A/N: First off: Happy Second Birthday, Untold Lies! I made sure this chapter was finished just for the occasion. And, wow, I can't believe it's taken this long and it's still not done. Thanks for hanging in there, everyone. You don't know how much I appreciate the support and the reviews. Now, as for some business: The lyrics at the end of the chapter come from the song "Amie" by Damien Rice. I took the liberty of changing a few of the lyrics so that it would fit better with the story (i.e. exchanging baby for Amie and all for O) but otherwise, the song is as sung.

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Close to Nothing at All

"Your…what?" Jaina exclaimed, standing up. "Sithspit, no wonder you are the way you are. Your father is Boba Fett and your bloody mother is an insane crime lord…lady, whatever. Given the choice I think I would have gone with Fett as well."

Keilana furrowed her brow at the young woman. "I didn't have a choice in the matter, Solo. My mother was nothing more than a gutterrat when I was born and would have thrown me into a dumpster had she not found my father when she did. I grew up believing that she was dead despite the fact that I had seen her once or twice in my youth. The most memorable meeting was when I was eight and my father brought me to Kamino for safe keeping."

"Where?" Jacen asked, intrigued.

"An ocean planet inhabited by cloners. They grew the original clone army, you know. Anyway, my father brought me there because he knew they would keep me safe. Don't ask why." Keilana said, holding up a hand to fend off Jaina's question. "He just knew. However, as soon as we came in from the storm and before we even had a chance to dry off, we ran into my mother. She looked sickly and I have never put a mind as to why she was there. It didn't take long before she and my father got into an argument concerning me and she said that she did not want me anymore. That was the first time I truly knew hate."

Keilana fell silent and bowed her head, looking at her booted toes. At length, she spoke again, her voice haunted. "I don't know why she wants me now. The only reason I have is that she went insane. I could see it in her eyes." Keilana shuddered violently. "She was in a lot of trouble after she abandoned me and I can only explain her continued existence with a loss of mind due to torture. For many, that's just as good as death—better in some cases."

"She could be a clone," Jacen suggested. "After all, you said that you saw her among the cloners."

Keilana shook her head sharply, cutting the boy off.

"I'd be able to tell," she said. "Again, don't ask me why." Keilana smiled to herself, remembering the incident on Kamino when she had run into one of her grandfather's clones that had appeared her age. The two had stared at each other for a moment before Keilana scooted by, shocked by the fact that the boy had almost filled the gap left by her father's absence. Almost.

"Um…Keilana?"

Snorting in surprise, Keilana looked up at Kyp.

"Sorry, I just thought of something funny."

"Care to share?" Jacen asked. "A little humor might help."

"Not really, Jacen. I don't think you would understand."

"Okay," Jacen said, quirking an eyebrow. "I could always…"

"Please, Jacen, not one of your jokes," Jaina said. Kyp had a similar expression on his face and Jacen looked slightly offended.

"You laughed when we were studying on Yavin Four."

"Only so your feelings wouldn't be hurt, Jace. You should have heard what Tenel Ka said regarding the jokes."

"I would rather not, thank you." Jacen sort of deflated which drew a strained laugh out of Keilana.

"You can tell me your jokes when we get out of this mess, Jacen," Keilana said with a smile. Jacen looked up and laughed as well.

"No, Keilana, you really don't. Sith, they were bad weren't they?" He looked at his sister who nodded enthusiastically.

Though short, the exchange had taken everyone's minds off of the Crimelord, at least for the moment. Soon, however, the heat started to penetrate their clothing and the light became more intense. Keilana turned from the others and started to mumble to herself as she flexed her toes in her boots. At one point she tested the strength of her bonds again but to no avail. They were just as strong now as they had been before—not that Keilana had really expected a change. The testing simply took her mind off of the heat and the light.

It did not take long for Keilana and the others to lose track of time. They slept, they spoke; from time to time food and water would drop from the ceiling and the four prisoners would eat and drink to the best of their ability since their bonds were still in place.

More than once the subject of Keilana's mother was brought up. She was reluctant to discuss what she knew—which was very little—and had no mind to discuss what everything meant. Instead, Keilana spent her time drowning in sorrow over losing her son and burning in rage over the fact that her supposedly dead mother had outwitted her.

After a time—Keilana had lost track how long—one of the mirrored panels slid to the side and Llywen du Kiins stepped through, shielding her eyes from the light. Keilana stood and the Jedi were quick to follow.

"You're coming with me, Fett," Llywen said, glancing past Keilana's shoulder. "The rest of you stay put."

