Ronik Pierion— Yes, their baby is Bantha. As for Lusi, you'll have to wait and see. I'm glad that Cassa was so well received. Thanks for reading!!

SilverWolf77-- Thanks! Both and Lusi and Cassa have been fun to come up with. I'm glad that you liked them. And yes, Cassa is Tahiri's daughter to Doran Tainer. They married off screen after the ending of The Path of Dreams.

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Author's Note: This will be the last Vignette in this timeframe. The next one will be set during Legacy, Claws of the Dragon, to be exact...

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Vignette 10

All in a Name
(part 2 of 2)

Ossus
86 ABY

Zane watched her from the shadows of the back porch of the house he had inherited from his grandparents. It was one of the Master's cottages where Corran and Mirax Horn had raised their grandson after the Jedi moved their main base of operations to Ossus after the war. There was talk among the Council that they should move back to Coruscant. He supposed that would probably be one of the first things he'd have to decide upon when he was officially named Grand Master of the Jedi Order in two weeks.

As Kyp predicted, he was unanimously nominated. However, Kyp wouldn't be his co-Grand Master after all. He was stepping down from his post. Though, he wasn't retiring, and, in fact, would still hold a Council seat, Kyp felt he couldn't continue as Grand Master in any capacity. His wife of 40 years had died a week ago after a long illness that devastated her heart, despite hours of healing trances. At age 97, Jedi Master Alexandria Winger Durron passed on into the Force.

Zane was still grieving the outspoken wife of his Master as well. She was like an aunt to him. Somehow feeling the joy he felt right now almost seemed wrong.

Lusi looked up from where she was sitting at a small garden table typing into a datapad. She quickly closed the device down and waited for him to come to her. Zane still was amazed at how much she looked like Jysella Skywalker, despite the Yuuzhan Vong-esque tattoos on her face and her purple tinged and mussed dark hair. Zane was thrilled when he discovered she had inherited the Horn/Halcyon abilities. It instantly made him wonder about his and Cassa's child. But Telki was convinced that his son would probably have a mix of his and Cass's abilities, and that it was a fluke that Lusi had the rare Halcyon traits, especially since both Ella and Gena's children didn't exhibit them.

"I'm surprised that you're here. Did Cass have the baby?"

Zane sat down in the delicate, lacy looking metal chair across from her. Above them the twisted vuli tree shaded them from the brighter of Ossus' two suns. Birds chirped and flew in amongst the think foliage. "No, not yet. Master Tekli said that it may be a while. He's a big baby apparently."

She regarded him in her usual guarded way and then asked, "You don't want to be there when he's born?"

Zane looked up into the dark green of the vuli, remembering when his grandfather planted the tree when he was ten. Now it towered over the house and threw the garden in delightful shade. Finally, he looked back at the near replica of his mother and said, "I will be there when it's time, until then Tahiri and Doran are there. I don't feel very comfortable with the whole pregnancy thing. Cass understands."

She narrowed her eyes and scrutinized him. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why don't you want kids?"

Her question surprised him. Never had he ever brought up his feelings about having a family with her, and he knew Cassa never would have. "What makes you think I don't, or didn't, want kids?"

She looked away and shrugged—that damnable shrug which meant any gambit of things. Sometimes Zane wanted to just strap her shoulders down so she couldn't answer questions with the indifferent, evasive gesture.

Sighing when he realized that was all the answer he was going to get, he carefully said, "I was afraid."

She snapped her head up and defiantly said, "I didn't think Jedi Masters could be afraid. Ya know all that stuff about fear leading to the Dark Side that Cass and you are cramin' into my head."

He couldn't help the slight smile that formed on his lips. "Yes, and that anger also leads there, too." She rolled her dark eyes, but didn't comment. After a moment, she waited expectantly for his explanation. He sighed again and said, "It's true fear can lead to the Dark Side, and being afraid doesn't seem very Master-like, but I am." He pinned her with an intense blue-eyed gaze and went on, "I'm afraid that any child of mine could fall to the Dark Side."

"Because we're Skywalkers? That's why you didn't want kids. But isn't the Emperor technically a Skywalker, too? How could you not having kids really change much?"

Zane laughed and she stared at him as if he had lost his mind. After getting his chuckles under control, he explained, "That's exactly the argument Cass used on me."

"She's a smart woman."

