Things are about to get interesting, mwahahahaha

You guys better start getting ready for the next chapter (I know I am; I've got so much to refine and figure out...)

Though this one...a few memories...I might have dropped a few hints...

Can't wait :D

PLEASE REVIEW! (And thank you for previous reviews, your enthusiam just rubs off on me and makes me even MORE excited to write this story hahahaha. And I love reading your theories! I will say...you guys come up with some rather crazy stuff!)

Enjoy!

"Easy now Jeza, I don't want you shooting my eye out."

Jeza shot Luke a rather murderous look and for a second he was sure that she was going to accidentally shoot him for his comment, bet she simply huffed and moved her hands as Luke had just directed her to do a few seconds prior.

They were traveling through hyperspace at the moment, so Luke was giving Jeza a few pointers on shooting a blaster. She'd never been able to handle a real one until that moment in the clearing, and though she was obviously a natural shot—probably as a bi-product of all the other skills Luke had helped her develop—he had noticed room for improvement, and jumped at the opportunity to teach her as such. That teaching opportunity found them in the cargo hold of the old Dynamic-Class Freighter, with Jeza holding a blaster and taking shots at a muja fruit that Luke had found in one of the freighter's many crates.

Just a few feet away, the old man—Kuroth—sat watching them. He had given them a name once they'd gone into hyperspace, but only the last name. In exchange, Luke and Jeza had only given him their first names. There was no way that Luke was going to be giving Kuroth his last name, as the Skywalkers were known galaxy wide. Jeza had adopted Luke's last name as well, much to his distaste. He worried that she would make herself a target by taking on the name, but there wasn't much he could do about it; it wasn't like he could forbid her from using it.

Luke stood right behind Jeza, one hand over hers to keep the gun steady, the other placed gently on her shoulder while he spoke softly in her ear. "Steady...steady...breathe..." he murmured. Jeza squeezed the trigger and a red bolt shot out of the gun, exploding the muja fruit into a pulpy fountain. Luke grinned at her, pulling back so he could see Jeza's triumphant smile. "See? You did it. The more practice you get, the better your aim will be and the faster you'll be able to fire."

Jeza gave Luke a peck on the cheek, her enthusiasm oozing out of her from the successful shot. Over on his crate seat, Kuroth smiled slightly. "So you two are...related somehow? At least, that's what I've gathered from watching the two of you..." Kuroth asked.

Luke glanced at the older man, one of his hands resting on Jeza's back while the other dropped away. "Not by blood, no," Luke informed him vaguely. Jeza smiled a little.

"I would be his adoptive daughter," Jeza said politely, and Kuroth nodded.

"That makes more sense. I noticed that Luke seemed a little...young, for you to be his biological daughter," Kuroth said with a hint of amusement. Luke brushed the comment off instead of getting aggravated about it; it was understandable. Instead, he got three more mujas out of the same crate and placed them at varying heights and positions so Jeza could continue practicing.

"Keep practicing," Luke murmured softly to Jeza, adjusting Jeza's handling of the gun a little before he stepped away again. While Jeza took aim, Kuroth spoke again.

"So earlier, you said that you aren't a Jedi anymore; why is that? As a matter of fact, how did you two even end up on that planet in the first place?" Kuroth asked. He seemed to think they were innocent enough of questions, but in the next moment it was obvious that he had struck a nerve. Luke went rigid and Jeza reflexively squeezed the trigger of the blaster and the shot went wild, knocking a crate to the floor and spilling its contents onto the cargo bay floor.

Without a word, Luke brushed past the two of them and out of the cargo bay, waving his hand slightly to fix the mess with the Force on his way out. His other hand remained clenched in a painful fist the entire way to the cockpit.

Kuroth stared at the door that Luke had stormed out of looking utterly lost. "I didn't mean to offend him…what did I say?"

Jeza shot Kuroth a look, arching an eyebrow at him. "You might have just dragged up a rather painful and dark part of his life."

Kuroth looked taken aback. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean too; I didn't know," he stuttered out in apology. Jeza waved the apology off—a habit she had picked up from Luke.

"Its fine, you didn't know, and I'm guessing that's why he just left instead of getting angry at you or something. Though I will say I've never seen Father angry."

Kuroth shifted on his crate seat. "See, there's one of the things I don't understand; how did he end up your adoptive Father?"

Jeza smiled slightly at the man. If she hadn't been forgiving and understanding by her nature—another thing she was sure that she'd picked up on from Luke, or at least had it strengthened by the man—she would have shut Kuroth down and put an end to his questions. Instead, however, she turned her attention back to the muja fruits she was supposed to be practicing on and spoke in a very quiet voice.

