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CHAPTER TEN

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The comm call came in just after two in the morning. Han let it ring out twice, but whoever it was didn't seem to take the hint, and by then, he was awake enough to start worrying that it may be something to do with the kid, so he leaned over to fumble it on. "Solo."

"Han?" It was Gorn. "We've lost Luke."

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That was how come Han was wandering, tired and bleary-eyed, around The Shades—the dark underbelly of the shining Palace District, far above. The strange thing about the Palace District was that, while the wealthiest families on Coruscant owned sprawling floor-spanning apartments and whole pallazzos up where the sun actually shone, down in the shadows dirtside and way lower than the light of day ever filtered, it had a broad selection of the scuzziest, rundown, decaying and plain dangerous cantinas you could ever hope to find. They seemed somehow to have gathered in the long shadow of the palace, hunched together in the cramped, mean streets lit only by blinking signs which never quite reached into the dark alleys and the shadowed doorways.

He and Gorn were doing a wide sweep of cantinas down here, because Gorn knew for a fact that the kid went to the Sinkhole and the Sin Cantinas, and Han had first met the kid in the Dirty Dug, which bordered The Shades and the Dyging District, nearby.

He didn't really mind being down here—though he had silently thanked all over again the fact that, despite being dragged out of bed in the early hours of the morning, he'd still had the street-sense to come out in civilian clothes; three minutes down here in his black Imperial uniform and he would have ended up as another dark smear on an alley wall. But after a childhood spent hanging around alley-heads in any number of rundown port towns as a lookout for Shrike, Han still felt at home in a place like The Shades. In fact, he'd made a habit of dropping in on the Blue Lekku cantina less than ten minutes from here, just to keep his hand in. But it was now three a.m., and the drunks and the spiceheads were gettin' mean.

Knowing the kid, Han figured he should look for the sleaziest joint around, then see if it had a back room. Down a narrow alley on a litter-strewn side street a sign fritzed in and out, throwing the two Weequay bouncers at the door into brief, staccato clarity as they stared stonily ahead. The sign read, 'Bad Break Cantina.'

Han walked down the alley and between the two beefy Weequay with a brief, " 'Scuse me, fellas."

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It was about as dark inside the cantina as it was outside, and Han nearly took a header down the nine steps immediately inside the door. But he caught himself in time, and took advantage of the high ground to take a good long look about the big room, only slightly impaired by the thick haze of spice which drifted lazily above the movement of too many bodies.

He did the booths and the corners first, of course—kid tended to stay out of view—then scanned across the mass of bodies in the center of the room…nothing. He was about to leave when he glanced to the bar, the only place in the whole cantina that actually had some light…and there, dressed in a short, scuffed and worn hide jacket which melted him into the crowd, was Luke.

Congratulating himself silently, Han negotiated the barely lit stairs to walk up behind the kid, who was sat perched on a stool at the bar—not his usual spot. Han was halfway across the floor before he realized the reason why; the kid was talking to a compact, curvy little brunette with big brown eyes and thick shoulder-length hair, held back from her youthful face by a plait which started behind one ear then ran like a headband across the top of her head, the tail of the plait from behind her ear running a good few inches longer than the rest of her hair. Not local either, Han noticed peripherally: her clothes were the wrong cut and style.

Eyes coming back to Luke, Han grinned as he pulled up behind him. "I knew I'd find you here, tappin' up some chick for spice…"

Kid didn't even turn. "Go away."

"Fine—c'mon." Han turned about, then back when he realized that if he left, it would be alone. "C'mon, I'm risking my hide here."

"Well then go."

"Yeah right, 'cos having spent half my night finding you, I would just leave you here."

Finally, Luke turned, annoyed. "Would you just go!"

The girl tucked a strand of her mahogany-dark hair behind her ear. She wore a slack, crossover tunic and fitted pants with a wide leather belt which cinched in her tiny waist, still discernible under the ankle-length hooded cloak she seemed reluctant to take off despite the heat in the room. Hooking her booted feet up on the bar of her stool, she turned to look Han up and down appraisingly. "Who's this?"

"My older brother," the kid lied easily. "Way older."

"Yeah, I got all the looks and the brains, he just got the mouth."

