Nellith did like the skill of being able to start a fire with her mind.

The sun was setting, and while Allana had handled the Ewoks well enough that they wouldn't bother the crew of the Millennium Falcon or Serenity. But Nellith, like her grandfather before her, didn't trust those little bastards as far as she could throw them.

"I'm pretty sure they've eaten people," she informed Tahiri when the blonde Jedi laughed at her refusal to stay in the Ewok village. "They tried to eat Grandpa once!"

"Like Grandapa Han didn't deserve it sometimes," Jacen had teased.

But then there was the sobering fact that Tash had exposited at them: Ben Solo was most likely conceived in the Ewok village during the post-Death Star victory party.

Nellith, in no uncertain terms, informed her that it was gross that Tash knew that, and asked her as politely as she could manage to kriffing please not talk about things like that.

Tash did admit later that she should've kept that bit of speculation from the history texts to herself.

But the damage was done and it was thoroughly decided by the three children of Ben Solo present that there was no way in the nine Corellian hells they were visiting the Ewok village.

But that left them with the problem that it got cold on Endor at night.

Thus, Nellith started a fire with the Force. Jacen walked her through it— apparently before she'd captured him as the Emperor's Hand, he'd had to do it on some mission or another.

It was quite simple, on the technical level. It was causing the molecules to speed up and heat— until fire sprang from the wood.

It made her feel more powerful than lightning or lifting rocks ever could, in her opinion. It was like something in a holodrama about Jedi.

But now they had a roaring fire and could enjoy cooked rations packs as two crews.

Well, except that the Falcon's crew retired sooner. Allana took her rations pack with her when she was the first to leave. She'd wanted to investigate the new holocron they'd recovered, and figure out where they would go next.

Valin ate his rations silently beside Jysella before handing the majority of them to her, and then retiring to the Falcon without another word.

Kyp nudged her as the loading ramp closed.

"Are you sure we should let him go?" Kyp asked. "Alone with your sister? Especially after last night?"

"Allana can handle herself." Nellith kept her tone even, her words diplomatic. "She can make her own choices."

"Don't worry, I'll be bunking in the Falcon on the next hyperspace flight," Jacen promised. "I don't like what happened."

"Look, I don't either." Nellith tried to avoid looking at Kyp, and the scarf he'd wrapped around his neck to cover the bruises from Valin's chokehold. But her blue eyes were drawn to it all the same, a reminder of the time-bomb aboard her sister's ship. "But Allana still wanted him on this trip, didn't she? You said he offered to leave and go back to Tatooine for help."

Kyp was solemn. "I don't think Allana's unbiased when it comes to Valin."

"Ew." Jysella stabbed her fork into the rations, mixing them around. "Can we not talk about my brother's love life, please?"

"It's relevant right now." Tahiri shrugged. "If Allana and he are, you know, hooking power couplings, then we know that she might not be thinking with the clearest Jedi vision."

"That is gross." Jysella threw down her fork in disgust. "I am not having this conversation! I'll be in my bunk!"

She stood, about to leave, when Nellith gently caught her by the wrist.

"Please, answer me one question before you go," Nellith pleaded. "What do you think about all of this?"

Jysella pulled her wrist free, but met Nellith's gaze, thinking for a moment.

"Something else is inside of him, something that they found on Jakku," Jysella said. "You heard it— he didn't recognize Allana, and they supposedly carry a lightsaber for each other. And my brother couldn't do a Force choke if he tried."

Nellith blinked, the realization dawning on her like lightning.

Without thinking, she looked to Kyp, who nodded imperceptibly.

She looked back to Jysella. "Thank you. You can go now. Sorry about that."

"Yeah, sure." Jysella sighed. "Whatever, I'm probably just tired. See you when we're in hyperspace to wherever."

And with that, she stalked off.

"I guess we did kind of push it too far," Nellith mumbled. Her own rations now looked unappealing, and no amount of heat or spices would be able to fix that.

"Look, we agree then, Allana's not being objective about what's happening to Valin," Kyp said. "I didn't always get along with him, because he was always such a goody-goody Jedi like his father, but I at least thought we were friends."

"And friends don't pin friends down on a table," Tahiri finished.

"We should go back to Master Solo, then," Tash added. "It's only logical. If someone or some other force is giving him whatever dark flashes are happening, then we're in over our heads. It definitely wasn't Korriban that did this, and Jakku is a far less documented planet."

