"This is outrageous. And I'm holding you responsible." Fey'lya paused his pacing around Director Brollin's private office just long enough to point his finger in Brianna's face.

"Maybe you should keep better track of your employees."

"One of my staff has been brutally attacked by someone you are only just now telling me is a Force user! This is precisely the sort of thing you should have known about."

"I did know. Why do you think I never wanted to talk business when he was in the room?" Brianna smiled. "Mostly."

"You never wanted to uphold your responsibilities even when I was the only one there."

"Well, I needed you to blab to everyone we were going to Charapath. You did beautifully too, by the way."

"Councilor, please appreciate that this was a delicate situation," Iella said. "We weren't entirely sure how he was getting information, so we needed to be cautious. But we are tracking him, and as soon as he lands, we'll be able to move on him." Iella caught a quick frown from Brianna. She hadn't discussed her backtracking efforts.

"And then what?" Fey'lya said. "Arrest him? Fight him? Kill him?"

"Arrest is preferable at this point."

Fey'lya snarled at brianna. "You do not have my confidence."

"Good thing I don't need it."

"This time, I had better get my report Brollin."

"You'll have a private briefing arranged, Councilor, as soon as we have something to report."

"It had better be sooner rather than later," Fey'lya said and exited the office.

Brianna turned back to Iella. "How the hell are you tracking him?"

"Sir'ren and Visalia noticed he was masking when they met you in the hangar. They told me and Sen about it. Dom realized you were probably trying to irritate him into making a mistake. I had some people from our security division track down the credentials he was using to get into the hangar, and then backtrack him through the rest of the system. We found the shuttle he was using and tagged it."

"Any idea how he got in yet?" Brollin asked.

"Not yet. Sana has lead on that. As soon as she finds something she's to report it directly to me, or Sen, if she can't get me."

"You… figured out all that?" Brianna said. Iella thought she almost seemed impressed.

"It's called teamwork," Sen said. "It's what happens when all the relevant people have all the relevant information. In a timely manner."

"Sounds nifty."

"Yeah, you should try it sometime."

"Based on his trajectory when he went to hyperspace, there's a few different places he could be going. If he's going to a place we're already aware of and he doesn't change course. In either event, he's not likely to land any time soon. It's late. Go home, get some sleep, get something to eat. But be ready to be back in here as soon as we get notice he's landed."

"You got it boss," Sen said.

Iella suppressed a yawn as she took a sip of coffee. She hadn't slept much but she decided to accept Mirax's invitation to breakfast anyway. She needed a change of scenery while she was waiting. Tycho and Winter had joined her. Even Wedge had come along. Said Luke seemed busy with something. Mirax herself was on and off the balcony, helping Lujayne and Corey with their kids. Corran, thankfully, was out with Hal. Iella felt like she needed to vent a bit, and she didn't want to hear Corran being smug.

"She's just far more of a challenge than I thought she'd be," Iella said. "Not that we aren't getting things done. But it would be easier, faster, and more efficient if she would just communicate. She doesn't trust anyone."

"Wes and Hobbie and I were talking a bit about that yesterday," Tycho said. "Not to throw her under the speeder, but we were sitting with her when you called."

"Yes, her casual lying no longer shocks me."

"Do you wish you'd asked Corran to do whatever this is?" Wedge asked.

"Well, no. As you all know, Corran has more than his share of trust issues. Brianna is way beyond that. But I do know him pretty well, and if he had done what I thought he would do, we'd be way off the space lanes right now. Whenever I can figure out what Brianna is doing, she's on target. She just never explains what she's doing."

Corey poked his head out onto the balcony. "Hi. Not to be rude, but I couldn't help overhearing. Would you care for some inside family insight?"

"Please." Iella offered him a chair.

"I thought you weren't supposed to evaluate family members," Wedge said.

"I'm not supposed to treat family members," Corey said. "Big difference." He turned back to Iella. "I think Brianna and my father - and probably Anakin Skywalker too - are all pathologically self-reliant people. For different reasons.

"For Anakin Skywalker, it was all about control. For his entire life up until he became Darth Vader, his life was either the chaos of slavery and war, or the rigid control of the Jedi Order. He had no real say or control over anything, unless he kept it hidden. Which is always going to add stress to someone's life. Even as Vader it was all about bringing order and control to the galaxy. Even with the Force, there's only so much you can control other people. But, he could control himself. Everything I've heard about what he did shows a person who was hands-on, doing things himself. Because that's what he could best control.

