Vestera Khai


 * "I never had to lay a hand on you for punishment, child. You have always excelled. You are driven by the dark side to achieve…to rise."
 * ―Gavar Khai, to his daughter[src]

Vestara Khai, also known by her alias Savara Raine, was a Force-sensitive female Human born to Sith Saber Gavar Khai and his wife, Lahka, on the planet Kesh in 27.5 ABY. She became a Tyro in the planet's Sith Tribe in 37.5 ABY, and after being contacted by the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship in 41 ABY she was apprenticed to Lady Olaris Rhea. Ship helped the Tribe travel offworld and form a new fleet, but in 43.5 ABY Ship deserted Kesh, following the call of the dark side entity Abeloth. Vestara was a member of the strike team sent to recover Ship and kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker, but the Sith were defeated by Skywalker and his son, Ben. The team's sole survivor, Vestara fled to the planet Dathomir, where she sent a message to her Tribe and lived under the protection of the Dathomiri Witches. The Skywalkers found and eventually captured her, but they were then confronted by a Sith fleet led by High Lord Sarasu Taalon.

Taalon forced the Jedi to accept an alliance to confront Abeloth—who had proven to be a danger to the Sith, and who was causing a psychosis among the Jedi Order's Knights—with the stipulation that Vestara remained aboard the Skywalkers' ship. During the mission, Vestara and Ben began to develop feelings for each other, and she was instructed by her father to use them to her advantage against the Jedi. On Abeloth's planet, the Sith betrayed the Jedi, but Luke defeated Abeloth. The Khais, the Skywalkers, and Taalon repaired their alliance and remained behind to investigate more into Abeloth, but after discovering that the entity had survived, the alliance again fell apart. Gavar and Taalon sent Vestara to travel with and spy on the Jedi, and they tracked Abeloth to the moon Pydyr. A contingent of Sith soon arrived, and upon finding Abeloth, Taalon—who had begun to turn into the same kind of entity—opened battle on the Jedi.

The Sith and Abeloth incapacitated the Jedi, but Vestara killed Taalon to prevent his transformation. Abeloth then escaped, and Vestara fled with the Jedi, as the Sith suspected her of betrayal. She and the Skywalkers then located Abeloth on the world Nam Chorios, and Vestara secretly informed her father of their location. However, Abeloth survived the assault and Vestara again assisted the Jedi in escaping from her Tribe. As the hunt for Abeloth continued, Vestara, the Skywalkers, and Jedi Knight Jaina Solo dueled a group of Sith, and Vestara was forced to kill her father. She finally decided to turn her back on the dark side and train as a Jedi, and she and Ben began a relationship. They soon embarked on a mission to hunt down Abeloth and Ship, but Vestara killed Jedi Knight Natua Wan in order to save Ben from a deadly insect that was determined to feed on him. The Jedi were forced to flee the world, and due to her actions, Vestara came to the conclusion that she would never be able to follow the Jedi path.

Vestara nevertheless remained with the Jedi for their mission to eliminate the Sith on the planet Coruscant. She hoped to ensure the destruction of the Tribe's High Lords, who were duty-bound to kill her for Taalon's murder. However, during the mission she was separated from the Jedi, and she was forced to reveal the identity of a prophesied Jedi queen—the Skywalkers' relative, Allana Solo—in order to convince her Tribe that her loyalties remained with them. She was made a Sith Saber, and then forced to open an attack on Solo. Soon afterward, Abeloth captured Vestara and Ben Skywalker in Ship. Abeloth attempted to convince them to join her in forming a new family of the Ones—the powerful deities of whom Abeloth was the last surviving member, but they killed Abeloth while her other manifestations were defeated, resulting in her destruction. Knowing Ben would not forgive her betrayal of Solo, Vestara fled in Ship, who promoted her to Sith Lady and took her to join another faction of Sith.

However, by 45 ABY, Vestara was in the employ of the Columi brothers, Craitheus and Marvid Qreph, who hired her to access a monolith in the Chiloon Rift. Using her Force powers, she was able to open a space–time-warping gate, granting access to the monolith. Upon entering the monolith, non Force-sensitive individuals could be granted access to the Force, a power which the Qreph brothers greatly desired. However, in Vestara's tests of the monolith's powers, their test subject had also become insane, forcing the Qrephs to prolong entering the monolith until they understood it better. In attempting to prevent anyone else from discovering the monolith, Vestara and the Qreph brothers drove competing interests out of the Chiloon Rift, but their efforts caused them to come into conflict with the Jedi. The Jedi, led by Ben Skywalker, attacked the Qrephs' base on the monolith, discovering that Vestara was working for the Qrephs. During the assault, Vestara was betrayed by her employers and left for dead. However, she was able to convince the Mandalorian, Mirta Gev, who was also working for the Qrephs, to join her, and the two women escaped from the monolith in Ship.