The land sped by quickly. As the lone shape in the barren desert zoomed forward, the whiz of air beca-me tremendous. The thrill...was exhilarating. Beggar's Canyon was a very dangerous place for rookies to pil-ot in. The Eye of the Needle was coming up fast...Would the swoop be able to "thread it"? It made it--but ju-st barely. A rock brushed the young pilot's sleeve, tearing it slightly, and Luke grinned like a successful sp-ace pirate, despite the close call. He watched the canyons fly by, reveling in the speed of it. Windy had fina-lly acquired the swoop that he'd claimed for years he would get, and of course Luke had to borrow it. Windy didn't want to let him, arguing that Luke was only 13 (in Standard Galatic Years), and would probably dama-ge it. It took Luke a long time to convince him he wouldn't wreck it. Of course, Luke thought, amused, just watch me crash and burn it...But Luke brushed that thought away, since it wouldn't help to think negative when he was already pushing for the positive. {Or something like that...}

Luke curved around a sharp turn, roughly. Man, he thought to himself, that was a real close call...Luke shunned away that thought, too. "Wahoo!" Luke yelled, his adrenaline flowing. Dust flew up all around the swoop, enveloping it. If Windy knew how fast this thing was going, he'd kill me! Luke smiled with that thought, imagining the expression on his friend's face. He was so caught up in his musings that he almost didn't notice the canyon wall coming right up at him. Luke swerved at the last instant, inwardly cursing his own foolishness.

Up ahead, in a little enclosure, there appeared to be a small, lithe form. Frowning, Luke slowed the vehicle down to a stop. He squinted, then got out and went over to see what, or who, it was. The shivering shape was curled up into a ball in the corner. He ducked under what passed for a ceiling, and wandered over to where the...creature was. He observed the form cautiously, then, not sensing danger, asked, "Who are you?"

The small robed figure looked up. Then the hood of the robe fell back a bit, and Luke noticed with shock: It's a little girl! Out here all alone in the desert? "G-get away from me!" she demanded, forcefully for someone in her current situation. "If you don't, you'll be sorry!" she spat, managing not to stammer.

Luke laughed, amused by this little girl's warning. "I'm not gonna hurt you." She didn't look convinced. "I don't bite." She didn't seem comforted by that either. "So, what's your name? Why are you here?" Luke asked.

"I can't tell you my name. But, I got lost in a sandstorm...and..." she stopped, and looked down at her feet.

After a moment's silence, Luke cleared his throat. "Do you need help finding your way back? You don't look like you're from around here..."

She hesitated, "Yes, could you help me?" She still wouldn't meet his gaze, but seemed more confident that Luke wouldn't harm her.

Luke studied her. She looked like she was around his age, give or take a little...and had alot of spunk, he added, amused. He finally decided, "Okay, I'll take you out a bit. But it's getting late, so I'll have to take you to Mos Eisley, or wherever you want to go that isn't too far."

She smiled slightly and looked up. She had a nice smile, Luke noted. There were a few strands of red hair peeking out from under her hood, and she had remarkably striking green eyes that seemed to be able to stare into his soul. Striking green eyes...Striking...green...eye---Luke bolted up in bed. {Use your little brains people...assuming Mother Nature equipped you all with one...I know she certainly wasn't that kind to me...I'm a blonde...Well, sorta...}

A dream.

It had happened in real life, actually. He'd snuck the girl into his house, and she had stayed part of the night, since it was growing dark. Then, during the middle of the night, he felt something brush against his cheek. He had started to swat at the annoyance, but an inner feeling told him to open his eyes, and when he did, he saw the young girl standing over him. Then, with a rustle, she just disappeared. He had thought at the time that her sudden disappearance was just a dream, but in the morning, the girl was really gone. But he hadn't wondered about it in a long time.

That's odd. Why did I never think about it until now? Luke shook his head, ignoring his subconscious, and tried to go back to sleep, but he kept tossing and turning, restlessly. Finally, he fell into a troubled sleep.

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Bbeepp tweet tootle dee? Luke shot up in bed, again. He glanced at his chrono, which read 0300. Artoo hooted again, this time more insistently.

"Artoo, it's too early in the morning..." Luke complained. He was about to say something else when he heard the sound of a blaster wine. "What the-?" Luke exclaimed, as he rolled off his bed onto the floor. He grabbed his lightsaber off the bedside table and started crawling towards the door. Luke used the Force to open it, and crawled outside. Artoo started following him, but he waved the little droid back.

Several white-armored Stormtroopers coming down the hall, shooting at what looked like very perturbed Security members. Luke went back into the room a bit to avoid getting hit, and used the Force again to call his blaster out from under the bed to his hand. He leaned on the door frame, still on the ground, and shot a few blasts at the "Stormies", as many Rebels jokingly called them {at least in my fanfic they do}, then ducked back into the apartment. He reluctantly got to his feet, switched his lightsaber on, and threw the blaster back into the bedroom. He stepped out into the hall, making sure to avoid the bolts from New Republic Security, and started reflecting the enemy's laser blasts back to the source.

The Stormtroopers saw him, and for some reason, slowed down their attack. The Imperials eventually started backing off, but they did so after Luke saw a seemingly high-ranking officer speaking at length into a comlink. Finally, all the Imperials were gone, and Luke wondered how they could sneak onto Coruscant, fool Security, and what in space they were after. Security must be real paranoid about this security breach, Luke thought. Then, the NRS (New Republic Security) came, along with the NRI (New Republic Intelligence), and asked him a few questions. After the interrogation, Luke went tiredly back to his room.

Luke drowsily answered Artoo's warbled questions, then collapsed on the bed, and fell instantly into a deep sleep, forgetting all about his dream...

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A large dark figure stood, cape billowing in the wind. A cloaked form walked up to him, and stood at attention. The taller one nodded, and the other talked in a low voice. "Things will fall into place, soon, my lord..." The large figure nodded again, and the smaller form seemed disconcerted at the sound that continuously rose and fell like a hollow wind...{Hint hint...}

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In the morning, Luke woke up to a pincer pulling at his skin. "Ow!" Luke exclaimed. "What is it this time Artoo?" He yawned and glanced at the chrono. "Blast! Why didn't you wake me up earlier? I was supposed to be at Leia's for lunch!" Artoo gave a long exasperated whistle that ended with a raspberry.

Luke rolled his eyes at the domed droid, and got dressed in a hurry. He rushed over to the Solo's apartment and rang the door chime. Leia opened the door and said, "Oh, Luke, hi. You're just in time." Luke was relieved that he wasn't late, and gave an inner sigh of relief. Han soon appeared at the door, by Leia's side.

"Yeah, well, I personally wouldn't mind being late for this particular meal, seeing as Leia actually cooked it hersel--" Han broke off as he was jabbed in the ribs with Leia's elbow. "Uh, I mean, Leia is a, umm, great cook." Han started muttering something about the injustices of wives dominating their husbands. {Sound familiar? Yay for the female gender! Hehehe...}

"Next time be more enthusiastic about it!" Leia commanded, elbowing Han again. Han gave her a blend of his "Hey, it's me!" look and his hurt look. {I'm sure alot of you Harrison Ford fans remember his "looks" very well...[Yes, there's a double meaning...]) Luke rolled his eyes. Leia looked over at Han sternly, though love clearly showed in her eyes.

They make a great couple, Luke thought. Their faces shined, full of joy, and making him feel almost envious of them. Although he was disappointed that his sister was constantly avoiding her Jedi training, Luke was happy for her. She shared something with Han that Luke would probably never share with someone. A Jedi feels no passion, he silently quoted. His thoughts flicked momentarily to Callista, the woman he had recently lost, then he shunned them away.

"I'm neglecting my duties as a hostess, Luke come on in," Leia gestured, practically pulling him in, while Han mouthed at Luke, "She is getting more demanding all the time!" Luke grinned back at him.

Everyone went and sat at the table where the plates were set out. 3-year old Jacen and Jaina, 2-year old Anakin, and Chewie were on one side, while Han, Leia, and Luke were on the other. (The children were in special hovering seats, that lifted them so they could reach the table.) Luke noticed an extra place, and queried, "What's the extra seat for?"

Leia smiled and answered, "I invited Mara over, too." Luke looked at her suspiciously, and reached out with the Force, touching her emotions, only able to sense that she was amused. Luke hmmed and looked down at his plate.

Han glanced beside him at his wife, and mouthed, "I don't think he buys it." Leia just rolled her eyes in reply.

"Mommy, daddy, want eat now!" declared Anakin. He pounded on the table with his little fists, his head barely above it, despite the fact that he was sitting in an elevated seat. Anakin got cranky when he was hungry, and looked defiant and stubborn.

"Us, too!" The twins, Jacen and Jaina, said simultaneously.

"We have to wait for-" Leia was interrupted by the door chime. "There she is." Leia got up and answered the door. Mara stood there, in her usual jumpsuit atire. Leia motioned her in, saying, "Come on in." Mara nodded minutely and stepped inside.

They went into the dining room and Mara started, seeing Luke there. Then she regained her poise, and sat where Leia directed her: next to Luke. Mara seethed with annoyance, and smiled unconvincingly at Leia, animosity showing in her eyes.

Leia pretended not to notice Mara's anger, and took the lids off the steaming dishes. The food looks edible, Han thought, humorously. He smiled with gratitude at his wife, despite his earlier complaints.

Leia poured the kids bantha milk, and the adults wine. Luke's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at Leia, to remind her that he didn't drink alcholic beverages anymore, not since his younger naive years. Leia feigned confusement, and Luke reached out to her through the Force. You need to live a little, Leia sent.

You call this 'living a little'? came Luke's exasperated reply.

As a matter of fact, I do. In fact, you need to get a life. While I don't want you as bad as Han, Leia thought, amused, you need to act more like "one of the guys". How else do you plan on getting married and carrying on the Skywalker name with Jedi children? Leia sent.

Luke was too shocked to send a reply. The kids were already digging into their food, and Han and Mara both had their eyebrows up, and were giving Luke and Leia weird looks. The food got passed around the table and the adults started eating.

The way Chewie scarfed everything down, you would think he hadn't ate anything for days. Han snickered, and muttered something to him about table manners. Chewie snarled a very indignant reply and Han backed off.

After that, things were quiet, and the only sounds were silverware banging against the plates...and Chewbacca chowing down. Leia looked up at everyone's solemn faces, and decided to start small talk. "So Mara, what have you been doing lately?"

Mara's head came up quickly. She finished chewing, and replied, "Oh, the usual. Just doing Karrde's bidding..." Mara trailed off. She wasn't feeling very talkative, and didn't know how in space she had let herself be persuaded to come to this meal. Organa must be working on her diplomatic skills.

Leia, seeing her first attempt fail, decided to try Luke. "Luke, I heard you had a little incident outside your quarters last night." Leia looked at Luke.

Luke hesitated, "Yeah, Imperials snuck into the building somehow. Intelligence tell you much about it?" He glanced at Leia.

Leia shook her head, "Nope, the NRI can't seem to figure out what their objective is...However, they assume it's something that has to do with you, since they were close to your quarters when they attacked..." Leia trailed off.

Luke seemed to digest that, "Imperials. All they ever wanna do is bug me...or kill me," Luke said, glancing jokingly at Mara, the woman who had indeed threatened to kill him numerous times, and she shot back a look full of venom.

"I think there is something else they weren't telling me...Maybe it has something to do with your Jedi...skills..." Leia said, ignoring Mara.

With the mere mention of Jedi, Luke felt sick. It had been only a few days since Callista had left him...But the pain was still as sharp as it was then. They had been a perfect couple...if only she'd been able to get her Force powers back...It was all his fault. He intimidated her...if only he had-

Leia cut into his thoughts, "Luke, come on. She's gone..." Mara and Han looked questioningly at the two, wondering what in space they were talking about. Then, Han caught on, and, with a knowing look, went back to eating. Mara lifted an eyebrow, then copied Han with a snort.

Anakin, finished with his lunch, ran over to Chewbacca as fast as his short legs would carry him and hopped in his lap. Chewie was done too, so he swung a giggling Anakin up into the air, then onto his shoulders, grabbed their dirty plates, and went in the kitchen. After putting their plates up, with Jacen and Jaina following closely after, they went into the playroom.

Mara glanced at Luke, then Leia. "What happened? Did I miss something?" Mara asked.

Leia mouthed "Callista", and Luke looked sharply at her. Mara looked away from Leia, her face full of scorn.

"Face it Skywalker, she chickened out of any relationship you two might have had. She never was more than the daughter of a ban-" Mara was interrupted by Luke, who angrily stood up.

"How would you know? You never knew her well, or even attempted to. She was a great woman! At least she was kind, which is more than you can say!" Luke yelled, blood boiling.

Chewie popped his head in, then thought better of it and stuck it back out. Luke was about to say something else extremely vulgar when Leia cut in.

"Luke, it's okay. She's gone. You're right: Mara didn't know her well, and can't form a real opinion, so calm down!" Leia ordered, throwing a glare that could melt durasteel to Mara, who seemed unintimidated.

Luke took a few deep breaths. "Mara, I am sorry for losing my temper..." he trailed off, and looked expectantly at Mara.

Mara muttered something unintelligably about men and their mourning periods, then growled, "Sorry for upsetting you."

Luke nodded, then settled back into his thoughts, still mourning his loss. "But, she is not sorry for mentioning, in her own way-" Leia glanced at Mara, "that you should get over Callista." Luke looked up, startled at his sister's statement. "She was a great person," Leia said quietly. "But...you need to get on to bigger and better things. You can't let a tragedy ruin your life."

Luke considered his reply, then, "But--" Leia wouldn't let him finish.

"No but's about it. Now...Han and I--", she elbowed Han sharply, "have to go and check on something in the kitchen. Right, Han?" Leia glared at Han.

"Ow, oh, yeah! The uh, kitchen droid has been um, acting up." Han lied unconvincingly, then rushed into the kitchen with Leia, leaving Mara and Luke alone.

They both stared at their plates, unsure of what to say. Luke glanced up, and decided to attempt conversation, to make up for his sister's rare failure. "When did you arrive on Coruscant?" He looked at her face, waiting for a reply.

Mara paused, "A few weeks ago." She shot Luke a look that said to remain silent.

Luke pretended he didn't see it and continued on, "So why are you on Coruscant? And why didn't you drop in or say anything?" He steadily met her gaze.

"Is that any of your business?" Mara snarled. She looked at the expression on his face and sighed. "I'm here for...business-related reasons..."

"Oh really? Smuggling something or another for Karrde?" Luke said, looking exasperated. "Transporting some black-market spice?"

"For your information...I am...negotiating with some...future business prospects," Mara finished, feeling a bit lame.

"Are these so-called future business prospects spice dealers?" Luke demanded. Mara didn't answer him. "Are they?" Luke looked at her, angry. After glancing at her face, his anger faded away like leaves in the breeze.

It was at that moment that Leia came in the room, her face white, as if she had seen a ghost. "Luke...C-could you come here for a minute?"

Luke froze: he had a bad feeling about this. He got up, muttered "Excuse me," and went in the other room with Leia and Han. "What is it?!" Luke asked, afraid of the reply.

Leia bit at her lip, then said, "You better sit down." As soon as Luke was seated, she began. "The Jedi Academy...it, it was attacked." She looked at Luke's expressionless face, then continued. "They are sending a droid over here to report the casualties..." Then, on cue, the doorbell rang. Leia got up and let the droid in, it followed her back to Han and Luke.

"Requesting password and voice analyzation," the droid said, in monotone.

Leia licked her lips, "Blue dewbacks and black gornts are not party animals." Luke and Han looked at her quizzically, and she shrugged. "The twins came up with that one."

"Password and voice analyzation complete." The droid droned.

The droid started on with the casualties, and Luke listened, sickened. Jantuan was dead. Trinuth was near death. Luke sat back, and squeezed his eyes shut, a small part of his brain wondering why he hadn't felt their deaths, through the Force. Leia looked at him, sadly. She wasn't very close to most of them, but some were her friends. The list seemed to go on and on. Kirana Ti was in a coma. Kam Solusar had a concussion, and was in no condition to talk. Tionne was also in bad condition, but might be able to speak soon. Kyp...was dead. Luke had listened with horror when all the names were read, but this one was among the worst...Han must hurt terribly as well at this one. Sure enough, through the Force, he could sense Han's stunned emotions, and, had Luke looked, he would have noticed that Han had a panicked look on his face.

"He--He was just a...just a...kid..." Han stammered out. "He was too young to, to die..." Han's eyes were pain-racked, and he strove to keep them from welling up with tears. Kyp had been his companion on a few adventures, and they had saved each other's necks as well.

"It's okay Han, shh," Leia said quietly, and enfolded him in her arms. She sent soothing thoughts through the Force to him, and glanced at Luke. His eyes were still tightly pressed together, and she could sense grief emanating from him through the Force. Then, the emotions were abruptly blocked off, as Luke sensed her attention towards him.

Luke stood up, eyes open, looking frantically around. He muttered, "Gone, all gone." Then, he himself was gone. Leia wasn't sure whether to chase after Luke, or to comfort Han. Mara chose that moment to walk into the room, as if on cue, and Leia felt a small amount of relief.

"What happened?" Mara asked, looking at Han and Leia, then around the room. "Where did Skywalker go?" she inquired, noticing that Luke was gone.

"The Academy...was...attacked, and Luke is taking it very hard. Do you think-" Leia glanced up hopefully at Mara "-you could go try to calm him down?"

Mara looked at Leia with a harsh reply on her lips, but the words died unsaid. "Okay, I'll go," she said with a sigh. Then with that, she too was gone. Leia watched her leave, worried, then went back to soothing Han.

Mara reached out through the Force and sensed Luke's turmoil. She picked up her pace, and finally caught up with him in the halls. He was quietly wandering around, looking like he had somewhere he needed to be, though he it was likely that he didn't actually have a specific destination. Mara put her arm on his and tugged slightly. Luke jerked his arm away from her and stopped walking, glaring at her, his eyes full of a mixture of hate, pain, fear, sadness...and other emotions.

