Four Force Ghosts, eleven humans, and a wookiee gathered on the patio.

"Let's go over what we know," Luke said.

"Stronger is he," Yoda said.

"How do you know that?" Luke didn't know that, and he thought Yoda was being overly dramatic.

"Feel it, I do."

"I don't sense that," Luke argued.

"Have you felt him at all?" Han wondered. "Since he got in? When he was at your storytime booth?"

Luke blinked at Han. "No," he admitted grimly. "I wouldn't know something was wrong if Ben and Mara hadn't told me."

"I said nothing," old Ben said.

"I meant baby Ben," Luke glared at his old master.

"Don't look at me like that," Force Ben lifted his palms to deflect the stares of his ghost friends. "I only appeared. I haven't said a thing, I promise, Master Yoda."

Lando looked around. "His only contact has been with Nons, right? Me, Han, and Chewie."

"And us," Jacen piped up. He had pulled the hood of his costume robe down; why did the Jedi of old wear those so big, anyway?

"That's right," Lando stroked his mustache and looked like his idea bubble had been popped.

"I don't feel any of you anymore," Mara said miserably, clutching a sleeping Ben to her. Luke rubbed her her upper back.

"Stronger is he," Yoda repeated, and pointed at Mara. "Her Force, he has."

Leia turned to old Ben. They were far from getting to the bottom of this awful situation, and it seemed it was more complex- or at least older- than it appeared. "What is it you haven't said?"

Ben opened his mouth, but it was the ghost of Anakin Skywalker who answered. "About us. I don't care, Master Yoda," he stopped the other from speaking. "I came to you for help years ago when I first felt the licks of the Dark Side and look what happened."

Nak thought his grandfather had posed a question. There was a smudge of chokonut on his cheek. "You lost your fight?"

Old Ben raised his left hand. "That was me," he confessed.

"Ben," Luke breathed in dismay. "You didn't tell me that." He stared at the form his father took at the time of his death, limbless and scarred. "You did this to my father?"

The ghost of Anakin moved to stand beside Luke. "Thank you, son. Can you blame me?"

"Well, yeah," Han said. He angled his head so his next words were muttered so only Leia, who clutched him arm, could hear. "Sore loser."

"Allow me." Qui Gonn's blue form took center stage. "It appears I died with talent, but I think too soon. You never allowed me on the Council, Master Yoda-"

"You too?" Anakin blurted.

"- because I was too outspoken and you didn't want to hear." He turned to the others. "I was mortally wounded in a duel with a Sith. I lingered a few moments in life while my apprentice, Obi Wan," he cast an affectionate glance at his ghost friend, "achieved victory. It was our partnership, and my respect for the Force that kept me alive, and what I was able to cling to as I became one with the Force. With a bit of practice I was able to cultivate that feeling until I appeared before Master Yoda in this form."

Chewie, who had been silent, hissed a roar at Qui Gonn.

"Wookiees don't like ghosts," Han explained.

"For lack of a better term, I suppose that is what I am. But I am not quite that. A... an imprint, of a former life, one that remembers its earthly form, energized through the Force. It took a lot of energy and concentration, and many years, but I was able to reach the living, first just those through the Force. I communicated with Master Yoda, and then with Obi Wan to help him through his exile on Tatooine."

"You never told me that, either!" Luke accused.

"You didn't ask me," old Ben defended himself. "You were only interested in yourself."

"I was nineteen and you handed me a lightsaber," Luke said hotly. "Of course I was interested in myself."

Qui Gonn held up a hand to silence them. "When Anakin Skywalker returned to the Light and therefore sentenced himself to death," he continued, "I sought to pull his Force sense toward me."

"He didn't deserve your forgiveness," Leia said.

"You didn't know him as we did, Senator Organa," Qui Gonn told her. "He was a mere boy when I found him, innocent of his potential. He was a delightful child."

"And then he grew up," Lando muttered.

"I'm right here," Anakin Skywalker reminded them.

"Sort of," Han said, and Chewie hissed again.

"Let him finish," Mara said irritably. "If we don't solve this I'm going to be like you the rest of my life, and I don't want to."

Lando looked at Han. "Should we be offended?"

Han frowned at his sister-in-law. "Probably." He'd always thought of her as fierce but she looked a bit shrunken now.

Louder, Qui Gonn continued, "He grew up, sorely manipulated by Palpatine. The view of the Jedi is that physical life is temporary. The real life is in the Force. The Jedi saw the body and its needs as second to that of the Force, and we looked forward to death-"

"I wouldn't go that far," Anakin Skywalker put in.

"The reason, that is, for your fall," Yoda stated.

Qui Gonn ignored his ghostly colleagues. "The Sith's use of the Force is in real time, through the body and the life it experiences. The body is fuel, and Palpatine sought a constant source for this fuel. The answer for him was immortality. Unfortunately for those of you alive now, his death occurred at the same time as Anakin's, and he was able to follow him."