The woman turned back to Luke, smiling. "It's a nice mouth."

Han rolled his eyes. "Good grief. Look, doll, he's kinda busy right now…"

Luke turned on Han. "What about 'go away' do you not understand this time?"

"The part where, having dragged my ass out of bed at two a.m., I leave you on your own," Han retorted. "You know, half the…place is out lookin' for you."

The kid couldn't have been less impressed. "Well then go and tell them I'll be back tomorrow."

"It is tomorrow."

"In the morning—I'll be back in the morning."

"Indo's on his way here."

That turned Luke around. "You told him?"

The girl leaned forward, clearly alarmed by the change in Luke's voice. "Who's Indo?"

"Indo's the guy who's gonna ground your new friend here for a month if he finds him in a dive like this—yet again," Han said pointedly, his words aimed more at Luke than the little brunette.

She frowned—and now that Han was actually paying attention, she was quite a looker—about the kid's age with dark, rosebud lips to balance those huge brown eyes as she looked back to Luke.

"Is Indo your father?"

"No," Luke stated emphatically, turning back to her.

Feeling suddenly guilty at ruining the kid's chances, Han attempted to backpedal. "Indo's our Unit Commander."

Her eyes only widened further. "You're military?"

"No!" Luke turned on Han. "Would you stop trying to help!"

But the girl was already rising. "Maybe I should go."

"No wait, please!" Luke stood as she did, reaching out to catch her wrist…and she paused, those brown eyes widening like a startled fawn's. He let her go quickly, hand out as if to calm her, and she brought her wrist up, wrapping her other hand about the point that he'd touched her…

"I'm not military, I swear!" Luke said quickly. "He was just trying to make me look good. Please—meet me here again?"

She hesitated, seeming to consider. "I shouldn't… What did you just do?"

"Do? Nothing…please—tomorrow night?"

"I can't, not tomorrow. I have to be in the Myzicc District, to meet a friend."

"The night after?"

Again she paused, but curiosity overcame the caution in her eyes as she nodded—and even Han knew she'd turn up. "Here, at eight."

"Eight's too soon—I can get here at ten, ten-thirty?"

She nodded again, a smile coming to ruby lips, and Han took the opportunity to grab Luke's jacket at the small of his back and begin pulling him backwards to the exit. "He'll be here—I'll bring him myself."

Luke kept watching her, letting Han pull him several steps by the bottom of his jacket before he half-turned briefly, glancing down to where Han held his jacket. "Hey, what's this?"

"This is me getting you outta trouble—again," Han said, as the kid backed neatly up the steps which led onto the street without once turning to register where they were. Somehow it was the small stuff like this which Han always found really freaky.

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The kid sat in silence in the black speeder on the way back, chewing at his thumbnail. Han took a roundabout route as he commed Gorn to call off the search, hoping to slip in at the military supplies entry gate, as Luke stared out, thoughtful.

Eventually Han risked a sideways glance. "Y'know, I'm impressed." Luke turned from his reverie as Han continued. "At least you picked the best lookin' girl in the place to hit on—looks like you were doin' pretty good too."

"I wasn't hitting on her," Luke said levelly, and Han grinned.

"Whatever."

"She's a Rebel."

The speeder did a brief, wild swerve, making Luke grabbed for the dash as he was thrown to the side. "Hey!"

"Rebel? Tell me you're kidding! Tell me she's a spice dealer or a professional killer or, or…something!"

"She's a Rebel, and I need to talk to her again. I need to check some stuff before I do, though."

"What d'ya mean, talk to her again?"

"When we go back."

"We're not going back."

"Yes we are."

"No, we're makin' up an identi-fit, handing that and the cantina name over to Intel, and stayin' the hell away from there."

Luke straightened. "We're going back."

"No, we're not."

"You said we were!"

"That was when I thought you were hittin' on her."

"Fine, I'm hitting on her."

"Yeah, that was when I thought you were hittin' on her and I didn't know she was a Rebel."

"What do you think is going to happen?"

"Seriously? If Palpatine finds out?"

"Palpatine knows! Well, he doesn't know about her in particular, but he knows I was going to try to track down the contact from the spy I killed."

"The dead spy from Sinto Barracks—that's his contact?"