"That she is," he agreed and sat back. Sobering, he said, "And I was wrong. I know that now. I'm still worried that someone from my line could fall to the Dark Side. But I also know that I was being selfish. Cass deserved to have her child."

She was quiet for a long time and Zane wondered if she was going to say more. Lusi kept her emotions tightly shielded; a skill she had learned all on her own long before ever coming to him. Similarly, she had learned how to deal with her mild empathy, which was a talent rare to his mother, and had often baffled his grandfather. No other Halcyon was reported to have it. Zane was also empathic; the only ability of Jysella's that he knowingly inherited from her. The rest of his power was more on par with what he had heard Luke Skywalker's had been, and what would have probably been his father's.

"Yeah, but you never wanted me," she murmured.

"Lusi…"

Her hard glare stopped his exasperated response before he even really knew what he was going to say. Their relationship wasn't a great one. He didn't really understand her and she still blamed him for whatever wrong she thought he did. He had tried—really he had—to get closer to his daughter. However, most of their conversations consisted of non-consequential family information, or Force training. He had never asked her to call him "dad" and she never asked if she could. They had never spoken of their relationship.

He never had the nerve to bring it up.

She was content to avoid it.

As most things do that are feared or avoided, they fester and boil, build steam and pressure, until they can no longer be ignored because they explode.

She stood, pushing over the delicate garden chair. "Don't! You never wanted me. And don't give me the kriffin' poodoo about not knowin' about me. I know I'm just an unfortunate consequence of a one-night stand!"

She turned to walk away, but Zane's strong hand around her upper arm stopped her. His face was a mask of frustration. "You are not walking away from me."

She glowered at him, her hazel eyes, her mother's eyes, he realized, flashing with fire. "Go back to your perfect wife and your perfect baby! I'm leaving!"

He held fast, not letting her pull free. "No," he calmly, but firmly said. "You are not. I'm your father, like it or not. I will not lie to you, Lusi. Seventeen years ago when I met your mother in that cantina, I didn't want a kid. Never thought about having kids. I wasn't even looking for a future wife. Or love or anything else, except for a good time. She was a beautiful woman and I was a young man in his prime, and more than a little full of himself. We started talking and…" he swallowed and looked away as he let go of her arm, feeling her relax to his surprising and personal revelation, "…well, one thing lead to another and before I quite grasped what was going on, I was kissing her outside her door as she tried to remember the code."

"Yeah, I get the holo." She folded her arms over her chest and sneered, "A week of great sex followed, in which time I was conceived. You walked away, going back to the Jedi and my mother was left to raise me. No strings." At his surprised and embarrassed expression, she laughed a harsh bark. "I heard what she said about you in the hologram, remember? Before I showed up, did you even remember her, Skywalker?"

He snapped, "Yes, I remembered her. You have her eyes and dark brown hair. Raina was beautiful and that week was…" Clearing his throat and deciding this conversation was in territory he wasn't ready to be in with his sixteen-year-old daughter, he unclenched his fists and took a deep calming breath. After a moment, he calmly said, "I know you think that I don't want you here, but you're wrong. I don't regret your existence." At her indignant snort and looking away, he went on, "I know that's what you think, but my only regret is not knowing about you from the beginning." She looked back at him and he held her gaze as he heavily sat back down into the chair.

"Would you have married her?"

He slowly looked away, ashamed, he supposed for his truthful answer. But she deserved the truth. "No." Looking back at her for a long moment, he elaborated, "Marrying her would have been wrong. I didn't love her and she didn't love me. But, I would have helped her raise you. And I would have loved you."

"Ahh…sure you would have. By dumping me in the Jedi Temple. Isn't that why she didn't tell you about me to begin with?"

He was getting tired of her flippant remarks for nearly everything he said, but he held his temper. "I wouldn't have 'dumped' you in the Temple. She was wrong. Sure, you would have started training early, which would have taken you from Raina, but I would not have ignored you. I'd been the one training you.

"I understand why your mom kept you from me, but her keeping you from me wasn't exactly fair to me." He opened himself up to the Force. He wanted her to feel his sincerity as he stared into her grief-ridden and battered soul. "You're my daughter, Lusi, and I don't even know you. I never watched you grow up. I wasn't there when you took your first steps or said your first words. I didn't get the chance to read you bedtime stories. I didn't meet your first boyfriend at the door." She actually had to stifle a grin at that and it warmed a place in his heart. "I don't even know the basic things about you. I don't even know what your favorite color is."

