MINUTES LATER   

From across the street Xander spotted Lando, and some others, including Luke, "Well, that looks like them. Let's go bug 'em a bit. Shall we?"

"Yeah good idea." Evie replied as Xander grabbed her hand and they made their way through traffic. Luke spotted them and waved them over.

"Hey Luke, it looks like we're going to Nal Hutta." Evie said when she finally caught her breath.  

"What happened here?" Xander asked.  

"Well we've got one missing." Mara spoke up. Evie let out the breath she had been holding when she heard Luke say that he would be going with her on her mission. She had figured that Luke would not keep his promise, considering that one of his students was missing. Somehow Evie felt relieved, but then she also had feelings of being too proud mixed in with that. Could she really take Luke away from his students?   Luke sensed Evie's uncertainty.

"Hey Evie. Don't worry about that. They can handle this situation without me, and we do need to continue on your quest." Luke said softly. 

Evie smiled. "Ok... Well, the next stop is Nal Hutta." Evie said as she sighed.  

"Ok well that means that we need to get ourselves another ship.  We will leave the Falcon here for the others." Luke said as he looked over at Lando. "Hey Lando, can you spare us a ship?"  

Lando looked up at Luke. "Yeah. The Lady Luck is free. You two better take good care of her though. She's in docking bay 12. Luke you know the security code." Lando said. He then pulled out
his COM. "This is Lando...get the Lady Luck ready..." Lando said into the comlink. Evie looked curiously at the group. She felt sad that she'd have to leave them, but Luke had promised that he would help her find her past.   "The ship's ready." Lando said as he took Evie's hand and started to drag her away from the group. Evie looked back at Luke desperately. She wondered if he noticed that Lando was taking her away towards the ship. Luke seemed to be absorbed in his discussion with the other group members.   Evie sighed as she let herself be ushered into the docking bay. Lando smiled as he showed her the ship and helped her into it. Evie took the most comfortable looking seat and sat down to wait for Luke.

Luke looked to Mara, "I would like you to lead the team. If you don't mind?"   

"Of course. What are waiting for let's get moving!" she
replied.   

"Keep in contact with me. We'll be heading for Nal Hutta. May the Force be with you, Guage, and Jada."    With that Luke left them and headed for the ship. Moments later he stepped into the cockpit of the Lady Luck where Evie sat waiting.   

"I thought you'd never come," she smiled.   

"Hey, I wasn't going let you down." Luke said. Luke ran the ship through a few pre-flight checks then sighed heavily, "I hope everything goes well with them. I just have this foreboding sense something bad is going to happen."   

Evie looked at him, "I'm sure everything will be ok. You've trained them well". She tried to reassure him.   

"Yea, I guess you're right," he leaned back in his seat, "they
have to face their own challenges. I can't be there all the time."    Pushing himself up, Luke reached for the controls, "Let's go find your sister, huh?"   

A smile crept across Evie's face, "Yes, let's do."

    Luke navigated the Lady Luck out of the docking bay and headed for Nal Hutta. Evie sat back in her chair and stared off into space... She closed her eyes to catch a bit of sleep because she knew that there was going to be a long journey ahead of them. She then started to
dream...

BEGIN DREAM  

"Evadne?" Aidia called to Evie. Evie looked up from the book that she'd been reading, and over at Aidia who looked to be trying to cook something. Evie smiled mischievously.

"Whatcha makin' Aiddie?" She asked as she watched Aidia drop several eggs on the floor accidentally. Aidia beamed with a smile.

"I'm makin' a cake for momma!" Aidia exclaimed as she took a towel and then tried to wipe up her mess. Suddenly darkness swept over the kitchen, and a man entered. Both Evie and Aidia looked up at him in horror.   His face was familiar...and yet it wasn't. Each girl had seen the face hover over their baby cribs when they were infants.   Both Aidia and Evie gulped as the figure mysteriously disappeared the way it had appeared... The darkness following it... Evie was the first to speak up. She thought it best to forget the awful man and help Aidia with her cake.

Suddenly the cook came into the kitchen and saw what Aidia and Evie were doing. The cook was a nice old lady, but she didn't like
taking the responsibility to watch Aidia and Evadne so she shoed them out of the kitchen....and into their own bedroom.   Suddenly there was a scream....

END DREAM

Evie woke up paralyzed with fear as her memory started to slowly give her hints of what had happened the day their mother died. Luke looked over at Evie.  He could tell that she was troubled.

"Hey, tell me what's wrong." Luke said.

"Well, it's a dream.... I keep having it, but every time that I do, I keep remembering something different. This time I remember a dark figure that came in when Aidia and I were cooking. The only problem is that this man was of some relation to us.... I think it's who killed our mother." Evie sighed.