Nodding to the large man beside her, Llywen turned from the room as he blindfolded Keilana; she did not put up a fight.

They led her out of the light and into a passageway beyond that seemed as dark as space to Keilana's covered eyes. She quickly became disoriented and—upon hearing Llywen's cackle of glee—she assumed it was intentional. All the better for her captors if she could not find her way around the enclave, even after being led from one place to another while blindfolded.

After seven turns and as many long passageways (Keilana could still count, after all), the small party came to a halt. Keilana could immediately feel her mother's presence as well as…

"Jaxon!" Keilana cried, her voice strained and anguished. She heard distant laughter from both the alien Jedi and the woman sitting on the throne. Something inside of Keilana started to burn and she cried out again, this time without words. But no matter how hard she begged, the blindfold stayed in place.

"Please! Please let me see my baby. Oh, Jaxon…" Keilana started to cry as her knees gave way to her weight. Before she could fall, however, a large hand reached out and gripped her shoulder tighter than necessary. Keilana struggled and cried out that she would beg and grovel if she could just see her son, but Aena simply clicked her tongue.

"Your father raised you to be weak, girl. I would have no child of mine beg at my feet. You know that he is here and safe; that should be enough."

Keilana wailed but Aena said nothing more on the subject.

"He is a handsome child, my darling, for being a bastard. I hear that you even turned his father in for a lovely sum to the Hutts. I'm sure he died painfully for the scandal he was involved in; the Hutts are very talented in that way." Aena seemed to smile but Keilana could not know for sure. "I admire them for their skill."

"Is that why you built that thing you've kept us in?" Keilana's voice was rough, her throat raw from screaming. Jaxon had not made a sound.

Aena laughed. "No, no, that idea I got from a story I happened across years ago."

Keilana furrowed her brow suddenly as she pushed away her pain.

"Why have you brought me here?"

"To see if you are ready to come to me. Young Jaxon will be safe in your arms if you choose to comply."

"Don't you dare speak his name."

"Whose, dear? Jaxon's?" Aena laughed at Keilana's growl.

"I take it that is a no. Well, I guess I shouldn't expect so much from my own little bastard. Take her out of my sight."

Keilana struggled against the hand that closed around her elbow and kicked out as someone else came near. Despite that, she was quickly manhandled down the hall, kicking and swearing the whole way out of the throne room. Had the Force not suddenly slipped from her grasp, Keilana would have let the storm inside of her rage free.

---

Luke sat up in his sleep, shaking and wiping a cold sweat from his brow. Mara, who lay at his side, stirred and turned to look at him through sleepy eyes.

"What is it, Luke?" She asked, her voice heavy. This was the first time either of them had been able to sleep since the mission had gone missing three days before.

"Something…dark. I can't explain it but it seemed so real, so…powerful."

Mara sat up and turned up the lights so she could get a clear look at her husband. His skin was pale, his hair soaked with sweat, and his blue eyes were shining dark. The Jedi Master seemed truly afraid of what he had seen. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Luke crossed to the large window and stood there with his arms closed over his chest. Mara watched from the bed, afraid to draw near.

"There was a man," Luke said at length as he stared into the night. "A man with dark hair and eyes so clear he seemed to have no irises at all. Though trained as one of us, his anger was enough to tear the galaxy in two, which he was on the brink of doing. People feared him but loved him enough to follow him to their graves." Luke glanced back at Mara, tears glistening in his eyes. "Such will become of Keilana's son if touched by darkness."

"Luke… Is that what woke you?"

"Not tonight; not exactly. That came to me earlier. No, what pulled me from my sleep was something I have feared for over a year now; Keilana is on the point of break down. She is strong but I fear that the darkness raging inside is about to break loose, which it nearly did tonight. Despite her disappearance in the Force I got a flash of hatred so intense that it drove right to my very being." Luke brought a hand up to his face and touched his eyelids lightly with his fingertips. He stood there without moving until Mara started to stand.

"No," he said firmly. "No, Mara, I need to think on this alone."

Before she could argue, Luke pushed aside the glass door and stepped out onto the balcony beyond. He rounded a corner and climbed the side of the building until he reached the roof. Once settled, he leaned against a low wall and stared out over Coruscant, the lights of the city blazing and lighting the sky so that no stars shimmered above his head.

Luke was so deep into his thoughts that he did not notice the roof's other occupant until the man growled in his ear.

"Where is she, Skywalker?"

