disclaimer: i do not own star wars or any of its associated characters; they all belong to their respective owners. i only own any characters or plotlines that you do not recognize. I also do not own any of the dialogue i may quote from the franchise.

The Challenge

Nighttime on Sorgen is calm. Quiet. Serene. The sounds of the bugs chirping and the water trickling adds seductive notes to the symphony of the trees swaying in the breeze. The only light is the faint glow of the blue shrimp, spread in the water and in baskets stacked together with clothes, other food items, and various necessities. The moon provides light as well, casting a white glow on all it touches.

A presence, so familiar and yet, so strange, causes Nova to fall from slumber and into the waking world. Her eyes open and she stares into the darkness of the hut. The presence tugs at her gut. She tries to ignore it, but it doesn't go away. Nova sighs and slides out from under Din's arm, which has been slung around her waist. She walks across the floor of the hut and goes outside.

Her shirt sticks to her skin as sweat forms on her spine. Her eyes adjust to the low light and she looks around, trying to identify what it is that woke her. The presence tugs on her gut again and she circles the hut and goes to the back where a copse of trees and a wild garden grow.

At the edge of the wild garden stands two men. They wear dark robes and lightsaber hilts gleam at their sides. They are similar in look, perhaps related. But the most peculiar thing about them is how they glow blue, as if they are a hologram. But there is no technology around to provide such a hologram. Nova approaches slowly, surveying the ground to ensure this isn't a trick or a trap.

"This isn't a trick, I assure you." the one with shoulder length golden brown hair says. His smile is infectious and he stands with his hands clasped behind him.

Nova glances at the other, whose hair is dark and cropped short. His hands are clasped in front of him and he smiles knowingly.

"I know you." Nova finds her voice. "You are the Jedi that took the Child."

The Jedi dips his head. "I am Luke Skywalker, this is my father, Anakin Skywalker."

"You are dead, aren't you?"

Anakin grins. "She's smart, I can see why you think this is a good idea."

"What is a good idea?" Nova continues to move forward until she is standing in front of the two Jedi. "And how do I know this isn't a trick, forgive my doubt but only a week ago I dealt with a charlatan who used fake ghosts to control a village."

"I assure you we are very real." Luke says. To prove his point, he extends a hand to the wild garden around them. Stones start to rise and float in the air. Nova reaches and grabs one to ensure that it is real.

"Why are you here?" Nova says. "And how is the Child?"

"When I left him he was safe and happy, but I must confess I don't know where he is now. But we need your help, as you are in the best position to give it." Luke says. "The Force has been unbalanced for some time."

"I lost my connection to the Force." Nova says. "I wouldn't be of much use to you."

"That is where you are wrong. Gideon doesn't understand that what he has done hasn't removed your connection to the Force, for how can one truly sever their connection to themselves?" Luke lets the stones drop. "All he did was wound it. Make your connection hard to reach as he redirected it to someone else. But now that person is dead, which means that connection is yours once again."

"If it was mine again I could use it, couldn't I?"

"Theoretically yes, but since Gideons technique was so flawed it in a sense broke your ability to reach it."

Nova closes her eyes to stop the garden from spinning. She is lost, so very lost. She has some meaning, yes. But she has lost a part of who she is, no, a part of who she is has been stolen. And if she is not herself, then how can anything else have true meaning? She loves and cares for Din, but he is not what makes her herself.

"For so long I thought balance was brought by one person." Anakin says, breaking through Nova's train of thought. "After all, it was my destiny to bring it. But now I have begun to feel clarity. Balance begins in the home, with each individual family. That is how it is spread and created."

"Your family will be an important part of this balance." Luke says. "And we are only here to give you the tools to do so."

"I don't understand." Nova says.

"You will." Anakin walks forwards to stand directly in front of Nova. He extends his hands, palms facing down. "I cannot promise away the pain, but I can heal your connection to the Force. I can make it reachable for you."

