"You have become far too restless," Vader told Chinnatah, using the word Palpatine had chosen. Displeasure was easily evident in his voice, much less his presence. "My master is going to provide you with a human companion whom you will obey, so as to prevent any of your urges to go gallivanting around the planet. Is that understood?"

The youth nodded in comprehension.

"Very well. Your new companion should be coming by soon."

****

When a young human around his age was brought into Vader's quarters, Chinnatah simply stared. With red hair, a pale complexion, and green eyes, this human was quite unlike most of the humans he had seen on Tatooine with their brown and blond hair and tanned faces.

He carefully studied the human's posture. Some postures were universal, such as the submissive way in which this newcomer carried himself. But, Chinnatah noted to himself, there almost seemed to be a hint of defiance beneath the submission. He moved his eyes to the human's face.

"This is your new companion," the dark man told Chinnatah. "Her name is Mara Jade."

Chinnatah looked at the newcomer, and Vader's words almost went right past him before he concentrated on them. Her?

Chinnatah subconsciously made a Tusken gesture of skepticism. This was a female? How was he supposed to distinguish between the different human genders? This Mara Jade wore no headdress...Were there other distinguishing remarks between male and female humans? He told himself to ask Opakwa later; surely the silver protocol droid would be able to tell him.

****

Darth Vader began, "Jade, this is—" and cut off. The boy had not been given a name.

Well, Vader amended, the boy likely had a name, but, as he was not speaking, Vader could not exactly know what that name was.

Oh, what was even the importance of a name? Vader scowled beneath his helmet before admitting to himself that names could be very important. Certainly, they could signal one's departure from a previous life. His own name change had certainly signaled a shift from weak Jedi Knight to strong Sith Lord.

The youth turned his head to look at Vader, sending a questioning probe.

Vader hated to be having this conversation in front of Jade, but apart from sending her away for a few minutes and arousing hers and the Emperor's suspicion, there was nothing he could do. Well, he could give the boy a name, as Palpatine had done for him...But he would prefer if the boy chose one or perhaps let him know what he was called by the Tuskens.

"My name is Vader," the Dark Lord noted carefully. "What is yours?"

The boy hesitated for but a moment before sending Vader an image of the twin Tatooinian suns.

"Sun?" Vader ventured. Both he and the boy knew that unless the boy spoke, the name could not be exact. So, after a brief pause, the boy nodded.

Vader felt one of his hands twitch involuntarily. He felt uneasy at the thought of how well-suited the name "Sun" seemed to be for the boy. Was it a signal from the Force that the child was grounded in the Light? Or was it a signal that Vader was pulling the youth into the darkness, forcing a sunset upon him? Why must the name be associated with such heavy symbolism?

"Very well. Sun, Jade, I trust you can amuse yourselves while I am gone." Vader felt a glimmer of amusement himself. With Sun's refusal to talk, despite the absence of any abnormalities with his vocal cords, there was little likelihood that they would actually be amused in his absence. He considered warning them against leaving the palace, but he knew Jade would keep them where they were supposed to be. He could certainly trust her to do that much.

Vader nodded and then turned and left, the door closing behind him.

****

Everything happened so fast.

Tia finished her daily glass of "sweetdrink" (in actuality, Alderaanian ale), arose from her chair, and collapsed, dead within seconds.

Bail, Celly, and Rouge cried out, rushing toward her. Leia and Nial ran into the room after hearing the noise. Celly tried to call the Aldera Universal Medcenter, but it was late, too late.

Celly and Rouge sobbed, Leia stared blankly, and Nial and Bail trembled. It had to have been poison—Leia thought she recognized the signs of Malkite themfar. Bail smelled the cup in which the Alderaanian ale had resided, and he gave a small nod that confirmed their fears. The members of the Royal Houses were all trained to recognize various kinds of poisons, even though it was only rarely that they attempted to use their training.

"Why?" Rouge cried out. She and Celly had not yet realized that Tia's death had not been a natural one.

After a moment of silence, Nial turned to Bail with a hard set in his brown eyes. "It was a warning, wasn't it?"

Bail bit his lip and furrowed his brow, trying to caution the sable-haired youth, "Nial..."