"Yes. You heard her say she had to meet someone in the Myzicc District…that's where Sinto Barracks are—the one that the spy was smuggling Imperial codes out of. That was the cantina I saw in his head, and I'm pretty damn sure that she's his contact."

Han relaxed a little, relieved enough now to joke. "Man, I'm on the wrong side of this war—all the cute brunettes are always on the other team."

"Whatever. We need to go back."

"Why?"

"When you said we were from the military—and thanks for that, by the way—she panicked for a brief second. Just a second, but I got something…something she wanted to protect."

"What?"

"Skyhook."

"Skyhook what?"

"Just that—Skyhook."

"That's it?"

"She's good at masking her thoughts. But the spy had the same thing in his head as he died…a need to protect it," Luke said thoughtfully. "It's something… Something big, if they're willing to try to put spies and J…and Rebels in the Capital. I need to go back and see if I can get any more from her."

"No. Uh-uh. Why don't we just bring her in? Hand her over to Intel. You get a pat on the head from old yellow eyes, my blood-pressure returns to normal, and we forget all about it."

"No, I have to go back."

"Seriously, are you actually trying to turn that pat on the head into a side-swipe? Do you spend your days thinking of new and novel ways to wind the old man up?"

"No, I try to do my job."

"Your job, soldier, is to hand that information over—and you know it."

"I'm not a soldier, I'm Ubiqtorate…and my job is to follow a mission through until its conclusion. This is only just beginning."

"Well then just tell the damn Ubiqtorate!"

"No, that's not what I do—it's not what I'm trained to do. I work below official radars. I take orders from and answer to Palpatine, you know that."

"And you seriously think the old man's gonna say, 'Yeah, what the hell, I know I like to have people watching you every second of every day, and I spend my life on a fuse so short you just have to blink without permission and I give you hell, but you go on ahead and sneak outta my palace again, to meet with a Rebel. Have fun! I'm not gonna come down on you like a ton of duracrete—not at all.' "

"That is the worst impersonation of the Emperor that I've ever heard."

"Hey, I was going for the essence of the conversation, not a literal portrayal. My point remains, he'll bounce you off all four walls, and you know it."

Luke slumped back down, no answer to that. After a few minutes Han pursed his lips, guilty at throwing the threat in the kid's face. "Listen, let's just do the right thing, pass the details over, and let Intel worry about it, huh?"

"I'm not handing her over."

"Why?"

"Because…" The kid fell to silence, and Han wondered if he maybe liked her after all.

"Fine, I'll tell you what, we'll just keep quiet and forget all about it. Our secret."

Luke glanced sideways, staring at Han as if he'd said something outrageous…then shook his head quickly and let out a low sigh, staring straight ahead. "Fine."

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

"And you're not just saying that and intending to go back tomorrow night anyway?"

"No."

"That's the most unconvincing no I've ever heard."

The kid was saved a reply, as the speeder was coming close to the military-only entry gate. Instead he remained still, looking straight ahead as Han keyed the blackout window down.

"Military," he said simply.

The trooper took Han's ID and scanned it, then ducked to look at his passenger. "Who's that?"

"Military," Han said blandly.

"Right," the trooper said, sceptically. "I'm gonna need to see ID."

It had been worth a try. Han turned to the kid, hand out. "ID?"

"Didn't bring any."

"You're kidding me."

"Nope."

"Just…what…"

"Like I intended coming back through an official gate," the kid dismissed, unfazed.

Han glared a moment longer before turning back to the trooper with his 'best buddy' smile on. "C'mon, pal, give me a break."

"I don't do breaks, Sir."

"Look…"

Luke leaned abruptly over across Han to catch the trooper's eye. "Go away."

The stormtrooper remained silent for several seconds, motionless…..then he straightened slowly, backing away from the speeder as he muttered Luke's words under his breath.

"Keep going," Luke said, his stare just a fraction too fixed as he watched the trooper back up.

Han too watched uneasily. "How far're you gonna make him walk?"

The kid frowned, not breaking eye contact with the trooper. "Why?"

Han shrugged. "Just…y'know."

"Don't you wanna find out how far back I can make him go?"

"Luke!"