Luke trembled, then started moving swiftly away from her. "I don't think so, Skywalker. Get back here, now!" she yelled after him, noting with satisfaction that he halted, although he didn't come towards her. She went up to him, and with an angry jut in her lip asked, "Where do you think you're going?!"

Luke just looked at her blankly. "Well? I asked you a question!" Mara demanded.

"I...was going...to the...spaceport...I was going to fly my X-wing." Luke finished, inwardly startled that that was where he really did want to go.

"Were you just going to fly your troubles away? Do you actually think that would help?" Mara said, with disgust. "When something bad happens, talk to someone about it. Keeping everything inside won't help you!" Mara realized then that this was advice she too should listen to.

"So many...dead. I was close to several...trained them...all were like family...They're dead, not just gone, dead. Some aren't, but they are mortally wounded...My life..." Luke trailed off, then questioned her, "Why didn't I feel their deaths?"

"Yes, they are gone, and are not coming back. They were an important part of your life, and you need to cope with their...departure. Mourning the loss of friends is honorable, but not at the expense of the present..." Mara told him, finding it a little strange that no one had felt their deaths, but she didn't want to dwell on that now.

Luke heard from her words he had said to himself before with other tragic deaths...his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru...Biggs...Obi-Wan...Yoda...Darth Vader, no, Anakin Skywalker, he inwardly reminded himself. There were other deaths too, many more from Rogue Squadron. He tightly closed his eyes, leaned back against the wall, and slowly slid down into a seated position. Luke pulled his knees up and rested his head on them. He finally looked up with pain-filled eyes, "I've been through so much-" Luke's voice broke.

Mara went over and sat down beside him. A Duro passed by them in the hall, glanced at them, then continued on to its destination. "You do realize that crying about it won't help anything, farmboy."

"I know sympathy isn't your strong point, but you can't even do a good impression," he said, almost begging her.

Luke fought against the tears at first, then did what he had wanted to since his aunt and uncle died. Sobs shook his body, as his sorrow came pouring out. Mara just sat there, unsure of what she should do. "Well, one thing you could do is go away and save us all the trouble," he commented.

Mara just looked at him, seeming a bit miffed that he had read her thoughts.

Finally, with a last sniff, Luke said, "Now, I-", he hiccoughed, looking sheepish, then continued, "-am going to go to the hangar now..." He stood up, mumbled a goodbye to Mara, and went down the corridor, leaving Mara behind, staring at his back, murmering something about a lonesome farmboy/Jedi Master.

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Luke went to the hangar bay, and was curious when he found several techs by his X-wing. When he saw they were arguing with Artoo, he laughed, momentarily forgetting the current events. A Verpine technician came up to Luke and said, "Sir, we were trying to make some modifications to your X-wing, but this little droid would not have it." He gestured to Artoo.

Luke looked sternly at the R2 unit, "What are you doing bossing them around?" Artoo tootled a reply. "Right, they were making modifications..." Artoo gurgled something else. "Oh? So the shields were boosted up...That's a bad thing?" Artoo twittered exasperatedly. "Ooh..." Luke looked sharply at the nearest technician. "Were you boosting the shields at the expense of losing 15% of the speed?"

"Yes, we were sir, we thought the extra shield power would be good in a battle," the technician said, looking at bit afraid, Imperial propaganda about Jedi coming to mind.

"Have you ever fought against a TIE fighter Mr--?" Luke asked.

"Jantah. Fernd Jantah," the technician supplied.

"Okay, Mr. Jantah, have you ever been in an X-wing, in a dogfight against a TIE fighter?" Luke asked, looking at Jantah.

"Umm, no sir..." he answered.

"Well, then imagine this: You are in an X-wing, heavily shielded. You start shooting at a TIE fighter, and the TIE jukes out of the way. You head after the TIE, and keep shooting, but the TIE, which is much faster than you, due to the fact that your ship just got a modification that took alot of your speed away, comes around and maneuvers into a good position, behind you, blasting away at your shields. If you were too slow to move away from the TIE's fire, would the extra shield power actually help much? It might keep you alive for a little while longer, but the inevitable would happen anyway: your death. So, isn't it better to have everything equaled out, rather than concentrated on one area?" Luke finished. Fernd remained silent. "Well?"

"You're right sir," Fernd motioned a astromech droid over. It beeped an inquiry, and Jantah answered, "Could you give Mr. Skywalker a list of possible upgrades, showing good and bad consequences, in case he should change his mind?" The droid hooted an affirmative, and popped out a small datadisk. It extended its pincer-claw with the disk gripped in it. Fernd took it, and handed it to Luke. "We hadn't yet made the modifications, thanks to your droid. Oh, and another thing, don't you wish to get a new astromech droid? That one is outdated and we have-"

"Artoo? No way! We have been through a lot together," Luke cut in, grinning at an indignant Artoo and feeling a sense of deja vu.

"Sorry, just a suggestion, sir."

"Thank you, I will look over this." He tapped the disk. "Is that all for now?" Luke asked.

"Umm, yessir," a different technician replied, motioning for the others to follow. They all moved on to other business, Jantah giving Luke a last ambivalent look, full of awe, and a touch of annoyance that a pilot would dare to give him orders. Luke turned back to Artoo and his X-wing, shaking his head and grinning, exasperated.

Luke sighed. "Wanna go for a ride?" Artoo beeped an excited confirmation. Luke climbed up the rope ladder, and donned his helmet. He shut the hatch, and ran a quick maintenence check. "Everything okay back there Artoo?" Artoo, who had just been lowered by a crane into his socket, warbled an affirmative. Luke got clearance to get out of the hangar, and brought his X-wing out into Coruscant's atmosphere. The X-wing went through many seemingly impossible flips and other maneuvers, as Luke released some of his access energy and frustration into flying. He had done just such a difficult flip when an unidentified blip popped up on his scopes.

"Hey Luke, thought I'd drop by," came a voice on Luke's comm unit.

"Wedge!" Luke exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was going out for target practice." Wedge said innocently. "Would you like to join me?"

"Uh huh." Luke glanced at Wedge's X-wing suspiciously. "Oh, all right. So where are the targets set up?"

"Out a few klicks from Coruscant's atmosphere." Wedge answered.

"Okay. You lead the way." Wedge's X-wing started moving away from the planet, and Luke followed him. "Are we gonna just hit targets? Or are we going to engage in a dogfight, too?" Luke queried.

"Well, you are a bit rusty...How about targets first, then a dogfight?"

"Me? Rusty? Yeah, right...You're on!"

"Alright. Targets are set up on the coordinates I'm gonna send you."

Luke's X-wing beeped, "Got 'em. You go in first, General." Luke taunted.

"Okay, Commander." Wedge replied.

Luke made a face at the use of his resigned title. He turned around in his not-quite-so-spacious X-wing. "Everything okay back there, Artoo?" Artoo whistled back. Luke looked at the translation: Of course everything's okay, what do you expect with such a good droid like me? "Well, you were being awfully quiet. And what do you mean good droid? I remember a certain little droid defying its master and-" Artoo beeped harshly. I saved you didn't I? scrolled across the screen. "Yeah, but that's besides the point-"

"Luke are you there?" Wedge's voice came over the com.

"Yeah, sorry, having a little argument with my astromech." Luke replied.

"Uh huh. Well, prepare to watch me blow these targets out of the sky. Come line up with me," Wedge ordered.

Luke complied, bringing his X-wing in line. "All right Luke. Now get ready, on my mark, three...two...one...mark." The X-wings speeded towards the targets, blasting away with their low-powered beams. Finally, they called it quits, and tallied up the scores. Luke had one point more than Wedge. "Hey, Luke, I was being easy on you." Wedge said, smiling inside his X-wing. Gate, his R5 astromech unit, buzzed quietly, amused.

"That's not what I recall you saying, I remember hearing that I was rusty and that you would blow the targets out of the sky..." Luke grinned.

"I changed my mind."

"Right," Luke said, sarcastically. "Ready to dogfight?"

"You better believe it." Wedge looked at his sensors. "Tell me when you're ready."

Artoo bleeped that everything was go. "Okay Wedge, prepare to be defeated."

"No, I think it is vice versa. May the Force be with you, because you are defintely going to need it!" Wedge's X-wing twisted around to face Luke's.

At the mention of the Force, Luke's gut lurched. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind. "No, I think that is vice versa!"

Luke brought the joystick up between his knees, and brought his X-wing straight up, the gravity force pushing down on him. Wedge tried to follow his maneuver, and Luke curved downward, heading straight towards Wedge, "lasers" blasting away at his shields. Wedge sustained a little simulated damage according to Gate, and he curved out of their head-on collision. "Ya gettin' scared Wedge?" Luke asked him, grinning inside his cockpit, as he brought his X-wing "level".

"Nah." Wedge replied. "I am just trying to give you a little bit of a chance!" Wedge turned solemn. "Hey Luke, I wanted to ask you a question..." He trailed off.

"Sure Wedge, what is it?" Luke asked, curious.

"You know that Bothan that died, Asyr Sei'lar, the one that was with Rogue Squadron?" Wedge asked.

"Yeah, I heard she died in that thing with the Isard clone..."

"Well, turns out she didn't die. She came back, and Gavin Darklighter," Wedge paused with that name, "-decided to retire, and they're settling down, and adopting some children. So...we have an open spot in Rogue Squadron for someone, and I was wondering if you might be interested?"

Luke thought for a moment. His responsibilities at the Academy were mostly void now, since there were few survivors...He winced, it would be pointless to try to rebuild until this threat was taken care of...So he might as well join the Rogues, maybe he would run into the person who had destroyed his academy, and killed and harmed several students..."Sure Wedge," Luke heard himself saying, "I'd love to."

Wedge reached a hand up to wipe his brow in relief, instead his hand met up with his helmet. Wedge grumbled some profanity, and said, "That's great, Luke! We have a mission coming up here pretty soon, with a few days before we have to do anything, so you can pack and say your temporary farewells."

"Okay...So who is in with the Rogues now-a-days?" Luke asked Wedge.

"Well, there is Nawara Ven, a Twi'lek, Inyri Forge, human, Ooryl Qyrgg, a Gand, Myn Donos, human, Corran Horn, I believe you remember him?" Wedge asked Luke, thinking back.

"Yes, I remember him well...vividly...He made me thankful Han doesn't have Jedi potential..." Luke said solemnly.

Wedge burst out laughing, "You got that right! Anyway, do you remember Tycho?"

"Yeah, I remember him very well." Luke remarked.

"There is also Hobbie...and Wes Janson." Wedge made a strangling noise in the back of his throat.

Luke laughed, "Has he gotten that bad?"

"Worse, much worse. Don't be surprised if you find anything like a stuffed toy Ewok floating around..." Wedge said, grinning.

"Ah...The brain of a two-year old, but somehow manages to be a genius at pranks still, huh?" Luke rolled his eyes.

"That would be putting it lightly...Anyway, he's a great shot with a blaster, which helps for ground missions...We also have M-r-t-h-y-w-x-q or something, but it isn't pronouncable in the human tongue, so we just call him Biggun...He is a Gry'k'th'anian, large for his species, but he's real small compared to human standards...but you know how nicknames go." Wedge sighed.

"Another member is St'noah'tla, she is an extremely small Togorian, which is good so she is able to fit into the X-wings, although barely. This last one is a new member, and Wes about laughed to himself death when he heard about this one, and I almost had a nerf. For some time, there has been a joke among the squadron that has to do with Lieutenant Kettch, a so-called Ewok who had prosthetics for his hand and feet, and was part of an experiment to make semi-intelligent creatures intelligent and human-like. So he could talk and understand Basic and stuff right? Well, I think Wes had a conspiracy going against us the whole time, because who should show up but such an Ewok? He was part of the same experiment that "Porkins" the Gamorrean was...He didn't have a name at the time, due to a touch of amnesia. So he was given the name Kettch, and Janson uses every opportunity to remind me that he was right all along. But he has not been made Lieutenant!" Wedge made another noise in his throat.

Luke laughed. "An Ewok in the Squadron? You do accept all sorts of critters don't you?"

"Yeah, well, knowing your luck with Ewoks, the furball will probably take up to you. Wasn't my fault he could pilot so good!" Wedge exclaimed.

"If you will recall, the last time I met Ewoks, they wanted to eat me for dinner." Luke said, laughing. Artoo warbled, sounding perturbed. "Hey Wedge, seems Artoo isn't too happy about having an Ewok in the Squadron..." Luke said, grinning.

"He's a good pilot..." Wedge tried to defend the little runt. Wedge looked at his wrist chrono. "Hey Luke, I have to go to a meeting. You know how busy us Generals are." Wedge laughed, "See ya later." His X-wing did a final loop to show off, then headed toward Coruscant's surface.

Luke grinned. He had probably better go back, too. "Artoo?" The droid hooted. "Let's head back." The droid bleeped an affirmative. Luke took his X-wing back down into the hangar. He climbed down the ladder's rungs, and used the Force to levitate Artoo out of the back of the fighter. Artoo was used to this, but nevertheless, a muted beep came from him. The little R2 unit wanted to be left behind with the X-wing, so Luke let him have his way. Luke headed back to his quarters and collapsed onto the couch. He told himself he would just rest there for a moment, but he dozed off, due to his previous restless night.

*****Luke was coming into one of the temples on Yavin 4. Earlier, he had sensed a dark presence in this temple, and even now saw a shadowy figure. It stepped out of the shadows, and Luke saw that it was a caped figure...with a dark helmet on. The mechanical breathing of Darth Vader echoed in Luke's ears. Vader brought his lightsaber up and ignited it. Luke stared at the man in shock. He had thought he'd died long ago. Luke swiftly brought his own saber out, adding some green to the dim red light in the room. They locked sabers, slashing and parrying with one another. Vader's saber slipped past Luke's defenses, cutting off a piece of his sleeve, and burning some of the skin underneath. There was a sizzling noise and Luke cried out in pain-

*****and woke up. Luke was sweating heavily, and the arm of the couch where his head was resting was a little bit damp from his perspiration. Luke gasped for air, and touched the part of his arm that had been burned in his dream. There was a slight red mark there, but Luke just put it off to banging it against the couch. No, Darth Vader was dead. He wiped a hand over his brow. It came back wet, and he sighed, then went into the 'fresher to take a shower.

Luke shed his clothes and turned the water on hot. It felt great against his skin. He got out reluctantly, and put on his robe. His chrono said that it was late, but Luke didn't feel like sleeping. He went into his kitchenette and fixed a cup of hot chocolate. He sipped it and went out on the balcony. Leia always got him a room with a great view when he visited Coruscant. He looked out over the city at the lights that were blinking, brilliantly. Coruscant was always active, even at night.

Luke took a deep breath, then let it out. He finished off his hot chocolate. He could use guidance right now. Getting back in with Rogue Squadron felt right, but was that what he really needed to be doing? Should he be searching directly instead of indirectly for whoever had destroyed his Jedi Praxeum? Were these dreams he'd been having an important link of some kind? Luke rarely had dreams anymore. He groaned. His life had been harder than most average creatures. He had met up with many deaths, and had seen much in his 23 years. Yes, he was still young, but he felt too old. Depression nearly began to overwhelm him.

"Luke, you have led a troubled life, and will continue to lead one, filled with danger." Luke looked up quickly and saw the shimmering spirit-form of Obi-Wan Kenobi. "I wish I could take away that danger, but it is a matter I am not capable of. Thus I must only instruct you, and even then, only a little. I am giving you another option that you can make. You may continue with Rogue Squadron, or you may go to Dagobah, for you will find something there."

"What will I find there?" Luke asked.

Obi-Wan seemed to not be able to hear his inquiry. "This is your path, you must choose. You have a short amount of time to think about it. Use this time wisely. I must go, I should not have appeared to you even now..." Obi-Wan slowly began to fade away. "May the Force be with you...Always."

"Ben wait! Don't go!" Luke said, frantically. He didn't want to lose him again! But it was too late, the spirit was gone. "More decisions...More decisions..." Luke mumbled almost deliriously. He put his mug up and walked, zombie-like, into his bedroom. He collapsed on his bed, and fell asleep, still thinking about the future, and his "other option".

Chapter II

Beeeeeepp came a loud warble from the back of the room. Luke nearly jumped out of his skin. He glanced over at Artoo, who gave another beep, this time sounding sheepish at his master's startlement. "Artoo, don't do that!" Luke exclaimed. "You scared me out of my wits!" Artoo just gave a blunt blat and rolled forward towards the bed. "Okay, I'm getting ready!" Luke said. Sheesh.

He went to his closet, and grabbed one of his normal plain black outfits. He went into the refresher and changed, then came back out. Artoo whistled at him to hurry up, Wedge had just called. Luke sighed, "Artoo...Something else has come up. I...well, just tell him that I have other urgent matters to attend to, but nothing extremely serious." Artoo tootled an inquiry. "I'll tell you on the way there. I am gonna go say good-bye to Leia, so she won't have a nerf, and I have to pack." Artoo hummed an okay and headed over to the comm station. Luke gathered together what he would need for a hopefully not-too-lengthy trip. He set the bag over by Artoo to take to his X-wing

Luke headed over to Leia's apartment, and rang the door chime. Chewbacca opened the door, and roared his hello. Luke laughed and said, "Hey, Chewie. Are Han and Leia in?" Chewie growled an affirmative, and Luke stepped inside. The hairy Wookiee led Luke to the living room.

Han came in, rubbing a towel over his wet head, saying, "Chewie who was at the-" Han took the towel off his head, noticing Luke. "Hey, kid!" He exclaimed. "Heard you were gonna be rejoining the Rogues," Han said, grinning.

Luke winced. "Yeah well there were some complications, and I have to decline Wedge's invitation. I gotta make a little trip..." he trailed off.

"Oh?" Han raised an eyebrow. "Any reason I should know about?"

Luke shook his head quickly. "It isn't a biggie, just something I have to do."

"Now, kid, if this has to do with Callis-"

"No!" Luke quickly put in. "It doesn't." He bit his lip and looked at the floor.

Leia walked in the door saying, "Han where did you put--" She noticed Luke. "Oh, hey Luke." Leia looked at their faces. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing important Leia," Luke said. "I was just telling Han I have to go on a little trip, and won't be able to rejoin the Rogues at the moment."

