WOW so much has happened in the world of Star Wars in the last couple of weeks. I have lots of feelings about those last four episodes of the Clone Wars, the whole last season actually. But i am pressing on with this story as is because i just can't help myself.

So Soniee and Lux are about to land on Onderon and someone has to be there at the space dock to meet them.

"We're actually going to draw straws to see who picks up Bonteri and his girlfriend?" Saw scoffed. "I thought they only did that in the holos."

"They do it in the holos because it's a great idea." Hutch gestured to the table. "Look, I've already cut the straws. Four are short, one's long. Whoever draws the long straw goes."

"Why didn't you just leave four long and cut one?" Hero asked. "Anyway you'll have to take me out of the drawing. It's getting too close to the lunch rush."

Saw rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I would've been fine if you'd showed up on time." Hero walked off unruffled.

"Fine. Then it's down to myself, Zal, Saw, and Dalla." Hutch picked up one of his carefully cut straws and crushed it in his fist.

"Me?" Dalla echoed. "Why'd you put me in? You know I can't drive a speeder."

Dxun, he'd forgotten. Hutch subtracted another straw and Zalyanov Skimanos, Saw's Lasat friend and recent recruit to their cause, elbowed Saw, "Why were you late anyway?"

Saw shrugged, eyes on the shrinking pile of straws on the table, "Went to check on the old man. He's doing alright but the ruping's in bad shape. Might have permanently lost its sight from whatever accelerant the Imps sprayed out there by the paddock."

"That explains the ash on your boots that you tracked into my dining room!" Hero called from behind the counter. "You plan on going to meet the transport like that if you draw the long straw, smelling like smoke?"

"Yeah," Saw huffed. "I want Bonteri to see exactly what he was party to."

"Alright then." Hutch picked up the remaining three straws, one long, two short. "Saw, me and…"

"Maybe Zal shouldn't go either." Saw spoke up again just as the Lasat's hand was reaching forward to draw.

"Why not?" Zal asked.

Saw smiled wryly. "Wouldn't want our resident purple hairless wookie to scare the girlfriend away, would we?"

"I don't think Mandalorians scare easily." Zal sighed. "But if you think it's for the best."

Hutch took another short straw out of the mix and made a show of arranging the last two for the draw. "Well Saw I guess then it's down to you and it's down to me." He still looked rather smug at his method of determination and held the straws out to Saw to make the choice.

Saw took his time about it. He glanced back at Dalla, drawing everyone's attention to her, "You sure you don't want a speeder piloting lesson before this goes down? It can't be that much different than a sailing ship."

"No, thank you," Dalla chuckled and while the rest of them laughed with her Saw peeked under Hutch's hand and then quickly drew the long straw.

"Guess it's me." He held up the proof. "I'll stop by later and let you all know how it went."

Hutch looked at the short straw that was left in his own hand and shook his head as Saw tracked his ash covered boots back out of the dining room. "Oh I think we'll have an idea of how it went long before he gets back."

"What do you mean?" Dalla asked the Cashier from Hell.

"There's a comm system in that speeder." Hutch calmly walked over to his data pad and flexed his fingers. "I can just patch us in and we can hear every word they say."

…

"Gah!" Saw fiddled with the controls for the speeder's wireless once more, trying to get some music to come in and then gave it up as a bad job. He didn't need to be distracted by that osik anyway. He pulled up as near as he could to the landing platform then hopped out of the vehicle and leaned against it to wait.

A couple of suits of white plastoid armor marched past him on their patrol and he sneered at them. He didn't have anything to fear from them. He wasn't breaking any laws parking here. If they wanted to make trouble it wouldn't be his fault. But they walked on by without incident and Saw turned his mind to why he was here.

He knew the rest of them thought he was just here to see the girl. Yeah, she was cute. Her image had been all over the holos with Luxy boy at her side.

If she had really managed to turn the senator into a one woman man there was something to be said for her methods. There was also something about her, something familiar…

But she wasn't the main reason Saw had fixed the draw. He meant to grill Bonteri about what had been going on while he was away from the planet he was supposed to be representing in the senate. He had probably been distracted from his work by the Mando girl.

