"Luke!"

Luke looked up and saw Biggs Darklighter walking towards him. Luke took a deep breath and climbed out of his landspeeder, giving his friend a wave. Luke had left his T-16 at the homestead. He hadn't wanted to press his luck with Uncle Owen, so he decided he'd only watch others race today. His uncle had been visibly relieved, though he'd still acted nervous about Luke being so far from the homestead.

Luke had parked his speeder near the back of the crowd, in hopes of sneaking in unnoticed. But with Biggs hollering his name across the desert, all faces were turned towards him.

"Biggs, I suppose you've told everyone what happened yesterday?" Luke said under his breath as he shook Biggs's outstretched hand, gripping it tightly.

Biggs shrugged. "Everyone would have heard about it anyway."

Luke shook his head and shuffled along next to Biggs, waiting for the teasing to begin. He could see it on the faces of the kids he passed. Luke knew none of them liked him anyway. But before a mean word was spoken there was the unmistakable echo of a large engine approaching and all faces turned towards the horizon. The crowd watched in stunned silence as a shiny, dark colored vehicle pulled into the mess of speeders and other ragtag vehicles parked at the mouth of Beggar's Canyon.

It was like no other vehicle Luke had ever seen before. It was a round pod with two octagonal shaped side wings, and a rear flap wing. There were two ion engines on the back and from what Luke could tell, a few repulsor engines on the bottom.

"Son of a bantha…" Luke heard Biggs whisper under his breath. Luke had to agree. Whoever this was had connections and money beyond that of Huff Darklighter, and that was saying a lot.

The vehicle landed with a soft sigh and the hatch opened. The sound of the two engines releasing stored energy was all that could be heard. Everyone's eyes were on the open hatch, where a person sat covered head to toe in black; a black helmet with a darkly tinted visor, and black leather garments over the rest of the body.

The pilot didn't remove the helmet as he climbed out of the vehicle and walked a few steps towards the rudely-staring crowd.

"Anyone want to race?" A raspy, mechanized sounding voice issued from beneath the helmet.

"In that?" Luke heard someone yell from the crowd. The figure simply nodded once.

Luke looked around at the muttering and shaking heads of the other kids. He angrily chastised himself for picking today to be sensitive to his aunt and uncle's fears. If only he had his T-16…

"I'll race you..." Biggs said, pausing to give the person a chance to introduce himself. But the mystery guest wasn't wasting time with manners. As soon as Biggs accepted the challenge, the black helmet nodded and the figure climbed back into the strange looking vehicle.

Biggs jogged to his own skyhopper and met the other racer at the starting line. Luke, like most of the others, jumped into his speeder and took off towards the other end of the canyon.

The anxious crowd at the finish didn't have to wait long as the echoes of the revved up engines preceded sight of the vehicles. As the two racers exited the end of the canyon Luke suppressed a laugh. It hadn't even been close. Biggs had been beaten by more than 4 lengths.

The two vehicles decelerated and swung around, parking near the back of the crowd. Biggs climbed out of his skyhopper, slightly red in the face and just nodding his head to all the yells his direction. Luke was considerate of his friend's feelings but the rest of the kids weren't. They were howling with laughter. Luke approached his friend and patted his back in an attempt to provide consolation.

Everyone turned as the hatch of the winning vehicle swung open. The black figure stepped out to a few cheers and "well done's". But the cheers and the well done's faded as the figure took off the helmet. Everyone stared with mild surprise and disbelief.

Luke on the other hand, was once again completely speechless and feeling as though he might pass out.

It was her.

Biggs, who had been graciously accepting his loss, grew red in the face and started sputtering incomprehensible statements towards the girl. She simply glowered at him, a slightly smug look on her face.

Luke was torn between support for his friend and his overwhelming attraction to the mysterious girl.

"What…" Biggs finally managed to say. Luke knew what was running through his friend's mind. Being beat by Luke was one thing, being beat by a girl was something else. Biggs was a good kid, but he grew up on Tatooine and like his father, thought women were to look at and to marry and have families with. And no other girl that Luke knew had ever raced one of the guys before.

