Hi there,

The ending for this story is coming along nicely. I unexpectedly had some extra free time this weekend and, surprise, surprise, my computer is actually cooperating! /bangs her head against the wall for jinxing it, while flames shoot out of the computer/

Anyway, Here's another chapter. I only got to it because Relyan offered my some grand inspiration in her latest review and I couldn't wait to write it down. Sorry, LU-43 won't factor much in this story. I also don't think I'm going to do much with Neri's knowledge of the Jedi until the sequal. No Neri will not train as a Jedi, she doesn't want to. And, Just because someone will ask (someone always asks) No Neri is not a potential love interest for Luke. Nerinika is only fourteen years old and Mara would probably kill her later even if she was old enough.

So, here we go again...

History's Keeper

Part three: Time Regained

Two days later, Neri was on her way to Coruscant with Luke and Leia. Her goodbye to Bren had been tearful, but he had made her promise to come visit him sometime. She had agreed and hugged him fiercely. She had only known the older man a few days, but he had been terribly kind to her. She would miss him on Coruscant.

The three boarded Luke and Leia's shuttle in good spirits. Leia couldn't wait to return to her husband and children. She had enjoyed this little 'vacation' but wished she had been able to bring her family. Neither Luke nor Nerinika had anything to look forward to on Coruscant, and consequently felt absolutely no need to hurry.

Once the shuttle was in hyperspace, there was little to do but wait and wonder. Neri spent the first day in the cockpit watching the star lines. She wondered what Coruscant was like now. So much had changed and yet, so much was still the same. Would it be weird seeing places she had been only weeks ago forever changed? What if she ran into someone she knew? After all, only forty years had gone by and not everyone she knew had been a Jedi...

That part still hurt. How could such a thing have happened, and in such a short time. All those people killed, all that knowledge lost. Neri had always thought the Jedi were practically invincible, and yet they were all gone. From the most skilled member of the council, to the youngest baby in the creche, all killed by a man who was now dead himself. At fourteen, she could not see the point of it all. Maybe she wouldn't see the point, even if she were older.

Her thoughts were interrupted when LU-43 floated into the room. He warbled a question to her and she looked up, startled. "No Ellyoo, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

He warbled again and Neri laughed. "Where do you hear these things? It doesn't matter wether I think Luke is cute or not, He's a Jedi. Besides, I wouldn't want you to get him even if I wasn't feeling okay. I kinda want to be alone right now."

Ellyoo beeped an apology and started to leave the cockpit. "No, that's okay Ellyoo. You can stay." When the tiny droid settled on the console next to her, Neri resumed her stare out the main viewport. "I wonder what's going to happen to me now," she said rhetorically.

The droid beeped once, a clear negative, and turned it's photorecetors to look at her more closely. Ellyoo warbled again and Neri shook her head sadly. "Everything's changed. The whole galaxy is different and my place in it is gone now. Sure, I can still be a historian, but what does that mean to me. Everything I know, everyone I knew, none of it matters anymore.

"I don't even know what it's like out there now. It's a totally different galaxy. How will I know who to be?" Ellyoo responded with something he'd heard often in the Temple. Neri smiled at him. "I think you've spent way too much time around Jedi, but you're right. I do have to be myself. But who am I now?"

Ellyoo considered this for several momments. He knew that his friedn did not mean the question literally. She wanted to know where her place was now. The droid found a possible answer in his recording of an earlier conversation. His answer brightened Neri's mood considerably. "Your right again. Master Luke did say he needed me to help him restore the Temple and I bet I know lots more than he does about Jedi history and stuff." She giggled, "I can be a Jedi Assistant."

Luke poked his head in to announce that dinner was ready and was pleased to see Neri laughing. He had no idea what she could possibly find amusing, but it showed him that she was adjusting.

Over dinner, Neri finally came up with the perfect reason to ask some questions of her own. "I told you all about my life, but I know practically nothing about you two."

