"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Luke asked.
"Oh come on," Wedge said. "You know we can't just let Icehart have control of Bacta production."
"Sure," Luke said. "That's not what I asked though." He raised an eyebrow.
Wedge shrugged and took a sip of whiskey. Luke seemed a lot calmer and more confident since the last time they'd seen each other. Which was a good thing. Two years was such a long time… "We didn't really know what we were doing when Command said we had forty-eight hours to bring down Coruscant's defenses. Yet, here we are."
Luke smiled a bit. "Fair enough."
"You want to come along?" Wedge asked.
Luke laughed a bit and took a sip of his own drink. "I'm sure I would just distract people," he said. "Besides, I think you'd have a hard time convincing people you were operating independently if you had the Republic's lone Jedi with you."
"Oh," Wedge said, slightly disappointed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Wedge swirled his whiskey around in the glass. "We are doing it for the right reasons," he said.
"Oh, I know," Luke said. "I just...threw that out there for Corran's benefit. To see how he was thinking about it."
"Excuse me, Master Jedi, may I interrupt?"
Wedge looked up to see a human male in heavy velvet robes standing next to them. Luke glanced quickly between the man and Wedge. "I, oh, yes, of course," he said. Luke quietly set his drink down.
"I am Ambassador Krill of Portos. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." He bowed slightly.
Luke stood from his chair. "Likewise," Luke said, also bowing slightly. "May I help you?"
"Indeed," Ambassador Krill said. "Your sister sent me your way. Portos' third moon, Los, has periodically been the center of a mining and taxation dispute between the colonists and the central government. In the days of the Old Republic, we could rely on Jedi assistance to peacefully resolve the conflict. We would be most grateful for such assistance again, and I'd like to discuss it in more detail with you." He glanced at Wedge. "At your convenience, of course."
"Of course," Luke said. "Tomorrow morning, perhaps?"
"Perfect," Ambassador Krill said. "I shall leave my details with your sister. Good evening gentlemen." He offered another small bow to Luke and one to Wedge, and walked away.
Wedge watched Luke slowly sit back down in his chair. Luke glanced up to make sure the Ambassador was out of ear shot and took a deep breath. He pushed his glass around the table. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that," Luke said.
"What, being called Master Jedi?" Wedge said.
"No, people assuming I have something worthwhile to say about literally everything," Luke said.
"Leia's still setting you up for stuff all the time, is she?" Wedge asked.
"Do not argue with her again," Luke said.
"She could at least prep you first," Wedge said.
Luke sighed and pushed his half-finished glass away. "Want to take a walk?" he said.
"Sure."
"Come on, I'll show you that museum Corran came through."
Luke led Wedge out of the reception area, down to the lobby floor, and around to an isolated section of the old senate building. He had been afraid that after two years of being on such separate paths, they would have grown too far apart to relate to one another. He should have known better. He could read Wedge as well as ever. Even the spark of jealousy from earlier, and the instant cover up, encouraging Corran to join him in training, let him know Wedge would always be his most faithful friend.
"So this museum," Luke said as they walked, "I don't know how much Corran told you about it, but it seems to be something of a trophy room of Palpatine's, where he kept track of Jedi who had been killed."
"Yeah, Corran said it was filled with defaced mannequins," Wedge said. "It sounded creepy and disturbing."
"It is," Luke said. "It's very...emotionally dark. You won't notice, but it's very palpable in the Force. If you had to put it on a scale of one to ten, where one is the happiest thing you can think of and ten is the most psychotically dark thing you can think of, it's about a seven." They came up on the museum door.
Wedge frowned. "Is it safe for you to be in there?" he asked.
"Oh sure," Luke said. "I've gotten a lot better in the past couple of years at filtering things out. I still feel it, but it doesn't disrupt what I'm doing." Luke gave Wedge a small smile. "I've learned a lot in the past couple of years," he said.
Wedge nodded, and Luke could feel a small measure of pride from him. "I can tell," Wedge said.
"Come on." Luke opened the door to the museum and turned on the lights. The room was deep and wide, with dozens of encased mannequins spread throughout the room. Luke took a deep breath, and let the Force move through him as the darkness of the room became more apparent. Luke frowned. "Hmm," he said. "That's odd."
"What is?" Wedge asked.
"It's...not as dark this time. Like a...five instead of a seven."
"Maybe you're more used to it?" Wedge suggested.
"I hope that's not the case," Luke said.
"Maybe you're more prepared this time?" Wedge tried again.
"Maybe," Luke said. "Strange." He shrugged. "Come on, this way." He led Wedge on a winding path past several mannequin cases. He stopped in front of one. "Look at this," he said.
Wedge read the name on the plate. "Nejaa Halcyon," he said. "Corran's grandfather!"
"Uh huh," Luke said. "I thought you'd be interested to see it."
Wedge walked around the encasement, looking at the mannequin and all the accessories. "This is pretty incredible," he said. "And definitely creepy," he said, pointing to the gouged out eyes. He looked more closely at a small hologram in the display of Nejaa standing with a woman, a young boy, and another man. "That must be Corran's father, right? Along with his grandmother and Rostek Horn."
"Pretty sure, yeah," Luke said. "His father looks to be about nine or ten years old here."
"Yeah, I think Corran said his father was about ten when - well, as he heard the story, when his grandfather's Jedi friend was killed. This must have been taken pretty soon before that."
"Sounds about right," Luke said.
"What made you look into this one in particular?" Wedge asked. "Or was it just because this was the one Corran happened to take the cloak and lightsaber from?"
