gavar, she had sensed that Abeloth had control over him. Luke then decided that they should rest and head back to Coruscant.

Later, confined to her quarters on the Jade Shadow, Vestara grieved the loss of her father. She sought comfort in rereading letters penned during her time on Nam Chorios. In these letters, she had indulged in the fantasy that her father possessed the compassion of a Jedi, using them as a means to soothe herself with this imagined, caring relationship. Now, with his death, she resolved to compose one final letter, declaring her profound sense of loss, proclaiming him the ideal father, and expressing gratitude for his support in her fabricated Jedi journey. However, before she could complete the message, Ben unexpectedly entered. He questioned her activity, and her insistence that it was private aroused his suspicion. Despite her efforts to prevent him from seeing the text, he swiftly overpowered her in a brief struggle. She claimed it had nothing to do with the Jedi, but Ben, unconvinced, accessed the files.

Upon discovering that the letters were addressed to their father, Ben jumped to the conclusion that she had been secretly observing them all along. She urged him to read the letters in their entirety. As the young Jedi Knight continued to read, he began to understand the true nature of the letters, and he quickly became embarrassed and offered apologies. However, having started, Vestara insisted that he finish reading them completely. Once he had finished, he attempted to console her, reiterating his apologies for the intrusion. Finally, Vestara inquired whether Ben believed she could become a Jedi. He affirmed his belief in her potential and promised to assist her in achieving that goal. They then shared their first kiss, as Vestara found solace in embracing trust and affection by turning to the light side of the Force.

Luke Skywalker reacted with shock and skepticism upon learning of Vestara's desire to become a Jedi, but she consented to reveal her presence in the Force for his examination. The Grand Master determined that her change of heart was genuine and chose to mentor her personally as his own apprentice. Arriving on Coruscant, Ben guided Vestara on a tour of the Jedi Temple. They encountered Jaina Solo and Natua Wan in the library, where Wan revealed her belief that Ship was located on the planet Upekzar. Wan provided a concise briefing on the planet, revealing that it was inhabited by the rhak-skuri—translated as "dream singer" in the Sith language—an insect of the diplura family that secreted hallucinogenic pheromones. Wan further explained that the Sith culture there was based on their interaction with these insects, and many of their dark side rituals had been performed without protection from the resulting hallucinations.

Meanwhile, Luke informed the Jedi Council of Vestara's changed allegiance and announced his intention to relocate the Order from Coruscant. Luke then appeared on Perre Needmo's show, The Perre Needmo Newshour, publicly declaring his decision, stating that the Jedi Order would sever all political affiliations. While it would continue to aid the Galactic Alliance, it would no longer do so as an official arm of the government. Shortly thereafter, nearly every Jedi in the galaxy—more than one hundred in total—departed for Upekzar to confront Abeloth. Vestara once again accompanied the Skywalkers aboard the Jade Shadow. However, Han Solo, Jaina Solo's father, contacted them, revealing that Galactic Alliance Security had arrested his wife, Leia, on charges of conspiracy against the government, espionage, and smuggling spice. Luke advised Han to consult with interim Chief of State Padnel Ovin and his Chief of Staff, Wynn Dorvan, both of whom were allies of the Jedi. Vestara also suggested that Han bring his adopted daughter, Amelia, with him.

As the Jedi monitored the news on the HoloNet, a "Kameron Suldar" was identified as the head of a Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Jedi Activity, but Vestara recognized him as High Lord Ivaar Workan of the Lost Tribe of Sith. She began to share her knowledge of him with the Jedi, but was surprised when Luke revealed that he was already aware of the man's Sith identity. Luke explained that he had orchestrated the Jedi's departure from Coruscant as a ploy to bait the Sith. His intention was to gather them in one location so that the Jedi could address both Ship and Abeloth before returning to defeat the Tribe, thus avoiding dealing with both threats simultaneously. Vestara suggested that Workan had arrested Leia Solo to ensure that the remaining Jedi on the capital world were closely monitored and to consolidate his own power.

