Thanks so much for your continued support!

It came on quickly. As it had been doing on and off for the past month.

From an extremely deep and contented sleep she felt the churning under her diaphragm. Her eyes were barely open before she twisted her legs out from under the covers and with three long strides made her way into the 'fresher just in time.

Although she was swift enough, she was apparently not silent enough. Han had proven to be quite a heavy sleeper, until today.

"Sweetheart..."

He was through the 'fresher door seconds after her, walking into a scene that must look like a horror show to him. She felt his eyes on her back as she leaned completely over the receptical. There was no masking what she was doing with her head in the bin, so she channeled her embarrassment and fear into her retort.

"What did you put in those hashes last night?" She accused turning her head slightly under her left arm that was doing its best to hold up her hair. He caught her profile for a split second.

He stumbled over his words as his sleepy mind worked to catch up to the body that darted in after her. "Nerf... and my usual spices. Nothing new or different."

"Well, something must have gone wrong..." she hissed before gagging again.

She felt him step closer to her. Her hand waved out to push him back.

When she could speak again, she yelled. "Go away! I don't want you to see me like this."

Her waving hand collided with his calf. Now standing directly beside her, she felt his hands sweep the strands of her hair she failed to collect.

"Not a chance, your worship."

His message was as firm as his physical presence, legs straddling on either side of her as he twisted her locks up and out of the way.

She dropped her hand and let him take over her hair, but not until she made one more protest. "Han, seriously..."

"Seriously, Leia?"

His tone was enough to quell any fight she had in her. As her stomach rolled again, she felt his free hand on her upper back rubbing gently circles. The motions did nothing to help the bile from coming up, but she didn't tell him to stop.

Eventually, everything came up that needed to and she found her body completely exhausted from the experience. She slumped sideways to rest her back and head against the wall, eyes shutting out the world and trying to shut out her mind for a moment.

"I'll get you some water," her partner hushed as he finally let the twist of hair he created fall over her shoulder.

She heard the sink run. A moment later, his hand on her knee encouraged her to take another deep breath and open her eyes.

He crouched in front of her, a glass of water offered in his hand and a wave of caring concern offered in his eyes. She drank up, sloshing the water around to dispel the lingering taste. Her breathing was steadier as she lowered the almost empty glass to the floor.

He was still squatting in front of her, his hand still on her stretched knee as he did a physical examination. "Okay?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm feeling better. Thank you."

Deep breaths moved from her chest and into her diaphragm. With the immediate rush of panic subsiding, her mind began to race through winding pathways she had been reluctant and fearful to travel. In this moment of silence, she came to 17 different possible conclusions, different scenarios of what was happening and how this could play out. More than half of the results scared her to death. A month ago, she was easily blaming this early morning activity on her lingering concussion. But now... another possibility was looking more and more possible.

She was vaguely aware that neither of them had spoken in a matter of minutes. Too long for a comfortable silence, but there was no way she was going to be the first to speak.

She was saved from her own subconscious by his chortle. His eyes were looking down, long limbs twisted on the floor in a way that couldn't be considered comfortable. "Last night..." he began, in a perverse tone. "You tell me you love me and this morning... your body might be physically rejecting those words."

She shook her head, not a hint of amusement around her. "This was certainly not your fault." Or was it?

She didn't have time or the energy to try and decipher out Han's emotional state right now. She had something else to do.

"Can you get Rayah up? I want to talk to Luke." Hiding the slight wobble she found when her feet were under her again, she stood and made her way to the door, holding onto the wall for support as she temporarily blacked out.

"You're not gonna spring the tough questions this early in the mornin' are you?"

She didn't turn to him, reticent on her next mission. "No, I just... I have a thought."

"Okay," he whispered. And by that time, she was out of of sight.

"Luke..."

He wasn't difficult to find. Their penthouse wasn't overly spacious with hidden nooks and crannies to disappear into. She checked the living space first. When she didn't see him, she turned to check in his guest room, but then she spied the back of his head through the sliding glass leading to the balcony. He was easy to miss, sitting on the ground with his body facing the city. It was a relatively quite morning in the urban area; a few distant speeders rang through her ears as she stepped through the door an out into the open air.

Back on Hoth, she had seen a younger Luke in what she would now consider an elementary form of meditation. That image in her mind was by no means similar to the sight before her. Her brother was lost to the world, his face perfectly serene without a wrinkle to be found anywhere, eyes lightly shut but completely blocking the world from the other realm he had entered. Physically, he was seated on a cushion he must have pulled from the living space with his legs comfortably bent in front of him, also completely relaxed.

She wondered where he went to in this state. Then she wondered if she could get there as well, be one with the Force. And what answers would be waiting there for her.

She was rethinking her plan. She didn't want to disturb him, and she wasn't sure if she could even manage to pull him from his trance if she tried.

Her ponderings turned moot as his eyes opened, peacefully and maintaining their calm smoothness.