Luke jumped in spite of himself and started to mutter curses that caught on the tip of his tongue as soon as he turned.

Not four feet away stood the silhouette of a man in Mandalorian armor, but it was enough for Luke to recognize him.

"I don't know," Luke said after his initial shock. "I don't know where any of them are; not Keilana, not the twins, not Jaxon…"

Fett's frame seemed to stiffen at the mention of his grandson. Obviously he hadn't heard about the boy. Luke watched him carefully, fully aware that the other man had a great deal of weapons while he himself had none. Despite that, Luke doubted Boba Fett was here for him.

"Fucking Jedi," Fett muttered almost too low for Luke to hear. The Jedi was about to ask what the bounty hunter meant when he quickly remembered that despite their mutual interest in Keilana, they held nothing else in common. Shaking his head, Luke continued to watch the man carefully, ready to act if the need arose.

However, Fett simply turned and stalked away from Luke for a moment before looking back over his shoulder, light reflecting off the T-shaped visor.

"You have heard nothing?"

Luke shook his head slowly from side to side, dumbfounded that Fett was here asking him these questions. The last thing Luke imagined the bounty hunter to be was a worried parent and the fact that he was made Luke's mind swirl.

"All I know is that both mother and child are in grave danger," Luke said carefully, his eyes trained on Boba Fett as the bounty hunter turned away once again. Fett paused as if to inspect the side of a very tall pinnacle before he started towards Luke once again. In the faint light, the Jedi Master noticed for the first time that Fett had a blaster rifle clenched in his hands. Luke's mind started to race when the other man paused and tilted his head to the side as if studying the younger man.

"I don't know why she chose your path, Skywalker." Fett sounded pained and it hurt Luke's ear to hear the rough voice carry such a tone. It seemed wrong to hear any sort of emotion from the man who had hunted Han and himself for so many years.

"The Force is a strange thing."

Fett swore in the language Luke had heard Keilana use on occasion and turned so that his shadowed profile was all Luke could make out.

The two men stood without moving for a long time before Fett suddenly turned on Luke and advanced. Before the Jedi could do anything, Fett took him by the throat and pulled him against the cold metal of his armor. Luke winced and was ready if Fett tried anything more.

"The only thing I know is that Aena Lytio is back from the dead and is seeking Keilana with all of her resources. I don't know where her operation is set up nor if she has succeeded only that if that woman manages to reach Keilana in any way, my daughter will be lost from us forever." The two men were silent for a moment as they held each other's gaze through Fett's visor. When Fett spoke next, his voice was dangerous. "You won't speak of this to anyone."

Before Luke could answer, the bounty hunter pushed him away and turned for the far side of the vast roof. He was lost in the shadows within moments and all Luke heard of the man's departure was the roar of a jet pack. A fire moved across the sky but was lost the moment Luke turned in that direction, his mind still whirling. How had Fett known that he knew about Keilana's parentage? He hadn't spoken of it to anyone, not even his wife. Luke shook his head slowly.

It was a long time before he could take his eyes off the spot where Fett had disappeared. Rubbing at his neck when he finally did, Luke sat on the rooftop and held his face in his hands desperate for any knowledge that would lead him to his missing Jedi and Keilana.

The Jedi Master stayed where he was until dawn broke the horizon and did not move until Mara appeared on the rooftop, closely followed by Ganner. Both Jedi hurried to Luke's side but it was only Mara who reached him; Ganner hung back, watching to two Masters from a distance.

"Luke," Mara said softly as she tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. "Have you been up here all night?"

Luke only answered with a nod; he didn't even look at his wife.

"But why? Have you thought of anything or anywhere they might have gone off to?"

"I've tried Mara, I have, but none of this makes sense. It's almost as if they've vanished into thin air. I don't know what to do." As he turned to his wife, he noticed Ganner for the first time. He did not vocalize his question but instead looked at Mara, his brow furrowed.

"News came very early this morning that Trigen was found dead in the Outer Rim. According to the reports, he's been dead for weeks now, killed even before the mission left Coruscant." Mara said this with her brow knit and a slight laugh in her voice even though there was nothing humorous about the news. "Ganner thinks that this all might have been a set up. Apparently Keilana contacted him just before they went missing, warning him that Jaxon wasn't safe, not even in the Academy; that…that's when we discovered that he had been taken. Luke, what's happening?"