"Luke, where are you going?" Leia asked, worried.

"It isn't important..." Luke looked at his watch chrono. "I had better be on my way." He gave a slightly confused Leia a hug, and a soft kiss on the cheek. Luke looked over at Han.

"Luke," Han gave him a hard stare. "Can't you tell us where you are going? What if you get in danger, like you always do when you go off by yourself-" Han gave a slight grin, "-and we have to come rescue you? That provides complications you know..."

Luke sighed, giving in, "I'm going to Dagobah to check something out."

"Oh?" Leia raised an eyebrow.

Luke looked at hi sister sheepishly, "I am not quite sure what I will find...But it won't be dangerous." He gave her a pleading stare, and this time she sighed, and gave him the "victory".

"Good luck, kid," Han said, embracing Luke.

Chewie roared, and got his own hug in. Luke made a little gasping noise as Chewie squeezed his ribs too hard. Chewie rumbled an apology, his hand scruffing Luke's hair up a bit. Luke grinned, and patted the huge Wookie's chest. "It isn't like I am going to be gone for too long. I'll be back soon," Luke told them, running his hand through his ruffled hair.

"Yeah, but everytime we let you run off by yourself you manage to get yourself in trouble," Han remarked.

"Han, I am a mature adult. You do not need to worry about me!" Luke exclaimed.

"Yeah. Sure."

Luke's X-wing cleared atmosphere, and blasted off into hyperspace. Luke leaned back against his seat. Artoo inquired once again about their destination, this time asking why they had to go back there, of all places. "I saw Ben...in a vision. He told me it might be better for me to go back, that something was waiting for me there. I can always go back with the Rogues, but this choice may not present itself again. Looks like we just have to wait and find out what is there..." Artoo bleeped something about taking advice from the deceased, and of all things, a ghost. Luke just smiled and leaned further back, closing his eyes.

Artoo hooted at Luke to wake up. Luke mumbled, and wiped the sleep from his eyes. Then he pulled the hyperspace lever, and they jumped back into realspace. The swampy world of Dagobah hung before them. Luke brought the X-wing closer, into the atmosphere, hoping that it didn't crash like it did the first time he came here. His worries turned out to be pointless, since his landing was smooth, and on land, or what passed for land on this forsaken planet.

Luke took off his helmet, and brushed his hair back. Then he pushed up on the cockpit's roof, and hopped out, using the Force to cushion his landing. Artoo warbled at Luke and started to get out of his socket. Artoo was frozen to the spot though, due to the Force, since Luke was not quite ready for him to get out yet. "Stay here, Artoo. I'm going to go look around." Artoo gave an electronic raspberry, but stayed put, though it wasn't like he had any choice.

The X-wing's lights penetrated through the foggy darkness. Something seemed to offer a suggestion to him, so Luke turned on his glowrod and headed towards Yoda's hut. He was expecting it to be utterly destroyed by the vegetation, as it was the last time when he had found the beckon call, and was surprised to find it intact. He was even more shocked when Yoda, complete with gimer stick, came out of his small home. Yoda pointed the stick at him, "Expecting you I was. Disappointed I was not."

"Y-Yoda. You were dead...I...I saw you die." Luke stammered out.

"A crutch for you, I was. Needed that, you did not." Yoda sighed, "For the best it was."

"The best? I needed guidance, and were you there? I needed to train more, I was not yet ready to face Vader, and-" Luke was interrupted by the wizened, little green Jedi Master.

"Strong you were. Confidence you needed. A crutch you did not. By your side to help was where you wanted me, but part of your destiny that was not. Had you known I was alive, your all you would not have given. The last hope you were, needed your full cooperation did I. Debate we can later, for the Jedi it is time to eat as well," Yoda informed him, with a croaky laugh. He headed back into his hut, muttering, "Good food, come come."

Luke groaned. He had another odd feeling of deja vu, but didn't know why it bugged him so. He grabbed his bag from his X-wing, then went over to the hut, and crouch-walked into it. Yoda was scurrying around, pots and pans clanging together, and something, Probably reptilian, Luke thought with disgust, was cooking. Luke sat down, watching the little green alien hustling around. Just then, a beautiful young girl crouch-walked in, also, saying, "Yoda have you seen my pittin-" she stopped as she noticed Luke. "Who are you? Yoda, what's he doing here?" She had long black hair, pulled up in a ponytail, and warm brown eyes that you could melt into, if she was happy. But those eyes were not looking too kindly upon Luke.

"Here for business, he is. Question you should not." Yoda informed her.

"Oh, that's just wonderful," the girl moaned. "It would be nice if you would tell me when we have company," she spat out.

Luke gave her an amused look. Then he looked over at Yoda. Who is she? And why is she so bitter? he inserted in Yoda's mind.

Tontay Novablast the reply came. Another student of mine. Her parents died long ago. Your age she is.

Luke looked at her, startled. She's older than she looks...Luke thought

Tontay gave him a look full of poisonous venom. "So what's your name? How do you know Yoda?" she inquired.

"I am Jedi Master" Luke stressed the syllables, "-Luke Skywalker."

The young lady gave him a dubious look. "You?! One of Yoda's students? Hah! I guess you can't judge a datacard by the box it comes in."

Luke had already had quite enough with this spirited and mean girl even though he had just spent a mere minute with her, and shot back a sarcastic reply of his own, "Well, one would think you would have realized that by now, considering that I thought Yoda had let a wild gornt in here when I first took a look at your face."

Tontay Novablast's jaw gaped open. It closed, then opened again, then closed, like a beached fish.

"Wow, you're actually shocked speechless. I wouldn't think it capable of one with your limited abilities," Luke growled, sarcastically.

"Anger leads to the Dark Side," Yoda inserted in the conversation. "Food is prepared."

Dinner was eaten in quiet, until Yoda chose to break the silence. "Much training she needs, help her you must. Old am I..."

Luke gave Yoda an 'I don't think so' look, which was copied by Tontay. "Why would I train that selfish little brat?!" Luke exclaimed.

Yoda gave Luke a serious look. You have taught many...But they were destroyed easily. Here you will have supervision, but a chance to start over as well Yoda inserted in Luke's mind. Luke gave Yoda a helpless look, and sighed. "All right. I will...But I think she's the one to talk to." He looked over at Novablast, who did not seem very happy.

"Does anyone ever ask what I wish?" Tontay snarled. "Do I get to voice what I want to do?"

Yoda gave her a stern look. She glared at him, but weakened under his gaze. "Early tomorrow morning you will start. For now, you must sleep."

Hearing someone mention sleep, Tontay's candy-pink pittin jumped out from under a shelf and jumped into Tontay's lap. She smiled, "Deedah!" She petted the creature that was curled up in her lap.

"Deedah? What a funny name..." Luke laughed.

Tontay glared at Luke and the pittin snarled at him. She laughed at the pittin, and gave Luke a look. "Where is he going to sleep?" Tontay demanded, throwing another harsh glance in Luke's general direction.

Yoda hesitated, "Sleeping in his X-wing would not do. Crowded it is. Share your cot you must."

Tontay's eyes grew as wide as a Death Star. "No way. He can sleep on the floor."

Yoda shook his head, "Ache his back would in the morning, do that would not."

"But he is not going to sleep in the same bed as me!" Tontay Novablast looked apalled. "My image-"

"Image. Heh. What image? Few people do you know. Tell them anyway you would not," Yoda offered back, glancing at the silent Luke, who was still trying to recover from the shock from Yoda's outrageous "proposition".

"Well, I wouldn't ever be able to live with myself..." Tontay gave Yoda a helpless look.

"Share the bed you will, or sleep on the floor you shall," Yoda declared.

Skywalker and Novablast looked at each other with disgust, and the pittin made a weird noise. "Well, I'm not sleeping on the floor!" Luke stated, glancing at the furred animal, oddly.

"Don't expect me to! Oh, why can't you sleep in your dumb old X-wing anyway?" a mortified Tontay asked.

"Would you want to sleep in a cramped X-wing?" Luke asked, annoyed.

"Do I have to answer truthfully?"

"In the bed, will you both sleep?" Yoda cut in.

Luke made an exasperated noise, and Tontay bit her lip. "Fine, Yoda. Have it your way. We will share the cot." Tontay said.

"Good. Rest you need. Sleep you will now." Yoda headed off to his own small cot, leaving them alone.

"All right. I want you to get one thing straight: NO funny business!" Tontay ordered Luke.

Luke mumbled something unintelligable, and Tontay looked at him sharply. "Funny business with you is the last thing I want," he reassured her. Man, isn't that true...he thought.

Tontay sighed huffily, put Deedah on the floor, then crouch-walked to her room, the pittin following with a flick of her dark fluffy tail. Luke followed and glanced at their bed. The cot looked awfully small...Tontay took on a business-like tone, "You will stay on your side of the bed. I get the side opposite the wall, just don't go trying to push me off during the middle of the night. Clear?"

"As crystal," Luke answered. Under his breath he mumbled, "With mud splattered all over it."

Tontay gave him a sharp look. "I'm going in the other room to change into my nightclothes. You can change in here," Tontay stated, then grabbed some clothes and briskly went into the other room.

Luke was about to say something when his bag was thrown in the room. "Thanks," he muttered. He quickly changed into a sleeping shirt and pants. Tontay came into the room, wrapped in a robe. Luke lifted an eyebrow.

Tontay looked down at the ground. "I-I..." She looked up sharply. "Get in bed please," she said, in a voice that left no room for argument.

Luke rolled his eyes, and got on his side of the bed. Tontay studied him for a moment. "Well? What is it?"

"Nothing." She gingerly got into the bed, carefully staying on her half. Tontay shifted uncomfortably.

Luke looked over at her, amused. "I don't bite."

Tontay twisted her head sharply. "I know. But men always seem to take advantage of women," she responded.

Luke gave her a doubtful, exasperated look. "Uh huh. And just how many men have you seen in your lifetime?"

Tontay didn't meet his gaze. "I've read alot of stories about men.They always talk about it..."

"Life isn't just some big holo-story is it? I bet all the stuff those stories have about Jedi Knights is bluther about tall monstrous creatures without mercy an ounce of mercy in them. But here we have little Yoda, a Jedi Master, quite an opposite of the holo-stories." Skywalker grinned at her.

"Well, I can't argue with that..."

"Good."

"I hate it when you are right."

"When was I ever wrong?"

Tontay snarled, "Well, you may have never been wrong in my presence, but everyone is wrong sometime."

"Not me." Luke tried to conceal his smile from her.

"Yeah, like I am gonna believe that obvious lie."

"Who says it's a lie?" Luke said, defensively.

"I am not only saying it's a lie, I know. Yoda didn't raise a fool."

"I'm not so sure about that," Luke mumbled under his breath.

Tontay gave him a sharp jab in the ribs. "I heard that."

"Yeah, yeah. Now would you be quiet so I can get some rest?" Luke asked, mock sleepily.

Tontay muttered an obscenity. "Alright."

"Tsk, tsk. Such big language for such a little gir-" Luke was beaten on the head with a pillow before he could finish his sentence. "Hey!" he exclaimed, defensively.

"Hay is for gundarks you wampa," came the amused reply.

"Have you ever actually seen a wampa personally?" Luke asked Tontay.

"No..." Novablast said sheepishly. "Why?"

"Well I've met one face to face, and I tell you what, I am much more handsome than one of those beasts!" Skywalker declared. Bonk! he was hit on the head again. Luke made a noise in the back of his throat, and brought his hands upward in a position that a monster might and launched at her.

He backed her up against the wall and prevented her from escaping by placing his hands on opposite sides of her on the wall. The closeness was awkward, but especially so for Tontay. She twitched a little, uneasy at their nearness. Luke hesitated, placing his finger against her mouth.

"Back off slimeball!" hissed Tontay.

"Make me you bantha!"

"Don't push me!"

"Trying to get sleep am I," came a tired voice near the doorway, saving Tontay. The two twisted around and hurriedly got out of their entanglement.

Hearing Yoda, the pittin came out from under the bed grumpily, then jumped onto Tontay.

"We were, ahem, just fixing to go to sleep, but uh, Luke got something in his eye and I was uh, helping him get it out..." Tontay informed Yoda.

"Mmhm," Yoda said, unbelievingly. He turned around on his stout little legs, the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth not evident to the children in the next room.

Luke cleared his throat and turned away from Tontay, who also turned and faced the wall. They then layed down on their backs, the pittin laying down on Tontay's stomach, purring and letting out a purposeful hiss at Luke. Silence then ensued after that, until Tontay broke it, "Luke, are you asleep?"

Luke rolled his eyes, and answered, "Yeah, I'm asleep."

Tontay was quiet for a moment, "All right..."

Luke smiled, and turned off the glowrod, whispering, "Good night..."

Tontay grinned into the darkness, "You too..."

And with that, they were asleep.

A few hours after they fell into deep slumber, a small form went into Tontay's bedroom, with something that looked suspiciously like a vibroblade. The pittin opened its eyes sleepily, then closed them. The figure raised it above Tontay's head, chuckling quietly with glee. Slowly, it came down, but all that it sliced was part of the mattress, making it smaller. Tontay was partly hanging off the bed, so she rustled in her sleep, moving closer to Luke. Then, the form left the room, leaving the two closer then before...

Tontay yawned, and nestled deeper into the covers. She opened her eyes sleepily, finding herself face-to-face with Luke. She muffled her scream, so that it only came out as a squeak. Luke remained undisturbed, snoring lightly. The pittin lay on his chest, and Tontay smiled in spite of herself, and moved some stray hairs out of his face. He looked youthful while sleeping...I wonder how old he is? When I first saw him, he seemed to be in his late 30's, but was that his real age, or just the weight of what he has been through? ...He looks like an innocent child...Stroking her hand along his cheek, she fell back asleep, curled up against him.

Yoda came in the room, awhile later, and tapped Luke on the head with his grimer stick. "Luke. Luke...Wake you must. Now start!" He hit Luke harder, "Up git you!"

Luke groaned and moved a hand up to block the stick. "I'm up, I'm up..." He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Thonk! Luke was hit again. Luke snarled and swatted at Yoda who managed to get out of arm's length. The pittin growled at Yoda as well, then she looked at a shocked Luke, hissed, dug her claws into his chest, nipped his nose, then jumped off the bed and stalked into the kitchen.

"Up you must wake. Now, you will do," Yoda supplied.

"Uh huh..." replied a disgruntled Luke. He looked after Deedah, confused due to his sleep-fogged brain. Yoda wobbled out of the room, and Luke tapped on Tontay's shoulder. When she didn't respond, he hit her harder. Luke thought for a moment, then he placed his hands firmly on her back, shoving her out of the bed. Though still half asleep she screeched when she hit the floor.

"What the heck was that for? I thought I told you not to shove me on the floor!"

"I thought you deserved it!"

"Me?" Tontay said, indignantly. "Precious little ol' me deserved to be dropped on the hard uncushioned floor?"

"I'm glad we think along the same lines."

Tontay hadn't taken her robe off when she had gone to bed last night, and it had loosened quite a bit. When she realized it, she pulled the sides of her robe tightly together, uncomfortably. Luke grinned at her, "Are we a little uncomfortable?"

"Shouldn't you be getting ready? Yoda is gonna be working us hard."

"Us? Why would he work us hard if you are the student?" Luke queried.

"Because he wants everyone to be pushing themselves to the limit...Because you are his former pupil...Because he wants everyone to do their best...and because he's Yoda," reasoned Novablast.

"Okay, that's good enough for me. I'll go in the other room to change," Luke offered, digging out his black shirt, and a pair of black pants.

Tontay nodded, and went to grab an outfit for herself. Finally, they finished getting ready, and ate breakfast. The pink furball seemed anxious to catch a nap, and Yoda seemed eager for them to begin. "Follow me you must," he ordered, then headed out in the murky swamp. Tontay gave Luke a weird look, which he returned, and they followed the little green man out into the wilderness.

Yoda finally stopped near a huge fallen tree. He looked about, seeming satisfied, then sat down on one of the smaller tree branches sticking out from it. He lifted up his chin, and looked at Luke. "Her training you shall begin here. Basics she knows, ask her for details."

Luke sighed, then asked, "Have you had the...physical aspects of your training?"

Tontay's eyes opened widely, "Yes, and I ain't going through that again!"

Luke snapped his fingers, "Darn!" Yoda chuckled and Luke glanced at him. "You had any saber practice?"

"No," came the tentative reply.

"Well let's start on that!"

"What about the mental stuff?"

"We'll do that later," Luke replied. "Yoda do you have a spare lightsaber by any chance?"

"Saber have I, give it to her I will. Need it I do not. When nine hundred years old you reach, more mental practice you would use, hm?" Yoda held up his lightsaber, miraculously fit for a human hand.

"Yoda why don't you have a um, a small saber?" Tontay asked, not wanting to press that Yoda wasn't very tall.

"Years ago my saber I lost. Needed it anyway, I did not. Gave me his former Master's saber, Kenobi did. Pass it on to you I will..." Yoda remained quiet for a moment, "Your heritage it is."

Tontay looked at Yoda, confused. "I'm related to Obi-Wan's Master?"

Yoda nodded in confirmation, "Your grandfather Qui-Gon was. Grand Jedi he was, but too head-strong. A son he had, Creet-Ath Jinn he was named. Changed his name he did, to Clawn Novablast after his father died. Thirteen years before Qui-Gon's death he was born. Knew of him, Jinn didn't. Hidden the son was, for Klanad Gratheen and his relationship was not to be. Called him too reckless, she did. Marry Julaytu Fruaanth did Clawn, soon after turning Sith, and Tontay Novablast was their child. Soon the Jedi Purge did break out. Killed were Julaytu and Clawn. Died of a broken heart did Klanad, after Qui-Gon's death, and much regret did she feel...Took you in I did."

Tontay looked at the lightsaber in Yoda's small hand, she took it and turned it over, looking at its sleekness, and battle scars. "How did Qui-Gon...my father," she corrected, "-die?"

Deja vu again came to Luke's mind, the image of himself holding his father's lightsaber and asking of his death.

