4./
"Hey! Antilles!"
Wege turned, and the smiling face of Captain Holt swam in his vision. There was a happy flush to her cheeks, and her hair was in disarray.
"Took you long enough! Did you get lost?"
Wedge snorted, aware of his fellow former rebels forming up behind him. "Oh please, everyone knows where Dex's is."
Holt laughed. "Glad you could make it! Here, lemme introduce you."
"Oh, that's not really -"
"It's fine! I got my folks here, 'n we're just relaxing before shipping off in the next few days. You 'n yours are welcome!" She gestured towards a table. "Hey, Hanel, remember Wedge?"
A woman Wedge recognized as Hanel Korinth, Holt's second in command, gave him an acknowledging nod over her mug.
"Sit 'ere, have a drink!" Holt pushed Wedge into a chair and plopped a glass in front of him, the cool amber liquid inside swirling and foaming.
Might as well, Wedge thought. He knocked back the cup to the laugher of Holt and the quiet amusement of Korinth.
Jarek and Tirtuvet walked slowly through the gathered throng, Tobruxe trailing after them. They all seemed to migrate towards a small table, occupied by two familiar people. They stopped in view of the two former Imperials, Jarek twisting his hands in apology.
"Hey, man, sorry about yesterday. It was one of our dearly beloved companions that had a run-in with you in the cafeteria."
Fane gave a slow nod. "It is fine."
"Fane doesn't hold a grudge," a giggling girl said, leaning around her chair and peering at the newcomers. Her curly hair bounced when she laughed. "He's a big softie like that."
Tobruxe looked at the drink in the girl's hand. "Is that what I think it is?"
The girl gave a coy smile. "You bet it is. I had to save up several payments to get my hands on it, but when it comes to tried-and-true Mixan whisky, it's always worth the effort." She shook her glass. "Want some?"
Tobruxe whistled. "For sure." She turned back to her companions. "You all, get lost. I want in on this."
"Linh Cyprian," the girl said, extending her hand. Tobruxe took it with a smile. Fane looked between them with a humorous glint in his eyes.
The pair walked on, coming to a stop in front of another table.
Tirtuvet nodded. "Taj."
"Siolo."
"Oh boy," Jarek muttered, feeling Tirtuvet go steely next to him.
A large burly man gave Tirtuvet a steely gaze over the top of his glass.
Still, Tirtuvet was polite and acknowledged the other resident of the table. "Kara, hello."
The man snorted. "If you're looking for Jenci, he said something about getting in on some Mixan drink. Feel free to leave."
Taj slapped Kara's shoulder. "Don't be rude." There was a blush to her dark skin. "Tirtuvet's a good man, 'n you could stand to learn some manners from him. Actually," she looked at her glass, "I need a refill. Go cool off and come back with some whisky. I don't care what kind."
Kara rolled his eyes, but seemed grateful for the offered escape. Tirtuvet and Jarek took to the empty seats around the table, Taj and the twi'lek immediately going into talking business and arguing over proper suturing techniques.
Jarek sighed. "Well, I guess some people'll get along, and others won't."
Several of them saw Taj again the next morning, complaining of hangovers.
"Remind me to take you on a vacation somewhere, Princess."
Leia hummed into Han's chest, enjoying the feel of his arms around her back.
"I'm serious! You deserve it after all that political riggamarole."
"I think I agree."
Han chuckled, and his laugh echoed through her chest.
The traffic of Courscant flashed by their windows, the drawn shades adding to the feeling that they were the anchors in an otherwise spiraling universe.
"So, what's the plan now?" Han leaned back, looking down at Leia and shooting a grin. "We hop over to the next galaxy and get rid of another dictator?"
Leia smacked his chest. "Oh, hush." Her amusement faded, and he gave a laden sigh. "The military merger is going to go through, and then Luke will be in charge of tracking down the most dangerous Imperial sympathizers. The ones that go out of their way to hurt others."
"Vader'll be with him."
"I know."
"Hey." Han squeezed her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. Luke can handle himself. For now, just relax. I know that goes against your general plans, but I'd recommend it."
She smiled. "You're a doctor now, as well as a general?"
"Well, I'm a busy man." He snorted and pulled her closer. "I think I'm happy, Leia. 'S nice."
She smiled into his chest, aware that he could feel it. "I'm happy too."
Vader stalked along the main cabin of the Executor, his weighted steps evenly treading their usual path around walkways and inlaid command stations. The activity of the Coruscant spaceport could be seen through the wide windshields.
He could feel more than he could see Piett walk up to his side, stopping at attention.
"Preparations are all ready, my lord. Coordinates for the fleet are set, and we wait simply for your command."
Vader hummed, but it was light enough to not be picked up by the vocoder. "We . . . will wait a moment or two more."
"Very well."
He felt Piett's amusement through the Force, and chose not to comment on it. The admiral walked away, the heels of his boots clicking against the clean floor.
Vader continued to watch out the windscreen, the red tint of his mask flushing his faulty vision and keeping him from focusing completely on the activity beyond the viewport.
He had been surprised when Organa had proposed her idea to him. While flushing out dangerous Imperial sympathizers was certainly something he was capable of doing, he was shocked to find the senator proposing the idea to him personally.
They had yet to talk about their discovered blood-relation, and Vader wasn't going to be the one to breach that wall. He had lost that right, and he was more than willing to leave the decision up to her. A voice filled with sand echoed in the back of his head ("Family by choice before family by blood.") and he understood that he had missed his chance with someone who might have been a daughter.
He wouldn't make the same mistake with Luke.
He could feel the presence of his son step up next to him. Luke reached out and bumped Vader's upper arm with a loosely coiled fist.
"You ready?"
"Yes. I was waiting for you. This is a joint venture, after all."
Luke laughed. "Well . . . here we go."
Vader couldn't help but grin behind his mask as they entered hyperspace.
End/
Author's Note: Alright, so here's what's going on.
First of all, I do intend to continue this story with another installment. It's something I love it too much to just let rot in my files.
That being said, I've really lost my drive for this story. It'll be a very long time before I feel ready enough to post anything, but when I, do it'll be here.
There's a variety of reasons for me stepping away from this story. I'm a college student, closing in on getting my Bachelors, and considering going in for a Masters. Also, once I realized the size of the story I was going to have to go for, I got intimidated and balked at how large it was going to be. For the most part, though, I'm much more engaged with and excited about my upcoming Boku no Hero Academia projects.
Thank you so much for the responses to my OC's, and for your patience when it took forever for me to update this thing. This story is something I want to do right, and as of now the only way that'll happen is through a lot of time.
If there's anything you want to know or need me to clarify, feel free to shoot me a message here or on tumblr.
Thanks for reading!
Originally Published: 5/8/2017