Seeing the wretchedness around her, Leia felt heart-wrenched. Why hadn't Obi-Wan sensed this? The Force allowed him to see the future, didn't it?

Her anger start to grow, but she started to push it away as she reluctantly admitted to herself that perhaps Jedi were fallible...And Obi-Wan didn't even know what had happened—he was off meditating, not even realizing the terrible events that had unfolded...And possibly that were to unfold—for Leia had an ominous feeling, as if something just as bad as her aunt's death were about to happen. She could sense the intense animosity radiating from her cousin, and she knew he would not be content to sit back and grieve. The Empire had dealt him a personal blow.

"The Emperor's got his eye on you. He's got an eye on this whole family," Nial continued, his voice steady until it came to the word "family."

"Nial," Bail Organa pleaded with his nephew. Bail's sisters weren't supposed to know about his involvement in the Alliance—certainly not at a time like this.

"My mother is dead," Nial stated tremulously, blinking back tears. "And I will avenge her."

Without another word, Nial left the room.

Bail followed, Leia trailing unnoticed behind him. Nial's movements were slow but firm, and Bail called out to him, "Nial."

The man's nephew reluctantly turned, his eyes red and his face grim. "What is it, uncle?" There was a strange harshness in his voice.

"What are you going to do?" Bail queried, fearing the answer.

Nial's eyes glinted with sly hatred. "Why, I'm going to Coruscant to kill the Emperor, of course." He laughed a cold laugh the likes of which Leia had never heard from him.

"Nial, no!" Bail exclaimed, terror flitting across his features. "That's suicide!"

The youth gave his uncle an odd grin. "Well, then, Uncle Bail, call me suicidal!"

"Nial, there's another way! You can join the Rebellion—"

"And do what, uncle? You know I have no piloting skills. Oh, I know, I could shoot off jokes at them! That would have them rolling on the ground, most certainly! And then it wouldn't take much more effort to thrust them into the ground!"

"There are ground troops—" Bail tried, but his nephew cut him off.

"Oo, and then I could kill some nameless Stormtroopers, of which there will always be more!" The youth shook his head, looking disgusted. "You know, sometimes I wonder how you ever became a politician, uncle."

"Nial," Leia spoke up sharply, her eyes narrowed. Bail turned to look at her in surprise; he hadn't realized she was there.

"Sorry, dear cousin, mine uncle. You both know I was never the one to do the smart thing. Now, I'm off to Coruscant to kill me a despot." Nial moved to leave.

"Nial, no! If you do this, you'll endanger us all," Bail said in a low voice.

"I think you've done quite a lot of that yourself, uncle," Nial said harshly.

Bail looked pained, and Leia tried pleading once more, "Nial, please don't go!"

Pain flashed across her cousin's face, and he whispered, "I really am sorry, Leia," before disappearing out the door.

****

Mara Jade stared at Sun. She thought the name he had just received seemed slightly off, but it didn't really matter to her.

"So, you don't talk," Mara stated flatly. She was annoyed at having been stuck with baby-sitting one of Vader's charges, but it was better that the said charge remain silent than be talkative.

Sun shook his head, staring at her with his startlingly blue eyes. She noticed he stared at her lips whenever she spoke, and she wondered if he were deaf or simply odd.

"What do you do, then?"

The other youth hesitated a moment before implanting an image in her mind of a simulator.

"You like to fly, huh?" She smirked. She wasn't exactly averse to the activity herself.

Hesitating, he imitated her grin and nodded.

Mara gave a mental snort. Her master had nothing to fear from this one. So he could put images in people's heads—so what? She crossed her arms and inclined her head. "Take me to the sim room, then."

After a brief moment of hesitation and a strange gesture, Sun began walking toward one of the doors in Vader's quarters.

****

Bail stared after his nephew. According to his sister's will, he was supposed to receive guardianship of the youth in the event of her death, but he knew Nial would never yield to anyone's authority. Particularly not now.

Bail was faced with an agonizing decision, and at that moment he hated the Empire more than ever.

Since Nial refused to fight against the Empire with the Rebellion underground and was instead taking his personal vendetta public, Bail had two choices. He could let him be killed before reaching Palpatine—for killed he would be—and thus implicate the Organa family even further, or he could call on the authorities. The latter option would likely end up with Nial being killed or sent to an Imperial prison.