"I wish I knew, my love," Luke said, his eyes still trained on Ganner. The big Jedi turned to glance at his Master and Luke could see the tears that rimmed his eyes. Before Luke could say anything, Ganner mumbled an excuse and left the rooftop in a haste and a billow of his black robe. Luke could hear the hammer of Ganner's feet on the steps before the door fully closed.

"He thinks Jaxon's disappearance is his fault and has been beating himself up ever since. That boy has changed him for the better and I think Ganner is afraid of what he would become if he let the child die."

"Jaxon is not going to die, Mara," Luke said firmly, pulling his wife into a tight embrace. Mara rested her chin on Luke's shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that had formed. "And the others will come back to us safe and sound as well. I have faith in Keilana, dearest. She's strong and she will find a way to get everybody out of whatever trouble they've come across."

---

Kyp looked up as one of the mirrors slid to the side and Keilana was shoved through. Her male escort ripped the blindfold away from her eyes rougher than necessary and pushed Keilana to the floor before he left. The woman stayed where she was, sobbing and trembling as she curled into a ball to hide her tears from the Jedi. Kyp looked at the twins over Keilana before he crawled to her side.

"What happened? Keilana, speak to me. Did she hurt you?"

Keilana looked at Kyp and his heart broke in two. He had never seen pain like he saw in Keilana's eyes. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and her eyes red; the utter despair in the woman's expression was almost too much to bear. Kyp found himself straining to keep his eyes on Keilana.

"She has him, Kyp," Keilana said at a whisper, her voice cracking as she held back a wail. The twins exchanged glances and moved closer to the two adults. "She took Jaxon and…and…" Keilana's sentence was cut by the scream that ripped through her body and shook the mirrors. The scream quickly turned into a wail and further sobbing as she heard her mother's voice echo through her head, joined by the words of her grandfather and father.

"I should have gone back to him, Kyp, the moment he told me something was wrong. We should never have gone to Nar Shadda; we should never have…" Keilana started to cough and dry heave but she did not vomit. After a moment, she curled up into a ball and started to tremble harder than before. Kyp gave the twins a look that told them to leave them be. Though the room was small, Jacen and Jaina stood up and went as far away as they possibly could.

As soon as they had moved away, Kyp reached out for the Force and strained to find it. The moment he did, he pulled his wrists apart with a mighty heave and broke through the restraints that had held them behind his back. Ignoring his own pain and the blood that dripped from the wounds he had opened, Kyp gathered Keilana up in his arms and smoothed her hair out of her face.

"It's not your fault, Keilana," he said gently. Crossing his legs, he pulled the woman into his lap like a child and held her close. Though out of tears, Keilana continued to sob, her mouth open in silent wails. Kyp simply held her and let her do what she had to.

After a long time, Keilana looked up at Kyp with her red eyes and whispered: "Tell me it's going to be all right, Kyp."

"I don't know that it is. I think we've gotten ourselves into more then we can handle on our own."

"No, Kyp," Keilana said, grabbing his arm. "Tell me that it is going to be okay. Make me believe that I will hold my son again and that we will be happy. Make me believe it. You have to—I have to."

Before he went on, Kyp looked up at the twins. They both appeared to be on the verge of tears themselves as they watched Keilana fall to pieces right before their eyes. They had seen a lot in their lives and had seen friends die but never had either of them witnessed something so terrible as the scene that now took place in front of them. This woman who had once managed to capture Luke Skywalker within the walls of his own school; who had always been so sure of herself and of her abilities, was falling apart and pulling them all with her. She appeared as if she could barely function, cradled as she was in Kyp's arms. Jaina turned to her brother and shook her head.

"I can't hate her anymore, Jacen. She's human, just like the rest of us. I can't…I can't even imagine going through what she's dealing with right now."

Before Jacen could answer her or stop her, Jaina stood and went to Kyp and Keilana. She fell to her knees in front of the two of them and dropped her head; her hair came loose from its braid and fell around her face.

"We'll find him, Keilana,"she said, looking into the other woman's eyes. "And everything will be okay."

A weak smile crossed Keilana's lips as she sat up to rest her cheek against Jaina's shoulder in an odd sort of hug. Rather than pulling away, Jaina placed her chin on Keilana's shoulder and glanced at Kyp, holding his gaze with hers. Tilting her head towards Keilana's, Jaina closed her eyes and started to whisper a song her mother had once sung to her…

Something unusual, something strange
Comes from nothing at all
But I'm not a miracle
And you're not a saint
Just another soldier
On a road to nowhere
Baby, come sit on my wall
And read me the story of all
Tell it like you still believe
That at the end of the century
There is a change for you and me…