Luke looked at his sister, his face grim. Leia grinned into her cup. "Ah, the logic of a fourteen year old."

"I mean, youre a Jedi," she looked at Luke, "who had never even set foot in the temple, and you," she pointed at Leia, "are a Princess turned politician who married a smuggler. The two of you are twins who never met, and now, just for fun, you travel the galaxy looking for little girls you can help? I think I am missing something here."

Luke broke down in a fit of giggles which was a decidedly un-Jedi like thing to do and the look on Nerinika's face was enough to make the already grinning Leia snort in laughter. Neri seemed unsure whether she was more confused or frustrated and settled on something in between. After a short while, the older members of the party calmed down and were able to speak.

"I'm terrible sorry we laughed at you," Leia started, ever the diplomat, "I've just never thought about what other people must think of our situation in quite that frame of mind before." she snickered again, obviously only barely in control.

"That is what we get for being all mysterious. Everyone calls me a 'naive farm boy' and 'transparent as a deflector shield' but nobody ever misunderstood me like that until I started hanging out with politicians and keeping secrets." Luke was still grinning, obviously taking advantage of the situation. He must have thought about saying that a dozen times, and never before had the opportunity.

Nerinika's frustration was refueled by her confusion. Leia noticed the look that came over her face and quickly stepped in. "Oh Luke, we are doing a very bad job of making poor Neri feel at home. You see Nerinika, our past, Luke's and mine, is common knowledge and we almost never run into anyone who doesn't know... Oh, force, who would of thought that telling one person would be harder than telling the whole galaxy..."

Luke was suddenly serious. He turned to the girl, "Neri, you already know more than you think. You know Leia and I are twins, separated at birth to protect us from the emperor. Our father was a Jedi knight named Anakin Skywalker." Luke paled slightly, then couldn't help asking the question that had just occurred to him. "You didn't know him, by any chance did you? You said you used to spend time with the children at the temple, he would have been very young..."

"I'm sorry, I don't recognize the name. We can sit down with some dates later, I don't know what good it will do, but I will be happy to help any way I can."

"Oh well, it never hurts to ask. We know so little about our parents." With this, Luke looked over at his sister, their eyes locked and she nodded at him. Neri could only guess at the significance of the gesture, but Luke obviously took reassurance from it and continued. "Just before we were born, Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark side. Our mother, who had hidden her pregnancy from him, went into hiding herself. After Leia and I were born, our mother, with the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, hid us to keep us from him. I was sent to live on Tatooine, Leia was sent to Alderaan. Our father later became known a Darth Vader and I think you know the rest of the story. Here," Luke handed her a datapad. "you can use this to look up current news, galactic history, that sort of thing. You are still welcome to ask us anything you want, but I thought this might be more efficient."

Luke had obviously not expected as docile and calm of a response as he had received, although he probably should have. This was just galactic history to her. She had lost much in what had only been a few days to her, but very little of that had to do directly with either the emperor or Vader. She had not personally been hurt and therefore felt none of the disbelief and rage that usually accompanied the name Vader.

Nerinika, for her part, felt she had used up all her disbelief for a while. She couldn't bring herself to feel shocked, scared, or angry. All she could do was accept. She felt like she had used up the other emotions, leaving her empty and hollow. The first three day's after she awoke had been nothing but violent, turbulent emotions and now she was just tired, wiped out, exhausted. She took the datapad willingly, if not eagerly, not sure that she wanted to know any more right now. Her earlier excitement gone along with the questions she'd had in mind, she started eating in silence.

Luke spoke into the quiet, he felt Neri's acceptance and knew she just didn't have anything to say, so he decided to lighten the mood. "You know, I still don't think it was quite fair."

Both Neri and Leia looked up to see and solemn, almost pouting expression on his face. He continued now that he had their attention. "I mean, Leia, you got to be a Princess on a beautiful planet in the center of the Galaxy, and you know what I got? Sand. It just isn't fair." He couldn't hold back any longer, He grinned and after a moment Leia broke out laughing. At this, he carefully put back on the pouting face and continued. "I mean, why did I have to grow up on Tatooine, why couldn't you spend time working on vaporators while I got to go to banquets and learn to be a senator."