"Lovely," Nellith muttered. "Who wants to break into the Falcon then and break Allana the news? Because I know every girl wants to be embarrassed about her crush."

"She has a point." Tahiri stole a bit of rations from Jacen's packet. "And we might want to consider waiting, because Rey is more powerful and wiser than any of the other Masters."

"You think she might be able to help Valin more than Dad can." Nellith nodded. "Honestly, I think that makes more sense."

After all, Allana, through Ben, had confessed that it had all happened after visiting Palpatine's observatory. Her mother had clearly visited the ancestral site— perhaps she knew something about whatever the Sith Lord had left there?

"Let's try to at least make it one more place before we consider sending Valin back," Nellith suggested.

"He nearly killed me," Kyp warned. He tugged away the scarf, showing the full brutality of it. "I didn't get the fancy Force choke like Allana did."

Nellith reached out, her fingers hovering over the black and blue imprints on his neck. He winced all the same, but did not flinch away from her touch.

"You almost killed many students on Yavin IV," she gently reminded him. "We gave you a second chance. Because you were being influenced by Exar Kun."

He bit his lip, saying nothing.

But he didn't have to.

She could sense so much about him from his very aura in the Force— but it was more than that, she decided. A connection of a sorts between them, like what a captain and second-in-command should have.

"I just don't want you getting hurt." His voice was low. "And you know I care about Valin— I want to give him a second chance when all this is over. I heard Jysella— it's not his fault— I saw the eye color change, too. But I'm not going to pretend that we aren't playing with loaded blasters here."

"You're right," Nellith admitted. "But Mum could help us."

"That's true." Kyp sighed, then throwing his empty packaging into the fire. "I just don't like it."

"I get that." She offered no further arguments, explanations, rationalizations. The conversation, in this matter, was over.

But Kyp wasn't done talking.

They all stared a moment at the flames of the campfire before he did speak again.

His emerald eyes were wide on her. "I can't imagine what this place must be like for you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nellith glanced about. "It's all ancient forest— same as you, right?"

Kyp coughed. "I mean that your great-grandfather was put to rest here."

Nellith stared into the depths of the fire. Just like what took Anakin Skywalker in the end. . .

"It's not as bad as it would've been for Anakin."

There was a held breath amongst the circle remaining at the campfire. Everyone knew they weren't talking about Vader anymore. Just as everyone knew that it was the first time they'd spoken about Anakin Solo after Darth Keera murdered him.

"He struggled with it all of his life," Nellith murmured. Her face felt numb. She supposed she'd cried enough over the past weeks. "He was named after him. Mum didn't mean it to become what it did."

Kyp said nothing, listening. And that gave Nellith the courage to continue. It was like a dam inside of her had finally been shattered by the floodwaters.

"He always feared he'd become a second Vader," Nellith added. "Some beings, who lived long enough to be around during the Clone Wars— they said that the Hero With No Fear and Anakin, that they were made of the same stuff."

"You don't think he did?"

"I know he did." Nellith looked back to him. "You knew him— he was so quiet and studious and yet, he could be so reckless and brave, when others were in danger. He cared nothing about himself— he was just so kind."

"I remember."

"Sometimes I think that the best of all of us, that the light of the Jedi died when he did," Nellith whispered. "He was meant for such great things, everyone said so. And yet. . ."

"It was all cut short," Tahiri muttered.

She held Jacen a bit more tightly.

Kyp then reached out and swiped the tears off of Nellith's face. She hadn't even realized that they were there.

"I'll do it," Nellith vowed, speaking not even to herself, or anyone there, physically. "I'll make every prophecy about him come true. I'll make them all come true, someday. I'll be whatever he was supposed to be— but I'll remember always, who was supposed to be there."

In the distance, she could see two translucent blue figures.

One was a man with curls around his shoulder.

The other was a boy with dark hair and the saddest eyes.

Her brother's ghost. He reached out a hand, and Nellith reached to touch him— only to feel the icy air.

The ghosts disappeared, leaving Nellith reaching out to empty night air.

"Nellith?"

Kyp's voice coaxed her back into the land of the living.

"Yes, I'm sorry." She wiped the last remnants of her own tears away. "I. . . I think I'll be in my bunk."