He felt a wave of emotion roll off her, before she could shield it. He smiled sadly and finished in a raw emotional whisper, "I never got the chance to love you, Lusi, and that's all I really want to do. I was cheated out of ever knowing, not only my parents, but my daughter, too."

Silence. A long brittle silence, like the eerie quiet after a bombing or a destructive summer storm.

"Blue." It came out in a croaked whisper.

His puzzled, interested expression inclined her say louder, "Blue. That's my favorite color." She stared at him for a long time with a glint of moisture in her eyes, and then added, "Like the color of your eyes."

He swallowed hard. That was the most personal thing he learned about her in the three months she'd lived under his roof. "Mine has always been gold—yellow."

"Mom said my first word was 'dada'." She smiled at his surprise, and shrugged, looking away from him, she subconsciously wiped at her eyes with her fingertips. "But then every baby's first words are that. Da is one of the first sounds human's make." He waited for a moment, before she shrugged again and said, not looking at him, "Mom, was upset though. I remember." She narrowed her eyes as a memory, like a dream, came to her. "I don't get how I'd know that, but then I always knew when Mom wasn't happy."

"I remember my mother, too."

"How? I thought she died when you were born."

Now it was his turn to shrug. "I suppose that's where our empathy comes in. My mother was empathic and had to learn to shield herself from other's thoughts. It was said that my father remembered feeling Coruscant fall during the Yuuzhan Vong War. It caused great fear in him."

"That's why he became a Sith, isn't it?" She righted the chair and sat down, facing him again. The gesture made Zane's heart sing. "He was afraid."

Zane nodded. "Yeah, that's the theory. He was afraid my mother would die in the war."

She shook her head in confusion. "But she did die. He killed her, right?"

Zane pulled the two lightsabers from his belt and laid them on the tabletop between them. "Yes. Ben Skywalker became a Sith to save her, only to end up being the one to destroy her. But he didn't only kill his wife; he killed his mother as well." He held up one of the lightsabers. Ignited the bronze blade, he said, "This was my mother's lightsaber. I've carried this since I was twelve years old."

She looked from the lighted blade to the other one still lying on the table. "That one was his, wasn't it?"

He picked up the other lightsaber and hit the stud. Holding his mother's in his left hand, his father's felt as familiar in his right. He had used both lightsabers ever since he was eighteen.

"It's blue."

He smiled and looked from the blade to her young face. "Yeah. I'll never forget being surprised when Granddad gave it to me. I was so sure it would have been red. It's the lightsaber that killed my mother."

She snapped her attention to him. Incredulously, she inquired, "You know that and still carry it? I'd have shoved it out an airlock a long time ago."

He turned the sabers off and again laid them on the table. Smiling, he responded, "Well, I did want to do that, yes. But Granddad said my mother wanted me to have it. I learned to accept that Ben Skywalker wasn't born a Sith. He could have been a great Jedi. Even at a young age, he was considered a hero, not too unlike my grandfather Luke or great-grandfather Anakin. I did a lot of research on my dad." Grinning, he added, "Not unlike a certain young lady I know." She blushed and looked away. "Oh, there's nothing to be embarrassed about, Lusi. In fact, I'd be hurt if you didn't try to find more out about me."

She shrugged and shyly looked back at him. "After Mom told me that you were my father, I was shocked. Then I was angry. She told me that you didn't know, but I didn't believe her, I guess. But, yet, it fascinated me to think that my father was someone so famous. I didn't stop being mad at you, but I did want to learn about you." She grinned at him as she said, "You're actually quite the rage in the HoloNet."

He laughed and the tension began to slip away. "Really? I don't much pay attention. Last thing I read about myself was that I was leaving Cass to marry Ganna the Hutt."

Her randy snort echoed through the backyard garden. "Are you serious!"

He laughed harder remembering the tabloid article. "Oh, yeah. Cass saved it. I'll let you read it. It said that Granddad bargained me off to her for some shoddy reason or another."

They continued to laugh for a long time. Zane knew that it was as much because the tension eased as the thought of him marrying a Hutt. Of course, that idea was pretty funny.

Then her mood changed again. She became quiet and looked down at the lightsabers on the table. "Do you think I'll turn to the Dark Side?" she asked so quietly he nearly didn't hear her.