The kid huffed, clearly unsure as to why that was a bad thing. "Fine…stop there. We didn't come past—no one's come past in the last few minutes." His voice wasn't raised, but though the trooper was a good distance away, Han could see his helmet bob several times, as if he'd heard and was repeating the kid's words.

With a final backward glance, Han accelerated the speeder into the main hangar to settle it in among three dozen identical models. He shut off the repulsor, staring at the wall ahead of him. Eventually he sighed. "You're still goin' back, aren't you?"

"Yep."

"Damn, I hate this job."

"I have to go," Luke said without turning to Han.

"Because?"

"I think she knows something else—somebody I need to speak to."

Han tilted his head, determined not to be dragged into this latest wild and pointless scheme. "Who's that?"

"My father, Kenobi."

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The cantina was thick with spice smoke by the time they arrived, late in the night. Stood behind Luke, Han glanced about, eyes acclimatizing to the low light as he followed a step behind the kid, staying close, because Sith knew what he'd do if everything he said was true—though if Kenobi had managed to last this long, Han was guessing that the man wouldn't be stupid enough to ever come to Coruscant. Then again, he'd actually tried to break into the palace itself not that many years back, intending to kill Luke.

Kill his own son. Han frowned at that—at what the hell the kid had made of it, when he'd found out. At what he'd have to say, if he ever got to face his old man. At what he'd do. His mind went back to the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader—to the honed skill and the frenzied fury that the kid had turned on someone who was supposed to be an ally. What would he do to the man who had abandoned him at birth, then come looking for him to kill him when the kid was barely eleven?

Luke clearly intended something—though it seemed like he was willing to play the long game to get it, if he had to. He'd already had Han stop a few blocks back and one level up to buy a freeline comlink from a random trader who was selling them from the back of his speeder—all perfectly legit, of course...

"What's this for?" Han had asked, as the kid opened the forged box to pull out the comlink and charger, throwing the rest away as he walked.

"I need a clean comm code," Luke had said casually. "Pick them up unlocked, and if you don't fire any flags by using trigger words, and don't overuse it, it'll stay under the radar for a few months before you have to change it."

"Why exactly do you need it to stay under the radar?" Han had asked knowingly. The kid hadn't bothered to reply, and Han had nodded. "Is this a bad time to point out that I'm still on military probation?"

"Please, you don't give a damn about the military."

"No, but I do give a damn about facing off to Indo—or more importantly, old yellow eyes—and having to explain why exactly I let you drag my ass into this."

"Well then go back to the palace and claim ignorance. Not that it'll work with the Emperor, you understand…speaking of which, you need to hang back a bit and keep quiet when we get there."

"What, afraid all her attention'll be concentrated on the good lookin' one?"

"Very funny," Luke had deadpanned. "More afraid that she knew what I did when I took her arm a few nights back."

"Which was?"

"I was about to plant a compulsion in her mind—make her want to come back tonight—but I stopped short because…I'm pretty sure that she sensed something."

"Sensed something?"

"The point is, you just need to hold back a little and keep quiet. I haven't got time to teach you anything now, but there's a way to deal with this, to at least partially keep a few thoughts hidden from someone who isn't specifically looking. Tonight, I'll just have to stop her attention centering on you too much, but the less you draw attention to yourself, the better."

"You want me to go in after you and sit in a corner?"

"No, she'd spot you," the kid had dismissed instantly.

Han had tilted his head, voicing mock vanity. "I do stand out in a crowd."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Just let me do the talking."

"That is the worst excuse for a 'give me the first shot' line I've ever heard," Han had crowed.

"Whatever. Just stay back and try not to think of anything…that last part shouldn't be too hard for you, at least."

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The weird thing was that to look at them, they could have been two kids in any cantina on any planet, Han reflected. He'd taken a seat behind the kid at the bar after giving the brunette a brief nod of acknowledgment, and was now spending his time trying to look every direction but at them, and wondering how the hell you thought of nothing when this was going down less than three paces away…and why that was even important anyway. Mostly, his head was filled with a thousand and one ways that this could go catastrophically wrong for the kid, and how to get him out of it when it did. And occasionally, he stole a glance at the woman with the open, animated face and the damndest doe brown eyes…and then he remembered that she was a Rebel, and being here was doubtless gonna drop him in some serious trouble, somehow or other. It wasn't even her, necessarily; he just had something of a track record for finding it.

