[2] It spanned three distinct plot arcs: Because it is geared towards younger readers, the Young Jedi Knights series tackles issues such as racism and drug abuse that are relevant in both the Star Wars universe and the real world.
Along with Tenel Ka — a seemingly humorless warrior girl who befriended them during the past month — the twins and "Lowie" become fast friends.
Somewhat envious of Lowie's skyhopper, and wanting to face the challenge, Jaina believes that the wrecked TIE fighter can be fixed.
Scrounging up parts from the remains of the old Rebel base and the area surrounding the crash, the Jedi trainees go about the task of fixing the wrecked fighter.
Unbeknownst to the Jedi trainees, their work is being watched closely by Qorl, the pilot who had crashed the fighter during the Battle of Yavin.
One day while searching for more parts for the TIE fighter, Jacen finds an Imperial insignia that had come off of Qorl's uniform.
She is then attacked by a number of the two-headed beasts that the disembodied spirit of Exar Kun had sent to destroy Luke Skywalker's body in 11 ABY.
The next day, Qorl marches the twins back to the crash site at gunpoint, ordering them to complete the repairs on the TIE fighter so that he may return to the Empire.
Once the TIE fighter has made the jump to hyperspace, Han, Chewbacca, Lowie and Tenel Ka head for the crash site, finding that despite looking the worse for wear, Jacen and Jaina seem to be fine.
The book begins with Lando Calrissian, Han's old buddy, inviting the young Jedi Knights to visit his GemDiver station, a mining facility orbiting the gas planet Yavin.
All the Jedi agree to go to GemDiver station, except for Tenel Ka, who stays at the academy because her grandmother is coming to visit, and she does not want her friends to know that she is a princess on her homeworld of Hapes.
When they wake up, they learn they are on the cloaked space station called the Shadow Academy, a place for training Dark Jedi.
For the next weeks they put the young Jedi through vigorous and sometimes deadly training exercises, breaking their spirits, morale, and bodies.
Their search leads them to Tamith Kai’s home planet of Dathomir, where the Nightsisters and the Singing Mountain clan, old enemies and friends of Luke and Han, reside.
As Luke and Tenel Ka approach the now uncloaked space station, they take over the ship and fly it into the academy to rescue their friends.
To escape, Jacen uses the Corusca gem that was hidden in his shoe to cut through his cell to the door controls, and then frees his twin sister and Lowie shortly afterwards.
Luke and Brakiss exchange a few unpleasant words, while Tamith Kai and Tenel Ka thicken their rivalry with talk of doing battle.
As it turns out, they would not have escaped if it weren't for the help of their old nemesis, the imperial pilot Qorl... During a break from their training at the Jedi Academy, Jacen and Jaina Solo are reunited with their friend Zekk, an orphan and junk collector who lives in the shadowy lower levels of Coruscant.
Tamith Kai was serving the Shadow Academy, which had previously kidnapped Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca and tried to brainwash them into Dark Jedi.
Tenel Ka, a friend of Jacen and Jaina Solo, crafts her handle out of a tooth, but she is in a hurry and doesn't concentrate on making her blade of good quality.
However, the Dark Jedi Zekk has been assigned to lead a raid on the Wookiee city of Thikkiiana, a major exporter of computer technology.
The story begins with an Imperial scout trooper disabling the shield generator of the Jedi Academy, leaving a Yavin 4 moon open for a swift attack.
In the end, Zekk saves the Jedi by stopping them from returning to the Academy, which is destroyed by a bomb placed in the main audience chamber.
But as the Jedi's re-enforcements arrive — in the form of Lando Calrissian and his GemDiver Station—the Emperor panics and engages the Shadow Academy's self-destruct.
Following the defeat of the Second Imperium, Jacen and Jaina travel to the Alderaan system to retrieve a shard from the planet's core.
Having been convinced by his friend Raaba that Humans had never atoned for the atrocities committed against aliens under the Empire, the Wookiee Lowbacca goes to Ryloth to join the anti-Human Diversity Alliance.
Meanwhile, on Ryloth, the evil Twi'lek Diversity Alliance leader, Nolaa Tarkona, had paid Boba Fett for the info he had sliced out of Bornan's ship.
Nolaa and guards are already on the asteroid while Lowie's close friend and Diversity Alliance member Raaba leads the armada against the New Republic.
The Diversity Alliance is defeated and the young Jedi Knights return to Yavin 4 after healing on Coruscant for a celebration on the jungle moon.
When he and the twins take the Millennium Falcon to Ord Mantell for a high-speed race, they meet a battle-hungry young woman wielding a light saber.