"No," he answered her truthfully. He sat forward over his arms and met her imploring gaze. "I don't think you will fall to the Dark Side. But only you can make sure it doesn't happen, and learning to control your emotions is the best way to insure it doesn't."

"That's what happened to Darth Vader and your dad?"

He swallowed and nodded. "And to many other Jedi over the millennia. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to greed, and greed leads to the Dark Side. That is the Jedi Code in a nutshell. And every Jedi that has ever fell forgot it."

She gazed at him for another long moment, her intense gaze searching his soul. "I will never forget it."

"Good. But if you stumble, I'll be there to pick you up."

She smiled back and whispered, "I know and thank you…Dad."

He stared at her.

It was the very first time she had ever referred to him as Dad. And in that instant, Zane knew that he loved his daughter.

However, before he got the chance to tell her, his comlink chirped. He answered it immediately. "Skywalker."

"Zane," came the voice of his father-in-law, "you'd better get over here. Cass is about to go boom!"

Zane chuckled and replied, "Okay. I'm on my way. Thanks, Doran."

"Any time, son. You just get your butt here before that grandson of mine comes, or you won't have to worry about what my girl will do to you. She can get whatever is left after I'm through with you."

Zane looked at a smiling Lusi and rolled his eyes. Lusi burst up laughing. "I know, Doran. I'll be there in less than five minutes." He closed the link and stood.

Lusi said through her giggles. "I swear that man used death sticks."

Zane laughed again and then began to move away. He took one step before turning back. "Hey, why don't you come with me to meet your little brother?"

She stared at him for a long moment. Then she smiled a bright smile that lit her face and caused her eyes to twinkle. "I'd love to."

xxx

Coruscant
90 ABY

"C'mon, Nat. I don't wanna miss it!"

"I'm comin', Sissy."

Lusi watched as her four year old baby brother toddled after her through the medical center.

At age twenty, Lusi Wymissin looked every bit the Jedi Knight she had just been promoted to. She chose to wear a dark green robe that had traditionally been worn by Corellian Jedi. Though she knew many found her choice disturbing, especially those who were born and raised on Corellia, she didn't let it bother her. After all, she was nearly a hundred percent Corellian. Sure, her mother was born on Coruscant, but her grandparents had been Corellian. Also, her father encouraged her. And really that's all that mattered to her.

She stopped in the busy corridor and watched her little white-blond, blue-eyed brother catch up with her. With one hand on her hip, resting above her lightsaber, while with the other hand she pushed long, rich, brown hair from her smooth and tattoo-free face, she smiled. "Nat, why don't you just let me carry you? We'd get there twice as fast."

He scrunched up his face that already was taking on more of his grandfather Doran's features than she knew her father cared to admit. "No. I'm a big boy!"

She grinned and stifled a snort. "That you are."

Nat came to a stop before her and looked up at her. She sighed, exasperated as he turned and began walking again. "Now, just try to keep up."

He huffed in protest and snapped indignantly, "Then don't walk so fast. I don't get it anyway. It's only a baby."

She shook her head, but she did slow down or commented.

She took Nat's little hand into hers and entered the softly lit room. Her father sat on the edge of the bed, smoothing her Master's damp blond hair. Cass looked tired but she instantly beamed when she saw Lusi and her older son walk in. "Hey, guys. Comere and see your new little brother."

Lusi was just as fascinated this time as she had four years ago when Nat was born. Zane reached down and picked up Nat and held him so that he could see the little sleeping baby cradled in his mother's arms.

"He's got orange hair!" Nat blurted out.

Zane laughed his deep, rich laugh and said, "I guess he does, Nat."

Cass narrowed her green eyes at him and retorted, "His hair is not orange. It's red."

Nat considered it for a moment before shaking his head, "No, Mommy, that's orange."

Cassa shook her head but she dropped it. She knew she'd never be able to reason with little Nat Skywalker. Instead she asked, "Well, sweetie, what do you think of your new baby brother? Besides that he has orange hair."

Nat looked from the baby to his mother and reached out to her. She let the little boy hug her neck and then he said, "He's nice. What's his name?"

Zane looked from his wife and sons to gaze at the young woman standing by the bottom of the bed. After Lusi met his eyes, he announced, "Lusi, we'd like you to name him."

"Me?"