Upon the Jedi's arrival at Upekzar, Luke instructed Vestara, Ben, and Wan to explore a series of caves while the rest of the Jedi hunted down Ship. However, as the trio explored the caves, they were ambushed by an enormous rhak-skuri. Prolonged exposure to the dark side energies of the planet had caused the rhak-skuri to mutate, growing significantly larger and more powerful. The three Jedi defended themselves against the creature's attacks, and Vestara attempted to divert its attention from Wan and Ben. Nevertheless, the rhak-skuri identified her as a Sith and, preferring to kill Jedi, knocked off Ben's protective breath mask and prepared to feed on him while he was paralyzed by hallucinations. Vestara made the swift decision to protect Ben at any cost, and she abruptly turned on Wan. The Jedi Knight attempted to defend herself, but Vestara sliced through her breath mask. The rhak-skuri immediately began to feed on Wan, and Ben—unaware of Vestara's actions—began to recover from his hallucinations.

Suddenly, the caves began to collapse. As Vestara and Ben tried to escape, another seismic event trapped them behind a wall of rock. Vestara's lightsaber was lost behind the rubble, so using only Ben's blade and the Force, the two began to clear the obstruction. When they finally broke through, they found Jedi Master Corran Horn waiting for them. He returned Vestara's lightsaber and explained that a volcano had erupted and that they needed to evacuate the planet immediately. The world had been a trap set by Abeloth—she and Ship were not there, and although Vestara and the majority of the strike force managed to escape, the Jedi still suffered several casualties. Afterward, Vestara reflected on her actions; she knew that she could never tell Ben what she had done, because he would never forgive her for killing Wan. However, she did not regret her decision, and she came to realize that that meant that she could never truly be a Jedi. Vestara then resolved to remain with Ben for as long as she could until they inevitably became enemies and she was forced to kill him.

Despite her conclusion that she would have to leave the Jedi Order, Vestara decided that she would help the Jedi—namely to kill all of the High Lords, whose duty it was to murder her for killing Taalon—before leaving the Order's protection. While the Jedi made their plans to spring their trap on the Sith, who had—as the Jedi had hoped, taken the Jedi's bait on Coruscant and established themselves within the government on that world—Vestara helped the Jedi prepare for the mission. She persuaded the Jedi Masters that her presence on the mission would be essential to its success due to her familiarity with the Lost Tribe, and warned them that the Sith would quickly move on from taking influential Senate positions to finding important stations in other administrations, such as inspecting immigrations. The Jedi, along with Vestara, traveled to Coruscant on the starliner Plain Lady, disembarking at the Galactic Center Spaceport. Thanks to Vestara's warning, the Jedi were prepared for the intense Sith scrutiny upon their arrival on Coruscant.

However, as Vestara and the Skywalkers made their way through the spaceport, Master Ruku Myal, posing as a Galactic Alliance Security sergeant, recognized the former Sith apprentice despite her disguise. Luke noticed the recognition that passed between them and distracted Myal by using the Force to disrupt the area's electronic systems and turn out the lights. Myal activated his lightsaber and moved to attack, but nearby Galactic Alliance Security troops mistakenly identified him as a Jedi and opened fire. As Myal fought the troops and attempted to attack Luke, Vestara located the Sith Master's shikkar and stabbed him with it. When Luke realized what she had done, he found her method of killing cruel and questioned whether she could ever truly be a Jedi. Vestara revealed that she was actually upset over what she had had to do to her old acquaintance, but that she had done it because it was necessary for the Jedi's mission.

After they escaped the spaceport, Vestara and Ben—disguised as Falleen and Twi'lek pages, respectively—went to the Senate Building as a part of a timed strike against numerous Sith targets across the planet. Their task was to distract High Lord Ivaar Workan, giving Luke Skywalker and Jedi Knights Seha Dorvald and Doran Sarkin-Tainer time to arrive and attack him. However, Workan's security guard was slow to grant them access to Workan's office, and Vestara was compelled to secretly mouth her identity to him in order to gain entry. Upon entering, they were quickly taken captive by three of Workan's bodyguards. Vestara and Ben managed to stall Workan in conversation until the three other Jedi blasted into the office; they then used the distraction to escape their captors. The two swiftly dealt with the three Sith guards, while Luke engaged Workan in a duel. Luke was attempting to corner Workan in order to capture him instead of killing him, but Vestara, wanting to prevent this, suggested to the Jedi that Workan was trying to reach his desk, where he might have a hidden detonator that could kill them all. Luke and Dorvald thus dove away from Workan, while Vestara, Ben, and Tainer opened fire on him with blasters, killing him.