Nova tilts her head. Her lips part as she stares at his outstretched hands. She slowly raises her own hands and allows Anakin to take them in his. Nova faintly feels shock, for she is touching a ghost, shouldn't it feel strange? But all she feels is a buzzing within her.

Then warmth.

"Once we do this, you will have to come away with us for a time." Luke says. "You have great power but you must learn control, only that we can teach you."

Nova nods and looks back to Anakin, who grins at her.

Warmth flows through her veins, a sense of… feeling, slams into her chest. Nova falls into unconsciousness, blissful nothingness taking over her mind.

And it is everything.

000

Two months come and go since Nova left with the ship they took from their last mission. She promised to return, and soon. But memories of when she was taken before continue to surface and swim in Dins mind like a poison. Anxiety threads through his veins but he pushes it down, or tries to. It is worse at night, when he is tired and alone.

Currently Din is in the cargo ship trying to break through the encryption placed on the ship's flight logs. This is a puzzle that has been vexing him for the past month, when Vega realized she couldn't access where the ship had been. Between spending his time making trips to the neighboring villages and helping Vega with her patients, he hasn't had a lot of time to work on the flight logs. But today he does.

And today he breaks the encryption.

"Finally," Din mutters. He opens the flight log and reads its contents.

"How's it going?" over the course of two month Din has learned that both Vega and Nova have something in common, the ability to walk silently. But while Nova has to purpose herself to make her footsteps silent, Vega has a natural knack for making her steps unheard. Din curses under his breath and turns around.

"I just broke the encryption." he tells her. Vega puts down the basket of laundry she had been holding and comes up behind him to look over his shoulder.

"Those coordinates are popular." she comments.

"They are visited more than any of the others in this log." Din confirms. "I wonder why."

"Maybe you should find out?"

Din turns to look at her. Though she cannot read his facial expressions she seems to get the hint.

"What I mean is, if you went to investigate then maybe we could have more clues as to why we were taken and frozen."

Din wants to know why they were all taken too. But all he wants to do is wait for nova to return, because what if he is gone when she gets back? Din sighs, maybe getting off of Sorgen would be a good thing for his mind.

He nods, telling Vega he will go. "Will you need the cargo ship?"

Vega shakes her head. "Where would we need to go? Besides, we have your friend Cara to help protect the village if need be."

Din dips his head. He flips a few switches and powers up the ship.

"I can leave now." he says. Vega nods and leaves. She comes back with a pack of food.

"Just in case the ship's onboard supply runs out." she says. She disembarks the ship and goes back to the unfrozen.

Din shakes his head and pulls on the ship controls. The ship rises into the air and flies over the green expanse of Sorgen. Din guides the ship out of the planet's atmosphere and plugs in the coordinates. The ship jumps to lightspeed.

Din watches the swirling stars of hyperspace for a while. The silence of the cockpit lets his mind run wild, his thoughts getting louder and louder. He gets up and goes into the cargo hold in hopes of finding something to occupy his time with. Something to focus on.

The cargo hold is large, only a few boxes line the walls. The beskar staff, which Nova left behind because according to her she had no use for a weapon, leans against one of the crates. Din removes his helmet and places it on one of the boxes. He picks up the staff and goes to the center of the room. He twirls it in his hands and begins a series of training drills. The constant motion is good, it lulls his mind into only thinking of the action of the fight. He feels his anxiety lessen.

After a while he stops. He places the staff in its holster against his back next to his jetpack and goes back to the cockpit. The navicomputer beeps as the ship is about to leave hyperspace, and Din imagines Nova making some comment about how he timed it all perfectly even though it was an accident.

The cargo ship drops from hyperspace and approaches a reddish brown planet. Din looks at the coordinates to see if the planet has a name, but if it does it has been erased. Din sits in the pilot's chair and disengages the autopilot. He flies the ship to the surface of the planet and follows the coordinates to a mountain, where a factory has been built into the side of the cliff.