"My entire village was destroyed except me and an older woman I'd known as a little girl called Denna. I was ten—almost eleven—when it happened. Denna took care of me until she became so sick she couldn't leave her bed. That's when Luke arrived. He swore to Denna that he would take care of me, and he has done just that—even more so sometimes—since that day."

Jeza squeezed the trigger, just missing the muja fruit that was the highest up. She could see the scorch mark on the fruits skin, indicating how close she had come.

"He sounds like a very good man," Kuroth noted with a hint of reverence in his voice. Obviously that had not been the story he was expecting, but he had managed to keep his politician mask—as Luke called it—in place.

"He is. He's kind and gentle, understanding and patient, protective and calm, wise and resilient, and resourceful and comforting…I couldn't have asked for anyone better…" Jeza mumbled. Her mind wandered back to one of those first days that it had been just her and Luke on Xenon, back in a cave with only one blanket that Luke had thought to grab on the way out of the village and Luke's cloak folded up into a black pad acting as her pillow…

She woke deathly afraid from her nightmare, unable to shake the sight of the yellow eyed monster that had killed everyone in her village including her own parents, sleeping soundly on the couch before they were slaughtered in their sleep before he very eyes as she'd peered through the crack in her bedroom door. Even now she sobbed as she had after the monster had left and she'd gone to her parent's sides, pleading for them to wake up and say something, to be all right…

A gentle, kind hand touched her trembling head. "Jeza…?"

Instinctively, Jeza pulled away from the stranger fearfully, gazing in wide eyed terror up at him while he too withdrew, a strange look of pain and guilt flashing across his face before he retreated back to his side of the cave. She'd left the village with him earlier because she'd had no other choice and she was too exhausted to resist him otherwise. Still, fresh from her nightmare, she couldn't help but think of how this stranger—Luke—had the same face as the monster, and because of Denna's shrieks when Luke had entered that room Jeza was sure that he was the one responsible for what had happened to them.

And yet…

He didn't look like that monster at the same time. There were dark circles under his eyes and, although he obviously tried to hide it, his eyes were constantly red like he had been crying. Instead of the blazing golden eyes of the monster he had clear, bright blue eyes that seemed so sad and defeated. He didn't move like the monster had, but was a little slow in his movements, his shoulder's wilted like they held a great weight while he kept his head bowed low in apparent shame. Even now, he was curled up into himself, lying on the cold stone floor without a complaint even while his shivers were bordering on violent.

And a lot could be said about a person by their touch. Her mother had always been soft and gentle with her, and her father had been firm and loving. The mean man down the block had once yanked her around and shook her, while another had even hit her in his anger. This Luke had been nothing but soft and careful with her; kind and gentle. Even now, he suffered in the cold so that she could be warm and remained on the hard stone floor so she could be comfortable. He was the human who had torn through her village that night, but he was not the same person. He was so much different…

Jeza stood up from her spot in the cave, shuffling over to Luke before she draped the blanket over his shoulders. Luke's eyes blinked open in surprise and he glanced at her, confused for a few moments as he stared at the young child that was currently wrapping his cloak around her shoulders for warmth instead of having it act like a pillow. Luke started to take the blanket off, shaking his head.

"No Jeza, it's yours," he said quietly, offering it to the child once again. Jeza ignored him, instead walking around him and pulling it back over him. Jeza couldn't help but notice that Luke was taking care not to touch her again, and his gaze seemed both weary and wary. In fact, he went completely rigid in shock when the child curled up next to him, using his chest as a pillow while his cloak acted as her own separate blanket.

"You need it more," she mumbled innocently. Luke remained still for several long moments before he finally relaxed, hesitantly putting an arm around the child to pull her closer both for warmth and so they could both fit under the blanket he was already rearranging to cover the both of them.

"So how did he end up on that planet?" Kuroth asked, pulling Jeza from the memory. Jeza sighed, taking a rather half-hearted shot at the muja fruit and watching it miss to barrel into the wall and leave a nasty scorch mark.

"He was exiled there…" she muttered, taking aim again. Oh, what an interesting conversation it had been when Luke had finally told her his full story. He'd waited until she was older to give her the truth of what had happened to him, and she couldn't help but feel like none of it had been fair.