Following the initial strikes, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,000 Sith, seventy-five percent of the remaining Sith retreated into the Jedi Temple, forcing the Jedi to confront them in more open combat. Vestara was selected to accompany the Jedi on an assault on the Temple—where she hoped to eliminate the majority of the Circle of Lords, so that afterward she could leave the Jedi and warn the rest of the Sith on Kesh that if they ever came hunting her, she would give Kesh's coordinates to the Jedi. As she arrived on-site to begin the mission, she overheard Luke speaking with Jedi Knight Bazel Warv regarding Amelia Solo's secret identity—she then pieced together what she knew of the Jedi queen vision with Amelia Solo's adoption by the Solos after Tenel Ka Djo's child had reportedly been killed in the Second Galactic Civil War, and concluded that Amelia was in fact the Jedi queen. She decided to keep her realization to herself in case she ever needed to use it as leverage. Vestara then accompanied Ben, Valin Horn, Horn's sister Jysella, and several other Jedi into a mechanical core of the Jedi Temple while space marines assaulted the Temple's entrances from thirty different angles, with the intent of forcing the Sith to the perimeter of the Temple so that the Jedi could sandwich the Tribe's forces. Despite the Jedi's reassurances, however, Vestara did not believe that the Sith had left the core completely undefended. As she and Ben walked across the core to report to Luke, she noticed several Sith lying in wait for an ambush.

The Sith sprung their trap moments later; they attacked the Jedi from two sides, and Vestara was knocked unconscious during the fighting. Ben attempted to save her, but the Sith took her captive and eventually fell back into hiding. Ben and Solo tried to formulate a plan to rescue Vestara, but the Sith again attacked them, and upon discovering that the computer interface—from which they had planned to override the lockdown on the Temple—had been disabled, the Jedi were forced to continue on their mission without her. Sometime after Vestara returned to consciousness, she found that her comlink, which was equipped with an evacuation guidance beacon, had been taken from her. She quickly stole a comlink from the corpse of a nearby Jedi Knight and escaped while her captors were busy attempting to deal with the Jedi. The Sith set out after Vestara, forcing her to stay on the run in the Temple as she followed the guidance beacon. She killed numerous Sith as they hunted her down and ambushed her, and she realized that they were unwilling to kill her—they wanted her alive. Vestara also discovered signs of Abeloth's presence in the Temple, but a group of Sith commanded by High Lord Sashal ultimately cornered her.

Vestara attempted to convince the Sith that she was still on their side, and that she had been forced to kill Taalon and her father because Abeloth had taken control over them. Eventually, in order to win Sashal's trust, Vestara decided to reveal the name of the Jedi queen—Allana Solo. Sashal then granted Vestara the rank of Sith Saber, handed her a detonator with the pin removed and a five second fuse, and told her to complete her mission. Vestara turned and found that the hatchway through which she had wanted to escape had finally opened, and Allana, Han, and Leia Solo were all outside. She stepped aside from the hatch and tossed the detonator toward the Solos' starship, the Millennium Falcon, guiding it with the Force. It connected, crippling the flight deck, but the Solos survived the skirmish with the Sith. Vestara promptly escaped, although she remained in the company of the Tribe. Soon afterward, Abeloth, who had assumed command of the Sith on Coruscant, brought her aboard the Meditation Sphere Ship. She was surprised to find that Ben was being held captive aboard Ship, and during their ensuing conversation, she tried to convey to the young Jedi that she was not working with the Sith and Abeloth by will, while simultaneously using her words and thoughts—which Ship could read—to trick Abeloth and Ship into believing she was on their side.

Suddenly, they noticed Abeloth starting to create groundquakes to ravage Coruscant. Vestara helped free Ben from his bindings and tried to warn the Jedi, but Abeloth, now in the form of the Keshiri High Lord Korelei, prevented them from leaving Ship. Abeloth took them with her off of Coruscant in the Meditation Sphere, and tried to convince them to join her in becoming the Ones—immortal and exceptionally powerful Force deities who could destroy and reshape the galaxy as they pleased. She offered Vestara the position of "Daughter of the Night"—an irresistable and powerful representation of the dark side. Over the course of their three day journey to Abeloth's planet, she did not provide food or drink for Vestara and Ben. They told her they would rather die than join her, and upon their arrival on Abeloth's world, she took them to the Font of Power, a dark side Force nexus. Vestara was tempted to drink from the Font, but Ben tried to convince her that it would be better to die. Ben revealed that his father was already on his way to find them, but Abeloth suddenly assaulted Vestara, trying to consume her.

