Chapter 3

Lothal

"Okay, so it's now your turn," Glaucon said, handing his lightsaber over to Elkanah. There was a training remote in front of him, a floating ball with grooves on the sides designed to test whether he could block blaster bolts or not, and the older man had already gone through a round himself, for better or for worse. Glaucon had actually been shot several times by the annoying little ball, but he continued training until he started to actually deflect the blaster bolts coming from the thing.

Now it was Elkanah's turn and he wasn't looking forward to it. With a bit of trepidation, he ignited the yellow blade of the lightsaber and took a deep breath as the training remote started shooting blasts at him. He tried but failed to actually hit any of those blaster shots with his lightsaber. And he tried some more until he was more than a little fed up with it.

"I give up," he told Glaucon, turning off the lightsaber and handing it back to his teacher.

"You give up?" Glaucon asked, not too surprised but more than a little disappointed. "These things take time, young man."

"Yeah, maybe a lot more time than I have," Elkanah responded, pressing a button on the wall-mounted comm unit. "Any idea on the ETA to Lothal, Yvette?" he asked.

"We're about two hours out," she told him.

"Okay, thanks," he said, shutting off the comm. "So, I guess that's it, unless you have something else we could do that won't cause me a bunch of pain."

Glaucon chuckled. "I have something in mind. Just come with me."

"Okay, I know that look. How come I get the feeling I'm not going to like what you have planned," Elkanah asked as they walked past Mara Jade.

"So, you're doing some training, huh?" she asked, curious.

"Yeah, you're welcome to come with us if you'd like," the big man offered.

"Maybe later," the redhead replied. "I've got to get upstairs to make sure that Yvette doesn't crash the ship or something."

"I'm flying this thing just fine!" the girl shouted from the pilot's chair.

"Then I guess I'll just practice my aim a bit in your shooting gallery," she said, heading into the other room.

"Okay, see you later," Glaucon said and he headed to his quarters with his student. "First things first, if you would please sit down on my bed in a lotus position," he ordered Elkanah.

"Uh, okay, you mean that cross-legged position, right?" Elkanah asked, walking over to the bed and feeling its soft, brown felt.

"Yes, that's the one," Glaucon said, shutting the door behind him and then sitting down next to Elkanah, crossing his legs as well, though it took him just a little bit more effort.

"This kind of hurts," Elkanah commented.

"You'll get used to it. Plus, I'll teach you how to suppress pain one of these days so it shouldn't matter too much when we get to that." Glaucon smiled and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Assuming I don't decide to stay on Lothal with my parents or something, the younger man thought, glancing over at Glaucon and seeing the man's smile change to a neutral expression. "Okay, now what?"

"Close your eyes, breath in and breath out," the man commanded.

How could he tell my eyes were open? Elkanah pondered, doing as his teacher said.

"Now, try to sense what's in the room. Where is my nightstand?" the older man asked.

"Behind me and to the right or to the left," Elkanah said.

"Yes, there are two of them. How about the chair that I have where is that?" Glaucon asked and Elkanah felt the room using his senses. He then realized where the chair was.

"It's in front of me to the left, almost by the bathroom."

Glaucon nodded and Elkanah could sense that. It was the strangest thing. He was starting to get it and he didn't have to use his eyes to do so either.

"What's on the chair?" the man inquired.

There was indeed something on the chair and Elkanah felt that too. It was a sort of spherical object and the young man was figuring out how large it was. He also noticed the contours along the outside and even noticed the coloration of the ball. "It's a grav-ball," he told Glaucon, familiar with the object from playing on his high school team.

Glaucon smiled again. "Sounds like you're getting the hang of it. Now, try picking up the ball with your mind," he ordered.

Elkanah extended his arm toward the direction of the grav-ball and attempted to move it. It didn't work. He then tried again and he seemed to push it a little, but only about a centimeter or so.

"Okay, it's still not working."

"You give up too easily, kid," Glaucon told him. "Keep trying, say, fifty times."

"Fifty times?" Elkanah asked, confused, opening his eyes look at his teacher.

"Try it once, count to one, then as second time and two and so on," Glaucon suggested. "Some things require rote and this is no exception. You'll get the hang of it. I did and I was a bit older than you are at the time."

Elkanah huffed, but he would do it, even if it felt like that one time he got in trouble as a kid and had to write a sentence out on the board fifty times. So he worked at it, continuing to press against the ball with his mind, pushing more and more. Sometimes he'd fail and sometimes he'd succeed in pushing it another centimeter.