Luke pondered what she said... The Lady Luck dropped out of hyperspace, Nal Hutta, the home world of the slimy Hutts loomed large in the front viewport.    "Perhaps, some of the answers you seek lie down there."  Luke motioned towards the planet. "I promise you'll we'll find your sister. The truth is usually far from us. Just requires a little digging sometimes."   

Evie smiled at Luke and nodded. "I hope that you're right," she said as the ship landed. "Um what kind of welcome do you think we'll get?" Evie glanced at the landing pad from the window.

   "This I'm not sure of." Luke said as he made some minor adjustments to secure the alarm on the ship, and then to open the door. Evie lingered in the doorway, not sure as to where to go from there. She looked questioningly at Luke.... "Before we head out we should disguise
ourselves." Luke said.

"Oh, Good idea." Evie looked at Luke and noticed he was no longer there, rather someone else stood before her. The once handsome and dashing Luke Skywalker now appeared as a beggar in tattered clothing, unshaven, and looked quite a bit older.

    Luke smiled, "You like?"  Evie couldn't help but giggle just a bit. Luke waited to see what she came up with. Evadne closed her eyes and thought about her disguise. She had disguised herself on numerous times
before but the only problem she had was that no matter how hard she tried, her star-shaped birthmark remained on her cheek. When she opened her eyes, they were a pretty silver color and her hair was the same striking silver color. She walked out of the ship and stooped down to pick up some dirt. She smeared the dirt on her face, hoping that it would be good enough to cover her birthmark.

"How's this?" She asked. Her clothing changed to pants and a dirty t-shirt. "Nobody will ever know it's me... I hate pants and
t-shirts...but I'll have to put up with it I guess." Evie said. 

"Nobody will know it's you." Luke stooped down and picked up some more dirt. "Here, your birthmark still shows through a little... Let me cover it for you." He said as he put more dirt on her face. "Let's
hope that doesn't fall off."   The two turned towards the city.

"Now what?" Evie asked.

"Well, Zorba has these elaborate parties every night. A real party animal. All we have to do is gain access. That's the easy part." Luke replied as they headed into the dirty city.

LATER THAT DAY AS EVENING FELL

    Luke and Evie had found a group of denizens who were headed for Zorba the Hutt's nightly parties.  They travelled with the group as they approached Zorba's palace. They could barely make the place out as it was recessed back into a large mountainside. Undoubtedly in the day it would be tough to spot from the air.

"See I told you," Luke whispered to Evie, "not a problem." Suddenly Luke felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a voice, "Hey, human! I don't know you." Luke and Evie slowly turned around.  "Yes?" Luke, looking like his old beggar self, replied matter-of-factly.

"I haven't seen you before," grunted the pig-nosed guard.

"I see. Well we are regulars. I assure you." Luke motioned slightly. Some others ahead had turned around to see what was going on. Luke gave them a 'look'. They turned and headed down the corridor.

The pig-nose's snout twitched, "I don't like the smell of you."
he grunted.

"Well, you're not exactly pleasant yourself."

The Gamorrean's eyes narrowed and he moved up to Luke, "Rancor bait is what you'll be."  Luke sighed, as Evie just stood by his side and watched the exchange.

Luke threw Evie a quick glance, "These guys are so pig headed." With a flick of the wrist the Gamorrean guard found himself smacked against the wall and slid down with a thud, unconscious. "We've got a party to get too." Luke took Evie by the arm.  Evie was wide eyed. As Luke and Evie continued to walk into the place where the party was being held, Evie looked around at the huge place. It was like an underground palace!  Luke smiled, he was thinking the same thing.

"What exactly were we going to do in here? It's not like we can just walk up to the Hutts and say who we are. Even if we could do that, they may not want us here. How do we get the information that we need from them?" Evie asked.

"With a little luck...and some mind tricks." Luke winked at Evie. She shrugged her shoulders.   "That may not work on a Hutt. It didn't work on Jabba... You of all people should know that..." Evie pointed out.   Somebody bumped into Evie and grabbed her arm. She did all she could to keep from screaming in surprise.

The man took her away from Luke and led her to another part of the room... What looked to be a bar area. Evie looked back at Luke helplessly...   The man saw that Evie was looking at Luke, but didn't pay that mind... He just positioned himself in her view so that she couldn't see Luke.

"So... I've never seen you here before." The man said. He looked like trouble.... Evie gulped. She didn't want to pull out her saber because she knew that that would attract unwanted attention... She just wanted to get back to Luke and get this whole thing done with.

Luke watched as the burly man took Evie aside. Not wanting to cause a stir Luke slowly walked up to the man and aimed the blaster he had hidden at the small of the man's back, "I suggest you let her go."

The man turned around, "Hey listen old man. This doesn't concern you."

Luke still in disguise, "I don't take kindly to people man handling my daughter." Evie raised an eyebrow at the comment.