Ben quickly blasted the entity away from Vestara with the Force—however, their proximity to the Font meant that the Force was tainted with the dark side. Vestara believed they would have to use it anyway, and began to wonder whether or not it was the will of the Force for them to drink from the Font, as it might be the only way to destroy Abeloth. The entity then attempted to consume Ben, and Vestara attacked her with Force lightning. With Abeloth temporarily incapacitated, Ben quickly picked up Vestara and carried her away from the Font, refusing to fight so close to the nexus. Vestara shot more lightning at Abeloth while Ben used the Force to hit the back of her head with a fallen pillar, but the entity threw Ben into another pillar, knocking him out. Vestara continued to battle Abeloth inside a sphere of Force lightning energy, holding back the entity with Force lightning. As Ben awoke, Vestara cried out for his help, and he used the Force to take the shikkar from her belt and stab Abeloth in the back with it. Vestara then hit Abeloth with Force lightning, and Ben dragged the entity away from the Font and dropped another pillar on her, killing her. Meanwhile, the entity's other manifestations were simultaneously killed by Luke Skywalker and a Sith stranger in a duel at the Lake of Apparitions beyond shadows, and by Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne with help from Tahiri Veila in the New Jedi Temple.

Jaina Solo soon landed the infiltrator Rude Awakening with an unconscious and weak Luke Skywalker inside, but she refused to let Vestara inside right away. Vestara realized that Solo was going to tell Ben about her attack on the Solo family and her betrayal of Allana's identity, and that no amount of explanation would get the young Jedi Knight to forgive her. As she waited outside, Ship—who had been freed from Abeloth's will upon the entity's destruction—contacted her. She told the Sphere that she did not think she could go back to her Tribe on Kesh, but the Sphere revealed that he knew of another faction of Sith in the galaxy—one that needed her help and could make use of her knowledge of the Skywalkers. Ship also promoted Vestara to the level of Sith Lady, much to her surprise. When Solo and Ben Skywalker finally emerged to capture her, Vestara blasted Ben with Force lightning, delayed Solo with another blast of lightning, and then leaped up into the cabin of Ship, who had just arrived. Vestara fled in the Meditation Sphere, heartbroken over having to leave Ben, and was told by Ship to feed on her pain.

After abandoning the Jedi, Vestara adopted a different identity, calling herself Savara Raine, and began to work as a mercenary, selling her services to the highest bidder. In this capacity, she encountered the Columi brothers, Craitheus and Marvid Qreph. She explained that her lightsaber was a trophy from her encounters with Jedi, concealing her true Sith origins. Marvid was particularly drawn to "Savara," enjoying her company and favoring her over other servants of the Qrephs, such as the Mandalorian warrior, Mirta Gev. The Qrephs hired Vestara for her Force abilities, as they had discovered a monolith, similar to the Mortis monolith, deep within the Chiloon Rift. The entrance to the monolith, a space–time-warping gate, could only be opened with the Force. They hired Vestara to open it and test its powers. Alongside one of Gev's Mandalorian warriors, Barduun, Vestara entered the gate and accessed the monolith. While there, Barduun was driven insane, and they barely managed to escape. However, the experiment had granted Barduun Force powers. The Qreph brothers were greatly intrigued by this development, hoping to acquire Force powers for themselves, but concerned about Barduun's insanity, they delayed accessing the monolith further until they could better understand it.

To keep prying eyes away from their discovery, the Qrephs began to financially acquire large portions of the Chiloon Rift, using underhanded business tactics to drive out rivals. In her role as a Qreph enforcer, Vestara bullied miners out of the nebula, helping the brothers take a controlling interest. The Qrephs eventually came into contact with Lando Calrissian, who owned a refinery on the planet Sarnus within the rift. Using their usual tactics, the Qrephs attempted to acquire Calrissian's holdings but were unsuccessful. Furious, the Qrephs ordered Vestara to eliminate Calrissian and his allies, Han and Leia Organa Solo. To accomplish this, Vestara sabotaged a tractor beam within the system, causing an asteroid to plummet to the surface of Sarnus, destroying Calrissian's factory and killing thousands in the process. However, the Solos and Calrissian escaped death and made their way to the planet Valnoos and the Blue Star casino. Vestara's failure to kill her targets on Sarnus caused the Qrephs to use Mirta Gev and her Mandalorians to capture the group on Valnoos, but the operation resulted in a firefight and the deaths of several Mandalorians. However, with Vestara's help, Gev was able to capture Han Solo and escape Valnoos aboard a Tra'kad starship.

