With only a few hours left before the launch of the Convention, the Coruscant Newsnets finally produced a photo of Darth Tovecus.

But it was a photo of a man in a mask.

For a while, all eyes were glued to the little screen to hear reporters repeat the same vague data over and over again. The Grand Moffs promised they would step down from their temporary power, but only if Darth Tovecus passed a DNA test to prove an Imperial bloodline. The Convention organizers were going to great lengths to ensure that test was done by droids, unbiased and un-tampered, and advertised the test would be perform on Emperor's spire seat inside the refurbished Palpatine Convention Center, right there in front of every representative of every Imperial-controlled system.

Luke feared they would kill Nik Lendra the moment his DNA came up negative. But if Nik Lendra wasn't the man under the mask, the Alliance had a bigger problem on their hands. He watched the vid with increasing worry, but it was easier than worrying about her.

He sat at the game table with the Chewie in silence. Han was on watch and Lando was snatching a nap. Luke had tried to meditate a couple of times, he tried to get some sleep, but neither project was very effective. He rubbed his fingers against his forehead and stared at the air. At long length, he discovered that thinking this through was more effective than meditating, because this emotion was one with which he had little experience.

Jealousy.

Almost as soon as Ben drew Luke's attention towards Kesselia as his first trainee, Luke witnessed hints of her girlhood fascination with the 'Living Legend'. He took it in stride because a lot of people still felt that way. But now that he thought about that first year, when she had no idea he was occasionally observing her from a distance, he remembered the insignificant decisions in her life that kept her single all that time. The way she'd hover in the background when Kayla was on a flirtatious prowl. The way she sensed a less-than-respectable interest and turned down that offer for a date. Only with the overall pattern did it become obvious that she was avoiding romantic relationships. He knew why now; she was still recovering from the death of Rixxo at the Battle of Endor, yet Luke hardly witnessed her dwelling on that almost-fiancé either. Besides, she was the one with the cold feet in that relationship anyway. The closest thing Luke ever saw of Kess's sexual desire was an occasional retreat to her room with a trashy novel, and Luke was quick to respect his nose entirely out of that scene.

(He did it too. Who was he to judge?)

During that year, while Luke avoided the plunge to approach her as a Jedi Apprentice, Kess focused her off-time on stretching her skills at that gymnastics thing and pushing herself to improvement in that fencing class. It wasn't until recently that Luke admitted to himself he'd already begun to like her before he'd met her. He'd grown to respect her. She had a real dedication to her job, caring as much about the comfort of the pilots and droids as the craft she repaired for them. He'd grown fond of her sense of humor; how she often broke the tension in a group with a quiet little quip that kept things in perspective. His growing esteem wasn't conscious of course. She was just a fellow rebel, like Ashten or Shara or Wiley. But by the time Luke decided to secretly test her skills in fencing class, the foundation was laid. Her life patterns had already assured him that the only man Kess ever looked at was the Living Legend.

That was why it struck him to the core to learn it wasn't true. And it wasn't. That guilt she felt was only a flash, a snapshot, but the emotion was as strong and as clear as any high-res photo. What's more was that the guilt erupted from something that was recent. Even though their official coupleness was only weeks old, they'd been in love a lot longer than that. And they both knew it. There was no specific day or event that started them on this romantic path, but they had been emotionally 'together' for months now. Why would she consider someone else when she already had Luke on the hook?

But even if she did—and Han's wisdom rang true that this was normal—that wasn't the problem. The real problem was Luke's dark reaction to it. Vanech was just toying with her, trying to get a reaction out of her. The scalawag hardly noticed Luke was in the room until Luke flashed into action like a controlling husband. It wasn't the first time he'd slammed someone against a wall, but it was the first time he'd done it over something so stupid.

It started with attachment, sure, and he struggled to release that when he let her risk her life for the Battle of the Line, but now it had evolved into something more sinister. The horror of imagining how Cheenan got her pregnant made it worse, which somehow lead to a certain possessiveness during sex. Only with his wits about him did he realize the deeper turn-on in watching her face during orgasm, and his metal fingers gripped to a fist to hear that thought again, now in the sound of Vader's mechanical voice.

Mine.

But how could she fix that? Tell him the entire truth would be a nice start. . . .

Or would it?

In a way, this was all her fault. Kess gave him everything. She submitted herself to his ownership with invitation, baring her neck and opening her body so he could stake his manly claim. And it wasn't just during sex but in the rest of their lives too. It took incredible circumstances before she would disobey the orders of her Commander, just as it took the extremity of learning about Vader before she quit that endless and over-worked Jedi training. These last few weeks, while they were trying to figure out how to be equals, Kess still hesitated questioning his authority, but now she was doing it a lot less.

Luke was no longer on a pedestal, and as a result, he was no longer the only man on her radar.

Wasn't that what you wanted? He scolded himself. Isn't that what you trained her to do? Not just as a Jedi but as your mate? You never wanted to be the patriarch in a marriage. Beru put up with it because that's how she was raised, but Owen's social authority over her never felt right.

And here he was reacting to all this like Owen would have, with the added complication that Luke could catch her at it with his Force skill, and the additional concern of what he could turn into if he let this dark-side get the best of him. What if he caught her out-right flirting with someone? What if, during some far future lull in their relationship, or during some mission that kept them apart far too long, Kess started feeling a real affection towards another man?

It would hurt. Yeah. It would really, really hurt. . . . But what would you do about it?

Trap her away like a caged pet? Chaperone her every social interaction? That's what he wanted to do, but that was the dark side talking. Even if Kess was the kind of woman to tolerate that kind of thing (and she wasn't) his respect for her would wane, and Luke wouldn't love her nearly as much as he did right now.

Luke took a deep, shuddering breath and dropped his eyes into his fingers.

Jealousy.

It wasn't her responsibility to fix.

It was his.