The crowd had slowly formed a misshapen circle around Biggs, Luke and the girl. She stood where she was, her pale blue eyes narrowed as if she were waiting for Biggs to say something more.

"What, what?" she finally responded. Her voice was cold, but to Luke it sounded like perfection.

Biggs stared at her. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts. Forming a valid argument about why she had beaten him.

"No way you would have beaten me if you weren't flying…whatever that," Biggs said finally, tilting his head towards the gleaming vehicle. "Did daddy buy it for you?"

Luke watched as the girl's eyes clouded for a brief moment, but they cleared just as quickly as she took a few steps towards Biggs. Luke felt the situation was beginning to spiral out of control, but felt totally powerless to stop it. Something was going to happen, and it wasn't going to be good.

"I could beat you flying that piece of poodoo your friend here calls a landspeeder," she indicated toward Luke's vehicle and though it was meant as an insult, Luke felt his heart skip a beat. She's noticed me, was all he thought.

Biggs leaned his head back and laughed. The other kids in the crowd sniggered at her bold declaration. Luke was about to open his mouth to offer it to her when Biggs spoke again.

"I have a better idea," he said, the humor and the frustration gone from his voice. It matched hers, cold, distant, all business.

She raised her brow slightly in question.

"We'll see who can fly through that."

Luke and the others followed Biggs pointed finger. Luke knew this was it. The moment he had been anticipating, that he had been dreading, had arrived. Biggs was pointing to the Stone Needle.

The Stone Needle was a part of Beggar's Canyon that only three people (that Luke knew of) had ever managed to fly through. And all three were now dead, having died of old age. It was a tall spire of rock with a narrow slot at the top that was lined with jagged rocks on all sides.

"Biggs, don't be dense," Luke said to his friend, grabbing his arm-hoping to talk him out of this crazy idea. Not even Luke felt confident enough in his abilities to fly the Stone Needle.

"What's wrong, don't think your friend here can take the challenge?" The girl was looking right at Luke, and Luke felt his objections fade from thought.

Luke blinked his eyes, breaking the hypnotic stare. "No…uh…Biggs, he could do it…" Luke stammered, trying to sound supportive of his friend but feeling he was failing miserably.

She nodded slowly. "Could do it…meaning he hasn't before. I like this challenge. Let's go," she placed her helmet back on her head and turned back to her vehicle.

"Wait!" Biggs called after her, taking a few steps. She stopped and turned, the helmet and visor hiding her expression. "Can I at least know your name, since we're gonna be flying against each other and all."

"True Knightley," the mechanized voice from the helmet responded as she turned and continued to her ship. Biggs nodded satisfactorily.

"Don't you want to know my name?" he called to her back.

"No, I don't care what your name is," carried on the wind back to the crowd, which once again was sniggering and watching Biggs, hands covering their whispering faces.

Biggs sighed audibly and turned to Luke. "Nice girl, I can't believe you like her!"

Luke watched the ensuing challenge feeling sick to his stomach. Biggs flew first. Luke watched his friend handle the skyhopper magnificently. Luke hadn't realized Biggs had turned into such a good pilot. The gathered crowd stood with mouths agape as Biggs circled the Needle, then threaded his ship neatly through the narrow slot.

There was a collective sigh from the crowd, Luke included. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath.

As Biggs landed there was loud applause from the group, but Luke kept his eyes on True and her attempt. She was circling the Needle, taking longer to figure her approach than Biggs had. Luke sensed hesitancy in her flying.

Luke vaguely heard Biggs getting congratulatory yells from the crowd.

"She's not gonna make it…" he heard Biggs say under his breath as he came up just behind him.

Luke, who wanted her to make it, crossed his arms and prayed to any and every god that he'd ever heard of that she would make it.

True appeared to have caught a good thermal breeze as she started to maneuver the vehicle towards the thin slot through the Needle. But as she approached, there must have been a shift in the wind because her right wing dipped and as the nose of her vehicle started through the Needle, the wing caught the side and ripped off in a fiery grinding of durasteel on rock. It was so loud the kids down below could hear it. The ship continued through the Needle, than hung in the air for a moment before it slowly fell to the ground, kicking up a plume of dust and a thick cloud of black smoke.