"And he continued to study the Force, and that brings us to tonight," Luke concluded.

He had gone farther in the Force than anyone. Of all- the worthless, the Jedi, and the Sith- the crown was his to wear. Not of Master, not of Emperor, but of All. The Force.

The afterlife was conquered. They would need to study to learn what he had, to shift from glowing memory of form to actual being, and they were so stupid it would take several lifetimes.

As usual it was the living who posed opposition. Why, he had no idea; their time was so short as it was and then to protect the worthless like that-

It made no sense. But it was no matter.

There had been many times in her life when a situation had felt insurmountable, unachievable. But Mara Jade had never allowed for a single moment of self-pity or anxiety. She had the Force to see her through. And it always had, without fail, and it had always gone her way. Only once had it prevented her from carrying through, and that had been when the Emperor ordered her to kill Luke Skywalker. Out of that failure, she had found love and family, and a deeper connection with the Force, and she came to see that it hadn't been a failure at all. The Force saw to it that she landed where she belonged.

The Force was like the ground she walked on. Constant, assured. And now it was gone. It was the strangest, most frightening feeling.

Would Luke still love her?

Mon Mothma felt like this must be a dream, so bizarrely had the night turned. She was the Chancellor in her dream, and if she tried to walk her huge skirt, the hoop removed, gathered around her uncomfortable costume shoes and tripped her. Her friend and colleague Leia Organa was here with her family, but the daughter had dripping green skin. The Jedi dressed up as blue ghosts and a baby cried and nobody got anything accomplished. Except Nak Solo: slowly but surely, he was eating through the candy collection he had mischiefed.

"His storytime was better than yours," Han told Luke, "but it doesn't help us figure out what to do with ol' Wrinkly."

"Maybe it does," Luke said. "Some of us who use the Force have been affected. Mara can't use it to sense anymore, and baby Ben couldn't stop crying. Think hard, the rest of us. And be honest. If you perceive a weakness in yourself, then you know he already has."

The four ghosts waited expectantly for one of the living to speak. "Well?" Old Ben said. "I'll give you a clue. Mrs. Skywalker-"

"It's Jade," Mara snapped at him. "Mara Jade."

"I stand corrected," Old Ben said. "But from my point of view, you're still the spouse of Sky-"

"On with it, get!" Yoda yelled.

"Of course, Master. Mara is at a vulnerable but very intense time of her life. That of the role of new mother."

"Hard to break," Yoda agreed. "But also easy."

"Children?" Jacen asked. He wanted to participate in finding a solution. It made him feel grown up. "Ben seemed to take it real hard. And he doesn't know who Palpatine was. And Nak doesn't either, but that kid scared him more than me or my sister."

"We thought he was a jerk," Jaina put in.

"You're not wrong," Land said.

"Very good," Qui Gonn beamed at Jacen. "I think you may be on to something, young man. Children who are strong in the Force but haven't had instruction operate at a... I don't like to call it a sub-level of the Force, but a place where it's more pure."

Leia looked around at all the thoughtful faces. "What about me?" she said meekly. "Luke tells me the Force is strong in me but I haven't had much training. Am I at a sub-level too?"

"What is it, Leia?" Mara asked. She didn't want to be the only one Palpatine affected.

"Well," Leia began hesitantly. "I've noticed... feelings in me."

Luke, who was discouraged by his lack of feeling, was envious. "What feelings?"

"Mind you, I've been eating candy all day. You know how that can make you feel shaky."

Chewie roared his agreement.

"So, on top of that, I needed... once we started looking for Palpatine, I needed ... to feel safe. I had to have Chewie right beside me. I probably slowed him down. I needed to feel his fur. And now," she paused to show them how she was clutching her husband, "it's Han."

"That's only natural, don't you think?" Luke appealed to everyone. "When you're frightened, you cling to the ones you love."

"That's like Nak, when we were mischiefing," Jaina said. "He kept stepping on Jacen's costume."

Upon hearing his name, Nac looked up from his seat on the floor. His parents hadn't declared bedtime and he wanted them to. He was tired. "I was scared," he said.

"C'mere buddy," Han left his wife's side to pick up their son.

"There's more," Leia said. "When I was talking to the crowd, thanking them for coming and apologizing, I... felt angry and paranoid. I wondered who there, after attending my open house, would resort to following Palpatine again. And then," her voice came stronger, "I want to know which of you Force Ghosts was stupid enough to pair him-" Leia's finger singled out Anakin Skywalker- "with me."

The Force Ghosts exchanged glances. Then old Ben cleared his throat. "I'll take the blame for that one."

"I'm not sure I appreciate the choice of pairings, either, to be honest," Luke said. "My guess, Leia, is they hoped by spending time with your father-"

"He's your father?" Nak lifted his head off his father's shoulder to ask. The brown ear muffs, which he used to suggest the hairstyle for his Princess Leia costume, were crooked over his head.