Still, he had to admit that the kid was pretty good at this stuff, all youthful charm and wide-eyed smiles. Not a single question asked about Kenobi or the Rebellion, nothing that was at all contentious. Lots of other questions though, but easy to answer, nothing too searching. Getting her used to answering, Han supposed.

Kid had that expression on where he tipped his head slightly forward and grinned, making him seem at once eager and shy. It took a while for Han to remember where he'd seen it before, because it certainly wasn't in the kid's daily gamut of sardonic distance, but he finally pinpointed it as being at the reception in the palace, when Luke had been targeting the old industrialist, ordered to find out whether the man had Rebel sympathies. He'd been all earnest and innocent then too. All amicable enthusiasm. And it seemed to be working again, because the dark-haired girl was smiling warmly and leaning in as she spoke, her whole attention on him.

"I wasn't sure you'd even be here."

Luke straightened slightly. "You're kidding, of course I would! I thought you wouldn't show, not for me. I mean…uh, so…what were you doing here, before?"

She smiled at his apparent embarrassment. "I came to see someone."

"In a bar like this? You should be careful." Kid was ridiculously earnest, and the brunette smiled.

"I can take care of myself."

"Oh no, I didn't, y'know, mean to imply that you couldn't." Luke backpedalled, all gawky unease, which would've been cute, had Han not remembered the cool menace in the threats the kid had loosed on the last Rebel he'd come into contact with—the spy at Sinto Barracks. He felt a brief flare of guilt at leaving the brunette to fend for herself as Luke continued, one hand picking with mock-nervousness at the frayed edge of the bar stool he sat on. "I just…well, when you left that night… I realized I should have gone with you—made sure you were okay."

"You're very sweet." The brunette glanced down to hide her smile, her tone implying that she believed herself a hundred times more capable than the naïve youth sitting opposite her. Then again, from the looks of Luke, Han couldn't blame her. She glanced at the sutures above his black eye. "And, no offense, but you look like you could do with a little protection yourself, from time to time."

He straightened, grinning. "Hey, you don't know how many of them there were."

"How many?"

Luke let himself slump just slightly, self-depreciating humor in his voice. "One, actually…but he was bigger than me—which isn't hard, I know."

She stifled a smile, drawn further in by his humility as he leaned forward earnestly.

"But I'm serious, though. You shouldn't walk around here late at night on your own—or the Myzicc District…that's where you said you were headed, isn't it? Parts of the deeper levels are no-go areas after dark. There's a huge military base there too. You have to be careful, if you don't know the capital." He glanced briefly back to Han, one hand out—as if Han's opinion mattered too, all of a sudden. "I mean, the military are pretty heavy-handed this close to the palace, right? And Myzicc District…they've been touchy there for a few weeks now, I heard."

The brunette sat up a little straighter. "Touchy how? Increased security?"

"I don't know, I don't get that close to it. I just hear what people say, you know?"

"What do they say?"

"Oh, they get a lot of sensitive stuff going through the barracks there…Sinto, I think that's its name. It's a major communications hub, or something. I think they had a lock-down just a few weeks ago."

"Lock down?"

"That's when they seal a base off, nothing in, nothing out. Someone told me it means they've had some kind of problem on the base." At this, Luke half-turned to Han. "Right?"

The woman didn't even look at Han. "What kind of problem?"

Her voice was calm and conversational, but she was clearly interested, the kid slowly drawing her out by offering a little of what she wanted to hear.

"I don't know," Luke said apologetically. "I only know about the lock-down thing because I have a friend who does deliveries there. I could ask him for you, I suppose."

"Could I speak to him?"

"Well…sure, if you wanted." Kid's voice was a subtly hesitant mix of friendly and slightly wary. "You're not…you won't get him in trouble, will you?"

"No, I wouldn't do that." The brunette smiled, touched by the kid's careful protection of what Han knew damn well was a non-existent friend.

" 'Cos he shouldn't really speak about stuff, I don't think. Maybe I should talk to him first, tell him that…what's your name?"

"Leia. Leia Skywalker."

"Skywalker," Luke grinned. "Great name. Maybe I can tell him you're okay...you are okay, aren't you?"