"Appeared did two Sith. Darth Sidious the Master was, his apprentice Darth Maul. A saber duel against Maul did Kenobi and Jinn have. The advantage Maul had: a two-bladed lightsaber. Knew how to use it he did...Killed was Qui-Gon, and Maul soon afterward by Jinn's Padawan, Obi-Wan. Wanted to have Anakin as a Padawan apprentice did Qui-Gon...Died too early he did. Told them Anakin was too old, I did."

Yoda sighed. "Listen they did not. Soon afterward Obi-Wan took young Anakin as his apprentice. Nine was Anakin, his future lover, Queen Amidala of Naboo, fourteen. Begin the story did, when Jinn and Kenobi went to develop a treaty with the Trade Federation for Naboo. Taking over, the Federation was. Made was a killing attempt. Escaped did they, to Naboo. In the swamp a gangly Gungan outcast Qui-Gon did save," Yoda said looking disgusted. "Save the Queen too they did. Going to Coruscant they were, but first a small escape from the Federation with Artoo saving the day they had," Yoda mumbled, seeing Artoo nearby who gave a proud whistle of remembrance.

"Tatooine they had to land on. Saved them from a sandstorm Anakin did. Slave he was," Yoda said with a disgruntled expression on his face. "As was his mother. Building a Podracer Anakin was, almost complete it was, and a protocol droid as well, See-Threepio. In need of parts the ship was, Qui-Gon, money to buy them. Entered the Pod in the race he did, offering the ship as the entering fee. Bet Anakin would win he did, against his master, Watto. Winner he was and freed. Took him as possible apprentice did Qui-Gon. Back to Naboo went the Queen and the others. Brought Gungans on their side they did, and against the Federation droids they fought. Win did they, after Anakin accidentally went out in a Naboo Starfighter, Artoo as his droid. Destroyed the main ship that controlled the droids...Kenobi and Jinn fought against Maul, death the outcome was. Senator Palpatine," Yoda said stressing the syllables of the man who had caused the Republic much trouble, "-elected as the new Viceroy he was, after Amidala had started a vote of no confidence, in Valorum she did. Much happened...told you enough have I Train now you must."

Luke and Tontay were quiet for a moment, still digesting the story. Finally Luke spoke up, breaking the silence, "Let's start our dueling!"

"Alright," Tontay responded by igniting her lightsaber.

"First we'll start with the main stances," Luke said, coming around behind her. He told her where to put her feet, and tried to instruct her on her hand positions. But she kept doing it wrong. Still behind her, he put his arms around on hers, and his head over her shoulder, and moved her hands in the right places.

Tontay tried to concentrate on the saber positions and not the close proximity of his face and hers. His breath was warm against her face; the cool air of the swamp had been making her chilly. But despite her current warmth, she shivered.

Luke turned his head, mere inches from her face, and asked, "Cold?"

"A little."

"There are Force techniques for that," Luke replied with a mischievious grin.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, you just concentrate on moving the air molecules."

"How do you move microscopic molecules?"

"The Force is in and around all moving things. Just think of them moving around and then you just...move them," Luke explained.

Tontay seemed dubious, but reached out through the Force and attempted to vibrate the molecules and create warm air. At first she couldn't do it, but was determined to triumph. She kept at it and finally the air around them began to heat up. "I did it!" she exclaimed, excited.

Luke grinned, not noticing Yoda rolling his eyes, "That's right. Now concentrate on these saber positions I am trying, err, doing my best," Luke added, after looking at Yoda, "-to teach you."

"Yessir," Tontay said, saluting in a sloppy military manner.

"Then," Luke sighed, "-we will have to work on that salute of yours."

Tontay gave him an evil look, and turned around, feinting a lunge with her ignited lightsaber. "Take that!"

Luke's saber was in his hand in an instant, and blocked her attempt at a feint, which had gone just a little too far to be an actual feint. "You can't even fake a lunge right!"

That comment made her slash again, more agressively. "Watch it!" Luke ordered. "I don't want to hurt you. You don't know how to properly fight. Now get over here and let me teach you some more stuff, then you will train with a remote, then we can duel. Okay?"

Tontay looked disappointed, "Okay..."

Luke then proceeded to explain the techniques of lightsaber dueling. They finally stopped for a break, and ate some ration bars Luke had brought from his X-wing. Yoda grumbled something and went inside his hut to eat some of his own food. Luke grinned over at Tontay, "I never thought I would be this glad to eat rations!"

"Well just be glad you haven't had to eat his food for years!" Tontay said wryly.

"I am. More so than you know." Then, in a passable imitation of Yoda, Luke wrinkled his face and said, "Be glad for what you have, you should."

"Wow, you've got that old wrinkled green man thing down!" Tontay replied with a laugh.

"Hey-" Luke started, offended.

"Heard that did I. Like it I did not." Yoda interrupted from behind them. They turned around, startled, and Luke noticed with an amused look that the pittin was on Yoda's shoulder.

"Where'd you come from?" Luke exclaimed.

Annoyed, Yoda replied, "If the Force you were using, know would you when came up did I."

Luke fell silent at that, no longer protesting. So Tontay spoke up, "We were eating and enjoying our meal, you can't expect us to remain alert all the time!"

Yoda looked solemn, "When a servant of the Force you are, remain so you will for all eternity. Turn it on and off, you cannot. Once you start down the path with the Force leading, forever you shall. A never-ending road it is."

Tontay looked hesitant. "So if you become a Jedi then you must forever serve the Force and people?"

Yoda gave a minute nod, "Yes."

Luke saw the hesitation on Novablast's face and in her manner, "It isn't all that bad. Even Jedi get breaks every now and then. It isn't like the Force makes you go get it some stim tea, and then go run around nude!"

Yoda rolled his eyes, and Tontay laughed. She smacked the side of Luke's head, "Maybe not, but I'm sure you would like me to do that!"

Luke's mouth bobbed open and closed like a fish, for he was stunned. Yoda raised his eyebrows, "About this, need to know do I?"

Luke, astonished, replied, "No! She's just joking around and raving about!"

Yoda gave him an "Oh please" look, and the pittin hissed and ran off back towards Yoda's hut.

Weeks went by with several similar incidents occuring. Luke Skywalker and Tontay Novablast's tentative relationship grew as Tontay continued her Jedi training...

Luke was showing Tontay a meditation trance when Artoo came up to Luke, whistling. "Yes, Artoo?" Luke asked the little droid.

Artoo bleeped a reply, and Tontay looked at Luke for the translation. "He said there is a message on my comm unit in the X-wing...I'll be right back."

Luke activated the comm for a recorded message. It was Leia's voice, and she said, "Luke, we have a little diplomatic situation that we are having trouble with. The head of the Chiss, which is Thrawn's species apparently, is wanting to become a member of the Republic. However, it seems many of the Chiss are rebelling, and insist that a Jedi Master come and mediate the matter. So please contact me as soon as possible."

Leia was in the middle of a yet another diplomatic meeting when an aide came up to her. The aide whispered something into her ear, and she stood up, "Please excuse me, I have an important call to take." The other diplomats nodded their acknowledgement and continued on debating. Leia got to her room, and saw Luke's holo, his face betraying his slight impatience. She smiled inwardly, and outwardly said in a rush, "So Luke can you come?"

The holo nodded, and then bit his lip, "Could you send me a ship that can fit two people?"

Leia frowned, "Why?"

"I have a new student Yoda wished me to train on Dagobah."

Leia's eyebrows lifted, "Oh?"

Luke looked sheepish, "Her name is Tontay Novablast."

"Ah...Well, Han, Chewie, Threepio, and I could go pick you up in the Falcon."

"Alright. I'll have Artoo send the Falcon Dagobah's coordinates."

Leia nodded, "We'll be there shortly."

And with that the hologram turned off. I wonder if she is only a student...Leia thought with a grin.

Luke came up into the hut where Tontay and Yoda were eating breakfast, Deedah taking a nap as usual. "Uh, Yoda, Leia kinda needs me to come help with a...diplomatic situation, and so I have to leave."

"What about my training?" Tontay asked at the same time Yoda said, "Take her with you, you must."

"Do I have any choice in the matter? No, wait I don't want to know the answer to that one," Luke grimaced.

"Correct you are. Go she must. Knew that you did, even when calling Leia you did know. Prepared you are for that eventuality," Yoda said as he received a glare from Luke.

"I have an odd sense of deja vu...Don't I get a say in anything!?" shouted Tontay.

Just before Luke could comment they were interrupted by a scream outside. As they rushed out the door Luke let out a groan.

"Put me down you stupid piece of rancor shavit. Put me down! Farmboy, get your nice little agh-" Mara was being squeezed harder by the monstrous creature, "-out here and get this piece of tar off of me. Stang, do it now!" yelled a very distressed Mara from the hands of a 10 meter Trorrogg.

Luke rushed over there, Tontay, Yoda, and Deedah closely following, "Calm down Mara."

"Calm? What do you mean calm?! I'm ten meters up in the air! Would you be calm if you were up this high in the arms of some slobbering beast who intends to eat you alive?!" exclaimed Mara, perturbed.

A grinning Luke suggested to Tontay, "Do you want to work on those mental skills?"

Mad, Mara exclaimed from her perch, "What the heck do you think you're doing? Stang it you better have her practice her magic tricks on me! I'm not even sure I would trust you up this high! And what exactly is that short little green thing?"

The pittin growled at the huge creature, then shrank and hid behind Tontay. "Short I am not. Stay up there you will. Jedi Master am I. In trouble you are," Yoda said pointing his gimer stick Mara's way.

Luke snorted and said, "I guess we can't just leave you up there...No matter how tempting it is..."

Tontay spoke up, "Master Skywalker, perhaps you should get her down."

Mara exclaimed, "Would you guys hurry up and get me down before he gets hungrier!?"

Yoda mumbled something about stubborn Jedi who haven't completed their training as he wondered out loud, "Blessing is that? Or vice?"

Luke chuckled, as he lowered a very impatient and angry Mara to the ground, and made the Trorrogg go away.

Mara walked right up to Luke, pushing both Tontay and Yoda aside, the pittin snarling at her for touching its master. "Farmboy, you are in serious trouble! And who's the broad?"

Tontay said pointedly, "My name is Tontay Novablast."

Mara turned around, walked up to Tontay and nearly punched her, and was stopped only by Luke, who grabbed her arm. The pittin lunged at Mara, but was also halted, and in mid-air, as Yoda stopped it from making a fatal mistake, and picked it up.

"Your father murdered mine! Oh...the things I could do to you," said Mara, ignoring the pittin and elbowing Luke in the stomach to get him to let go.

"What did I do? What did she do?" asked a bewildered Luke, as he released her arm. Then Luke started, and asked, "Hey, where did Yoda go?"

"Who cares where that slimeball is, I have a tight schedule and we need to leave ASAP, and if I have to take her on my ship, I am going to lock her in the brig." Mara Jade informed him.

"How come Han and Leia aren't here?" Luke asked.

"How should I know? I got a call from Leia asking me to pick you and a friend up. I must say I wasn't exactly happy about it, but I thought you may need my help. I want it known that I do do favors, for a price." She grinned. "Oh, and I need to stop by my home planet, this Chiss matter is serious, but we don't have to be there for a few days."

As Luke and Mara bickered about the terms of the "deal", Tontay went to pack her few belongings. On the way, she thought about how if one month ago someone had said that she would be falling in love with one of the most famous Jedi Masters of all time she would have laughed in their face. Now, she wondered what their destiny would be. It seemed to her that Luke had certain feelings for Mara, but what exactly they were was beyond her. She wondered how much admiration Luke and Mara had for each other. Don't be silly, she told herself, why are you worrying?

Two days later, after being stuck on the ship with Tontay, Luke, Artoo, and that wretched animal that Tontay just had to bring along, Mara was about to pull out her hair, scream, and shoot herself out the nearest airlock. She didn't know how many more claims she could take of Luke and Tontay's that their beds were shrinking and she was about to tell them to sleep together in the spare cargo room. Also, she wanted to shove that droid and pittin out of the airlock. And she didn't even want to get started on her remaining anger about that Yoda thing that had tormented her when she was on-planet.

Luke had finally, very reluctantly, agreed to stop by her home planet for a day or two. She had gotten a call from her mother who wished her to come by for a short visit. She had only found out this year that her mother was still alive. She'd already visited her a few times, but evidentally that wasn't enough for her mom. So, here they were. Her home planet lay before them. She got landing clearance, and they docked at the local docking bay. Mara insisted that the pittin stay on the ship, and she got her luggage and went down the landing ramp, and Luke came up behind her. "Interesting planet you have here," Luke commented.

"Yes, but it can be lethal."

"Oh?" asked Tontay, coming to Luke's side, flashing him a beautiful smile.

Mara supressed the urge to retort something vulgar, saying instead, "Yes, there are several predators on this planet."

"You being one of them?" Luke asked, eyes glinting.

Mara snorted, "Not quite. I know its a shock, but there are even more dangerous beasts out there than you can imagine, farmboy. Even more ferocious than those pathetic Krayt Dragons you have on Tatooine."

Tontay looked at Mara, "Shouldn't we be heading to your mother's house?"

Mara nodded, throwing a glare to Luke that clearly said "We will finish this later!".

They got to Telina Jade's house, where she happily greeted them. "Oh hello Mara, darling! And who are your charming guests?"

"Tontay Novablast and Luke Skywalker," came Mara's reply, bordering the edge of rudeness.

"Well you must be starving! Come, I was just ready to have dinner," said Telina, escorting them to the dining room before they could protest. They sat down at the table, Ms. Jade talking away, and ate their fancy food. Tontay gossiped with Telina, who tried to engage an unwilling Mara in small talk. Well, the amount that Mara talked was small...But she talked more than Luke, who seemed to have something on his mind. She looked at him questioningly, but he just shook his head minutely. She shrugged.

Telina sighed, "That was delicious." She clapped her hands, "Franchay?" A servant came up to her. "Show them to their rooms. I am assuming you all want private rooms?"

Luke looked up and nodded, slightly more than was necessary. Franchay motioned a droid to get their bags and took them up the old-fashioned stairs to their rooms. Luke's was in between Mara's and Tontay, and Mara grumbled about that. "Well, good night," Luke said to the two.

"Yeah, same to you," said Mara, and with that, disappeared into her room.

Sunlight shined through Mara's window, the birds chirping outside. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, mentally cursing the animals who had no respect for a human's need for sleep. She dressed and went out in the hall, knocking on Luke's door first. She heard a faint grumble that sounded remotely like "Hold on" and waited a moment before Luke opened the door, dressed, with hair toussled. Half asleep he asked, "Wha-?"

Mara just rolled her eyes, "Wake your little girlfriend up, its almost time for breakfast, we can't be late, unless you wish to face my mother's wrath."

Luke looked at her, confused at first, then shook his head, clearing his foggy brain. He knocked on Tontay's door loudly, and was rewarded by a "I'll be out there in a minute". He yawned and ran a hand through his hair as he waited.

Tontay came out in a lovely eye-catching white dress. Her waist-length black hair was up in a bun that would do Leia credit. She flashed a dazzling smile at Luke, and a polite one to Mara. "Are we going to go eat breakfast?"

Mara bit back a reply when Luke looked sharply at her, sensing her intentions. "Yes, we are," Mara said grudgingly.

"Well what are we standing in the hall for? C'mon," Luke said, yanking Mara, and slightly tugging on Tontay's arm.

They were welcomed by Telina again, who showed them to their places. Humanoid and droid servants brought over several steaming dishes. They were eating when Mara looked over at Luke and noticed a distant look in his eyes. "Skywalker, what's wrong?"

He didn't respond so Mara reached over and tapped his arm, "Hey, farmboy?"

Luke finally looked at her absent-mindedly, his eyes glazed over, "Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

He waited a moment, "Leave. Now. We must." Luke stood up suddenly.

Mara stood up as well, "What are you talking about?"

"Yeah what's wrong Luke?" Tontay asked concernedly, also standing up. She placed her arm on his.

"Something will happen. Real bad. Leave now! We must!" He said, eyes still cloudy.

"Skywalker, it's okay you're just imagining things, now sit down," Mara told him, as she forced him to sit down. He had a wild look in his eyes, as if he were a rabid bantha who would insanely charge around at any instant, if allowed the chance.

Mara and Tontay also sat down, looking at him uneasily. Telina tilted her head, "What did I miss?"

"Nothing, he's just a little tired, that's all," Mara explained, looking sternly in Luke's direction.

They finally finished breakfast, and Tontay suggested they all go on a walk. Mara accepted, Telina declined, and Luke was still too preocuppied and worried to care. They dragged him along and went out into Ms. Jade's big lush garden. They discovered a small white gazebo that was covered in all sorts of exotic flowery vines, a little pond with swimming creatures in it, and big orchards left and right. Tontay inhaled the fragrant scent, and said complimentary, "This is a wonderful garden."

"Yes, my mother spends thousands of credits on plants and gardeners. She enjoys the beauty of life," Mara replied.

"Her presence shines in the Force," injected Luke.

Mara glanced over at him, surprised he had spoken, "Yes, but she does not enjoy the thought of Jedi, Sith, and Force-users. Because Vader and Palpatine took me away she tries to shun the thought of any people having similar abilities. She makes herself blind to the fact that I can use the Force. It brings up too many painful memories."

"Can we leave now?"

"Why do you want to leave so much Skywalker?"

"If we stay something bad will happen. As it is, it could be too late. But we have to do our best to get out of here..." Luke said, pleadingly.

"Fine we will leave tonight after dinner."

"Now."

"After lunchtime."

"Directly before."

"No, after is my best offer, the political situation can't be that bad."

Tontay grabbed hold of Luke's arm, "Come on Luke, how about we stay until dinner?" She turned up little whimpering long-lashed eyes.

Luke glanced at Mara, admitting defeat, "Fine."

"Good."

Luke glanced not-quite-angrily at the perturbed Mara, stood up, then abruptly left the cockpit, running into a scared Deedah who was frantically scurrying around, as if picking up on his mood.