Kuroth seemed surprised by this revelation. "Exiled? But why would he be exiled? That just…"

"Doesn't fit? Doesn't add up?" Jeza supplied for him. She fired the blaster again, and the muja fruit erupted into another pulpy fountain, causing her to move onto the second muja fruit that was further away. "Some…bad things happened to him and he was backed into doing a lot of…well…evil things. I'm afraid there's no other word for it. He was kicked out of the Jedi Order and exiled even though he was completely repentant and nothing like the…the monster he had become for that short period of time. He is not the man that he was in those dark times; far from it in fact."

"I believe you," Kuroth said quietly, watching her closely as she took aim at another muja fruit and shot it into oblivion like its two companions. Jeza shook her head, her lekkus swaying from side to side from the action.

"It's been…years since all of that happened but…he's still haunted by his past and by his demons. He'll have nightmares almost every night…vivid flashbacks triggered by seemingly every day occurrences…it left a deep scar on him, and I don't think it will ever go away."

"Is there anything I could do?" Kuroth suggested. Jeza was slightly thrown off by the proposition, and smiled sadly at the elderly man.

"No offense Mr. Kuroth, but I don't think there's anything that anyone can do," Jeza told him gently. To her surprise, Kuroth smiled.

"You'd be surprised little one; you would be surprised."

Luke sat in the pilot seat, chin propped on his fist as he stared unseeingly into the stars as they zipped by in the bluish blur of hyperspace. He was physically present in the cockpit, but his mind was...elsewhere at the moment. Silently, his thumb stroked his chin as he drowned in memories and struggled to retain his center. Memories flashed by in his mind's eye…

Never. I'll never turn to the dark side...

What's your price?

Rise Darth Eius...

That name no longer holds any meaning to me! It's Eius. Darth Eius!

There's nothing for me in the light anymore.

How could anyone forget what I've done…I've killed so many in cold blood without a hint of remorse or mercy…I'm not deserving of any forgiveness…

Do you think they'll take you back after all that you've done? They'll kill you for what you did, and they don't even know everything yet…

I broke you, I made you kneel before me and serve my every whim, I twisted you so far you weren't even a shadow of your former self. You, just like your father, became my servant; a tool in my hands for revenge every step of the way…

And neither of us are going to forget how you enjoyed it. How you carried out each murder gleefully, basking in their pain and screams, toying with them, drawing it out as long as possible and getting as creative with their torture as possible, never ceasing until they shattered and even continuing after that. How many Jedi did you break boy? How many did you drive to madness before they died?

You can say what you want, but I won. I turned you into the thing you despised, but you were the one who took it farther. Their blood is on your hands, and you will never wash it off. Just as you will always be mine…

Th-they're not just some accident that I can l-leave behind; Father, I slaughtered them! H-he's right; he wasn't ly-lying…

I know what I did; and I know not even I can forgive myself for it…

Luke, I want you to know that whatever happens…it was worth it to me…

I'm condemned, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Whatever sentence I'm given...I'll take it without complaint.

…you took her from me. You killed her! Sorry isn't going to bring my daughter back, or any of the others that you slaughtered!

My mistakes will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I ask for no forgiveness.

And then there was what Sidious had said. Although Sidious had said it to his father, to Anakin, it had applied to Luke more than he cared to admit…

At night I'm sure you've lien in bed, unable to rest because you're haunted by the faces and dying gasps of all the ones that you've killed; and the only way to quiet them would be to accept the dark side; the dark side would get rid of their ghosts, but you remain too stubborn to accept it.

Luke shook the voice from his head and blinked the memories away, as well as several tears, before he pulled out the warn holodisc that had not left his person in over five years. His thumb brushed over the activation button, and the old holopic of his younger self sitting on his father's shoulders flickered to life. Luke smiled sadly at the happy pair, unable to help the fact that he longed for those simpler days; the days before the pain and fear, before the dark side had truly tainted their happiness, before everything had fallen apart…

Whether or not I'm brought out of my exile will be by the will of the Force.

But this is something I have to do...and it's a path that I have to take alone.

Cleanse yourself. Take care of Jeza.

Someone cleared their throat behind him, and Luke instantly shut off the holodisc, discreetly wiping the tears away before he turned to see Jeza hesitantly entering the cockpit behind him. Her eyes were glued in apparent wonder on the blue streaks of hyperspace visible outside of the viewport as she stepped up to stand beside the copilot's chair. She had not been to the cockpit yet, but had instead been in the cargo bay almost the entire time since they had taken off. It was her first look at hyperspace, let alone space itself.

"It's so beautiful," she murmured beside him, her eyes never wavering from the enrapturing sight. Luke smiled, gesturing towards the co-pilot's seat.