Then, at about the forty-first time, he pushed it a little bit too hard, causing it to head straight into Glaucon's mirror. Thankfully, it had a finish on it that prevented it from being broken, but the very thought of destroying some of his host's property was more than enough to cause the young man to apologize profusely.

"Hey, you didn't break anything. Look, it landed into my shower area, even," the bigger man remarked with a bit of a grin, standing in front of the sink and at the entrance to the large shower that he had installed in the ship. "Just be a bit more careful next time, that is all."

Elkanah sighed. "Oh, okay, that's good to hear."

Then the comm went off. "Attention all passengers," Yvette said, rather cheesily too, "We are currently entering Lothal space and will be landing shortly. Thank you for flying Yvette Spacelines."

Elkanah immediately brought his palm to his forehead. "Not that joke again."

Glaucon just chuckled a bit. "Hey, don't sweat it. She's having fun. You kids take things too seriously sometimes."

"I guess we should get strapped in, then," the younger man suggested.

"It doesn't matter too much. You still have nine more tries, remember?" Glaucon asked, putting the ball down on the chair.

"Maybe some other time," he said, downtrodden and walking out of the older man's quarters.

Yvette looked out the window as the ship landed right by the homestead where Elkanah's parents lived. She felt a bit of jealousy looking across the grassy fields, realizing that Elkanah actually had a homeworld whereas she didn't. She wondered if he was going to leave the group there and what that meant for her. She figured that if he did that, she would too, staying with her friend and his parents, assuming they'd let her. At the same time, there was another realization that dawned on her as she touched down. She would be bored out of her mind there outside of a giant city like where she grew up.

"Yeah, there it is, just as I left it," Elkanah commented with a smile, startling her as she touched down on the grass next to the house, a rather nice-looking building that wouldn't look out of place on Tatooine.

The hatch opened and Yvette followed Elkanah out along with Zeb.

"You know, it's crazy to think that I lived here once," the Lasat commented. "I was actually kind of glad when Darth Vader came and kicked us off the planet."

"You met Darth Vader?" Elkanah asked in surprise as he stepped into the grass.

"It wasn't as great as it sounds. It was actually really frightening, you know. He just about gave everyone a run for their money… and lives." Zeb gritted his teeth at such a memory.

"So, was this before or after you met my parents?" Elkanah asked out of curiosity. He stopped and looked back at the ship. It was taking a while for Glaucon and Mara to get off.

"Oh, after. I'd known your mother for a couple of years at that point and your dad had just joined us a few months before," the Lasat answered. Mara came walking down the ramp followed by Glaucon who was dressed casually. Elkanah figured that since the man was now a professor emeritus that he didn't feel like dressing as formally as he did at the university anymore.

"How about Glaucon? When'd you meet him?" the Lothal native asked.

"Way after that. He showed up when the Ghost was in for repairs just after the destruction of Alderaan."

"Wait, how many years before the destruction of Alderaan did you meet my dad?" Elkanah asked, confused.

"About five," Zeb told him. "Your dad was about to turn fifteen."

Elkanah nodded, about to open up his front door. He made his way inside and started calling for his parents. "Hey, mom, dad! You home?"

Quickly, his mother came out of the back, her white apron covered in paint. Even after all those years, she still spent many hours working on her artwork, even though she had moved on from graffiti to paintings. She immediately went over to her son and hugged him tightly. "You made it!"

Elkanah quickly gave in and returned the hug. "I love you."

"After everything, I'm just glad you made it home safe," the middle-aged woman responded with a smile and tears coming down her face. "So, who are your friends. Other than Zeb, of course."

"Of course, you remember me," the Lasat said with a grin.

"You wouldn't let me or Ezra forget."

"This is Yvette Sella," Elkanah told her, introducing the girl.

"It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Bridger," Yvette greeted with a smile and a handshake.

"It's great to meet you too. I'm glad at least some of Elkanah's friends made it off of Hosnian Prime," Sabine said.

Yvette gave the woman an uneasy chuckle as her face became slowly downtrodden. "I'm glad too."

"Oh, and this is Mara," Elkanah said, indicating the red-haired woman at the door.

"Pleased to meet you," Mara Jade responded.

"Wow, you're gorgeous. Are you the one who got Elkanah offworld?" Sabine asked.

"Oh, no, I met him at Terminus," she admitted. "The honor of getting him off of Hosnian Prime goes to Glaucon, wherever he is."