Mara was still mumbling about Jedi and their unexpected mood swings when the ship's alarms went off. She was almost glad to see the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Interdictor Cruiser that had just jolted her ship out of hyperspace. They hailed her and she spinned some story together, realizing that it was pointless since they did'nt believe a word of it. In fact, she was just getting ready to be boarded by Stormtroopers. As she exasperatedly passed a muttering Luke, she heard him say something about Vader. She halted. "Why are you talking about Vader? He's dead."

"He's on that ship."

"No he's not..." Mara reached out with the Force, and a stunned whave passed over her. "Stang...You're right!" Mara cursed under her breath, then asked, "What about Tontay? I know we can take care of ourselves, but what about her? Can she take care of herself?"

"Tontay is pretty strong, and has been well-trained. But..."

"But what?" asked a very nervous Mara.

"I worry about her, this is such a critical period."

"I guess if she's with us not much could happen. But if we get separated that could lead to trouble."

"I have a bad feeling about this," claimed Luke.

Then he turned and ran to find Tontay.

"Yeah, the feeling's mutual," Mara mumbled at Luke's retreating figure.

Luke found Tontay in his quarters, sitting on the bed. She seemed scared, and he realized he was picking up Mara's emotions alot clearer than Tontay's, for some odd reason. He filed that thought to the back of his brain under "Contemplate Later". He looked at her sadly, "The Stormtroopers are about to board."

"Yes...thanks for trying to warn us about something like this happening," Tontay glanced up at him, holding his depressed gaze. She stood up, slid her arms around his neck, and craned her neck up slightly, meeting his lips with hers in a passionate kiss. The temporary joy and fullfillment that passed through the Force from one to another was incredible. Their link became stronger by the second, but Luke had to break it because he sensed, via the Force, Stormtroopers preparing to come onto the ship.

"Another time," Luke told her quietly, looking into her sad brown eyes.

Tontay nodded, and blinked away some of her tears. She had some doubts about that statement, but wasn't sure why. Luke tugged her arm slightly, and they went to the cockpit where Mara was loading some weapons onto her person. Deedah slinked into Tontay's pocket. Nobody registered the move because they had other problems to worry about. "They will run a weapons scan and take all of them away you know," Luke informed Mara.

Mara started, "Yeah but they are not gonna take me without a fight!"

Tontay smiled gently, and started to say something, but was interrupted by Luke, "Its useless to resist. If we bring blasters, vibroblades, detonaters and the like, they'll treat us even worse than they would if we didn't. Just bring your saber and come on." Artoo whistled at Luke that he was coming too, Luke looked inclined to argue, but it was too late.

There was a whooshing of air as the Stormtroopers entered the ship. "Fine," Mara muttered angrily. She quickly stuffed everything but her lightsaber in a secret compartment under the pilot's seat. The Stormtroopers entered pointing blasters at them. Tontay and Luke quickly put their hands out, to show that they were empty, the latter throwing a glare at Mara, who growled something under her breath, and copied their move.

"Slowly put your weapons on the floor," a lieutenant ordered. Luke and Tontay put their sabers down and the floor, and looked at Mara who reluctantly did the same. "Scan them," he instructed. A Stormtrooper stepped forward and carried out his order. The weapon scanner started beeping loudly when he swept Mara.

The Stormtrooper held out his hand to Mara, and she just looked at it. Luke cleared his throat, and, reluctantly, she reached down and got her vibroblade out from her boot. She handed it to the Stormtrooper, glaring visciously at Luke.

"They are now clean," came the Stormtrooper's metallic-sounding voice, handing Mara's vibroblade to the lieutenant.

The lieutenant nodded, and gestured toward three other Imperials standing by, who cuffed the trio, and put a restraining bolt on Artoo. He headed out down the ramp, a circle of Stormtroopers bringing up the three prisoners.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," muttered Luke under his breath.

A Stormtrooper jabbed Luke in the side with his blaster, "Remain silent."

"Easy for you to say, you've been trained to act like a robot at a superior's will," Luke grumbled.

The Stormtrooper hit Luke even harder with the butt of his blaster, "I said be quiet, unless you want to be shot with a stun blast."

Mara threw a warning glare at Luke, but he didn't heed it, "I think maybe you should just go-" Luke halted and broke off in mid-sentence, followed by the rest of the party.

"Welcome, son," came Vader's low, deep mechanical voice. "Ah, Mara. The Emperor has been expecting you as well. Son, who is your lovely companion?" Vader purred, with a dab of some sort of unintelligable emotion in his voice...was it pleasure? Difficult to tell...Vader seemed a bit startled when he saw Artoo, but covered it up.

Luke barely managed to keep his face emotionless, "I thought you were dead."

"Looks can be deceiving. The Emperor foresaw what was going to happen and took appropriate measures. On board the Death Star, what you thought was the Emperor and I were actually clones. Do you know why the Fleet lost so badly at Endor? It was because most of the ships were mere shells with shields and a few weapons. Most were piloted by droids, and the few humans you saw aboard the Death Star were also clones. My Emperor and I hid away with our real fleet, gathering more ships and making it much stronger. The officers that have been giving you Rebels so much trouble were again clones. We decided we should strengthen ourselves and catch you pathetic Rebels off-guard, so we can extinguish you once and for all."

Luke threw a shocked look at Mara, who returned it. He let it sink in for a moment, then, "Father, what do you want from us?"

"You...Jade...and some information," Vader responded.

"Can't you let her" Luke tossed his head at Tontay, "-go?"

Darth Vader smiled evilly inside his helmet, "Ah, but I will...but only if you are willing to cooperate."

Luke gulped, "What do you wish me to do?"

"Jade must cooperate as well."

Luke looked over at Mara, whose eyes widened. She coughed, "Excuse me, but I am not doing anything for scum like you and the Emperor!"

Vader's wheezing breath echoed across the corridor, in an otherwise silence. Luke decided to break the ice, "What do we have to do?"

"The Emperor has been missing his highly skilled Hand. We wish to know the location of the hidden Rebel fleet...And you will turn to the Dark Side, Luke...It is your destiny."

Tontay's eyes were as big as Tatooine's twin suns, Mara looked uneasy, and Luke's mouth was gaped open. "You think you could ask for much more?" Luke asked, astonished.

The helmeted head turned towards Luke, eyes glaring through the mask. "I do not need your sarcasm, Son."

Luke turned away, "What if I could give you one-third of that deal?"

"No!" Tontay and Mara said simultaneously.

Luke faced them, "I must. If I turn, will you let them go?" He looked old beyond his years, in his face and his eyes. He'd been through much, with more yet to come.

"How could I trust you? I must know the location of the Rebel fleet as well, Jade can possibly be done without."

"No. I will not turn unless I do not have to give the coordinates and you let them go."

"You are pushing me too far, Son," growled Vader.

Luke bit his lip, "Take it or leave it."

Vader's menacing helmet turned towards the red Royal Guards behind him, "Take my son and his companion to their cell, but leave Jade and the droid with me."

The Guards nodded and complied. Darth Vader took Mara Jade in with his sinister stare. "The Emperor wonders what could have made a loyal servant such as yourself turn."

"I found out the true meaning of the Empire, which is now pitifully weak-" Mara broke off as an invisible hand squeezed her throat tightly.

"Watch your criticism or you might find yourself no longer among the living," Vader ordered.

Mara made a strangling noise, and tried to use the Force to make the cruel Sith Lord release his strong grip, but in this case there was indeed no try. She started turning a sickly color so Vader let go, and Mara fell to her knees. "Remember, the Dark Side is much more powerful than the Light...and you should never attemp to outdo a Sith Lord."

Vader looked at the droid, "What is his callsign?"

"Why do you want to know?" Mara asked, with a venomous glare.

He gave her a penetrating stare, the invisible hand settling again on her throat. "Artoo Detoo," she replied, hastily. The invisible hand left.

"Interesting..."

Tontay glared over at Luke, "How can you be so hard-headed and sarcastic in a moment like this?"

"It's better then doing what they want and sitting around just being scared." Luke moved towards Tontay.

"I suppose so," Tontay said doubtfully. Luke came around behind her, encircling his arms around her. She leaned back against him, her dubiousness melting away.

With some barely noticeable hesitation, he turned her towards him, and cupped her chin in his hand, staring into her dark brown eyes. She stared back into Luke's crystal blue eyes, that somehow seemed to have a slight bit of ice in the very depths of them, from seeing too many harsh things for one so young. Sensing that her evaluation of him was teetering on the edge of pity, Luke pulled Tontay's head towards him and placed his lips tenderly on hers. It was a sweet kiss, soft, but filled with passion.

The door swished open to reveal a cowled figure. The kissing duo quickly broke off, gasping, and turned towards the black robed, slightly hunched form. The hood fell back a little to reveal a shriveled face with beady eyes. "Ah, so your relationship is as lovers?" hissed Emperor Palpatine. His malicious face actually managed a smile, "This will work out well."

Luke's anger started bubbling up out of the "cauldron" he had been containing it in. Tontay gave a slight squeezing of pressure on his arm as warning to control himself, but he paid it no heed. "Look your Evil Lowliness, you need to realize that creatures are not in this universe just for your own personal pleasure. We have lives, needs, and feelings of our own. The Dark Side blinds you to that. Yes that's right. You're as blind as a mynock that-" Luke stopped as a blue bolt of electricty flew from the Emperor's fingertips. He gasped and struggled to remain standing. Tontay tried to steady him, but was also brought short as lightning flew once again from the sinister Palpatine's hands and the force of it knocked her halfway across the room, slamming into a wall with a sickening sound, and sliding down to the floor.

Luke's eyes went ablaze with an uncontrollable anger. They changed from cool and calculating to fiery and fearless. His arms clenched at his sides, and he began to glow with a sort of transparent blue energy. He raised up his mechanical hand, and it also started glowing as it charged up, but, instead of blue, it was yellow. Palpatine took a few steps back, he hadn't foreseen this. Luke held his hand up palm outward, and a kinetic ball flew from it, swerving around the Imperial Guards that had jumped in its path, and hit Palpatine in the center of his chest. Well, it would have hit him, but it stopped short of its mark. Luke stood there, panting slightly, and wondering what had happened. Then the realization hit him: there were ysalamiri that just barely held the Emperor in their bubble that prohibited use of the Force, since he had stepped back. How could I not have realized that there were ysalamiri? Well...I guess I wasn't really concentrating on that, just my anger...Luke thought with a sigh. The Dark Side was still there, strongly beckoning him to once again drink of its evil juices, to feel it fill him with power.

The Emperor smiled sinisterly at Luke, sensing what he was thinking from his facial expression. Luke then hardened his face into a mask, mentally kicking himself. Luke closed his eyes, and Palpatine walked out of the room cackling, most of his Royal Guards silently following.

Luke suddenly remembered Tontay, and bolted over there at her side. She was finding it hard to breathe, and was making short desperate gasps. The pittin jumped at Luke, startling him, but was unharmed. It squeaked and went to a corner, shaking. Luke placed his hands on Tontay's forehead, shutting his eyes and using the Force to help heal the damage the electric bolts had done. Tontay finally began breathing regularly, and looked up at Luke, who was now drained of all energy. He slowly sank to the ground next to her, feeling like a traitor and a coward. He opened his mouth, and said "I-", and the blackness came upon him.

"Despite the aches and pains all over my body, yeah I guess I'm doin' fine," came Luke's

answer. "Where's Artoo?"

"Vader still has him. He seemed really interested in him." Mara looked at him dubiously, "Are you sure you're okay? You look like something the gornt dragged in."

"Oh, Vader used to be close to Artoo, and must have recognized him..." Luke was quiet, then answered her second question, "I feel like it as well...I went out of control. I...I used the Dark Side to try to hurt someone, and I did it without a second thought..." Luke said with his eyes squeezed shut. "I tried to use their method to beat them. I tried to fight fire with fire, and I was the one who got burned."

Tontay and Mara looked at each other, then Luke, then everything but Luke.

"I didn't know what I was doing...He tried to hurt Tontay, and I...I freaked out."

Mara started to say something, but at the moment Vader and Palpatine walked in.

"Great," Luke said sarcastically, "-you are just the two people I wanted to see."

Vader looked at his son, his eyes seemed to glare through his helmet and hold a more piercing stare than had his helmet been off his head. "We have discussed the deal, and the conditions are keeping Jade, you, and having the location of the Rebel fleet. We know that you have some of your ships secretly hidden, far away from Coruscant. But we can't get our hands on the elusive information about their specific position as quickly as we wish."

From behind him, Artoo came forward whistling, and went over to Luke, sad that the boy he had once knew had turned into a symbol of evil.

Luke shook his head, "All you will get is me. I will turn if you let them go."

The Emperor spoke up, "No, Young Skywalker, you are mistaken once again. If you do not cooperate she will die." He grinned maliciously, and gestured with a wrinkled hand towards Tontay, who was growing more frightened by the moment.

Tontay stared at the wall in front of her for a few moments, gathering her composure, then spoke, "Luke. Do not do it. Don't bend to their will. Do not turn. You will regret it more if thousands of people died due to your turning, than if only I die due to your refusal. Please do this for me."

Luke gave her a helpless look, "Tontay I can't just-"

Tontay would have none of it, and interrupted, "Luke. Think of the big picture, do you want the blood of millions on your hands, or of one? There is only one decision to make. You will make the right choice. You know the correct choice, deep within your heart."

Luke glanced around at an uncertain Mara, a certain Tontay, an impatient Emperor, and a waiting Vader. Then he looked deep into Tontay's eyes, and murmered almost inaudibly, "I love you."

Tontay whispered back, "And I you. But things will be better this way. We were never meant to be, that wasn't our destiny. When I am gone you must go on with your life. Don't grieve my death, I shall be in a better place."

Luke looked over at the solemn Tontay, at the Emperor, and back and forth a few times, his eyes betraying his confusion.

Luke finally nodded, minutely, "I will not cooperate-" his voice broke as he struggled not to shed any tears.

Deja vu came once again as the Emperor hissed back, "Then young Jedi, she will die." The powerful blue bolts once again flew from his fingertips, hitting Tontay, causing her to slump to the floor. Mara held onto Luke's arm tightly as he struggled to place himself in front of Palpatine's continuing assault against Tontay. The pittin took a running leap and tried to latch onto Palpatine's hand with its sharp tiny teeth. But Mara managed to stop it before it reached him. Finally, with a last twitch of her physical body, Tontay's presence in the Force was gone. The Emperor smiled evilly and motioned his guards to restrain Luke. They put cuffs on him and pulled Mara, who was holding the pittin away. Luke spit a poisonous glare towards Palpatine. They brought the quartet to a small cell, and the guards threw Mara and the pittin in the middle of the room, shoved Artoo in, and started taking Luke off. Mara gave Luke a warning glare, "Remember, don't give into the Dark Side."

Luke nodded, and was whisked away. Vader left right behind him, Palpatine lingering for a moment in the room Mara was in. "You were such a good girl, Mara. What happened?" Palpatine asked.

"I realized the truth. You two aren't anything more than old crones who shouldn't be given control of a ship, much less an Empire!" Mara shot.

Palpatine gave a raspy laugh, "You used to be a quick-to-learn teenager. Now you are just a naive adult. No improvement there. Quite a disappointment, young Jade." Then, he walked out using his cane to support his "frail" body.

Mara spat after him, but it was too late to actually hit him. The pittin mewled, then went over and rubbed against Mara, looking sad. Artoo whistled mournfully.

A distressed Luke Skywalker was strapped to a a chair that was tilted sideways. Darth Vader was in the room standing silently while a droid prepared a needle. It held the needle up and squeezed it up so that some of the liquid squirted out. Luke widened his eyes at this, and asked Vader, "What's that for?"

"To prohibit your use of the Force."

"I thought only ysalamiri could do that."

Vader walked a little bit closer to Luke, "Ah, but this is from one."

Luke looked confused, "What?"

Vader looked at him for a moment. "I have had people working on the cause of the ysalamiri's blocking the Force. There is a chemical in the ysalamiri's skin that produces bacteria that float around it in a two-meter radius. The bacteria are microscopic, but there are billions that surround a ysalamir. When a creature comes into its "protection field" the bacteria touch the being's skin, and release a substance that disable the midi-chlorians inside the creature for as long as they remain near the ysalamiri. They are symbionts with the ysalamiri, but of course they aren't sentinent to realize that they could survive without the ysalamiri. Our scientists had to use very expensive high-tech microscopes. They found a way to remove them from the area around the ysalamiri, and have evolved the bacteria enough to make them capable of reproducing, since the bacteria die within a day. Then they inject them into someone such as yourself, to stop your Force use," Vader purred.

Oh great, Luke thought, doesn't look like my day can get much worse. Luke was forcing himself not to think of Tontay or his fallen students, but it was hard. "What are midi-chlorians? Is there an antidote?"

"Midi-chlorians are bacteria that live in your cells. They are what allow you to use the Force. We are symbionts with them. And everything has an antidote, its merely whether the person deserves an antidote or not," Vader replied.

Luke swallowed, as the droid came nearer with the needle. Maybe I was wrong, maybe it can get worse..."I suppose it is too late to bargain?"

"So son, have you decided to agree to the terms? You and Jade's full cooperation, and the location of the secret Rebel fleet."

Luke shut his eyes tightly, "I will not give you the location of the Rebel fleet."

"So be it." Vader nodded towards the droid.

The droid floated towards Luke on its repulsors, and stuck the needle in Luke's arm, and injected the bacteria.

Luke's body stiffened, as he abruptly felt as if all his senses had just been cut off. It was like being deaf and blind, all of a sudden.

The door whooshed open and four Stormtroopers came in, as if at a secret signal, and in-between them was a large, furry slobbering creature with a touch of madness in its red eyes.

Vader nodded at them, then looked at Luke, "Here is your interrogater, Blifang, a Blenwolv." Then he glanced at Blifang, "If you do it well, you will get a large Wookiee steak. You may begin." Luke turned a sickly color, and Vader strode out of the room, followed by the Stormtroopers, leaving Luke with the Blenwolv and droid. Great, now how much worse can it get? Luke wondered to himself.

