Chapter 11

(Tatooine)

Waking up early, Han and Leia went through some crates of extra clothes in the Falcon before they headed out. Han chose a large brown hat to cover himself along with a dark red poncho. Leia wore masked helmet which looked like a bounty hunter's mask, a brown robe and tan clothing.

Luke and Mara offered to stay behind to keep in eye on the others. They said that R2 could go with them, so the three headed off for the spaceport. Their mode of transport was Jula's V-35 Courier landspeeder, a classic model that was still in use around the Outer Rim. Unlike Luke's old X-34, which had a open air design, this one was covered to protect its occupants from the desert heat.

It took them a while to reach the spaceport which was bustling with various people, aliens and droids that roamed it's streets and shops. Driving through the area for a bit, they found the shop Han spoke of. It was located in off near the area known as Corporations Road. Leia saw it was in a wedged shaped building that connected to a tower with a cover-tarp over the entrance.

"So this is where your friend works?" she asked through her mask.

"Yes, I know it doesn't look like much, but the owner is a good guy. He said I could stop by anytime," Han replied while leading the way inside.

Looking around, Han, Leia and R2 saw it was somewhat well kept with many items on the shelves. But there were some various parts of machinery lying around the place.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Han called out, but no one answered. Suddenly a loud crash was heard from the backroom behind the counter desk. "Ow, that gonking hurts, whoever said that is in for a world of..." someone was saying as he came out from the backroom. Han removed his hat which caused the mysterious being to call out in excitement.

"HAN! Sorry about that I thought...never mind that, welcome back old buddy."

Standing before them was a four armed alien wearing a green jumpsuit with numerous stains on it. His face was lined with age, and his hair was messy as well. Leia recognized this species as a Besalik who were native to the planet Ojom, located in the Deep Core.

"Thanks Riku, good to see you too," Han answered as the alien embraced him. "This is my wife Leia Organa Solo."

"It's honor to meet you, your highness. I never thought that a former Chief of State of the New Republic would visit my humble shop," Riku responded, offering her a polite bow as Leia took of her mask for a bit.

"You're very welcome. My husband told me that the two of you are old friends." She repiled with a smile.

"We are indeed, he and Chewbacca helped me out long ago when I was part of the Mining Guild."

Riku then told Leia of how he used to work with a group of miners, where he was both the mechanic and parts supplier. There group operated out in the edge of Wild Space for many years, mining gems, metals, and other materials. It was very profitable for several years, until a representative from Black Sun arrived, looking to get in on their operation.

Riku's boss said no at first, which worked for a while, until he was killed when a cargo ship crashed into their worksite.

Afterwords a new foreman was sent to take over and things seemed to go back to normal. Then they received word that the materials were disappearing during transport. This got the attention of the Empire, who began an investigation. Riku was concerned about this too and did some searching of his own, where he learned the truth.

It turns out the new foreman was a member of Black Sun sent by Prince Xizor to make sure that part of the shipments were sent to their agents, who sold them on the black market.

Riku wanted to alert his fellow workers after finding this out, but was too late as they had been arrested due to false evidence. He too would have gone to prison, if not for Han and Chewbacca. They were delivering supplies to the mining site at the time, and Riku convinced them to help him escape by paying the two with some of the mineral gems that he had saved up.

Han and Chewie agreed to help Riku and hid him in the cargo hold of the Falcon. They had to dodge the Imperial Forces for a bit, but once in the clear, they brought Riku to Tatooine where he opened up a shop in Mos Eisley. Grateful for this, the four-armed alien said anytime they needed parts, he would get it for them.

"So what brings you two here?" Riku asked, as he cleaned himself up.

"We need some parts to fix the Falcon and to keep a low profile as well," Han said.

"I got ya. I'll got through my inventory and don't worry, you're safe here. No dam Vong sympathizers are allowed in my shop!" Riku replied. He pushed a button on the wall and four Pit Droids came to life.

"Look sharp, we got company!" Riku barked at the droids.

Chuckling at this, Han told his friend what he needed.

"Alright let's get to work. And I'm sorry to hear about Chewbacca, he was a good guy," Riku said offering his condolences.