Leia was laughing helplessly now, gripping the table with one hand and covering her face with the other. Neri was smiling, recognizing the jest for what it was, and marveling at her new friends ability to keep a straight face. Luke gave in, now and laughed along with them. The rest of the evening was spent happily playing a three person version of holochess and talking about anything other than current affairs or Galactic History.

"I can't believe you've never heard of the Eliria's! They are only the greatest band to ever set foot on Coruscant. Yes I know they were before your time, but good music is good music, no matter how old!" Nerinika was balancing the datapad Luke had given her on one knee while pecking at it with the stylus in her left hand and tapping the controls of the holochess board with the other. "Ah ha!" She cried triumphantly as sound filled the room.

Luke and Leia listened intently while Neri scrolled through the biography she had pulled up on the datapad. Luke made a sour face while, almost simultaneously, Leia grinned and started nodding her head along with the music. Neri, oblivious momentarily to her friends opinions, let an outraged cry escaped her lips. "A botched robbery! No way! It just isn't right, the greatest band in the history of the galaxy cannot die in a botched robbery attempt. A speeder crash, drugs, even food poisoning. But not a robber! It's just too mundane!"

"What a shame." Leia responded even as her brother said "Thank the force!" They turned to each other and replied simultaneously, an indignant "What!"

Neri recovered enough to notice their reactions.

"You can't actually enjoy this!" Luke's voice held good natured outrage at his sister.

"They're a good band, I love the guitar solo."

"I've heard better in those grimy cantina's in Mos Eisely!"

"I'll to have to go there sometime then." Leia couldn't help taunting him. she couldn't believe how good this felt, just bantering back and forth with her brother. She had never had anyone she could behave this way with when she was growing up on Alderaan, you just didn't make jokes with the princess. She'd had friends, and she had her parents and her aunts, but she had never had a sibling and she couldn't believe how much she had missed what she'd never had. This felt so right.

Luke was also reveling in the new closeness. He had often felt this way as a teenager, hanging out with Biggs and Fixer and the rest, but they had been friends, not family. He wished once again that he and Leia had known each other growing up. As much as he loved this, he hated that it was a new feeling. Well, not hated exactly, he couldn't hate anything to do with Leia, but if there was anything he could change, it would be the circumstances that had separated them. His own selfishness made him feel a little guilty, but then he remembered what Han was always telling him about needing to do something for himself once in while and he banished that guilt to the far reaches of his mind.

Neri had started digging in her bag, which was still on the floor in the main room while they were arguing and Luke turned to ask what she was looking for.

"This!" She said triumphantly holding up a green case just small enough to be held easily in one hand but large enough to need two hands to open. She sat down again and pulled out a small device that was the same color as the case. She then flipped open the front of the case and Luke and Leia could see it was filled with music chips in plastic sleeves. "I will forever be grateful to that little green troll and his foresight. He packed absolutely everything I would have if I could have known what was going to happen."

Luke smiled fondly as Neri found a thin cable which she used to connect what they now realized was a music player to the datapad. She then flipped through the music chips until she found the one she wanted. In seconds a new song filled the room, this one by a different artist. This time, Luke and Leia both grinned as they recognized the artist. "Mobaroan!" They said, in unison again, and grinned.

"How did you know we would both like this one?" Leia asked Neri, who was smiling knowingly at the pair.

"It was a guess, I have always been pretty good at putting people with the type of music they will like. I'm surprise you know it, the artist died before I had my accident."

"Are you kidding? This is a classic!" Luke responded. "Aunt Beru used to play it all the time. She liked to play music while she worked around the house."

"I went to one of their last concerts. That was about two years ago- I mean about two years before my accident. I have a signed copy of this 'chip in my bag. I keep it in a special case." Neri was bragging and it had the desired effect on Leia and Luke. Neither had ever met anyone who had actually seen their favorite band, let alone gotten autographs from them.