"Hey, where'd he go?" Elkanah asked, confused about what had happened to his former professor.

"Wait, Glaucon Athanatos?" Sabine asked, surprised.

"Yeah, that would be me," the big man said, coming from around the corner, somewhat bashful. "I just noticed there's a bit of a leak coming from one of your cooling shafts."

"Oh, that. Elkanah, I've been meaning to get your father to replace that stupid thing, but he just hasn't gotten around to doing it. And Glaucon, you haven't aged a day. What's your secret?"

"It's a long story and the actual methods have been lost ever since my homeworld got bombarded," he replied simply.

"Oh, I hear you. Lothal almost got destroyed by the empire itself," Sabine said. "Still, it's great to see you, even if you can't make me twenty years younger."

"I can, but I'd rather not broadcast that. Plus, it tends to take a lot out of me." The bearded man scratched the back of his neck, slightly uncomfortable at the thought.

"Hey, you did it to me," Mara told him. "I'm sure you can do it to them too."

"Trust me, I've had people try and hunt me down because of it."

Sabine noticed his discomfort. "Why are we standing around like this. Come on in and sit down. I'll even turn on the projector. I hear they're electing a new chancellor."

The group obliged and sat around the living room as Elkanah's mother turned on the holoprojector. However, instead of getting coverage of the elections, they got an interview involving the same exact reporter that had interviewed Glaucon shortly before the destruction of Hosnian Prime.

"How in the Galaxy is she still alive?" he asked before noticing that nobody else really cared. Instead, they were looking at who she was interviewing: an Imperial Grand Admiral in white regalia.

"Wait, him?" Elkanah asked, surprised at seeing the man with the moustache.

"What is it about old Pelly that you know?" Mara asked, curious.

"I just remember seeing him in a dream…" Elkanah admitted.

"So, why are they even interviewing this guy anyway?" Yvette asked with spite.

Sabine grabbed the remote and rewound the interview to the beginning.

"Hello, this is Elaina Corran speaking and today we have a special guest, Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon of the Imperial Remnant. Now, Admiral, what are your thoughts on the recent destruction of Hosnian Prime."

"I am greatly grieved that the First Order would stoop to such a low level," the man said, seemingly sincere. "In fact, in their hour of need, I have proposed that we give a number of supplies to the Republic, free of charge."

"Oh please, this guy obviously supports the First Order!" Sabine said angrily.

"So, you don't approve of the First Order's strategy?"

"No, absolutely not. My empire is a new empire, a different empire from the one my predecessors ruled over," the man explained. "We have kept to the agreements of the Galactic Concordat and disarmed, not training Stormtroopers and only keeping a token defense force for dealing with space pirates and the like. In fact, we see no reason to retaliate against the Republic at this time since we are prospering in other ways. We have also left behind the xenophobia and racism that Emperor Palpatine and the First Order both espoused."

"So, you think this guy's telling the truth?" Yvette asked everyone in the room.

"Uh, how about no?" Zeb said in response. "I don't trust this bloke one bit."

"I don't think any of us do," Glaucon said for the entire group.

"So, where's Dad at?" Elkanah asked Sabine.

"He's still at work but he should be here soon," the middle-aged woman answered, sighing under her breath. "He's been really busy lately with various projects to improve Lothal's infrastructure."

"Oh, okay. Hey, maybe we could go visit him," the young man suggested to his group.

"Hey, why not?" Yvette replied with a smile, one of the first since the destruction of Hosnian Prime. "We'll get to see the city, after all."

"Okay, might as well," Glaucon responded. "It's been over a week since I went and worked out so maybe I can go to a gym while I'm there."

"You work out?" Mara asked in surprise. "I'll probably stay here and see if I can get ahold of Karrde, or if not him, then someone else in the Smuggler's Alliance."

"That works," Glaucon said, heading toward the door.

"You want to come too, mom?" Elkanah asked Sabine.

After a brief pause she shrugged. "Sure, why not. I haven't visited your dad in his office in a while."

Sabine's speeder cruised along the highway leading into Lothal City, passing past the numerous streetlights that dotted its landscape at hundreds of kilometers an hour. While she drove, Elkanah took in the sights, glancing at all the fields that he remembered from his childhood.

Needless to say, different memories went through Sabine's head, ones of guerrilla warfare against an oppressive regime. She glanced at all the spots she remembered facing off against everything from imperial probe droids to inquisitors and felt glad that those days were behind her.