With their captive in tow, Vestara returned to the Qrephs' mobile base, the asteroid crusher Ormni. The Qrephs were delighted that Solo had been captured, but their mood soured when Vestara pointed out that a homing beacon had been placed on their ship and that Jedi would be following them to rescue Solo. The Qrephs prepared their Marcadian luxury cruiser, Aurel Moon, to depart for their secret base on the monolith with Solo while Vestara readied the defenses. When Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo showed up in a ScragHull commando boat and attacked the Ormni, Vestara ambushed them with Ship and destroyed their vessel. However, Skywalker and Organa Solo survived the attack and infiltrated the Ormni, defeating the Qreph forces present and finding evidence of where the Qrephs had departed to. Vestara was able to reach the Qreph's base, Base Prime, ahead of the Jedi and warned her employers of the impending Jedi rescue attempt. The Qrephs were greatly distressed by this development, not yet ready to access the monolith, and they did not trust Vestara to help them open the gate. When the Jedi attacked Base Prime, Vestara leveraged her position to take charge of the Qreph forces in defense of the base. However, using YVH-Series battle droids, the Jedi easily penetrated the base's defenses, and Vestara was forced to evacuate the brothers through the base towards their residence.

However, their retreat was cut off by the leader of the Jedi attack, Ben Skywalker. Skywalker, still bristling from Vestara's betrayal, attempted to take her captive. Vestara was forced to use Craitheus as a shield, causing him to be badly injured, but the group escaped Skywalker and the YVH droids. Marvid was enraged by Vestara's tactics and the near-death of his brother, and he betrayed the Sith Lady. He fired his blaster at her, destroying her right ankle and left knee. Marvid also revealed a clone he had made of Vestara, Savara Two, which had been modified with Columi DNA from his mother, creating a grotesque Columi-Human hybrid. Marvid intended to use Savara Two to open the gate and access the monolith, making him no longer dependent on Vestara's help. Marvid left Vestara to die, but she called out in the Force to Ship, which came to her rescue. Unable to walk out of the base, Vestara convinced Mirta Gev her employers had been lying to her about stopping the nanovirus, a fact that Gev had refused to acknowledge. Convinced by Vestara's arguments, Gev ordered her Mandalorians to abandon Base Prime and then carried Vestara out to Ship. The two women escaped the monolith, evading the Jedi taskforce.

Vestara Khai's appearance consisted of light brown, lengthy hair, dark brown eyes, and a light complexion. She embodied nearly every physical attribute deemed desirable for a Sith of the Lost Tribe, with one exception: a subtle scar adorning her lip. Within the Tribe's culture, where physical beauty held immense value, such a mark was perceived as a degrading imperfection. However, Olaris Rhea expressed her belief that the scar served Vestara well, lending her face the suggestion of a perpetual, knowing smile. Despite this perceived flaw, Vestara was considered attractive by many Humans, Ben Skywalker included.

Her father instilled in Vestara the practice of wielding her emotions as tools to achieve her objectives. She harbored deep affection for her uvak, Tikk, but she suppressed these emotions when Rhea prepared to execute the creature, acknowledging Rhea's authority in the matter; because of this, the Lady allowed Tikk to live. Vestara also held her family in high regard and understood that her father had chosen to marry her mother out of genuine affection, despite her mother's lack of Force sensitivity; Ben likened this sentiment to the mindset of a Jedi. During her formative years, Vestara formed a bond with the Keshiri Ahri Raas, with whom she frequently trained, fostering a close friendship. He developed romantic feelings for her, but while she found him attractive and valued him as a friend, she did not reciprocate his romantic interest.

Vestara possessed a powerful aspiration to ascend to the rank of Sith Master. This ambition was the reason Ship chose her as the first contact upon his arrival on Kesh. The Meditation Sphere also recognized her formidable willpower, although it paled in comparison to Abeloth's. During her mission to retrieve Ship, she discerned that Xal was exploiting Raas to gather information from her, information that could potentially aid Xal's coup. Therefore, she accepted the possibility that she might have to be the one to eliminate her friend. The thought of doing so caused her great distress, but she resolved to act if necessary. When Xal and Raas ultimately betrayed her during the confrontation with the Skywalkers, she was enraged by Raas' lack of intelligence. She unleashed her fury upon Xal, killing him; this act diverted Raas' attention, leading to his demise. Later in the battle, after Luke killed Rhea, Vestara realized she was completely outmatched and saluted the Jedi before running away. Similarly, after Galaan abandoned her and the Skywalkers confronted her on Dathomir, she accepted her lack of escape options and surrendered.

