Author Note:
Just a quick reminder on the Skywalker/Solo clan
Ben and Brehanna are 29 years old and are Han and Leia's twins
Ben is newly married to Rey.
Anakin is 19 years old and is Han and Leia's son
Padme and Beru are 23 years old and are Luke and Mara's twins
Beru is married to Trey Antilles and they have a newborn daughter named Maria.
Cassian is 21 years old and is Luke and Mara's son.
/-
Main cabin
Jade Sabre
In hyperspace
2 days later
"Ok, I concede," Luke gasped, his chest heaving. He reached out a hand and his lightsaber, which had just been knocked from his grip onto the floor, flew into his grasp. He hooked it onto his belt and wobbled his way over to a couch, where he collapsed rather dramatically.
His son, his son, grinned and hooked his own lightsaber onto his belt, then strode over and dropped down next to his father.
"You should get hit on the head more often, Dad," Cassian Skywalker said cheerfully. "I haven't beaten you this easily since ... well, ever!"
"Glad to be of service," his father wheezed wearily, sucking in deep breaths of air. It had probably been a terrible idea to practice dueling with Cassian, but Luke was so tired of sitting around and he wanted, he needed, some exercise. And his son had been all too ready to engage in sparring with his old, but usually supremely skilled, father.
"Here," Cassian said, handing over a water bottle which he had summoned with the Force. Luke took it with a word of thanks and drank down the cool liquid, even as he gazed at his grown up son.
Cassian was 21 standard years of age, and a little taller than Luke. His hair was dark blond but his eyes were green, like Mara's. He was a full Jedi, handsome and joyful, and thankfully Luke was starting to remember more, of a little Cassian chasing his older twin sisters around, of a pre-teen Cassian flying Luke's X-wing. Of ... of ...
"Did you put a snake in your sisters' bed?" he asked suddenly.
Cassian grinned, "Yep, a baby black snake, a constrictor."
Luke frowned, "And did your sisters thump you?"
"Pretty much," the young Jedi replied with a casual wave of his hand, "but then Padme and Beru actually decided they liked the snake and kept it for about a year until it escaped one night and disappeared in the house. Mom was not happy about that."
Luke smiled at this. He remembered his wife's dismay.
"So you remember that, Dad?" Cassian asked. The young man was putting on a calm facade, but Luke could sense his son's anxiety in the Force.
"I do remember the snake, Cassian," Luke said with a satisfied nod, "and I remember your mother's ... displeasure at its disappearance. More and more is coming back. And oddly, it seems that having my butt handed to me during our sparring match was helpful. I think the muscle memory of using a lightsaber is fueling memories of my past life."
"Hey, any time you want me to show you who is boss, just let me know," Cassian replied with a smirk. A moment later, the youth scooted closer and wrapped his father in a big hug, "It's good to have you awake, Dad. I helped watch over you the first six weeks until I had to leave on a mission, and I was scared to death you'd never wake up."
Luke hugged Cassian in return, hard, "I'm glad to be back too."
"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you did regain consciousness," the youth continued with contrition in his eyes, "but those sentient mosses on Ryloth were wreaking havoc and I was needed for the peace negotiations with the Twi'lek farmers."
His father blinked in surprise, but patted his son's shoulder reassuringly, "I'm all for doing what needs done, Cassian. And Ben and Rey tell me I was pretty boring except when I was randomly trying to hurl people against the wall. I'm glad you got back in time to accompany me in hyperspace, because your cousin and his wife deserve a pleasant honeymoon at Varykino."
The door slid open and both men looked up as Mara, then Leia, entered the room.
"News?" Cassian asked, jumping to his feet.
Leia nodded briskly, her face concerned, "News indeed. You might be aware we dropped out of hyperspace an hour ago and received an encoded transmission from Brehanna, which R2D2 just finished translating. Bre says that Snoke is on his way to Dalaya."
Luke frowned, "Dalaya? Where our twins and the grandbaby are?"
Mara's Force sense was a swirl of anxiety and fear, "Yes. I doubt that's a coincidence."
Her husband's eyes widened, "We need to warn them."
"Brehanna is way ahead of us all, Luke. You know she's a detective with the intergalactic police, right?"
"So I've been told," the Jedi Master replied. "Not that I remember that."
Leia smiled reassuringly, "Bre has contacts all over and she's arranged an immediate security detail to watch over Padme and Beru and Trey and baby Maria. It seems likely that Snoke is planning to ... "
"Take out more of our family," Luke replied grimly.
"Yes," Mara said softly.
Luke stood up and put his arms around her, "They'll be fine, Mara."
"Yes, they will," Leia said briskly. "Don't either of you worry. Padme isn't a Jedi, but she's been trained enough to defend herself and I pity the fool who attacks her twin sister's family. And Brehanna and Han will be there shortly. Please trust me. Everything is going to be all right."
Luke took a deep breath and smiled weakly, "Ok."
/-
Main cabin
The Millennium Falcon
Landing Bay #1
Delaya
1 day later
"How ya feeling, Kid?" Han Solo demanded, rolling to his feet from behind the dejarik table and thumping his brother-in-law on the back. "You don't look so bad to me. In fact, you look strong enough to pull the ears off a gundark."