Yvette just took in the sights of fields that she had never seen in person before, allowing the vastness to fill her with awe. She realized that after thirty years, Lothal had healed, so maybe she could heal too, though she didn't know how long it would take.

Glaucon didn't really take in the sights that much since he had seen it all before, preferring to meditate instead. It was at about then that he realized they were being followed. He opened his eyes and used the force to feel the person behind them, approaching them in their speeder. The person backed off, showing him that they were at least force-sensitive enough to sense him sensing them.

"Okay, everybody, you're going to have to be cautious. I think someone was following us," he told the group, glancing back. The other vehicle was barely in sight range now. "Someone Force-sensitive."

"Oh great, don't tell me it's another Knight of Ren like last time," Yvette guessed.

"I don't know and I don't want to find out," the bigger man said, glancing back toward the other speeder. "Keep watch out for anybody suspicious."

"So, you're Force-sensitive?" Sabine realized.

"Yeah, but that's not really that important at the moment."

"You better not end up putting any of my family in danger just by being here," the middle-aged woman warned him.

"I'm not," Glaucon replied. "None of these guys should even know about me since I've tried to keep a low profile. Even then, I don't even know why the Knights of Ren would even care about me. According to any sort of official records, I'm just a second-rate Jedi dropout."

"But you're not," Yvette realized. "When you took Mara into your room, you cured the witch and made her young." The dark-skinned girl chuckled. "I bet you didn't think I'd notice that the wrinkles around her eyes were gone."

"Even the Jedi didn't know about that power when I trained with them," Glaucon informed her, continuing to track their mysterious stalker.

A part of Elkanah wanted to ask Glaucon if he would eventually teach him how to heal, but he didn't want to reveal that piece of info to his mother just yet. The woman just kept on driving, her expression serious.

"Okay, here's the gym," Sabine informed Glaucon as she dropped him off.

"Thank you very much for doing this," the big man told her.

"No problem," the middle-aged woman said. "I come here a lot myself. It's right down the street from the gallery where I display some of my works."

Glaucon climbed out of the vehicle. "I'll have to check those out sometime," he told her.

"Maybe if we have time," she replied with a smile. "See you in a couple of hours."

Glaucon nodded. "Okay, bye," he said with a grin of his own, shutting the door.

Then Sabine drove off, her expression serious again. "Elkanah, did Glaucon ever teach you anything involving the Force?" she asked.

"What? Why?" he asked her. "And how would you even know if I'm Force-sensitive?"

"Your father has known all your life. You had to have gotten it from somewhere and you got it from him," she informed him, her almond eyes narrowed. "Now, tell me."

"Dad's Force-sensitive?" Elkanah asked, slightly mortified by the secret that has been kept from him all his life. "How come he didn't teach me anything?"

"Elkanah, both you and your sister Peninnah are Force-sensitive. Your father hasn't taught you anything because…"

"Why mom?" Elkanah asked, annoyed that his mother would drop this bombshell.

"He wanted to protect you. He was told that you have some sort of destiny ahead of you or something. But your father… well… he almost fell to the Dark Side all those years ago when we came across someone named Darth Maul, a Sith Lord."

"What? You guys ran into a Sith Lord?" Yvette asked in sheer disbelief. "No wonder you didn't want to train Elkanah."

The young man gritted his teeth. "Couldn't you have done anything else? It's not like I could fall to the Dark Side like dad almost did."

"Elkanah, there is always a chance you could end up falling to the Dark Side," his mother told him. "When you were just a few years old, Luke Skywalker even came by and offered to have you trained to be a Jedi. Your father absolutely didn't want that to happen and seeing what happened just a few years later when the Knights of Ren attacked, ours was the right decision."

"No way, you met Luke Skywalker," Elkanah said in sheer shock. He wasn't happy with his parents to say the least and he would have jumped at the chance to train with the legendary Jedi who fought Darth Vader, but knowing what had happened… He had to admit that his parents had made the right choice in the long run.

"We've met him a few times over the years, though not after the destruction of his Jedi Order. Nobody knows where he is these days." Sabine looked wistfully as she parked the speeder in the parking garage accompanying the office building where Elkanah's father worked. "Well, we're here," she said with an uneasy smile.

"You know, even though I wish dad would have taught me something, I'm just glad to be alive," he told his parents.

"I'm… really happy you're alive too, Elkanah," Sabine told him just before feeling him grab her in a hug as some tears flowed down his face and hers too. Yvette felt like crying too and she eventually gave in, wishing her own parents were around along with her sister Korr, wishing none of them had to die.