While on Dathomir, Vestara recognized the power wielded by the Nightsisters and orchestrated a meeting between them and members of her Tribe to facilitate an exchange of Force knowledge. However, her true intention was for her Tribe to capture the Nightsisters. Her cunning was evident in the plans she formulated on Dathomir. She used her time on the run in the rain forest and under the care of the Dathomiri Witches to give her Tribe time to prepare their forces and to prevent the Skywalkers from uncovering her true intentions. Consequently, it wasn't until after they captured her that they realized she hadn't paid for her yacht to be repaired; instead, she had sold it, acquiring enough credits to send a hypercomm message to her people. While in the company of the Skywalkers, she successfully concealed information from them, despite Ben's attempts to coax her into revealing it during their conversations. Nevertheless, she frequently flirted with Ben, and they developed an attraction to each other. Under her father's direction, she sought to exploit this attraction to extract information from the Jedi.

Vestara held her father, Gavar, in high esteem, but she was disappointed that he withheld the Sith's true motives for allying with the Jedi. She also began to perceive him as unreasonable when he became angry with her for assisting Ben in the capture of Stadd on Klatooine. Later, without Vestara's knowledge, Ben viewed a translated version of the conversation she had with her father during their meeting aboard the Jade Shadow. Learning of her plans to betray them caused Ben to distance himself from her, which caused Vestara distress. She harbored strong hopes of turning Ben to the dark side so they could be together, wishing he had been born a Sith. When Vestara conceived her plan to use Stadd to locate Abeloth, she chose not to confide in the Skywalkers, fearing their distrust. Later, during the battle with Abeloth, Vestara sustained serious injuries, and Ben brought her to safety. He observed that none of her wounds were life-threatening, but she claimed that the thorns that had pierced her were poisonous, exploiting his feelings for her to delay his return to the battle as the Sith initiated their betrayal. Despite this, Ben noticed Gavar's attempt to attack Luke and warned his father in time.

Despite her determination to sway Ben to the dark side and her numerous attempts to deceive and ensnare the Skywalkers, Vestara underwent a significant transformation during her time traveling with the Jedi. She had already been the first Sith of the Tribe to witness Abeloth's true form, an experience that filled her with revulsion. When Sarasu Taalon began to transform into a being similar to Abeloth, Vestara concluded that his transformation could only bring harm to the galaxy and decided she had no choice but to kill him. Consequently, she was compelled to assist the Jedi in escaping from the Sith on Pydyr by firing upon her own Tribe from within the Jade Shadow. Although she maintained her allegiance to the Sith—and secretly sent messages to her Tribe, informing them of the Jedi's and Abeloth's whereabouts on numerous occasions—she also openly aided the Skywalkers against the Sith on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, her feelings for Ben intensified, as did his for her. In addition to firing on the Sith on Pydyr, she fought alongside the Skywalkers in three separate duels against the Sith on Nam Chorios.

When Vestara killed a tsil to ensure the safe escape of herself and the Skywalkers from the Sith on Nam Chorios, the elder Skywalker attempted to scold her for murdering the sentient being. She countered by stating her belief that Luke represented their best hope of defeating Abeloth, and she could not allow him to die. When the Jedi subsequently began searching ancient Sith worlds for Abeloth and Ship, Vestara grew eager to prove her trustworthiness. She persuaded them to take her with them planetside on both Korriban and Dromund Kaas, despite the inherent dark side power on both worlds. On Korriban, she prevented a group of Sith hounds from attacking the Jedi, but unbeknownst to the Jedi, she also instructed the hounds to tell any members of her Tribe that they encountered to hide. Despite her efforts to gain the Jedi's trust, Jaina Solo remained largely suspicious of Vestara, given her track record of deception.