"Bail Organa was my father."

"That's what grandfather is, nerf," Jacen derided his little brother. "The parent of a parent."

"I thought he was a bad guy," Nak said sleepily.

"He is," Leia stated.

Anakin Skywalker stepped toward his grandson. "And yet you named him after me," he said.

Leia moved even closer to Han and wrapped her hand around Nak's ankle. "Luke must have influenced my mind."

"Hey! I did not! All I suggested-"

"It didn't help me forgive you," she told the ghost. "It actually gave me more distance from you, that I could love something named Anakin and still despise you."

"Uncle Luke talks about you at the Academy," Jaina spoke up. "The two sides of the Force. Mom doesn't talk much about you at all."

"The lessons of the Force," Anakin Skywalker said dejectedly. "We are all made up of one thing: the Force. What complicates it is how one uses it. There's the Dark Side here, now. Not only in Leia, who nurses a lifelong grudge. But sometimes it's not that deep, or dangerous. You heard Jacen call his brother a nerf."

Jacen's eyes were wide. "I used the Dark Side?"

Leia pulled Han's elbow out as she stepped toward Anakin. "Don't you dare associate my son with-"

Luke, too, was angered at his father's assertion. "A tiny insult is not going to result in pure evil. How could you plant that seed?"

"I only meant that it's a normal part of life!" the ghost of Anakin Skywalker sputtered.

"Right, is he," Yoda sighed with a reluctant sigh.

"Is this group therapy?" Lando said. "Is this how we're going to defeat Palpatine? Stand around and talk about our feelings?"

"Tell us about your happy childhood," Mara said scornfully.

"Mine was happy," Leia said with a sad dignity. "I won't have my true parentage color-"

"Or the fact it was kept from you?" Mara shot at her.

"Mara," Luke soothed his wife. "I know you're upset. It's not helping to-"

"May I say something?"

Mon Mothma stepped forward. She had taken her shoes off and held her wide skirt up in her hands.

"Master Skywalker, it is you that encourages us to be honest and to speak openly."

"Yes, Chancellor, I do. I want to hear what you have to say."

"Within all of us, there are strengths and weaknesses. Your wife, a trained assassin, now is unable to sense her own son. Your sister, who has essentially dedicated her whole life to building our current society, fears it will crumble."

"I know my turn is coming," Luke said with a small smile.

"And you, the one we look to as the wisest, who carries on the tradition of the Force, is the one whose encouragement rings hollow. You resent what the Force hasn't taught you and deny what others feel."

"Do I come off that bad?" Luke looked around. Chewie made a grunt, but no one else answered.

"We possess these strengths and weaknesses always. Those with the Force, and those without. We know Palpatine must have them, too," Mon Mothma said firmly.

Lando listened quietly, a finger idly touching his moustache. If there wasn't a supernatural murderer on the loose, he'd probably enjoy debating the inherent nature of beings and the concept of good and evil. Open a bottle of good, expensive wine and sit comfortably, enjoying a noisy, philosophical discussion with the others. Apparently, it was a question even death hadn't been able to settle, for the four Force ghosts had started to argue amongst themselves.

Great, he thought.

He thought of his own past. Certainly he had been no shining jewel of humanity. He'd done some questionable things. But, he liked to think, there'd been a few times he'd done the right thing, too.

*Do you remember committee meetings?* Chewie rumbled at Han.

"I sure do, pal." Han's expression indicated they weren't exactly good memories.

"What is it, Han?" Luke broke into their conversation.

"Chewie's sayin' we're wasting time."

"I should have realized I lost my Force hours ago," Mara said, "because I've been agreeing with Solo all night and that's not like me. We are wasting time."

"Suggestion, have you, Assassin Jade?" Yoda said.

"I have one," Luke answered. "You need to leave the past, Master Yoda. She's no longer an assassin."

"The reason that is," Yoda said calmly. "Assassin was she, with Palpatine. Gave her those skills, he did. Took them back, he did."

Jaina looked at her mother and found the courage to speak up. "I think Master Luke has a point." Her serious tone of voice captured the attention of everyone, despite the gobs of green skin tint gathering at her jawline. "This is about the future. About what Palpatine can do."

"Without the past, could he not," Yoda asserted.

"But all you do is blame each other," Jacen observed. "Inlcuding you, Mom. And you, Uncle Luke. You all think someone else made some mistake in the past. But us- me, and Jaina and Nak, and Ben, we don't know any of that. Maybe it's good you haven't taught us much about our grandfather-"

"But you know about Darth Vader," Mon Mothma interjected.

"Yes, but he's gone. Look-" Jacen pointed at the limbless, humbled figure of Anakin Skywalker. "He's not here as Vader."

"By gods, you're right!" Luke almost shouted. "That's it, Jacen. That's the key! I need to meditate on this, but I think we're much closer now to defeating Palpatine."