After getting dropped off, Glaucon tried masking his force signature as much as he could, but he just could not shake off his pursuer, so he made his way to the gym's locker room for human and near-human men, took off his shirt, went to the bathroom and shaved off his beard using his personal all-tool which contained an electric shaver, hoping that seeing his baby-faced look would throw off whoever was pursuing him in case they were looking for him.

He then took off his pants, revealing his gym shorts, and put his undershirt on. He then made his way out to the weight-training, working on his strength next to a rather bulky red-skinned Zeltron. He knew that the man couldn't be the force-sensitive since he couldn't sense any emanations of the Force coming from him.

Glaucon did a few exercises and then sensed his pursuer coming through the door. From what he could sense, he could tell that the person wasn't wearing a hood with a mask and he didn't feel any sense of cold from them, so they weren't a Knight of Ren. That is unless they were undercover.

The big man took a deep breath as he put the weights back on the shelf, looking into a nearby mirror to covertly gaze across the gym. The pursuer had apparently performed a Jedi mind-trick on the poor girl at the front desk to get in for free and was walking toward the locker room that Glaucon was just in. It was as the man was walking across the gym that Glaucon got a good look at him.

The man had long, raven-colored hair and was wearing a black trenchcoat over another black outfit, providing a stark contrast to his pale skin. In addition, there was a familiar cylinder hanging from his waist that was definitely a lightsaber. Due to the black outfit, Glaucon immediately assumed that the man was a Dark Side-user, though he reminded himself not to jump to conclusions, especially since he didn't feel any frigid emanations coming from him. The man could have simply been one of Luke's Jedi who had somehow escaped the purge. Then again, he could have been an Inquisitor.

But Glaucon had to remind himself that the likelihood of that happening was incredibly low since the Inquisitorius had disbanded with the fall of the Empire and Emperor Palpatine's death and lack of leadership to guide them. Most of them died in the oncoming battles though a couple became Imperial warlords. On the other hand, some could have joined the Knights of Ren, though none could have been as young as this man who had just disappeared into the locker room. Of course, he did look to be in his late thirties, early forties, but that was still too young.

Glaucon really had no idea. Thankfully, he had successfully masked himself using the Force, preventing the other man from finding him. It took him long enough. Still, Glaucon wasn't going to take any chances. He hadn't survived that long by rushing headlong into danger, after all. So, he put his dumbbells down, got up and mounted one of the exercise bikes, pulling the map out of his gym shorts and putting it in front of him on the controls for the bike along with his lightsaber. He continued hiding himself from the mysterious interloper and kept his eyes closed while he rode the bike, keeping his senses on the other Force-user.

Glaucon noticed the other man rummaging through the locker room with his senses, but the other man figured out that he was being monitored. That was when Glaucon realized he needed to do something else, so he decided to project himself using the force to fake his presence. The other Force-user came out of the locker room and spotted the projection heading out the front door, faking the door opening and closing in the process. The other man then rushed after the projection.

The bigger man needed to figure out who the other man was, so he continued projecting himself and leading the Force-user down the dark street, throwing the bait.

The man ran down the street after Glaucon, ready to catch him. He needed to get this mission over with and get off this backwards planet. There was no way he was going to stay in Republic space any longer than he had to.

So it utterly surprised him when he found the bearded man sitting in front of a Caf Shop, twiddling his fingers. "Good evening," Glaucon greeted with a smile. "So, what made you decide to stalk me?"

The man in black simply sat down in front of the big, bearded man. "You have something I need, Glaucon," he responded.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the former professor remarked.

"The map, Glaucon," the man in black requested. Glaucon stared at him, his teeth clenched inside his mouth.

"Wow, straight to the point, aren't you?" Glaucon remarked with a smile. "By the way, my name's Glaucon, what's yours?"

"I already know your name, Glaucon," the man responded, more than a little annoyed.

"But I don't know yours," the bigger man responded, leaning back into his chair. "How can you trust me to give you the map if I don't know who you are?"

"Kyp Durron," the man in black answered.

"Good to meet you Kyp, if that is your real name," Glaucon replied. "So, who do you work for? First Order? Are you a Knight of Ren?"

"Well, aren't you forward?" Kyp remarked dryly. "No, the First Order just committed the worst atrocity in recorded history by destroying the Hosnian System. I am glad I'm not affiliated with them, much less the Knights of Ren."