During her travels with the Jedi, Vestara grappled with her internal conflicts, expressing them in the form of unsent letters to her father, detailing a life she wished she had lived. In one such letter, she even imagined herself as the daughter of a Jedi. When confronted by her father in combat on Dromund Kaas, Vestara was horrified to learn of her mother's death and her father's inaction to prevent it. Realizing that Abeloth had twisted Gavar's mind, she was forced to kill him. Her grief over his death compounded her already conflicting emotions, and she found herself longing to shed the plotting and mistrust that defined her as a Sith and embrace the life of a Jedi. When Ben discovered her writing one last letter to her imaginary father, he suspected her of betrayal and forced her to allow him to read the letters. As he read, he immediately recognized his error. Emotionally distraught by his attack on her, Vestara refused to let him stop until he had finished reading them all. Afterward, as he comforted her, she was overjoyed when Ben expressed his belief that she could become a Jedi and offered to help her in that pursuit. When he kissed the scar on the side of her mouth, she understood that he found her beautiful in her entirety—even the aspect she disliked most about herself—and the two then shared their first kiss.

However, her feelings for Ben soon interfered with her aspiration to become a Jedi. On the planet Upekzar, when a mutated rhak-skuri incapacitated Ben and intended to devour him, Vestara doubted her and Wan's ability to defeat it before it killed him. She made the decision to kill Wan, offering herself as the rhak-skuri's prey in Ben's place. Vestara did not reveal the incident to Ben, knowing that he would not forgive her choice. Vestara realized then that she could never fully embrace the path of a Jedi, as she invariably reverted to the Sith way of thinking. She accepted that she would one day have to kill Ben, even though it would shatter her heart. Nevertheless, Vestara resolved to remain with the Jedi during their subsequent assault on the Sith Tribe on Coruscant. The High Lords were bound by duty to hunt her down for murdering Taalon, so she wanted to ensure that the High Lords were all killed before she left the Jedi Order's protection. Early in the mission, she was forced to kill Ruku Myal, who had been friendly to her in her childhood. Though she was upset at having to kill him, she defended her actions as necessary to the defeat of the Tribe on Coruscant.

When tasked with assisting in the assault on Ivaar Workan, she secretly betrayed her cover to Workan's guard in order to ensure that she and Ben gained access to his office in the Senate Building. Later, as the Jedi dueled the High Lord, Vestara tricked them into believing that he was attempting to kill them with a hidden explosive, leading the Jedi to kill Workan instead of capturing him. During the liberation of Coruscant, she also finally deduced the prophesied Jedi queen's identity as the daughter of Tenel Ka Djo, Allana Solo—who was at the time in hiding as Amelia Solo, Han and Leia Solo's adopted child. She decided to keep the information in case she needed to use it to save herself at some point, and such a need arose during the assault on the Jedi Temple. When High Lord Sashal and a group of Sith cornered Vestara, she decided to reveal Allana Solo's identity to them in order to gain their trust. She then found herself in a position to assassinate the future Jedi queen, and when Sashal handed her a detonator to kill the child, Vestara threw it away from Allana's position and into the Solos' ship, the Millennium Falcon, nearly killing Han Solo. She then fled the scene while the rest of the Sith battled the Solos.

When Vestara was finally reunited with Ben aboard Ship, she admitted to being forced to attack the Millennium Falcon, but she concealed from him her revelation of Allana Solo's identity. Abeloth extended an offer to both Vestara and Ben to join her as members of the Ones, promising them immortality and the chance to spend their lives together. Although tempted by Abeloth's offer, Vestara assisted the young Jedi in their final battle against the entity, despite their ideological differences—Vestara believed that they should exploit the Font of Power's potency to their advantage, and even considered drinking from it, as she felt it might have been the will of the Force and the only way to defeat Abeloth. After Abeloth's defeat, Jaina Solo arrived and exposed Vestara's betrayal to Ben, and Vestara knew that the Jedi would not forgive her. Ship rescued her from her would-be captors and—much to Vestara's surprise—promoted her to the rank of Lady. She was also surprised to hear Ship speak of another faction of Sith in the galaxy. Vestara was devastated to leave Ben behind, but Ship believed that the pain she endured in doing so would strengthen her.

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

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

Vestara Khai was proficient with several Force techniques. She displayed strong telekinetic abilities—during the battle with the Skywalkers at Sinkhole Station she Force-pushed the two Jedi into each other, giving herself time to escape; and later, while chasing Stadd on Klatooine, she easily levitated Stadd's speeder over a large distance, much to Ben's surprise. Vestara also made use of Force lightning, utilizing bursts of lightning that ranged from very powerful to so small as to be entirely harmless. When she tried to use the power against Abeloth during their first battle on her world, the dark side entity easily bent the lightning back upon Vestara; however, during her final confrontation with Abeloth—when the entity simultaneously fought the Jedi in two other locations across the galaxy—Vestara was able to use Force lightning and hand-to-hand combat to distract and even harm Abeloth long enough for Ben to kill the entity.

