The Jedi Temple. Chewie hadn't recorded any of the trip in the Falcon when they were down there for the Plan Cresh mission, but the experienced pilot did remember a bit of the journey to sketch out a draft. Yana wasn't able to scrounge much from historical record, but she did manage to find a few bits of ancient museum-trapped blue prints no one believed were still accurate. Luke managed a Force-Persuade on an Imperial data admin to hand over the last of the collection from the Jedi Temple Library, but only ended up with a fraction of what it likely once was, and every report in the packet were already-released records, clearly altered to be used as Palapatine propaganda. The only thing they knew for sure were the number of conflicts and raids that had happened since the fall of the Jedi. There were more than enough records of looters, saboteurs, and surviving supporters to blow things up or move things around since any of these records were captured.

Kess gathered all of this and tried to piece together the reality down there, but it was like building a whole fighter with only four bolts and a bottle of fuel. The truth was they had to be ready for anything, a complete and untouched treasure trove of information, or an empty cavern over a pile of rubble. There were certainly going to be disturbing symbols of all that death, and very likely a booby trap or two.

What was worse was that everyone now thought the remaining levels of Jedi Temple were haunted. They had a good reason for it. It gave her hope that this meant few people had been down there to stir things up further, but her hope diminished when she found the superstition to be the cause of everyone declining to help explore it.

The local police force laughed at her. History universities declared it too dangerous. Architects didn't care what it was now, only what it was then, and they had those records already. Those who swayed toward the Imperial political party didn't want them digging any more Jedi stuff up. Those who swayed toward the Alliance political party wished them the best of luck, but were too busy with their new lives and new duties to take the amount of time they would need to be useful.

In the end, Kess had to admit the first order of business was to try and figure out why the Nice Man in Tayla's Head told the girl to go down there in the first place. The archaeology of it would have to be delayed until the New Jedi Order had enough staff and students to take on a full and proper excavation project.

Which meant they needed staff, and they needed students. Which meant they needed the Academy up and running. Which meant they needed the structures built. Which meant they needed the infrastructure approved...

Feeling like an utter failure in this project, she stepped into Luke's office when he had poked in between mediations. She sat down in the guest chair in front of his desk with a heavy sigh.

Luke's eyes flicked up toward the mood he sensed. His hands stopped shuffling datafolios and folded his fingers together to give her his guarded attention.

She didn't even bother to explain. She just tossed her notes onto his desktop and angled her head. "Let me just take Tayla down there myself and figure out what's going on."

His brow arched. "Are you asking me permission?"

She inhaled, but kept it in her lungs as she thought about it. Kess realized she had, by default, asked him his permission, when she really shouldn't have just told him what she planned to do. Feeling defeated even more now, she let the air out of her lungs and slumped back in the chair.

Luke chuckled sympathetically as he swiveled his chair away to another set of notes, "Y'know, I have half a mind to send you down to Wedge to rebuild your confidence."

Kess blinked. Her shifted her eyes over.

"I'm sure he has something down there you can fix," he added off-handedly.

"Oh." Kess murmured, understanding his comment now.

Luke didn't look up from his work, his voice was all too easy, but his Force swelled with anger. "Why? What did you think I was talking about?"

"Nothing," she said quickly and pushed out of the chair to go.

Luke's hard eyes slid to watch her back as she left and were still on her when she stopped at the door and turned, bracing herself for the answer to this question.

"If it was a matter of permission, what would you say?" She was daring him, already angry at him for the answer she suspected. She was challenging him to say it to her face that he didn't trust her.

He considered her a long moment and lounged against the arm of his chair to look her deeper in the eyes with this honest truth, "I'd say no." He shook his head gently. "But for not for the reasons you think." It didn't matter. He could feel the flare coming out of her the moment his answer erupted from his mouth.

She shifted her feet, clearly keeping her old repair-grunt temper from spouting, but faced it. "Why then?"

Blue eyes shined to admit it. "Only because I want to see it too."

To that, she grinned back, nodded at the floor, and shifted to go.

"Kess?" She had paused in the doorway, but Luke stared at an empty spot on the wall as he tried to think this through. This was an emotional question, not a logical one. And he recognized the question was fueled by his dark-sided fear of the unknown.

She sensed it too. After a beat of nothing, she took a tiny step in and thumbed the office door to close. "You okay?"

His eyes flicked up to stare at her, to fear to ask, but he had already meditated as much away as it was going to get. And in this, it had nothing to do with being Jedi. Luke reached for his hip, unlatched the lightsaber, and propped it on the desktop, symbolically setting that subject aside.

Guarded anew, Kess watched this. Her mouth worked to remain emotionless, her concentrations kept her calm, but she knew full well that he already knew the guilt and fear seeping out of her soul.

Busted.

She faced it like a soldier. Deliberately, she unlatched her lightsaber and propped it on the desktop as well, eye meeting eye, ready for the worst.

The comm crackled. "Luke. The Findans are here."

Luke kept the hard stare as his finger snapped the desktop comm. "Be there in a minute."

They should probably talk about this later, but it was too late now.

Kess set her feet apart, locked her knees, and crossed her arms at her chest. She nearly hissed it. "Should I be standing at attention?"

"No." He spat with a deep whine in that little word. "Isn't that part of our problem?" His brows knitted with annoyance as he pushed out of his chair. "How did you say it before?" He stepped around and leaned his butt against the front of the desk to face her down and quote her, "I'm not your father and I'm not your commanding officer, and I have no right to give or deny permission for someone to ask you out on a date."

Kess scrunched her face and cussed under her breath. She tried to save this with a dark humor. "Well, you were at the time-

"I'm not now." He interrupted her.

Finally, she shook her head and sighed. "Why are you pissed at me?"