"Thanks, Riku. Chewie always did like you. He said you were one of the best part dealers in the Outer Rim."

Hearing this made the four-armed alien try to hold back the tears forming as he went back to work. Leia watched as the two went around his shop and began to talk about old times. 'Old friends indeed,' she thought as she listened to them.

(Guardian)

After getting a hard night's sleep, the Solo siblings were eager to move around the ship. One of the medical droids checked on them and told the three their wounds still needed some time to heal, but they could walk around for awhile.

Moments later, Chewie and Ahsoka arrived with their clothes which had been fixed and cleaned. Once dressed, they were lead towards the mess hall where they found Rex eating a meal. He was with Starkiller and a blonde woman wearing an old uniform from the time of the Rebellion.

"Morning everyone," Ahsoka said to the three as she took her seat with the Solos. Chewbacca went to get the four some food while they chatted the others..

"Glad to see you're doing better," Rex said.

Juno noticed the group had turned their attention from Rex to her, and she quickly introduced herself. "Oh right, sorry. Nice to meet you three, I'm Captain Juno Eclipse."

"Pleasure to meet you, Captain Eclipse," Anakin replied, offering a smile.

"You are definitely Mother's son," Juno said.

This surprised Anakin and his siblings.

"I guess you didn't tell them that I knew Leia?" Juno asked Ahsoka, who shook her head in response.

"No, she didn't," Jacen added with a curious look.

"It's true, I do know your mother. She's a good friend of mine, and we worked together during the early days of the Rebellion. Along with her father, Bail Organa," Juno answered.

"Really, you knew our step grandfather?" Jaina asked, and Juno nodded yes.

"Indeed, he was a good man who cared about helping out others. Is he still around?"

The three Solo's said nothing as they didn't know if the time travelers had been told about what happened while they been gone, such as the destruction of Alderaan. They responded by saying that Bail lived a good life for many years and passed away from old age years ago. Juno was saddened to hear this. "This shouldn't surprise me, after all none of us live forever," she thought to herself.

"So anyway. We didn't get to thank you for saving us yesterday. My brothers and our friends are grateful for you coming to our aid at Myrkr," Jaina said and she offered a bow to the them, as did her brothers.

"You are most welcome," another voice said, and the three turned to see two newcomers enter the room. Kota stopped in front of the Solos and introduced himself. "I'm Master Rahm Kota of the Jedi Order."

"And I'm Bo-Katan Kryze of Mandalore," Bo added as she took off her helmet.

"It's nice to meet you both. I'm Jacen Solo and these are siblings Jaina and Anakin," the oldest of the three said.

"We know who you are, but it's nice to be formally introduced," Kota responded as he sat down with Bo.

Soon Chewbacca returned with the trays of food, and everyone began to eat.

(Darklighter Home stead)

Luke Skywalker sat alone in the place where his journey began so long ago with Threepio and Artoo, back when he was a young idealistic farm boy dreaming of exploring the stars. Now, 27 years later, he had become one of the most well known figures in galactic history, having helped restore peace and justice to the galaxy, rebuilding the Jedi Order and training a new generation of students.

But now his order faced their most challenging problem yet: The Yuuzhan Vong.

In the two years since they arrived, millions of lives had been lost by the actions of these aliens, who swarmed like insects looking for their next meal. He wondered how the Jedi of old would have handled the Yuuzhan Vong. Would Master Yoda, Obi-Wan or even his father stopped the invaders with ease? Or would they fail due to the enemy's relentless numbers.

Sadly, all this thinking got Luke nowhere, so he stood up and went outside. He walked until he found Mara watching Dab from underneath the Falcon which offered protection from the heat. Nearby the boy was playing with one of the Droids that the Darklighters owned. They ran around the flat areas first, then back to the landing legs of the ship.

Mara made some room as Luke joined her. "I can see why you don't like coming back here. The heat is too much and there's nothing around here!" she said to him.

"Now you know I felt all those years ago. But if you had been born here, you would have a made a good farm hand," Luke chuckled, which made hit Mara him in the shoulder.

"Very funny, Skywalker," she retorted, then went quiet.

Luke saw this and knew what she was thinking.

"Your worried about Ben again, aren't you?" he asked, and Mara nodded.