Cass smiled and nodded. "Yes, Lusi. Your dad and I would like you to name him."

"But that's so important," she protested, astonished that her parents would ask this of her.

Zane smiled and pulled her closer to him. Wrapping his arm around her slender shoulders, he assured, "It is important, and is why we asked you to name him. But I only have one request."

She looked at her father and nodded.

"His name has to be his own. No family names. It's bad enough that he's a Skywalker, he doesn't need to be saddled with a first name being from a famous, or infamous, ancestor."

"Okay."

"You don't have to come up with anything today, but we want you to provide his name," added Cass, who had also been her Master.

She looked from her step-mother to her father and nodded again. She was totally at a loss for words.

xxx

Two Days Later

After peeking in on Nat, Zane turned to look into the baby's room, when he heard a soft voice singing. He smiled, instantly recognizing her soprano. Crossing the hallway, he paused to manually slide the door open another few centimeters. Inside the softly hued and dimly lit room, Lusi sat in Cass's rocking chair holding the baby. She hadn't named him yet, but she had told them at breakfast that she hoped to have a name by that evening. She was shipping out in the morning to go on her first solo mission.

Feeling his presence watching her, she looked up and smiled at him, beckoning him to come in.

"Where's Cass?" he whispered as he kneeled down before his eldest child holding his youngest.

He had been late coming home due to a long session of the Council. It was well past 20:00. He gently pushed the soft, pale blue blanket away from the side of his chubby, round face. Tufts of his bright red hair were sticking up in all different directions.

"She's sleeping. The baby began to fuss, so I came in to sooth him before he awoke his mommy."

Zane smiled. Lusi had nearly become a different person in the past four years, but, then, maybe this was how she always was. Caring, loving and patient. And the rebellious teenager was only her way to protect herself from being hurt. Caring, loving and patient people often were the ones to be trampled first when things got rough.

Lusi went on to add, "She fell asleep while reading to Nat. I put Nat to bed and then warmed a bottle to feed this little guy." She leaned down to place a gentle kiss on his forehead.

Zane pursed his lips. "I hope you don't have any ideas of having one of these yourself. I'm not ready to be a grandfather yet."

She laughed as softly as she could. "Dad."

"Well, I don't want you to think that having a kid is always like this."

"I know."

They were silent for a long moment, Zane relishing the sight of his children, and Lusi enjoying her precious moments with her newborn brother. Finally, she looked up and met his eyes. "Dad, I would like to name him Kol."

"That's a nice name."

She swallowed, looked back at the baby and said, "I had a vision today."

"Oh?"

"I saw a great Jedi in him. He will be strong and someday lead the Jedi." She brought her gaze back to Zane and added, "He will inspire many."

Zane reached up and ran the back of his fingers along her cheek. "I like it. His name will be Kol, Kol Skywalker."

"Dad?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I'm also…" her voice suddenly cracked and she had to start again, "I've also decided to take the name Skywalker."

Zane stared at her. "Are you sure?"

She nodded and said, "Yeah, I won't drop Wymissin. That would be unfair to my mother, but I'm a Skywalker. I'm ready to take the name."

He then stood and kissed her forehead. "I'm proud of you, Lusi. And I love you."

She met his intense gaze with one of her own. "I love you, too, Dad."

xxx

Elom
110 ABY

Darth Talon moved quickly though the crowd. She saw her prey several meters away, but couldn't make a move in this busy area. However, her time would come. To the average observer, she appeared as an old Twi'lek woman dressed in a thick, dark cloak. She had been doing Darth Krayt's bidding for more than forty years. Someday her granddaughter would take her place as one of his Hands.

This was only one more task of many over the years that kept the galaxy caught between peace and war, which revolved around this family. She had been responsible for the murder of many members of this family—Queen Élivia, Princess Leia Tru and her father, Emperor Zekk Fel. She also helped cause the rift in relationship between the Empire and Hapes, even though her assassination of the Princess Tenel Ka'lee had been a failure.

Finally, her prey entered the warehouse where the planted evidence had led her.

A sinister smile snaked onto Talon's black tattooed lips as she pulled her lightsaber and stepped into the dimness.

Jedi Master Lusi Wymissin Skywalker had to die. She was getting too close to discovering them.

And one thing was for sure, Darth Talon would not fail again. Her Master forbade it.

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Thanks for reading!!