"Then who are you?" Glaucon inquired. "You don't work for the First Order but you're trained in the ways of the Force. Are you one of Luke's Jedi that somehow survived the massacre?

"I've never even met Luke Skywalker," the man in black replied.

"Alright, it seems I'm getting somewhere. Maybe." Glaucon smiled. "So, who do you work for?"

"As if I'm telling you," Kyp replied.

"The Imperial Remnant? Is there a secret cabal of Force-users there?" the big man inquired.

"You are going to give me the map, Glaucon," Kyp told him.

"Why?" Glaucon asked.

"The map is a key. There is data on there, data that that could change the Galaxy forever," Kyp replied.

"Yeah, evidence of an extragalactic incursion," Glaucon responded. "What do you know about this? We have time and you can be patient. Patience is something that people who haven't turned to the dark side should strive to manifest."

Kyp chuckled. "Well, I haven't turned to the dark side," he responded.

"Of course, some who have fallen don't know that they have," Glaucon warned him. "What do you know about what's on the map?"

"Nothing. My superiors told me to get it from you after you received it from a certain Talon Karrde," Kyp replied.

"You're Imperial Remnant," Glaucon deduced. "So much for not being a part of the dark side, since you work for a government that was started by a Sith Lord."

"You figured it out?" Kyp asked.

"Sounds like the Imperial Remnant has a secret group of Force-users," Glaucon realized. "Some sort of Imperial Knights."

Kyp chuckled again. "That's right," he replied. "No one is supposed to know about us, though. And then there's you. You tried training to be a Jedi once and then you were kicked out of the order for being too old once they decided to enact a pretty stupid rule."

"Yeah, that along with the no marrying rule were pretty big turnoffs for me toward the Jedi," the bigger man commented.

"And yet that clues one into how old you are," Kyp responded, causing Glaucon's eyes to widen. "That rule was enacted approximately 400 years ago, Glaucon. You have been keeping yourself alive since then somehow, possibly using some sort of Force healing."

"So, you know?" the heavyset man asked, surprised.

"Surely someone was going to figure out sooner or later," Kyp added. "Listen, I know the First Order was after you on Terminus. I was on the Star Destroyer that engaged the First Order ship there. Our intelligence has indicated that the First Order's supreme leader is positively ancient, so he may be after you for your healing abilities."

"Figures," Glaucon said, sitting further back. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go. It was nice talking to you, Mr. Durron."

"Like I'm letting you leave. The True Empire needs your map."

Glaucon sat up straight. "Well, it's kind of hard not to let me leave when I wasn't even here in the first place." Then he disappeared, leaving an irritated Kyp Durron sitting there at the table, realizing he had been duped.

Still, he needed to track the professor down, so he closed his eyes and reached out with the Force. That was when he detected two Force-users in one of the governmental buildings. He wasn't sure that either of them was Glaucon, but Force-users were exceedingly rare so he figured it was worth the risk.

Glaucon got off the exercise bike, stuffed the lightsaber and the map back into his pockets and made his way to the locker room. He then went to his locker, which, thankfully, Kyp hadn't broken into due to it having a DNA lock on it. He needed to get out of there as quickly as possible and find the others in case the mysterious Force-user was going to go after them

Elkanah reached the doors to his father's office and paused for a second before taking a deep breath. He didn't know what he was about to do or whether he should have been angry with him or happy to see him, so he took a deep breath and made his way through the sliding doors and into the office to see his father at a computer screen.

He took in the sight of the room, noticing the holographic computer on the circular, gray desk and spotting the paintings on the light-blue wall, all done by his mother during their long marriage. But his eyes didn't linger on those things too long, instead moving toward the man seated at the desk.

Ezra had definitely changed over the thirty years since the Battle of Endor, now having a bit of a gut while his hair was and receding. In addition, he kept his graying hair short, far shorter than he ever did when he was a teenager in the old Rebel cell that he was a member of. He and his son were actually the same height, though Elkanah was considerably more muscular.

The man instantly got up, a slight look of shock on his face. "You're actually here."

"Yeah, I made it out alive. I'm home," Elkanah told him, a smile forming on his face. He then ran over to his father and embraced the middle-aged man, allowing the tears to flow freely down his face. His father did the same.

"I'm sorry," the man said. "I'm sorry you went through that."

"Dad, don't be," Elkanah told him. "I made it."

"But…" Ezra backed up. "There's something that you need to do that you haven't done yet. Something I've been putting off for years." Elkanah was more than a little confused. "It's time to train you in the ways of the Force."