LL2 37 Never Trust a Jedi

…Kess' head whipped back to him before she realized what he said. She saw Leia close her eyes. She watched Han drop his back against the wall and stretch his head to the ceiling with a huff. Uncertain what was happening, her eyes went back to Luke.

Luke stared at her with a rippling jaw and careful words, "Darth Vader went by a different name before he turned to the dark side." He swallowed hard and forced himself to look at her when he said it. "His real name was Anakin Skywalker," Luke humbly admitted. "He was my father."

Her shock that Luke was telling her the story only intensified when he finished telling it. She narrowed one eye at him as though she hadn't heard him right. This can't be right. That can't be true. Eyes bulging, her mouth fell open. Kess shook her head… over and over and over again.

Luke swallowed a dry throat and locked his jaw shut.

She blinked and stepped clumsily backward into a living room chair, eyes unblinking at him until new tears welled up in her lashes.

Then her eyes flicked to Leia, Luke's sister, the Minister of State, and grew wider.

Leia stared uncomfortably at the carpet. Her arms folded tightly in front of her rust-colored jumpsuit. Solo stepped gently to the woman's side and wrapped his arms around her, but Leia stiffened at it.

Kess stumbled farther backwards, passing the chair, and looked again to Luke.

Luke licked his dry lips and whispered. "You can imagine why we're not ready to make that public knowledge yet." His eyes pleaded back at her. "And I hope you can understand why I was reluctant to tell you."

A tear splashed on her cheek. She placed her palm on her forehead and turned with indecision. "Um," her voice cracked. She swallowed a dry mouth. "I'm… gonna go home now." Before a commanding word could stop her, she dashed to the hallway.

The door hissed shut.

Luke closed his eyes and rubbed his brows with thumb and forefinger. His heavy sigh quivered in his chest. "I think I hate him more for this than anything else."

Leia turned to him with a command, "Go after her."

Luke barely shook his head, "She needs to cool off."

Han stepped over and put a palm on the wet bar, "What she needs is to talk to you."

Luke hissed back at him, "I thought you didn't like her?"

Han squared his shoulders. "I don't trust her." He motioned to the chair the woman had bumped into, "especially when she's got a lightsaber right now."

Leia shouted across the room, "Go after her!"

Luke met his sister's stare and looked away again. His motions quickened, "Send Artoo home in about an hour." He rubbed the sweat from his palms to the sleeves of his pants and stood nervously. He took five steps to the door and stopped.

Han and Leia watched him turn around, helpless. "What do I say?"

Leia went to him gently. "Luke, it's time to tell her the truth."

He winced painfully, waving his arm at the bar, "I just did!"

Han crossed his arms, "The truth about you, idiot. Not him."

Luke looked at Han pathetically. He started and then his eyes saddened again, "I can't."

Leia felt her brother's frustration oozing out from his practiced control. She touched his arm and insisted again, "Luke, go talk to her."

Luke roughly combed his fingers in his tousled hair and moved swiftly out the door.

He paused in the hallway to wring his hands, then trotted to the elevator. He thought to fetch his speeder but knew that he'd never talk her into getting in. The chilly night breeze brushed his cheeks when he came out of the building. She was nowhere in sight, but he could sense her around the corner and down the street already. He realized he might lose her—

Luke skipped into a full run.

His chest pounded. The wind felt like ice on his ears as he rounded the corner of the building. He saw her, blocks away and walking swiftly farther. Her arms were pulled in tight at her chest. She jaywalked across the street to the footpath through a small patch of jungle.

Luke ran faster, "Kess!"

Her feet sped up. Her arms unraveled to so she could tuck to run down the wide footpath.

Luke gritted his teeth and ran faster but with all his strength in the Force, all his medals and political power, his feet just wouldn't move fast enough. His legs were longer, but hers were quicker. He gained on her too slowly for his own patience.

He ran close enough for her to hear his boots pounding into the moistened grass and she bolted. "Get away from me!"

Luke shouted a commander's order, "Lendra! Stop!"

The trees loomed over her when she instinctively followed his order. And he could feel the beat in time when she kicked her own butt for doing so. Streetlights twinkled from the other side of the jungle patch and sent shadows over the path and her.