He lands the cargo ship a few clicks from the cliff. He disembarks and stands looking up at the factory. The cliff is tall, even at a distance Din has to crane his neck to look up at the top. He powers up his jetpack and flies towards the factory.

000

The top of the cliff is serene. Wind whips through Nova's braid, loosening it till her hair runs free. She pushes agitation down as the red curls wind around her face. She pulls back the strands and ties them together with an extra piece of cloth she has brought with her.

Nova closes her eyes and listens, letting the feel of the Force surround her. To her it is threads, tiny and ever changing, connecting everyone and everything. The threads of the galaxy that binds everyone and everything.

She opens her eyes and shifts her feet to the edge of the cliff, the toes of her boots hanging off the edge. She feels the wind and the current, the air separating her from the grass at the bottom of the cliff.

And she falls.

Instantly the burning comes, threatening to tear at her concentration and her spirit. But Nova pushes it out, she quiets the pain and focuses her mind on the open expanse around her. She pulls on the threads of the wind and surrounds herself with them. She creates a barrier with the wind, a barrier which she plunges into. Once she falls into those strings her body's momentum slows down and she lands softly on the ground.

She looks up at the top of the cliff and laughs.

One of the threads vibrates. She lets herself listen and she knows her training here on this planet has come to a close, and her training in the wilds of space has begun.

"Thank you." she whispers to the ghosts of the Skywalkers, who have long since disappeared.

The thread pulls at Nova again. She walks through the forest till she comes to a clearing. In the clearing is the ship she took. She has named it Delusion, in memory of its former master. She laughs at the name again as she boards, but she quickly sobers up as the thread continues to pull and vibrate.

"I'm coming," she mutters as she powers up the ship.

The thread tells her that Din is in trouble. She finds his signature in the Force and follows it. He will need all the help he can get.

000

The factory is quiet as Din enters. A few loose droids shuffle from place to place, but no people in sight. Din slips through the hallways, taking his time to ensure he is not seen.

He rounds a corner to find two stormtroopers standing in front of a door. Before Din can backpedal they see him. Din sighs and rushes forwards, sweeping the legs out from under one and sliding the beskar staff from his back and around the others neck. Once he snaps the neck of the second he stabs the one on the ground. Din looks around at the hallway to make sure there is no one else before he takes one of the troopers' code cylinder and unlocks the door.

He slips into the room to find an armory, blasters line one wall and rifles line another. Hand held grenades and timed bombs line another wall. Din goes to this wall and takes a few for later, attaching them to his belt.

In the center of the room sits a crate with the lid partially open. Din slides the lid open to find beskar armor within. Only one set of armor sits within the crate, the white and blue markings familiar.

"Bo-Katan," Din mutters. The helmet is unmistakable. But why would Bo-Katan be here? Shaking his head, Din searches the room for a bag. He finds a canvas bag in the back near the explosives and he carefully unloads it. He refills the bag with Bo-Katan's armor and leaves the armory.

Din continues to move through the factory. He makes it to the main room where machines clang and exhale smoke. He moves back and stays flush against the wall; he leans forward and peaks into the main room again.

Rows and rows of dark troopers are being assembled. Their armor gleams with the promise of destruction. Din swears and pulls himself out of the hallway and he retraces his steps. He needs to find a terminal to figure out how long this base has been here and why. Mainly why. And why now? Din doesnt know and he despises not knowing.

In front of him the hallway splits. To his right, the hallway is musty like the rest of the factory. To his left the hallway is clean. Well kept. He follows the hallway to his left. He is drawn deeper and deeper into a maze of bright white hallways and flickering light bulbs. At least the other hallways were well lit.

A dark trooper stands guard at the end of a hallway, Din pulls the beskar staff from its holster and rushes the droid. The dark trooper raises a fist and hits Dins helmet. Din reels back and uses the momentum to spin and strike at the dark trooper. The staff embeds itself in the dark trooper's neck and it falls to the ground. Din holsters the staff and shakes his head; he then goes down the hallway it was guarding.