Honestly Saw couldn't blame him there and at that moment he remembered that Hero had said something about him smelling like smoke. He pinched the fabric of his shirt and brought it closer to his face to catch a whiff. Then he smoothed it back down into place and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. No one was paying any attention.

Besides his appearance, complete with ash on his boots from the burned out shell that was once the barn that housed the animals they rode into battle, was not for the girl's benefit. Definitely not for her , he thought as he glanced once more at his reflection in the speeder's rear view mirror.

He was starting to resemble one of the supposedly savage beast riders of the past with his hair grown out long and collected into dreadlocks. Well, good. At least he was still connected to his roots.

They had reached out to the Republic during the war to depose the pretender king and the Separatists. Bonteri had had one good idea there and the connections to back it up. After receiving their help Saw had trusted their new allies. He had gone to work with them as an agent called Fulcrum. It hadn't been their fault what happened to Steela, and he didn't want her death to be in vain.

But then the Empire appeared and the Jedi conveniently disappeared! When the Stormtroopers showed up on Onderon and started clearcutting the jungle outside the city gates Saw started asking questions.

The answers he got like, "We need to clear the land for more farming because Onderon has such a great climate for agriculture," just didn't add up, especially when their seemingly random targets conveniently took out every base the planetary rebels had used during their insurrection against the Separatists.

There wasn't a long list of people who knew about those bases. Saw and Steela and the Jedi, of which he was the only one left alive, and Senator Lux Bonteri. So Saw had taken his questions to the man himself. He sent comms and letters demanding answers but Luxy boy said he was just being paranoid. After all it was like they said, Onderon did have a wonderful climate for growing things. And just think how they could help those poor planets who lost everything in the war with their exports.

Yeah, the climate wasn't gonna stay so nice with all the jungles burnt to the ground. The winters were already colder than any in living memory and the summers shorter. If the Empire kept this up they were likely to plunge the planet into a premature ice age.

Well, if the esteemed senator wouldn't listen to reason over the comm, he would see it for himself now and so would his distracting little girlfriend.

Distracting indeed , Saw thought as he watched the couple descend the ramp from their transport. She was asking Lux a question and he leaned down to whisper an answer in her ear and kissed her cheek. She blushed and gave him a playful shove but didn't let go of his hand. She seemed to be gripping it like a lifeline.

So, first impression: She was every bit as pretty in real life as she was in her holos and she did have an Onderonian look about her. Her dark hair picked up reddish highlights in the sun. She had pulled it back into a messy bun but wisps of it were coming free and curling rebelliously at her temples in the humid air.

Her outfit was most definitely not Onderonian. The sensible business casual pant suit might have been very fitting for a senate meet and greet but she must have been hot in that synthetic fabric. Saw fought back a grin. She was hot in it.

Damn! How was this Unifrassian goddess banging Lux Bonteri? The only answer to that was she'd never met a real Onderonian man!

The couple approached and Bonteri was blathering some sort of introduction.

"Hey, I'm Saw." He held out his hand for her to shake and she stared at it for a moment before offering her own hand and looking up at him with a sort of shocked recognition in her deep set green eyes.

Kriff, those eyes! He had looked into a pair of almost identical eyes less than an hour ago. Uncle Brem's eyes had been sad but determined as he discussed the state of the Dalgo barns and the Ruping paddock and the old family estate. He had said the house wasn't much of a loss. He hadn't really spent much time there since Mel flew away. He had left the baby's room exactly like she had set it up in preparation. It had never been used…

"It's very nice to meet you," her clipped inner core accent seemed to break the spell.

"The pleasure is mine." Saw meant it and then he cleared his throat and gestured toward the speeder that was parked behind him. "Your chariot awaits."

It was unclear if her, "Thank you," was directed at Saw or at Lux who opened the door for her and helped her to step into the rear compartment of the vehicle.

While she was getting herself settled in the seat, Lux turned to him and said in a low voice, "Was that smoke we saw in the distance over the eastern jungle as we were landing?" He wrinkled his posh nose. He must have just come close enough to notice the smell coming off Saw's clothing.