Luke was in his speeder and off towards the spot where True's vehicle had fallen before anyone else had torn their eyes from the morbid sight.

It wasn't far to go, and as Luke pulled up next to the mangled mess of burnt durasteel and smoking wiring he stared for a moment, afraid to dig through the mess. He didn't want to see what might be within the wreckage.

The sounds of other approaching vehicles snapped Luke out of his hesitation. He leapt from the landspeeder and approached the smoldering and twisted vehicle. He looked up, gauging the distance True crashed to be about 25 meters. That's too far, Luke thought fearfully.

It was still mostly in one piece, but the wings had broken off and scattered in different directions several meters around it. The hatch was shattered and Luke couldn't get it open alone.

"Biggs! Help me," Luke turned to Biggs, who had just arrived and was white in the face. He only nodded and moved forward. Fixer and Tank also moved forward and together the four guys wrenched the hatch open.

The inside was sparking, the crash having shorted out all the systems. True lay still and Luke feared she was dead, but somehow he knew she wasn't.

"She's okay," he blurted. The other three looked at him, confused.

"How would you know?" Fixer said, his tone indicating he thought Luke to be completely idiotic. Tank sniggered.

"I can just tell," Luke said under his breath as the four of them unbuckled her safety straps and lifted her out, carrying her a few meters away and laying her on the ground.

"Be careful," Luke said as Biggs reached up to remove her helmet. There was no blood that they could see, and aside from being unconscious she seemed uninjured.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt your girlfriend," Biggs said, causing a spatter of nervous laughter from the crowd gathered around them. Luke flushed and looked down, but not before he caught a jealous look on Camie's face.

Biggs pulled off the dark helmet while Luke supported True's head. Her blond hair fell out, framing her face like a halo. Her features were relaxed, and for the first time Luke could see a vulnerability about her.

He reached out and laid his hand on her forehead. Almost immediately her eyes fluttered open. Luke felt a strange sense of control, but almost as soon as he felt it, it faded. He pulled back his hand as True sat up.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked, truly concerned. She looked at him, then turned away, looking at all the faces of the kids around her, her features hardening again.

"Guess I didn't make it," she said as she made to stand, ignoring Luke's question but her face betraying the pain she must have felt in her body. Luke reached out to help her stand. True accepted Luke's help then released his hand once she was on her feet. "Congrats," she nodded to Biggs and started to walk away.

"Wait!" Luke started off after her, leaving the staring crowd behind. But True didn't pause. She continued to walk, a limp evident in her long stride.

"True, will you stop!" Luke grabbed her elbow and spun her around. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears, and Luke was taken aback for a moment. He averted his own eyes, glancing back to the dispersing crowd, seeing Camie standing apart, watching him and True, her expression unreadable. Luke turned back to True, glad to see her eyes had cleared a bit.

"What," she said flatly. "Are you here to rub it in, tell me how I'm all talk and no action, how I can't do anything, how-,"

"No," Luke cut her off. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't get you," she said finally. Luke raised his eyebrows.

"I didn't know there was anything to get," he replied.

True opened her mouth as if to say something, but instead she shook her head slightly. There was a strange look on her face, and Luke thought it looked like guilt.

"What's your name?" True asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Her face had smoothed out, the hard lines fading and the guilty look Luke had thought he'd seen had gone.

"Luke Skywalker," he answered, aware that all his nervous feelings had disappeared now that he was actually talking to her.

True nodded slowly. "Skywalker…nice," she smiled and Luke felt his face get hot.

"Can I take you home?" Luke offered after a pause.

True shrugged half her body. "I suppose it would be ridiculous to think I could walk back to Anchorhead," she turned and the two slowly started back, True still limping. The rest of the group had dispersed. Luke didn't notice when Camie had left.

"What are you going to do about that?" Luke asked, tilting his head towards the pile of debris.

True stared at the wreckage and took a deep breath, slowly shaking her head.

"My dad'll kill me, but I'll have to deal with it," was all she offered.