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You find out where Velika went in this one.

"Does anyone know where Velika is?" The dreaded question. Luke had been hoping that his dad would just assumed she had locked herself away in her room again, due to some unknown project of hers.

Luke suddenly found his dinner plate fascinating. "Luke?" Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…

He forced himself to look his dad in the eye. "Dad?" He tried to sound innocent, and he was speaking to anyone but his dad, it probably would have worked. But it was his dad. His dad, who could pick up on his anxiety without even thinking about it. Crap, crap crap…

Anakin understood immediately, and sighed as he asked, "Where'd she go?"

Mega Crap. "Uuhh, she didn't, uh, say. Not really," he fumbled, blindly hoping that his dad would fall for it, even though that was as likely as Velika materializing out of thin air. Well, you never knew with Velika…

"That's not what I asked you, Luke," Anakin said, his tone implying prolonged grounding if he didn't fess up right then. "Where did she go?"

"I'm not sure," Luke said truthfully. He really didn't know, seeing as the last eight million times Velika flew off, it was to completely different places.

He saw his dad's jaw tighten a little and hurriedly continued, "How am I supposed to know? She just ran off after she lost it with that Nolen dude-and he deserved it by the way, he's a total pain, no one likes him-and when I asked her where she was going she was all, 'Where the hell do you think?' and she just flew off. I mean-,"

"What happened with 'that Nolen dude'?" Anakin interrupted, "And that's not that movie star brat, Nolen Vorkina, is it?"

"Anakin!" Padme gave him a dirty look.

Leia turned to her mom and said, "Well, he is, mom. He thinks he's, like, the king of the universe or something. He even insulted you and dad." Luke winced when she said that. She should not have said that. Now dad's gonna be mad at him…

"He did what!" Anakin yelled.

Leia didn't seem fazed however. She continued calmly, "Yeah. He said, 'you and your low, undeserving family are the stupidest, most ignorant snobs I have ever-,' and then Velika started yelling at him again. I was so glad she smacked him, though. I've been dying to-OW!" she yelled as Luke kicked her under the table.

"Don't kick me!" She kicked him back harder.

Anakin gave her a wary look. "She smacked him?" Leia nodded. "How hard?"

Leia thought for a second. "I'd be surprised if he didn't have a bruise. You could hear it all the way down the hall." She gave her father a look. "And that's a really long, hall, just so you know."

Anakin sighed and stood up, muttering, "Nice going, Velika, now we're gonna get sued…"

"I don't think he's that stupid, dad. I'll bet he didn't even tell his parents about it. He looked really embarrassed." Leia said, laughing a bit at the end. Anakin just rolled his eyes and walked away.

"I'm grounded, aren't I?" Luke asked his mom.

Padme didn't even look up as she said, "Yep."

Velika sat on the top of what she called the spiral, which was really just a radio tower that came up from the top of her school. She was trying to calm herself down, and was having little success. She put her head back and took a deep breath, trying to meditate, when she heard someone climbing up below her.

She didn't even need to look to know who it was. "Hey Loner."

"I thought I told you not to call me that," Han Solo replied, more than a little annoyed.

Velika grinned, "You didn't actually expect me to listen, did you?" She asked innocently. He rolled his eyes.

"I was hoping for the impossible," He climbed up a little more and sat next to her. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Fuming," She replied, her eyes still closed.

Han glanced at her. "I saw that little episode in the hall," he grinned, "You didn't hang around long enough to see the red mark on that 'cocky little wretch's face."

Velika opened her eyes and rolled them. "Hope he gets a bruise." She paused and looked at him for a moment, "What are you doing up here, anyway?"

His grin widened immensely. "I was betting on the swoop races again," Velika nodded in understanding. She looked at him and raised her eyebrows to say, what did you win this time?

"Come on, I want to show you what I got," He saw her hesitate. "Come on, it's awesome. If you don't like it, then…" He trailed off for a dramatic effect, and then started climbing down. After a couple seconds, he seemed to think of something and looked back up at her.