"Yeah," Saw gave him a curt nod, glancing at the girlfriend and reassessing how much he wanted to say. "I tried to comm about that but you must have been busy with other things."

"Yes, I got the message."

The girl with the Kira eyes was watching them with concern.

Lux sighed. He sounded a little guilty and well he should. "I never imagined it would be to this extent."

"Well, as you can see..." Saw couldn't deny the witness of their own vision, nor did he want to.

"Was anyone hurt?" she placed her hand on the back of the front seat and leaned forward to inquire.

"It was nothin' we couldn't handle," Saw hoped to reassure her.

She nodded and then scooched over to give Lux room to take the seat beside her. Again she took his hand tightly, giving her boyfriend a brave smile.

Saw shut the door behind them like a good little chauffeur and then rounded the speeder to climb in the driver's side. He didn't want to watch them together. The sight of them, heads bowed close together, made something burn in his chest like the heat of that accelerant that the flame troopers had sprayed on those paddock fences. He pulled his sleeves down over the still healing burn scars on his forearms. He didn't want her to worry about that either.

As he shifted the speeder out of park and started off down the road Saw tried not to glance in the rearview mirror. He lost that battle at the first intersection with a stop indicator, only to find that he met her green gaze.

She quickly looked away, heat coloring her cheeks, and pushed a sweaty curl behind her ear.

Saw wished he could have done that for her. He missed the change of the signal and the driver of the speeder behind him laid on his horn in annoyance. Saw might have cussed the other driver out in any other circumstance but this time he just waved a thanks at the 'reminder' and drove on.

He wouldn't look back at her again, he told himself, but it was hard not to, listening to them speak together in quiet voices. At the next intersection he focused on the wireless, trying to turn on some sort of noise to cover the awkward silence.

"Are you trying to get U of Onderon sports?" Lux asked. "I would have expected that from Hutch."

He wanted to talk sports? Saw wouldn't have pictured that but he welcomed the change of subject. "Actually Hutch threw a hissy fit for the ages after their last game. They lost bad."

"Do they ever win?" The girlfriend - what was her name? Oh right, Soniee. Didn't fit her in Saw's opinion - asked. "They've lost every game against U Mandalore."

"They're bottom of the bracket every year but they're intergalactic champions as far as Hutch's concerned. Better not show loyalty to any other team."

(Hutch's jaw dropped back in the restaurant. "I am offended!"

"It's the truth," Dalla said. "Now quiet, I can't hear them.")

Saw furrowed his brow. It almost sounded like static had come over the sound system. He gave up and tried to focus on the road again.

"Are there always so many of them?" Her voice broke Saw's concentration. He didn't know at first what she was talking about.

Lux answered her sadly. "The stormtroopers? They weren't here before I left. It's almost like having the droids back patrolling the streets."

Saw had felt the same though he'd been here. He'd witnessed their increased presence. He'd almost grown used to it. He felt the need to say something. "It's not so bad." He gave a dry chuckle. "Just don't swat at them. I think they're more scared of you than you are of them."

He caught her gaze in the mirror once more and she smiled slightly at his little joke.

Then she looked back at Lux who brought her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers.

"Traveled the wide galaxy and came back to this." Bonteri shrugged. "Now the work at home begins."

"Of course," She answered him, full of hope for the future.

Saw bit back what he really wanted to say and merely shook his head returning his eyes to the road. "Mr. Bonteri, you've been off on Coruscant for so long."

"You couldn't have known, though, not really." Soniee encouraged in a low voice, though she had to know that Saw was listening. "We seemed to be making progress in the Senate."

"We were making history, starting a brand new Empire," Lux sighed.

Saw mumbled, "Ever think you were backing the wrong dalgo."

"What was that?" Lux asked him.

"Nothing," Saw lied, but the girl caught his gaze in the mirror once again and she looked at him curiously.

Osik! He thought. It would be just like the Empire to send a pretty little spy to rat out their operation. The thing was, he didn't get that vibe from the look she gave him at all.

She could be a really good actress, he supposed. The holos did say something about her acting in a Bard's play. She would have to be a really good one to make him believe that they weren't in total agreement about the state of things in the Galaxy just then, however.