Blifang's tongue was hanging out, and he laughed hideously. "Dis gonna be fun," he rasped. Blifang flexed his paws, and his claws came unsheathed, glinting. He lightly moved one of his claws down Luke's neck, then slashed Luke's arm. Luke flinched with pain, as blood began to flow from the nasty cut. He moaned, and was hating Vader even more than ever for taking away his use of the Force...and Jedi pain suppression techniques.

Blifang's tongue was still out, lolling, "You ready to give in yet?"

Luke shook his head, "I don't give up that easily." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Blifang grabbed his other arm, and dug all of his claws into Luke's sensitive, human, skin. Luke cried out in pain, unable to silence himself. Blifang seemed pleased with his outburst, and started clenching harder. Luke hissed air in through his teeth.

Blifang finally let go, and went over to the droid who was standing silently in a corner. It held up a needle in its hand-claw, and Blifang took it. The needle was dwarfed by his large paws, and he held it semi-clumsily. He walked over to Luke, his red eyes shining and giving him the look of someone who had just escaped from an insane asylum.

What have I gotten myself into? Luke wondered, as the Blenwolv walked over, holding up the needle and grinning wolfishly. He stuck it into Luke's arm, but not carefully and slowly like the droid had done. Luke gritted his teeth as it was yanked out. His head started to spin as the drug did its work. The pain in his arms began more pinpointed, as the drug made him more aware of his senses. The scent of his bleeding arm invaded his nostrils, along with the smell of Blifang, a rotten smell, as if he hadn't washed in months, if not years.

Blifang reached his paw behind Luke's head, and pressed his claw against the pressure point there, hard. Luke groaned, and Blifang pressed hard enough that he was close to blacking out, but softly enough that he wouldn't. Luke began to see stars, and Blifang let go. He tried to will himself to black out, but the drugs wouldn't allow him to. The Blenwolv pressed on a few more pressure points until Luke's head was reeling. Then Blifang smacked Luke's face with the back of his paw...

Mara was fuming while awaiting Luke's return. She was angry at Vader and the Emperor for being such idiot Dark Siders, mad at Leia and Han for making her get Luke, and mad at Luke for being on Dagobah, instead of readily available on Coruscant...and mad at herself for actually agreeing to pick up Luke. Look what's happened, Tontay was killed, and who knows what they're doing to Luke! Mara thought with a sigh. The pittin was curled up in her lap and Artoo had shut down to preserve power.

Mara had no sense of the time, since she had forgotten her wrist chrono, and when Luke was thrown in the cell after what seemed like hours later, she was about to say something nasty, but held her tongue when she realized how bloodied and bruised he was. His shirt was ripped to shreds, as if some wild animal had gotten ahold of him, and his pants weren't in very good condition either. He had a big bruise on the left part of his face, and his right eye was swollen shut. Luke's lip was bleeding, and he was slumped on the ground, his breathing haggard. Mara went over to him quickly, gently pushing the pittin out of her lap, and noticed that she could not sense him through the Force. At first, she began to panic, thinking that it was because his life signs were extremely low, but she realized that the Force was not able to touch him at all. Mara filed that under "Ask Later".

Mara slowly rolled Luke onto his back, him moaning and her hissing in understanding as she saw his wounds. The pittin came over and gave a mrow of understanding, Deedah licked Luke's face and tried to get him to wake up. She hesitated, then tore what was left of Luke's shirt off of him. She ripped it into smaller sections, and started gently dabbing at his scratches, getting most of the crusty blood off, then pressing clean pieces against the wounds, and applying pressure to stop the remaining bleeding. When it did, she went and wet one of the larger pieces in the small sink that was in their cell, and cleansed his chest of the dried blood. Mara tried not to stare at his muscular chest, inwardly wondering about it, she'd thought he had mostly used the Force for the hard physical work.

Then Mara wet another piece of black cloth, the last one left, the rest sitting beside her in a pile. She wiped the blood from Luke's mouth, and soothingly rubbed at his swollen eye. He started moaning things, most inaudible. What Mara could hear was this, "unnh oh sh.....gone....but it's...tuh.....bad.....since...love.....uh...."

I wonder what he's talkin about...? Oh no! Mara thought with horror. Luke's chest had stopped moving up and down. Mara leaned her ear against Luke's chest, his heartbeat was fading fast. Mara panicked, and pushed against Luke's chest, avoiding the slowly scabbing marks. Then she closed her eyes, hoping that he wouldn't become conscious while she was doing this, and pressed her lips against his, using the CPR method. At first she got no results, but finally his eyes opened for a millisecond, then he started coughing, and Mara got her face out of the way.

Luke coughed up a small amount of blood, and mouthed "water". Mara nodded and quickly went to the water faucet and cupped her hands and brought him back water, seeing as their "hosts" hadn't seen fit to give them cups. She used the Force to keep the water from dripping out, and poured a little bit in his mouth, then a little more, until he finally drank all that was in her hands.

"Thanks," Luke managed, his throat still scratchy. The pittin purred in happiness that he was awake, and licked his face again.

Mara advised, "Shh," and placed a finger against his lips. She smiled, "Looks like that animal has found a new owner."

Luke looked like he was going to object to being Deedah's owner but Mara silenced him, "Don't talk, just rest, you will need your strength to heal."

At that, the aches and pains all over Luke's body reminded him of his situation, he closed his eyes tightly, nodding slightly.

He finally finished satisfying his thirst, and he mumbled a thanks.

Mara bit her cheek, "Uh Skywalker, I'm gonna have to...rip what's left of your pants off."

Luke's eyes shot open, "Wha-?"

Mara laughed at the expression on Luke's face, "Well I ain't anxious about it either, but I have to tend to your leg wounds and...I need more rags," she said pointing at the pile of bloodied rags.

Luke looked uncomfortable at that, but shifting his legs just a little bit and wincing in pain, he nodded in agreement. The pittin seemed to enjoy his discomfort and curled up next to him, falling asleep. At least someone's comfortable,Luke thought. He glanced over at Artoo, thankful that he was okay.

Mara was glad that Luke wasn't wearing a non-tearable jumpsuit, she was having enough trouble ripping it as it was. So she gave in and used the Force to help her with her difficulty in tearing his pants. The Force still wouldn't touch Luke, though it did allow her to "modify" his pants.

Luke then closed his eyes, waiting for it to come.

"Skywalker!" Mara said, chuckling. "Nice boxers! Who gave them to you? Your girlfriend?" [Sorry people, couldn't resist...]

Mara was referring to Luke's bright red silk boxers, and his face turned the same color. A brief pang about Tontay came up, but he shunned it away. "No." He opened his eyes and grinned sheepishly, "I wouldn't have worn them if I had known that my pants were going to be torn off of me...Han gave them to me, as a sort of a uh, prank present, and well, they were comfortable..."

Mara laughed harder, "Okay, sure." She finally finished tearing his pants into sections, and started yet again stopping his wounds' bloodflow. She finally got his legs all cleaned up, and had a few more strips left. "Does it hurt anywhere else?'

Luke shook his head, but had an almost guilty look on his face.

"I don't believe you, farmboy."

"It's nothing, just...sore."

Mara lifted an eyebrow, "What's sore?"

Luke looked uncomfortable, "Nothing...just...never mind."

The pittin gingerly got up on his belly and layed down, her tail in his face, a sort of hint to Mara.

Mara thought for a moment, then it struck her, "Ah, a little embarrassed about it are you?"

"Well...there isn't anything you can do about it." [For you peeps who are slow like me, think of what could hurt that would make him embarrassed...]

Mara grinned and shook her head. "What's blocking the Force? I can reach out and touch it, but I can't sense you."

Luke sighed, and gave her a brief explaination of what Vader had told him.

"So there isn't anyway that I can use the Force to help with the pain?" Mara asked, concerned.

"Not unless you can find a way to kill the bacteria or get them out of my system," Luke said, semi-hopeful that she might have heard of it before.

"I haven't a clue," Mara answered, shattering Luke's hopes.

"I thought as much. Well, what do we do now, wait?"

"Unless you have a better idea...I would try to break us out, but..." Mara trailed off.

"But you're unable to use your Force powers for something like that, your potential is mostly concentrated in another area...That is why you should have gone to the Academy a long time ago to finish your training." Luke admonished.

"Don't give me a lecture, I realize that I should have...But I was scared," Mara said, avoiding his eyes.

"Scared?" Luke exclaimed, surprised. "Why were you scared? What would us big bad Jedi do? We don't bite..."

"I was...scared of..." this admission was hard for Mara, "-you."

"Me? Why were you afraid of me?" Luke looked puzzled. Threatening to kill someone was an odd way to show that you were frightened of them.

"Because of...Can we talk about this later?" Luke looked like he was about to object, so she said, "You need to get some rest and heal."

"But-"

"No but's about it."

Luke was fixing to argue that point then gave in with a sigh. "But we will talk about it later."

"Right," Mara agreed, reluctantly.

With that, Luke closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep.

Mara brushed some hair out of his face, wishing...wishing...

Mara was dozing off against the wall, next to Luke, who was tossing and turning. He was mumbling something, but all she could could discern was, ".......blind........Force.....No stop! Please don't.....stop or I'll...................Mara!" Luke was sweating and appeared to be struggling with an invisible foe. The pittin squealed and jumped off, leaving a few fresh scratch marks.

Mara shook him. "Farmboy, wake up!"

Luke didn't wake up, and continued pitching back and forth.

Mara shook him harder, and his eyes opened with a sort of fire, and panic in them. He

started to yank himself from Mara's grip, but Luke recognized her, his eyes cleared up, and he untensed a little.

Mara tentatively put her arms around him to help calm him down, and Luke shut his eyes. "What's wrong? What were you dreaming about?" She asked him.

Luke shook his head, not trusting his mouth to be able to say a word...and not wanting to tell Mara the contents of his dream. The pittin came over and nudged Luke with its pink nose, as a way of inquiry. "Purrowl?" she asked. Her fluffy tail swished back and forth.

Mara gave Luke a stern glare, "Tell me, flyboy."

"No. Tell me why you you were afraid of me," Luke said, throwing his cool gaze her way, calm at last.

"You...you're so strong, and have tremendous power in the Force...It has taken over your life. I don't want some mystical energy field controlling my destiny," Mara said, unknowingly echoing some of Han's words, and telling Luke a half-truth.

Luke would have none of that simple answer, "And?"

"And...I have some feelings that I need to work out."

"What kind of feelings?" Luke asked, seeming to peer into the depths of her soul.

Mara shivered, and raised her emotional walls up even higher than normal. Force or not, he wasn't going to pry into her private secrets. "Personal feelings."

"Who am I going to tell? It doesn't look like we are going to get out of here anytime soon," Luke turned his pleading sapphire eyes towards her.

Mara slitted her emerald eyes, he had a point. She paused for a few moments, and was saved from having to answer when the door whooshed open. Luke gave her a look that said she would tell him later.

Vader studied Luke, then nodded in approval and turned towards Mara. "I see you have cleaned his wounds, much in the way you were taught a decade ago by the Empire."

Luke turned a little pink, because he wasn't wearing much more than strips of cloth and his red boxers."I have been taught a few useful things by the Empire...many of it that I would have learned anyway, had I the chance for a normal life," Mara said, glaring.

Vader kept his tongue silent for a moment, then shifted his head, looking at Luke, slightly amused. "Have you decided?"

"All I can offer you is myself," Luke replied, sneaking a glance at Mara.

"And me."

"Mara, no."

"Yes, Skywalker." Mara shifted her eyes to Vader. "If we go with you willingly will that be enough?"

"The Fleet's location-"

"You will more than likely find it anyway, it will just take time," Mara said, and if looks could kill Vader would be melted down into durasteel.

"Time the Empire doesn't have," Vader came back with.

"The Empire. Hah, the Empire is in shambles, it would take a miracle to bring together even a faint resemblance to the old Empire."

Vader's helmet stayed upon Mara, and there was a long silence. "Join us, and then tell me how pathetic the Empire is," Vader said, his voice so cold it chilled Mara's blood.

Luke spoke up, "Surely two fellow..." He hesitated, "-Dark Siders would be worth more than the location of the Alliance's fleet."

Vader turned his head a fraction of an inch, "How do I know you shall be loyal?"

Luke bit his lip, hard. Mara spoke up, "You can put a small device inside us that shall blow up if we decide to escape." Luke's eyes widened.

"No, you would be able to disable it with the Force," Vader replied.

"Can you protect it with a few ysalamiri bacteria thing, and inject them so they will stay only in that area?" Mara asked.

"My technicians can work on it, they're very capable...if motivated."

Chills ran up Luke's spine, and Vader stalked out of the room.

Mara looked over at Luke, and he glared at her. Great, he mouthed, now how are we going to escape? She started to say something, and he shook his head gesturing around the room and mouthing, There could be hidden cameras. It is harder to read lips from afar.

Well, it was either that or die, maybe even worse, Mara mouthed back.

Rather we die than millions of others, Luke came back, wincing a little at the 'we'.

Mara saw his discomfort at the thought of both of them dying...more specifically, her. Farmboy, are you falling for me?

The pittin looked at Luke and mewled.

Luke was still for a moment, Why were you afraid of me?

They were both stuck, so Luke finally mouthed, How about an exchange?

Yeah, so long as you go first, Mara smiled.

How good are you at reading lips? Luke asked.

Ah...Still, do you think you could use the Force to generate silence? questioned Luke.

Mara hesitated, then spoke aloud, "I could try...But I don't know if..." She sighed. Closing her eyes, she reached out, concentrating. Then she opened her eyes and shook her head. "I can't do it, farmboy."

"Did you try?" Luke asked.

"Yes," Mara replied.

"That is why you fail. You must not try, you must do." Luke grinned at Mara. Then he started mouthing, Feel, don't think.Reach out and feel the air molecules, make it so that sound doesn't penetrate very far.

Mara closed her eyes again, and moved the air particles, making them vibrate in such a way that sound would go no farther than her and Luke. She opened her eyes, "We'll have to hurry, I don't know how long I can do this."

"Okay. I was blind Force-wise, like I am now. I felt like I was fixing to choke, and faint as well. A blurred figure had you, with a vibroblade at your throat. I was begging them to leave you alone, or at least wait until I was able to use the Force, and give me a fair fight. But they wouldn't listen to me, they lightly touched the blade to your throat, drawing blood in a long thin line. I..." Luke's eyes were wild, "..I went crazy...I yelled your name, and I jumped on the figure with the blurred facial features. I saw his eyes widen and he let go of you and dropped the vibroblade. You rolled away from him, and we went into a tumble. We fought like wild beasts, and my anger.....I was so furious...I just kept kicking and punching...The Dark Side...it's the price of anger, and I was..."

"Skywalker, calm down, shh." Mara put her finger to Luke's lips. "It was a dream."

"Yes, but dreams can come true, and whether it was a dream or not I shouldn't dwell so easily in the Dark Side...But..." Luke was hesitant. "...I was afraid I would lose you." Luke pulled Mara's hand down and leaned towards her.

Mara started to say something but Luke silenced her. She tried to pull away, then tentatively came closer. Just as their lips were about to meet, the door opened, and the pittin hissed. They pulled apart as fast as someone would pull away their hand from a hot coal. Luke looked angrily at the two black-clad Force users. Mara poked him in the side, cautioning him away from his anger, despite that he still couldn't use the Force.

"We have discussed your proposition, and we have agreed to let you two live if you have a detonator inside the both of you that will explode if you leave more than 5000 kilometers away from an Imperial ship. Thus you cannot steal the control and escape alive. If anyone else tries to remove it with the exception of a few of our most trustworthy technicians, then it will detonate. You two will be completely loyal, and shall have spycams inserted into your quarters. If you don't do what we tell you to do, remove the spycams, or do anything else that displeases us than it shall detonate." Vader threw a piercing glare at the both of them. "You two will share an Imperial suite."

"In the morning, your schedule will be sent to you, my servants." The Emperor looked gleefully at Luke and Mara. "I shall have some clothes sent to you immediately," he said, looking pointedly at Luke. Luke felt himself turning red again.

Mara smiled at Luke's embarrassment, but looked like she was ready to object, and Vader looked at her, inviting her to say something. Instead she threw a glare and remained quiet. The pittin put its paw on her as if to say "It's okay".

Luke swallowed and looked Palpatine in the eye. "Understood...my master," he seemed to want to shy away from calling the Emperor by that title, and Mara winced.

"Good..." The Emperor looked at them, gloating. "Guards...Take them away."

"A suite? What you wanna bet that it is a torture chamber?" Mara asked on their way to their quarters.

"I dunno, maybe they will give us a suite. After all we're sorta going to be their 'seconds-in-command'." Luke said.

"Hm, maybe."

"Quiet!" the guard that was holding the pittin ordered. Deedah was trying to bite his fingers off, but he was wearing gloves so it wasn't very effective. Nevertheless he was getting very annoyed with the critter.

"Want me to hold it?" Luke offered.

"No, I can handle it," the guard said, trying to get her to release her teeth from his finger.

"Obviously," Mara muttered under her breath.

The guards in front stopped, and punched in the code for their room. The door opened and they pushed in a scantily clad Luke, perturbed Mara, angry pittin, and an overwhelmed Artoo, and left. Artoo whistled at the sight of the suite.

Mara and Luke's mouths gaped open as they beheld their new "quarters". There was a huge living room, complete with a dark blue sofa, a dark blue couch, a dark green love seat, and a dark green recliner. Next to the recliner was a small table with a lamp on it and one drawer. In front of the love seat was a low wide transparisteel table. There was a holovid which all the furniture was turned to face. Towards the back, on the right, was a small, but complete, kitchenette. To their left was a large viewport with a magnificent view of the stars. In the back, there was a small hallway which led to the bedroom. Beside the hallway was a picture of Tatooine's twin suns at sunset and sunrise. There was, unfortunately, only one bed, and there was a small bedside table to each side, complete with a small lamp on each one, and two large dressers completed the room. To the side was a small 'fresher. The bed was decorated with a lovely mix of greens and blues. Over the bed was a lovely painting of a seaside landscape from Mara's planet. There was also a small viewport located to the left of the bed.