"Leia, good morning."

She shifted her weight to her right hip, her head cocking. "You were meditating."

"I was," he nodded, his Jedi authority voice on. "Meditation is a core strategy of Jedi practices."

"I know, or at least, I remember learning about ancient Jedi practices."

Luke shifted his head, seemed to be recalling a memory. "That's right. You already had significant knowledge about Jedi practices, even before you started training."

His words confirmed one of her outstanding questions without even having to ask it. The Leia of the future did have at least some Jedi training.

"We can credit my parents with that..." she paused as she heard the words play back. "The Organas," she clarified.

"You always referred to them as your parents, even after knowing."

Another tidbit of knowledge that felt extremely significant to her. She had never lost her Organa and Alderaanian past.

"They were good people."

Luke's words were never more true. "The best."

She swallowed, closing the conversation about her parents and opening up about why she was here.

"When you meditate, you can feel life forces, right?"

He nodded, affirmative. "You can feel everything. Life and the connections between the elements."

"Show me."

Luke's body finally moved, as if surprised by her direct request. Shifting slightly and his eyes veering to the right, he nodded. "Sit down." He gestured across from him.

After finding another cushion nearby, she did as instructed, her legs folding into each other with her back up straight.

He scootched slightly closer to her, giving the instructions. "Hands on your knees… Deep breaths... Close your eyes."

She settled in and did as he asked.

When she was ready, he instructed, "Reach out…"

She peeked one of her eyes at him in a long roll. His first direction did not give her any clarity on what she was actually supposed to be doing.

"In your mind," he snapped, like it was obvious. "With the Force."

"That's only slightly more descriptive," she said as she closed her eyes and tried again. She felt something open up insider her when she was holding Rayah, some sort of door just cracking. She tried to return to that place, picturing her daughter and seeking out in her mind to find that connection again.

He began again. "We're not going to go too deep into meditation, just enough to feel the thread of elements around you."

She gave herself a moment to focus and relax her mind, and then noticed a pull. She felt him, her brother.

"You feel it," he stated.

She parted her lips. "I feel something, a humming, a warm presence…"

"Yes," he encouraged. "It's my Force presence."

She knew she was only physically sitting, but she felt herself travel through this new realm. She was suspended in a dense fog, yet there was nothing impeding her view. The elements of life buzzed around her, helping her to see clearly. She reached out along the strong strand of energy before her and saw Luke in a completely new light. His presence was powerful, skilled, complicated but warm and emitting calmness and clarity.

There was more, she found Rayah, her presence just as strong as Luke's but clearly unfocused, emanating pure light. Han was there too. He felt different than the other two, not near as strong. She focused in on him. It took a moment, but she was eventually able to glean an aura of happiness and some worry amid what she was sure was even a smug Force presence.

She felt the three of them clearly now. It was like she had just flexed a new muscle and the utilization of it came much easier afterwards. She was grateful for that because she wasn't even sure if the next thing that she wanted to do was even possible. Could the Force feel a life that had barely begun?

She heard Luke's voice continuing to guide her, elaborating on what she was feeling. "You feel the energy fields created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together with a tension, a balance, between the light and the dark."

She was taking this in and using it to explore this new sense. Yes, the web thin golden strands she had originally mistaken for fog pulsed with life, these interwoven, intricate structures. There were so many of them all around. She wasn't sure which one may lead her to a life force growing inside of her.

"And you have the gift, the natural ability to feel it, to harness it, and use it."

"Use it for what?" She asked in a whisper, still searching for something she wasn't even sure was there.

She felt Luke pause, his seriousness pivoted her focus. "That is the question. Use its peace and calmness to harness knowledge and defense..." Another pause. "Or use it for power, grounded in greed and the inability to let go."

The Light and the Dark. Two sides.

"Where do I fit into it?"

She asked the question to Luke and to the Force. The latter answered before Luke. Where was Leia's place among this balance? What was her destined future? The Force answered with a crash that sent chills down every inch of her skin. It felt like a burst of wind sliced through her as the Force directed her question to her past.

Where did she come from?

The calming energies she felt before turned manic, restless as they forced her heart rate to accelerate, allowing her a glimpse at from whence she came. The movement through the Force stopped all at once and she was left alone. She was surrounded by new elements. Black, sadness, and above all, fear.

Darkness. This was the dark side and her past was living in it.

"Luke!"

It felt like she screamed it, but it was merely a whisper on her lips as she opened her eyes. Luke must have been able to view at least part of what she saw, because his face had changed. He looked like he did the previous night, hesitant, secretive, and wary.

"Luke..." she repeated. Her breath was again coming in gasps, even more intensely than her early morning wake up on the floor of the 'fresher.

He didn't answer. Didn't acknowledge what he knew she wanted to know. What she needed to know. He was going to make her say it, ask it.

"Luke... Where did we come from?"