Suddenly her green eyes grew wide and she raised her hand as if to point, "Dalgo!"

Before Saw could focus again on the traffic, the brake pedal seemed to depress under his foot and they came to a stop, barely missing the beast and rider who were crossing in front of them.

The animal shied, the rider cursed, and Saw apologized before he turned in his seat. "You alright?"

Lux looked like he'd gotten a hypo of adrenaline but he put his girlfriend's well being above his own. "Are you alright, Soniee?"

She lowered her hand back into her lap and appeared contrite but perfectly calm. "I'm fine."

Saw looked at her and then back in front of them where the animal had been and then down at his foot on the break. She couldn't have stopped the speeder, could she? He didn't say anything and went back to driving.

"Really, I'm fine," Saw heard her assuring Lux and then the senator did what he did best or at least what he did when he didn't know what else to do. He started to give a speech.

Lux pointed out the market and the temple and the people and the beasts. He went on and on hardly taking a breath but she seemed to hang on his every word. That is until he got to, "and that's where Steela…" and he stopped.

None of them said anything until Saw tried to play it off. "You can speak her name in front of me. It's alright."

But Lux stayed quiet. Maybe he was more worried about discussing an old flame in front of the new girl.

"She was your sister," Soniee said softly and full of reverence. "Lux told me she was a real hero during the war." And then she added a phrase in her own language, "Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la."

"What does it mean?" Saw asked. He glanced back in the mirror but she was looking out of the window and he was quite sure remembering heroes of her own.

"It means, Not gone, merely marching far away."

"That's really beautiful," Lux told her and she nodded and gave him a small sad smile. And then the senator must have figured he needed to fill the silence again and went back to pointing out places of local interest.

He didn't stop until they had pulled up in front of the palace. "And this is it…"

He was distracted again now that they had reached their destination, probably thinking about introducing the girlfriend to the king and vice versa. He opened the door and stepped out and reached back to help Soniee out of the vehicle as well.

She was the one who turned to Saw before she stepped out onto the pavement and held out her hand. "Thank you for the ride. It was very nice meeting you."

"Yeah, I…" Saw took her hand and held it for a moment not quite shaking it, just inexplicably enjoying the sensation. "I hope we can see each other again soon."

"I'm sure we will." She removed her hand from his somewhat reluctantly, or at least he liked to think so, and then allowed Lux to assist her out.

"Thanks, Saw." Bonteri finally remembered his manners and then promptly forgot again that Saw Gerrera ever existed.

Saw watched them all the way up the steps before he put the speeder in drive and navigated it back toward the restaurant.

The second he walked through the door and saw Zal's and Hutch's wolf like grins, he knew why he hadn't been able to get the radio to work.

"Seriously?" He muttered.

"Whatever happened to ripping Bonteri a new one?" Zal asked.

Hutch clapped the big Lasat on the back with a laugh, "He couldn't do that in front of the girl!"

"She was very quiet," Dalla mused. She shared a look with a girl Saw had never seen before in a booth that was too close to their private conversation for his liking, and Saw sized her up immediately as the asset Dalla claimed to have when she joined their cause.

He filled that information away for later and instead addressed the others taunting. "She couldn't get a word in edgewise with Bonteri blathering on. She's probably used to it by now."

"Saw's in love," Hero cackled.

"I don't like this," Dalla said. "I didn't even have to see her and I can tell she's hiding something."

Saw leapt to Soniee's defense for reasons he didn't know. "Maybe she has a sordid past she doesn't want her boyfriend knowing about?"

"Or more likely you've just let a nexu into the henhouse. Even if she isn't officially spying for the Empire she could easily report us."

"I don't think that's it." And that wasn't just because he was blinded by a pretty face. Saw couldn't shake the feeling she had stopped the speeder and that sense of peace that had washed over him when she said those things about Steela. That hadn't felt exactly natural.

Dalla replied to this with an almost imperceptible eyeroll. Surely she'd be sending her own people after this. Again she glanced at the girl in the other booth who returned a nod disguised as looking down at the plate in front of her.

Saw hoped they could be a little more subtle when it came to the actual job.