The three continued talking until Leia yawned and knocked her drink over stretching. They all admitted exhaustion after that and they cleaned up the spill and went to bed, leaving the rest of the lounge until morning. Each retired to their private cabin (the shuttle was able to comfortably sleep five) and all were asleep within minutes.

That first evening set the tone for the remainder of the trip. In the morning, Luke and Neri cleaned up the lounge together, while Leia made breakfast. Afterwards they found a deck of Sabacc cards in one of the cupboard and Luke and Neri taught Leia how to play. Neri couldn't believe that Leia had never learned.

"I never had time to learn when I was a princess, my Aunts definitely wouldn't have approved, and later there was the rebellion... and of course after that Han would have taught me in a heart beat but I couldn't bring myself to tell him." Luke had snickered at the thought that of Han discovering his wife couldn't tell an Idiot's Array from a Pure Sabacc. Neri, who didn't know Han Solo, didn't know what was so funny but let it pass.

Nerinika was having a very difficult time picturing these two people in their professions. Leia looked decidedly un-princess like in plain blue pants, loose shirt, and fuzzy slippers. She had worn her hair in a plain braid and wore no make-up. Luke did not wear Jedi robes, but a tan tunic and white pants. He had worn boots on planet, but was casually going barefoot on the ship. Both had spent most of their time laughing and talking. They had even started a mini food fight at the table one day.

Neri understood the clothing differences. Leia wasn't being a senator or a princess right now, and the Jedi she had known no longer existed. She still couldn't shake the strange feeling as she watched Leia sitting with her legs propped up on the chair next to her trying to lean over and look at her brothers cards. Luke, for his part, was sitting up but kept twirling his chair back and forth and stuck his tongue out between his teeth when he was trying to add his cards. They both looked way too much like real people...

Late that morning Neri brought up the subject of sweet snacks which gave all of them a craving for some. A wicked look crossed Leia's face and she darted for the cockpit. A few moments later they heard her warning that they were dropping out of hyperspace and they buckled in. Whey they hit normal space, Luke and Nerinika followed her into the cockpit and saw the monitors were filled with the image of a space station.

"What is that?" Luke asked warily.

"That is where we are stopping to refuel." Leia answered simply.

"But we aren't scheduled to refuel for hours yet."

"Yes, but we can stop here, it won't hurt anything. Besides, this particular space station is known for it's confectioners shop. They advertize that they can make any sweet from the known Galaxy. I have always wanted to stop and I've never had the chance before."

The three grinned at each other and spent the time until their detour in the cockpit, talking about sweets.

On the station, they left the ship to the maintenance crews and hurried off like children. They entered the sweet shop giggling quietly like they were all kids on their first outing without their parents. The two famous people in the party had taken care to disguise themselves. Leia had dressed in a knee length black skirt, a simple blouse, and a few pieces of plain costume jewelry, leaving her hair down to complete the look. Luke had worn a plain tunic and tan pants, the tunic long enough to hide his lightsabre. Neri wore what she had long thought of as her 'uniform', a plain, overlarge tunic, and snug, brightly colored pants with knee high boots. She was also wearing the same jewelry she had been wearing since Luke and Leia had met her for breakfast that first morning.

Behind the counter, inside the shop, stood a human woman wearing an apron and a white cap. She had a grand-motherly quality about her and she smiled at the trio who walked in like they were her grand kids. "Well, what can I do for you dears?"

"We were just fueling our ship and couldn't help but stop in. I have been wanting to come here ever since I was a child." Leia told the woman still looking around in wonder.

The shop was fairly large, but still cozy. There were shelves and bins covering every wall. There were large cases in the middle of the store and there were tables in the corners where customers could sit. Every surface was mounded with delicious looking confections of every kind. The woman smiled kindly at them as they took in the sights and aromas. "My name is Araima. I am the owner and Main Candy maker. I can get you any sweet you can imagine. If you have ever eaten it anywhere in the galaxy, I have it or will make it." She stated this with pride.