"Because you don't keep secrets very well," he whispered. "I was joking before... about sending you down to Division One just to fix something." He watched her mouth ripple and rub with guilt, and he shook his head. "But you're confidence isn't shaky because of what's going on around here. You're not trying to get Wedge and Yana together because you promised Kayla and Joanne."

He glared at her so hard that her brown eyes couldn't tear away. She couldn't even blink.

"You're guilty," he accused quietly, shaking his head, "for more than I know about."

Tears welled up on her lashes.

And now his soul soured too.

But they stared at each other, in pain, untrusting, and unsure where to go with this next.

Finally, Luke broke the stare and shifted his eyes to the floor. "If you need to tell me something, Kess, can you at least do it before we get married?"

She let out a breath so painful a wisp of voice seeped out with it. "I- I don't have anything to-"

"Don't lie to me," he whispered.

She bit her lower lip and struggled.

"Guilt is on the dark side," he said, lifting his face, but his face was pained. "And you need to find a way to come clean. That guilt is growing. And now it's diminishing your confidence in your Jedi duties. And it's spoiling every pure moment you and I should be having to get ready for this wedding."

Kess closed her eyes and took several steps backward until she landed against the far wall in defeat.

Luke's voice ascended in harmonies of pain and anger. "And I don't know if you need to confess to me, or confess to Yana, or clear it up one-on-one with Wedge, but you'd better do something to sort this out!"

Her brow knitted at him. "You're talking like I slept with him!"

"Did you?"

Her mouth fell open with shock.

Luke said it before he thought about it, but then he realized it was the real question he still hadn't found a convincing enough answer to could settle the matter within himself.

She met his glare with strength and clarity. "No."

He closed his mouth and read every clue he could sense to determine if she was telling the truth.

Now, it was her voice that was cool and even. "Why would you ask me that?"

A tongue went into his molar. A stiff sigh escaped his nose.

Kess's brow lifted. "Maybe it's you who needs to do a little confessing, huh? Your jealousy streaks are getting way out of hand-

He launched to his feet, "Don't try to turn this on me-

She shouted back. "Then start telling me what the hell you're talking about!"

Toe to toe again, he set his hands on his hips and hissed at her. "You spike. Every time Wedge comes up in conversation, your guilt spikes. Every time he's around, your defenses go up... like you're trying to protect yourself from something. Like you're trying to hide something."

She rolled her eyes away-

But he shouted back, "So yes! I admit it! I get a little jealous because I can't understand how can plan to marry me when you're keeping a piece in reserve for him!"

She put her palms on her cheeks, then moved them to cover her nose and open mouth. There was no getting out of this. There was no way to solve his concerns and admit the truth at the same time.

Kess tried to plea it gently. "Luke, I'm not keeping anything in reserve for anyone."

"Then why does your guilt spike like that?" He accused.

She swallowed hard.

"What don't I know?"

Kess rubbed her lips, and she knew this was going to be hard, but she recognized there was no way out of it. She rubbed her lips again, sighed, and lifted her chin. "The night before the launch, when we were getting ready to leave Pad 14, shutting out the lights for the last time, we um... we said goodbye." She popped a nervous shrug. "And there was a kiss in it." Tears welled up again, but she forced herself to face him down with this. "Unplanned, un-premeditated... An accident, if you will... Shocked us both, I think... and we both," she lifted both palms in the air in the motion to back off. "But it was just a goodbye."

Luke didn't react like she expected him too. He seemed calmer about it. He stared for a moment before shrugging too. And his voice was shaky. "How did you say 'hello'?"

Kess gave him a genuine grin to that. "There wasn't a 'hello'. Not like that." Her eyes were genuine and honest now. "I never met him until the day I reported into Rogue Group under your command... By then, I was already yours."

Blue eyes stared back, pained.

She shrugged again, "And you already knew that. I was the only one that didn't."

"You're trying to say it was my fault?" He reacted with emotion instead of peace.

"No! God!" She put her palms over face, over her eyes, to catch the tears.

Luke dropped his pained sights to the floor. He realized he shouldn't have said that, but he wasn't ready to apologize for it either.

She sniffed and looked away.

Alone in the room, uninterrupted, standing only feet from each other, Luke and Kess felt parsecs apart.

But Kess lifted her chin and faced him down. Luke was mildly surprised, and more than a little humbled, when she handled this like a Jedi.

"I am sorry," she said with bold eyes and soft words. "You're right; there is residual guilt from it. But the guilt comes from the worry of hurting you, that you wouldn't understand it wasn't a 'pass', or an 'offer', or anything like that... that you wouldn't be able to trust me if you found out." She looked at him hard and shook her head. "The guilt has nothing to do with Wedge himself. Seeing him and hearing his name simply reminds me of my mistake. That's all."

Luke wanted to believe her. He wasn't sure why he didn't.

And she could see that he didn't, so her guilt raged like storm. She wanted to get angry. She wanted to throw a hand tool at something. She wanted to yell at him. But she trapped it all and maintained a sadly calm demeanor. "I should go meditate-

She almost told him to do the same, but she had no right to order him around on this one. She turned to leave.

"If you're going to talk to someone about this," he said quickly before she opened the door, and his voice was a warning, "Don't go to Yana." His eyes lifted up. "And don't go to Wedge."

Kess swiveled on her heels to face him down with snarky anger, "Have I your Lordship's permission to lean on my brother?"

He flattened his mouth. His anger spiked. His lips rippled.

"No," she decided for him, "On second thought, I think it best I leave Nik free for you."

With a flat-mouthed glare at him, Kess sucked her lightsaber into her palm through the air, and latched it back to her hip as she turned on her heels.

"Instead, I'll take my confessions to Leia."