Disclaimer: All characters are the sole property of George Lucas and whomever created them.
Author's Note: I know people are reading these, but I'm not getting very many reviews. If I
don't get more reviews in my mail box, flames or love notes, I won't be writing any more of this.

RETURN TO SELF--Chapter 4

Mara licked her lips and felt the salt from her sweat starting to solidify. The air in the war
coordinator pit was too heavy to evaporate anything off the working humanoids. By her
bodily calculations, it had been a Coruscant month and a half since she had been captured by
the Vong. She had learned of no other war coordinators, and hadn't over heard any more
plans to invade the Core.

She would wait just a little longer, and then she would let her guard down around the Force.

The war coordinator tensed under the hands of its masseuses and then began to buck. It had
done this twice before, claiming the powers of a few captives to help it grow. Mara steeled
herself against the oncoming tentacle, and pressed herself tightly against the wall.

Surprisingly, many of the tentacles went towards the mute blonde with whom Mara had
found herself living. The woman's eyes opened wide with fear, and for a brief second,
Mara thought she saw the color of the woman's eyes move and expose a dark brown iris.
Shaking the illusion off, the red-headed Jedi watched as the woman was tightly embraced by
the coordinator and then dropped into the slime uncerimoniously.

A door opened somewhere above and Tsavong Lah hobbled in. Immediately, the war
coordinator extended a single tentacle and wrapped it gently around the torso of its master.
All watched as Lah closed his eyes and allowed the information that his pet was giving him
to seep into his mind.

His vengeful eyes flew open and became dangerously focused on the blond woman his pet
had just sapped dry.

"She is Jeedai," he declared, pointing a crooked, tattooed finger at the shivering woman.
"Put her with the others."

A door on their floor opened and two Vong, possibly the same two that had apprehended
Mara, took hold of the woman under her arms and dragged her away. No one in the room
dared to breathe until the doors above and below were closed. Then they all stared at each
other in wonder and fear.

*****

Tionne watched as a young Correllian female exerted a lot of mental energy to pick a stone
off the ground. The older Jedi smiled, remembering a time when she was in the shoes of that
girl. Tionne was no longer bitter that her Force power was limited, and she knew that her
young apprentice would get over it as well.

Next to her, Master Skywalker's young son cooed impatiently. The dampening field the
child possessed disturbed most of the students, and probably his own father. Tionne had
watched as Luke tried to shower affection on his first-born, but found it difficult to get away
from the fear his lack of Force contact near the child brought about. So one day, hearing the
child cry during a lesson, Tionne picked Ryft up and began to sing to him softly of the Jedi
gone by. That had appeased him.

"Yes, little one, I know you are famished." Tionned cupped her hands around her mouth and
called to her young student. "All right, Lyndha, that's enough. You can go and get some
lunch now; the rest of the students are in the dining hall, I'm sure."

The young girl did as she was told and Tionne picked up the child, along with the blanket he
layed on, and carried him carefully down the steps to the hallways of the temple. Jedi-trainees young and old flew by her, stomachs growling with the anticpation of lunch.
Tionne chuckled to herself and then found her way into the kitchen.

Blocked as she was from the Force, Tionne was a bit startled to discover that Master
Skywalker was in the kitchen of his Praxeum. He rarely came into the areas of the temple
where his students might be socializing.

She coughed quietly, moving the infant from her left shoulder to her right.

Luke turned around, startled. "Oh, Tionne. I didn't sense you there."

She grinned. "Ryft is great to have on my team when I'm playing hide-and-seek."

Luke chuckled a little bit and then the laughter stopped. He put down the bowl he was
holding and walked over towards his friend. She offered him the child and he took his
young son carefully. She saw in his eyes the vacuum that was suddenly created but he
kissed the boy's forehead before handing him back to her.

"I have to go to Coruscant, Tionne," he stated, going back to his bowl.

She nodded, going over to the refrigeration unit for some milk for the child. "I'll take good
care of the students while you're gone. We're all doing shifts in the control room, looking
for the Vong."

He stopped what he was doing but did not look up. "I need you to keep Ryft with you while
I'm gone."

She blinked, startled by his words. Tionne knew how much Luke loved his infant son; the
thought of him leaving the child without *one* of his parents was unsettling.

"Why won't you take him with you?"

Luke still did not look up. "I will be very busy with the Senate and the new Council. I don't
want to impose on my family...or even Threepio." He finally raised his head and made eye
contact. His eyes were filled with fear and uncertainty. "Ryft likes you; I don't want to
disturb him by giving him a new nanny."

Tionne nodded slowly. "All right, Master Skywalker. Everything will be just as you left it."

*****

The lights had been dropped in the prisoners' sleeping area, and humanoids all around Mara
snored in an uneasy sleep. The three men who had adopted her also slept, the loss of the
woman who's name they didn't even know obviously not weighing very heavy on their minds.

But Mara did not recognize this new Jedi. The thought that someone with Force-sensitivity
would not have come forward to Luke's academy seemed odd. Yavin IV was a haven, a
school for those who had the gift.

*Or the curse,* Mara thought. Luke's presence was growing stronger in her mind. He hadn't
disappeared for as long as she would have liked, and now she knew he was travelling to
somewhere close by. She reached out tentatively...no, he didn't know where she was.

Shaking her head, Mara forced herself to focus once again. Luke was not her concern; the
blond Force-sensitive was. Mara bit her lip in thought. *How come I didn't know?* she
asked herself. An untrained Force-born wouldn't be able to hide the fact from someone who
had spent even a minimal amount of time training.

Mara felt an inkling in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't her danger sense, but something
close to it, as if a flag had been thrown. She needed to get closer to this Force-woman and
discover what exactly she had to hide.