"Now, my father is different. He doesn't think he should burden anyone or put anyone at risk for things he thinks he ought to be doing himself. So, instead of talking to people or asking for help, he just runs off and does things."

"That is absolutely true," Wedge said.

"There's also a bit of a lack of self trust involved. He's not always certain he can protect anyone who might be tagging along."

"Yeah, we've had that conversation before," Wedge added.

"Brianna is almost the exact opposite. It's not about control - she practically is chaos. But the one person she does trust is herself. She doesn't trust that anyone wants to help her, and even if they did, she doesn't trust they'll be successful. And then she'd just have to come rescue you too. So she learned to just do things herself."

"But why?" Iella asked. "Where does that come from?"

"I think it goes back to when we were kids. You know, she'll fight with anyone. Sometimes she starts the fight, sometimes the other person does. But even when someone else started it, no one ever stood up for her. Everyone just let it play out. Even if one of us kids told her later we agreed with her, it's not like we said anything in the moment. So she learned the only person she could rely on was herself."

Iella thought about all the times she'd seen Brianna get into an argument, either with Sen, or Fey'lya or Kra'fey. Iella had tried to let Brianna handle it each time, to let her be a credible Jedi. "Well, I did sort of intervene on her behalf when she argued with Corran."

Wedge nodded. "Luke told me the next day he'd never seen Brianna back off a fight like that before."

"Maybe you have an in," Corey said.

"What about her friend Elena?" Iella asked. "She seems like someone Brianna trusts."

Corey shrugged. "I've never met Elena. In fact, I'd never even heard of Elena until Jaina mentioned her to me after the senate testimony."

"Hm." Iella took another sip of coffee,then felt her communicator vibrate. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked the message.

We got it.

Iella stood. "Emergency work call. Gotta run."

"Good luck," Wedge said.

"Thanks." She kissed him on the head and left the balcony.

Luke stepped out into the hallway from Leia's apartment. He was out later than usual. He could already see the sun coming through the eastern window at the far end of the hall by Wedge and Iella's apartment. Wedge wouldn't be out for a while yet, but Luke liked to watch the sun come up over the city. Plus, he could say hello to Iella as she left for work.

This morning, something made him stop. Directly across from Leia's apartment was Luke's old apartment. He hadn't lived there in years, and everyone seemed to think it was better for him to live with Leia and Han. But the apartment was still in his name. It felt like there was some activity inside. He walked up to the door. It felt like Brianna. He realized he shouldn't be surprised. She had to stay somewhere when she was on Coruscant, and as she had told Wedge, technically, she lived there. Still, curious that he hadn't sensed her before.

Luke stood at the door, wondering if he should go in or not. He realized he didn't actually have his own key anymore. He could ask Leia if she had one. But she probably didn't and she'd be annoyed. Luke smiled to himself as he thought about asking Wedge for his key. It would be funny, and he would probably get it, but also probably not worth it. He supposed he could use the Force to open the door. That would be frivolous and maybe a bit rude -

The door opened.

Luke stepped inside. He hadn't even been inside in over a decade. It had a similar layout to Wedge's apartment, with an open kitchen and living room area; they were on the same side of the hall. But this apartment was much darker, and not just because the sun was only just peeking through the north-facing balcony. It was just always dark in here.

The only light was coming from the kitchen area off to the left. Brianna was standing at the counter, on the other side of the island, aggressively stirring… something. Luke walked over to peer over her shoulder. It looked like batter. "What are you making?"

"Pancakes."

Luke looked around the room. It didn't seem like anyone else was there. "Are you eating them alone?"

"Do you mean am I eating them all myself, or am I eating them with this delicious syrup and bowl of berries I've got here?"

Excellent question. "Yes."

She finally looked at him, apparently slightly amused. "Do you want some?"

"If you're sharing."

Brianna reached up toward one of the cabinets and Force-pulled a second plate from the shelf. Frivolous, but effective.

Luke watched Brianna finish cooking. It smelled wonderful. He couldn't remember the last time he had pancakes. He had never been much of a cook himself and he'd gotten used to eating simpler foods over the years.

