Chapter 14:

A/N: Thank you very much to I Love Dance, Treenahasthaal, Arya of Ellesmera, and l.s.n. for reviewing.

l.s.n.: Why, yes I do!

It was a warm, hazy evening in early summer. The last remnants of the gold glimmered on the clear ocean water, and the sunset's brilliance was beginning to fade from the liquid sky.

For the first time in longer than he could remember, Luke Skywalker was on vacation with his family.

Calm voices in pleasant conversation drifted from a group of tables on the hotel's seashore patio – not made out of durasteel or reinforced metal, but natural stone illuminated by soft light. Han and Leia's were there, their presences glowing softly in the Force.

Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin played happily on the ocean's shore and in the water, their excited voices rising in laughter. Luke was sitting on a gentle slope of the white beach as he watched them. In this late light, the sand seemed oddly rare and beautiful, changing from dull sparkling hues of ivory to lustrous silver-snow to shimmering mist.

Growing up, he had hated sand with all his heart. But now, oddly, it didn't seem to bother him at all. Luke felt only the softness underneath him and the warm sea breeze that stirred the air around him and ruffled his hair.

It was perfect.

A dripping Jaina ran towards him, screeching with laughter as both boys chased after her with something slimy. Her small feet made a haphazard line of displaced sand away from the ocean. She rushed halfway around Luke and dropped down next to him in a spray of sand, grabbing his arm for protection and drenching his right side with water.

Luke turned to her, and she buried her face in his chest. "Oops," she said, muffled. Her arms wrapped around him, and she looked up with guileless brown eyes. Luke just smiled and hugged her back, saltwater soaking into his thin shirt.

Anakin and Jacen reached them and sat in the sand on Luke's other side. "Let's bury Uncle Luke," Jacen suggested. The other two found this idea agreeable.

"Lie down," Jaina ordered authoritatively. Luke stretched out lazily, and the three began to pile the sand on top of him.

They had reached three-quarters of the way to his shoulders before Luke began to notice the traces of a chilled mist hanging heavily over the sand. For the first time, he became aware that the sky had gone inky black and the voices from the hotel were oddly stifled. Even the air seemed to lose some of its brininess, as if a heavy blanket had been put over his senses.

Luke realized that he couldn't feel the Force. He stood up, or tried to. It now seemed as if the sand was weighing heavily on him, pressing him painfully into the hardening ground. He tried to call Han or Leia, but for a long moment, his body didn't seem to respond to his commands.

Jaina, Anakin, and Jacen were unmoving as well, their expressions still frozen in childish smiles. A tendril of dark matter rose in an agonizingly slow movement as well, hovering threateningly behind the three Solo children as if in indecisiveness. It finally lashed out at Jaina, wrapping its long strands around her body and pinning her arms to her side.

Movement returned.

Jaina was shrieking in terror. Jacen's and Anakin's eyes were wide with horror, and Luke exploded into action, shaking off sand as he lunged for his niece. But he was too late. She was carried out of reach. Luke called out to her with all his heart and mind.

"JAINA!"

Another tendril of the dark material enfolded him, and his voice began to echo as the scene went dark, fading into nightmarish black as he found speech once again impossible. But he could feel the Force again!

Jaina!

Jaina!

Jaina . . .

Jaina . . . .

Jacen Solo lifted the cup of caf smoothly and flawlessly. His hours of practice had finally paid off, under the watchful eye of Jedi Cilghal. According to her, his levitation of small objects now rivaled that of the most experienced Knights.

Jacen was a clever enough to suspect that Cilghal's extravagant compliment stemmed partially from her desire to stop him from spilling more caf or dropping more pebbles onto hard surfaces, but it was welcome all the same. He had worked hard to achieve mastery, even if he wasn't quite there yet.

Yavin IV was an exceptionally good place to practice. The jungle was teeming with life, to improve sensing skills, and the temples were filled with Jedi willing to teach a hopeful student.

Since Wedge had unexpectedly gone on a business trip, it had been explained to the Solo children, they would have to spend some time on Yavin IV before their parents could come retrieve them.

Initially, Jacen had been excited, but both he and his siblings had begun to wish that their parents or Uncle Luke, or even Winter, would finally come back.

"Good job, Jacen," Cilghal congratulated him absentmindedly. Jacen was sitting, mind-numbingly bored, in her office while she did something complicated with a datapad that he neither understood nor had any desire to question.

The monotony was broken up nicely by a shrieking Jaina tearing into the room as if an enraged rancor was chasing her.

"What's going on, Jaina?" Cilghal asked patiently, calmly standing up.

"It's Uncle Luke!" Jaina said hysterically. "He's calling me, and he's in trouble!"

"What?" Cilghal asked. "What is he saying?"

"Just my name!" Jaina dropped down the floor and closed her eyes. "He sounds strange . . . ," she mumbled, features smoothing out into an expression Jacen recognized, the one that meant his sister used was being enveloped by the Force.

Then, the darkness released him. Luke lied on a flat, reflective plane, feeling strangely light-headed.