"Viqi Shesh tried to kidnap him. If it weren't for Threepio and Lando, we would have lost him." Tears started to form and ran down her face.

"But we didn't, Mara. Ben's safe and sound at Eclipse Station with the other Jedi, who will protect him with their lives," Luke responded, trying to make her feel better.

"So what were you doing in the garage?" Mara asked, wanting to change the subject.

"I was thinking about how the Jedi of old would have handled the Yuuzhan Vong. Would they have prevented Courscant from falling into the enemy's hands or prevent any of the other worlds being destroyed?" Luke answered with a serious look.

Mara took in his words and soon wondered about this too. Before the Empire came to power, there were thousands of Jedi Knights that protected the Old Republic. But the Emperor's purge saw them wiped out, so many survived by hiding like Luke's teachers. Before the Vong came, Luke's order was comprised of over a hundred Jedi. But now their numbers were dropping like rain drops into a vast ocean of death. It felt like history was repeating itself again.

"That is a good question...while we may never know how they would have dealt with this, the Jedi of old faced their own challenges. But we can learn from how they dealt with those problems, so that won't make the same mistakes again," Mara said trying to act wise like her husband, which surprised him.

Taking in his wife's words, Luke took her hand and squeezed it gently as he smiled. "Wise words my dear."

After this, Luke got up with Mara, and they called Dab to join them as they started to walk back inside. Before entering, they stopped due to feeling a powerful presence in the Force.

"What was that?" Mara wondered as she looked around.

"I'm not sure...but it felt like a feeling of dread!" Luke answered as he wondered what could have cause it.

(Guardian)

After they finished eating, Chewbacca and the travelers listened to the Solo children talk about the different events that had occurred over the last two years since the Yuuzhan Vong arrived. They spoke of what happened at Helska 4, Dantooine, Ithor, Ord Mantel, Fondor, Duro, Yavin 4 and so on.

The thought of all those lives ruined by the Vong, left homeless and wandering the stars looking for safety made the group angry at what the enemy had done. Their mood soon changed when they learned that Imperial Remnant had worked with the New Republic during the Battle of Ithor, but would later withdraw it's support, due to the Moffs wanting to protect their own borders.

'That's not surprising, those Moffs only care about themselves, more then the galaxy itself,' Juno thought to herself.

Anakin and Jacen then spoke of the Peace Brigade, an organization comprised of various people and aliens working with the Vong out of fear. They acted like hunters and scavengers, looking to hunt down Jedi, as the enemy saw them as their greatest problem. The travelers were shocked to hear that there were those who aided the Vong, instead of fighting them.

The two then spoke of them working with Thrackan Sal-Solo, their father's cousin who wanted to use Centerpoint Station, an ancient space station that could move planets with powerful gravity projectors, as a means of defeating the Vong.

But Thrackan wanted to use the station to gain political power. He cared more about his home system of Corellia then the galaxy. This would see him into tricking Anakin into firing the Station's weapon which destroyed a large force of the Vong's fleet that attacked the shipyards at Fondor. But it also saw the destruction of a fleet of Hapan warships that came to aid the New Republic at Leia's request, and sadly they too would withdraw their support after this debacle.

Hearing that Anakin was used to destroy the enemy made Chewie angry. But when he saw how the young Solo looked when Jacen spoke of this, his anger calmed. Ashoka also saw this and knew they might need to talk to him in the future.

During these talks, the Wookiee noticed that the kids didn't talk about how Han dealt with his death two years ago. He knew that would be something he would have to talk to him about when he saw him again.

As they continued to speak, Jaina felt a strange presence approach, which she recognized as the one from yesterday. Ahsoka also felt this, and she smiled then stood up as the doors opened.

"Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, we're all grateful for you telling us this information. But I'm going to ask you to stop here, as there's one person among our group who wants to introduce herself to you." Ahsoka gestured to the newcomer as she entered the hall.

Coming towards the three was a woman wearing a blue dress and navy shirt. Her hair was long and the same color as Solo's, and they also noticed how she looked like their mother.

They saw her a smile at them first, before introducing herself.

"How do you do... my name is Padme Amidala, I am the wife of Anakin Skywalker."