Bail took in a deep breath, tightly closing his eyes. Nial was probably gathering his belongings from his room. And he would probably take a little time to scrounge for some money and food.

"Leia, go take care of your aunts."

Though he was not looking at her, he could practically sense the frown on his adopted daughter's face. "Father, what are you—"

"Leia, please go," he asked, sounding pained.

He heard the rustle of her clothes as she left the room. Shuddering with the effort to compose himself, Bail considered finding Obi-Wan and asking him for advice. But he knew this was his call, so he refrained from searching.

****

Nial heard the door to his room open, and he stiffened. "I told you uncle," he was saying as he turned, "I'm not going to—"

He froze.

Betrayed.

****

Bail hated both himself and the Empire, but he had known, known, what he had to do.

And so there he was in the room of his nephew, bringing the unarmed Alderaan Guard to arrest him.

Slam! went Nial's suitcase onto the floor. Click! went the cuffs onto Nial's wrists. Thud! went Bail's heart as he stared with tears in his eyes at his nephew.

"I am so sorry," Bail said silently, moving his mouth though he could not actually force his vocal cords to work.

Nial stared at him, questions written across his face. He didn't understand why Bail was doing this to him, why Bail couldn't give him this one relief from his mother's death. A tear glistened in his left eye, but he was too proud to let it fall. He did not speak his confusion, his indignation—but Bail heard it all in his heart as loudly as if the youth had shouted it.

As the Alderaan Guard began to take the young man away, Bail whispered, "I cannot allow you to shame our family."

"No," Nial mumbled as he passed his uncle, "you have just done that yourself."

Bail sat down on his nephew's bed, burying his tears in his nephew's pillow. Why did the Empire tear so many families apart?

****

After a few minutes in the sim room, Mara's opinion of Sun went up several notches. She eventually called for a pause, finding her curiosity piqued about this mysterious boy. Palpatine had not given her much information about her assignment, and the boy most likely wouldn't tell anyone that she had asked him personal questions.

"Where are you from?" she inquired.

He flashed her an image of twin suns, hesitated, and then showed her several images of a planet covered in sand.

"Tatooine?" Mara asked quickly. She had been to the planet once on a mission, and it was not an experience she cared to repeat.

Sun nodded.

"Did Vader just take you from some moisture farm or bar?" she queried.

The other youth shook his head, sending an image into Mara's mind of several Sand People and a small bantha. The image was laced with several emotions: pride, sorrow, regret, nostalgia...

Mara frowned. "Were you a Tusken Raider?" This was certainly an interesting development...She had thought the Tusken Raiders loathed humans—how would a human boy end up among their numbers?

Sun made a strange gesture before nodding.

The young woman paused, an idea coming to her. "In that case, you must be a pretty good fighter. Come on, I've been needing to brush up on my fighting skills..." She gave a sweet—if fake—grin in an attempt to encourage him, but the effect of the grin seemed to be lost on him. Must be those rags that Tusken Raiders wear—I guess they aren't that used to seeing facial expressions.

After a few moments of hesitation, however, Sun seemed to accept her offer. Mara was glad—the Tusken Raiders probably had a style of fighting different from that which she was accustomed to, and her martial arts masters had always told her that she needed to experience as many styles of fighting as possible.

****

It was not long before Bail was called to the communications station. He was not surprised to see a hologram of the Emperor. Palpatine had spies everywhere—he had probably been informed the minute Bail had contacted the Alderaan Guard. If Bail had had any doubts before about who had poisoned his sister, all those doubts were gone now.

The Alderaanian prince bowed his head, "My emperor."

"I received word of your nephew's intended treachery," the Emperor said in a low voice. "I am glad you reported him, my friend. I will even reward you for your loyalty—rather than having young Nial Organa killed, as is the usual punishment for such a traitor, he is to be sent to the prison facility at Kessel."

Bail was glad the hologram was small so that Palpatine could not see the tears in his eyes or the anger in his face. Being sent to the spice mines of Kessel was a fate worse than death. The brutal Imperial prison at Kessel was hardly a prison at all. It was instead a place where those who displeased the Emperor found awaiting them both torture and an inevitable and wretched descent into madness.

"Thank you, my emperor," Bail said softly.

How Bail hated the Empire.