At the end of the hall is another door. Din uses the code cylinder to unlock it and the door slides open. He steps cautiously into the room but halts when a voice speaks.

"You?" Din turns to see Bo-Katan, dressed in hospital clothes, strapped to a hospital bed. She's coated in sweat and she has an angry bruise on her cheek. She looks angry, which isn't surprising.

"I guess you were frozen too." Din observes. He moves forward and pulls out his vibroblade. Bo-Katan flinches. "I'm not going to kill you."

Bo-Katan looks murderous as Din slices through her bonds. She rubs her freed wrists.

"Here," Din sets the canvas bag on one of the metal tables in the room. Bo-Katan cautiously walks to it and pulls it open. She breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of her armor.

"I had a feeling you might be around when I found that in the armory." Din says. Bo-Katan glances at him. She begins to fasten the beskar armor over the cream colored pants and shirt.

"You didnt happen to find my boots, did you?" she says. Din shrugs.

"If there was a wardrobe anywhere I didn't find it."

Bo-Katan glares at him. She has finished donning her armor and she holds her helmet in the crook of her arm. She would look incredibly dangerous if it weren't for the missing shoes.

"This factory is making dark troopers," Din says.

"I know. I ran into them when I tried to escape." she says. The bonds Din had found her in make more sense now. Nova had told him that she was never strapped down, then again her escape plan had succeeded.

"Well if you want any weapons you can pick them up when we stop by the armory."

Bo-Katan stares at Din suspiciously. "And why are we stopping by the armory?"

"Because I have a plan." Din says.

0

They reach the armory in record time. Once inside Bo-Katan goes to the weapons, placing two blasters at her hips and sliding explosives onto her belt. Din fills the canvas bag with explosives, resorting to its original purpose.

Bo-Katan slips the boots from one of the stormtroopers Din had killed. They are a bit big but not to the point where they are a tripping hazard. She peels the white plating from the top of the boots, though the rest can't be helped.

They move through the factory in silence. Their muffled footsteps echoing more than Din would like them to, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of stormtroopers or dark troopers moving about.

They make it to the main room where the dark troopers are being assembled. Thankfully it seems that none are turned on. Din starts to circle the room, placing explosives as he goes. Bo-Katan follows behind, her helmet is on and she taps the controls every so often.

"There are some heat signatures above us," she says to Din. "Hopefully the blast will take them out. But dark troopers don't have a heat signature so if there are more I cant tell."

"Hopefully the remaining troopers are in this room." Din says. He places the last explosive, activating the timer and stepping back. "We have maybe five minutes."

Din and Bo-Katan run through the base. Din leads her to the hangar he had entered at and they both take off via jetpacks. Din takes lead again as he flies toward the cargo ship he had parked.

He is almost there when a blaster shot strikes his jetpack. He is jerked forward as his jetpack sputters. He starts to descend as fast as he can but the jetpack finally gives out and he falls the rest of the way.

Din hits the ground and rolls. He comes to a rest and pushes himself to his feet and scans the horizon searching for Bo-Katan, if someone shot him out of the sky she could be at risk. But she is unharmed as she lands before him, her blasters are drawn.

"Seriously?" Din says. Bo-Katan tilts her head as she stalks forward. "I'm not going to fight you."

"I challenge you for the Darksaber, and the right to rule Mandalore." her voice shakes slightly. Out of exhaustion or anger, Din cannot tell.

"I won't fight you."

"Too bad," Bo-Katan lunges forward. She starts firing her blasters, but Dins armor deflects them. She holsters her blasters and her vibroblade extends for her vambrace. Din sighs. She aims for his shoulder, but he blocks her by reaching up and grabbing her arm before she can reach him. He steps back, widening his stance. Bo-Katan struggles to pull from his grasp but he doesn't give. She strikes out with her other hand but Din blocks that too.

Bo-Katan powers up her jetpack and yanks Din into the sky. Din lets go of her arm and falls back to the ground. She lands behind him and shoots her grappling line, the thin wire wraps around Din, pinning his arms to his sides. She retracts it and pulls him to the ground. She approaches slowly, her vibroblade still extended. She gets on one knee and points the vibroblade at his neck.