Luke's feet ran until he came within a few metres of her but just as he was beginning to slow, an amber light ignited in the shadows and the long blade pointed straight at him.

Luke skidded to a halt, panting through parted lips. He saw her tear-stained cheeks illuminated by her lightsaber's glow. He took a step closer, craving to ease her pain and his guilt.

The blade straightened, pointing directly at his chest. "Get away from me," she whispered roughly.

Luke still didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to do, what to think, or how to feel. The midnight blue of her pain flooded his senses. "No," was as he could say.

"I don't want to hear your explanations or your apologies," she said furiously. "You lied to me." She sucked in a quivering breath. "You let me trust you knowing you were hiding the truth... I'm not even sure I want to hear your terribly long story anymore."

He spread his hands and stepped up until the blade nearly touched the fabric of his black tunic. "Kesselia, don't fight me about this," he whispered. "Please. Put it away."

She boomed out a challenge, her fist shaking her blade in front of his chest. "YOU DRAW YOURS!"

Luke swallowed hard. He wasn't about to draw his lightsaber on her, but he wondered what else he could do if she finally let loose her anger and swung at him. "You're upset and you have every right," he insisted, "but this hate you feel for Vader will turn you to the dark side if you don't pacify it."

She stepped backward, waving the blade in sarcasm, "Oh! Just what I need right now. More twisted wisdom from Master Perfect!"

Luke bit his tongue and cursed himself for his approach. Pain filled his heart at the realization of the monster her created.

She flapped her free hand against her thigh. "Well, you were right! Three, four. You win. You're father's worse than mine."

Poetic justice, he thought. They already told him what to do, tell her how you feel, but he didn't know how to say it. He didn't know if it would do any good. He didn't know if it would be stepping over that line that Obi-Wan stopped him from crossing.

But what he did know, he inhaled deeply to draw up the courage to say it out loud, "I don't want to lose you."

Kess laughed painfully at him. "You've got a real problem with this Jedi peace of yours! Your attitude changes from a military hero to a bible-thumping monk as fast as a power switch." Another tear dribbled down her cheek, "And now you don't want to lose me? You just keep me around so you have someone to beat up on! I'm just your stupid little sidekick, Luke!" She waved her free hand in the air. "No matter what you say, I'm supposed to obey. No matter what you do, I'm supposed to find my peace and understand!"

Luke shook his head weakly, "No—

"I'm not doing this anymore!" She screamed, "I'm exhausted!I've had it! No more tag and no more lies." She switched off her saber and tightened her grip on the hilt. "No more 'it's a long story.' No more, 'I'll tell you when you're ready'." Her chest heaved as the crying flowed uncontrollably. "No more 'mistakes'."

Luke shook his head at her, as speechless as he was helpless at what was coming. Her acidic whisper sliced the heart completely out of his ribs.

"And no more training." She threw the hilt at him. "I quit."

Her lightsaber thumped on the ground behind him.

The silence of his shock turned up the volume of the chirping crickets and twittering night birds. The statement knocked the air right out of Luke's chest. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't speak.

Kess decided she'd given him plenty of time to respond, then pivoted on her heels. She turned her back to him and stormed away.

All her peace and serenity crumbled like a brick building in an earthquake. Her feet sped up as though the distance from him would ease the pain, but even at a full run again, she couldn't control the crying. She shot out of the jungle path and, in seconds, was out of sight.

Luke tried to run after her but only made it a few steps before his strength weakened. His legs buckled beneath him and he fell to his knees on the soggy ground. The wetness of the recent rain instantly soaked through his pants to his shins. Silence boomed in his ears. Frogs croaked at him and the shadows over the footpath darkened even the corners of his soul.

He threw back his head and shouted out his pain into the stars and hoped his father would hear him. "DAMN YOU!"

His voice echoed against the stone buildings and drilled a hole directly into her chest as she ran as fast as she could to base. The tears from the death her mother flowed as thought he pain were fresh. Her father had warned her. As much as she hated to admit it, her father was right.

Never trust a Jedi.