"What are you going to do to me, little man?" grunted the large man.    Luke reached into his mind for a clue as to what he was looking for. Not much in there. This guy wasn't too bright.

But Luke did find something, "Listen, I'll pay you to leave her alone."

"Pay? You wouldn't have enough beggar."

"Oh really?" Luke retorted. Reaching into his pocket Luke pulled out what appeared to be a handful of gems, "Corusca jewels. Quite valuable. In exchange for the girl?"

"How do I know they are real?"

"They are real."  Luke pushed.

"Yea, I can tell they are real," the man repeated.

Luke stretched out his hand, "Come, my dear." Evie took his hand.

As they walked back into the crowd of people she asked, "Where
did you get those gems?"

Luke chuckled a bit, "Those weren't gems. It was actually, a tree viper, poisonous and a constrictor. He'll figure it out."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came a scream from behind them. Luke and Evie turned around to see the man now lying on the ground with
the snake coiled around his arm.    Evadne blushed.  It had seemed that she had fallen for one of Luke's mind tricks as well.  She had really thought she'd seen the glimmer of those jewels.

Luke took Evadne by the arm, "Come on. We have to go to a lower level....to the dungeon. I picked something up from a couple people's thoughts."

Evie followed Luke. "Well, lead the way." She said. She wondered if Luke had ever been here before...she knew that she hadn't. That's one thing that she remembered her parents telling both her and her sister. KEEP AWAY FROM THE HUTTS. She had obeyed that rule until now.  She wondered what her parents had known to give her this information and drill it into bother her and Aidia's heads so much that they could say it in their sleep...   She attempted to probe Luke's mind to find out what exactly he had figured out...but discovered that Luke's mind was blocked. This was something that she had forgotten to do for herself... but as she looked around at all of the people with simple minds...she thought that no one would figure out her identity.

Suddenly there was a loud clear voice ringing in her head. It was a male's voice and it called her by her name. Evie turned to Luke to see if it was he... but he seemed too preoccupied with getting out of the room and down a few levels...  

"Evie????" The voice called again in her head... Had Luke heard it too?

"Do hear that?" Evie whispered to Luke.

"Hear what?"

Concern filled Evie's voice, "Someone is calling my name."

"I haven't heard anything." Luke replied. They continued to make their way into the deepest part of the Hutt fortress, a rat skittered here and there. Slime and muck covered the walls. Then they passed various rooms, some with opened doors, and others that looked closed for a long time. A series of screams pierced the dark hallway they walked down.  Singular lights in the middle of the ceiling were spaced
unevenly giving the place and eerie cast. With the Force Luke could feel a variety of ones in distress and imprisoned close by. Then that's when he spotted it, a glint. Like light reflecting off a mirror.     Luke pointed towards it, and motioned to Evie. They crept closer and Luke could see a hand extended out of a cell, holding a mirror out into the hallway. Obviously this person was using it to watch them.

Luke and Evie crept closer to the prisoner's cell.

"Princess Evadne...Is that you?" The person from the cell spoke out loud. It was the same voice that Evie had heard in her mind. She looked at Luke and wondered what she should do.  Somehow the voice was familiar.... it's as if Evie had heard it before... Then she remembered where. It was the voice of one of the people who worked for her parents. It was the man who Evie last saw leading her sister to her transport ship.   Evie walked closer to the cell and glanced in. The man drew back in fright as he caught a glance of Evie.

Through his mirror he had been watching a Luke approach, but he hadn't seen Evie... He knew that she was with him, but the glimpse of this strange looking girl with silver hair and eyes frightened him....this was not the little girl that he remembered...   "Where is Princess Evadne? I must speak to her..." The man's voice trembled,
as if he was afraid that in her disguise Evie would hurt him.

"I am Evadne." Evie said. She wasn't sure if she should let down her disguise because there were other people in the prison that would see her if she did that. She leaned in towards the man and whispered. "I am in disguise because I don't want the Hutts to recognize me." The man nodded.

"Yes... You would not want that to happen. The Hutts did not like
it when your mother broke off her marriage to your father... They are very close friends of your father's." The man said.

"My father?" Evie asked confused...her thoughts drifted back to the dark figure that had drifted in and out of her and Aidia's lives...

"Yes... I suppose that you don't remember him... Well, it's good that you don't. I'd be lying if I said that he was a loving father to you girls," The man went on. "He was a Jedi, but something serious happened. He met up with the wrong people and he decided to follow their beliefs..." The man said, his voice drifting off in reverie.

"You mean that he turned to the dark side?" Luke asked. The man nodded an affirmative. Luke could sense that there was something else that the man knew that he was hiding from Evie.

"I have a couple of questions, how did you come to be here?"  Luke said.  The man went to answer, but Luke raised a hand and interrupted him, "And what happened to her sister?" This was what Luke was curious about.