"You know how you said you wanted Nolen to have a bruise?" Velika nodded. "How hard did you hit him?"

Velika smirked and started to follow him down. "Let's just say I put my weight behind it."

The School Hangar

"Kriff me," Velika said as she saw Han's 'prize'. "It looks fast."

"It don't just look fast. It is fast." Han looked proudly over his new ship. "The fastest in the galaxy, at least according to Lando."

Velika looked skeptical, "How do you know he wasn't lying?" Lando had a really bad habit of 'bending the truth' to get people to bet on the races. That way he won more and didn't lose anything valuable.

"Because he's been telling me for weeks. I never thought he was going to bet on it." Han looked like he still had trouble believing it. "He was pretty upset to lose it, too. Tried to cheat me out of it-said it wasn't a fair bet."

Velika looked at for a minute or two before she noticed the sunset outside. It was beautiful, since the light reflected differently against all the pollution, creating unique patterns, then noticed what that meant. "Uh, Han?"

"Yeah?" He replied, glancing at her again.

"What time is it?" He showed her his chrono-watch. "Kriff. Gotta go."

"Your dad's gonna kill you, isn't he?" He yelled after her as she turned and practically flew out the hangar. She didn't answer him, so he just called, "Well, it was nice knowing you!"

Velika snuck down the hall towards her room, literally not making a sound. Please let him be asleep already…

"Ahem." She stopped and closed her eyes in frustration. It never worked. She doubted there would ever be a day when she actually made it to her room.

Putting on an innocent smile as she turned around, she said sweetly, "Oh, hello Daddy. Didn't see you there."

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "I'm so sure." He glared at her for a minute, but Velika held his gaze without flinching, and started counting down until when she knew he would blow. Five, four…

There was a very prolonged, awkward silence. Velika knew it wouldn't last, though. If she knew her dad as well as she thought she did, it was only a matter of seconds until he exploded. Three, two…

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" One. He yelled as Velika stood there with a serene expression on her face. Whoa, he's scary when he's mad. Hope he didn't do that to Luke. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS?"

When he paused to breathe, Velika interjected very calmly, "You couldn't sense me, could you?"

He looked surprised, and paused before answering. She waited patiently for him to speak. "No. I couldn't."

She gave him a small smile and continued, "And if something had happened to me, don't you think you would've been able to sense it?"

From the look on her father's face, Velika was sure she had already won. "Yeah," he finally said.

"And since you didn't sense anything, don't you think it would be safe to assume that nothing had happened to me, and therefore I wasn't in any danger?"

"Yes, but you're missing the point, Velika. You don't know how terrifying it is to reach into the Force and not feel you. My rational side knows that your fine, but I keep thinking that it's not you shielding yourself, that someone put a force dampener on you or something.

Velika gave him a slightly disbelieving look. "Do you think anyone would be able to get within twenty miles of me with a force dampener without me, um…apprehending them?"

"You've had a force dampener on before," He said.

She glared at him. "You know what I mean."

"Luke isn't grounded, is he?" She asked, feeling a little guilty. But just a little.

"Yep," Anakin replied, and continued before she could protest, "I know there's no way he could have possibly kept you out of that starfighter, but he should've told me as soon as he could."

Velika shrugged and started walking to her room. She stopped as she thought of something else, "Am I grounded?"

Anakin thought for a second. "It depends."

"On what?"

"Why'd you smack that Vorkina kid?"

Velika thought how best to reply. "He wouldn't leave me alone. He kept saying that I was just surprised someone like him would be into someone like me, and kept telling me how great he was, and all that." She paused. "I would've apologized eventually-if he hadn't insulted you guys."

She waited for her dad to answer. He seemed to be digesting the whole story. "Judging by what Luke and Leia said, he deserved it." He gave her a reprehending look. "Just don't do it again."

Velika smirked as she continued towards her room. "I won't. Unless he really, really deserves it."