Tears filled Luke Skywalker's eyes, and he found himself giving Solo a quick embrace, then standing back to gaze at his old friend with relief and some awe. The last time Luke had 'seen' Han, the older man was falling off a catwalk after his son plunged a lightsaber through his torso.
The Jedi Master wiped his eyes quickly with the Force, then managed a fairly cheerful response, "Hey, if you've got any gundarks around, I'd be glad to give it a go."
The old man laughed and gestured towards the hairy behemoth who had just come out of the cockpit.
"Chewie!" Luke gasped aloud before throwing his arms around part of the Wookiee's giant torso.
"WROAHRRGHHH!" Chewbacca howled back with enthusiasm.
Luke stepped back in time to see Han and Leia meet for a quick kiss which turned into a long kiss which turned into a passionate embrace which showed no signs of ending any time soon.
"Do you, um, need a room?" Mara asked, strolling into the cabin.
The kissing continued, and Luke decided that since romance was in the air he and Mara should indulge as well ...
"Hey, parental units, aunt and uncle, can I get your attention?"
The two couples broke apart with slightly embarrassed smiles to focus on the lovely young woman who had appeared inside the cabin, her brown eyes flashing with amusement.
"Hello, Brehanna!" Leia said, embracing her only daughter. "It's so good to see you!"
"You shield very well!" Luke said in amazement. He had to focus hard to sense his niece. "Your mother tells me you're not a Jedi, but you certainly are gifted in the Force."
Bre Solo smiled and stepped forward to give her uncle a hug, "It's weird you don't remember all this, Uncle Luke, but I don't mind giving you the brief synopsis. Both Ben and I are very strong in the Force, but he got excited about being an author and I binge watched Detective Files in my early teens and I decided on a career with law enforcement."
"It's truly sad," Han said, walking over to drop a kiss on his daughter's head. "I spent literally decades running from cops, and now my daughter is a cop. Where did I go wrong?"
Brehanna laughed and elbowed her father gently in the ribs, "You did marry a politician, Dad, so I think it is totally time for you to be respectable now."
She turned back to her uncle and smiled, "So to jog your memory a bit – you trained both Ben and me to shield and defend ourselves but I'm no Jedi, and never will be."
"She's good, though," Cassian said, walking into the room. "Ben is too. I've sparred with both of them and while I usually win, it's not easy. As a matter of fact, I think Bre could mop the floor with you right now if she was so inclined."
Luke groaned and rolled his eyes, "I did have a major head injury, Son. Give me a break."
Bre laughed, "I'm actually on duty, so I'll let you off easy this time, Uncle Luke. Let's get to it, shall we?"
She pulled out a large holopad, "Snoke and company aren't here yet, thankfully, though my contacts think they'll arrive within hours. Here's the story ..."
She pushed a few buttons and a screen on the far wall lit up, "Snoke is the owner and operator of a circus."
There was a long pause while the elders and youngers glanced at one another.
"A circus?" Leia asked finally, in disbelief.
"Yes," Brehanna stated, starting to pace with her arms behind her back in a posture that was extremely reminiscent of her Sith Lord grandfather. "It's brilliant, actually. This Snoke individual is able to go from planet to planet without question because his circus is welcome in cities across the galaxy. Ben and Rey were both searching through the Force after Binks' attack on Mom and Uncle Luke, and they were quite certain that no nefarious Sithly people were still on Naboo. So I looked for individuals or companies who had left Naboo, and cross referenced that with Jar Jar Binks recent activities, and came up with four possible ..."
She trailed off as she observed the glazed eyes of her various older relatives.
"Never mind," she said with a firm wave of one hand. "Circus. Uncle Luke, can you take a look at Snoke to see if he matches your, er, dream?"
Luke obediently turned his eyes to the screen and then gasped as the familiar face of the truly ugly Snoke appeared.
"That's him all right," he breathed softly, taking a step closer. The man (?) really was a mess.
"What is with those weird holes in his head and neck?" Han asked in a puzzled tone.
"According to my research, he had those surgically created," Brehanna stated in a professional tone. "He's not just an owner, but a circus performer as well. He lets snakes crawl in and out of those holes as part of his act."
There were gagging sounds, a cry of "Yuck!" from Mara, and Chewbacca moaned in disgust.
"That's just nasty!" Cassian said with a horrified look on his face.
"Yes, it is," Brehanna replied with a world weary air. "I've heard of worse though. A lot of people are just weird."
"Captain Phasma!" Luke cried out suddenly, his gaze fixed on the screen.
Everyone else turned to face the holoscreen where an individual wearing an odd set of armor was standing next to some kind of peculiar device.
"You've seen this person?" Mara asked worriedly.
"Yes," Luke replied, his brow wrinkled. "She was in my dream as one of the leaders of the First Order ... the bad guys, for those of you who haven't heard much about my insane nightmare."
"It says on the circus promos that she gets shot out of a cannon during the finale at the circus," Leia stated, her eyes fixed on her holopad.
"That sounds unhealthy," Cassian snorted, "though at least she has a helmet."
Brehanna clapped her hands together, "All right then. As soon as the circus shows up, we'll arrange to interview Snoke and this Phasma person, and Uncle Luke, maybe you can look the rest of the information on the circus and see if anyone else jumps out at you."
"I will," Luke vowed. He would do anything to keep his family safe from insane sleeper Sith agents.