"It is, isn't it? You can take a seat if you want to; it'd be nice to have a first mate," he said with a small smirk. Jeza looked at him, startled.

"I don't know anything about ships," Jeza told him hesitantly, though she did sit down as he'd suggested.

"That's why I'm going to teach you," Luke said with a grin and slight shake of his head. He gestured towards a monitor between the two of them, slipping easily into the role of teacher and gratefully letting the action distract him from the horrid memories of a few moments earlier. "That's the navigation computer, or the navi computer for short…"

They talked for a long, long time, with Luke pointing out several key components of the ship and explaining each function, showing her how to work each device.

Eventually, a low beep sounded, drawing Luke and Jeza's attention away from their brief lesson over the communications system. Luke glanced at the navi computer before he turned all of his attention back to the controls. "We're coming into the Coruscant system; strap in, we're coming out of hyperspace."

Jeza nervously did as she was told while Luke calmed himself, focusing entirely on shielding his presence. That was another skill he had grown very talented at, although he wished he had another Force Sensitive to practice with because he wanted to see if he could possibly control his Signature to the point that no one could sense him but those he allowed to. Of course, now wasn't the time to experiment. Now was the time to focus on remaining hidden from anyone that might recognize him and report his return to the Council.

It was only because of how deeply immersed in the Force he was at that moment that Luke was able to avoid the disaster that could have happened the second they came out of hyperspace.

That moment when the bluish blur gave way to solid stars and space very nearly found them a grease stain on the side of a large carrier ship. Jeza screamed at the sudden looming structure that they were hurtling towards, but Luke remained calm—on the outside—and dipped low at a sharp angle, just barely clearing the ship and coming up on the other side of it.

Surprisingly, it was not the near death experience that had Luke shocked. No, it was the intense space battle that was on the other side of the said carrier ship that sent jolts of surprise through him.

All around was a heavy array of warships, heavy cruisers, destroyers, fighters, carriers, and even a few droid control ships, with torpedoes, missiles, lasers from laser cannons, flashes of deflector shields, and explosions of varying sizes almost as numerous as the stars were when viewed from the sky. There were ships from the Clone Wars, ships Luke had seen many times in the Rebellion, and even some Old Republic era ships all firing on each other.

And they had just flown right into the thick of it.

"Hang on!" Luke barked at Jeza, clenching the controls a little tighter as his brain automatically switched to battle mode. Of course, right now he didn't know who the enemy was, it had been over five years since he had flown a ship in battle, and the last time he had it had been an X-Wing, not a freighter.

I didn't sign up for this, Luke couldn't help but think as he weaved around two fighters locked in a dogfight, coming precariously close to the two fighters. Luke was sure that he could see several X-Wings in the sky, but he wasn't able to dwell on it long. As he neared one of the larger ships—a particularly menacing heavy cruiser that, to Luke's surprise, he did not recognize—he gasped and went rigid; something that was actually particularly deadly to do while piloting a freighter in the middle of a space battle. Of course, that wasn't what was on his mind; no, what was on his mind was a far more disturbing matter.

Many, many dark presences filled with much hatred and anger scattered throughout the battle were the cause of the dominating thought in his mind. Luke could sense a startling number of them all over the area of space above Coruscant and even down below on the planet's surface. Of course, the ones down on the surface of Coruscant were hard to detect, obviously masking their presences enough so they could not be located specifically. Up in space, however, they burned like furious black stars, piloting fighters, sprinkled inside of the large warships...

In fact, the unknown cruiser that Luke had spotted was a nebula for the dark side. It pulsed its dark energies all around, but hid those onboard from sight to the point Luke couldn't be sure if the energy came from one individual or several grouped in one place.

It was utterly overwhelming.

"Father! Father!" Jeza was shouting, and Luke dragged himself back into reality just in time to dodge...

Was that a vulture droid?

Luke clipped the droid despite his efforts to dodge it, and it spun away violently while he grasped the controls to regain control and keep from spinning out of control himself. "I haven't seen those in...since..."

Kuroth appeared from behind him, placing a hand on the back of Luke's seat. "What's going on?"

Luke shot him a look, preforming a rather tight barrel roll to avoid the fire of another vulture droid that had decided that it wanted to make good friends with Luke. "I was just about to ask you that," he said, his teeth grit as he leveled out and split his focus to try and activate the laser cannons to shoot down their pursuer.