Brianna set the plates stacked with pancakes on the table, which was on the living room side of the island, along with the bowl of berries and the carafe of syrup. The table was small and round and high. It really wasn't designed for more than two people. Luke couldn't remember where it came from.

Brianna stabbed into her pancakes while Luke cut small, precision pieces with his fork. "Rough day at work?" This time, her look was not amused. "Not that I know what you're doing. But I could make some general guesses."

"I'm sure."

"Iella seems to have confidence in you."

"Dunno why."

Brianna wasn't the type to lack self confidence. "Clearly you had a reason to tell her yes. Since that's not really a thing you do…"

She smiled a bit again. "There was much flattery on her part."

"And, full disclosure, she did tell me one reason you said yes. The pancakes are delicious by the way."

"What did she tell you?"

"So that no one was asking me."

Brianna snorted and stabbed her pancake again. "Yeah, that would have been a shitshow. I told one of those idiots yesterday that even if you had tried to set boundaries with them, they wouldn't have respected them anyway. That's their problem, you know. We're not people to them. We're just assets they can assign places. And the worst ones are the people who talk nice to your face. You always know where you stand with Fey'lya: he hates you. But the ones who act like they like you? They'll turn on you as soon as you don't play their game."

"Politicians probably don't get to stay politicians very long if they do anything else."

"Which is exactly the problem with politicians. And people just let them do it. People who run huge organizations, with actual assets and stuff, get terrified just because some politician got mad that day. It's dumb. People spend so much time trying to make nice with idiots that nothing real gets done." She stabbed at a berry.

"Maybe they don't know what to do," Luke said.

"Of course they don't know what to do."

"Do you know?"

"I'd know a lot better if they would actually let me work instead of bothering me with stupid stuff."

"I have an idea." Luke got up and ran back across the hall to Leia's apartment. In his room, he dug around in a side pocket of a trunk and finally found what he wanted. Back in his apartment, he set it down on the table in front of Brianna. It was a small, four-centimeter long stick.

"What's this?"

"It's a short stick."

"You kept this?!"

Luke shrugged. "It seemed important."

"That was a joke."

"Yes, but a clever one. It took me a few days to unpack all of it."

"So what are you telling me?" Brianna asked. "I'm doing this thing, so that makes me the adult in the room, so I've already lost?"

"No, no. What I realized, eventually, when you told me what happened on the med center platform, was that I had options. I could choose what to do with what I knew. And then I realized that it had always been that way. Every other time I hadn't been told something that I found out later -"

"Obi Wan and Yoda."

"Well, yeah. They thought if I knew, I'd make a choice they didn't agree with."

"Which you did. And we're all better off for it."

"But I could because knowing gave me the option. Even Wedge, in not telling me earlier, thought I'd react a certain way and that would make it harder to fix things. He wasn't necessarily wrong about that. But once I knew, I could fix things."

Brianna popped a berry in her mouth. "Well, that all sounds fascinating, but what does it have to do with me?"

"You know a lot of things."

"I do."

"And, you're probably learning a lot of things, doing… whatever it is you're doing."

"Yeah."

"So, you can make choices about what to do. Other people don't know, so they feel stuck. And they choose things that are… less optimal."

"People get in my way. And they just create security problems."

"I'm not saying you have to tell everybody. I don't tell everyone.. just people most likely to do something useful."

"And what if that's no one?"

Luke started to realize just how alike he and Brianna really were. "Maybe that's what I thought too. And I was wrong."

"People don't listen."

"No, not everyone will listen. And, maybe some not right away," he added, realizing that was partially a dig at him. "But someone will, even if it takes some time, or hearing something differently, or putting it in a different perspective." Luke was trying to think of all the ways Tycho and Wes and Hobbie had learned new things about him. It really wasn't because Luke had ever said anything. It was mostly because Wedge said something. Brianna didn't really have anything like that. "I'm just saying, maybe you should give it a try." He pushed the stick closer to her. "Give people an opportunity to choose."

Brianna eyed the stick, then smirked a little bit as she looked back up at him. "Trying is a thing now?"

"You're the one who doesn't like Yoda at all."

"I'm just saying, that's a huge evolution for you."

"We're - we're not talking about me."

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure that's exactly what you were talking about."

Luke sighed and pushed the stick closer again. "Well, maybe it's both."

Brianna scrunched up her face, but pulled the stick a little closer to her. "Consider it in the queue to be considered ."