"Partly that," Luke said, "which was obviously no coincidence. But, Nejaa stood out to me for a couple of other reasons. One, he's the only Corellian in here."
Wedge grinned and gave Luke a light slap on the back. "I guess you just like us, huh?"
Luke grinned back. "That too," he said. "But almost all of the other human Jedi I've read about don't have a homeworld listed. The couple I have seen one for have been Corellian. From what I can tell, Corellian Jedi kept to themselves within the Corellian system and operated completely independently from the rest of the Jedi Order."
"Why?" Wedge asked.
"I'm not sure," Luke said. "But it appears that Nejaa made his way out of the system a bit more often than other Corellian Jedi. The second reason," Luke continued, "is that he was killed about fifteen years before everyone else in this room."
"So?" Wedge asked.
"Every other Jedi here was killed in the purges after the Republic fell," Luke said. "Which makes sense. Palpatine declares himself Emperor, and then destroys all the Jedi. So what's so important about this one death from fifteen years earlier?"
"Hmm," Wedge said.
"Here's a Jedi, trained outside the mainstream Jedi philosophy, operating more often than other Corellians outside the system. What was he doing that would have caught Palpatine's attention before the Empire, before the Clone Wars, before Palpatine was even chancellor?"
Wedge looked at him wide-eyed. "What?" he asked.
"I don't know," Luke said.
"Are you suggesting Palpatine was involved in his death?" Wedge asked.
"Not necessarily," Luke said, "but it's not out of the realm of possibility either. It's just a really intriguing question." Luke looked at Wedge. "Definitely more interesting than mining and taxation disputes," he said dryly.
Wedge gave him a quick hug around the shoulders. "I definitely agree with you there," he said.
"Unfortunately, it seems like solving mining and taxation disputes is much closer to the normal Jedi workload than solving interesting mysteries," Luke said.
"Seems more like Leia's lane than yours," Wedge said.
"Yeah," Luke said, "except she's busy doing real diplomatic work and I'm the one everyone knows as a Jedi."
"Guardians of peace and justice," Wedge said.
Luke sighed. "Yeah." He turned away from the case and headed further into the room.
"Is there anyone else in here you've heard of before?" Wedge asked as he followed Luke.
"The only other one here I've come across so far is this one." He pointed to a tall woman with pale green skin. "Luminara Unduli. I think she was killed shortly after the purges started, but I don't know that much about her."
Luke kept walking all the way to the back wall and sat on the floor. Wedge sat next to him. "You okay?" Wedge asked.
"Sure." Luke looked at Wedge. "How are you?"
"Me? Oh, I'm great," Wedge said. "Rebuilt Rogue Squadron from scratch, got sent on some of the most dangerous missions imaginable, had forty-eight hours to take down Coruscant's entire defense network, had to defend one of my closest friends in an insane murder/treason trial, and just resigned to go take down the same world government in a second place." He looked at Luke. "You know, normal stuff."
Luke smiled. "You did tell Tycho the first day we met him that he'd make a terrible spy."
Wedge laughed. "I remember. I was right too."
"You have a really good track record for being right," Luke said. Wedge looked at him. "I told you you'd make a good commander."
Wedge shrugged. "It's easy when you have a good team."
"They are impressive," Luke said. "Your Bothan pilot standing up to Borsk Fey'lya the way she did was...satisfying."
Wedge smirked at him. "Well, that was a very un-Jedi-like thing to say."
"Yeah, well, nobody's perfect," Luke said with faux indignation.
Wedge laughed. "They are a great group," he said. Wedge started telling Luke about the selection process and their missions leading up to the Coruscant mission, interspersed with Luke's own stories of tracking down Jedi artifacts and information. Wedge was in the middle of describing boiling Coruscant water when his communicator twittered. He pulled it out of his pocket. "Antilles," he said.
"Hey Wedge, it's Tycho."
Wedge checked his watch. "Oh hey, I didn't realize we'd been gone so long," he said.
"No problem," Tycho said. "Take your time. Just wanted to let you know that we've all left the party and are headed over to the first safe house we used, the one you first saw me at, to start mission planning. Didn't want you to head back to the party and get ambushed by someone when we're not even there."
"Yeah, thanks," Wedge said.
"Also, I think Leia is looking for Luke."
Luke sighed. "I bet she is."
"Anyway, no rush," Tycho said. "Just wanted to let you know where we were."
"Okay," Wedge said. "I'll see you in a bit." He shut his communicator off and put it back in his pocket. He sat quietly for a moment. He looked at Luke. "Time to go, I guess." He stood up and offered Luke a hand to help him up. They started walking back toward the door. "Last chance to come along," Wedge said.
Luke shook his head, almost wishing he could. "I really can't," he said. "You be careful, though."
Wedge waved it off. "Well, I'm not nearly as reckless as you, so it'll be fine."
Luke grinned, but he could feel Wedge's hesitation. He wasn't quite ready to leave yet. It had been nice, just sitting, talking, catching up for a couple of hours, without being interrupted. Like nothing had changed.
"Not so long next time, okay?" Wedge said.
Luke gave him a hug. "Sure, as long as you don't take two years to take down the same world government in a second place."
"Deal," Wedge said. He let go, turned to look at the door, and then back at Luke. "Really time to go," he said.
"Yeah," Luke said.
Wedge hesitated one more brief moment, then turned to leave. He waved to Luke as he stepped through the door, and Luke waved back.
The door shut. Luke gasped. The darkness of the room had suddenly risen again. He turned, looking around the room, but didn't see anything new or different. He looked back at the door. Was that you?
End