Kuroth, much to Luke's annoyance, ignored his question. Instead, he narrowed his eyes on the unknown heavy cruiser that they were gradually getting closer to. Not by choice, but because the maneuvers to avoid the other craft were bringing them steadily closer to the imposing looking spaceship. "You're flying too close to it; you need to get out of its range or this trip's going to be cut short."

"What are you talking about; I need some answers before I do something I'm going to regret! What's going on, and what is that cruiser?"

"That's one of the few new Majestic-class Heavy Cruiser; they're top of the line and supposed to be limited to our government, but one managed to find its way into enemy hands and has been dealing serious blows to us ever since."

"Which side are the Jedi on?" Luke asked, swerving to avoid running into an X-Wing that was chasing down the vulture droids on another X-Wing's tail, inadvertently coming closer to the Majestic Cruiser.

Kuroth seemed to scoff at the question for a moment. "The Republic, of course. As am I, before you ask." He grew even more nervous as Luke got increasingly closer to the Majestic Cruiser. "We really need to get out of its tractor beam range, I—you—we can't afford to get pulled onto that ship."

"I'm trying," Luke growled through grit teeth. "Every time I get away from it, something comes by or fires at us and pushes us back towards us. We're being shepherded!"

"Surely...surely they don't know it's us? Me more specifically," Kuroth muttered hesitantly.

Luke grimaced at the thought. "If you're as important as you claim to be, then I'm sure that they recognize the ship that was carrying you. From the sound of things, those bounty hunters were under strict orders to keep you on Xenon, and considering this ship just appeared back in the Coruscant system..."

Luke figured he was smart enough to figure out the rest. Yes, they did know that this ship had him on board. Luke was willing to bet his lightsaber on that much. And now that he was on that train of thought, he couldn't help but think of what the black haired bounty hunter had said back on Xenon...

Judro gave him the coordinates for this planet specifically. He said he knew that the Jedi wouldn't come here and that we wouldn't be found...

Something about that single part of the conversation...it bothered him, nagged at the back of his mind. Xenon was an unmapped planet in the Unknown Regions, and no one was supposed to know where it was. Other than some of the Jedi of course, though the only one who knew where he'd been exiled was a single Council Member who had been given charge to look over the coordinates. He couldn't help but feel like something was off, but at the same time he couldn't quite put his finger on just what it was.

Jeza clutched at Luke's arm rather tightly when one of the laser cannons struck a hit on their port side, and Luke grit his teeth as the ship rattled slightly. "Jeza, I showed you where the deflector shield display is, can you tell me what percent the port side sheild is at?"

Jeza shakily turned to the monitor. "Seventy-three," she informed him.

"They got us good," Luke muttered to himself, swerving to avoid yet another X-Wing, though he was surprised to see that this time there was another X-Wing chasing the pilot with laser cannons blazing. "You can't even tell who's friend or foe," he mumbled uncomfortably.

At that moment, the ship lurched to a shuddering halt before it was slowly and shakily turned around to face the Majestic Cruiser. Luke grimaced, a distinct memory rushing to the front of his mind.

That's no moon...it's a space station, Obi-Wan had said grimly moments before they'd been caught in the Death Star's tractor beam.

"Father, what's going on," Jeza said fearfully. "Why can't you control the ship?"

"Because we've been caught in their tractor beam," Luke said hurriedly. His fingers were already flying over the controls as he struggled to remember what it was that Han had done...he'd changed the logs, launched escape pods...

"Now we're done for!" Kuroth said mournfully. Luke stood up from his seat, brushing past the older man.

"Come on; this isn't the first time I've been in this situation," Luke said, holding out a hand for Jeza and pulling her along through the freighter's halls. Kuroth hurried behind them.

"How are we going to get out of this, they've cornered us!" Kuroth exclaimed. Luke came to an abrupt halt and turned to stand toe to toe with the man, his blue eyes blazing.

"You said on Xenon, when you insisted that my daughter and I take you back to Coruscant, that you would happily entrust your safe return to my hands. This is me making sure that you get safely back to Coruscant's surface, all right? But you're going to have to do exactly as I say and don't doubt what I tell you, or you're going to get us all killed. Understand?"

Kuroth seemed taken aback by the intense look in Luke's eyes before he nodded slowly. Once he'd had confirmation that Kuroth would follow his lead, he turned sharply back to the hall to head into the cargo bay again. He called the blaster that Jeza had left sitting on a crate to his hand, giving it to the sixteen year old.

"You're going to need that," he told her. Then, more to himself than anyone else, he muttered, "Let's just hope Han and Ben's scheme wasn't a one trick wonder..."