The man studied Luke for a few seconds. "Well, all I can tell you is that the last time that I saw Aidia, she was being taken aboard yet another ship. Our ship had been attacked as soon as we left the ship that Evadne was on. Some strange men in an unmarked ship disabled our engine with a blast from an ion bolt. They then pulled our ship in close to theirs and boarded. They seemed to be in search of something...or someone.... What they found was Aidia and I. They had their guns set to stun and they hit me with a bolt. I went down but landed on my side.... Then one of the men grabbed Aidia and took her away..." The man said. 

"Where is she now?" Evie asked. The man shrugged.  

"That I am unsure of..." The man said. "All I can tell you is that the one of the men looked very familiar to me...."  

"How did you come to be in here?" Luke asked again.  

"This is where I was taken... They left me here to die because I know about the ambush on the royal escort ship.... I know too much about the family..." The man frowned.  The man took a second to think as his eyes fell upon Evie's bulging stomach.  "You are with child, Princess Evadne?"

Evadne nodded.  Her hands went down instinctively to caress her belly.  "Yes, what is it to you?"

Suddenly the man spoke to her mind through the Force.  "Both you and your unborn child are in grave danger!  There is one that seeks to destroy your family!"  The man's Force-voice raised to a shriek and then he settled down.  Evadne was horrified.  She didn't know what to make of the warning.  She looked at Luke, who didn't seem to notice, so she frowned and tried to forget what she had heard.  With Luke around, she was sure that no harm would come to her or her baby.

Luke took Evie aside for a moment, "Do you think he knows anything about this key you have?"  Evie held the key in her hand and turned it over a couple of times.  "I mean it's your choice. In the end." Luke looked at her as he could tell she was thinking.

Evie held the key out to the man to see. "Do you know anything about this?" She asked.

The man's eyes widened. "Who gave you that?????" The man sounded panicked. "That box was supposed to stay lost..."  Evie looked at the key and the box that it came in.

"What's so dangerous about a little box and key?" 

"That box was given to you by your father... He received it from the Hutts... When your mother found out she told me to dispose of it."

"But what is it?"  Evie asked.   "Only your dead mother and the Hutts know that... I think that it will reveal a bit about your past though. I can say no more. I have already put you in danger by telling you what I have."

Luke thought for a moment, "But I think if we can find out what this key opens. Then we will not need the Hutts at all."

"I don't see how that's possible." the prisoner said.

"Evie, have you tried using the Force. Do you get anything from this key or the box? Any feelings, images?" Luke inquired.

Evie held the key in her hands.... Suddenly images flooded back into her mind....   She saw Aidia as a little girl... but this was after the fact that the two girls were separated. She saw Aidia aging slightly until she was as old as she would be by now.

"It's something to do with Aidia... She's still alive." Evie said. "I saw images of the planet that she was on."

"What did it look like?" Luke asked.

"Well there were lots of plants and wildlife, and the creatures who live there live in the tree tops," Evie said. She didn't know which planet she was describing, because she had not journeyed to many planets. "The creatures that live there are very tall, and hairy." Evie observed.

"I think I know which planet you're talking about." Luke said. "Was your sister still there?"

"I think so... I saw her grow in that brief flash in the Force." Evie concluded. "The key must lead us to where she is."

"Well, looks like we're off to that planet." Luke said. They turned and started to walk out of the dungeon... Evie and Luke headed back out the way they came.

Suddenly the Hutt's guards surrounded them. Evie looked at Luke helplessly. Seems like their disguises didn't work... Maybe it was the fact that the dirt had fallen off her face, revealing the Empress's Star and someone had recognized the mark on her cheek.  What appeared to be a bounty hunter stepped up to Evie and started to say something to her. Luke stood protectively in front of her...

Suddenly Luke's Comlink beeped. He picked it up. It was Mara... she sounded like she was in distress. Luke quickly recorded a message back to Mara saying that they had run into a bounty hunter. He also said that they were going to make a run to the planet Kashyyyk. He hoped that Mara wouldn't get mad that he and Evie couldn't help at the
moment.

Suddenly the weapons from everyone in the group minus Evie and Luke's flew from out of their hands... Luke grabbed Evie's hand and they headed for the ship. The bounty hunter and his group wasted no time and were on their heels. Once they reached the ship Luke jumped in and so did Evie. They raised the ship off the ground and blasted off for Kashyyyk. Fortunately, Calrissian had always made sure the Lady Luck was in prime condition. Luke fired up the navicomp, and hyperspace was a moment away.  But he was having a hard time shaking the bandits on his tail. He took the ship through a series of dips and rolls. He had no idea who it was that was after them but it didn't matter.

Finally the computer came through, "Here we go." Luke yelled. And they blasted into hyperspace.