As he began to sit up, another figure materialized. It was his niece! "Jaina," Luke said, relief flooding him. "Are you all right?" he asked her.

"Yes," Jaina replied, sounding oddly puzzled. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he replied automatically.

Jaina threw her arms around him again, just as she had on the beach – before – the details were beginning to get fuzzy . . . . "We were waiting, and waiting, for you and Mom and Dad to get back," she sniffled. "Where are you?"

"Xandra." The word came to his mind, unbidden. Xandra? He was quite sure he had never heard of the place.

Then, Jaina gasped in surprise and drew back a little, staring at his face. Luke looked down at his reflection. A line of blood had appeared above his eye, and a cold, aching pain began to register in his mind. Another cut appeared, nearly parallel to the first, but wider. He began to feel force acting upon him, pulling him away from Jaina.

"Uncle Luke," she cried out. "Don't go away!"

But he was powerless to resist. He caught the last glimpses of her face out of the corner of his eye, and the ache grew sharper, and spread to every corner of his body.

Luke Skywalker woke up.

"Lieutenant," Lunara snapped at one of the uniformed guards assigned to the prisoners' cell.

He immediately snapped his head up at her, backbone jerking in an almost comical manner as he tried to decide whether to straighten up or cower in respect.

"The security we have in place is inadequate," Lunara continued, ignoring his indecisiveness. "The prisoners have proven they are remarkably innovative for Jedi scum, and Skywalker in particular is being healed, even if he is spending all of his time drugged.

"However, I would not want to be the man on duty when Cinerate finds that the important prisoners have escaped." She paused to give the group an intimidating stare. "I want proposals for a new security system. In the meantime, I will personally guard the cell."

None of the guards were dim or suicidal enough to challenge her command, so they filed out as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Lunara turned the transparency and power level drastically down so she could communicate with the prisoners.

Despite the fact that Syal and Soontir Fel had informed the prisoners that Lunara had switched sides, they still appeared wary.

Han and Leia Organa Solo were sitting close together on the cold stone floor. They scrambled to their feet when they saw Lunara. Luke Skywalker remained limp and lifeless beside them. She could see that some of Skywalker's superficial injuries had healed, and his broken bones had been knitted together by a medical droid. However, he still didn't look ready for a fight.

She stopped herself from sneering when she noticed that the two conscious prisoners had stepped protectively around Skywalker. She reminded herself to be polite. "Has he woken up yet?" she inquired courteously. She knew the answer, but it seemed to be an appropriate conversation starter.

"No," Leia Organa Solo informed her, expression guarded.

Or perhaps not. She tried again. "So, have you been thinking of a plan?"

"Actually, no," said Han Solo. "We've been playing word games this whole time. Did you know that an anagram for "General Han Solo" is "Nonlegal as Hero"? Leia thinks there's a symbolic meaning behind that—"

"Great!" Lunara cut in. "What's the plan?"

"We haven't got one," Leia admitted. "Besides breaking into the hangar and stealing a ship. But I don't see how we're going to accomplish anything else if it's only the five of us, trying to fight and protect Luke as well."

"You could always leave Skywalker here," Lunara pointed out. Somehow, she didn't think the others would go for that. But she nevertheless continued. "We could disappear into the population for a while, or even try out stealing a ship. Cinerate doesn't have air defenses covering the entire planet. But we aren't going to get anything done dragging around an unconscious Jedi."

"Not a chance!" said General Solo.

"There's really no point in staying here to die with him," she argued, more vehemently. She needed them to believe she wanted to escape. "There's no way he's getting out of this situation alive anyway. Can you think of anything that would possibly allow anybody to smuggle him out of here or defeat Darth Cinerate? The New Republic doesn't seem to be coming, we're vastly outnumbered, and Cinerate doesn't trust anyone enough for me to help you that much. He's dead no matter what happens."

"It doesn't matter," Organa Solo replied, steel in her voice. "We're not leaving without him."

"Alright." Lunara raised her eyebrows, knowing full well she would get nowhere. "What about your children? Are you planning to leave them without parents based on principle? Would that be moral?"

"It would be nothing short of criminal to leave him here after all he's done for us."

Lunara felt her lips thin. "Very well," she bit out. "If I think of a plan, I'll inform you. That's assuming, of course, that you're offering me a pardon and my freedom if we ever do make it back." She paused to see their reactions. They grimaced, but no one contradicted her.

"I'll check to see if you've changed your minds about Skywalker tomorrow." She turned and made to leave.

"Wait!" Horn called out.

Lunara turned. "Yes?"

"How did you sneak up on us when we were captured? Leia and I were using the Force to sense life, but we didn't detect you, even when we became aware of you."

Lunara smiled grimly. "Most members of the population on Xandra have been severely Force-drained by the Sith. They have so little Force energy as to be practically invisible, and the time you spent mingling with the population was, for lack of a better metaphor, like being thrown into the dark. Once you began nearing life again, your Force sense had to become used to life again. It's like suddenly being taken out of that darkness by a bright light shining into your eyes. You can't see well again until your eyes adjust."

With that, she deactivated the barrier and stepped out of the cell.