The pittin made itself at home by curling up on the recliner. Mara sighed and clunked herself down on the couch and Luke looked around for a minute then sank onto the recliner, only to jump up after being bitten by an angry Deedah. He refrained from mumbling some obscenities, and instead gave the pittin a mean look and sat down on the loveseat instead. They were quiet for awhile, taking in their surroundings, when the door whooshed open, and a stormtrooper entered carrying an Imperial uniform for Luke to change into. In a metallic voice he said, "Tomorrow morning we shall have more uniforms sent to the both of you, and you will be expected to wear them, or you know what the consequences shall be. Tomorrow you have the day off, except around midday when we shall come and get the both of you to have some sort of operation and to be given some sort of antidote. Later tonight we shall send you some dressclothes, and nightclothes. There is going to be a banquet and ceremony honoring your joining the Imperial ranks and being instantly promoted to Grand Admirals. You are required to attend and wear your complete dress uniform." The stormtrooper's tone left no room for arguement. He turned sharply on his heel and left the room, the door closing behind him.

Luke grabbed his clothes and swiftly walked into the bedroom, glancing behind him a bit red-faced. Mara, not wanting to let him get away so easily, decided to pick on him again. "Hey farmboy, I think you should just wear the boxers to the banquet."

Luke halted in the doorway and turned around, giving Mara an evil glare, "Just shut up, Mara."

Mara laughed, "Oh, has your ego been wounded?"

"Not as much as your's will be when I'm through with you."

Mara raised an eyebrow, "Oo I'm scared."

"You better be," Luke growled, going into the bedroom and shutting the door, or at least tried to, seeing as Mara suddenly appeared behind him, also coming inside.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked Mara, perturbed.

"Simply trying to get a better look at the bedroom and all of its accomodations."

"And you just happened to get a sudden urge to look at it all when I am ready to change?"

Mara replied with a twinkle in her eyes, "Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I'm sure...Well in that case I am gonna go change in the 'fresher, that is unless you have a sudden urge to look at it as well," Luke replied, giving a harsh look that had too much softness in it.

"What are you suggesting?" asked Mara, with a look that implied that she knew very well what he was suggesting.

"Well, if I headed in there would you have to have a look at it as well?" Luke asked, a little exasperated.

"Maybe, it depends on how much I wanted to see it."

"Okay..." Luke quickly walked out of the room and tried to get in the refresher before she had a chance to follow. But...Mara was too quick for him, and was right behind him every step of the way. "I guess that's my answer..." He sighed. "Look Mara, I really need to change, don't you have the decency to let me?"

"Whats wrong? I did have to take your pants off, what's wrong with me seeing you put them back on?" Mara gave Luke an innocent look.

Luke was quiet for a moment, using all his concentration to keep from going red again. Then with an unreadable facial expression he replied, "That was a different situation."

"No, no different. Only different in your mind." Mara gave a sly look to Luke.

"Have you been taking 'Quote-of-the-Day' lessons from Yoda?"

"He wasn't supposed to tell you," Mara exclaimed, with a smile and a small sigh.

"Alright...Well, maybe this will make you leave me alone." Luke put his arm around Mara's waist and pulled her to him, as he reached down to kiss her-

"Mrow!" the pittin called out as she leapt onto Luke's back, which still had several deep gashes on it. Luke let out a hiss of pain, let go of Mara, and flung the pittin halfway across the room.

"Stupid pittin, I'm gonna smash your brains out!" Luke walked towards it with his hand raised, only to stop when Mara placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked back at her, "What?"

"Don't hurt it, at least not yet," Mara said in a low voice. "You were right, it did make me leave you alone."

Luke winced as his back started to throb, "It almost makes me wish I had left you alone."

"Well-" Mara started, but was interrupted by the door chime. "That must be the stormtrooper with my clothes."

"How about you answer, I change?"

"Okay, I'll be right back," Mara turned, picked up the pittin, and went to answer the door.

I'll murder that pittin if it's the last thing I do, Luke thought to himself. It always comes in at the wrong time...

Mara opened the door and a stormtrooper entered holding a lovely emerald green dress on one hanger, and carrying a small box in his other hand, and a bigger box under his arm. He placed them at her feet then left the suite.

Mara bent down and picked them up. She hung the dress up in the bedroom closet, put the boxes on the bed, then waited for Luke to come out of the refresher. He came out looking disgruntled in his stiff-necked gray dress uniform, holding something behind his back. Mara smiled sweetly as she took her dress out of the closet, picked up the smaller box and went into the 'fresher.

Luke sat down on the bed and pulled at his collar, wishing that he could just slice it off with the lightsaber that he didn't happen to have at the moment. He put his hat down on the bed, then changed his mind and stuffed it under the pillow. He then walked into the living area and sat down on the loveseat, facing the hallway.

An hour later, Mara came out wearing a stunning emerald green dress, with her hair pulled up with silver clips. The dress had a tight fit that drew attention to her perfect curves. The sleeves came down to a point on her hand and the floorlength dress had a slit up to her mid-thigh.

When Luke heard Mara coming out he had his mouth opened to complain about her taking so long to get dressed, but when he took one look at her the words got stuck in his throat. Clearing his throat numerous times, he finally managed, "You look...nice."

"It certainly took you a while..." Mara said with a slight smile.

"I was shocked that you can look like something other than what the gornt dragged in."

Mara simply shook her head at his pathetic attempt at recovery. She held up a hand with Luke's hat in it. "Missing something?" Mara asked.

"What makes you think that's mine?" Luke inquired weakly.

"I found it under a pillow in the bedroom," Mara replied.

"Maybe someone else who stayed in here before us left it there?"

"Okay genius, where's yours?"

"What makes you think that I have a hat?" Luke gave an innocent look.

"All Imperial uniforms have them. Including yours. By the way you do remember that you are supposed to wear the entire uniform, don't you?"

Luke bit the inside of his cheek and said, "Yes I know." Grudgingly he attempted to snatch his hat from her.

Mara pulled to the side, turned, and walked towards the loveseat. Luke's mouth opened at the sight of the back of her dress...because there wasn't much of one, due to its extremely low cut. Luke swallowed, then followed her to the loveseat. He sat down next to her and began to beg for the hat.

"Please Mara, let me have it."

"What will I get for it?" Mara questioned, a playful smile beginning to form.

"Mara, c'mon, we gotta go!"

"Oh, alright...But you owe me one, well, more than one."

"We'll settle scores later, but I personally don't want to get detonated into a million pieces thanks to somebody's bright idea." Luke looked pointedly at Mara.

"I thought that..." Mara began, trailing off.

"Yeah, right. I'm sure you did, talk later, move now." He thunked the cap on his head, not caring what it looked like since this wouldn't be a ceremony he would enjoy. He held out his arm roughly for Mara to grab.

"Well, you've certainly got the Imperial Admiral thing down." Mara said with a tartness added to her voice.

Luke sighed, "Mara, I'm sorry. I'm just not happy to be a 'loyal' Imperial subject."

"Well, we'll just have to do the best we can, won't we." Mara replied the tartness still evident.

Luke looked into her cold green eyes. "Mara I'm sorry, I know this is all my fault. I shouldn't have gone to Dagobah in the first place so you wouldn't have had to come get me, or I should have taken a bigger ship, but we can't change the situation, and being hostile about it won't help any."

"I know that, but this is how I deal with tough situtations, I get tough...even at the expense of hurting my closest friends."

"Is that one of the reasons you haven't completed your training? Because your "getting tough" also means dabbling at the edge of the line between the Light and the Dark Side?"

"Maybe...let's go. We don't want to keep the crowd waiting, and before you ask, I have been thinking about finishing my training." Mara said, very quickly.

"Okay." Luke held out his arm again, this time not as jerkily.

Mara accepted his arm, and they began the long walk to the banquet hall.

It took all of Luke's patience not to grab his hat off his head, throw it in the garbage bin, and rip his collar off. He was a little squirmy on the walk, but tried not to make it apparent. As a way of taking his concentration off of his uniform, he slipped his arm around Mara's waist.

"Skywalker, I'm beginning to think you might be a little nervous."

"Me? Nervous? Why should I be? I have a confining hat on, an itchy collar, I feel like some of my senses were ripped away since a certain someone hasn't given me a certain antidote, and I'm walking with the most beautiful woman in the galaxy, who at one time vowed to kill me, and I am still not sure if she ever took away that promise." Luke glanced over at Mara.

"Glad to know you think so highly of me, farmboy."

"You should be, seeing as we're going to have to live in the same suite together, for who knows how long...And have you noticed that there's only one bed? I'm certainly not sleeping on the couch!"

"It's a big bed, and as long as you stay on your side, you can sleep on it, too."

"Ah yes, but one problem." There was a mischievious glint in Luke's eyes. "I have a tendency to snuggle."

"Do you want to know what happened to the last guy who attempted to snuggle with me?" Mara said in a cautioning tone.

"Umm...I have a good imagination."

"Ahh, the guests of honor have arrived," claimed the Emperor.

"Oh, joy," Mara mumbled to Luke, who just grinned in response.

The next hour consisted of honoring them, giving them their rank insignia, and boring Mara and Luke out of their minds. Finally, it was time for the banquet. Palpatine, Vader, Luke, Mara, and the other higher ranking Imperial officers walked through the halls to a big majestic ballroom. Emperor Palpatine sat at the head of the table, with Vader at his right side, and next to Vader sat Luke and Mara. The first course was stewed sughos.

Luke poked at what looked like rotted bantha fodder after a wampa got through with it, and glanced uneasily at Mara. He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "Are we supposed to eat this stuff?"

"No, we're just supposed to look at it." Mara mumbled back sarcastically.

"Well good, cause that's what I'm gonna be doing."

Mara's face began to pale when they announced the next dish. "Skywalker?"

"What?"

"Do you think we could join the few couples dancing?"

Luke barely managed to keep a grin off his face, "Why?"

"Because, I can't eat this next dish."

"Why, aren't you hungry?"

"Do you want me to puke all night?"

"Not if you're sleeping in the same bed as me, no."

"Then let's go dance."

"'Kay." They stood up, and at a look from Vader Luke said, "'Scuse us, we're going to dance."

Vader nodded, watching them walk to the dance floor.

A slow song was beginning to play just as they got out there. "Uh, Mara, is it a problem that I don't dance?"

"This is the easy dance, all you need to do is put your arms around my waist and follow my instructions."

Luke looked at her dubiously, "All right..." Luke placed his hands around her waist and Mara slid her arms around his neck.

"Now you need to tighten your grip a little, I'm not gonna break." Mara claimed as the music got more romantic.

Luke hesitantly wrapped his arms tighter around her back, and moved closer.

"Good, now move to the music," Mara instructed, her breath warm on his face as she moved closer and placed her head on his shoulder.

Luke tensed for a moment, then relaxed and rested his head against hers. "A few years ago I'm sure you couldn't imagine you'd be dancing with the man you once wanted to kill."

"I would've sent anyone who said any of this would happen to an insane asylum."

Luke laughed, "I wouldn't put it past you."

"I still would," Mara claimed with a snicker.

"Yeah, who would take the word of me or an Imperial? 'Sides, I wouldn't want Han getting wind of this cause I would never hear the end of it."

"Then I'll be sure to tell him if we go back."

"Very little chance of that happening, after all, if we look at the Emperor in the wrong way we'll be blown to smithereens."

"You know, I think we've been here long enough, let's go back to the suite."

Luke lightly shook his head, still on hers, "No, we have to stay here awhile because we're supposed to make a speech at 2100 and its only 1900 right now. You do have your speech all planned out don't you?"

"We have to make a speech," Mara said nervously.

"Yup. You did know, didn't you?"

"No officers ever made speeches when I was with the Imperial Court."

"Well, it's been quite awhile since you've been an Imperial, things have changed. We are becoming Grand Admirals, and since that's a pretty high position, we need to make a good impression." Luke rolled his eyes.

"How would you know? Why don't I eat just enough of that dish to make me sick and we can go back?"

Luke took in a small breath, her hair carrying the scent of uagd'fu, a flower native to her home planet, "You can if you want to sleep on the couch."

"I'll sleep on the floor if we can just leave, now."

"Aww, you don't like dancing with big bad Jedi Skywalker?"

"Well, it's not you, though I'm not sure how much a Jedi you are at the moment. It's our company, and the fact that I want to be dancing in a more private area with you."

Luke turned his head slightly and saw that indeed, the Emperor and Vader's eyes were on them like hawk-bats. "Yes, I'm sure we could dispense with the pleasantries, if you want to try to convince those two."

"Let's go choke down enough of that so that I'll be sick and we can go back to the room."

"Umm, well personally, I've dealt with enough pain for an eternity...So...I guess I could ask if we could return to our quarters..."

"You don't want me to be sick?" Mara asked with a hint of confusion on her face.

"I don't want either of us to be sick. I just want to go back to our suite."

"Let's go back to the table and you can say how sore you're feeling and we can go to the suite. Then if you want we can..." Mara cut herself off. "Let's just leave right now."

"Of course, I'm the one who has to go over there!" Luke said semi-grumpily.

"NO! Let's go right now, let's just go. No excuses."

"Why? Do you want to be shot in the back with a blaster?"

"Skywalker," Mara said pulling back a little so she could look him in the face, "we need to just go."

Luke didn't need the Force to see how urgent she was. "It won't take too long I'll just go over there, say a few words, and we're gone."

"Then stop talking and start walking."

"Alright," Luke pulled away, and turned around and walked towards Vader. Mara turned and hurried towards the door.

Vader looked at Luke questioningly, "Grand Admiral Jade and I are retiring for the night, and wish to skip our speeches..." Vader continued to look at Luke expectantly. "M'lord," he said reluctantly.

"Go then my son, your schedule will be dropped by your quarters at 0700 sharp. You are not expected to work tomorrow, but you do have to go and get your bombs 'planted', and you will be given your Force antidote. The next day you had better be at your scheduled appointment on time."

Luke nodded, happy that he would soon have the Force back, and started to walk away, but he remembered to bow, then turned sharply on his heel.

The Emperor smiled evilly after Luke, thinking of Mara, and seeing a vision of their future.

"Alright, farmboy, are you happy?"

"Well, I'd be happy if I was outta here, had the Force back, and if Tontay was alive still, but I guess I'll have to take what I can get."

Mara looked almost like she'd been slapped, but it only lasted for a moment.

"No, Mara, I didn't mean..."

Mara recovered swiftly, "You didn't mean what?"

Luke was silent for a moment. "You think it's been easy to lose so many of my students? It's my fault that they died, my fault that she died. I am to blame for their deaths. That's a hard thing to live with. I didn't mean that I don't have feelings for you. I just don't want anyone to die. I try to hard to prevent it, but..."

"But you can't protect everyone. Luke, it's not all your fault that they died. But you should probably start doing one-on-one a little more often. If you have a whole lot of students some of what they should learn gets lost in the process, so when they have to call their skills to bear, it doesn't work as effectively as it could if they'd had more personal training...But, you taught them what you could, and you can't always be there to protect everyone. Tontay made her own decision, you are not the one to object to it." Mara gave Luke a hard look.

They continued walking down the corridors, and Luke kept quiet. They arrived at their suite and Luke punched in the code. They walked inside and Mara collapsed on the couch. Luke sat down on the recliner, a bit more gracefully then Mara had. The pittin mrowled and jumped into his lap, tickling his chin with a furry pink tail. "So why did you want to leave so quickly?" Luke asked. "I'm not that bad of a dancer."

Mara laughed, "I'm not so sure about that farmboy."

Luke gave her a look, "So?"

"So what?" Mara avoided his eyes.

"Why did you want to leave so quickly?" Luke repeated.

Mara shrugged, "I felt...claustrophobic."

Luke gave her a skeptical look, "I'm not gonna fall for that!"

"I wanted to avoid someone." Mara gave him a look that said Drop it!

"Who?" Luke wished he could send out a tendril of Force probe.

"One of my old Imperial...friends..." Mara could see that Luke didn't quite believe her. "Look, I'm tired right now, can we finish this conversation another time?"

Luke gave in, but promised, "We will talk later." Mara nodded, and Luke picked the pittin up off his lap to put it down. Its tail lashed angrily at being disturbed, and Deedah bit Luke's finger, jumped down, and ran into the other room. Nursing his hurt finger, Luke asked, "What is wrong with that thing?"

Mara just rolled her eyes and went into the other room. She opened the package to see what kind of night clothes they had given her. I don't think so, Mara thought. There was quite a bit of revealing garments. Wonder if they gave me a robe? She checked through a her stuff, and struck gold. There was a green robe that went remarkably well with her green eyes. Reluctantly, she grabbed some lingerie and her robe, then went into the refresher and changed. When she came back out Luke was sitting on the bed, also clad in a robe. He was immersed in a datacard, and didn't even look up when she came in.

"What are you reading farmboy?"

Luke glanced up, "Just some historical documents. You about to go to bed?"

"Yes, I'm tired. It's been a long day."

"I can't wait till they take this anti-Force stuff out of my system." Luke sighed.

"Tired of being a normal person?" Mara gave him a cool look.

That statement stung a bit, "It's not like I asked to be able to use the Force."

"Well you sure don't waste any time flaunting it around." Mara held her hand up before he could say anything, "Sorry, I am not thinking straight, I am going to bed." She grabbed a blanket and started into the other room before Luke could protest about her sleeping on the couch.

"Good night Mara," Luke's voice carried into the living area.

Mara didn't reply, just pounded her pillows a bit, softening them.

"Good night Mara," Luke repeated.

Again Mara didn't say anything, just closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.

"Good night Mara," Luke said, much louder this time.

"Sithspit," Mara mumbled, then called back to him, "Good night Skywalker."

She shook her head, to clear her mind, then pushed the rack into the bedroom where Luke was sleeping. Mara rolled it over to the closet and went over to wake him up, but paused. He looked so peaceful and innocent as he slept, reminding her that he was only two years older than she. She sat down on the edge of the bed, and brushed the hair out of his eyes. Then she finally got ahold of herself, and stood up, shaking Luke. "Wake up Lazybones."

Luke opened one eyelid, then closed it. "Come on," Mara ordered, shaking him harder.