Neri spoke up without thinking. "Do you have arabis candy? My aunt Tara used to make that all the time."

The woman looked at her oddly and Neri wondered what she'd said wrong now. "If your aunt made that for you sweety, I'd really like to meet her. I haven't been able to find another source for arabis juice since Alderaan was destroyed. I just heard from a distributer this morning that a museum a few systems over has a few arabis trees but so far they haven't been able to propagate them more than a few at a time. I should be able to get some fruit in a few years, but until then..."

Leia looked slightly depressed, she had her last piece of arabis candy six years before. Han had found an Alderaani family who had moved long before the planet was lost. They had a grove of the trees that they had been carefully tending and had only been too happy to part with a few of the fruits once he explained why he wanted to buy them. Winter had helped him prepare the candy which he had given his wife as a gift when the twins were born.

Luke took her hand and squeezed it, while Neri just looked sheepish. "It's kind of a long story." He told the Candy maker by way of explanation.

"I know some people who might be able to help you there," Leia broke in, suddenly wanting this woman to be able to carry the treat on a regular basis. "My husband found someone who has been growing the trees for awhile now. I could have him put you in contact with them as soon as we reach Coruscant..."

"Why that would be marvelous! I'll tell you what, you find me a source for my arabis juice, and the first batch of candy will have your name on it! In the mean time, is there anything else I can get you?"

They left the candy store with a large bag of sweets each. None had been able to decide on a favorite so between them they had waked out with 'some of everything' as Neri put it. It was far from every kind of candy in the store. It wasn't even every kind edible by humans. But it was an enormous volume.

They returned to the ship and their card game. They ended the day almost the same as they had ended the previous one, with the exception of the stomach aches they went to bed with.

The next day, Neri woke early to find Leia puttering in the kitchenette. Neri poured some of the tea Leia offered her and sat at the table watching Leia carefully slice the vegetables she planned to cook for breakfast.

"Is something wrong Leia?" Neri asked.

"Not exactly, why do you ask?"

"You just seem very tense. Not to mention I've never seen anyone focus so hard on tubers." Neri gestured to the tiny, perfect slices and the death grip Leia had on the knife.

Leia sighed and set the largish knife on the table. "I don't know whats the matter with me. This trip has been the most fun I can remember having in ages. I wish Han and the twins could have been here with me, and I am glad they weren't. Does that make any sense?"

Neri nodded but kept silent. She had an idea what Leia meant, but wanted to let her new friend talk. "I mean, I have felt so free, like I have no responsibilities whatsoever. I don't think I have ever spent so much uninterrupted time with Luke. Ever. If anyone else had been here, if the children had been here I couldn't have behaved this way, I would have been more..."

"More like a Mom and a senator and less like a sister and a friend." Neri filled in when Leia trailed off.

"Exactly! I guess I am just feeling a little guilty about that. We are going to be on Coruscant in hours and I find myself dreading having to take on that responsibility again."

Neri didn't answer. Instead Luke spoke up from the doorway. "That sounds perfectly reasonable to me." He was obviously only just waking up. He hadn't dressed yet and his hair was standing straight up on one side. Leia snickered and Neri raised one eyebrow. This was the first time she had seen the Jedi when he wasn't well groomed. He was always up and around first thing in the morning, long before the fourteen year old.

Luke crossed to the warmer and poured himself a cup of tea before he joined the girls at the table. He caught Neri staring and said "What?"

Leia responded by tugging at the offending hair and grinning at him. He ran one hand through his hair, only succeeded in making the problem worse, and drank his tea. Neri took the tubers from Leia and started cutting them for her while Leia began finding the remaining parts of breakfast. After a while, Luke went to get dressed and the girls both burst out in giggles that they had barely been restraining while he was in the room. His response of "I heard that!" only made them laugh harder.