The Skywalkers noted the Sith apprentice for her cunning and her skills in the art of deception. On Dathomir, Ben attempted multiple times to glean information from her, but she managed to keep the truth hidden from him for some time, avoiding detection of her duplicity while she negotiated a deal with the Nightsisters—who she also planned to betray. Later, on Abeloth's planet, she successfully devised a plan to free Stadd and follow him to Abeloth in order to locate her, deceiving him into believing that she, too, was an ally of Abeloth's. During the battle with Abeloth in the courtyard, Vestara pretended that her injuries were poisoned, drawing Ben's attention away from the battle just as the Sith executed their betrayal of the Jedi, almost leading to Luke's death at the hands of Gavar Khai. She eventually grew tired of trickery, however, and following the deaths of her parents she chose to turn her back on the dark side and join the Jedi. After finally opening her well-concealed presence for examination by Luke Skywalker, the Grand Master agreed to take her as his own apprentice. Nevertheless, she eventually returned to the dark side, and she was able to deduce the identity of the prophesied Jedi queen. Vestara kept that knowledge to herself until she needed to reveal it to the Tribe to keep the Sith from killing her, at which point Sashal bestowed upon her the rank of Sith Saber.

During her time with the Skywalkers, Vestara's skills improved. On Pydyr, she was able to murder Sith High Lord Taalon—albeit he was distracted. Later, on Nam Chorios, she defeated a Sith Saber in one-on-one combat, and although she and Ben together were barely able to hold their own against the psychotic Jedi Valin Horn, Vestara was able to help the Skywalkers hold off about twenty-five Sith for ten seconds, even while she focused on killing a tsil in order to give them a chance to flee from the Sith. Vestara later went on to duel her own father to the death—a fight which she won—as well as kill the Jedi Knight Natua Wan. In her final duel with Abeloth, Vestara held her own against the entity for a brief time even without Ben's help, and she was ultimately able to hold the entity's attention long enough for him to stab Abeloth with her shikkar. When Ship returned to Vestara after Abeloth's death, the Sphere pronounced her a Sith Lord.

Vestara was able to speak at least three languages, including Basic, Keshiri, and the ancient Sith language. As was traditional for Sith, she carried a red-bladed lightsaber. Following her first contact with Ship and apprenticeship to Rhea, she was given a new crystal for her blade—one of lignan ore, an ore that was exceptionally potent in the dark side of the Force and thus amplified the power of her blade. Vestara also carried a curved-bladed parang, as well as a glass dagger known as a shikkar. After she used her shikkar to kill Yuvar Xal, her father gave her one from his personal collection that had been crafted by the famous shikkar-maker Tura Sanga.

Despite her many betrayals, Vestara and Ben were shown on numerous occasions to have romantic feelings for each other. It is unknown if Ben's ended after Vestara's betrayal of the identity of Allana Solo, the daughter of Ben's cousin and the prophesied future Jedi queen. However, it is shown that Vestara did still have feelings for Ben, as she was heartbroken at having to leave him, although Ship advised her to use the pain to make herself stronger. The two of them may have reconciled at some point, because it is known that Ben had at least three descendants in Kol, Cade, and Nat Skywalker, who may also be her descendants.

Vestara idolized her father for a long time, until the Jedi Luke and Ben Skywalker began to turn her to the light side.

Vestara Khai was first introduced in Christie Golden's 2009 novel Fate of the Jedi: Omen, the second installment in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series. She went on to appear in each subsequent novel of the series, which was co-authored by Aaron Allston, Golden, and Troy Denning. She also appeared in two short stories written by Golden, "Imprint" and "First Blood," the former of which was published in 2009 in the Official Star Wars Fan Club, and the latter of which was published in 2011 in Star Wars Insider 125.

One image of Vestara, illustrated by Ian Keltie, was used on the front covers of both "Imprint" and Omen, and she appeared alongside Ben Skywalker in a different illustration by Keltie on the cover of the eighth Fate of the Jedi novel, Fate of the Jedi: Ascension. Vestara Khai also appeared, sketched by Shea Standefer, in the 2011 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 trading card set released by Topps in 2011. Brian Rood penciled Vestara for "First Blood," and Drew Baker illustrated her in the 2012 sourcebook, The Essential Guide to Warfare. Vestara has also received multiple mentions in the Blaster department of the Star Wars Insider magazine.