He groaned, "Fine, I'm getting up." Then Luke rolled over, closing his eyes.

"Luke!" Mara commanded.

"Okay!" Luke stood up in bed, glaring at Mara with twinkling blue eyes.

Mara gave him a weird look and he laughed, "If you will excuse me, I am going to change in here."

"Okay, but make sure you wear your uniform, just in case." Mara went over to the rack and grabbed an Imperial uniform of her own, and headed over to the refresher. When she came out Luke looked ruffled, clawing at his collar, and his hat in his other hand. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hat from his hand and placed it upon his head. He gave her an evil look, and she returned it. They walked into the living room and sat down on the loveseat, Luke on the left, Mara on the right. Luke put his arm on the back of it, and leaned back.

"What's gonna happen to us?" Mara wondered.

"I don't know, but I hope we can get out of here someday," Luke returned.

"Oh I don't care if you leave or not, I just hope I get out of here someday," Mara gave Luke a sideways look, a teasing smile on her face.

Two can play at that game, Luke thought. A taunting grin on his face, he placed his fingers on her left shoulder, and tapped it. "Did you know that it's the same distance from here to here-" he tapped her neck, "as it is from here-" he moved his fingers on her neck again, "to here?" He moved his arm to her other shoulder, so that his arm was around her shoulders. Luke pulled her closer to him, and Mara tried to struggle out of his grip, but he held on tight. She spat a venomous glare, and tried to use the Force to pry his arms off, but Luke wouldn't budge. Mara turned her face to Luke, throwing a look that would melt durasteel. Luke gave her a much softer look, and pulled her head, straining, towards him. His lips were on hers when the doorbell rang. "Blast!"

Mara gave Luke a triumphant look, and hopped off of the loveseat and went over and answered the door. Outside were a few stormtroopers, and an Imperial officer. Luke came up behind Mara, and the khaki-uniformed officer ordered, "Follow us."

Luke and Mara complied, and were led through the corridors, to where the medical officers awaited their arrival. The stormtroopers and commander left them. The the doctor and his assistants exchanged a look, then one of them went over to the camera in the room that was conveniently hidden in a wall panel. He pretended to "accidentally" cover it with his elbow, and took out a tool from his pocket, and messed with the camera. "There," he said looking satisfied, "now we have a few minutes before anyone gets suspicious. We have already disabled the cameras in the corridors, and you must leave at once!"

Mara and Luke exchanged confused glances, "Why are you helping us?" Luke asked.

The doctor answered him, "We are tired of doing evil deeds for the Empire. You would be shocked at the condition some people have come in when we've had to operate on them.We decided we should take a stand. In the corridors, there will be no one shown walking around, but only for a little while or security will get suspicious. We have to get you two to the hangar bays, at once."

"What about-" Luke started but was cut off by one of the assistants.

"I had someone drop by your quarters to grab the animal." One of the men picked up a cage in which a distressed Deedah was trapped in. The doctor went over to Luke with a needle in his hand, he rolled Luke's sleeve up and injected it into him. Luke gave a sharp intake of breath as the Force flooded back into him. "Here are your lightsabers, now come."

Amazed, and suspicious of their luck, Luke took the cage, and they took their sabers, then they followed the doctor out. They walked for awhile, then he stopped in the middle of one of the halls, and pointed down it. "Continue straight for awhile, then take two left turns, and you will end up in the hangar bay. I have to go back." Before they could say anything he slipped away, heading back to the medical room.

"Why isn't he coming with us? Isn't he aware they will probably execute them?" Luke gave Mara a sad look. The pittin mrowled in the cage, so Luke took it out. Mewling, it climbed onto his shoulder.

"Maybe he doesn't wanna save his skin. Or maybe this is a trap. It isn't like things can get much worse so we might as well go on." Mara shrugged.

"How is the operation going?" Vader asked a nearby lieutenant.

The lieutenant leaned over a screen, then his face became puzzled. "M'lord, it seems they are not in the room."

They finally reached the bay, and Mara decided they should take a shuttle. Except for one technician the bay was deserted. Luke commanded he give them the passcode, gratefully injecting the power of Force-persuasion into his voice. Then he made it to where the man forgot that they were there, and didn't notice them.

Mara started pushing the buttons and stopped when she heard a cold hard voice, "Now my child, you wouldn't want to try to escape, would you?" She slowly turned and saw the Emperor and Vader standing there tauntingly.

"Shavit," she whispered throwing a glance to Luke who gave a sour look back.

"Surely you didn't think you could away with it Son. Your destiny lies along the Dark path. You must open your eyes and see it." Vader started walking towards Luke.

Luke tried to calm himself, tried to remember that even though Vader killed his students and Tontay, there was no reason he should stoop to his level. Mara put her arm on his, but then he couldn't take anymore. He dropped the empty cage, the pittin jumped onto the ground, and he brought out his saber, the blade hissing to life. He struck at Vader who ignited his blood-red saber and blocked his blow.

For a moment their sabers stood locked then Luke struck again, driving Vader back. Block, parry, feint, their sabers were a red and green blur. Luke's hate was bubbling, and the Emperor gave him encouraging words, while Mara tried to tell him to stop, but to no heed. He wanted to destroy this evil, so that he couldn't kill anyone else. Finally Luke heard one of Mara's shouts, "Luke, if you kill him then you are no better than him!"

The look on his face changed, but he continued dueling, then after striking, he stopped and shut off his lightsaber.

Vader was swinging a blow that was high enough to take his head off-

Mara gasped-

Palpatine chuckled with glee-

The pittin mewled-

Luke looked on, accepting his oncoming death-

-and inches from his head, Vader turned his saber off. He loved his son. He couldn't kill him. His son was willing to give his life for a good cause. Much as he himself would've done when he was much younger. Before he fought with Kenobi and fell into the lava pit...But Kenobi was dead. And he was still alive, and had a son who needed his help. He needed to remove the threat against his son's life: Emperor Palpatine.

Luke and Mara's eyebrows were furrowed, and Vader turned and headed towards Palpatine. The Emperor looked on in horror, and lightning bolts sprang from his fingertips. Vader staggered under the attack, and Luke shouted, "No!" and jumped in front of the bolts. He fell to the ground under the harsh physical assault, and the Emperor realized he could not quit Vader from killing him. So instead he kept the bolts on Skywalker, determined to destroy the one thing Vader held dear. Mara shouted, and Vader continued, and drove the lasersword through Palpatine's chest.

With a painful scream the Emperor's body exploded into a great blue blast, throwing Vader back, not too harshly, but hitting Luke with full impact. Finally, all that was left of Palpatine was his robe...and, strangely enough, his right hand. Vader hastily got to his feet, and looked over at his son. He was now transformed back into the good man he had once been, and he took a second glance at Luke, horrified...no it couldn't be.

Mara rushed over there, put her heart to his chest. The pittin followed her, mrewling mournfully. His heartbeat had stopped. She draped her body over him, trying to hold back the tears, then started sobbing uncontrollably. "He can't be dead! He can't..." she managed through her tears. Vader was too stunned to cry, after all this his son couldn't be gone...

A strange buzzing noise came from the deceased Emperor's robe, it started to glow with a red light. From inside of it a red crystal floated up into the air: the Kaiburr crystal. A few months after Luke had destroyed the Death Star, he and Leia had gone on a diplomatic mission and crashed onto a strange planet, where they had some sort of mining facility going on. They met a strange woman who had a crystal shard, from a stone she called the Kaiburr crystal. She was trying to find it because it amplified the Force, and Vader was looking for it as well. They finally found it and met together in its temple, and had a run-in with Vader.

The red crystal was still glowing with a strange kind of light, and hovered over Luke's chest. Mara moved back, along with the pittin, both scared of what the crystal might do. It moved down and touched Luke's chest. The red glow seemed to penetrate his body, and little tendrils spread throughout until he was red and glowing as well. He floated into the air, still glowing, then was gently set back down. He started breathing again, though he was still unconscious.

Both Vader and Mara looked on in awe and joy, and then the crystal started towards Vader. He watched it, stunned. It came and touched his head, the glow also spreading throughout his body, though not as brightly as it had with Luke's. Then it gently settled to the ground, and the bright glow dimmed. Then it exploded, and Vader and Mara had to shield their eyes. They were both disappointed about the destruction of this healing crystal, but Vader had another matter to worry about.

He was having a hard time breathing, so in lack of any better ideas, he took off his helmet. He took in a deep breath: he could breathe normally. He touched his face, and the top of his head. He had hair, and his face was like a regular person's! He took off his left glove: the skin was no longer white from lack of sunlight for many years, but peach. Then he took off his right glove, and found his hand was still mechanical. But that was the only part of him that was still machine, and was an example of the way he had lived. It served as a reminder of the evil he and his son had overcome, that was why all that remained of the Emperor was his right hand. And why his son's right hand wasn't similarily cured. The Force seemed to want them to remember this day always, and Vader almost could have sworn that he heard the laughter of his old Jedi Master, Yoda in his head.

Mara walked over to where the Emperor's robe and hand was, and wrapped the latter in the former, then rolled it under a nearby ship. She walked back to Luke and...Anakin Skywalker. That red stone had worked two miracles. She wasn't sure what to say, so Anakin said it for her, "I'm glad it's over."

She cracked a smile, "Yeah."

They both turned to a moaning noise, Luke's eyelids fluttered and he shot up. The pittin mewled happily, and Luke looked down at himself, then at Mara. Then he glanced at his father, looked back at himself, then sharply looked back at Vader. "I thought I was dead...And Father...you look...normal."

"The crystal save your life once again, and it healed me...Except for our right hands, and the Emperor's right hand is remaining as well. It's a symbol of our journey." Anakin smiled.

It was weird to look at a kindly man in a suit that had struck terror into the hearts of millions. Luke slowly got to his feet. "Can we go home?" Mara asked.

Luke and Anakin laughed, "Yes, let's." Luke agreed.

Anakin hesitated, "What will they think of me?"

"Let's get you a change of clothes, and tell people you were the Emperor's prisoner. And only tell trustworthy people of your identity, until we can get you completely cleared." Luke looked at his father, "I'm sure they'll understand."

Mara went over to Luke and hugged him, "I thought you were dead." Her eyes were still a bit red.

"I was, but I'm not now." Luke embraced her back tightly. The pittin crawled up his pant leg, and he winced a bit at her claws, then she scuttered up to his shoulder. He pulled back from the hug, and he grabbed her hand and started leading her out of the hangar bay, side by side with her and his father. But then he stopped, and leaned down and picked up a red shard, the last piece of the Kaiburr crystal.

They changed into some tunics that Anakin managed to scrounge up, and got aboard a shuttle. Anakin went into the back to meditate, Deedah had curled up somewhere to take a nap, and Mara and Luke were left alone in the cockpit. Mara stood up to stretch, and Luke followed suit. She started to sit down, but he blocked her path. She tried to go on the other side, but he moved there too. Mara tilted her head, a little exasperated. He started forward, and she moved backward. Finally he had her pinned against the wall, and put his hands on both sides of her. He brought his face close to hers.

"We have some unfinished business." Their lips came together in a sweet heartfelt kiss. It seemed to last forever, until Luke pulled back for air. Mara's eyes were closed and for once her face looked peaceful. He moved his head down her neck, nipping and trailing kisses on down. When he got uncomfortably low, Mara brought his chin up. "Luke, your father is on this ship you know."

He shrugged, catching that she actually said his first name, and then tried to continue on, but she prevented him. She gave him a warning look and he stopped. "Fine..." Luke's dancing blue eyes looked into her brilliant green eyes. There seemed to be some words on the tip of his tongue that didn't seem to want to come out. Mara gave him a beckoning look. "Mara I..."

"Yes...?" She wasn't going to make this easy for him.

"I...love you."

Luke looked like he was expecting a reply, so she smiled and gave him a kiss on the lips, "I love you too."

He looked like a ten ton weight had been taken off his chest, and he laughed, picked her up, and spun her around. Then he turned solemn, "Would you...I mean to say..." He gave a nervous grin, "Do you think you could...Will you marry me?"

Leia looked at her brother questioningly, and he gave a weak smile, shooting a look at Han. Luke hadn't planned to tell them, well, Leia, yet. He didn't have much of a choice now. "Mara and I, are..." he glanced at Mara, and she nodded for him to continue, "-going to get married."

Han came over and hugged him, "You scoundrel! I'm glad you're done aimlessly wandering around the universe searching for a girl, and found what's been in front of you the whole time!"

Leia also got another hug in. "I'm also happy that you've found someone," she put it more eloquently than her ex-smuggler husband had.

Leia also hugged a startled Mara, and Han shook her hand, not wanting to embrace the deadly woman, just in case she had some sudden urge to bore a blaster bolt into his head.

Luke turned, and called up the ship's ramp, "You can come out now."

An elderly, kind-looking man came walking down the ramp, pausing as he saw Han Solo and his wife. He smiled in greeting.

"Welcome, I am Leia Organa Solo, and this is my husband, Han." Leia didn't recognize the stranger.

The man hesitated, looking towards Luke, who, in turn, looked at Mara, who shrugged. Luke nodded at him to go ahead. "I am Anakin Skywalker."

Leia gasped, and Han started to reach for his blaster. Luke gave him a warning look, and the smuggler stopped his move. "I thought you were dead...and what happened to...your suit?"

Luke took control, and gave a brief summary of the events that had occured from Dagobah, up to where they were now. "We should probably have a private meeting with the Council members about whether or not we should keep our father's identity a secret," Luke proposed to Leia.

Leia thought about it, "You're right, I'm not sure how the rest of the Republic will react, so we had best discuss it first..."

"Great. There's no better time then the present, so do you think you can arrange one within the hour?" Luke asked. He looked at Mara, who seemed impatient, and his father, who was studying his daughter.

Leia nodded. Han grinned at Luke, "I'd say your marriage would probably only last two minutes without Jade getting an overwhelming desire to kill ya kid, but to each his own."

Mara gave him a piercing glare, "Anymore of that, and your head will be the one on a platter."

Han laughed, and Leia elbowed him. Smiling, she asked, "When do you want to begin the wedding arrangements?"

"We just get home and already you're talking about the wedding preparations?" Luke laughed. "That's typical of you Leia!"

After sending Chewie off with the children into their playroom, Jade, Skywalker, and the Solo's had a long heated debate. Leia insisted on them having an Alderaanian ceremony, but they wanted a small wedding. Han was secretly on Luke and Mara's side, but wouldn't dare argue with the princess. Leia pointed out that with smugglers and the rest of Karrde's people on one side, and diplomats and other members of the Republic on the other, the wedding wouldn't exactly be small. Both sides had to compromise, so they agreed on a medium-sized wedding.

Throughout the argument, Anakin Skywalker remained quiet. After the bickering stopped, he spoke up with a smile, "As happy as I am to see my son married, and planning his wedding, I think New Republic Intelligence would be just as happy to learn some of the information I have on the Imperial remnants."

Leia's eyes lit up, indeed her father must have some juicy secrets. "I could schedule a meeting...would tomorrow morning be good for you?"

Anakin nodded, "Indeed, I'm not doing anything tomorrow." He gave a hearty laugh and stood up with a groan, "I'm not as young as you kids, so I think I'm going to turn in for the night."

Leia also stood up, "We have an extra bedroom, and I'm sure Han would let you borrow something to sleep in. I've kept up the payments on your apartment Luke, but I don't think Mara was quite as lucky..."

Mara slitted her eyes in annoyance, and she, Han, and Luke rose to their feet. "We've had a tiring day as well," Luke said, yawning.

After a chorus of good-nights, a round of hugs, everyone went their mostly separate ways to catch some shut-eye.

Luke and Mara walked out, the former's arm over the latter's shoulders. They paced down the hallways, Mara leaning her head against Luke, dozing off. Smiling, Luke slowly scooped Mara up into his arms. She mumbled something in her sleep, and put her arms around him, tightly. Luke entered his apartment, and went into his room. He gently placed her on the bed, but her arms remained around him. He kicked off his shoes, and removed her's. Luke pulled down the blankets, and got himself and Mara under the covers.

Her lips were moistly parted in sleep, beckoning him. Luke gave Mara a soft kiss, and snoozed off, himself.

While Luke and Mara slept in, Leia dragged Han to a meeting with Anakin Skywalker, and high-level New Republic officials. Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar helped head the meeting. Fey'lya had been killed in an assassination attempt, while Luke and Mara had their little adventure, and though the assassins were thrown in jail, not very many people mourned his death. (I certainly wouldn't mind if he keeled over!) After being given the proper equipment, and being closely watched by suspicious NRI operatives, Anakin sent out a signal concerning his turning and offering good alternatives to the remaining Imperials if they switched sides. He included the positions they could hold in the Republic if deemed trustworthy, and retirement benefits. There were several Rebel sympathizers Anakin hadn't killed when he was still the evil Sith Lord, because they were good workers, and were too frightened to do anything for the Republic with him looking over their shoulders, though he knew they would readily desert the Empire, and bring many of the ships with them, when they found out he had gone over to the Republic.

Afterwards, they held a meeting in which Anakin gave NRI important data about Imperial remnants, which they took, going to desperate measures to figure out if what he told them was just a trap to lower their guard, and agreed that he could roam free without a 24 hour guard, because Leia insisted that her and her brother would vouch for him. Between Han fingering his blaster, and Leia giving her stubborn princess look, they had little choice.

Anakin Skywalker smiled tiredly at his daughter and son-in-law. Leia realized the meetings had lasted hours, and it was past lunchtime. "How about we head over to our apartment and I'll fix us a late brunch?"

Han looked like he was about to object, but was silenced by a warning look from Leia. The ex-Sith Lord nodded, "I would appreciate it much."

As much as Leia wanted to remain mad at her father, looking at his weary eyes and face diminished her anger. He'd been through too much to have his own daughter mad at him along with a healthy portion of the universe. Luke believed in him, and Leia would too. "Good." They walked to Han and Leia's apartment, where Leia headed into the kitchen.

Before she entered it, Han called out, "Should we invite Mara and the kid?" He paused, and mischieviously added, "Or do you think they are too tired?"

Don't like the ending? Welp, sorry. Write me about it if it's that important to you.