She smiled again. "I promise, I'm not looking to get your friend in any trouble."

"Why do you want to know about Sinto anyway?"

"I just have a friend there, that's all. He was supposed to meet me last night."

"What, in the military?" Luke let an edge of nervousness creep into his voice, and the brunette—Leia—smiled.

"Just an acquaintance. We didn't manage to meet. Maybe he's stuck in the base if the lock-down is still on." She let the last hang as a question, and Luke shrugged.

"Oh, I don't know. I don't know how long these things last." He glanced down, then made an overstated and under-subtle attempt to check out those about him. "You know, you should…you should be careful about who you ask stuff like that. Especially in the Palace District."

"Really?"

Those big doe eyes seemed the picture of innocence, leaving Han to wonder if the kid was wrong about her.

Luke loosed a big grin within a shrug. "I mean, I know you don't mean anything by it, but…"

A comlink sounded quietly at Leia's belt, and she rushed to answer it, standing to take a swift step back, her face suddenly serious. Luke turned away to face the bar as if to give her privacy, but Han could see that he watched her closely in the reflective backdrop to the massed bottles behind the bar, his face falling straight. She took another few steps back, turning casually about as she spoke, so that her face was no longer visible, and the kid pursed his lips.

By the time she returned to him, her own demeanour had changed too, distracted and troubled. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"What, right now?" Luke glanced to her comlink, only concern sounding in his voice. "What's happened?"

"Nothing. I just…I'm busy, you know?"

"Will you come back tomorrow?"

"No, I have to leave planet, tonight. I need to get all the way out to the Auril Sector by—" She stopped herself as if surprised by her own words, looking closely at Luke.

"When will you be back?" he asked quickly, moving her thoughts on as he stood. "Can we meet again? I can speak to my friend and get back to you…when?"

"I don't know," she said as she backed towards the door. "Soon—I'll try to get back soon…and I'd like to meet your friend. Do you have a comm code?"

"It's CC-hash four-five-three-seven-one-nine-nine."

"CC four-five-three-seven-one-nine-nine—got it."

"Wait, you don't need to write it down?" Kid did a good line in awed admiration, Han had to admit.

The woman, Leia, smiled broadly. "No. I'll contact you, I promise…?"

"Deak," Luke said without pause. "Deak Autrey."

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"So you're just gonna let her leave?" Han asked, stepping closer as the woman picked her way through the crowded cantina without looking back.

"Until she gets me to Kenobi," Luke said, his smile fading instantly as she passed through the door.

"Should we follow her?"

"No, she'd know."

"How d'you figure that out?" Han asked, head askew. "I might be way better at trailing people than you."

"She's a Jedi."

"What the hell? Seriously?"

"That's probably how she knows Kenobi," Luke said calmly.

"You didn't say that last time."

"I didn't know the last time—not for sure. She was cloaking her abilities like I was cloaking mine, then and today."

"So does she know you're Sith?"

"Not yet. Sith have always had the ability to hide our connection far easier than Jedi—we can hide in plain sight. She knows I have some kind of connection to the Force, because I almost used it to persuade her to come back the last time, when I took her arm. But I broke off immediately when I touched her and realized what she was. All she would have sensed was a split-second, the vaguest attunement; she wouldn't have been able to ascribe it—I don't think she'd even know it was pre-meditated. Could have easily been the raw emotions of an untrained Force-sensitive."

"Why is she coming back if she even thinks you're…y'know?"

"Because she's curious." Luke turned to glance at Han, openly amused. "Maybe she even thinks she can recruit me—in which case, I'm hoping to get to Kenobi. Or maybe she just intends to kill me, when she can catch me in a less public place. This time she got pulled away…she may come back to finish the job though. Jedi tend not to leave unfinished business."

"Which begs the question, why are you gonna meet her again?"

Luke stared at the empty doorway, coolly calculating. "Because I can snap her delicate little neck long before she pulls that lightsaber she has hidden at the small of her back."

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When you've finished each chapter, you may want to check them out on my website, where there's a little extra at the end of each one - hope you'll enjoy!

There's a link to my website on my bio page, or the address is all the three w's and a dot, then "alongtimeago . org" (and take out the spaces!)

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