"Surrender," she demands.

Din almost does, but a flash, a thought, comes to the forefront of his mind. Mandalore may not be a planet he has ever been to, but he has known leaders. Good ones, bad ones, peaceful, just, cruel. His heart wishes to be rid of the burden the Darksaber carries, but his gut tells him that when he does surrender the weapon, it will be to a Mandalorian he trusts. And that Mandalorian is not Bo-Katan Kryze.

Din shifts his arms in front of him under the wire. He presses the jetpack controls on his vambrace, hoping that the jetpack hasn't been blasted to the point of not working. The jetpack sputters, then Din is pushed across the ground by its force. Bo-Katan is pulled to the ground as well. Din works one of his arms free of the wire, lifting it above his head and pushing himself to his knees. The wire is loose now and he pulls the coils over his head.

In the distance the factory explodes, sending a wave of heat out. The cliff face crumbles and a cloud of dust flies towards the two fighting Mandalorians. Din and Bo-Katan are temporarily blinded. Din turns on the heat tracker in his helmet, he can see the outline of Bo-Katan reach up to her helmet to probably do the same.

Din pulls the beskar staff from his back and moves forward. He strikes at Bo-katan as the dust settles. The clear ring of beskar hitting beskar fills the air with a strange sense of music. Din strikes and Bo-Katan blocks. He feints and strikes at her legs, catching her off guard and knocking her to her back. Din flips the beskar staff and aims the pointed end at her neck.

"I don't want to hurt you," he pants. Before Bo-Katan can speak, a roar fills the air. From the dust cloud, twelve dark troopers emerge. They land in a circle around the Mandalorians with their blasters raised.

Din steps away from Bo-Katan, allowing her the space to get up. She does so, glancing at Din before drawing her two blasters. The dark troopers adjust their stance, all moving in unison. Din forces himself to relax his grip on the beskar staff.

The sound of a ship's engine distracts the dark troopers. Din and Bo-Katan glance up to see a small ship emerge from the dust clouds and go to land beside the cargo ship. The small ship is familiar, but with the amount of dust Din can't be sure. Or maybe he doesn't want to hope.

The ship's ramp lowers and a figure disembarks. Her red curls are tied back, and her boots are caked with mud. Din shouldn't be surprised, for as long as he's known her Nova always seems to destroy her boots in record time.

Nova emerges from the dust and stands a few yards from the dark troopers, who in response shift to aim their blasters at her. But Nova is calm, unbothered. She extends her arms, palms facing up, and closes her eyes. The air seems to still when she does so. Din wishes that he had a way of getting to the dark troopers before they reach her, but there are too many.

There is the shadow of a smile on Nova's lips. She curls her fingers into fists and the dark troopers implode. All of them falling to the ground in unison. Din's breath catches. Nova opens her eyes and drops her arms to her sides. She walks past the fallen droids to stand before him and Bo-Katan.

"You…" Bo-Katan seems to be at a loss for words, which is very well considering the last time she saw Nova she was thrown across a room.

Din is at a loss for what to say as well. "It's been a while."

"It's only been two months," Nova says, something like sadness rims her eyes and her smile.

"Felt like longer."

Nova nods. "It did, didn't it?"

The dust clouds around them continue to settle, revealing the shattered cliff face and the red canyons beyond them. Somewhere in the distance is a hint of green, but none of the three have any intention of exploring. Bo-Katan holsters her weapons and crosses her arms. Din shifts his weight to his right leg.

"How did you find us?" Din asks.

"I followed your signature through the Force and it led me to you." she says. Din tilts his head.

"My what?"

"I'll explain later."

Nova looks at Bo-Katan, who stares at her back.

"I promise not to throw you this time." Nova says to the woman, who snorts.

Din takes a deep breath, finding that he can breathe a bit easier now. The anxiety has lessened.